*I* don’t think my post about the con is nasty. Apparently someone disagrees with me and doesn’t appreciate me bashing my elders.
Oh well.
*I* don’t think my post about the con is nasty. Apparently someone disagrees with me and doesn’t appreciate me bashing my elders.
Oh well.
(I posted this around a few places. I find it amusing that I am posting it publicly in other places and behind a filter on my journal. Silly students.)
TNG4 was this last weekend and it was pretty dang awesome. Now that it is over I can confess to my serious trepidation surrounding the event. I have never been a real gung-ho member of a TNG group and I was concerned about us pulling this off. We had about 100 people throughout the weekend and that felt pretty perfect. Some of the classes were so full that we would not have been able to put more bodies in the room anyway so it is better that we didn’t have people who were frustrated by inability to attend the class of their preference.
The con was attended by people from all over the country. I was a little bit surprised by the low local turnout, but I got to meet lots of cool new people this way so I’m not complaining. It turned into a LLC-TNG light because this con was primarily TNG group leaders from across the country. I got to see a lot of new-to-me presenters, some of whom haven’t taught much anywhere yet. I highly recommend all of the presenters we had. If any local class organizers want contact information for them I will happily hand it out because I saw some of the best classes I have ever seen at this event. I’m kind of jaded and cynical about classes because I have seen a lot, but I was pleasantly surprised repeatedly all weekend. For the record, we had (in no particular order): Zuchtiger (Ohio), Sir Michael (New Jersey), Jae Januze (Colorado), Rita Seagrave (Ohio), Coral Mallow (Oregon), Tim (DC), Boymeat (NYC), Mr. Michael (Kentucky), Lee Harrington (Maryland), Jen and Pepper Mint (SF), Madame Lark (Humboldt), Cygnet (SF), Ryan (Oregon), Psychokitty (SF), and Rae Goldman (SF).
Personally I got a lot out of this event that I didn’t expect to get out of it. There was a lot of sitting around discussing why TNG groups exist. Given my own mixed feelings on this topic it was really neat to hear from the leaders of the TNG community why they started groups, why they think groups should happen, what the reception is like in different parts of the country, and how each of us individually have/have not benefited from TNG groups. Many of the answers surprised me. A number of people (including myself) were pretty open about the fact that we don’t get involved with TNG groups for personal support–we do it to encourage other people to feel more comfortable. It was nice to be able to hear at least a little open acknowledgment that we mostly know that TNG stuff is ageist, but so is the rest of society so we don’t feel too bad. Given how prevalent the attitude is among older members of the community that obviously the young’uns need to learn from their elders because the young’uns don’t know shit–no wonder we want to go do our own thing. Actually, we know a lot. And it was nice to see that focused on this weekend. Now that I have seen it demonstrated so clearly how much this particular little group knows I want to share that with the community at large because I’m not much of a separatist in general.
I’ve never been a leader in the TNG community and I doubt I will start now, but this was a good experience and now that it is over I’m glad I helped organize this event. I hear that Dallas is talking about hosting TNG 5. I’ve gone to 2/4 of the events so far and Boymeat isn’t going to any more so maybe I should make the next two just so I can tell him that I’ve been to as many as him. 🙂
Lenora
PS–I would be thrilled if this was cross posted elsewhere. If people have any feedback they want to give me directly, feel free to send me email at: boot_slut AT bigrock DOT com
I played! Three times! Noah and I had a pretty good scene on Saturday that didn’t end spectacularly well because my stomach decided I was Done. Now. 🙁 Other than my body sucking it was good. Noah is hot. Then on Sunday I played with 2 (two) girls. One tied me up and the other wanted me to play with her girly bits. So I spent a lot of time introducing her to the wonders of girl-on-girl sex. I haven’t played with a bicurious girl in a long time. I will confess that I am not-so-secretly grateful that I ended my monogamy streak. I’ve felt very bizarre and angsty about not being desired and *that* fear is gone. I think she will be calling me back as well. 🙂
The con was really awesome. I had fun. The classes went pretty fucking well except for one hitch that was the result of a mistake. It was recovered from and no harm was done. People complimented me/us over and over. I’m pretty sure we made all the money we needed to make. Yay!!!
We win!!
Now we sleep.
I’m tired. I’m tired how I usually am after several days of really serious sleep deprivation and that is just not the case. The Lizard is draining the life out of me. I’m going to find a way to come in a little later tomorrow or I may not make it till Monday.
It is going well so far. 60/over 100 people showed up last night and enjoyed the first night. It was a good crowd. It was awesome getting to see people I don’t see often. Cons always remind me that no–really I’m part of this extended community. It’s really cool.
Two sucky things though. Miss Bre got sick and can’t be here. Miss Julia is not here. Julia has been at most of the cons I have been at in the past few years and I miss her fiercely. *sigh* Can’t have everything I want. But really, if the absence of these two is the worst stuff about the con, I will get through. 🙂
I am not an event promoter. Let me say this again, I am not an event promoter. I have been saying for over a year that if I am involved in this con I cannot be one of the people promoting it. I have been saying this because I have a pretty good grasp of my frustration levels and the things that will make me angry and I will no longer be helpful. However, due to massive flaking on the parts of several people I am now doing event promotion during the last six weeks of the con. I’m doing it while trying to prepare for my last two weeks of teaching professionally. I’m doing it while trying to pack my house so it can be “staged”. I’m doing it while trying to move. I’m doing it while trying to figure out where in the fuck in Pittsburgh will I not drown in the mid-western white mentality. (I love that people on message boards try to explain how culturally diverse their childhoods were by saying, “Well, my parents were upset when Martin Luther King Jr. died…”) I’m doing it while going through a fairly difficult pregnancy.
I’m having to suck it up and deal with people and things I don’t want to deal with right now. I’m tired of being complained at. I’m tired of having to “be nice” when I would really like to punch some people in the face. I was willing to handle arranging the classes and dealing with presenters. I have done that. I actually kind of enjoyed that. It was really neat to get such a broad array of presenters and classes when I was told it couldn’t be done. Go freakin me. But that is all I signed on to do for many and myriad reasons. Now it doesn’t matter what I signed on to do. Either I help do stuff that is way beyond the scope of what I agreed to do or it gets dumped on someone who is turning around and freaking out at me 20 times a day and making my stress level go through the roof. I think when this is over I’m going to avoid talking to him for a year or so. Of course, this will make me one more evil person who has abandoned him. Right now, I don’t care. The pressure he is putting on me is making me crazy. And now we have another pushy person on board who might actually get some work done, but I have to put up with public admonishments to be nice in order to get that help. I really want to say fuck everyone and just walk away.