2002-09-04
The dreaded Con Jose report
Con Jose has ended.
I had originally intended to do one report a day. After all, the newsletter office was right next to the Internet lounge! As it happened, things got so busy that I barely had time to peek in that door.
To sum up, I had a great time. It's been a busy nine years since my last World Science Fiction Convention, and I had forgotten about the sheer mass of things to do. Many times I had to choose between several excellent hard-science panels scheduled against each other. This wasn't a fault, it was just one sign of how much programming there was!
Working the newsletter was also a delight. I hadn't worked a con in over ten years, and had never worked publications before. Trying to put out three issues a day, plus the special Hugo issue, and the hoax issue, kept us hopping. Our lives were complicated by the ancient paper folders which were fine examples of bronze age technology. The two machines, which were supposed to be labor-saving devices, ended up requiring large crews to keep them feed and operating. You could not enter more than five sheets at a time without the stupid thing jamming. Our print run for each issue was three thousand. Do the math. They both finally died as we were getting ready for the hoax issue. It was distributed as the "fold it yourself issue."
The machines were so bad that we ended up having to dragoon![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dafydd and kshandra, along with two other friends, Dave and Claire, into getting one issue out. For this feat, they were made heroes of the convention. Dafydd and Kiri were later made part of the Pubs staff for jumping in again.
As I mentioned above, there was just too many things to see. The one event I made sure I was at was the four-day world-building panel. We started with an accreting disk, and ended up with cultural details. Lots of good information and names of books to track down for further research. There were a few times that the soft sciences threatened to overwhelm what should have been the hard science portions of the panel, but mostly we stayed on topic.
While at the con, I was asked to sign four copies of GT: Ground Forces. If you think this improved my ego, you'd be right. :)
A few favorite moments:
- Spending an hour sitting at a snack bar table with Larry Niven, Harry Turtledove, and Hal Clement, along with two other fen, discussing world building. We sketched out a double planet situation. Watching those three throw out ideas, and listen to mine, was by far the high point of the con.
- Walking through the fountain in Plaza de Caesar Chavez fully dressed.
- Having Gardner Dozois literally twist my arm to get me to subscribe to either Analog or Asimov's. Then double-crossing him and taking Analog! Curses! Foiled again!
- David buying us dinner at the Fairmont's steak place. $60 per person, but my God it was worth it. That was Saturday night, and I barely had to eat the rest of the weekend.
- Going to the RASFF party and putting faces to names.
- The inflatable toys. The entire convention center concourse was filled with inflated pool toys, hammers, and the like. This gave the place a neat look, and also gave small kids something to play with while the alleged adults perused the party lists or Voodoo Message Board.
A few things that didn't work so well for me:
- The elevator party coordinator who lectured my for using the elevator to go up three floors on Saturday night. Hey lady, you survive cancer and we'll talk, all right?
- Several panels went way off-topic early. A few times, I was so disgusted I left early.
- Whiners. This isn't exclusive to the con, of course, but it pissed me off to hear people just bashing the con and not offering to help solve the problem.
- How spread out everything was. I never made it over to the gaming room because it was out of the way. Would it have killed us to put it in the Fairmont? I knew many mobility impaired fans who had problems getting from the convention center to the hotel and back.
- The elevators. I know this happens every big con, but it got very frustrating, especially when I'm supposed to be reviewing the parties and I can't reach them!
Best Swag: A t-shirt from Ad Astra Games concerning the wisdom of giving people near-c rocks. Also, several buttons from nancybuttons.com, including two custom ones: The Jesus-fish with GURPS inside it; and this one:
We Are GURPS
You Will Be Adapted
We Will Add Your Unique Setting and Background To Our Own
Resistance Is Futile
In conclusion, kudos to everyone who helped and came. After three Worldcons, I can easily say that this was the best one I have attended. I may not be able to attend TorCon 3 next year, but I will try with all my heart to get to Interaction in Glasgow. I really don't know if Noreascon 4 in 2004 is a possibility either.
I had originally intended to do one report a day. After all, the newsletter office was right next to the Internet lounge! As it happened, things got so busy that I barely had time to peek in that door.
To sum up, I had a great time. It's been a busy nine years since my last World Science Fiction Convention, and I had forgotten about the sheer mass of things to do. Many times I had to choose between several excellent hard-science panels scheduled against each other. This wasn't a fault, it was just one sign of how much programming there was!
Working the newsletter was also a delight. I hadn't worked a con in over ten years, and had never worked publications before. Trying to put out three issues a day, plus the special Hugo issue, and the hoax issue, kept us hopping. Our lives were complicated by the ancient paper folders which were fine examples of bronze age technology. The two machines, which were supposed to be labor-saving devices, ended up requiring large crews to keep them feed and operating. You could not enter more than five sheets at a time without the stupid thing jamming. Our print run for each issue was three thousand. Do the math. They both finally died as we were getting ready for the hoax issue. It was distributed as the "fold it yourself issue."
The machines were so bad that we ended up having to dragoon
dafydd and kshandra, along with two other friends, Dave and Claire, into getting one issue out. For this feat, they were made heroes of the convention. Dafydd and Kiri were later made part of the Pubs staff for jumping in again.As I mentioned above, there was just too many things to see. The one event I made sure I was at was the four-day world-building panel. We started with an accreting disk, and ended up with cultural details. Lots of good information and names of books to track down for further research. There were a few times that the soft sciences threatened to overwhelm what should have been the hard science portions of the panel, but mostly we stayed on topic.
While at the con, I was asked to sign four copies of GT: Ground Forces. If you think this improved my ego, you'd be right. :)
A few favorite moments:
- Spending an hour sitting at a snack bar table with Larry Niven, Harry Turtledove, and Hal Clement, along with two other fen, discussing world building. We sketched out a double planet situation. Watching those three throw out ideas, and listen to mine, was by far the high point of the con.
- Walking through the fountain in Plaza de Caesar Chavez fully dressed.
- Having Gardner Dozois literally twist my arm to get me to subscribe to either Analog or Asimov's. Then double-crossing him and taking Analog! Curses! Foiled again!
- David buying us dinner at the Fairmont's steak place. $60 per person, but my God it was worth it. That was Saturday night, and I barely had to eat the rest of the weekend.
- Going to the RASFF party and putting faces to names.
- The inflatable toys. The entire convention center concourse was filled with inflated pool toys, hammers, and the like. This gave the place a neat look, and also gave small kids something to play with while the alleged adults perused the party lists or Voodoo Message Board.
A few things that didn't work so well for me:
- The elevator party coordinator who lectured my for using the elevator to go up three floors on Saturday night. Hey lady, you survive cancer and we'll talk, all right?
- Several panels went way off-topic early. A few times, I was so disgusted I left early.
- Whiners. This isn't exclusive to the con, of course, but it pissed me off to hear people just bashing the con and not offering to help solve the problem.
- How spread out everything was. I never made it over to the gaming room because it was out of the way. Would it have killed us to put it in the Fairmont? I knew many mobility impaired fans who had problems getting from the convention center to the hotel and back.
- The elevators. I know this happens every big con, but it got very frustrating, especially when I'm supposed to be reviewing the parties and I can't reach them!
Best Swag: A t-shirt from Ad Astra Games concerning the wisdom of giving people near-c rocks. Also, several buttons from nancybuttons.com, including two custom ones: The Jesus-fish with GURPS inside it; and this one:
We Are GURPS
You Will Be Adapted
We Will Add Your Unique Setting and Background To Our Own
Resistance Is Futile
In conclusion, kudos to everyone who helped and came. After three Worldcons, I can easily say that this was the best one I have attended. I may not be able to attend TorCon 3 next year, but I will try with all my heart to get to Interaction in Glasgow. I really don't know if Noreascon 4 in 2004 is a possibility either.