January 22nd, 2010
So… this is my first Notes from the Void, the name for the posts I discussed last week. I’ve decided against making it a strictly-weekly feature; to keep them from overwhelming the site by sheer numbers, I’ll only post them on weeks where I don’t add other content (reviews, fiction, illustrations, etc).
It’s very fashionable right now to donate money to Haiti, but please be careful where you donate; anywhere money flows, there will be unethical people trying to take a cut, and even legitimate organizations can be astoundingly poorly managed. Charity Navigator seems to be a good place to check things out first; they don’t have the resources to check every charity, but they rate most of the big players. Personally, my Haiti-bound donation went to Doctors Without Borders.
On a lighter note, I’ve been spending a lot of time wandering RedBubble lately. My friend Caitlin introduced me to it back in August, when I bought a print of her “Tokyo” project, and I keep coming back, usually just to explore. They have a great talent pool, and their print quality is fantastic if you feel the urge to buy something. One of my favorite recent finds is JenniferB. Really, I think the best way for me to introduce her is to shut up and let two of her poems speak for themselves:
- I Want To Fuck You With Words
- To be continued…
Some of her writing is a bit morbidly uncomfortable, but I think it’s still worth reading.
In site-related news, I’ve commissioned Ten-Chan to illustrate one of the Elves stories I finished back at the end of 2008. She says she should be finished soon, and I’ll post it appropriately as soon as I can.
January 14th, 2010
Originally I planned to release First and Last and Always in time for the new year. I’ve been working on it, on and off, for about two years now, and I’m more than a little tired of having it on my plate for this long. At the moment it is pretty close to finished, but work is sapping a lot of my time and energy, and the home stretch is more difficult than I really care to admit.
Right now my goal is “by Valentine’s Day, even if I don’t sleep the whole weekend.” We’ll see how that goes.
In the meantime, I have been meaning to keep this site more active. I shouldn’t expect you to come back to the same page for six weeks running, and I feel badly about that. On the other hand, when I started this site, I made a very simple promise to you:
- No filler.
We will not post unless we have things to say. 1000 Gears should be interesting even if you have no idea who we actually are.
Primarily I was concerned with “What kind of X are you?” quiz-memes and similar minutiae that is only actually interesting to the person taking the test. It’s very easy to slip into a routine of posting for the sake of posting, and I like that even less than silence. So, stuck between these two urges, I have a question for you, as my readers. If I were to post, once a week, sharing a small handful of interesting bits I’ve discovered online, would you consider that to be “content” or “filler”?
November 27th, 2009
This is really a post to include more pictures and say all the things that I wanted to say, but couldn’t fit into the flow of the other posts. It’s likely to be a little bit discombobulated.
- Tahdig! I think that only makes sense if you’re one of the three people I spoke with about it, but it’s awesome anyways.
- Café Verführen has great souvenirs. Their shot glasses are etched, not printed, and their Sunday-morning gift boxes are copied from real vintage labels (seriously).
- Ryusei is never ever without less than immaculately dressed. I think I’m a little bit jealous.
- I wish I had taken up Tiff’s invitation to go watch Supernatural on Saturday night. I got some ideas for First and Last and Always that I needed to write down, and I didn’t see her at all on Sunday. She seemed like a good person to know.
- In general, wish I were better about collecting phone numbers and email addresses.
- The official YaoiCon “bishounen” events – Bingo, the Auction, and the (ahem) Bishounen Spanking Inferno raffle – can be a lot of fun in their own rights, but… (I never finished this sentence, and I wish I could remember what I was thinking when I started it. The events are fun.
- Mostly for DreamSkaype, I’ve uploaded a picture of my special badge from my service as a waiter for the YaoiCon Café (not Café Verführen) back in 2007. Being called a “bishounen” feels like a compliment that I can’t properly accept, so I replaced it with something more comfortable.
- I should bring Kelda another tribute offering of chocolate next year.
- YaoiCon is always, at the same time, more and less expensive than I thought it would be.
- …and then Buffy staked Edward. THE END!
November 15th, 2009
Most YaoiCon attendees never visit the third floor of the hotel, unless they have rooms there. I don’t blame them. The con program doesn’t mention the treasure hidden up there. I don’t know whether this is a deliberate snub or one of those complications of printing schedules and hotel management, but it’s a shame either way. The third floor is home to Café Verführen, and I think it’s my favorite event at the con.
Full Disclosure: In the Fan Alley, I wound up exchanging cards with Matta’s real-life alter-ego, and she gave me a button with the Café Verführen logo. I gave her a Tybalt button in return, but take this how you will.
This is a fairly late review, mostly because I kept throwing out my earlier drafts. I don’t like rehashing old reviews, and most of what I said in last year’s writeup still holds true. It seems inadequate, though; there’s something magically captivating about the Café, something hard to pin down and describe. The experience is enchanting, somehow much more than the sum of its parts.
November 3rd, 2009
I survived YaoiCon 2009 without any unfortunate molestation incidents. Apparently that particular miscreant is one of the “Official Bishonen” now. I’m going to try very hard not to think too much about that.
Other than that, I had a good time, took a handful of nice pictures, and met a lot of wonderful people, though I’m sorry that I didn’t get to spend as much time with them as I’d like. My fellow congoers (most of them, anyways) really are my favorite part of con, my reason for going, and I always enjoy the fan-energy rush that I get from spending the better part of three days with them. It’s very good for my creative urge, and I’m back at work on First and Last and Always.
I went to Café Verführen twice, and I’ll have a review of that up as soon as I’ve finished doing my post-con chores. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the con, or if you were there and want to get in touch, drop me a comment. I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.
