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"In the beginning, there was the Word." So it is with me; I have always been an avid reader, preferring SF, historical fiction, military & naval history, and biographies to other genres, though I did go through a stretch where I was reading a lot of mainstream fiction. Gave up on it because most of it was depressing and/or tales of awful people doing awful things or living awful lives. (See Bright Lights, Big City or The First Deadly Sin.) I still do a lot of reading and have the Kindle and physical libraries to prove it.
Reading SF eventually (inevitably?) drew me into science fiction fandom. I attended conventions in the Baltimore/DC area and elsewhere from 1974 (Discon II, the Worldcon in DC) until 1983 when I got married and moved to Minnesota. There I became more active in traditional fanac: I pubbed a perszine, joined and dropped out and rejoined Stipple-APA, became involved in media fandom thanks to Space: Above & Beyond and the 59th Ready Reserve Squadron, went to a few Minicons, more Convergences and Diversicons and Arcanas, volunteered and served on staff for some of those, and eventually became heavily involved with anime fandom at Anime Iowa, so much so that I was one of the founders and chairmen of Anime Detour, which I remained on staff with until I left Minnesota for Virginia in 2007. I returned to Anime Detour (and continued to volunteer there) after moving to Virginia and Las Vegas, but eventually the staff there did my son dirty, and I severed all connections with them. I'll be going to Anime Fusion in Minnesota this year for my son's 40th birthday, but purely as a spectator. I dropped out of Stipple-APA after descending into abject poverty in Virginia, but after moving to Las Vegas in 2015 I became involved with the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F), sporadically contributed to N'APA, and eventually became treasurer along with wearing a few other fezzes. I am currently the chairman of Son of Silvercon, a small relaxicon in Las Vegas that aspires to become a mid-sized regional convention.
Fandom led me into historical boardgaming/wargaming, which was a big thing in the 1970s and 1980s before TSR bought SPI at bankruptcy and gutted the hobby. I was a D&D dungeonmaster and a Traveller referee; I was also interested in several other RPG (Twilight:2000, Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green) but never actually played them. Wargames are still around, but it's a lot harder to find opponents, and games, like everything else, have become a lot more expensive thanks to inflation and the fact that it's a niche hobby now. Mostly I play video games like Civilization and Hearts of Iron IV, which have some of the flavor of the old monstergames. I used to be involved with EVE-Online as part of Goonfleet, and was there when we broke Band of Brothers, lost Delve and fled to a new home, reorganized under Commissar Mittens and grew to be a great power in the game again, but I don't remember clearly when I stopped playing. Probably in 2018, when I got horribly sick and was homeless for a couple of months. Everyone I used to know in GF is out of the game now, and I don't feel any strong urge to go back. Aside from the aforementioned strategic video games, I also play Fate/Grand Order and Azur Lane on my phone, the former more than the latter because Azur Lane's story is confusing and silly by turns. Played Cookie Run for a while but it wound up being more grindy than cute, and Girls Frontline just didn't hold my interest. I should probably get out and play more Ingress because the walking would be good for me.
I came very late to baseball. As a kid, I was a fan of the Washington Senators, who moved to Texas in 1972 and took my interest in baseball with it. My now ex-wife was a Twins fan, though, and between her interest and Rotisserie baseball, I got back into it. For a few years I scored games at home for STATS, Inc. and published a newsletter on the independent minor leagues (which caused some road trips to towns like Aberdeen, Austin, Duluth, Fargo, and Madison) but that fell victim to Anime Detour, which pretty much ate my life from 2003-2007. I played fantasy baseball on Yahoo for a few years but dropped out of that; I was also involved in a Pursue the Pennant league until it fell apart in 1992. Nowadays, I casually follow the Nationals, Twins, and Red Sox, and am managing the Senators in a Dynasty League Baseball league run by fellow blogger Pete (Da Tech Guy), but Major League Baseball's current commissioner has alienated me with his woke stupidity, and I'm not much interested in seeing the A's when they move from Oakland to Las Vegas in a couple of years.
I don't watch a lot of TV or movies. Used to watch a lot when I was married, but that went by the wayside in favor of watching anime, and these days I watch very little because Hollywood isn't making a lot of stuff that interests me, and I find video games more rewarding. Someday I'll probably finish watching Fallout, because it's on Amazon Prime and the first five episodes, which I saw while visiting Stacy McCain this spring, seemed pretty decent. People tell me I should watch The Expanse, and maybe one of these days I will. Webcomics fall under this heading; I was really really interested in Girl Genius, Megatokyo, Erfworld, and a couple of other webcomics, but I fell out of the habit of following them (probably around the same time I stopped playing EVE-Online, for some of the same reasons) and I can't think of any webcomics I follow at all, with the exception of Terminal Lance, Clinic of Horrors, and occasional postings by Merryweather Media.
Not sure where this really fits in, but thanks to my Dad's final assignment with the JCS, I acquired an interest in nuclear weapons and power, which has led me to a seat on the board of the Nevada Security Site Advisory Board, a group of citizens who provide oversight to the Department of Energy's ongoing cleanup and monitoring work at the former Nevada Test Site. I don't get paid for it, but they do reimburse me for my travel expenses, which is nice, and the work is interesting, with a lot of callbacks to some weird history. For example, they're currently demolishing & cleaning up Test Cell C, which is where testing of NERVA rockets and Project Pluto went on during the early 1960s. Coincidentally, there's some discussion of nuclear rockets again in connection with Elon Musk's ambition of going to Mars.
I suppose I could also describe this as a report on the state of my fandoms, and it will probably wind up on the Substack in somewhat altered form...
A quiz about conventions
Jul. 31st, 2009 03:04 pmGanked from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rinnytintinny on Facebook.
It made me think for a minute about how much time I've spent at conventions and/or working on them.
( Would you like to know more? )
I don't tag people, but I am curious about my friends' experiences, especiallyoldermore experienced fans like badger2305, materia_indigo, chebutykin, qob...you know who you are, people.
rinnytintinny on Facebook.It made me think for a minute about how much time I've spent at conventions and/or working on them.
( Would you like to know more? )I don't tag people, but I am curious about my friends' experiences, especially
badger2305, materia_indigo, chebutykin, qob...you know who you are, people.
A quiz about conventions
Jul. 31st, 2009 03:04 pmGanked from rinnytintinny on Facebook.
It made me think for a minute about how much time I've spent at conventions and/or working on them.
( Would you like to know more? )
I don't tag people, but I am curious about my friends' experiences, especiallyoldermore experienced fans like badger2305, materia_indigo, chebutykin, qob...you know who you are, people.
rinnytintinny on Facebook.It made me think for a minute about how much time I've spent at conventions and/or working on them.
( Would you like to know more? )I don't tag people, but I am curious about my friends' experiences, especially
badger2305, materia_indigo, chebutykin, qob...you know who you are, people.The long bus ride home
Oct. 14th, 2006 12:11 pmDecided to skip the knees-up after work and proceed directly to the Leaning Tower of Pizza for what I thought was a 6 PM Arcana meeting - it turned out to be a 7 PM meeting, which meant I was long done with my appetizers and halfway through a large pizza by the time other folks started showing up. Well, at least I got to see the Tigers beat the A's for the pennant while I was sitting there. The meeting itself mostly revolved around goosing the attendance at Arcana, which has been bumping along between 30-50 people for the past six years. Part of that is because it's usually been scheduled opposite the MCBA Fallcon and the Twin Cities Marathon, but a bigger part of it is that they just don't do a very good job of promoting it. I have the feeling that's going to change - they have a couple of new folks who aren't also trying to start an anime convention (#^_^#) so that'll help. We may even see an Arcana room party at Anime Detour, which would be kind of cool. If they can get even one percent of our people to show up (and I'm sure at least 1% of the AD membership is into horror and fantasy) it'll give them a real shot in the arm. And that would be good.
By the time the meeting broke up at 9, I was feeling pretty tired and since the 4F bus goes right by the apartment on 82nd street I decided to just leave the Kia at the Park & Ride overnight and maybe go hike over there this afternoon. It would do me good...on the other hand, I might only walk as far as the bus stop and then catch a few buses over that way.
Slept in until 10 - don't feel any real urgency to get anything done, though I do need to get this place cleaned up a bit beforeqob comes by to borrow some books. Whenever that'll be.
By the time the meeting broke up at 9, I was feeling pretty tired and since the 4F bus goes right by the apartment on 82nd street I decided to just leave the Kia at the Park & Ride overnight and maybe go hike over there this afternoon. It would do me good...on the other hand, I might only walk as far as the bus stop and then catch a few buses over that way.
Slept in until 10 - don't feel any real urgency to get anything done, though I do need to get this place cleaned up a bit before
qob comes by to borrow some books. Whenever that'll be.
The long bus ride home
Oct. 14th, 2006 12:11 pmDecided to skip the knees-up after work and proceed directly to the Leaning Tower of Pizza for what I thought was a 6 PM Arcana meeting - it turned out to be a 7 PM meeting, which meant I was long done with my appetizers and halfway through a large pizza by the time other folks started showing up. Well, at least I got to see the Tigers beat the A's for the pennant while I was sitting there. The meeting itself mostly revolved around goosing the attendance at Arcana, which has been bumping along between 30-50 people for the past six years. Part of that is because it's usually been scheduled opposite the MCBA Fallcon and the Twin Cities Marathon, but a bigger part of it is that they just don't do a very good job of promoting it. I have the feeling that's going to change - they have a couple of new folks who aren't also trying to start an anime convention (#^_^#) so that'll help. We may even see an Arcana room party at Anime Detour, which would be kind of cool. If they can get even one percent of our people to show up (and I'm sure at least 1% of the AD membership is into horror and fantasy) it'll give them a real shot in the arm. And that would be good.
By the time the meeting broke up at 9, I was feeling pretty tired and since the 4F bus goes right by the apartment on 82nd street I decided to just leave the Kia at the Park & Ride overnight and maybe go hike over there this afternoon. It would do me good...on the other hand, I might only walk as far as the bus stop and then catch a few buses over that way.
Slept in until 10 - don't feel any real urgency to get anything done, though I do need to get this place cleaned up a bit beforeqob comes by to borrow some books. Whenever that'll be.
By the time the meeting broke up at 9, I was feeling pretty tired and since the 4F bus goes right by the apartment on 82nd street I decided to just leave the Kia at the Park & Ride overnight and maybe go hike over there this afternoon. It would do me good...on the other hand, I might only walk as far as the bus stop and then catch a few buses over that way.
Slept in until 10 - don't feel any real urgency to get anything done, though I do need to get this place cleaned up a bit before
qob comes by to borrow some books. Whenever that'll be.He's gonna be your Frankenstein
Oct. 2nd, 2006 10:30 amCouple of thoughts about this past weekend...
There may not be a big market for it, but I'd be interested in a Traffic Police Bounty Hunter game that allowed you to enforce the traffic laws. With a shotgun. Any PS2/XBox designers out there?
Apparently this has been a really awful year for a lot of the regulars at Arcana - illness, job losses, deaths in the families, and the like. I hope things turn out better for everyone before next year's convention rolls around!
Speaking of Arcana, attendance was up this year - P showing up yesterday pushed the attendance to 40, which Eric observed was 110% of the 2005 attendance. I think not having the convention opposite the MCBA Fallcon helped (certainlycajones had an easier time making it) and some people who had tried it in previous years but missed last year returned to the fold. Unfortunately, I won't be back for 2007, since I expect to be in Virginia, but hopefully I can rope in a couple of friends to help stage an Arcana East. I know there are quite a few of my friends who enjoy HPL and other dark fantasy, and I feel confident that we can get 40, 50, maybe a hundred people together for an east coast version of the Twin Cities' longest-running convention. Even if the Minn-Con Board declines to authorize my borrowing the name. ;)
P and I had dinner withmateria_indigo last night at Al Vento instead of joining the Arcana crowd at the Tavern on Grand. Al Vento is an acquired taste, and I mean that in the Bill James sense of "...all the entrees cost $20 and taste like the oregano was left out." Don't get me wrong, the Caesar salad was okay, as was the squash ravioli and the bruschetta (if you like bruschetta, which I personally don't, that much) and P says the tiramisu was the best she'd ever had, but my tastes in Italian food run more to the traditional Neapolitan/Sicilian style dished up at Buca and the late lamented Cafe di Napoli, so it wasn't my kind of place. stuckintraffik, you and the missus might want to give the place a try, since it's in your neighborhood and IIRC your tastes run to that sort of thing.
I've started Tim Powers' Declare, which I picked up at the Arcana auction. The Le Carre influence is as strong in this one as the Deighton influence was in Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archives. So far so good.
Staying up late Friday and Saturday night (to say nothing of the Cipro) really took it out of me, and I retired early after perusing more Arcana winnings: Charles Addams' The Groaning Board and Nightcrawlers. Plenty of stuff I hadn't seen before, including some grimly amusing pieces featuring the "Friendly Loan Company".
I could really use an icon to indicate happiness or pleasure...I think it says a few things about me that I don't have one, and that bothers me. I'll have to talk to P about this.
UPDATE 10/3/06 Spelling errors and title flubs fixed as well as an unclear reference in the restaurant review.
There may not be a big market for it, but I'd be interested in a Traffic Police Bounty Hunter game that allowed you to enforce the traffic laws. With a shotgun. Any PS2/XBox designers out there?
Apparently this has been a really awful year for a lot of the regulars at Arcana - illness, job losses, deaths in the families, and the like. I hope things turn out better for everyone before next year's convention rolls around!
Speaking of Arcana, attendance was up this year - P showing up yesterday pushed the attendance to 40, which Eric observed was 110% of the 2005 attendance. I think not having the convention opposite the MCBA Fallcon helped (certainly
cajones had an easier time making it) and some people who had tried it in previous years but missed last year returned to the fold. Unfortunately, I won't be back for 2007, since I expect to be in Virginia, but hopefully I can rope in a couple of friends to help stage an Arcana East. I know there are quite a few of my friends who enjoy HPL and other dark fantasy, and I feel confident that we can get 40, 50, maybe a hundred people together for an east coast version of the Twin Cities' longest-running convention. Even if the Minn-Con Board declines to authorize my borrowing the name. ;)P and I had dinner with
materia_indigo last night at Al Vento instead of joining the Arcana crowd at the Tavern on Grand. Al Vento is an acquired taste, and I mean that in the Bill James sense of "...all the entrees cost $20 and taste like the oregano was left out." Don't get me wrong, the Caesar salad was okay, as was the squash ravioli and the bruschetta (if you like bruschetta, which I personally don't, that much) and P says the tiramisu was the best she'd ever had, but my tastes in Italian food run more to the traditional Neapolitan/Sicilian style dished up at Buca and the late lamented Cafe di Napoli, so it wasn't my kind of place. stuckintraffik, you and the missus might want to give the place a try, since it's in your neighborhood and IIRC your tastes run to that sort of thing. I've started Tim Powers' Declare, which I picked up at the Arcana auction. The Le Carre influence is as strong in this one as the Deighton influence was in Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archives. So far so good.
Staying up late Friday and Saturday night (to say nothing of the Cipro) really took it out of me, and I retired early after perusing more Arcana winnings: Charles Addams' The Groaning Board and Nightcrawlers. Plenty of stuff I hadn't seen before, including some grimly amusing pieces featuring the "Friendly Loan Company".
I could really use an icon to indicate happiness or pleasure...I think it says a few things about me that I don't have one, and that bothers me. I'll have to talk to P about this.
UPDATE 10/3/06 Spelling errors and title flubs fixed as well as an unclear reference in the restaurant review.
He's gonna be your Frankenstein
Oct. 2nd, 2006 10:30 amCouple of thoughts about this past weekend...
There may not be a big market for it, but I'd be interested in a Traffic Police Bounty Hunter game that allowed you to enforce the traffic laws. With a shotgun. Any PS2/XBox designers out there?
Apparently this has been a really awful year for a lot of the regulars at Arcana - illness, job losses, deaths in the families, and the like. I hope things turn out better for everyone before next year's convention rolls around!
Speaking of Arcana, attendance was up this year - P showing up yesterday pushed the attendance to 40, which Eric observed was 110% of the 2005 attendance. I think not having the convention opposite the MCBA Fallcon helped (certainlycajones had an easier time making it) and some people who had tried it in previous years but missed last year returned to the fold. Unfortunately, I won't be back for 2007, since I expect to be in Virginia, but hopefully I can rope in a couple of friends to help stage an Arcana East. I know there are quite a few of my friends who enjoy HPL and other dark fantasy, and I feel confident that we can get 40, 50, maybe a hundred people together for an east coast version of the Twin Cities' longest-running convention. Even if the Minn-Con Board declines to authorize my borrowing the name. ;)
P and I had dinner withmateria_indigo last night at Al Vento instead of joining the Arcana crowd at the Tavern on Grand. Al Vento is an acquired taste, and I mean that in the Bill James sense of "...all the entrees cost $20 and taste like the oregano was left out." Don't get me wrong, the Caesar salad was okay, as was the squash ravioli and the bruschetta (if you like bruschetta, which I personally don't, that much) and P says the tiramisu was the best she'd ever had, but my tastes in Italian food run more to the traditional Neapolitan/Sicilian style dished up at Buca and the late lamented Cafe di Napoli, so it wasn't my kind of place. stuckintraffik, you and the missus might want to give the place a try, since it's in your neighborhood and IIRC your tastes run to that sort of thing.
I've started Tim Powers' Declare, which I picked up at the Arcana auction. The Le Carre influence is as strong in this one as the Deighton influence was in Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archives. So far so good.
Staying up late Friday and Saturday night (to say nothing of the Cipro) really took it out of me, and I retired early after perusing more Arcana winnings: Charles Addams' The Groaning Board and Nightcrawlers. Plenty of stuff I hadn't seen before, including some grimly amusing pieces featuring the "Friendly Loan Company".
I could really use an icon to indicate happiness or pleasure...I think it says a few things about me that I don't have one, and that bothers me. I'll have to talk to P about this.
UPDATE 10/3/06 Spelling errors and title flubs fixed as well as an unclear reference in the restaurant review.
There may not be a big market for it, but I'd be interested in a Traffic Police Bounty Hunter game that allowed you to enforce the traffic laws. With a shotgun. Any PS2/XBox designers out there?
Apparently this has been a really awful year for a lot of the regulars at Arcana - illness, job losses, deaths in the families, and the like. I hope things turn out better for everyone before next year's convention rolls around!
Speaking of Arcana, attendance was up this year - P showing up yesterday pushed the attendance to 40, which Eric observed was 110% of the 2005 attendance. I think not having the convention opposite the MCBA Fallcon helped (certainly
cajones had an easier time making it) and some people who had tried it in previous years but missed last year returned to the fold. Unfortunately, I won't be back for 2007, since I expect to be in Virginia, but hopefully I can rope in a couple of friends to help stage an Arcana East. I know there are quite a few of my friends who enjoy HPL and other dark fantasy, and I feel confident that we can get 40, 50, maybe a hundred people together for an east coast version of the Twin Cities' longest-running convention. Even if the Minn-Con Board declines to authorize my borrowing the name. ;)P and I had dinner with
materia_indigo last night at Al Vento instead of joining the Arcana crowd at the Tavern on Grand. Al Vento is an acquired taste, and I mean that in the Bill James sense of "...all the entrees cost $20 and taste like the oregano was left out." Don't get me wrong, the Caesar salad was okay, as was the squash ravioli and the bruschetta (if you like bruschetta, which I personally don't, that much) and P says the tiramisu was the best she'd ever had, but my tastes in Italian food run more to the traditional Neapolitan/Sicilian style dished up at Buca and the late lamented Cafe di Napoli, so it wasn't my kind of place. stuckintraffik, you and the missus might want to give the place a try, since it's in your neighborhood and IIRC your tastes run to that sort of thing. I've started Tim Powers' Declare, which I picked up at the Arcana auction. The Le Carre influence is as strong in this one as the Deighton influence was in Charles Stross' The Atrocity Archives. So far so good.
Staying up late Friday and Saturday night (to say nothing of the Cipro) really took it out of me, and I retired early after perusing more Arcana winnings: Charles Addams' The Groaning Board and Nightcrawlers. Plenty of stuff I hadn't seen before, including some grimly amusing pieces featuring the "Friendly Loan Company".
I could really use an icon to indicate happiness or pleasure...I think it says a few things about me that I don't have one, and that bothers me. I'll have to talk to P about this.
UPDATE 10/3/06 Spelling errors and title flubs fixed as well as an unclear reference in the restaurant review.
Well, that went well. No, really!
Oct. 1st, 2006 12:13 pmIt didn't start well. Any day that starts with only six hours of sleep because somebody else has to go to work early is officially teh suck. I compounded that by staying up and playing Civicrack for a couple of hours, but a substantial breakfast and a big cup of Guatemala balanced that out, and I even managed to rewrite my apazine so that I wound up with four pages.
Much driving around ensued. P wanted to do stuff at the apartment after showering, but I drew the line - I had a 2 PM collation to be hosting, and no delays would be tolerated. Between the Kinko's run, refueling, lunch on the run, and swinging back by the apartment for a clipboard & tape (which wound up not being used) and dropping off P's apartment keys, I barely made it back to Arcana and the collation by 2 PM. I did, though, and things went pretty smoothly. There was a good turnout - pretty much all the in-town members except for Marjorie, IIRC.materia_indigo and Rick both took spec copies, so we may even have some new blood for the next issue. Yay!
( And then a lot of Arcana stuff happened. )
And I'll be back at it this afternoon after showering & dressing. TTFN.
Much driving around ensued. P wanted to do stuff at the apartment after showering, but I drew the line - I had a 2 PM collation to be hosting, and no delays would be tolerated. Between the Kinko's run, refueling, lunch on the run, and swinging back by the apartment for a clipboard & tape (which wound up not being used) and dropping off P's apartment keys, I barely made it back to Arcana and the collation by 2 PM. I did, though, and things went pretty smoothly. There was a good turnout - pretty much all the in-town members except for Marjorie, IIRC.
materia_indigo and Rick both took spec copies, so we may even have some new blood for the next issue. Yay! ( And then a lot of Arcana stuff happened. )And I'll be back at it this afternoon after showering & dressing. TTFN.
Well, that went well. No, really!
Oct. 1st, 2006 12:13 pmIt didn't start well. Any day that starts with only six hours of sleep because somebody else has to go to work early is officially teh suck. I compounded that by staying up and playing Civicrack for a couple of hours, but a substantial breakfast and a big cup of Guatemala balanced that out, and I even managed to rewrite my apazine so that I wound up with four pages.
Much driving around ensued. P wanted to do stuff at the apartment after showering, but I drew the line - I had a 2 PM collation to be hosting, and no delays would be tolerated. Between the Kinko's run, refueling, lunch on the run, and swinging back by the apartment for a clipboard & tape (which wound up not being used) and dropping off P's apartment keys, I barely made it back to Arcana and the collation by 2 PM. I did, though, and things went pretty smoothly. There was a good turnout - pretty much all the in-town members except for Marjorie, IIRC.materia_indigo and Rick both took spec copies, so we may even have some new blood for the next issue. Yay!
( And then a lot of Arcana stuff happened. )
And I'll be back at it this afternoon after showering & dressing. TTFN.
Much driving around ensued. P wanted to do stuff at the apartment after showering, but I drew the line - I had a 2 PM collation to be hosting, and no delays would be tolerated. Between the Kinko's run, refueling, lunch on the run, and swinging back by the apartment for a clipboard & tape (which wound up not being used) and dropping off P's apartment keys, I barely made it back to Arcana and the collation by 2 PM. I did, though, and things went pretty smoothly. There was a good turnout - pretty much all the in-town members except for Marjorie, IIRC.
materia_indigo and Rick both took spec copies, so we may even have some new blood for the next issue. Yay! ( And then a lot of Arcana stuff happened. )And I'll be back at it this afternoon after showering & dressing. TTFN.
yeah...now I'm drifting slowly
Sep. 30th, 2006 09:09 amTook half a day off from work yesterday to take care of business on P's behalf and then headed over to Bandana Square for Arcana. It was pretty slow, as Friday afternoons usually are; the high point was seeing Dead of Night and going out to Dino's for gyros and falafel. I passed up Opening Ceremonies and spent the rest of the evening talking to materia_indigo and Mike about their trip to Japan, languages, weird job postings at the U, and my plans for next year, which MI hadn't previously been aware of. (Neither of us knew the other had LJ. @_@) Got home a little before 0100 and got six hours of uneasy sleep before crawling out of bed to run P into work.
If I had any brains I would have just gone home and back to bed, but the combined pull of the new Caribou on Penn and breakfast at McD's was too much to resist. Ahhh, Guatemala. Someday I will do horrible things with Photoshop and animation software in your honor. Anyway, now that I've eaten and performed the morning health maintenance ritual, I think I'll clean up and make this StippleAPA a little more than the excusezine I was originally planning.
Or not. The lure of Civicrack is strong.
materia_indigo and Mike about their trip to Japan, languages, weird job postings at the U, and my plans for next year, which MI hadn't previously been aware of. (Neither of us knew the other had LJ. @_@) Got home a little before 0100 and got six hours of uneasy sleep before crawling out of bed to run P into work. If I had any brains I would have just gone home and back to bed, but the combined pull of the new Caribou on Penn and breakfast at McD's was too much to resist. Ahhh, Guatemala. Someday I will do horrible things with Photoshop and animation software in your honor. Anyway, now that I've eaten and performed the morning health maintenance ritual, I think I'll clean up and make this StippleAPA a little more than the excusezine I was originally planning.
Or not. The lure of Civicrack is strong.
yeah...now I'm drifting slowly
Sep. 30th, 2006 09:09 amTook half a day off from work yesterday to take care of business on P's behalf and then headed over to Bandana Square for Arcana. It was pretty slow, as Friday afternoons usually are; the high point was seeing Dead of Night and going out to Dino's for gyros and falafel. I passed up Opening Ceremonies and spent the rest of the evening talking to materia_indigo and Mike about their trip to Japan, languages, weird job postings at the U, and my plans for next year, which MI hadn't previously been aware of. (Neither of us knew the other had LJ. @_@) Got home a little before 0100 and got six hours of uneasy sleep before crawling out of bed to run P into work.
If I had any brains I would have just gone home and back to bed, but the combined pull of the new Caribou on Penn and breakfast at McD's was too much to resist. Ahhh, Guatemala. Someday I will do horrible things with Photoshop and animation software in your honor. Anyway, now that I've eaten and performed the morning health maintenance ritual, I think I'll clean up and make this StippleAPA a little more than the excusezine I was originally planning.
Or not. The lure of Civicrack is strong.
materia_indigo and Mike about their trip to Japan, languages, weird job postings at the U, and my plans for next year, which MI hadn't previously been aware of. (Neither of us knew the other had LJ. @_@) Got home a little before 0100 and got six hours of uneasy sleep before crawling out of bed to run P into work. If I had any brains I would have just gone home and back to bed, but the combined pull of the new Caribou on Penn and breakfast at McD's was too much to resist. Ahhh, Guatemala. Someday I will do horrible things with Photoshop and animation software in your honor. Anyway, now that I've eaten and performed the morning health maintenance ritual, I think I'll clean up and make this StippleAPA a little more than the excusezine I was originally planning.
Or not. The lure of Civicrack is strong.
It's been rescheduled this year, partially (I think) because it conflicted with the MCBA Fallcon; it's now September 29 - October 1 at the former Holiday Inn Express Bandana Square, which is now a Best Western. I'm not on the concom this year, but I'm still going despite the fact that this month's AD staff meeting falls on the Saturday afternoon right smack in the middle of the convention. So it goes. The StippleAPA collation will be going on at the convention, which is another reason I'll be missing the staff meeting...
Anyway, the whole point of this post was to promote the fact that the concom is extending the pre-reg deadline to 9/22, so you can either get me a check for $25 or wait until the following Friday and cough up an extra $5, since the walk-up rate is only $30. I've been going there for a few years now, and I think that it may well be my favorite local convention, Detour and Convergence notwithstanding. If you're into horror and dark fantasy, you really ought to stop by; if you're not, pass the word to your friends who are.
Anyway, the whole point of this post was to promote the fact that the concom is extending the pre-reg deadline to 9/22, so you can either get me a check for $25 or wait until the following Friday and cough up an extra $5, since the walk-up rate is only $30. I've been going there for a few years now, and I think that it may well be my favorite local convention, Detour and Convergence notwithstanding. If you're into horror and dark fantasy, you really ought to stop by; if you're not, pass the word to your friends who are.
It's been rescheduled this year, partially (I think) because it conflicted with the MCBA Fallcon; it's now September 29 - October 1 at the former Holiday Inn Express Bandana Square, which is now a Best Western. I'm not on the concom this year, but I'm still going despite the fact that this month's AD staff meeting falls on the Saturday afternoon right smack in the middle of the convention. So it goes. The StippleAPA collation will be going on at the convention, which is another reason I'll be missing the staff meeting...
Anyway, the whole point of this post was to promote the fact that the concom is extending the pre-reg deadline to 9/22, so you can either get me a check for $25 or wait until the following Friday and cough up an extra $5, since the walk-up rate is only $30. I've been going there for a few years now, and I think that it may well be my favorite local convention, Detour and Convergence notwithstanding. If you're into horror and dark fantasy, you really ought to stop by; if you're not, pass the word to your friends who are.
Anyway, the whole point of this post was to promote the fact that the concom is extending the pre-reg deadline to 9/22, so you can either get me a check for $25 or wait until the following Friday and cough up an extra $5, since the walk-up rate is only $30. I've been going there for a few years now, and I think that it may well be my favorite local convention, Detour and Convergence notwithstanding. If you're into horror and dark fantasy, you really ought to stop by; if you're not, pass the word to your friends who are.
The Anime Detour vision thing
Mar. 22nd, 2005 03:53 pmThis is sort of a follow-on to my previous post about anime fandom. You may want to go back and read that; it might make this more understandable.
( Read more... )
Comments solicited and appreciated.
( Read more... )Comments solicited and appreciated.
Arcana: My bloody valentine
Oct. 4th, 2004 11:13 amOf the half-dozen conventions in Minnesota and Iowa that I get to with any kind of regularity, I sometimes think I like Arcana the best. This is strange, to say the least, because I'm not really a big horror fan. Sure, I've read pretty much all the Lovecraft I could get my hands on, watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer obsessively, and have been known to enjoy the occasional Stephen King novel, but I don't really know the big names in the field and have only a passing familiarity with horror movies. So why is it that every October I find myself going over to the Holiday Inn Express at Bandana Square and hanging out with the regulars at this tiny convention (40 people most years, 51 this year, which was considered a raging success) until all hours?
Well, it's more like a large house party than a small convention - there's one track of programming, a dealer's room which seems to mainly cater to collectors (specialty publishing house Fedogan & Bremer always has a table), the hospitality suite (my responsibility these days) and Krushenko's. The panels are more like discussion groups than panels, since the audience often knows as much about the subjects being discussed as the panelists, and the Guest of Honor usually says something in their closing remarks to the effect that we have as many smart, intelligent audience members as conventions many times our size. (Joe Bob Briggs, 2002 and Tim Powers, 2004; maybe David Drake and Gahan Wilson as well, though I don't remember for sure.)
So if you have a taste for horror, either literary or media style, you could do a lot worse than Arcana. It's a nice little convention, right in your back yard. I'll have the cheese lumps and crackers waiting for you. ^_^
Well, it's more like a large house party than a small convention - there's one track of programming, a dealer's room which seems to mainly cater to collectors (specialty publishing house Fedogan & Bremer always has a table), the hospitality suite (my responsibility these days) and Krushenko's. The panels are more like discussion groups than panels, since the audience often knows as much about the subjects being discussed as the panelists, and the Guest of Honor usually says something in their closing remarks to the effect that we have as many smart, intelligent audience members as conventions many times our size. (Joe Bob Briggs, 2002 and Tim Powers, 2004; maybe David Drake and Gahan Wilson as well, though I don't remember for sure.)
So if you have a taste for horror, either literary or media style, you could do a lot worse than Arcana. It's a nice little convention, right in your back yard. I'll have the cheese lumps and crackers waiting for you. ^_^
Arcana: My bloody valentine
Oct. 4th, 2004 11:13 amOf the half-dozen conventions in Minnesota and Iowa that I get to with any kind of regularity, I sometimes think I like Arcana the best. This is strange, to say the least, because I'm not really a big horror fan. Sure, I've read pretty much all the Lovecraft I could get my hands on, watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer obsessively, and have been known to enjoy the occasional Stephen King novel, but I don't really know the big names in the field and have only a passing familiarity with horror movies. So why is it that every October I find myself going over to the Holiday Inn Express at Bandana Square and hanging out with the regulars at this tiny convention (40 people most years, 51 this year, which was considered a raging success) until all hours?
Well, it's more like a large house party than a small convention - there's one track of programming, a dealer's room which seems to mainly cater to collectors (specialty publishing house Fedogan & Bremer always has a table), the hospitality suite (my responsibility these days) and Krushenko's. The panels are more like discussion groups than panels, since the audience often knows as much about the subjects being discussed as the panelists, and the Guest of Honor usually says something in their closing remarks to the effect that we have as many smart, intelligent audience members as conventions many times our size. (Joe Bob Briggs, 2002 and Tim Powers, 2004; maybe David Drake and Gahan Wilson as well, though I don't remember for sure.)
So if you have a taste for horror, either literary or media style, you could do a lot worse than Arcana. It's a nice little convention, right in your back yard. I'll have the cheese lumps and crackers waiting for you. ^_^
Well, it's more like a large house party than a small convention - there's one track of programming, a dealer's room which seems to mainly cater to collectors (specialty publishing house Fedogan & Bremer always has a table), the hospitality suite (my responsibility these days) and Krushenko's. The panels are more like discussion groups than panels, since the audience often knows as much about the subjects being discussed as the panelists, and the Guest of Honor usually says something in their closing remarks to the effect that we have as many smart, intelligent audience members as conventions many times our size. (Joe Bob Briggs, 2002 and Tim Powers, 2004; maybe David Drake and Gahan Wilson as well, though I don't remember for sure.)
So if you have a taste for horror, either literary or media style, you could do a lot worse than Arcana. It's a nice little convention, right in your back yard. I'll have the cheese lumps and crackers waiting for you. ^_^
Arcana, day 3
Oct. 3rd, 2004 11:36 pmRolled out of bed before the alarm went off at 9, showered, dressed, found out phoenixalpha had caught whatever virus had made me miserable all last week and wasn't coming to Arcana, so I grabbed another McBreakfast with McHello Kitty and got over to the hotel around 1130. Did hospitality suite-type stuff for about half an hour and then went to square accounts with Dwayne, the convention treasurer. I owed Arcana $65 for the auction (yeah, I went a little overboard) and they owed me a little over $100 for pop and munchies.
After that I actually spent most of the afternoon in panels listening to Tim Powers and other authors talk about workshops such as Clarion, religion (a very good discussion that also featured Lyda Morehouse) and of course closing ceremonies, after which a bunch of us decamped to Tavern on Grand. The parking sucks and so do the chairs (eh, I need a smaller butt anyway) but the food is very good and the service was okay.
I stuck around for the early part of the Undead Dog Party and watched The Devil Bat starring Bela Lugosi as The Mad Scientist With A Deadly Grudge, after which Tim and Serena Powers said good-night and I followed their example, taking my cooler and my dolly and the unused food trays and going home. And so to bed...
phoenixalpha had caught whatever virus had made me miserable all last week and wasn't coming to Arcana, so I grabbed another McBreakfast with McHello Kitty and got over to the hotel around 1130. Did hospitality suite-type stuff for about half an hour and then went to square accounts with Dwayne, the convention treasurer. I owed Arcana $65 for the auction (yeah, I went a little overboard) and they owed me a little over $100 for pop and munchies. After that I actually spent most of the afternoon in panels listening to Tim Powers and other authors talk about workshops such as Clarion, religion (a very good discussion that also featured Lyda Morehouse) and of course closing ceremonies, after which a bunch of us decamped to Tavern on Grand. The parking sucks and so do the chairs (eh, I need a smaller butt anyway) but the food is very good and the service was okay.
I stuck around for the early part of the Undead Dog Party and watched The Devil Bat starring Bela Lugosi as The Mad Scientist With A Deadly Grudge, after which Tim and Serena Powers said good-night and I followed their example, taking my cooler and my dolly and the unused food trays and going home. And so to bed...
Arcana, day 2
Oct. 3rd, 2004 10:01 amGot up early enough on Saturday to make the "Horror and Rock" panel but unfortunately my jeans failed me (probably not for the last time) so phoenixalpha got her trip to the surplus store after all. I bought a pair of 5XL black SWAT pants to replace the jeans, phoenixalpha got the jungle boots she'd been lusting after, and we continued on to Arcana, arriving about 1130 and realizing on arrival that I' managed to lose my key to the Hospitality Suite. Arrrgh. Got new one from the desk, got ice for the bathtub, and carried on until 1 PM when the "Horror in Anime" panel came around. That went well and picked up attendance as it went along, and then we all hung out until phoenixalpha, Anne Waltz, Mike Waltz and I went out for dinner at the Pho 79, which has replaced the Caravelle in the strip mall on Raymond & Energy Park Drive. The pho was excellent, the spring rolls were very different and really good, and of course the company was great.
Attendance at Arcana seems to be up this year from last year, and I don't know if that's because of Tim Powers (who is very funny and a great GoH) or just random factors. Oddly, it seems to have more energy than Diversicon did, and there seems to be more going on although there's still just the one function room, the dealer's room, Krushenko's and the hospitality suite. The Holiday Inn Express is under new management and seems more helpful, friendly and accommodating this year than in previous years; there are a lot more plants around the lobby and the security guards aren't chasing people out of the atrium at 11 PM as they have in previous years. *finishes coffee, yawns* Time to hit the shower and get back to the convention.
phoenixalpha got her trip to the surplus store after all. I bought a pair of 5XL black SWAT pants to replace the jeans, phoenixalpha got the jungle boots she'd been lusting after, and we continued on to Arcana, arriving about 1130 and realizing on arrival that I' managed to lose my key to the Hospitality Suite. Arrrgh. Got new one from the desk, got ice for the bathtub, and carried on until 1 PM when the "Horror in Anime" panel came around. That went well and picked up attendance as it went along, and then we all hung out until phoenixalpha, Anne Waltz, Mike Waltz and I went out for dinner at the Pho 79, which has replaced the Caravelle in the strip mall on Raymond & Energy Park Drive. The pho was excellent, the spring rolls were very different and really good, and of course the company was great. Attendance at Arcana seems to be up this year from last year, and I don't know if that's because of Tim Powers (who is very funny and a great GoH) or just random factors. Oddly, it seems to have more energy than Diversicon did, and there seems to be more going on although there's still just the one function room, the dealer's room, Krushenko's and the hospitality suite. The Holiday Inn Express is under new management and seems more helpful, friendly and accommodating this year than in previous years; there are a lot more plants around the lobby and the security guards aren't chasing people out of the atrium at 11 PM as they have in previous years. *finishes coffee, yawns* Time to hit the shower and get back to the convention.
Arcana, day 1
Oct. 2nd, 2004 09:10 amBegan late for phoenixalpha and I since we were waiting for the cable guy to perform his arcane rituals and open up the Path of Broadband, which he did around 2 PM. We then hit Sam's Club for the bulk of the Arcana hospitality suite supplies, and muddled our way backwards through the rush hour up to the Holiday Inn Express at Bandana Square. Eric pointed us at the Hospitality Suite and we proceeded to offload all the pop and munchies, after which we laid out the snacks and iced down the pop in the tub. phoenixalpha found wireless and began catching up on e-mail, Slashdot, and other essentials fo her online life while I went out and mingled.
Around six the guys from OdysseyCon showed up and began decorating the room, setting up a coffee machine, a boombox and a bar, and since they seemed to have things well in hand we decamped at 9 PM to head home, grab shoes forphoenixalpha since it's getting a tad cold for sandals, and do a late dinner at Wendy's en route. We also wound up acquiring a copy of Bubba Ho-Tep, which may be the Dead Dog Movie Feature on Sunday.
This morning we need to get up, get in for the 10 AM panel on Horror in Rock (alas, it shall be Root-less) and do a quick inventory of ice & snackage so we can replenish it if needed before the Horror in Anime panel at 1. Unless Sybil slept over and took care of it already.
Cable broadband is scarily quick compared to DSL .
phoenixalpha and I since we were waiting for the cable guy to perform his arcane rituals and open up the Path of Broadband, which he did around 2 PM. We then hit Sam's Club for the bulk of the Arcana hospitality suite supplies, and muddled our way backwards through the rush hour up to the Holiday Inn Express at Bandana Square. Eric pointed us at the Hospitality Suite and we proceeded to offload all the pop and munchies, after which we laid out the snacks and iced down the pop in the tub. phoenixalpha found wireless and began catching up on e-mail, Slashdot, and other essentials fo her online life while I went out and mingled. Around six the guys from OdysseyCon showed up and began decorating the room, setting up a coffee machine, a boombox and a bar, and since they seemed to have things well in hand we decamped at 9 PM to head home, grab shoes for
phoenixalpha since it's getting a tad cold for sandals, and do a late dinner at Wendy's en route. We also wound up acquiring a copy of Bubba Ho-Tep, which may be the Dead Dog Movie Feature on Sunday. This morning we need to get up, get in for the 10 AM panel on Horror in Rock (alas, it shall be Root-less) and do a quick inventory of ice & snackage so we can replenish it if needed before the Horror in Anime panel at 1. Unless Sybil slept over and took care of it already.
Cable broadband is scarily quick compared to DSL .
