   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.
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I like room parties, myself. I’ve run one room party, and it was the most fun I had during that con (the rest of it was kinda “meh”). It’s a chance to just chill with people, chat a bit, and maybe play video games or watch movies.
This is more of a “Wisconsin Con” issue — none of the hotels hosting cons are really conducive to room parties (a few are outright hostile) so the parties that do happen tend to be sort of lame (which is why things like con hosted raves now go pretty late to pick up the slack). Con sponsored parties don’t do a lot to promote events at these cons, and so (from a promotions perspective) are a waste of funds if Ambassador tables are available.
Room parties in the Twin Cities are a totally different situation, and ain’t no party floor like the MarsCon party floor.
Room parties were Awesome and then as the years gone by they started to disappoint. So yea the Ambassador tables are more practical and you can shut them down.
I meant to say shut then down at night
Personally, I’ve always been concerned when we haven’t had a room party.
Although, and I think others may agree with me, a lot of us like using said rooms for ‘sleep’ more than ‘party times’ anyway. I’m not a huge fan of the party block, unless I’m in a really good mood, which means Drunken Schneider stories follow.
Wow, room parties being expected, let alone run by conventions, really must be a regional thing. My area doesn’t allow room parties (at least at major and/or decent conventions), as per hotel policies.
Room parties run by other cons and clubs are pretty normal in Wisconsin and Minnesota. But these are the same places that didn’t start exchanging ambassador tables until five or six years ago, so running a party was the easiest way to cross promote for a long time
Varies by convention, too. Locally you see everything from “party floor” where anybody throwing an open party takes a room on that floor, prearranged with the hotel, to no open parties at all. Sometimes using the same hotel (though of course not at the same time).
I staff a couple of cons on the east coast, and I’ve never heard of any con out here doing a room party. I always find it odd when you mention them in the comic.
I never realized this was a regional thing. Around here, at least half the parties (if not more so) are being run by visiting cons. This is boggling my mind that this doesn’t happen other places.
What cons on the east coast? I am a participant at about 8 of them on the east coast (most in the northeast)and they all have room parties. I have been to a few others outside that area and they all have room parties too. It would be weird to me to be at a hotel con and NOT have room parties.
Calling fan tables ‘ambassador’ tables is whats weird to me 🙂