When it Rains...

I appear to have pulled a muscle without noticing until later somehow. The area around my bottom ribs on my left side is v. painful whenever I move or breath. Today is going to be just peachy keen. Well as long as I sit relatively still in front of my computer I should be fine.

Update: I took two tylenol, and so far that isn't helping. At work, the pain is rather worse.

Update 2: It has receded to bearable, but is still there. Over all it is annoying, but at least things are going better at work than yesterday.

On Masquerades

At many SF conventions there are masquerade contests of some type, by which is typically meant that some portion of the convention's membership will be dressed up in costume and go across a stage in front of judges and interested members of the convention. As with any fan run institution there is a lot of argument about the rules for these costume contests. As I see it there are three different possible goals by having a costume contest.

Entertainment
Convention members can put on some pretty spectacular costumes and/or skits and this is a great opportunity to see them all.

Encouraging Participation
Some fans see the primary purpose of the masquerade as getting the various people wandering about involved rather than showing up and then leaving without interacting much with other members of the convention.

Recognition of Skill
The serious costuming people at conventions are apt to see it primarily as a way to recognize great work and have rules geared towards making sure that participants have done it all themselves and are not going out just to get the award.

I think of these a convention can serve two at most and frequently do not manage more than one. My preference is towards some combination of encouragement of participation and entertainment. I think it is neat to see lots of the hall costumes that I might have missed and to take part in cheering and clapping for a job well done. But this is a very small convention mentality, because it is very hard to get this to work when there is less of a feeling of community at the con. So my favorite masquerades have been at tiny conventions without costume guild running them, heck forget tiny, micro conventions like Karval Con. Often the costumes are not very spiffy, but gosh it is fun. I have also liked some masquerades that were more hall costumes on parade than seriously organized event.

Back to the point, I do have one for a change. My point is that to know what the rules of the masquerade should be (if any) it should be clear what the goal of the masquerade is and also know that not everyone or every goal can be satisfied by one event.