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dime_novel_heroHaving lost my job, I really cut back on my convention schedule. I chopped Millennicon from my schedule. Marcon. Steampunk World's Fair. Contemporal. I might still do Origins as a day trip but that would be the same weekend as Steamtopia. I'd rather do that but would only be able to if I got a job in the meantime. I had an interview last week but that's not enough to make any sort of plans.
However, I had already committed to the Steampunk Empire Symposium because, at the time, I had a job and it was looking like I was going to someone else's ride. That ride, unsurprisingly, fell though at the last minute but I was on the program schedule and wouldn't back out of that and so was on my way.
But even though I arrived mid-afternoon and had hours before my first presentation on Friday night, I had a difficult time getting into things. Once I got dressed in my Union Airship Cavalry uniform I began to feel more myself but still felt weighted down by my “real world” situation. Long time friends and associates were glad to see me and asked how I was doing and I couldn't help but admit that I wasn't doing very well.
Then I did my airship presentation and began to get in the grove. The room I was in didn't have a screen but the wall was good enough. I think I need to tweak my airships presentation again. The first time I did it, it was too much history and not enough technology. After changing it to focus more on the technology I think it improved but I think it still needs some work to make it more of a resource for authors, role-players and world builders. That's the tack I've been taking on developing my aether presentation and I think it will work well for airships as well.
Near the end of my presentation I have a few slides of airships to scale to give an impression of just how monstrous they are. A few people were taking pictures and, as they did so, I mentioned that the illustrations are available online. However I neglected to mention where they could be found. I will need to add a slide with a link.
The next presenter was told that there would be a projector for them but there was not so I allowed them to borrow my projector. And the presenter after that. I got to play the hero yet again.
Sillof Workshops was there giving a presentation on his customized action figures. I want my own action figure and Sillof gave some details on how to do that. I think I mentioned in a previous post how I plan on doing that. The 7” Neca Lone Ranger action figure is a perfect base figure. At a minimum I would need to add a beard and goggles and a little bit of paint. I think I can accomplish that.
Saturday afternoon was my first time presenting “What is the Aether?” I think it went reasonably well for its first time running. I seem to have the right amount of information to fit in the alloted time slot though I did feel a bit rushed at the end because I didn't have what I wanted to say about Space 1889 scripted out. I missed a few things I would have wanted to say. There were a few other points I need to clean up and streamline.
I momentarily thought about changing up the format a little. As it stands, I talk about what the aether was (Classical, luminiferous aether, sub-hydrogen elements) and then talk about the way those different versions of the aether can be used in a steampunk narrative or world building. I toyed with the idea of doing each separately, that is talking about the Aristotelian aether and then mentioning some science fiction that uses that kind of aether in its story, but as I talked about it I have concluded that my initial format works best.
I spoke with someone later who thought that I give the best presentations and I neglected to ask for a critique of my aether presentation. We talked more about the content, which is valuable in itself, but I should like some feedback to make my presentations better and more useful.
When I got home, someone had posted on Facebook a link to some scientists who are proposing that spacetime is actually a superfluid with a near zero viscosity. Their paper is titled “Astrophysical Constraints on Planck Scale Dissipative Phenomena” but in everything they described I saw a nearly exact parallel to the luminiferous aether hypothesis of the 19th century, though they seemed to be carefully avoiding using that term.
The 19th century natural philosophers and proto-scientists thought that just as sound must have a medium through which to propagate so too must light have a medium, thus the luminiferous aether. They never found any evidence to support the existence of the aether, even up to todays scientists attempting to disprove Einstein and failing. And now that another century of study has reinforced Einstein's conclusion that there is no such medium, they look at the hole in their understanding of how gravity fits in with quantum mechanics and say that, having discovered gravity waves, there must therefore be a medium for gravity to propagate. I really wish they wouldn't confuse people by using the word “theory” in this case because they don't have any evidence to support their hypothesis.
Some day we will have a true unified theory. My expectation is that it will not be the aether but that it will take an additional century or two to finally stop hearing about it in those terms. Of course, there are still geocentrists so the aether isn't going away any time soon.
The beard competition had seven contestants and I won. And while I accept that I do have something of a spectacular beard, at least everyone keeps telling me so, I think I have well reached the point where I will not be competing at cons anymore. Winning beard competitions at steampunk conventions just is not important to me. It is the same attitude I have with costuming in that I have won my share of costume contests and more don't matter. What I think I will start doing is offering up myself as a judge for beard competitions. Stand as an example that other beardies can aspire to and give them a chance to win top honors.
I was asked several times about how I styled my beard. I have moved on to using Göt2B Glued. It holds better than the hair spray I had been using, has a long setting time to work the style better and lasts an entire day. I still have some issues with my hair being wavy but I'm still working on techniques to manage that.
Having won the competition I was awarded admittance to next years Symposium. Now, I had paid for this year's con but was comped a bad for being a presenter. I haven't been reimbursed for that and now I have another badge to my credit. Since I expect to be presenting next year as well that would comp me yet another badge. Once things calm down after the con I will send an email to Aloysius and say that if he just comps me and Euphorbia badges for next year we will call it even.
One of the dealers had a table full of modified squirt guns and other toy guns. One of those guns was an unmodified Peacemaker, unusual in that it was properly scaled. I thought it might be useful to have it as a prop for those cons more picky about realistic guns such as my Tanaka softair, He wanted $30. That's a lot for a plastic gun when I've seen Denix metal replicas on Ebay for only twice that.
I went to a cosplay photography panel and got lots of good information about posing for photographs and taking batter photographs and then completely neglected to apply what I had heard when I took a photograph of someone cosplaying the First Doctor (William Hartnell). After taking the picture I saw that the ribbon on his monocle was not well placed and I should have had him move it and try again but I didn't.
There were three different people who approached me asking “Are you coming to Old West Fest this year?” I would very much like to but if by some chance I am still out of work by that time I will be staying at home, sitting in the dark because I can't afford to do much else. I don't expect to still be unemployed in five months but, then again, I didn't expect to be unemployed in the first place. Still, I've been thinking that, yes, I really want to go. I'll have additional opportunities to get gunned down in the street, which was fun, but I was also thinking that I could set up a table near the entrance with a few books, a bunch of cards and fliers, and a placard on a tripod that reads “Ask me about Steampunk!” I could spend my day doing what I do; talking about this thing that I love.
But here's the real rub. The weekend of the steampunk theme at Old West Fest is the same weekend that the Steel City Beard and Mustache Club is having their second regional competition. I took third in my class last year and, as I've learned a thing or two about bearding since then, I feel I have an opportunity to move up in the rankings.
As I talked to people at Symposium about this dilemma, I came to the realization that while I socialize with my bearded brethren, want to compete on a regional level and will even be giving my “Century of the Beard” presentation at one of the club meeting, they are not “my people.” Other than having a beard, I don't feel I share very much in common with them. There are geeks among them but I don't feel that they share my interests on the whole. My enthusiasm lies with steampunk. They are my people. They understand me and I them more so than those with beards.
So, the conclusion will be that I will go to Old West Fest if I can.
The Symposium's Star Wars theme was probably the best theme that one could have with steampunk. Steampunk, because it is an aesthetic with no media corpus to define it in any one way, mashes up well with other fandoms. And Star Wars is itself a very simple story that could be reimagined in a lot of different ways (since that's what Lucas did when he adapted it from the samurai film “The Hidden Fortress”) The two fandoms naturally fall together in a conflagration of geek.
However, I had already committed to the Steampunk Empire Symposium because, at the time, I had a job and it was looking like I was going to someone else's ride. That ride, unsurprisingly, fell though at the last minute but I was on the program schedule and wouldn't back out of that and so was on my way.
But even though I arrived mid-afternoon and had hours before my first presentation on Friday night, I had a difficult time getting into things. Once I got dressed in my Union Airship Cavalry uniform I began to feel more myself but still felt weighted down by my “real world” situation. Long time friends and associates were glad to see me and asked how I was doing and I couldn't help but admit that I wasn't doing very well.
Then I did my airship presentation and began to get in the grove. The room I was in didn't have a screen but the wall was good enough. I think I need to tweak my airships presentation again. The first time I did it, it was too much history and not enough technology. After changing it to focus more on the technology I think it improved but I think it still needs some work to make it more of a resource for authors, role-players and world builders. That's the tack I've been taking on developing my aether presentation and I think it will work well for airships as well.
Near the end of my presentation I have a few slides of airships to scale to give an impression of just how monstrous they are. A few people were taking pictures and, as they did so, I mentioned that the illustrations are available online. However I neglected to mention where they could be found. I will need to add a slide with a link.
The next presenter was told that there would be a projector for them but there was not so I allowed them to borrow my projector. And the presenter after that. I got to play the hero yet again.
Sillof Workshops was there giving a presentation on his customized action figures. I want my own action figure and Sillof gave some details on how to do that. I think I mentioned in a previous post how I plan on doing that. The 7” Neca Lone Ranger action figure is a perfect base figure. At a minimum I would need to add a beard and goggles and a little bit of paint. I think I can accomplish that.
Saturday afternoon was my first time presenting “What is the Aether?” I think it went reasonably well for its first time running. I seem to have the right amount of information to fit in the alloted time slot though I did feel a bit rushed at the end because I didn't have what I wanted to say about Space 1889 scripted out. I missed a few things I would have wanted to say. There were a few other points I need to clean up and streamline.
I momentarily thought about changing up the format a little. As it stands, I talk about what the aether was (Classical, luminiferous aether, sub-hydrogen elements) and then talk about the way those different versions of the aether can be used in a steampunk narrative or world building. I toyed with the idea of doing each separately, that is talking about the Aristotelian aether and then mentioning some science fiction that uses that kind of aether in its story, but as I talked about it I have concluded that my initial format works best.
I spoke with someone later who thought that I give the best presentations and I neglected to ask for a critique of my aether presentation. We talked more about the content, which is valuable in itself, but I should like some feedback to make my presentations better and more useful.
When I got home, someone had posted on Facebook a link to some scientists who are proposing that spacetime is actually a superfluid with a near zero viscosity. Their paper is titled “Astrophysical Constraints on Planck Scale Dissipative Phenomena” but in everything they described I saw a nearly exact parallel to the luminiferous aether hypothesis of the 19th century, though they seemed to be carefully avoiding using that term.
The 19th century natural philosophers and proto-scientists thought that just as sound must have a medium through which to propagate so too must light have a medium, thus the luminiferous aether. They never found any evidence to support the existence of the aether, even up to todays scientists attempting to disprove Einstein and failing. And now that another century of study has reinforced Einstein's conclusion that there is no such medium, they look at the hole in their understanding of how gravity fits in with quantum mechanics and say that, having discovered gravity waves, there must therefore be a medium for gravity to propagate. I really wish they wouldn't confuse people by using the word “theory” in this case because they don't have any evidence to support their hypothesis.
Some day we will have a true unified theory. My expectation is that it will not be the aether but that it will take an additional century or two to finally stop hearing about it in those terms. Of course, there are still geocentrists so the aether isn't going away any time soon.
The beard competition had seven contestants and I won. And while I accept that I do have something of a spectacular beard, at least everyone keeps telling me so, I think I have well reached the point where I will not be competing at cons anymore. Winning beard competitions at steampunk conventions just is not important to me. It is the same attitude I have with costuming in that I have won my share of costume contests and more don't matter. What I think I will start doing is offering up myself as a judge for beard competitions. Stand as an example that other beardies can aspire to and give them a chance to win top honors.
I was asked several times about how I styled my beard. I have moved on to using Göt2B Glued. It holds better than the hair spray I had been using, has a long setting time to work the style better and lasts an entire day. I still have some issues with my hair being wavy but I'm still working on techniques to manage that.
Having won the competition I was awarded admittance to next years Symposium. Now, I had paid for this year's con but was comped a bad for being a presenter. I haven't been reimbursed for that and now I have another badge to my credit. Since I expect to be presenting next year as well that would comp me yet another badge. Once things calm down after the con I will send an email to Aloysius and say that if he just comps me and Euphorbia badges for next year we will call it even.
One of the dealers had a table full of modified squirt guns and other toy guns. One of those guns was an unmodified Peacemaker, unusual in that it was properly scaled. I thought it might be useful to have it as a prop for those cons more picky about realistic guns such as my Tanaka softair, He wanted $30. That's a lot for a plastic gun when I've seen Denix metal replicas on Ebay for only twice that.
I went to a cosplay photography panel and got lots of good information about posing for photographs and taking batter photographs and then completely neglected to apply what I had heard when I took a photograph of someone cosplaying the First Doctor (William Hartnell). After taking the picture I saw that the ribbon on his monocle was not well placed and I should have had him move it and try again but I didn't.
There were three different people who approached me asking “Are you coming to Old West Fest this year?” I would very much like to but if by some chance I am still out of work by that time I will be staying at home, sitting in the dark because I can't afford to do much else. I don't expect to still be unemployed in five months but, then again, I didn't expect to be unemployed in the first place. Still, I've been thinking that, yes, I really want to go. I'll have additional opportunities to get gunned down in the street, which was fun, but I was also thinking that I could set up a table near the entrance with a few books, a bunch of cards and fliers, and a placard on a tripod that reads “Ask me about Steampunk!” I could spend my day doing what I do; talking about this thing that I love.
But here's the real rub. The weekend of the steampunk theme at Old West Fest is the same weekend that the Steel City Beard and Mustache Club is having their second regional competition. I took third in my class last year and, as I've learned a thing or two about bearding since then, I feel I have an opportunity to move up in the rankings.
As I talked to people at Symposium about this dilemma, I came to the realization that while I socialize with my bearded brethren, want to compete on a regional level and will even be giving my “Century of the Beard” presentation at one of the club meeting, they are not “my people.” Other than having a beard, I don't feel I share very much in common with them. There are geeks among them but I don't feel that they share my interests on the whole. My enthusiasm lies with steampunk. They are my people. They understand me and I them more so than those with beards.
So, the conclusion will be that I will go to Old West Fest if I can.
The Symposium's Star Wars theme was probably the best theme that one could have with steampunk. Steampunk, because it is an aesthetic with no media corpus to define it in any one way, mashes up well with other fandoms. And Star Wars is itself a very simple story that could be reimagined in a lot of different ways (since that's what Lucas did when he adapted it from the samurai film “The Hidden Fortress”) The two fandoms naturally fall together in a conflagration of geek.
