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gridloreI'm back, and I had a blast. What follows is a partial reconstruction of the con based on my sadly incomplete notes and equally lacking collection of the BayConSequential. I was right, I needed this weekend, even with its rough spots. Onward!
Friday
The original plan was for me to take the train down with Kirsten catching up after work. She ended up calling in sick, so we got an early start. I love getting to cons early, and we were on site by 1330. Went up to the Green Room to pick up our badges (First advantage of being a guest: no waiting at registration) and immediately discovered they had misspelled San Francisco. Oh, well. Obviously San Jose jealousy of The City.
I had one panel on Friday, Introduction to Gaming, in the Family Friendly Room. This started at 1630, and prevented me from attended two panels I wanted to see. What's worse, only one person showed up, and he was already a gamer. We found Kiri-chan, and collected the party stuff from our car and her friend's truck. Spent some time chatting and putting things away. Later in Open Gaming![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kshandra and I got into a game of Chez Geek. Lots of fun.
At 1740-ish I headed down to the Meet the Guests event. (Second advantage of being a guest: I skipped the line and got in early.) It was scheduled for 2000. Being on fannish time, it started at 2040. Michael Siladi, the con chair, started things off by introducing himself and telling us that "it's my fault." The Toastmaster (mistress?) Introduced the Guests of Honor before they spoke.
I got snarky at this point. When she was introducing Harry Turtledove, she asked us what one word would describe Turtledove. I, along with other fans of the Great War/American Empire series, shouted "Freedom!" Dr. Turtledove just shook his head and smiled.
After the usual fumbling speeches and inability to use a microphone, Harlan Ellison was introduced. Harlan pushes himself to his feet, strides off the podium, and in his booming voice starts off with "A duck walks into a bar..." The joke, and his, umm, personal delivery had the place on the floor.
After the party broke up, I wandered back to the party floors. Despite it being Friday night, several parties were up and running. At the LosCon party I managed to chat with Harry Turtledove about baseball. We agree that the Dodgers spit are the spawn of Satan.
Kiri-chan agreed to let me crash in her room since I was helping with the party. To be honest, I can't really remember what I did for most of the evening, but I think I turned in about 2300. I did play in a killer Illuminati game, in which I almost conquered the world for the Discordians until the Bavarian Illuminati unmasked as the Network and, shades of the Matrix, unleashed devastating attacks that crippled my power structure. Hail the Computer!
Saturday
OK, I'm a morning person. Everybody knows this. It is not uncommon to see me wandering around the hotel at 0700. But getting woken up by the fire alarm at 0500 is not kosher. We had at least three alarms where I was, and five apologies! Kiri and I at least headed into the hall, and saw one (1) person heading for the stairs. Screw it. I went back to sleep for a few hours.
Once awake, I was hungry. Kiri-chan and I went to Denny's for food. Which was good. Back at the con, I had a little time to kill, so I did serious Dealer's Room wanderings. I had already made my big purchase (Turtledove's Counting Up, Counting Down - read it.) So mostly it was admiring things I could not afford.
My panel was Twenty Years of RPGs. Of course, I had left my notes at home. We had fun though. Afterwards, I raced upstairs to be first in line for Turtledove autographs. I was second, behind a woman who didn't seem to have a book. When I enquired, I found out that she was holding place for a friend. Said friend showed up...with five more friends, and practically every book the man had ever written! The fucking nerve of some people!
Once properly signed (Counting Up, Counting Down and American Empire: Blood and Iron), I ran down to the LJ BoF. Many people there, very few of whom I knew. After that, the next few hours are a blur. I know I was back in the room setting up the Traveller in SF party by around 1700. We opened at 2000.
The party was a success. Not a roaring success, but a success. We had decent foot traffic, people tended to hang around for a good time, and several fascinating conversations developed. From what I saw, most of the visitors were happy to have a non-directed quiet party. Are only complaint were the idiots with club-class speakers that were vibrating the entire hotel. I felt sorry for the bid parties that were further down the hall. Our party ran until 0100, which was about all the energy I had. At one point I had my nose lodged in a very nice set of breasts. I also said something that had Rose laughing so hard she almost fell down.
Here's the review of our party from the BayConSequential
Sunday
Awake early again, which allows me to take long showers without fear of losing hot water. Ran into Jesse DeGraff and his friends and had breakfast at the Coffee Bar. From past experience the only way to get good service there is to only eat at the buffets. The food was passable, although the scrambled eggs needed help.
I didn't have any panels to do today, so I planned on living in the hard-science panels. My body had different ideas. After freezing to death in the Europa Slide Show, and almost falling asleep during Getting Around the Solar System, I realized that I wasn't really absorbing anything useful. Around 1500, Kirsten and I went to Denny's, where I promptly spilled a Coke in my lap. Cold is a good word here. Hey, I was awake for a bit anyway. At the hotel I gave up and went back up to the room and sacked out for a few hours. Put me in a much better mood for the second night of the party, known as the "Eat our food, drink our drinks, take the damn Altoids, Earthling!" party. We had much better retention this night, with people hanging out for hours.
At one point we renamed ourselves the "Cool Party" afterfigmo remarked that the cool people seemed to be here. Later that became "The 2 out of 2 Fen Surveyed Think We're Cool, And We Drove The Con Chair Away Party." Can you tell we were getting a little punch-drunk?
Kirsten and David came back from the dance tired, sweaty and sore, which made me suspect that they hadn't gone near the dance, but they swore they had witnesses. We'll see. Since I really needed uninterrupted sleep, I headed back to David's place and slept on the sofa bed. Which bit me. It shall pay.
Monday
After a good night's sleep we head back to the con. After the very interesting Weapons and Wounds panel, I headed over to my final panel, Nightwatch, Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Homeland Security, about the over-reaction to the 9/11 attacks and our frightening willingness to surrender our liberties for security. The panel went well, until Buzz Nelson showed up. The man is convinced that it is all about him.
After that, we said our good-byes to everyone we could find, and waited for the Hiss and Purr, our chance to tell the ConCom what was right and what was wrong. Many complaints about the hotel. From physical plant to amazing rudeness by the staff. I would love to give a panel next year about expressing yourself clearly when speaking. Several people kept repeating their points over and over. It was maddening at times, especially those who brought things up that had been discussed five minutes ago!
After the con we headed over to the Metzs' place for a post con wind-down. While most of the folks played Guillotine, I sat with the Brendan-monster and read him a book. Kirsten and I were both dead, so we dropped David at his place and headed home to crash.
There are many things I haven't discussed here, like two of four elevators being out of service, the dragon in the pool, some of the more amusing things I heard, but right now it's all a blur. I just wanted to get it all down before it faded.
Until next year
Friday
The original plan was for me to take the train down with Kirsten catching up after work. She ended up calling in sick, so we got an early start. I love getting to cons early, and we were on site by 1330. Went up to the Green Room to pick up our badges (First advantage of being a guest: no waiting at registration) and immediately discovered they had misspelled San Francisco. Oh, well. Obviously San Jose jealousy of The City.
I had one panel on Friday, Introduction to Gaming, in the Family Friendly Room. This started at 1630, and prevented me from attended two panels I wanted to see. What's worse, only one person showed up, and he was already a gamer. We found Kiri-chan, and collected the party stuff from our car and her friend's truck. Spent some time chatting and putting things away. Later in Open Gaming
kshandra and I got into a game of Chez Geek. Lots of fun.At 1740-ish I headed down to the Meet the Guests event. (Second advantage of being a guest: I skipped the line and got in early.) It was scheduled for 2000. Being on fannish time, it started at 2040. Michael Siladi, the con chair, started things off by introducing himself and telling us that "it's my fault." The Toastmaster (mistress?) Introduced the Guests of Honor before they spoke.
I got snarky at this point. When she was introducing Harry Turtledove, she asked us what one word would describe Turtledove. I, along with other fans of the Great War/American Empire series, shouted "Freedom!" Dr. Turtledove just shook his head and smiled.
After the usual fumbling speeches and inability to use a microphone, Harlan Ellison was introduced. Harlan pushes himself to his feet, strides off the podium, and in his booming voice starts off with "A duck walks into a bar..." The joke, and his, umm, personal delivery had the place on the floor.
After the party broke up, I wandered back to the party floors. Despite it being Friday night, several parties were up and running. At the LosCon party I managed to chat with Harry Turtledove about baseball. We agree that the Dodgers spit are the spawn of Satan.
Kiri-chan agreed to let me crash in her room since I was helping with the party. To be honest, I can't really remember what I did for most of the evening, but I think I turned in about 2300. I did play in a killer Illuminati game, in which I almost conquered the world for the Discordians until the Bavarian Illuminati unmasked as the Network and, shades of the Matrix, unleashed devastating attacks that crippled my power structure. Hail the Computer!
Saturday
OK, I'm a morning person. Everybody knows this. It is not uncommon to see me wandering around the hotel at 0700. But getting woken up by the fire alarm at 0500 is not kosher. We had at least three alarms where I was, and five apologies! Kiri and I at least headed into the hall, and saw one (1) person heading for the stairs. Screw it. I went back to sleep for a few hours.
Once awake, I was hungry. Kiri-chan and I went to Denny's for food. Which was good. Back at the con, I had a little time to kill, so I did serious Dealer's Room wanderings. I had already made my big purchase (Turtledove's Counting Up, Counting Down - read it.) So mostly it was admiring things I could not afford.
My panel was Twenty Years of RPGs. Of course, I had left my notes at home. We had fun though. Afterwards, I raced upstairs to be first in line for Turtledove autographs. I was second, behind a woman who didn't seem to have a book. When I enquired, I found out that she was holding place for a friend. Said friend showed up...with five more friends, and practically every book the man had ever written! The fucking nerve of some people!
Once properly signed (Counting Up, Counting Down and American Empire: Blood and Iron), I ran down to the LJ BoF. Many people there, very few of whom I knew. After that, the next few hours are a blur. I know I was back in the room setting up the Traveller in SF party by around 1700. We opened at 2000.
The party was a success. Not a roaring success, but a success. We had decent foot traffic, people tended to hang around for a good time, and several fascinating conversations developed. From what I saw, most of the visitors were happy to have a non-directed quiet party. Are only complaint were the idiots with club-class speakers that were vibrating the entire hotel. I felt sorry for the bid parties that were further down the hall. Our party ran until 0100, which was about all the energy I had. At one point I had my nose lodged in a very nice set of breasts. I also said something that had Rose laughing so hard she almost fell down.
Here's the review of our party from the BayConSequential
Room 255, the Traveller's Aid Society Party, was themed around the GURPS "Traveller" supplement and offered intelligent, technical conversations over a backdrop of soft pop music. Habitable planets seemed to be the topic of the night. The refined cookies and snacks competed with my sweet tooth for the souvenirs - full boxes of Altoids!
Sunday
Awake early again, which allows me to take long showers without fear of losing hot water. Ran into Jesse DeGraff and his friends and had breakfast at the Coffee Bar. From past experience the only way to get good service there is to only eat at the buffets. The food was passable, although the scrambled eggs needed help.
I didn't have any panels to do today, so I planned on living in the hard-science panels. My body had different ideas. After freezing to death in the Europa Slide Show, and almost falling asleep during Getting Around the Solar System, I realized that I wasn't really absorbing anything useful. Around 1500, Kirsten and I went to Denny's, where I promptly spilled a Coke in my lap. Cold is a good word here. Hey, I was awake for a bit anyway. At the hotel I gave up and went back up to the room and sacked out for a few hours. Put me in a much better mood for the second night of the party, known as the "Eat our food, drink our drinks, take the damn Altoids, Earthling!" party. We had much better retention this night, with people hanging out for hours.
At one point we renamed ourselves the "Cool Party" after
figmo remarked that the cool people seemed to be here. Later that became "The 2 out of 2 Fen Surveyed Think We're Cool, And We Drove The Con Chair Away Party." Can you tell we were getting a little punch-drunk?Kirsten and David came back from the dance tired, sweaty and sore, which made me suspect that they hadn't gone near the dance, but they swore they had witnesses. We'll see. Since I really needed uninterrupted sleep, I headed back to David's place and slept on the sofa bed. Which bit me. It shall pay.
Monday
After a good night's sleep we head back to the con. After the very interesting Weapons and Wounds panel, I headed over to my final panel, Nightwatch, Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Homeland Security, about the over-reaction to the 9/11 attacks and our frightening willingness to surrender our liberties for security. The panel went well, until Buzz Nelson showed up. The man is convinced that it is all about him.
After that, we said our good-byes to everyone we could find, and waited for the Hiss and Purr, our chance to tell the ConCom what was right and what was wrong. Many complaints about the hotel. From physical plant to amazing rudeness by the staff. I would love to give a panel next year about expressing yourself clearly when speaking. Several people kept repeating their points over and over. It was maddening at times, especially those who brought things up that had been discussed five minutes ago!
After the con we headed over to the Metzs' place for a post con wind-down. While most of the folks played Guillotine, I sat with the Brendan-monster and read him a book. Kirsten and I were both dead, so we dropped David at his place and headed home to crash.
There are many things I haven't discussed here, like two of four elevators being out of service, the dragon in the pool, some of the more amusing things I heard, but right now it's all a blur. I just wanted to get it all down before it faded.
Until next year
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no subject
You know, I just wish I could be there when you get the abuse over this. ;)
no subject
Date: 28 May 2002 13:37 (UTC)I'm tired, and haven't eaten yet. Ppptthhpppt.
or, not -
well. Obviously San Jose jealousy of The City." Somewhere around here I have a plastic cup declaring me to me a memeber of the "San Fransico Bay Girl Scout Council" ... (or maybe they meant that...
no subject
Date: 29 May 2002 14:13 (UTC)Don't I get credit for anything? :-)
--She Who Declared Your Party "Cool"
Mea Culpa
Date: 29 May 2002 14:47 (UTC)This has been fixed.