I’ve been meaning to post photos from Saturday in Madison soon… this space reserved.

[Edited Thursday… finally!]

So, after a night of way too much beer…. (and I should note that when I say way too much I mean our tables had 2 pitchers courtesy of Kurt too much which basically went undrunk… undrunken.. undrinked…? whatever. and NOT that I had way too much beer since as most of my friends know, I don’t really drink beer.)

Anyway, after a night of way too much beer for our tables, Moses and I walked to his place (partly alongside Kurt and Josh). When we got there, we were setting up the air mattress and stuff when his roommate entered (about 2:30-3:00 AM) with not one, but TWO women he had picked up or something… they went to his room and he came out to the kitchen to fix up a cocktail once they got settled. While passing us on his way to the kitchen he said something like, “holy shit.” Whispered incredulously. This was a proper time to use “holy shit” if any, I thought. We figured he was implying that he was just about to do what many men fantasize about. Ha.

Ok, so I digress from the trip to Madison. You’re probably more interested in hearing about the arts fair the next day. 😛

Continue reading GLS day 3 (the aftermath) →

The conference itself doesn’t really start until tomorrow, but it pretty much took the whole day to get here, so I’m counting this as part of the experience. I’m typing this blog post while listening to a live free concert at the capitol building in Madison, right outside my hotel window. Apparently, there’s a summer concert series every Wednesday. Tonight’s theme is Russian composers. Freakin awesome.

Anyway, here’s my day in photos:

Continue reading GLS Day 1… well, more like Day 0 →

So, I had a cool drinks-at-Lisa’s-place get-together with Lisa and temporary Seattlelite Liz Lawley. They did most of the talking, mind you, which was fine by me because I soaked it all up like a sponge. I got at least three names to follow-up on and am amazed at how well connected some people are.

Towards the end, Liz got an email from Nick Yee who explained a little about the crazy shit going on in his life recently. Apparently, while finishing up his doctoral degree at Stanford, he went through some serious health issues. Yikes!

That got me to thinking… I just cited him in my general exams, and I’m amazed at how little I actually know about him and his life and the lives of all the other people I cited. Again, why does academic writing need to be so disconnected? Are ideas the only thing of value about our colleagues?

But the fact that Lisa and Liz then started reading Nick’s webpage and kept saying how great a person he is… Well… okay, ideas aren’t the only thing we value… but there’s this sort of hidden side to academics that is not apparent in our writings, and it seems to me that there’s this personal side to it that is extremely important that is not transparent at all… (thinking about Brandt‘s writing on sponsorship here… and what I wrote previously about how you have to go to conferences just for the social networking…)

I met Nick two years ago at DiGRA in Vancouver. A bunch of MMOG scholars had drinks at a bar. (I also met Lisa in person for the first time there and was introduced to Daniel Pargman and Jonas Heide Smith there… which just proves my point about conferences…) Nick IS a great guy. But again, I hardly know him, and, frankly, I hardly know any of my colleagues (or future colleagues if you consider me an apprentice-type) or the people I routinely cite in my writings.

Is that sad or what? Is it a problem with me, the system, and/or my lack of money to go to conferences?

There’s a fellow student in the college who may seem aggressive and in your face, at first. Well, okay, he is that way… but he’s that way because he thrives on the sharing of ideas and reaching understandings through argumentation. He is always forthright, generous, and doesn’t take shit lying down. That is awesome, and we need more people who don’t settle for the status quo, who calls them like they are (or at least like they appear), and who are inquisitive enough to try to understand where others are coming from. Yay, him!

One thing, though… conversations with him are exhausting sometimes, and he can catch me off-guard. It’s probably exactly where he wants me, but it isn’t necessarily where I want to be. I fully believe that I shouldn’t want to be comfortable if I want to learn and push my understanding, but sometimes, there is something to be said about propriety and less belligerence… 😛