   Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
So I'm just going to come out and say it: My favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is "Conundrum." It's episode fourteen of season five, and I just deeply love it.
I don't know if it's because I literally just assumed Erich Anderson's Commander McDuff was a random Enterprise officer of the week (which we saw quite often during the show) when I watched it as a kid during the original run, so the twist actually worked on eleven year old me. I don't know if it's because I just like a good "everyone has amnesia" story. I don't even know if it's just because it's a good Ro Laren episode. I don't know if it's just because we learn that Starfleet doesn't give a crap about lasers.
I just like it. It's neat.
And I rewatched it last night, and feel that it holds up -- which is why I found it deeply weird that the folks who wrote the episode actually think it's not that good. My favorite episode of the entire seven season run of the show was a failure according to the folks who wrote it.
And maybe, as a writer and creator, I should remember that.
Like the hardest part of releasing creative works to the public is that often, after a while, I'll start to judge those things far more harshly than when I first made them. Or I'll compare it to the potential I thought an idea had in my head. And if I don't reach that potential, I'll think of it as "bad" -- when it might just be slightly different than that idea. I have one hundred percent published stories that I thought were just sort of okay and later had someone tell me how much it meant to them to read it.
*cough*I Hate November*cough*
So I should make sure I remember Conundrum. That one of my favorite things to rewatch is considered one of those failures by its creators. That the things I make might have value, just not in the way I originally thought they should.
It's just sort of how things work out.
Remember that on April 5th at 11AM Eastern/10AM Central you can join me for the Critical Thinking Witches' Collective's April Brew virtual event! Attendance is free, and you can register here!
![Nerd & Tie[dot]Social Forums](https://www.nerdandtie.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/natsocial-nicepreview-square-300x300.png)
but Milwaukee doesn’t want a con!
Welcome to the heck we have over in Virginia.
Shots fired.
Milwaukee’s various fandoms are so fragmented, scattered and disconnected, it’s possible that a new startup con could legitimately think it was alone out there. And I can say this as a part of the “old-school” cons that faded out decades ago (X-Con, First Contact and Brew-Con). A whole generation was absent from congoing here; I’m the youngest of the old guard, and I’m 50! But now, there is Midwinter Gaming Festival in January (heavy LARP focus, but expanded to other realms of gaming), Concinnity, and of course Anime Milwaukee (AMKE).
Finally, someone besides me who remembers the long dead Milwaukee con scene! 😛
Also, for current cons, you forgot Nezumi Con, Midwest Gaming Classic, the upcoming Nexus Game Fair and Mighty Con Milwaukee.
…and I know I’m forgetting a few whose names I just can’t remember. 😛
Fur Squared! http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Fur_Squared
Okay. not *technically* Milwaukee…
Thanks for mentioning that – I keep a list of dates of furry cons I know of, and I hadn’t heard of this one. It has now been added…
I just hit up Wikifur. They’re good for that.
I’d discounted MGC because it’s Waukesha, not Milwaukee 😉 Besides, I’m so far out of the gaming loop these days it’s not funny. Only reason I knew about Midwinter is that the folks who run it ran their main LARP out of my favorite coffee shop for a long time. Comic cons seem to be one of two extremes, either glorified swap meets, or big-budget extravaganzas like SDCC, and ain’t my scene in either case.
I thought it was a reference that many people from Milwaukee don’t there is anything more to Wisconsin passed well Milwaukee and Madison. That’s how I interpreted the joke.
It’s a multi-level joke…
Kinda like how no one from Omaha or Lincoln thinks there is anything else in Nebraska.
I’m pleased that the Lincoln and Omaha con scenes are returning. Omaha’s been getting a redic amount of cons sprouting up.
Thank goodness he’s offering the flyer to Megan rather than Lynn. It might not end up getting shoved somewhere uncomfortable.