Norwescon 26 (2k3)
Apr. 22nd, 2003 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdThat was... really fun.
I mean, I usually have a pretty good time at Norwescon - it's the con I work - I'm a low-level concom member, I do the daily 'zine (a newsletter, published at the convention once a day) and the fanzine library, and I like the rest of the concom, so that's always a good start. And over the last nine or ten years, we've really taken the con and kind of made something of it - it used to have a fairly, um, bad reputation amoungst a lot of pros, I hear, and while it's taken a lot of time and work, that's really gone now. It's "people are starting to come to Norwescon to do business"-gone, like at Worldcon, which is good - it makes it a lot easier to get better authors and artists as guests. There's still more work to be done - particularly in the art community - but I mean really, when you have Michael Whelan (14 Hugo awards, Best Artist) showing up, and he's not the artist guest of honour - that nod went to Jim Burns - you have to think that something's coming together.
This year was more personally fun than usual, though, and I don't think that had anything to do with anything I mentioned above. I think a lot of it was just that I've solved a nice collection of personal issues and made a lot of progress on some others, and lost the borderline-clinical depression. (I'll have a few specific things to say about that behind relevant filters.) Even places where I'd been having a good time, I wasn't quite having the kind of good time that I could have been having, which is, of course, the worst part about issues like I've had. The mental pain made everything stay just a bit removed - so for me, this was kind of like a Norwescon with clear eyes and the sound turned back up.
During most of the day, of course, things weren't so different. I have more energy, and like a lot of people I noticed all four days, I'm just happier pretty much all of the time. During setup on Wednesday, I was steamrolling over people left and right, and the best part was that they liked it, because now I apparently make it fun.
There's never that much to say about setup. It happened. I need to build new shelves for the library's display racks; the ones we have now still work, but the trim is breaking off and it's getting ugly. I might be able to refurbish the ones I have; I'll have to think about it. And issue zero of the 'zine didn't take very long and I got it to the office in plenty of time. Other than that... well, I stopped at Subway on the way there and only one clerk was on duty for a long line - the other guy had bailed on him, very annoying - but he saw me bopping along in place to the hiphop CD he'd put on the store speakers and spent half his time making googly eyes at me. This didn't seem to slow him down any as he wasn't exactly moving right along to start with. I wouldn't post about this at all, except, well, this is kind of new - or I think it's new, anyway, I might just have been too... disassociated from some of the things around me to notice before. But I think it's new, and besides, it's part of the theme. You'll see below.
Panels: I really am a GeekGrl, and so I'm all over the science tracks from year to year. This year's were really pretty good, despite a lot of the space sciences panels being kind of depressing, given, well, the current state of everything. Science GoH Dr. Landis's slideshow on Mars missions was something of an exception; it may all be robotic, but it's still cool. I just wish Rutan had made his announcement a few days earlier - I think it would have picked the mood up a bit.
I probably had more outright fun at the art and music panels. The best was going to "SF Pictionary" and discovering that Donna Barr turned it into "Sucker Pictionary," so whoever got the answer first had to go up and draw for the next word. This was brilliant. (It doesn't hurt that for the last half hour it was me alternating with someone else, usually Mimi and this guy from the audience who knew just scary amounts of SF trivia. My best clue: for the television show "V," drawing a "victory" hand sign. My "intimidate the audience" answer: when the trivia-master I mentioned above drew out the word lines and someone called out "A" because that's what you do when you see a short line, and I followed with "...Canticle for Leibowitz" and nailed it just from the word lengths. He thanked me for SAVING HIM as he had no idea what to do with that title. He had a similar response when I was drawing for "Ray Bradbury" - I drew the second line too long and reduced it, and he got it from the new lengths. Hee. ^_^
I throw in "Klingon Kareoke" with "music panels," I think, despite my better judgement. The Klingons started this a few years ago, and this year's feature song was "Shout at the Devil" (in the original Klingon, as always). Not as funny as "My Way" was a couple of years ago, which still makes me giggle just thinking about it, but still fun.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spazzkat got up and did "Chantilly Lace" (came in 8th overall), mamishka got ambitious and did a good rendition of "I Will Survive," which is, surprisingly, a really difficult song. Next year, they want to do a duet of "I Got You Babe," in Klingon. annathepiper and I did not try, tho' I did look at the songlist.
More interactively,annathepiper, mamishka, and I went to the instrumental jam and made a big enough impression that the filker nominally moderating the "panel" (which was a full musical jam and not a "panel" in any real sense of the word) stopped me in the hallway the next day and asked me where we'd been for the filk that night, and that how the group had really missed our "energy." So that had included a nice little shot of free egoboo! ^_^ I'd done a pretty good amount of semi-decent improv flute - fortunately, everything everybody else played was in D, so I didn't have to work too hard - and sang on most of the songs we led, except, of course, for Mari Mac, where I have a bitchin' flute part I wrote myself a couple of years ago. (I thought the first thing I'd ever written was a flute line for Billy Bragg's song, "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood," but I discovered only a few months ago that the MariMac fluteline I had isn't actually in the Great Big Sea recording I was hearing after all, so I was making up part of it in my very own head at the time and didn't even know. Such is music.)
Really, for me, the event had egoboo all over it, even though I wasn't a pro or anything. People really, really paid attention to the daily 'zine this year. More surprisingly, a lot of people seem to have figured out that I'm the one doing it. And although I kept this year's pretty sedate, I got in a few whacks on annoying people in the content, so that was all nice and fun. And better: I had new dance clothes that I wore to the Saturday night parties for the first time. I'd bought these great silk pants with gold lame patterning, a nicely flattering white shirt and a lot of matching feather jewelry, and while it's really vain to talk about it, there was far, far more flirty than I'm used to getting. Enough, really, that I wasn't sure what to do about it a few times, because I'm just that much of a geek. But I'm brave enough to admit that I loved it. ^_^ Also, I got personally invited to the Merchants of Deva party - they advertise like mad, of course, but also go around handing personal invitations to people they'd like to see show up. And I wasn't even in black.
That's why I need new sandals, though. I really want sandals with that outfit, not black dance shoes, even if the dance shoes are pretty nice. (Hm. For walking around, sandals. For dancing, probably the black shoes, because I don't trust those people near my toes. Marf!)
What else?
I ran into a couple of people I haven't seen in a few years, a couple of whom were very surprised about everything but couldn't get over how much happier I looked - one in particular who used to be in our gaming group when she was at Microsoft, but who I haven't seen much in a couple of years. I also met a couple of people I know only over the net, or via someone else, and I drew for one of them, which is often fun.
I didn't buy anything at the art show, which makes me slightly sad. I wanted to go back again - I saw a new artist whose work interested me at least enough for a second look - but I didn't make the time. I did find two nice bracelets, an interesting short-story collection, and two Cheapass Games in the huxter room, though. (But no sandals. Curses! And when I saw some gloves I really liked, they were sold out in women's small sizes. I AM TEH L0S3.)
Other than that, I did my usuals; I made sure the library stayed in order and cranked out four very, very, very early-morning editions of the daily 'zine. I start the morning edition somewhere between 11pm and 1am the night before, and go... until it's done! This year's latest night kept me up until just short of 4am! W00t! So by Sunday, of course, I was completely and totally wiped, which made it the perfect time to go to my first Barcon ever, even though I don't drink. ('Cause I don't like it! The taste, I mean. Tho' I will drink some "Ye Olde Sight Gag" at any parties that offer it, because hey, I like that joke. ^_^ And despite trying, I've never managed to get drunk. Dammit. Stupid metabolism.)
Anyway.
The first rule of Barcon is that you do not talk about Barcon. The second rule of Barcon is that you must be at least this drunk - place hand at eye level - to follow the party upstairs. That's a new rule that I made up at this year's Barcon and it went over very well, so we'll see what happens next year. Of course, really, Barcon is just the concom getting together for a booze-up-and-riot in the hotel bar until they kick us out (this year's time: 93 minutes), at which point we go up to Judy's room where there is much more booze. This was the first year I'd done even the bar half, but even though I don't drink... y'know; when you're that wiped out, you don't really need the alcohol to enjoy big stupid drunken fun. Plus, again, being in a fundamentally better state of mind didn't hurt anything either.
And that was that. I went home, dumped stuff out of the car, and got to bed around 2am Monday morning. And now: for bed. Except I can't because the STUPID phone company - or the stupid upstream IP provider, I can't tell which without screaming at people for an hour - has b0rked the DSL line again. Bozons. Who do I have to kill down there to get a stable connection, anyway?
I mean, I usually have a pretty good time at Norwescon - it's the con I work - I'm a low-level concom member, I do the daily 'zine (a newsletter, published at the convention once a day) and the fanzine library, and I like the rest of the concom, so that's always a good start. And over the last nine or ten years, we've really taken the con and kind of made something of it - it used to have a fairly, um, bad reputation amoungst a lot of pros, I hear, and while it's taken a lot of time and work, that's really gone now. It's "people are starting to come to Norwescon to do business"-gone, like at Worldcon, which is good - it makes it a lot easier to get better authors and artists as guests. There's still more work to be done - particularly in the art community - but I mean really, when you have Michael Whelan (14 Hugo awards, Best Artist) showing up, and he's not the artist guest of honour - that nod went to Jim Burns - you have to think that something's coming together.
This year was more personally fun than usual, though, and I don't think that had anything to do with anything I mentioned above. I think a lot of it was just that I've solved a nice collection of personal issues and made a lot of progress on some others, and lost the borderline-clinical depression. (I'll have a few specific things to say about that behind relevant filters.) Even places where I'd been having a good time, I wasn't quite having the kind of good time that I could have been having, which is, of course, the worst part about issues like I've had. The mental pain made everything stay just a bit removed - so for me, this was kind of like a Norwescon with clear eyes and the sound turned back up.
During most of the day, of course, things weren't so different. I have more energy, and like a lot of people I noticed all four days, I'm just happier pretty much all of the time. During setup on Wednesday, I was steamrolling over people left and right, and the best part was that they liked it, because now I apparently make it fun.
There's never that much to say about setup. It happened. I need to build new shelves for the library's display racks; the ones we have now still work, but the trim is breaking off and it's getting ugly. I might be able to refurbish the ones I have; I'll have to think about it. And issue zero of the 'zine didn't take very long and I got it to the office in plenty of time. Other than that... well, I stopped at Subway on the way there and only one clerk was on duty for a long line - the other guy had bailed on him, very annoying - but he saw me bopping along in place to the hiphop CD he'd put on the store speakers and spent half his time making googly eyes at me. This didn't seem to slow him down any as he wasn't exactly moving right along to start with. I wouldn't post about this at all, except, well, this is kind of new - or I think it's new, anyway, I might just have been too... disassociated from some of the things around me to notice before. But I think it's new, and besides, it's part of the theme. You'll see below.
Panels: I really am a GeekGrl, and so I'm all over the science tracks from year to year. This year's were really pretty good, despite a lot of the space sciences panels being kind of depressing, given, well, the current state of everything. Science GoH Dr. Landis's slideshow on Mars missions was something of an exception; it may all be robotic, but it's still cool. I just wish Rutan had made his announcement a few days earlier - I think it would have picked the mood up a bit.
I probably had more outright fun at the art and music panels. The best was going to "SF Pictionary" and discovering that Donna Barr turned it into "Sucker Pictionary," so whoever got the answer first had to go up and draw for the next word. This was brilliant. (It doesn't hurt that for the last half hour it was me alternating with someone else, usually Mimi and this guy from the audience who knew just scary amounts of SF trivia. My best clue: for the television show "V," drawing a "victory" hand sign. My "intimidate the audience" answer: when the trivia-master I mentioned above drew out the word lines and someone called out "A" because that's what you do when you see a short line, and I followed with "...Canticle for Leibowitz" and nailed it just from the word lengths. He thanked me for SAVING HIM as he had no idea what to do with that title. He had a similar response when I was drawing for "Ray Bradbury" - I drew the second line too long and reduced it, and he got it from the new lengths. Hee. ^_^
I throw in "Klingon Kareoke" with "music panels," I think, despite my better judgement. The Klingons started this a few years ago, and this year's feature song was "Shout at the Devil" (in the original Klingon, as always). Not as funny as "My Way" was a couple of years ago, which still makes me giggle just thinking about it, but still fun.
spazzkat got up and did "Chantilly Lace" (came in 8th overall), mamishka got ambitious and did a good rendition of "I Will Survive," which is, surprisingly, a really difficult song. Next year, they want to do a duet of "I Got You Babe," in Klingon. annathepiper and I did not try, tho' I did look at the songlist.More interactively,
annathepiper, mamishka, and I went to the instrumental jam and made a big enough impression that the filker nominally moderating the "panel" (which was a full musical jam and not a "panel" in any real sense of the word) stopped me in the hallway the next day and asked me where we'd been for the filk that night, and that how the group had really missed our "energy." So that had included a nice little shot of free egoboo! ^_^ I'd done a pretty good amount of semi-decent improv flute - fortunately, everything everybody else played was in D, so I didn't have to work too hard - and sang on most of the songs we led, except, of course, for Mari Mac, where I have a bitchin' flute part I wrote myself a couple of years ago. (I thought the first thing I'd ever written was a flute line for Billy Bragg's song, "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood," but I discovered only a few months ago that the MariMac fluteline I had isn't actually in the Great Big Sea recording I was hearing after all, so I was making up part of it in my very own head at the time and didn't even know. Such is music.)Really, for me, the event had egoboo all over it, even though I wasn't a pro or anything. People really, really paid attention to the daily 'zine this year. More surprisingly, a lot of people seem to have figured out that I'm the one doing it. And although I kept this year's pretty sedate, I got in a few whacks on annoying people in the content, so that was all nice and fun. And better: I had new dance clothes that I wore to the Saturday night parties for the first time. I'd bought these great silk pants with gold lame patterning, a nicely flattering white shirt and a lot of matching feather jewelry, and while it's really vain to talk about it, there was far, far more flirty than I'm used to getting. Enough, really, that I wasn't sure what to do about it a few times, because I'm just that much of a geek. But I'm brave enough to admit that I loved it. ^_^ Also, I got personally invited to the Merchants of Deva party - they advertise like mad, of course, but also go around handing personal invitations to people they'd like to see show up. And I wasn't even in black.
That's why I need new sandals, though. I really want sandals with that outfit, not black dance shoes, even if the dance shoes are pretty nice. (Hm. For walking around, sandals. For dancing, probably the black shoes, because I don't trust those people near my toes. Marf!)
What else?
I ran into a couple of people I haven't seen in a few years, a couple of whom were very surprised about everything but couldn't get over how much happier I looked - one in particular who used to be in our gaming group when she was at Microsoft, but who I haven't seen much in a couple of years. I also met a couple of people I know only over the net, or via someone else, and I drew for one of them, which is often fun.
I didn't buy anything at the art show, which makes me slightly sad. I wanted to go back again - I saw a new artist whose work interested me at least enough for a second look - but I didn't make the time. I did find two nice bracelets, an interesting short-story collection, and two Cheapass Games in the huxter room, though. (But no sandals. Curses! And when I saw some gloves I really liked, they were sold out in women's small sizes. I AM TEH L0S3.)
Other than that, I did my usuals; I made sure the library stayed in order and cranked out four very, very, very early-morning editions of the daily 'zine. I start the morning edition somewhere between 11pm and 1am the night before, and go... until it's done! This year's latest night kept me up until just short of 4am! W00t! So by Sunday, of course, I was completely and totally wiped, which made it the perfect time to go to my first Barcon ever, even though I don't drink. ('Cause I don't like it! The taste, I mean. Tho' I will drink some "Ye Olde Sight Gag" at any parties that offer it, because hey, I like that joke. ^_^ And despite trying, I've never managed to get drunk. Dammit. Stupid metabolism.)
Anyway.
The first rule of Barcon is that you do not talk about Barcon. The second rule of Barcon is that you must be at least this drunk - place hand at eye level - to follow the party upstairs. That's a new rule that I made up at this year's Barcon and it went over very well, so we'll see what happens next year. Of course, really, Barcon is just the concom getting together for a booze-up-and-riot in the hotel bar until they kick us out (this year's time: 93 minutes), at which point we go up to Judy's room where there is much more booze. This was the first year I'd done even the bar half, but even though I don't drink... y'know; when you're that wiped out, you don't really need the alcohol to enjoy big stupid drunken fun. Plus, again, being in a fundamentally better state of mind didn't hurt anything either.
And that was that. I went home, dumped stuff out of the car, and got to bed around 2am Monday morning. And now: for bed. Except I can't because the STUPID phone company - or the stupid upstream IP provider, I can't tell which without screaming at people for an hour - has b0rked the DSL line again. Bozons. Who do I have to kill down there to get a stable connection, anyway?
