For the longest time, I had actually forgotten about this in that I didn’t think about it because my mindset was “conventions are just not my thing,” being sure not to make it seem like I was passing judgment on friends and members of the same fandoms that I am a part of for… exactly as I just said, them not being my thing. But then I did remember that someone made the offer of funding tickets for me to an anime convention “if it was ever something I wanted to do post-pandemic”, although he was clear that if I didn’t want to, that was okay, I could simply never bring it up and he would assume that I would enjoy other geeky pursuits. But I did go to a LARP convention eons ago with someone who knew that it was my first convention, thought that I might like it, but would have been and was completely cool when it began to be referred to in conversations as “not my thing”. (It was enough “not my thing” that I never blogged about it.)

I didn’t mind the food, and I was even bought a necklace that I joked would go with the other necklaces that I had amassed over the years that I had a difficult time wearing due to skin allergies. This person bought me this necklace to have something to remember the experience by, and in a good way. I didn’t mind the gesture, and I should still have the necklace to this day. But getting back to what I wanted to write about, the convention made me uncomfortable. It might have been the number of people in attendance, the fact that everyone was extremely social and lively, the fact that it was a LARP convention (although the person in question thought that I might like it being a geek, there was the knowledge that I could never get into things like D&D)… it was basically a trifecta that all seemed to come together to make the experience uncomfortable for me, and this eventually telegraphed in my body language and facial expression. We got to go home early, and… this person… conceded that it might be LARP conventions that weren’t just my thing, or it might be the fact that I am not an optimal con-goer. I have known other people that have gone to varying types of cons over the years, especially since then, but I might have been — or be — telegraphing that it would be best for me not to attend these. My body language and facial expressions might say it for me here.

I’ve given it some more thought as I write this entry, and although I concede that there might still be a convention out there that I would like more, I wouldn’t mind not attending any more of them. And that’s okay.

I don’t want someone to pay money for one of these on a gamble and then me be like “I want to cut out”.

For several years, I’ve kept my online life almost completely separate from my real life.

And the “almost” is a technicality that I’m about to get to regarding who I have friended on Facebook.

On Facebook, I have a variety of filters that I use depending on people’s interests, but the filters are also set up in such a way that I can easily separate those that I have friended on it who I know in real life and those who I know over the Internet. For instance, I don’t have any friends in real life who would be interested in a fandom, or fandoms, and feel that it’s better to exclude them from posts that I make related to the fandoms that I am part of. If I want to post something that I’d be far more comfortable with real-life friends of mine reading, I filter them into the post and my Internet friends out of it. This works as well as it does because I post next to nothing public. The only things that I post that are public are non-profit fundraisers such as the annual birthday one and Giving Tuesday stuff, which you don’t appear to have a choice in… I mean, not unless that has changed between now and a few days ago when I posted a non-profit fundraiser for Claire’s Place. If it has, please let me know. As for my Twitter, it’s relegated to people that I know (and would like to follow) online since I don’t appear to have that many real-life friends who even use the site. Last time I checked, I didn’t have any. All of them were on Facebook. However, having a place where I can discuss fandom with people that are on that same level has been nice — I also went a step further and made it so that it’s not searchable by anyone who does know me in real life just to continue to keep the two apart.

On Facebook, my friends’ list (and number of mutual friends, I want to say) is not visible to anyone but me.

Of course, none of this is against the people that I know in real life… but like I’ve said, the things that I have in common with them are different from the things that I have in common with Internet friends. A lot different.