Alright. So I went to Genericon this weekend. As the name suggests, Genericon is a themeless, sci-fi, gaming, anime, general-nerd-stuff convention. Or as they bill it, a "multigenre gathering". I don't exactly hear lots of chatter about it, but it's literally across the street so it would've been kind of dumb for me to not go. This is going to baffle and astonish a lot of you long-time readers, but I actually don't have a whole lot to say about this one. It was a strange experience, really. A lot of my interests were represented there, but it didn't really feel like my scene. Maybe I've gotten spoiled by furry conventions. Furry is a nerdy, niche interest, to be sure. It is inarguably among the most fanatical, nerdiest and nichiest, but there's one big defining difference about the general population of a con. Furries are hyperobsessive nerds that also happen to be extremely high energy, outgoing and wildly social. That's pretty much the polar-opposite setting of the typical, generic nerds that Genericon attracts. It made for a very different atmosphere that I didn't really feel at home in. Hitting up random groups of people you've never met doesn't really work here. And it wasn't like I had other options. Interest among actual students here is pretty lackluster, and I don't even have that many close friends who attend college here anyway. The events didn't really strike a chord with me either. The schedule was plastered wall-to-wall with anime stuff, with several rooms being dedicated 24 hours exclusively to it. I've seen one anime that I really liked and a whole bunch that were pretty disappointing, especially after I'd hear from half a dozen people that they were the best thing Japan had ever created and they would change my life. So that was a swing and a miss on one of the con's main themes.

Still, I managed to make it work out okay. I got to go see some improv comedy performances that were pretty good, and do a workshop on the same subject. I gave a quick shoutout to  butterscotchbunny97 and  elbi when I saw them there. I wasn't expecting too many furries, but there were maybe six or eight that were readily apparent. I played a few games that passed the time pretty well, even if I never did really connect with anyone I was playing with. It was a good way to fill an afternoon in the end. What really made it worth the price of admission though, was that I actually did manage to stumble across some key common interests. There was a panel on furries wherein I actually ended up answering a lot of the questions that came up. Good thing I brought my labcoat to lend credibility to my conclusions. Over the course of the con I managed to gather contact information for both the upstate furries group and the capital district bronies group, both of which are things that exist which I could potentially attend the meetings of. So I've got high hopes for that. It was definitely worth getting off my ass and wandering around a bit for. Here's hoping that works out.