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I seem to remember making a New Years resolution that I would post to LJ at least twice a week, or some such nonsense. Haven't been, have I? I've been reading it, but sporadically. I was going to do that daily so I wouldn't lose track of my friends lives. I'm afraid I'm going to have to prune my friends list - just can't keep up. As always, if you get pruned, don't take it personally.
Let's see - last weekend was Convergence, wasn't it? For me it was a good time, but not particularly memorable. Minicon party went well, in low-key way. In some past years we organized special party events in the room, but this year we just let it flow. We did manage to offer traditional blog both nights and a nice array of munchies. Beth P brought in a huge tub of meatballs both nights, which was a huge hit, rounding out our food offerings from just snacks to something pretty substantial. I love that giant oval electric cooker she has! We need to do that again next year. The new beds at the Rad, uh.... the Sher... are awesomely comfortable as seating, especially with the huge pile of pillows they now provide. In most respects I believe that the facilities at that hotel have been going downhill steadily for years, but the new beds are a distinct improvement. Best of all, the frames don't fall apart when you move them, like the old ones did.
Spent most of my time in our party room (no doubt accounting for much of the sense of sameness with last year). Here's a few things I remember from outside the room.
The Firefly panel was hugely attended and very good. Good enough to prod me into digging out our DVD set after the con and watching them all again, with Amber this time. (She had never seen the show, but is now hooked.) For a little while the panel was heading in the unfortunate direction of so many Star Trek panels, tending towards comments like: "And let's not forget the final scene in the Teapot Episode!" followed by satisfied sighs from the cognoscenti and bewildered looks from the more casual fans. However, the panel got past that after a while and started explaining what they were talking about, improving things considerably. There were some excellent comments from the audience as well. One I particularly remember was the observation that the overall theme of Buffy is "how to grow up" but the overall theme of Firefly is "how to get out of a past life that you don't want to be in anymore and find a direction for a new one."
I saw the last half of a panel on stereotypes in F&SF that was quite interesting, although suffering a little from the no-moderator syndrome. It was fascinating to me to see another side of Gypsy, someone I know from an entirely different context than programming. The panel topic continued into consuite conversations afterwards, which is always a good sign.
None of the GOHs were of interest to me, but I directed Richard to the panel with the authors of Comic Hero Shrink (or whatever it's called) which he greatly enjoyed. He's also a fan of Mercedes Lackey, but never managed to catch her on a panel.
As always, the Parties department was fearsomely well-organized and the party scene was lively as ever. We got our room assignment in advance via email, and checked in with no problem. Someone showed up soon afterwards with one of those always-appreciated Party Packs. The 4pm checkout time was MUCH appreciated. I never attended the pre-con party host orientations, figuring there wasn't much they could tell me about hosting a room party at this point. But I was wrong. If I'd gone to the orientation I would have learned the Shower Curtain Rod Trick.
Made a few tours of the party rooms, but nothing really stands out. It seemed like most rooms were either uncomfortably full or uncomfortably empty. Probably just bad timing on my part. I was a little put off by the apparent general expectation that party goers travel around the con with pockets full of dollars for "donation jars." Since I don't usually carry money on me in the evening I couldn't contribute, so I immediately felt uncomfortable in party rooms that were organized around a refreshment bar with signs posted for "suggested donations" per item. I don't have a problem with a discreetly placed tip jar, but it seems to me that if a group can't afford to pay for refreshments without asking for money that the first thing a party attendee hears when walking into the room should not be "Care to try one of these?"
One odd thing about this year's Convergence was that there was space set aside for a music circle, but it wasn't available until 2am! So we ended up hosting a small Saturday night music party in our room for the 2 or 3 hours before the designated music space opened up. This was fun, as it has been in the past, but the limited space is always a problem. It's hard to get more than a dozen people into the room at once, counting musicians and their instruments. The beds made great places for listeners to lounge (most notably myself, back in the corner hogging about half the pillows), but we probably should have arranged the beds differently to open up more space in the front of the room and make it easier for people to actually get to the beds.
After the musicians cleared out at 2, I shut the party room down so I could roam a little before collapsing. Had a nice time in the Cosmic Lounge making constructions out of glow sticks. Wandered into the big room full of deafeningly loud music to show off my glowsticks, but couldn't stay more than a couple of minutes. Even earplugs wouldn't have helped much - I was disturbed by the sensations in my solar plexus induced by (I guess) the incredibly amplified subsonic bass notes. Lordy. The hearing loss that my generation is now suffering from is going to seem like small potatoes compared to the epidemic of mass deafness that the current "younger generation" has to look forward to in middle age. Improved technology just keeps increasing the efficiency of recreational destruction of the body. On the other hand, the Dance Dance Revolution craze seems pretty darn wholesome. I watched one of those games wistfully for awhile, kind of wanting to try it but not wanting to make a total fool of myself in front of a roomful of people. Even after sleeping in a party room two doors down from a DDR room, I'm still in favor of that particular technological leap.
Overall, had a good time, but was more than ready to go home by midday Sunday. I was sad to have spent possibly the most pleasant weather weekend of the summer in the bowels of a hotel. Totally glad to have Monday off to recover. I had no good reason for being so exhausted - didn't really do that much, and got reasonably good night's sleep both nights. But I was laid out flat. Just the nervous exhaustion from all the people and the constant sensory overload I suppose. Recovered enough on Monday to go biking with a friend (lovely 10 mile ride through South St. Paul, a community I find quite mysterious and alluring). Made it to Powderhorn for the fireworks, but came right home afterwards and collapsed again. Tried unsuccessfully to connect with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
markiv1111, but we weren't able to find each other even with two cellphones. Don't feel bad, markiv1111, you didn't miss anything important. We just watched the pretty lights in the sky and went home. Maybe next year we'll go back to reading the Declaration of Independence.
Let's see - last weekend was Convergence, wasn't it? For me it was a good time, but not particularly memorable. Minicon party went well, in low-key way. In some past years we organized special party events in the room, but this year we just let it flow. We did manage to offer traditional blog both nights and a nice array of munchies. Beth P brought in a huge tub of meatballs both nights, which was a huge hit, rounding out our food offerings from just snacks to something pretty substantial. I love that giant oval electric cooker she has! We need to do that again next year. The new beds at the Rad, uh.... the Sher... are awesomely comfortable as seating, especially with the huge pile of pillows they now provide. In most respects I believe that the facilities at that hotel have been going downhill steadily for years, but the new beds are a distinct improvement. Best of all, the frames don't fall apart when you move them, like the old ones did.
Spent most of my time in our party room (no doubt accounting for much of the sense of sameness with last year). Here's a few things I remember from outside the room.
The Firefly panel was hugely attended and very good. Good enough to prod me into digging out our DVD set after the con and watching them all again, with Amber this time. (She had never seen the show, but is now hooked.) For a little while the panel was heading in the unfortunate direction of so many Star Trek panels, tending towards comments like: "And let's not forget the final scene in the Teapot Episode!" followed by satisfied sighs from the cognoscenti and bewildered looks from the more casual fans. However, the panel got past that after a while and started explaining what they were talking about, improving things considerably. There were some excellent comments from the audience as well. One I particularly remember was the observation that the overall theme of Buffy is "how to grow up" but the overall theme of Firefly is "how to get out of a past life that you don't want to be in anymore and find a direction for a new one."
I saw the last half of a panel on stereotypes in F&SF that was quite interesting, although suffering a little from the no-moderator syndrome. It was fascinating to me to see another side of Gypsy, someone I know from an entirely different context than programming. The panel topic continued into consuite conversations afterwards, which is always a good sign.
None of the GOHs were of interest to me, but I directed Richard to the panel with the authors of Comic Hero Shrink (or whatever it's called) which he greatly enjoyed. He's also a fan of Mercedes Lackey, but never managed to catch her on a panel.
As always, the Parties department was fearsomely well-organized and the party scene was lively as ever. We got our room assignment in advance via email, and checked in with no problem. Someone showed up soon afterwards with one of those always-appreciated Party Packs. The 4pm checkout time was MUCH appreciated. I never attended the pre-con party host orientations, figuring there wasn't much they could tell me about hosting a room party at this point. But I was wrong. If I'd gone to the orientation I would have learned the Shower Curtain Rod Trick.
Made a few tours of the party rooms, but nothing really stands out. It seemed like most rooms were either uncomfortably full or uncomfortably empty. Probably just bad timing on my part. I was a little put off by the apparent general expectation that party goers travel around the con with pockets full of dollars for "donation jars." Since I don't usually carry money on me in the evening I couldn't contribute, so I immediately felt uncomfortable in party rooms that were organized around a refreshment bar with signs posted for "suggested donations" per item. I don't have a problem with a discreetly placed tip jar, but it seems to me that if a group can't afford to pay for refreshments without asking for money that the first thing a party attendee hears when walking into the room should not be "Care to try one of these?"
One odd thing about this year's Convergence was that there was space set aside for a music circle, but it wasn't available until 2am! So we ended up hosting a small Saturday night music party in our room for the 2 or 3 hours before the designated music space opened up. This was fun, as it has been in the past, but the limited space is always a problem. It's hard to get more than a dozen people into the room at once, counting musicians and their instruments. The beds made great places for listeners to lounge (most notably myself, back in the corner hogging about half the pillows), but we probably should have arranged the beds differently to open up more space in the front of the room and make it easier for people to actually get to the beds.
After the musicians cleared out at 2, I shut the party room down so I could roam a little before collapsing. Had a nice time in the Cosmic Lounge making constructions out of glow sticks. Wandered into the big room full of deafeningly loud music to show off my glowsticks, but couldn't stay more than a couple of minutes. Even earplugs wouldn't have helped much - I was disturbed by the sensations in my solar plexus induced by (I guess) the incredibly amplified subsonic bass notes. Lordy. The hearing loss that my generation is now suffering from is going to seem like small potatoes compared to the epidemic of mass deafness that the current "younger generation" has to look forward to in middle age. Improved technology just keeps increasing the efficiency of recreational destruction of the body. On the other hand, the Dance Dance Revolution craze seems pretty darn wholesome. I watched one of those games wistfully for awhile, kind of wanting to try it but not wanting to make a total fool of myself in front of a roomful of people. Even after sleeping in a party room two doors down from a DDR room, I'm still in favor of that particular technological leap.
Overall, had a good time, but was more than ready to go home by midday Sunday. I was sad to have spent possibly the most pleasant weather weekend of the summer in the bowels of a hotel. Totally glad to have Monday off to recover. I had no good reason for being so exhausted - didn't really do that much, and got reasonably good night's sleep both nights. But I was laid out flat. Just the nervous exhaustion from all the people and the constant sensory overload I suppose. Recovered enough on Monday to go biking with a friend (lovely 10 mile ride through South St. Paul, a community I find quite mysterious and alluring). Made it to Powderhorn for the fireworks, but came right home afterwards and collapsed again. Tried unsuccessfully to connect with
markiv1111, but we weren't able to find each other even with two cellphones. Don't feel bad, markiv1111, you didn't miss anything important. We just watched the pretty lights in the sky and went home. Maybe next year we'll go back to reading the Declaration of Independence.
