Busy day ahead!

After blowing off yesterday for the most part, I have a lot to do today.

• Do several loads of laundry


• Do my research for the panels I have at the con


• Take down a lot of garbage


• Watch Barry hit #715


• Work on the Concordat a little

Oh yeah.. I really should eat somewhere in there..

112/158

1. Put numbers in the boxes instead of x's (example: 1, 2, 3, 4...)
2. Repost as "I have lived through ___ of these 158 things."
( And away we go! )

WTF, over?

It's raining. Fairly hard.

OK, my final BayCon schedule!

Saturday 11:30 AM Cedar The New Dr. Who BBC TV show
43 years, 10 Doctors, a host of companions. What is it about Doctor Who that has kept us so interested and hungry for more?
Christian McGuire (M), Trystan Bass, Doug Berry, Tim Crowley

(I wasn't on this originally. but as a former President of the Legion of Rassilon, it seemed a natural.)

Saturday 7:00 PM Carmel Are Star Empires Feasible?
A standard of science-fiction has been the star-spanning empire. But are such nations inevitable? How do you govern a state that crosses hundreds of parsecs? Discussion will cover how governments work, and the effect of speed of communication on government.
G. David Nordley (M), Doug Berry, C. Sanford Lowe, Tory Parker, Jim Terman

(I'm really looking forward to this one!)

Sunday 11:30 AM Gateway Foyer Match Game
Get ready to match the stars! Audience members will be selected at random to be contestants on this science fiction-themed version of the 70s game show Match Game. Contestants will have to try and guess how the panel of celebrity panelists will answer fill-in-the-blank questions. Prizes for the winners sponsored by the Hollister in 2008 Casa de Worldcon bid.
Kevin Standlee (M), Doug Berry, Chris Garcia, Leigh Ann Hildebrand and friends.

(My personal mantra for this event is WWCNRD? "What Would Charles Nelson Reilly Do?")

Sunday 2:30 PM San Carlos One System to Rule Them All
Implications of the rule of the D20 system for gamers and game development.
Doug Berry (M), Jesse Mundis, (Mike Beyer)

(This is amusing. I'm moderating a panel that specifically mentions d20, and I write for GURPS.)

Monday 10:00 AM Cedar As the Water Rises
Let's say the polar ice caps melt, and the water level slowly starts to rise. Who will get wet first? Where will all the penguins go?
Kay Pannell (M), Doug Berry, Paula Butler, Sara Hyman, Pat MacEwen

(The only reason I'm on this panel is my well-known penguin fetish obsession)

Monday 1:00 PM Gateway Foyer Just a Minute...
And as The Minute Waltz fades away...please talk for 60 seconds on a random subject without hesitation, deviation or repetition. Just a Minute was devised by the late Ian Messiter who came up with the idea on the top of a number 13 bus and has been on BBC radio for over 35 years. Audience members will pose a topic to the panelists and see what comes out of their mouth.
Tom Galloway (M), Doug Berry, Kent Brewster, Wanda Kurtcu, Martin Young

(This should be fun. Especially as it is at the end of the con when everyone is tired and the caffeine is all that is keeping us moving.)

Never to old to Rock and Roll, if you're too young to die...

I'm having dreams every freaking night about riding. I have a Pavlovian response to the sound of a motorcycle.

It's time.

After the con, I'm going to start saving for a bike. A Triumph Bonneville, to be precise.



The MSRP is about $7,500, a bit lower if I forgo the British Racing Green for Evil Black. Big sacrifice, I know. I'd want to add saddlebags, and would need a helmet, plus registration and insurance.. So figure I'm going to need about $8,500 to roll the bike out the door. Even with my.. interesting credit history, I think that if I can come up with about half of the price as a down payment, i should be able to get a loan from BofA with half-way decent payments. Which means that I'm going to need to pile up roughly $4,500.

If I manage to sock away $150 a month, it will take me 30 months to reach my goal. If I can some how put away $200 a month, that number drops to 23 months. And if I manage to sell the Concordat to SJG, that money will go into the motorcycle fund as well.

I can do this, it just takes discipline.

Unless of course I find a good deal on a used bike along the way.