A few weeks ago I attended NerdCon. A first time convention put on by Hank Green and Patrick Rothfuss. Hank Green is of course the brother of John Green and that is no small part to play. Together they do projects that seem destined to educate and possibly even make the world a better place. Patrick Rothfuss is best known for his Kingkiller Chronicle books and is from Madison, Wisconsin. The best city in Wisconsin.

The convention itself seemed well attended for a first timer. And decently organized. In my mind there did not seem enough things to do but keep in mind the conventions I regularly attend run 4 days straight for 24 hours a day. Every one is different. The panels at this one were some of the best I've ever been to and I was especially happy to find ones focused on diversity. Something that books and media in general need more of in my opinion (and others as well!). One of my favorite speakers at the convention turned out to be Dylan Marron who is best known for his role on Welcome to NightVale. His talks and conversations about being a minority and gay trying to get cast into films were insightful and heartbreaking in a lot of ways. Something that is becoming more and more important to me as I write and just get older in general is carefully exploring commonly used phrases and just basically trying to see outside my own experience. So many things that spill from our mouths on a daily basis are steeped in racism. And that's often not an accident. People being out there trying to change the direction and raise the level of conversation is more important than ever and I was pleased that many of the guests at NerdCon wanted to talk about this subject. It's going to take place here again next year and I am really looking forward to attending again. I have a few snapshots but I didn't take many pictures. I generally was just trying to pay as close attention as possible. I didn't get one single autograph either. Which is fine as I am terrible at talking to people anyway.