After-action Report: Lovecraft in Vermont

Driving 400 miles round trip to this event was worth it. Though things were terribly disorganized, and the guy-in-charge (Alan Eames) was obviously way overburdened doing the whole thing (just him and his wife running it), the speakers I saw were interesting and the haul I came back with is great stuff.

I'm most excited about the haul. To enumerate:
( Books )

They made chili and beef stew and salad as meal options for purchase, but the prices were extremely high - it probably would have been better just to include the cost of a meal in the admission and made a choice of bag lunches. Apples, cheese, and coffee/tea/cocoa were provided with optional donations.

There were a couple of scary people there, but that's always to be expected at fringe conventions. As I thought, there were a couple people in attendance who were at the last NecronomiCon in 2001, though we didn't really remember each other. I did briefly share memories and chat a little bit with a couple people, but there were only about 30 folks total in attendance, including speakers and dealers. And speaking of speakers...

( Speak! )

Oh, and I almost forgot the movies.

( Movies )

There will be another LiV convention next year... I honestly hope it'll be larger and a little better organized, and maybe take place in a more populous area rather than the Grange Hall out in the middle of nowhere! I was a little disappointed that the organizers had not made up surveys or put together mailing lists or even had a suggestion box set up to get feedback from the people and stay in contact with them for next year; but I guess I've just had more experience at running cons so I think about these things.

I would really love to revive NecronomiCon, but the idea of starting it again from scratch is very daunting.

Presenting A Paper

If I were going to present a paper at the popular culture conference in Boston next year, what topic area should I present on? What do you think I know stuff about? I have a week to submit an abstract.

This is the conference - and the program contains 2006 presentations.

Areas I'm generally knowledgeable in: myths, the occult, comic books (artists and writers), role-playing (live and tabletop), computer science

( Topics calling for papers )

Technological Evolution Redux

A long time ago, I wrote an entry considering why civilization never seemed older than 5000 B.C. despite the fact that modern man may have existed for 150,000 years.

Well it turns out there's a civilization from at least 7500 B.C. and it could be even older than that... it just happens to be underwater because it was built before the ice from the last Ice Age melted. An antediluvian city! Think about the implications for spreading the tale of the Great Flood over the course of 10,000 years. The drowning of Altantis! The Grand Canyon could have been carved out by a giant flood produced by melted ice caps; maybe there were floods all over the world at the same time. How many other civilizations could be under the water right now? I wonder if anyone has ever made a simulation showing what areas of the Earth would be dry during an Ice Age - what was sea level 10,000 years ago?

More details here. For Carolyn: A BBC link.