A Quiet Weekend · 8:03pm Oct 1st, 2016
This weekend is Conference weekend.
For many, that doesn't mean much. Sands, most of you probably have never heard of it. That's fine. It's a religious event.
Ah, see? Some probably ran in a panic right then and there.
Anyway, it's pretty simple. Conference weekend, known among the members of my religion as General Conference Weekend, is a bi-annual (twice yearly) event in which the entire church comes together in a conference, to hear the religious leaders of the church speak directly to the entirety of the church. Given that this leadership consists of a Prophet of God and twelve Apostles, this is a pretty cool thing.
Now, don't get me wrong. It's not like they're not carrying out their duties as special witnesses of Christ and his gospel the rest of the year. They do—they put some serious travel in going around the world and meeting with members of our church all over. But twice a year, they all gather—Apostles, the prophet, seventies (Exodus if you've not heard of that), etc—for this General Conference. And then? They teach. And that teaching is broadcast via the internet, radio, television, etc, all across the world, and the members gather and watch it. Five broadcasts, each 2 hours long, over two days.
Ten, awesome, fulfilling hours.
Right, why am I talking about this? Well, for starters, because you don't have to be a member of our church to enjoy it. This isn't some cliche "The end is nigh" monologue given by a man with a crazy beard in a robe. So far, in the first session we had today I've listened to an Apostle give counsel on how not to take the many gifts of God for granted, and how to learn to see how many truly wondrous gifts we've been given. Another spoke on prayer, and how it is an act of humility before God. You don't have to be a member of our faith to get something out of it. There's a spirit of holiness and tranquility that surrounds each message, a gentleness you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
And even if you're not a member of my faith, well, a little bit of peace and tranquility might feel pretty welcome. Which is why I'm mentioning it (well, also and so you guys are kept up-to-date on my movements, since Saturday is normally fanfic day). Maybe you're wondering what to do with your day. Maybe you're feeling a little down. Maybe you just want a pick-me-up and have found that the usual isn't doing it for you.
If so, well, this conference gets streamed live on Youtube. Feel free to listen in. Regardless of where you are in life, there's something for everyone that gets said at these things. They talk about God. They talk about Christ. They talk about our purpose on Earth, the atonement ... a plethora of topics that many people wonder about, even if they don't put voice to those wonders.
So if you've got some time and you want a pick-me-up, feel welcome to check it out.
NOTE: And if you despise my religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and want to start a big controversy, or are thinking about posting "the truth" in the comments below in some vain attempt to save my "misguided" soul ... don't bother. I've been an open member of my church online for years now; screaming, shouting, ranting, accusing, or even trying to get my books taken down from Amazon as some sort of "revenge" isn't anything new. It's been done before, there are better ways to spend your time, so please, go and do something productive elsewhere.
Thanks for the head's up about Conference being streamed on YouTube.
I was trying to figure out how to listen to it while out and about today.
I hope you have a good time at your gathering. I also really hope that people don't actually start religious debates on a site dedicated to a show that preaches love and friendship. But what do I know? I am somewhat naive in the ways of other people. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I take the teachings of MLP to heart. It is essentially my religion.
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Well, it's a digital gathering anymore. Tens of thousands attend in person at the conference center, but there's millions of us out there. Thankfully we have meeting houses and homes to watch it in. Long ago, it was a more literal gathering, but anymore ... let's just say there isn't anywhere with enough hotels if we tried.
I'd hope so as well, but I've learned that there is always the exception. MLP site or not, sadly.
Thank you for sharing this with us and have a great weekend.
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Your hopes shall be crushed.
initiate religious debate:
Religion is a choice for everyone who wants, as long as you believe only in *insert preferred way if faith here*
Uhm, is that good enough for you?
Ok have a great time now you all, I'll go back and empty those rum bottles there, poor things were left alone all day...
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I suppose that is good enough lol
I bet those bottles were praying to their great big brewery in the sky to be saved from their life of mundane horror.
It's been a great conference so far. I particularly liked the talk about making sure Home Teaching wasn't some rushed checkbox on your monthly checklist.
You are a mormon? Did not know that. However, I live in Utah, so I know that Mormons are some of the nicest people you can meet, with a few exceptions. Such as when they drive, in which case, I have never met such a bunch of assholes before.
However, no judgment, I know that mormans are not really polygamists, no matter what other (rude) people say.
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Hey, that's the state, not the religion, lol. No idea why.
I'm from Alaska originally, myself, and the driving here really is nuts. I swear the DMV just gives you a license if you can answer them on how many tires a care has.
And three is an acceptable answer. As is five.
People have actually tried to do that? Wow, that's a new low.
Curiously, having never encountered Mormons in any other fandom, for some reason I've met quite a few in this one. For the life of me I've no idea why, I mean it's fine and everything, just curious.
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It was right after I posted my When Did Sex and Ethnicity Become the Most Important Thing? article and "Vile" 770 mentioned it. The social justice brigade gnashed their teeth over it, and the next thing I knew, I had e-mails from Amazon that one of my books had been reported for "violating their terms of service" by not having a table of contents, and that I needed to fix it immediately or it would be pulled. I replied that the book did indeed having a working table of contents, and even opened a copy I purchased myself from their service to doublecheck, and they replied that they wouldn't pull the book, but the complaint had been made, so I should think of doing something to correct the "problem."
It's not an uncommon tactic. A lot of authors these days have found that if you don't succumb to the SJW brigades (or race brigades, or anti-religion brigades, etc) increasingly insane demands, you can expect Amazon to contact you as your book receives thousands of 1-star reviews (during the 2015 Hugo battles, one of the Hugo authors actually directly encouraged readers of their blog to do this en masse to Sad Puppy authors), is reported for all kinds of "violations", etc. Really anything that can be done to get your book pulled. Sometimes an author's book even is taken down for a little while until Amazon sorts out what's going on.
It's all part of being an author these days, though it shouldn't be. There are just people out there who are vindictive and nuts. Crud, I've received PMs here on Fimfic demanding that I remove my books from Amazon immediately because of some bone someone has to pick with me. I've been race-baited, cursed at ... even had one popular fantasy blog engage in libel against me in a story they hastily modified in less than an hour when one of their commentators pointed out that what they wrote about me wasn't true in the slightest, and was bad enough an accusation that it was indeed grounds for a libel case.
And I'm small time. The big time authors out there get this kind of reaction, it would seem, on an almost daily basis. Whether it's because of their religion (Christians are particularly common targets), their beliefs, their family, their morals, their ethnicity, or their social values, anyone can be a target. Death threats, slander, libel, review bombs, takedowns ... you get all of it as an author.
One of those weird things you wouldn't think about when considering writing as a career choice, but that in the last decade, has swelled to be a day-to-day reality for most writers. It's a kind of weird, digital warzone. And even on the edges of the battlefield, you can find stray shells coming your way for one reason or another.
4237057 I had no idea. I hope Amazon has proven to be reasonable in these matters.
I know what you mean regarding SJWs though, we're starting to see some very kafkaesque business here in the UK.
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As far as I am aware, they have. They weed out review bombings (and, IIRC, have even taken steps to make it so that reviews don't show up immediately and are prioritized based on purchases and the like so that it's much harder now to review bomb "bad books"). And their response in my issue indicated to me that they were taking a stance of "Well, we're telling you someone said it was a problem and here's how you can fix it, so that now we can tell them we did what we had to and it's out of our hands." So, at least, so far they've been reasonable.
And yeah, I've heard the that the SJW insanity is spreading in the UK (book market, specifically, given my circles). It's done a number on things over here. Look at these two comments from authors on why they stopped going to cons. The second one especially is just ... crazy. The first is outright instances of racism, but the second is just insanity.
Thankfully, the cons I've attended have not been tainted by the madness. We still talk about writing, writing, writing, and they're a lot of fun, without all the bad blood and ethnic/gender-based segregation that have started to hit some of the other cons.
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The first and final sessions have been my favorites so far. The others were great, but both of those two really spoke to me.