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Con.txt !!!
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con_txt has their first call for panels! Hooray!Con.txt is a small slash con held near DC every two years, if you haven't heard of it. (badge prices go up at the end of the month!) It is my happy place.
I ran an utterly ridiculous number of panels at con.txt two years ago, and I have, um, kind of been thinking about panels I want next time ever since then. The first call is for panels that might require extensive preparation by the mods. Here's what I'm thinking about submitting: any thoughts or suggestions?
1. Ducks!: From Star Wars to Good Omens and beyond, ducks permeate all of our fandoms. What is their sinister plan of total domination? And is there still time to stop it? Your moderators will present extensive evidence of the conspiracy, including handouts, followed by group discussion about such important questions as "Jensen Ackles and David McCallum: Double Agents?" and "Did Bert and Ernie curse Slash fandom?"
2. GIMP graphics workshop: Offering another Fannish Graphics in GIMP, the open source graphics editor, this year; either a "basic crop & text icons" like last time, or even a slightly less basic one (easy photomanip techniques or getting started with coloring scanned lineart.) Or *possibly* a basic & a less basic, if there's demand.
3. How To Build a Community: How to start a fannish community, gather a tightly-knit membership, and keep posting active in the community; strategies, methods, and examples. You don't have to go viral to thrive. (Preferably, have at least one moderator who has done this successfully!)
4. Cosplay: why is there so little visibility of costuming in (most of) media fandom? Where is the cosplay for these fandoms? Can we have some at con-txt please? (Also, come to the panel in costume! Show off!) Plus, cosplay & crossplay basics for newcomers to the art, fannish fashion, and perhaps a box of dress-up clothes. ETA: with emphasis on cosplay strategies for people who don't have Hollywood-standard bodies.
5. Vidding for the Technically Inept (and Flat Broke): How to start with a DVD or download, and rip, clip, and synchronize to music. Overview of free or cheap software for clipping and video and audio editing; making do with limited hardware; good resources for self-teaching.
6. Finding deep time: Sometimes it seems like all of fandom before 2003 is invisible these days - and even more recent events are more difficult to document than they could be. Resources & techniques for learning and/or sharing about pre-lj (and pre-internet) fandom; ethical questions in informal fandom research; and a beginner's guide for contributing to Fanlore & TWC. Aimed at non-academic contexts but aca-fen welcome.
I volunteer to mod 1 & 2, unless someone else wants to; will mod 3 & 4 only if they can't get someone better-qualified; and am totally not qualified to mod 5 & 6, but I could flip flip-charts!
(Ideas I have for less-prep-intensive panels for the later call for panels: Fanmixer's round table; when RPS isn't real aka "Stephen" vs. Stephen; attempts at defining this thing we call 'fandom'; "Boston Marriage", or, when the subtext goes too far; and discussion circle on asexuality & slash )
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I'm planning on camping out in Rockville all summer, and yet, I WILL STILL MISS THIS CON.
*weeps and rends her garments*
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(You'll make it to a stitch'n'bitch while you're here, at least, right? That's kind of like a mini-con.txt anyway!)
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I would love to make it to a stitch'n'bitch.
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I hope you do at least stay long enough to manage one stitch'n'bitch! That would be brilliant.
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...last time I submitted a bunch of panels, had nearly all of them approved, and ended up modding or co-modding way too many.
...I fear that is going to happen again.
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I would totally be willing to do flip charts but I fear I'm sort of awful at modding.
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Modding con-txt panels was surprisingly low-key and a really supportive situation, though. If you want to try, you should!
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Next question: Drive down each day, or...hmm.
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If you can afford it, I do suggest the hotel - I drove my first year and was in a hotel the second, and I did feel like it worked better with the con, especially in terms of being able to do room parties (which at con-txt are usually small & open, and vary from nakedness-and-girlkissing to sitting-around-playing-fandom-monopoly). And getting roommates is pretty doable.
(If you can't afford it, though, doing the commuting thing is still fun - parking aside. I will probably end up commuting in 2010 - the only reason I'm going at all is that I bought my badge when my financial situation was less dire.)
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Anyway, yay!
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~D
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and have it hang at pivotal moments, but it seems to only have really basic editing tools....but mostly, because last year I did a panel that was basically "This is how you download and install GIMP; this is how you open a file, adjust the contrast/saturation, crop, resize, add text, and save" and it took *more* than the allotted time. Beginners is beginners...
A panel just on "open-source" would actually be pretty awesome though; it could cover parts of 2 & 5, and things like Inkscape and text editors and file organizing and AO3 and DW and gaming and indepedent music and video--
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I don't really have any good ideas for panels, alas.
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(Do you have any ideas for a panel at an SF con? Sarah wants us to come up with some I could run for Farpoint, and my mind is *blank* (or full of con.txt-y, stuff, whatever.) I think I am too far out of SF-fandom mainstream these days, which is kind of sad.)
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Ummmmm. You could try to run a Star Trek bookverse panel? Or Star Wars bookverse/EU? Or one about fanfic in general. This also might be a good opportunity for you to geek out about good sci-fi worldbuilding ..
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I did an icons panel with the thesis "what the cool kids are doing is beyond me, here's how you just make a goddamn icon!" It was a success!
You probably would have to update yourself on software some, though I did the GIMP one with a new version of GIMP I'd never used before. It's mostly a matter of assuring people that you don't *need* mad skillz, and then pointing them in the right direction. (I am fairly sure I'm not pointed in the right direction, see.)
Hmm, you know, I bet I could do a worldbuilding one! That is something I feel like I'm still capable of talking about with a vague amount of relevance. :D
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He requested all our bios today, I only sent over Kevin's, Blake's, & mine, b/c you didn't seem sure about offering a panel. But if you get me the panel description and the bio, Eli's gonna be happy-apples.
Also... here's the DIY track's 'ideas' notebook. Your "writing worlds for writing folks who write" idea would fit right in. I'd actually wanna go attend that panel. (Along with the 'making your own convention' one and some of the others.)
:D
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There was a panel two years ago that sounded like it might be that, but it turned out to be more about the art of vidding than the technical side. I need to figure out the technical side before I worry too much about the rest.