The unexamined life

I think anyone following this journal has probably already heard the news that Kevin passed away suddenly (and unexpectedly) in his sleep on November 11, 2024. Went downstairs for a usual afternoon nap and never woke up. Still sucks every time I share the news.

This is his wife Laurel (laurel) posting; you can find out more on my journal or from my Linktree.

I've asked that people post memories of Kevin on this post. I also appreciate pointers to places people have posted about Kevin or posted pictures of Kevin and the like. (And I would dearly love copies of any pictures of Kevin people have, you can get in touch via email with those.)

Last night I used the Dreamwidth Import Tool to bring Kevin's Livejournal posts from kaustin into this account; he'd only posted a couple of times here, but he had posted plenty on Livejournal once upon a time and I wanted an easier way to access that stuff. His custom icons don't seem to be attached to his entries so a default icon is used for all the things and I noticed Kevin didn't often use subject lines, but there is some cool stuff from back in the day. (I changed his default icon away from the disembodied blue eyes and hopefully he would understand.)

Here's a picture of Kevin in a LJ polo shirt, wearing a LJ badge, at a LJ party at Minicon in 2005 (photo by DDB).

Lots of interesting biographical data in this old entry. I'll have to give more of them a look, they are quite a blast from the past. I miss it when more people were posting and commenting on LJ and really should get back to doing it more myself (here on Dreamwidth, that is). Everything is really extremely difficult right now, as you might imagine. I'm devastated.

There's a discussion going on elsewhere about the Minicon badge stickers that are used to denote the number of Minicons attended. Currently we have penguins (1), stars (5), and dinosaurs (10). My vote for the next sticker would be one for fifty because (I, V, X, L). Maybe line art of some early Cambrian creature? Trilobites would be nice. Maybe we could get Phil Foglio to do the design.

Looking forward to this. Here's a list of the music schedules that I've been able to find.
( Long list within. You've been warned! )
If any of you want to meet up with me for any of this you can co-ordinate with me via cell phone.

Is anyone else disappointed with the party rules for MidAmeriCon II?

• Parties!
• Party Packet #1
• Party Packet #2
• Suites

"The MidAmeriCon II party complex will be located in the Kansas City Convention Center (KCCC) on the exhibit hall floor in the heart of the Fan Fair."

"As a reminder, all open parties will be held in the Fan Fair in the convention center"

But what about suites?

"Small closed parties can be held in the hotel. They must be private — that is, you cannot post party announcements in the hotel, in the newsletter, or publicly on social media. They must also be quiet — no loud music or other noisy activities. The hotel does not do party blocking so there could be general public in surrounding rooms and the hotel will close the party if there is a noise complaint.

If you want to have a larger party outside of convention space, several of the hotels have function areas that can be rented, but you will need to buy all supplies from the hotel."

So, that sounds like a real wild time.

"the KCCC requires that no food or beverage be served in the convention center without Aramark’s express permission."

"Come up with fun and creative ways to engage attendees beyond the typical room-decorations-and-snacks party."

Because you won't be having your party in a room, and you'll all have to serve only pre-approved snacks.

"Our corkage waiver for the Exhibit Hall allows parties to serve their own snacks, soft drinks, juices, and bottled water. However, substantial meal-like foods will need to be acquired through the convention center’s caterer at a cost."

"You cannot give away or sell your own alcohol."

"We anticipate the convention center hours to be as follows:

• Wednesday, August 17th 12pm ‐ midnight
• Thursday, August 18th 10am ‐ midnight
• Friday, August 19th 10am ‐ 2am
• Saturday, August 20th 10am ‐ 2am
• Sunday, August 21st 10 am ‐ midnight"

"You should close your party at least 30 minutes before the KCCC shuts down for the night for clean‐up."

Any sort of 4am pulse check is going to be very disappointing.

I have committed the sin of internet video. If you go over to YouTube and search on "Kevin G. Austin" you'll find my channel. Not many videos there yet. So far it's just one video of me playing Realm of the Mad God and four videos of me playing The Unfair Platformer. To understand the "The Unfair Platformer" videos I suggest you do a search on "Unfair Platformer" and watch a few other people playing it before you watch my videos. I could also suggest you try playing it first, but I'm not that cruel. I'm planning on having non-game play videos as well, though they'll all probably be pretty geeky. I'm working on one now that's about the Spirit of the Century RPG and at least one video on gaming related things I've picked up at the Dollar Tree.

Has anyone tried using any of these figures or set pieces in a role-playing campaign? Any reactions positive or negative from players? Certainly a lot cheaper than anything from Dwarven Forge.


( Let me see! )

I've created a few Amazon "Listmania!" list lately. Here are two:

• Free MP3 Albums volume 1
• Free Kindle SF

I've loaned my copy to a couple of you, and probably mentioned it to a few others. Unfortunately up until now it's been difficult to get a copy of your very own. That problem has been solved because they've finally issued a second edition of Zen Without Zen Masters.

The Summer music and movies schedules for the Minneapolis Parks are up. Highlights at the Lake Harriet Bandshell include the Twin Cities Mobile Jazz Project on June 14th, the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra and the Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company on July 12th and 13th performing The Pirates of Penzance , Machinery Hill on July 3rd, and Lake Harriet Folkfest on August 30th.

Also the Shakespeare in the park schedule is up for the Cromulent Shakespeare Company. They'll be performing The Comedy of Errors this year with performances at the Lyndale Park Rose Garden on June 1st and 15th.

I walked through the Thomas Sadler Roberts Bird Sanctuary today. Here's some of what I saw.