thanks and suggestions

[wotw]

First and very much foremost, a gigantic thank you to JB,
Kimberly, Tamad, Donna, Judy, the entire concom, and the
volunteers. (I want to single out Chameleon, who seemed
to be making herself helpful every time I looked.) This
was as close to perfect as a weekend gets.

The food was superb. I wouldn't change anything about it.

I do have two (I hope) constructive suggestions:

1) At least one, and probably two, of the ice cream tables
really really need to be a little farther from the
Port-a-Potties.

2) I expect I'm in a minority here, but I really could
have done without the band. No matter how good they
were, they a) made it hard to converse and b) completely
shut down the spontaneous jam sessions that were a big
part of the atmosphere all weekend.

Finally: A word of personal thanks to all of the above
named, plus Phil, Hobbit, Mark and the others we imposed
on for help when we had a small unexpected crisis just
as you were really really ready to be rid of everyone.
Your kindness and your graciousness will be long
appreciated.

you never get a second chance to make a first impression...

[entrope.livejournal.com]

I have so much to say about this weekend. I can't think of a single thing that expresses it well enough. However, Weegoddess said it very very well.

...it was just this side of Nirvana to be among people whom I knew had to exist somewhere in the world. To be with They who understand that everyone has his/her own special beauty. And that touching, stroking, compliments, hugging and kissing are not necessarily (or even usually) a prelude to sexual involvement. But that love and acceptence are as important as food and water for our survival. And that we all have warts, somewhere. A whole slather of folks to connect to and to have the time to actually have conversations beyond the party-talk that tends to run more superficial than I'd like. And, when I thought I couldn't hold one more bit of Wonderful, there was lavender ice cream.

And after all this, I still can't even begin to describe how grateful I was to be a part of it.

Some of the primary things:

1. Ice cream. Some of it was great, some of it was...umm...creative. All of it was made with wholehearted enthusiasm, and who knew that circus peanut sorbet would be good?


2. People. The people were incredible beyond all reasonable belief. The more I get to know these folks, the more I count myself lucky to know them.


3. Kids. These children are going to rule the world. These adults are the ones that SHOULD be ruling the world. I mean....wow. I think that this is totally HANDS DOWN the best way to raise children and the more I see, the more I'm convinced. I was discussing this with someone while we were there, and he said he thought there were two reasons it works so well: 1) that kids get away with less shit because there are adults around, and 2) because of the numerous adults, there are more opportunities for positive reinforcement. Someone else added a third: 3) these kids get lots of interaction with adults instead of just kids, which is also important whether they're needing positive/negative reinforcement or just developing social skills.


4. The locale. It reminded me A WHOLE AWFUL LOT of the place that we do our family reunions. Quiet, rural, isolated, greeeeeeeen. I loved it.


5. Whatever indefinable something it was that made everything so relaxed and interactive and friendly. I can't quantify it, but I surely can appreciate it.

Imre and I had a great time. We arrived knowing only a few people and left feeling like part of a larger whole. At some point shortly after I arrived, someone said to me "Are you part of The Community? How long have you been part of The Community?" I thought to myself, "I don't KNOW of any initiation rites...hmm." So I responded, "I've been looking for you folks for a long time, and I finally found you when I moved here in June." And it's true. This might have been the initiation rite though. :)

Thank you all for being such a wonderful, vibrant part of our lives. You are appreciated, more than you can imagine. It was a really great time and I enjoyed meeting each and every one of you.

(no subject)

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

The BAITCON web pages are down for a bit due to the fact that some f'ing ass used our machine/domain as a spam relay while we were gone. Security investigations and fixes and all that jazz are in process and we hope the webpages, complete with flavor lists, vote counts, thank yous, etc., will be back up soon.

In the meantime, thanks to all who attended and make it such a good weekend!

Meat Ice creams

[donnad.livejournal.com]

There has been a lot of discussion going on over at this post. I was going to respond over there but figured it would just get lost in the shuffle.

I would like to try to clarify what I believe is Anns's complaint about meat ice creams. Ann correct me if I am wrong here.

Disclaimer: I am an omnivore, I eat meat. I do not like chicken liver at all therefore the thought of a chicken liver ice cream is a major squick for me. I have allergies to many other foods, many of them were made into ice creams this year, I actually had a run-in (so to speak) with one of those foods this year(mango if anyone is curious.)
I do not keep kosher.

So here is my take on this.

Say you have a table with several buckets of ice cream and one scoop and a bucket of rinse water.
First person, takes a scoop of the chicken liver ice cream, puts the scoop in the water, the water is now contaminated with chicken liver ice cream melt. Next person takes the scoop and scoops into the mango ice cream and puts the scoop back in the water. Mango ice cream is now contaminated with chicken liver water. Water is now contaminated with chicken liver and mango. Next one comes along, scoops into the chocolate ice cream, scoop goes back in the water, chocolate ice cream is now contaminated with the chicken liver and the mango. Water is now contaminated with chicken liver, mango and chocolate.

I come along, and I want vanilla. I take the scoop and proceed to contaminate the vanilla with chicken liver, mango and chocolate. Well, I am personally allergic to mango. I actually can't have the vanilla I want without having to deal with the contamination from the water of chicken liver, chocolate and mango melt. Thus I can't even have vanilla unless I use my own personal scoop, which BTW would be contaminated by anything else I may have dipped into prior to coming to the vanilla, thus contaminating the vaniila for someone else.

I think this is the issue at hand. How do we deal with stopping the cross contamination of dairy to non-dairy and meat to dairy/non-dairy?

Personally I think the meat ice creams are an interesting experiment and I don't want to discourage experimentation but... The situation could be easily remedied by a separation of them to a small table by themselves with their own scoops.

I think a separation of flavors based on type is a really a good idea for future Baitcons. The sorbets get a table, non-dairy/soy or coconut based on one table, the *hot* ice creams (like habanero) on another, the regular ice creams on one, and the meat on yet another. It would help to avoid cross contamination of dairy into meat, dairy into soy and other non-dairy flavors.



Now as for the other issue she raised. I too think that the person walking around with the torn t-shirt barely covering his privates was out of place, especially with so many young kids around. Call me a prude, but IMO, in the house area one should be a bit more modest. If it had been a speedo swim suit, it would have been fine. Or down at the stream, I wouldn't have blinked twice. But in the main common areas, where anyone could have driven in off the street he should have had a bit more modesty. I can only imagine what the owners of the property would have said/done had they decided to visit our little gathering and seen him.

flavors list sign?

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I'll read all the various entries here soon...

But in the mean time:

WHO TOOK THE FLAVORS LIST???

The big piece of pink sign-board vanished before we packed up.

Anyone? Bueler?

(If you want to just drop it on our porch, ring the bell, and run away, I'm ok with that. ;)

Failing that - and I'll be really annoyed if it's gone forever, can I get specific URLs for links to readable pictures of the sign, including the who-made-what information?

Thanks!

(It was a great weekend. It was a not-so-great Monday-night home-coming, but it could've been much much worse.) (The website'll be back up soon.)