Not that there was any fighting on my Friday night, but there was a party. It was on a roof of the Harvard Science Center with a telescope. It was *Shambles: The Party* a manifestation the ROFLCon staff’s “abundant but abstract gratefulness [to the volunteers] into physical form,” and general Team Fatty event. There was Blue Ribbon BBQ, which I came to learn was integral in the genesis of Team Fatty. TF is a loosely formed group that made the mistake of incentivizing overeating; blatantly disregarding the results of a study which indicated that obesity is a social phenomenon. Blue Ribbon and Redbones vie for the title of best BBQ in Boston. I am undecided between the two, I only know that my summer in Texas eating at Rudys has spoiled me. If this is really the best BBQ new england has to offer then this is a sad, sad, state of affairs. That said, it was enjoyable food wise.
Aside from the great views and the food, it was fun to get a chance to see everyone again a month after the conference. I did actually pass one of them around town in the mean time, a sure sign that my plans to meet new people are not completely failing. I also met a girl named Lorelai at the party. She does not look and is not particularly similar to the Gilmore Girls character, but I have actually never met anyone with that name before. It isn’t particularly significant, but I was surprised and interested when she told me her name, and it showed. We had a above average chat until her boyfriend arrived. I later learned she was a vegetarian, so it doesn’t matter anyways in that regard.
As far as discussion topics go there was a great debate over whether it was a conference, where academics meet to discuss issues, or a convention, where fans go to meet celebrities in a given genre. I wasn’t really aware of the consciousness of this choice before; by the time I found out about ROFLCon the format was already well formed, and it sort of was what it was. It was both, a hybrid, with a lean towards conference, at least in my mind. The staff believes that this was instrumental in the success of both convincing internet celebrities to come as well as the success of the overall event. The open question remains how to tweak this delicate balance for the future.