As I said earlier, CONvergence was good but odd. It felt strange not having Vice City around. In previous years it was generally the default location for meeting or hanging out and was always the place where I could find people I knew (or play a little Pepsi Man). Given how much money and effort a party like that must require I can understand thedrunkengent and ethel needing a year off. Hopefully Vice City will be back next year. This year I think I moved around a lot more and saw more of the room parties. I also spent more time in Cinema Rex watching things like Sky High and the Midnight trailer. (At the time I couldn't think of the titles of The Experts or Family Business. I think The Experts came up because the wife in Sky High was also in The Experts. Family Business came up because I was complaining about the first Fast and the Furious movie and how terrible the ending was.) I completely failed at Dystopia's video bingo this year. Fortunately monstersocks was able to win herself a shirt even though I couldn't. I also took very few pictures this year compared to previous years. I don't know if there was a reason or not. I just brought the small camera along this year instead of having my camera bag with me. That may have made me think less about taking pictures. No costumes this year either.

The trip to Utah was useful, although it would have been nicer if we could have flown direct instead of getting stuck flying through Denver. Direct flights are much better. Air travel is becoming less stressful the more flights I have without significant problems.

I recently saw a motivational poster with a quote from Calvin Coolidge that I really don't like:
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

I think the first half of the quote is fine but the last two sentences don't work. Persistence alone won't get you anywhere useful. I'll agree with the idea that without persistence you can't succeed, but that doesn't actually mean that with persistence you can't fail (stupid lj lost part of the post right here). If it weren't for the fine folks at despair.com I'd be tempted to make my own rebuttal poster.


My old friend Todd just sent me a copy of this picture from his wedding. It's the two of us with our old friend Matt at Todd's wedding. (I'm still working on getting those pictures online, maybe I took so few at CONvergence so that I'd get them online quickly.)


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