Thoughts on the future of Boskone

It's been interesting looking at people around Boskone in the past several years. While there is still the Elder Contingent, I'm seeing more and more pre-teens and early teens who are there specifically for Tamora Pierce and Bruce Coville.

I could see Boskone shifting into a con pretty much specifically for teen and pre-teen fen, and I think that would be quite a good thing. It would fit with NESFA's organizational goals, it would match with their project to bring SF&F into the classroom, and it's something that's really needed.

People might want to move the Skylark awards to Arisia if that happened. Or they might want to focus the Skylarks on people who've contributed to YA SF&F.

But, really, the bits of Boskone that have been really working have been the ones aimed at young fen. If Boskone turns into a place where a ten-year old can have their parents drop them off, and then spend two or three days hanging out with authors, watching historically accurate sword demos, watching anime with their friends, gaming, maybe learning Rennaisance dance, making and wearing costumes, and so forth -- I think that would be a good thing.

So, we heard a "mew. mew. mew" outside our door.

. . . and there was this little black cat. Inside our house, on the stairs.

It's probably the rattiest little cat I've seen. Ugly little thing. Cute, though. Very sweet and affectionate. I asked Lis where she thought it had come from, and she pointed me to this: "Dave's kitty is home now. She is weird, but cute, and I think she likes me which is good. One need's to be accepted by their significant other's pet."

Hadn't seen the cat before -- Dave's plan had been to keep her mainly in his room, which is good because we've got Nice Furniture™ and a cat who hates other cats.

A grumpy thought brought about by television ads for medications

One of the reasons why it's A Bad Idea to pay any attention whatsoever to drug company advertisements is that, well, they're trying to sell to the widest possible audience.

So, there are these Prilosec ads on TV now, about how "when you have acid reflux, it's different", showing people talking about food, and someone with acid reflux thinking about how much heartburn that food will cause.

That's not how it works.

When you have acid reflux, you eat whatever you want, because it makes not one fucking bit of difference what you eat. You have heartburn. You have heartburn when you eat spicy, oily greasy food. You have heartburn when you eat plain rice. You have heartburn when you eat nothing but bread and water for several days. You have heartburn on Yom Kippur when you eat and drink nothing for twenty-six hours. It makes no difference.

You occasionally try to modify your diet because people around you tell you that if you eat different stuff, you'll have less heartburn. But it doesn't work. You just plain have heartburn. Constantly.

See, if you have a mental connection between "what I eat" and "heartburn", then you don't have acid reflux.

I had heartburn from when I was sixteen until I went on Prilosec a couple years ago. That doesn't mean "I OCCASIONALLY had heartburn from when I was sixteen", or "I FREQUENTLY had heartburn from when I was sixteen . .. " I mean "I had heartburn from when I was sixteen until I was twenty-six or so." Ten years. Straight. I didn't recognize a state of NOT having heartburn. I didn't mention it to my doctor, because I didn't recognize it as a problem. I did go through a Costco sized bottle of Pepo-Bismol a week, just on times that my heartburn woke me up because it was more severe than usual, but it didn't ever go away. That's what "acid reflux" means. Not "if I eat that, I will get heartburn."

And THAT'S why television advertisements for medications annoy me.