Polaris report - Friday
Alright, here we go.
Apparently there were two flights we could take into Toronto. One arrived at 9am. The other arrived at 9pm. Needless to say, we got into TO with plenty of time to spare. I was worried we'd be left for hours with nothing to do and nowhere to go, since check-in time isn't technically until 3, but the hotel was on the ball and getting all the rooms ready as quickly as possible, so when we got there at 10 we were able to check in. (Or when we got here, I should say, since I'm writing from a borrowed laptop in our hotel room.) We got settled in, had some lunch, and took a nap. Hey, the flight arriving at 9 meant it took off at 6, so it seemed like the thing to do.
Con activities started at 6, and after we finally figured out where to get through registration (they had pre-reg hidden way off in some corner), we checked out the opening ceremonies. Oh, people, a geeky sketch is a very creative way to start things off, but please please please think about rehearsing ahead of time. Watching half a dozen people standing on stage and silently reading their scripts is just painful.
My first panel was Print Book vs E-book at 9, with Michelle Sagara, Timothy Carter, and Stephen B Pearl. Really neat discussion covering most of the pros and cons to e-books. I think the final conclusion we came to was that e-books may be the way of the future, but we're not there yet. We're not even close. Right now e-books have an enthusiastic crowd behind them, but they're a (very vocal) minority, and until e-books are more accessible to the majority, they're not going to be a big portion of sales. It's coming, but it's not as close as the e-book enthusiasts would have us believe. All three of the authors said e-books counted for a tiny tiny (less than 1%) percentage of their sales, but those sales weren't there even 10 years ago. I got to be the reader perspective, and Nico got his say (as expected, there were tons of questions about how the Sony reader's capabilities). Lots of back and forth, lots of ranting, lots of questions from the audience. It was the kind of topic everyone got fired up about. Also, everyone agrees DRM is stupid, so publishers please stop doing it, ok? Kthx.
After that, I couldn't not go to Lar DeSouza's panel on Origami Kama Sutra. We made all sorts of naughty things with paper, and there was much giggling. When you're folding paper penises, it doesn't matter how innocent your comment was intended, it's gonna come out sounding dirty.
I also checked out The Women Behind the Men, which was a panel about slash fanfiction. Since m/m is becoming so mainstream, in romance as well as fanfic, I figured it would be a neat thing to check out. It was interesting, a room full of women analyzing the symbolism behind man on man action. Some women are uncomfortable reading about lady bits, and in the case of fanfic, there are so few interesting female characters to put into romantic situations. There were a few other reasons blamed for the trends (society puts us down as women, so we explore our empowerment through other venues!), and eventually I said "but can't it just be hot? I mean, nobody ever questions why men like girl on girl action. It's pretty simple: four boobs are better than two. Can't it just be fun to read about two penises?" What I found really interesting was that this was met with a whole lot of giggling and agreement, but nobody had brought it up before. Ah, women and their tendancy to analyze everything until it's dead. (Which, incidentally, became a whole new discussion.)
Then it was back to the room to sleep in preparation for Saturday, which shall be busy. Woo!
Apparently there were two flights we could take into Toronto. One arrived at 9am. The other arrived at 9pm. Needless to say, we got into TO with plenty of time to spare. I was worried we'd be left for hours with nothing to do and nowhere to go, since check-in time isn't technically until 3, but the hotel was on the ball and getting all the rooms ready as quickly as possible, so when we got there at 10 we were able to check in. (Or when we got here, I should say, since I'm writing from a borrowed laptop in our hotel room.) We got settled in, had some lunch, and took a nap. Hey, the flight arriving at 9 meant it took off at 6, so it seemed like the thing to do.
Con activities started at 6, and after we finally figured out where to get through registration (they had pre-reg hidden way off in some corner), we checked out the opening ceremonies. Oh, people, a geeky sketch is a very creative way to start things off, but please please please think about rehearsing ahead of time. Watching half a dozen people standing on stage and silently reading their scripts is just painful.
My first panel was Print Book vs E-book at 9, with Michelle Sagara, Timothy Carter, and Stephen B Pearl. Really neat discussion covering most of the pros and cons to e-books. I think the final conclusion we came to was that e-books may be the way of the future, but we're not there yet. We're not even close. Right now e-books have an enthusiastic crowd behind them, but they're a (very vocal) minority, and until e-books are more accessible to the majority, they're not going to be a big portion of sales. It's coming, but it's not as close as the e-book enthusiasts would have us believe. All three of the authors said e-books counted for a tiny tiny (less than 1%) percentage of their sales, but those sales weren't there even 10 years ago. I got to be the reader perspective, and Nico got his say (as expected, there were tons of questions about how the Sony reader's capabilities). Lots of back and forth, lots of ranting, lots of questions from the audience. It was the kind of topic everyone got fired up about. Also, everyone agrees DRM is stupid, so publishers please stop doing it, ok? Kthx.
After that, I couldn't not go to Lar DeSouza's panel on Origami Kama Sutra. We made all sorts of naughty things with paper, and there was much giggling. When you're folding paper penises, it doesn't matter how innocent your comment was intended, it's gonna come out sounding dirty.
I also checked out The Women Behind the Men, which was a panel about slash fanfiction. Since m/m is becoming so mainstream, in romance as well as fanfic, I figured it would be a neat thing to check out. It was interesting, a room full of women analyzing the symbolism behind man on man action. Some women are uncomfortable reading about lady bits, and in the case of fanfic, there are so few interesting female characters to put into romantic situations. There were a few other reasons blamed for the trends (society puts us down as women, so we explore our empowerment through other venues!), and eventually I said "but can't it just be hot? I mean, nobody ever questions why men like girl on girl action. It's pretty simple: four boobs are better than two. Can't it just be fun to read about two penises?" What I found really interesting was that this was met with a whole lot of giggling and agreement, but nobody had brought it up before. Ah, women and their tendancy to analyze everything until it's dead. (Which, incidentally, became a whole new discussion.)
Then it was back to the room to sleep in preparation for Saturday, which shall be busy. Woo!