Just call me "Meme Sheep"

[kevingaustin]

The problem with LJ: we all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about each other.

I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about.

Ask away. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Comments

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

From third grade on Lake Elmo, MN (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&countryid=US&searchtype=address&address=2909+Jamley+Ave.+N.&city=Lake+Elmo&state=MN). Before that, various places, mostly in S. St. Paul.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Did you have what you consider a good childhood?

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

It's taken me quite a while to figure out any sort of an answer, and even now I'm not sure that what I'm going to write is 100% true or accurate, but I think that I'm at least ready to take a stab at answering.

The short answer is: Objectively yes; subjectively not really.

From an objective standpoint I can say that my parents were not abusive, I was never neglected and I had food, shelter and all of the regular creature comforts. Looking at that I can say that I really don't have anything that I can seriously complain about. Many children have had much, much worse lives than I did and survived.

The subjective viewpoint is a lot muddier. I'm fairly certain that I've been suffering from depression most of my life and I can remember often feeling like I wanted to die while riding the bus to school. Because I was shy, weird and much brighter than average I had a lot of troubles with other kids (teasing, taunting, bullying etc.) so I was pretty miserable a lot of the time.

[ex-radparker580.livejournal.com]

Are you naked in that icon picture?

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

I was wearing pants.

[ex-radparker580.livejournal.com]

This pleases me!

[laurel]

You just have a thing for . . . pants.

[starstraf.livejournal.com]

My theory is that every relationship I have had (even the bad ones) I have learned a valuable lesson that has helped with all future relationships. Name one you have learned

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

Doing things to make the other person happy that make you unhappy probably won't result in either of you being happy.

[sashibala.livejournal.com]

Why do you not drive?

Btw...
HI, KEVIN! :-)

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

There are a number of reasons. Firstly I got turned off of driving by my driving instructor at school who was a grumpy cranky old man. Also I have this issue where I will just space out at times, no matter how important the thing is I should be paying attention to, and I don't think that it would be entirely safe for me to drive. An example of me spacing out is when I was riding my bicycle a number of years ago and began calculating powers of two in my head. I had gotten through about the first fifteen when I ran into the back of a parked car. It just startled me at the time, but if I'd been driving down the street at forty miles an hour the results would have been very different. I also think that the cost of our current automobile obsessed society far outweigh the benefits in lives lost (Just think if there was a weight loss drug that killed as many people every year as auto accidents do. How long do you think it would remain on the market?), resources destroyed, and environmental damage, and my not driving is a sort of silent protest to all of this.

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

Oh, and by the way...

HI SARRAH!

[laurel]

What's your middle name? ;-p

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

Glen.

[laurel]

What does the "G" in "Kevin G. Austin" stand for?

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

Omar

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

When did you first get involved in Mpls fandom, and how?

MnStf and Me - Part I

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

My first convention was Minicon 19, which I found out about by seeing a listing for it in Analog's Convention Calendar. I attended Minicons and a few other conventions and began doing various volunteer things at conventions (mostly Ops and Registration at Minicon). After a few years of that I thought I'd like to become more involved with the running of Minicon so I started attending the open committee meetings, and attended a few MnStf meetings where I thought that Minicon related issues would be discussed (http://www.mnstf.org/minicon/lrtf/). This turned out to be some fairly bad timing on my part because this was the year of the "Dry" Minicon and the flamage that occurred turned me off fairly strongly. I continued attending Minicon and volunteering but I wasn't really interested in being involved in MnStf or the running of Minicon for a number of years.

Re: MnStf and Me - Part I

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I remember the Dry Minicon. I'm not surprised that it took you aback. I'm glad you finally did get involved.

"and a few other conventions"

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

From the convention badges that I've kept:

Minicon 19-39
Demicon 1-15
Windycon XXIV
Windycon '90
Windycon XVIII
WindyCON XIX
WindyCon XX
WindyCon XXI
WindyCon XXVI
Chicon 5
MagiCon
ConFrancisco
ConAdian
Intersection
LoneStarCon 2
Chicon 2000
Diversicon 2
Diversicon 6
Diversicon 7
Diversicon 8
Diversicon 9
Diversicon 10
CONvergence 1999
Convergence 2000
Convergence 2001
Convergence 2002
Convergence 2004
Convergence 2005
Congenial X
X CON 12
X-Con XIV
X-CON XV
Marscon 2000
Marscon 2001
Marscon 2002
Marscon 2004
Super Con VII
Supercon VIII
SuperCon X
SuperCon 11
Capricon XII
Confection
Consensus
CONscription
ReinCONation 5
ReinCONation 6
Flashback
Ditto 12/Millenium Fallcon
Relaxacon 2000
Relaxacon 2001
Relaxacon 2002
Relaxacon 2003
Keycon 6
ConQuest XXV
CON*TRETEMPS 8
Icon XIII
The Fourth Fourth Street Fantasy Convention
World Fantasy Convention 2002
Polariscon 3
Valleycon 12 1/2
Valleycon 14

Re: "and a few other conventions"

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

I must have been tired when I wrote this up. I don't think that I've attended Convergence 2005 yet. I'm going to check my badges again, but I'm guessing that should be Convergence 2003. Also missing from the list are at least two 4th Streets that I couldn't figure out the year or number of from the badges and one convention badge that had no useful information on it whatsoever.

"open committee meetings"

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

This should be "General Committee meetings". Those meetings were of the General Committee, which influenced Minicon policy. Soon after that (probably prompted by the decisions of the General Committee that year) the idea of a General Committee was discarded. The ConCom meetings were still open though, so a distinction should be made between the current "open committee meetings" and "General Committee meetings".

"a listing for it in Analog's Convention Calendar"

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

While I don't know if it's true or not, the fact that I saw that ad was apparently due to a fluke. I've been told that during that period of time, due to the concern some people had about the growth rate of Minicon, there was something of an embargo on advertising Minicon anywhere. The listing in Analog was supposedly due to a mistake that someone made, without which I may not have heard of Minicon for a number of years. Even so, I didn't get that issue of Analog until a month or two before the convention, so it wasn't an easy thing to arrange attending.

"doing various volunteer things at conventions"

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

(LJ wouldn't let me edit this comment so I'm deleting and reposting)
From the Minicon volunteer badges that I've kept:

Minicon 22 - Badger
Minicon 23 - Badger & Gopher
Minicon 24 - Badger & Gopher
Minicon 25 - Badger, Gopher & Keyper
Minicon 26 - Badger, Gopher & Keyper
Minicon 27 - Dispatcher & Keyper
Minicon 28 - Registration
Minicon 29 - Registration, Info Officer & Triage
Minicon 30 - Infomancer & Comm Officer
Minicon 32 - Ranger
Minicon 33 - Badger
Sub-head - Volunteers - Minicon 35 (2000)

Also:

Sub-head - At con registration - Minicon 36 (2001)
Sub-head - Registration - Minicon 37 (2002)
Web team - Minicon 37 (2002)
Assisted Minicon 38 hotel search committee (2003)
Webmaster - Minicon 38 (2003)
Webmaster - Minicon 39 (2004)

And I'm pretty sure that I worked Minicon registration most years from M22 on, even in those years that I don't have a registration volunteer badge for.

Re: "doing various volunteer things at conventions"

[laurel]

Kevin, along with his wife Laurel Krahn, revived the Minn-StF fallcon (relaxacon) when they co-chaired Convivial from 2006 through 2009.

Kevin ran the Volunteers department for Minicon 41 in 2006 & for Minicon 42 in 2007.

Kevin ran the Gaming department for Minicon 43 in 2008 and for Minicon 44 in 2009.

Kevin was a co-chair of Minicon 45 in 2010.

Kevin was a co-chair of Minicon 46 in 2011.

Kevin was a subhead for the consuite for Minicon 47 in 2012.

Kevin was on the code of conduct committee for Minicon 49 in 2014.

If Laurel recalls correctly, Kevin may have served on the Minn-StF Board while he took time off from working in any major roles at Minicon. She isn't sure. Maybe he just needed a break (he did feel strongly that people shouldn't both be in charge of Minicon and on the board at the same time).

Kevin was vice chair of Minicon 53 in 2018.

Kevin was co-chair of Minicon 54 in 2019.

He stopped attending Minicon when the pandemic hit and when Minicon resumed he didn't feel they were taking enough precautions to keep members at high risk (like himself) safe so he stopped attending, ending a streak that ran from 1983 through 2019.

[serendipoz.livejournal.com]

Do you like sheep?

[kaustin.livejournal.com]

I prefer goats.