Michael Lee's Train of Thought

Is President Obama a Geek?

2009-06-20T10:14:00.003-05:00

One of our panels at CONvergence this year is Is our President a Geek?. Of course, one of the challenges of putting together a schedule months ahead of time is that events can pass it up.

And while Wil Wheaton may have won Paul and Storm's bracket, we now clearly have the *real* Secretary of Geek Affairs, John Hodgman:

I can't wait for this Resturant to open!

2009-05-31T15:10:00.000-05:00

It looks like someone has decided that they need to open a resturant FOR ME in my neighborhood.

Galaxy Drive In - Intergalactic, Retro Futuristic Makeover Made On Earth�

Changing How I Get Comics

2009-05-25T14:27:00.004-05:00

I've been a comics collector for almost my entire reading life. It's been my hobby reading for a long time for a wide variety of reasons. I've got wardrobes and bookcases filled with comics and comics collections.

So one of the things that I'm realizing is that I'm slowly moving away from buying regular issues -- and I suspect that for Marvel especially, I'm going to be moving almost exclusively to collecting in trade publications.

Recently I've been enjoying a number of big collections -- Captain America Omnibus, Vol. 1 is one of the best Captain America stories ever, and I can't recommend it enough.

I'm also enjoying other collections that I'm picking up -- sometimes new, sometimes used. Over the weekend I picked up the first two New Avengers collections and am enjoying them enough that I will probably get the the third.

And even for older comics, I'm preferring collected issues -- perhaps with the cheaper Essentials versions, but then various Absolute or other collected editions as well.

The sad part of all of this is I'm not sure how pure comics stores survive in the future -- I'm more likely to pick up these books in different venues -- Half Price Books, Amazon.com, or Comics Conventions are just as likely to see me pick them up. I'm not quite in as much of a "weekly comic store" habit as I used to be. I see more deals when I'm looking around in the collection market -- and more options.

And the "neighborhood comic store" has some virtues that I'm sad to see being more difficult. It's a community center -- you can have a friendly conversation with your "dealer" a couple of times a month, and get recommendations of useful things. You can run into other people on a regular basis; people that you collaborate with on your additional projects -- I've discussed CONvergence business more than once over a comic book rack.

I don't know how that stays around, or if it doesn't, what takes its place. It's a challenge.

A Gathering of the Tribes

2009-05-20T21:25:00.001-05:00

I find this video of a speech by Seth Godin about Tribes
fascinating.

The phrase "gathering of the Tribes" has been used to describe CONvergence -- arguably, that's one thing it was set up to be, and it is in the convention name in a way. It is the bringing together of "sci-fi and fantasy aficionados of every stripe".

And one thing that hit me when rewatching another interview I saw a couple of months ago is that one other word for being committed is to be a fan.

President Obama on Star Trek

2009-05-17T09:56:00.000-05:00

From Newsweek:

"And the last movie you saw?
Now, movies I've been doing OK [with] because it turns out we got this nice theater on the ground floor of my house � So Star Trek, we saw this weekend, which I thought was good. Everybody was saying I was Spock, so I figured I should check it out and�[the president makes the Vulcan salute with his hand].

Very good.
Yes, absolutely.

Did you watch that when you were growing up?
I used to love Star Trek. You know, Star Trek was ahead of its time. There was a whole�the special effects weren't real good, but the storylines were always evocative, you know, there was a little commentary and a little pop philosophy for a 10-year-old to absorb."

The Pros and Cons of Sci Fi Cons

2009-05-14T18:58:00.001-05:00

However, since many fans enjoy both literary and media fiction, it seems ridiculous not to pool our resources in protecting one another.

There is a very interesting article about some of the recent national SF convention failures.

As we come across our final pre-registration cut off for CONvergence, something like the above article is very sobering. Not every convention *is* run well. CONvergence, which tries to run things as professionally as possible, is still a fan-run affair that is being run for fun.

One thing that is nice today is that technology makes conventions more open -- you can find out about CONvergence by searching for Minnesota Sci Fi Convention on Google; you don't need to find out about it only by going to the right book store, or knowing the right person.

The thirteen year old kid who had his or her mind blown away by Star Trek last weekend deserves the same rich community and opportunity that the Science Fiction Community has given me.

And another piece of setting up that legacy is the very interesting copy of Argentus dealing with convention runnnig. There are some things that are Worldcon specific (which doesn't really interest me) but different sorts of advice are always good to read and take on.

And don't forget -- preregistration for CONvergence ends tomorrow!

Speaking of Conventions

2009-05-11T19:19:00.000-05:00

There really isn't any doubt from the previous post (among other references) that Star Trek conventions really energized the Science Fiction convention movement.

So it is interesting to see this report that there is an upsurge of interest in
Star Trek Conventions with the release of the new film. I'm not sure if that's because people are actively looking for Star Trek conventions -- or are they looking for pictures like in the above story.

But with the pre-registration deadline for CONvergence coming up on the 15th of May, and CONvergence being the closest thing to a Star Trek convention over the next several months in Minnesota, it is be interesting to see if that will also have an impact on CONvergence's attendance.

We're certainly going to have Star Trek panels, and almost certainly Star Trek themed room parties and costumes.

Early Star Trek convention photos

2009-05-11T18:39:00.000-05:00

I love these pictures from various 1970s Star Trek conventions. Awesome.

The Onion has it about right regarding the new Star Trek film...

2009-05-05T00:18:00.000-05:00

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

A New Trek

2009-04-26T18:07:00.001-05:00

I liked reading this New York Times Article about the new Star Trek film.

As both a JJ Abrams fan and as someone who has a lot of fond Star Trek memories, I was looking forward to the new film. I had a chance to see the new movie last week -- and while I don't want to either review it here or get into spoilers, I was certainly very content with the film and am looking forward to seeing it again and think they've done a good job with something that had a lot of challenges.

Lots of CONvergence types quoted in this article

2009-04-25T17:51:00.001-05:00

An interesting article from the St Paul paper about how Hard times come, go. Hollywood is forever. -- since the interviews were taken at the Star Trek premier, it perhaps shouldn't be a surprise to see a bunch of CONvergence people mentioned in the article...

Minneapolis Best Nerd Summit - CONvergence (2009)

2009-04-22T18:43:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to see that the City Pages called out CONvergence as the Best Nerd Summit. All possible thoughts about Geeks vs. Nerds aside, it is pretty exciting. And as CONvergence is about everyone who participates, it is something for everyone who volunteers, hosts a room party, and attends and participate.

But I'm not going to be bothered by anything that ends "Instead, let us only assure you that for a nerd in Minnesota, there's no better event all year."

The "Let's Rebuild Len Wein's Comic Book Collection" Project

2009-04-17T21:33:00.001-05:00

One of the things that I realized when Len Wein was a guest of honor at CONvergence for the first time was that he wrote the first issue of The Fantastic Four I ever purchased. And he turned out to be one of those people that was as great to meet in person as you would want to have, and was one of my favorite guests at CONvergence. So when I heard that his comic collection burned down with his house, I was especially saddened.

I really want to see
The "Let's Rebuild Len Wein's Comic Book Collection" Project succeed. And if you are in Minnesota, you can bring any comics to the MCBA Spring Comics Show, and hand them to either Christopher Jones or Melissa Kaercher. They will both have table space at the show.

CONvergence Getting Scheduled

2009-04-14T21:18:00.002-05:00

It's the time of year where attention now really focuses on CONvergence in July. Events are getting scheduled, PR2 will be in the mail soon, and we get everything else going.

One of the exciting things is that we have this year is schedule.convergence-con.org. It'll help you plan your schedule for the event, and let you slice and dice the many events we have planned -- and we're going to be able to list more things than ever before.

We still have panels left unscheduled though, and you can review that list and contact programming@convergence-con.org if you have a panel that you want to sign up for.

Len Wein's home burns down

2009-04-06T21:34:00.001-05:00

I'm greatly saddened to hear reports that Len Wein�s home burned down.

He's been a guest of honor at CONvergence twice. One of the reasons why I was so thrilled to have him as a guest was that the very first issue of The Fantastic Four I ever picked up was written by him, and many of the comics that I was hooked on were ones he either created the characters for, edited, or wrote for.

My thoughts are with him and his family.

6 Ways To Utilize Twitter At Your Next Conference

2009-04-01T23:38:00.001-05:00

I'm intrigued by 6 Ways To Utilize Twitter At Your Next Conference -- we've thought a little bit about how we could use Twitter for CONvergence recently, and one of the things that we are already encouraging is for people to tag their entries with #cvg2009, so you'll be able to search for all of those results using Twitter's search capabilities.

Undo This

2009-03-20T18:38:00.001-05:00

One of the things that I have in my work Outlook e-mail is a rule that any e-mail I send sits in my Outbox for five minutes before it is sent. The idea is that I have a chance to back out of an e-mail and gives me a forced "time out" for a response. I've found it useful and wish I had it in more places.

Note that "recall e-mail" on Outlook is basically a useless joke -- most people still get something, after all, including in all likelyhood the message that you were sending out.

So I'm happy to see that Gmail Labs has added a similar undo send feature where an e-mail sits for a few seconds before it gets released to the world.

Go go science and technology!

2009-03-09T23:43:00.001-05:00

As someone pro-Science and Technology, I really really like this.

Saturday Morning Watchmen

2009-03-04T22:56:00.001-06:00

This is just wrong.

The Done Manifesto

2009-03-04T21:58:00.001-06:00

One thing that's definitely a challenge is juggling a lot of different tasks. I get in in the day to day work life, as well as my various CONvergence ones.

I enjoyed reading
the done manifesto -- and for me, I think the last piece is the part of the first one. It's always a goal to try to break up projects enough so that you can always find things to be 'done' on a regular basis.

CONvergence 2009 Panel Ideas

2009-03-01T14:01:00.010-06:00

We're using a different system for CONvergence programming this year. As a part of that, we now have our list of programming items on Google Docs as a spreadsheet.

I'm aware that the google gadget is sometimes a little awkward -- so you can certainly also access it on Google directly.

All programming requests -- like if you're interested in sitting on a panel -- should go to programming@convergence-con.org

Also, I recently did a presentation about the underlying technology that I'm building for the Twin Cities Salesforce.com User Group. The slides are here:

Science of Watchmen

2009-02-24T21:32:00.001-06:00

From CONvergence regular Dr. James Kakalios, in one of the more fun YouTube videos coming out in the lead up to Watchmen coming out...

Why You Need A Tribe

2009-02-07T11:29:00.001-06:00

Did You Know?

2009-01-31T19:25:00.001-06:00

This is fascinating and incredible -- with a lot of great statistics.

Highly recommended to watch.

Pride!

2009-01-19T18:24:00.000-06:00