Nasfic, Day One
Aug. 6th, 2007 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowRather than attempt a single monster post covering the entire convention, I'm going to break it down. Under the cut: the first day. (I spent today with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
filkferengi's husband and mbernardi at Cahokia Mounds. This involved hiking around and up and down, all in 90F+ weather. There is no way I can write up the whole con in one go tonight.)
The day did not begin well.
The idea was thatmbernardi and I would commute down to Collinsville from Edwardsville on the #19 bus. The #19, however, does not pass near the convention center, so I did a little poking around and concluded that getting off, mm, let's just say right there would be the best bet; a bit of a walk would be needed, but it didn't look too bad - maybe a couple of miles.
Looks were deceiving. It was more like four or five miles, and poormbernardi wound up with blisters. However, we did, at last, arrive at the convention center, only a few minutes after noon. As mbernardi and I had different plans, we separated; I almost immediately ran into filkferengi.
My plans for the next couple of hours were immediately disarranged. Rather than going to the panel on ideas that should have worked ("As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly!"), I found myself being introduced to Peter S. Beagle. He was perfectly friendly, but I was unable to say much.... (I did sign up for his Kaffeeklatch, scheduled for the following afternoon.)
Around this time I also paid my first visit to the Dealer's Room, picking up a dozen or so books and the CD "OKeltic", a charity disc put together by Oklahoma filkers.
The first bit of programming that I managed to attend was "Life at the Extremes", a panel on extremophiles - the life that appears around "hot smoker" vents on the ocean floor, the moss that grows near Chernobyl, and the like. It was very informative; the panelists switched back and forth between terrestrial extremophiles and putative extraterrestrial life.
Next up was "I'd Rather Be a Cyborg than a Goddess". The description of the panel in the program was deemed unsatisfactory by the panelists, so they went off on whatever tangents seemed appropriate, mostly pertaining to feminism and F/SF. It was entertaining, and I learned how to pronounce R. M. Meluch's last name ("MEL'k"). [I didn't recognize any of the other panelists, though I did meet Lee Martindale later.]
By now it was 6:00, and I wandered off to Zapata's, a nearby Mexican restaurant, where I dined on carnitas and Dos Equis.
At 7:00mbernardi and I hooked up again to watch the opening ceremonies; the various Guests of Honor were introduced via a Frankenstein skit, each being deemed an unacceptable brain-donor.
Afterwards, I went to "Dust Off That Name", a panel on forgotten authors. Each of the panelists nominated several people who have lapsed into undeserved obscurity; unfortunately, I was already familiar with most of the authors mentioned. Beagle was among the panelists, and was in fine form.
Hm, hmm... I can't find any notes on what I did afterward. I do recall that sometime around 11:00mbernardi and I wandered over to the Holiday Inn to find a phone from which to call a cab. There, a pay phone refused to accept my money, and when the desk clerk offered me a cell phone I proved incapable of using it. We did, eventually, manage to contact the cab company....
Also at some point,filkferengi introduced me to Filthy Pierre. (It may have been a reintroduction; he looked at least vaguely familiar.) The significance of this, for later events, was that he was holding a schedule for the #15 bus, a Collinsville local I hadn't known about. This was to make Friday a much better day.
And so to bed.
filkferengi's husband and mbernardi at Cahokia Mounds. This involved hiking around and up and down, all in 90F+ weather. There is no way I can write up the whole con in one go tonight.)The day did not begin well.
The idea was that
mbernardi and I would commute down to Collinsville from Edwardsville on the #19 bus. The #19, however, does not pass near the convention center, so I did a little poking around and concluded that getting off, mm, let's just say right there would be the best bet; a bit of a walk would be needed, but it didn't look too bad - maybe a couple of miles.Looks were deceiving. It was more like four or five miles, and poor
mbernardi wound up with blisters. However, we did, at last, arrive at the convention center, only a few minutes after noon. As mbernardi and I had different plans, we separated; I almost immediately ran into filkferengi.My plans for the next couple of hours were immediately disarranged. Rather than going to the panel on ideas that should have worked ("As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly!"), I found myself being introduced to Peter S. Beagle. He was perfectly friendly, but I was unable to say much.... (I did sign up for his Kaffeeklatch, scheduled for the following afternoon.)
Around this time I also paid my first visit to the Dealer's Room, picking up a dozen or so books and the CD "OKeltic", a charity disc put together by Oklahoma filkers.
The first bit of programming that I managed to attend was "Life at the Extremes", a panel on extremophiles - the life that appears around "hot smoker" vents on the ocean floor, the moss that grows near Chernobyl, and the like. It was very informative; the panelists switched back and forth between terrestrial extremophiles and putative extraterrestrial life.
Next up was "I'd Rather Be a Cyborg than a Goddess". The description of the panel in the program was deemed unsatisfactory by the panelists, so they went off on whatever tangents seemed appropriate, mostly pertaining to feminism and F/SF. It was entertaining, and I learned how to pronounce R. M. Meluch's last name ("MEL'k"). [I didn't recognize any of the other panelists, though I did meet Lee Martindale later.]
By now it was 6:00, and I wandered off to Zapata's, a nearby Mexican restaurant, where I dined on carnitas and Dos Equis.
At 7:00
mbernardi and I hooked up again to watch the opening ceremonies; the various Guests of Honor were introduced via a Frankenstein skit, each being deemed an unacceptable brain-donor.Afterwards, I went to "Dust Off That Name", a panel on forgotten authors. Each of the panelists nominated several people who have lapsed into undeserved obscurity; unfortunately, I was already familiar with most of the authors mentioned. Beagle was among the panelists, and was in fine form.
Hm, hmm... I can't find any notes on what I did afterward. I do recall that sometime around 11:00
mbernardi and I wandered over to the Holiday Inn to find a phone from which to call a cab. There, a pay phone refused to accept my money, and when the desk clerk offered me a cell phone I proved incapable of using it. We did, eventually, manage to contact the cab company....Also at some point,
filkferengi introduced me to Filthy Pierre. (It may have been a reintroduction; he looked at least vaguely familiar.) The significance of this, for later events, was that he was holding a schedule for the #15 bus, a Collinsville local I hadn't known about. This was to make Friday a much better day.And so to bed.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-12 02:59 pm (UTC)I do not know how you guys were putting in the 15-20 hour days; I haven't been able to do anything like that at a con without Lois for many years.
P. S.
Date: 2007-08-12 03:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-12 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-13 02:32 am (UTC)