Dirac Angestun Gesept

I got there early enough to get into the kaffeeklatsches I wanted this time (learned that one quickly enough), realized I’d left the camera at home next to the computer after copying the photos off (oops), had a nice conversation in the hallway with Lis Riba, then headed down to the Baen presentation.

As was noted at the gripe session, the room was too small for the publishers’ presentations. I wound up sitting on the floor at the back of the room, but it was still an enjoyable presentation, aided by the free books they were giving out to people who asked interesting questions.

Afterwards, I wandered around some more, and was reminded that the art show was going to close relatively soon. I ran up there to do a quick skim through, then had another quick lunch in the ConCourse and hung around until the “Creating Gods” panel. Again, Lois and Jo anchored a great panel, and it went fairly quickly, even though the lights were flashing on and off as people leaned on the switches.

From there, down to the Tor presentation, also overly-full. Many upcoming books of interest, damn them! How dare they publish so much stuff I want to read!!

I then tried to make some dinner plans, but the people I asked already had them. (As it eventually turned out, most of them were at the same gathering.) I need to remember to make meal plans farther in advance at Worldcon…I’ll have to keep that in mind for Noreascon 5. (More to the point, I’m already bought in for Boskone, so I should try to make appropriate plans for that.)

I did get together with some of the LMB list folks who I hadn’t managed to do dinner with previously, so it worked out well anyway; I then wandered through the CascadiaCon party, then another small quiet gathering with chocolate and tea and interesting company, and from there party-hopping. The Readercon party was fun; I caught up with someone from USENET I’d wanted to meet and pointed him at the Peabody Essex Museum.

I then went down the hall to the “Weird Al” Sing-along party, which was loud and raucous and loads of fun. I stayed for a while, but a combination of increasing deafness, increasing tiredness, and the chance to catch a bus instead of walking across the bridge again got me moving. Home and thud.

Arrived, and through a concatenation of events wound up deciding to go to the WSFS Business Meeting. After all, it’s been almost 20 years since I last had to use Robert’s Rules of Order….

When I got there, the debate had already started on the amendment to return to two-year lead times for site selection. I’d read Kevin Standlee’s piece in Emerald City and found it suitably persuasive, along with the debate at-con.

In particular, going shorter and bottom-feeding a bit on the facilities that don’t have bookings sounds helpful, and as Standlee points out, with no-zone bids it’s no longer a three-year wait to try again.

The one argument against the proposal that I found most compelling was the concern about NASFiC lead times becoming too short with a one-year lead time. Perhaps something will need to be done about that.

Next, the “Fantasy of Manners” panel. Wonderful, and nothing I can do justice to here. I already liked both Lois McMaster Bujold and Jo Walton, and now I have to go check out Madeleine Robins’s and Ellen Kushner’s books. (It’s only fair; I discovered Lois’s work after a panel she was on at the last Noreascon.) Yet another “it’s over? already? not fair!” panel.

Another bunch of ConCourse/dealers’ room hang-out time, a quick refueling stop, and off to “Tradeoffs between Freedom, Security, and Privacy”. Another great panel which had Teresa Neilsen Hayden, Cory Doctorow, Joseph Lazzaro, Don Sakers, and James D. Macdonald.

All the panelists had interesting things to say (I was once again reminded why I enjoy Macdonald’s presence on a panel so much). Teresa’s reaction when she heard about Gilmore v. Ashcroft and the secret laws (now with extra secrecy sauce on the government’s legal arguments) was simply “I am appalled”. (A reaction I share.)

I then went over to the “Lies I learned at the movies” panel, which was too packed to enter; instead, I headed to the ConCourse, hung around for a while, and managed to completely miss the growing line for the kaffeeklatsch signup until it had become fairly long…which meant I missed my chance to do the Nielsen Hayden kaffeeklatsch (since it filled up almost instantly), and I didn’t even have the excuse/consolation of having attended the panel I wanted to. Sigh.

Off to the LMB mailing list gathering, stayed there for a bit, then off to Jo Walton’s reading from her upcoming Farthing. Alternate history mystery, which means it combines two things I like, from a writer I like, hooray hooray hooray; another book to look forward to impatiently.

From there, to a small private gathering, and thence to dinner. I wound up having Thai food at Chilli Duck, right across from the Hynes, with “that Respectful of Otters chick” (as Fafnir calls her) and her husband; great food in great company. (Sorry, you’ll have to provide your own great company if you go.)

Upon our return from dinner, I watched the Hugo ceremony from the Mended Drum. This year’s base design is the best ever, in my opinion. It was sad to see some friends who were nominees not win, but Frank Wu’s incredible expression of stunned surprise and transcendent joy was something to behold as he literally climbed onto the stage and could say only “I love you all!”

Once the ceremony was complete, I headed up to the Baen party (meeting Don Kingsbury on the way) to meet folks and wait for Lois to arrive for congratulations (even though Paladin of Souls wasn’t a Baen book, she is a Baen author). I got a photo of her with her necklace and Hugo, spent some time hanging out and checking out the rest of the Baen party, then headed home, exhausted.

Got to the con, checked out the dealers’ room, and took some photos of Elise Matthesen’s current work in progress…which I need to do some cleanup work on and post.

Headed off to the Con Suite for Charlie Stross’s kaffeeklatsch, which was fun; we had great discussions on all sorts of things, including nifty gadgets and how they may bring us closer to the Singularity.

I followed this with a quick refuel in the ConCourse, then to the Mended Drum for Joe Haldeman’s literary beer. That was also quite fun, though I didn’t get a chance to stick around afterwards as it was off to Lois McMaster Bujold’s reading.

I managed to squeeze into the over-packed room before it became totally full, got a seat when she announced that anyone who’d been at the reading at Balticon wasn’t going to hear anything new, and listened to her read from The Hallowed Hunt (her upcoming third Chalion-universe book), which means I am now stuck in that awful “must…wait…for…rest…of…story” zone.

At the end of the reading, it was announced that she’d be doing a signing that afternoon at 1600 at the NESFA Press table in the dealers’ room. I looked at my watch and realized that I had time to run home and get the books that I hadn’t brought (because, why haul them around if the autograph session isn’t until tomorrow?). Premature optimization can become pessimization.

I got home and back, with some minor glitches (like the #1 bus being stuck in traffic on the bridge), and got to the autograph line in time to be 17th. The line moved up as soon as she started, and after a bit the very nice couple behind me realized that this was not, in fact, the Neil Gaiman autograph line they thought it was. One of them was willing to stay with me long enough to get to the front of the line so I could get all three books that I’d brought signed (the regular signings had a three book limit, but the NESFA Press table signings had a two book limit), for which I would thank him again if I’d been smart enough to note his name down. (If you read this, thanks again.)

I then had to head off to run some outside-con errands, which I did without trouble. When I returned, I ran into some folks I had previously met at the LJ party; we went to get take-out food for dinner, and I headed to gaming to try to get into the Illuminati: Crime Lords demo.

When I arrived, it had already started (”missed it by that much!”), but it was 1900 on Friday, which is my gaming time most weeks anyway…so I went with tradition.

First, a pickup game of Chez Goth, then Early American Chrononauts, and after that the monster freakin’ Munchin-holy-cow-everything-including-Blender game, which lasted hours. Hours and hours and hours.

Warning: Great Cthulhu and Squidzilla are a bad combo to get hit with. It’s even bad if you don’t get hit with them, if a Space Ranger drags you in to the combat so you die too.

After that, I was too tired to stick around, especially since the Hynes gaming was going to close in a relatively short time. Off home and to bed.