Hibanacon Post Event Writeup

Last weekend, I was at Hibanacon, a "residential" Anime convention that was the brainchild of certain friends I know of who are based around in and around Basingstoke (And hence will be referred to as the "Basingstoke Circle"). This was the second one to be held at the Jurys Inn hotel in Milton Keynes. I was intending on writing a post action report on the inaugural event, but eventually forgot to do so. I'm intending to rectify this. Anyway, the short version of the story is that the first Hibana was sort of an obligation due to me knowing so many of the committee, but even if I didn't, I would've enjoyed myself. Attendance at the second one was all but a given.

The R Word from my Perspective

It's been a while, to put it mildly.

Most of the time I prefer to type my thoughts in rapid fire on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Maybe not be best places to vent or state strong opinions especially recently, as these sites have become more and more polarised and problematic. Contrary to what people like to think, you are not entitled to your own opinion any more and anything that deviates from the echo chamber will result in a lot of anger, resentment and harassment heading your way.

Today, I thought I might take some time to post about a bit of a problematic subject. One that probably is pretty relevant given the world may be taking a few steps back in social progress and equality. Some may accuse me of taking the "Social Justice Warriors" path in posting about this, but I thought it might be interesting to recount my own experiences when it came to racial discrimination.

Independence Referendums, Politics and the Great Unifying Theory of Internet Hysteria and Paranoia.

For a while, I have decided not to mention the Scottish Independence Referendum, from here on referred to in this blog post as the "indyref", much even though I normally like to rant and rave about politics. Now, before I go any further, I will admit I am not the best person to talk about this. I didn't formally study politics at any point in my life. And I don't claim to be an expert either. What I am about to say here is my opinion and mine only. If you don't like to read my misinformed, cynical and possibly angry rantings, I suggest you stop here and find something else to read. Or do what I do to clam myself down and watch videos of cats on the world wide web. Or just sell your computer and smartphones and never use the internet again, ever, because the internet is full of misinformed, cynical and possibly angry rantings that are much more offensive than what I say. Mostly... :-P

With that out of the way, are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin...

Google Plus. Friend or Foe?

So, I have spent a while using Google Plus. Along side my uses of Facebook and Twitter.

Ultimately, I didn't like it.

There wasn't anything in particular it did wrong. But it didn't do enough to keep me engaged either.

I have to admit all I used it for was to crosspost stuff from Facebook and Twitter onto it instead. Some of the technology podcasts I listen to liked to talk about who it was somehow better or at least where more of their types of people hang out on the internet.