#totally not personal venting

[cuckoo-on-a-string]

Tips for Presenting at Conventions

YOU can present at conventions!

Seriously. You reading this. You can.

As a programming director for a local convention with several years of experience (and a lot less hair than I started with), I thought I'd make an informative post to help newbies join the fray and have some fun.

Here are the basics:

Know what you want to present, and get specific with it ("Vampires" is a lot less inspiring than "America's vampires: slavery, class warfare, and myths of antiquity." It will also up your chances of being accepted if someone else is presenting about another vampire-related topic.).

Make sure you're addressing the right topic for that convention (the above presentation would rock at horror or steampunk cons but probably not an anime or comic con).

Check the convention website for proposal directions. There will probably be a form. Take your time and fill out the whole thing.

If there are issues when the programming director reaches out to you, address them promptly. They won't be able to do much except drop your presentation from the schedule if you wait til two weeks before the show to explain you have other commitments at the time you're supposed to present.

Assume things are hellish behind the scenes and be patient and polite if things go wrong (I can promise things are worse than you think).

Come prepared. Bring the tech hookups your show director advises for projectors/any handouts/etc.

Engage the audience, but don't feel bad about ignoring problematic audience members. If the know-it-all in row three wanted to do this presentation, he should've submitted a proposal and done the work.

Have fun! And don't feel bad about a bit of shilling. Want folks to know about your website? Book? TikTok? Share it! If they liked your presentation, they probably want more of your content.

And now, my dears, we must address the "Don'ts":

Do not submit an idea for a panel (a presentation with more than one presenter/usually a group of experts discussing the topic) without having put together a panel. It is not the programming director's job to find panelists for your panel. It is not the programming director's job to contact your dream panelists and enlist them to your panel. It is your job. All yours. You literally signed up for it. It should be fun. Do it.

Do not assume that because you are friends with someone on staff and have discussed your presentation that it is accepted and on the schedule. Submit the form. If you aren't sure you did that, and you haven't received confirmation of receipt, email and ask BEFORE THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE.

Do not become the bully by playing victim if you don't get what you want (a time you don't like/room you don't like/aren't accepted/etc.). (This is different from discrimination, and you know it, so don't @ me.)

Don't complain about attendance/imply it is the programming director's job to wrangle people in for you. I have a friend who walked around in a sandwich board sign challenging people to duels to draw attention to his presentation. It worked a treat.

Don't claim you're only available during peek hours. Everyone wants to present on Saturday. No one wants to present in the morning. Anticipated hangovers do not count as a disability (there are probably presenters with genuine time-related needs linked to their disabilities - so don't be a twat). The friend mentioned above could pack out the largest room during the earliest time slot. Have something interesting to say and make sure people are aware. Then you'll have an audience as hung-over but enthusiastic as you are.

Really, though, I hope more of you get out there and participate in local conventions! Small ones are eager for new blood, and they're a great way to meet people with similar interests. Have fun out there, and remember the two key rules: enjoy yourself, and don't be a dick.

[mossy-aro]

ultimately i think my insistence on aro positivity honestly is as much a political stance as a personal one.

when i say aro positivity is crucial and that i dislike doomer-ist posts that express sentiments like 'I hate being aro so much I wish I was dead instead’ it's not because I don’t think there can and should be a space for negativity and acknowledging self-hate, or the many ways being aromantic can really suck sometimes. i find that to be very important!

that being said. there is smth here about how self-hate posts are sometimes just arophobia that we inflict on ourselves. and when we put that out into the ether it (intentionally or not) can become arophobia that we inflict on other members of the community. i think there absolutely needs to be a place for negativity and the expression of anger and frustration and self loathing even - these are all good things to talk about because these are things that we experience. that being said, it can also be genuinely upsetting and triggering to people to have what is essentially arophobia shown to them and then have that be validated by other aspec people. your personal thoughts can affect your wider community on a level you may not anticipate. and i understand it i truly do! it took me so long to be able to recover from accepting being aroace - it threw my entire world off kilter and made me question everything about my place in the world.

but my insistence on aro joy and positivity is because ultimately i do believe that building is at the core essence of it all. that ultimately discussions and the purpose of community should be about construction, not destruction. and this is both a personal and a political stance. talking about how much you hate yourself and cultivating online discussions/spaces where negativity about aspec identity is the main and only theme is destructive - if that’s where we let the conversation end. these thoughts can and should be used as a vehicle to look for a path forward!

joy and positivity create a space where the focus can become on forging a path forward, on construction, on community building instead of tearing ourselves and others down with negative thoughts. it’s not productive or healthy when it stops at a place of negativity - it becomes actively destructive to the essence of community.

and i do think that this is especially poignant considering the fact that being any kind of queer, but especially aromantic (and/or asexual) means forging a path for yourself and making your own happiness where there is no obvious way forward. our communities exist mostly online (right now, anyway), there is little recognition of our existence in the real world, the effects of amatonormativity are both pervasive and actively dehumanising, and there are legal, economic and social structures in place actively making our lives more difficult. yes that all sucks! it’s good to acknowledge that. we need to in order to change it. but more importantly, that’s not the end. we are still here and our happiness, our future is for us to determine. even if we can’t change the laws or society, loving yourself and understanding aromanticism as a political identity (as well as personal), as a radical worldview, and as a protest against amatonormativity is essential for both community and personal well being. the personal is political.

tldr. i guess my point is that as a community, we should focus on building, improving, and nurturing ourselves and each other (construction) as opposed to destruction. we should recognise aromanticism and asexuality as political identities as well as personal ones and rely on community and self-love in the absence of anything else as a form of protest and political power. destruction (the recognition of everything that is wrong) is essential as a starting point - but where do we go from there? we rebuild.

[chaoswarfare]

dp x dc prompt #54

When Danny was first given the opportunity to make a public persona when he came to live in Gotham, he was a little bit concerned. How was he supposed to come up with an entire elaborate character to act as all the time. Then he remembered the time that Vlad called him a rabid badger when he got especially angry and a genius idea came into existence.

When the press gathered around to interview and write about the newest Wayne adoption, they thought they had seen it all already. The last new child had tried to skewer one of the unsuspecting interns after all. When the teenager didn’t even get all the way out of the car before punching someone standing too close and snarling at him, several considered filing their resignation letters on the spot. The pay wasn’t worth this.

[avi-on-jumblr]

it's so hard to explain to people who aren't jewish the profound sense of loneliness we feel when our posts about any other cause get ten times the engagement, but whenever we share something about antisemitism, the only people who engage are other jews. it's not about likes, but it feels like screaming into the void. we post about the latest synagogue attack, or about our community getting bomb threats, or how another jew got assaulted on the streets, or killed at a protest. and the world sees it, and doesn't blink. doesn't care. because they can care about anyone on the entire planet, defend them, speak up for them, but a jew? well, we aren't people, are we. we'll never count.

how fucking bad does it have to get for my friends to share a single fucking post.

[londonfoginacup]

Alright y'all, come gather round, come to my corner over here. Come help strategize with me.

I'm not going to be able to afford to send out holiday cards this year. I've been hit with disaster after disaster and I've been trying very hard to figure out how to work things but the math isn't coming out in my favour no matter how I swing it. Am I devastated? Absolutely. Even though most of you get your cards in like... March... you all still send me the nicest most kind comments and I love being able to make your day brighter.

I feel like a few people are going to say I should take donations, and I might've considered that, except... I don't want to take donations only to then still fall short.

A quick summary of the math is, like, stamps are 2$ for international cards and 1.50$ for non-international. I send out about 200 cards a year which means shipping alone is about 550$, plus about 200$ for sticker sheets, 70$ for envelopes, 150$ for printing the cards, and about 200$ for the everything else of new blades and mats for cutting the dolls on my cricut, thick paper for the dolls, ink for the printer... I'm sorry guys, there's no way I could try to ask people to donate over 1000$ just for this fun little event.

So like. Truly devastated over here as I'm doing the math because I desperately desperately do not want to disappoint people. I'm not even buying irl people presents this year. It sucks. I'm feeling like a failure in a lot of ways and I hate it, because I'm over thirty now, I should be able to have my shit together. But unfortunately I just... don't. And I'm trying to make sure I can afford my cats medication and rent because my roommate has been out of a job for two months and is just straight up not paying her part of the rent.

So. I will continue to feel sorry for myself, but this isn't about that. What I want to know is what ideas do we have. I can't send people physical things, because money. But are there... other ways I could make people happy? I don't know if anyone cares about digital paper dolls, but I could just like. Put my dolls online for people to print out? And draw whatever outfits people want? Like a sort of advent calendar of doll outfits?

Help me out. Brainstorm with me. Is there some way I could make people happy that, this year, doesn't involve funds? I want to keep my 1D Holiday Queen title. Please.

[pickypickypeak]

[spiltcandycoatedpunkblood]

one thing i always undeniably get nostalgic and giddy about considering tennant's doctors' is that besides now being a whole new gay perspective on both of my favourite characters ever is that he looks and sounds incredibly attractive when they're being whumped. he just has the look. there's just so many things packed into one alien that make them my favourite characters ever, but the fact of different bad things happening to them just...make them so much better.

[480pfootage]

guess who got on testosterone this week

[kerryweaverlesbian]

Someone added these tags to my post and someone else put them in the main body and it's so minor but it's pissing me off. As part of their gay john evidence:

I'm sure it's half joking but. A man having sex with a woman does not make him gay. Even if she straps him. A woman isn't less a woman for enjoying doing penatration. Be more normal about sex.

Also the whole relationship was enforced 2.5 kids picket fence hertonomativity literally by heaven like it's so easy to use it as gay john and gay mary evidence without needlessly gendering sex positions. But what do I know.

[phagodyke]

the masculine urge to take a saucepan off thr draining board and bash myself repeatedly over the head with it until I pass out and no longer have to experience feeling Bad 😍

[daboyau]

Got half a foot chopped off my hair yesterday and i’m coming to terms with that. the cut is almost what I’d like after i got it wet and it got wavy again (the hairdresser straightened it for some reason and i hated it lol)

i think i need to give myself bangs though

[starswirly]

[ * Pros of self indulgent art: making what you crave and want to see in the world! ] [ * Cons: It’s not everyone’s niche ]

[savage-rhi]

Magneta????

[fuckyeah-bears]

you know 99% of the time i get nice, totally reasonable, polite, and frequently kind asks on bearotonin. but every now and then i get some asks that just make me wanna reply snarkily so badly lmao

[crowleys-hips]

ok im keeping it cool. im very calm and normal about this. this is just another human interaction like any other. i am not about to go into cardiac arrest. it's ok. im normal. so. normal.

[tangledinink]

Hello. I just wanted to say, even if you don’t get enough likes or reposts on any of your comics, you should still be posting them for those people who enjoy them and DO want to read them whenever they can.

Hey bro, I understand what you're saying, and I think maybe your point is supposed to be, like, that I shouldn't worry about notes and stuff? But this is one of quite a few anons/messages of this ilk I've received lately, so here's the thing.

I've literally posted about seventeen different comics on tumblr for you guys over the past three weeks. In addition to multiple illustrated pieces, three fic updates, and two oneshots (that's over 36k words my guy!) in that same timeframe. Quite frankly, that's a lot of content.

I'm really, really glad you guys are enjoying the things I'm making! But please let me publish things at my own pace. When I say that I usually wait for the previous part of a comic to hit a certain number of notes before I publish the next, I mean, like I previously stated, that I'm using it as a way to time things/space things out and give each part a chance to breathe and do the rounds before adding more-- not that me continuing the project is dependant on the amount of attention I receive. But even if it was... it's my right to operate that way if I want to!

And. Like. Yeah, okay, I guess I'll go ahead and delete that other ask about the SepAU thing? 'Cause it's really just resulted in me being informed by people, anonymous or otherwise, that I'm totally screwed, they'll be voting against me, etc etc. and I'm? Not having that fun of a time?,,, Actually?,,, I'm already aware that I will likely lose and that's okay, it's just a game. I'm not going to stop making content because of it, so please don't worry about that. But all these anons and such are really not,,, helping. Nor encouraging me to publish anything else.

So I'd really, really appreciate you guys' patience. I'm not gonna answer any more asks like this. Thank you.