(no subject)

[mamadeb]

I just got my Arisia schedule.

Earth Girls/Earth Boys Are [Not] Easy 08:00 PM 08:50 PM White Hill
The Very Secret Diaries: a reading
The Very Examined Life
Fan Fiction 101
What do you want in your filkcon?
Masters and Commanders
How Can We Stop Fans From Trying to Kill
Themselves?

I think that last is about fitness. And I don't seem to be moderating any, so I can relax on that front.

Comments

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

That last one sounds interesting, if a bit pre-judgemental.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I hope it's interesting - and yeah it is judgemental, but SF fen? Not your most physically fit bunch of guys and gals. Sedentery jobs and sedentery hobbies, except for things like SCA, for the most part.

And we're getting older as a group, too.

(I am sort of qualified, with the martial arts and all. And I do want to make the point that fitness has nothing to do with how much you weigh. Cause I'm still 200 lbs.)

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in a discussion about the phenom of "fan-shaped fans", and how it might relate to health and whatnot. I'd even be down for talking about ways to affect positive changes.

I just can't help but roll my eyes at the "killing themselves" thing. Possibly they deliberately went for a provocative title in order to get people's attention, but my gut says that when you make that your opening foray what's really going to happen is a lot of debate/argument over whether or not fat=death and very little substantive discussion about what it means to be healthy.

Which is a shame b/c I really do think some good discussion could be had.

Hey - maybe we should try our own panel at Connexions. 8)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

We should do one. You want to propose it?

And so far as I'm concerned, it's inactivity=death. A sedentary thin person is just as unhealthy as a sedentary fat one.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Can we give it a better title? ;)

And yeah. It's not fat vs. thin. Being healthy is so much more than what you weigh. I have friends who are very overweight, but who have the blood pressure and cholestorol levels of a completely healthy person. Heck, so do I, now that I come to think of it (I'm so used to only caring about my thyroid levels when I get my yearly blood test.)

If we do the panel, what do you want to focus on? I think for me I'm more interested in the sociological and cultural aspects than the medical ones. None of us are dietitians or doctors, we're not really qualified to speak on what is or isn't healthy. And I think focusing mainly on that is a way to send the conversation into a non-winning spiral of things like Atkins vs. Weight Watchers and Studies that show fat=death vs Studies that show Yo-yo dieting=death.

But I do think there could be interesting discussion about the general concepts of fandom and weight, and fandom and healthful habits.

Just going off the top of my head, discussion topics could include:

Does fandom as a culture encourage healthful living?
Does fandom as a culture encourage positive self-esteem? (which is often tied into weight issues)
How do we feel about the phenom of "fan-shaped fans"?
Should fandom as a culture try to work towards promoting overall healthfulness (both physical and emotional)? If so, how?

Things like that. What do you think?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I think that you've hit on a lot of my issues, and I think that's the best direction. We probably will have dietetians at the convention, and if they attend the panel, they can speak to the medical stuff.

I say, let's do it.

Focusing on *fitness*, yes.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Cool. Would you co-mod with me?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I'd love to.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Too cool.

How about this for a title and description:

Can Fandom be Healthy?
They say there's an obesity epidemic going on. Are we adding to it by having a hobby which encourages us to be sedentary, or is there more to health than that? Should fandom do more to encourage physical and mental well-being? And does "fan-shaped" automatically mean out of shape?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like it. It covers most of the discussion, and that last question is very much to the point.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I'll put it in the database then!

And this reminds me that I really need to send my Connexions registration in. Ahem, pardon me...

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Given the, um, discussion on the connexions ML, I'm guessing this isn't slashy enough and will not fly.

*Sigh*

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

That chick can bite me. She needs to accept that not everybody defines slash-related the way she does and learn to cope.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Annoying, isn't it? If one panel out of *three* at one time is not slash, it's not going to make the con less a slash con, is it?

Not to mention - the point of a convention is not the panels. It's to meet with other people with similar interests. This con is my chance to socialize with other slash fans - and part of socializing is talking about things that aren't necessarily slash.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Plus slash is not this exclusive topic anymore. Where exactly are we supposed to draw the line? If I'm doing the Angel panel and somebody mentions what happened to Fred in s5, am I supposed to tell them to omit any sentences that don't also refer to Fred possibly having sex with Eve? Is the person doing the fanart panel only supposed to talk about how to do pictures with two men together and shoot down anyone who asks a question that doesn't invove airbrushing a penis?

Plus? Dude? 3 panel tracks plus DIY. If you can't find something to amuse yourself you're just not trying hard enough.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the best part - hanging around the con suite or the lobby or the bar and just *talking*. It's like LJ but in person.

It's like when people talk about sex scenes. It's all writing, really (okay, a bit more fun than most) and the same rules apply.

:)

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Exactly! Plus slash stories are about more than the sex scenes, so why should a writing panel avoid talking about that? All stories need good plot, pacing, descriptions, and dialogue. To me it's silly to not talk about that simply because those are too "gen".

BTW, unrelated to anything, can I bug you with another iSilo question?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

:)

Stories are stories are stories.

And, yes, of course.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Danke!

Okay, so I've been doing the nifty thing where you go to somebody's website, go to a page that's a table of contents, then convert that in iSilox with a 1 link depth so that in iSilo I can now bring up the Table of Contents, click on a story link, and get the story.

What I'm wondering is when I have stories this way, is it possible for me to delete one story at a time, or do I have to delete the whole file, ToC and other stories included? Also (and here's me thinking forward to Connexions) if I wanted to beam one of those stories over to someone, could I do it one at a time or again would it be the entire file of ToC and other stories?

Which, er, I now realize is more than one question. Sorry about that. ;)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I'm not actually sure, but I think iSilo treates it as one big file, so it's all or nothing. This is pure guess work, as I've never tried to just keep one part of a file like that.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. Just have to play with it to find out, I guess. Thanks!

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

They still haven't emailed me my schedule yet...

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Maybe they're just assuming you'll be on every panel again?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Ghod, I hope not.. :-)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

:)

BTW, we've decided you and Nomi have the right idea, and we'll just have our own Shabbat dinner. Sometimes, you just don't want to do the group thing.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Arisia is hectic enough as it is for us, especially with the open house we like to throw on Saturday night.

[suecochran.livejournal.com]

I think it would also be worthwhile and pertinent in your panel on fandom and fitness to mention the kinds of foods found in your average con suite, and how to make healthy choices. I've been very pleased to see things like raw vegetable trays in con suites - containing tomatoes, carrots, sugar snap peas, and red peppers.

I don't think that you need to be a dietician or nutritionist to say general things like "Avoid white flour, sugar, grains and other highly processed foods, eat lots of raw and steamed veggies, eat complex carbohydrates like whole grain cereals and breads, and eat plenty of fruit." Those statements are repeated over and over in the media by people who are talking about different diet plans, and I don't think any of them are particularly controversial. Also, like many others, portion control is my big bugaboo. That's my 2 cents :)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

The problem with healthy foods in con suites is that you don't want to spend money on food people won't eat. That said, yeah. I know I make an effort to provide a balance between outright junk and healthier stuff. I'd have a riot if I didn't have chocolate and chips, but veggie trays seem to be popular, too.

OH!

[lupikocat.livejournal.com]

I want to go to Arisia!
I would love to meet you and the topics sounds good!

Re: OH!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

:) If you can go, that would be lovely.