Taking a lunch break and some time for myself.
WORK
Things are going well here. The basic structure of the database is in place and now I get to modify it based on this mornings meeting. There was a misunderstanding on my part of how some data is linked, but I knew if there was a problem it would pop up in the meeting, so I was ready to ask questions to get the information that would get things fixed.
Most of the meeting was taken up figuring out how to link the tables with out causing data corruption. They drew a quick doodle of how they keep things straight in their minds. Funny thing is the doodle looks like what I draw to figure out data relationships, so the solution was simple at that point.
Dragon Con
I stayed up way to late working on Dragon Con, but it was worth it to get it all done. I was able to send the Track Directors their new squeaky clean Schedules, free from pesky guest and room conflicts. There are a few guest travel issues but they mostly caused by the additional time I padded the arriving and departing times in case of rain or traffic issues. At this point though moving a panel has a huge ripple effect. I will have to revisit the list again tonight to see if anything can be done to resolve the conflicts.
I must have written or modified 15 or 20 queries and 5 or 6 reports over the weekend. I can say that if we miss an issue this year it will not be for lack of trying.
I also started writing up the titles and description for the panels that none of the tracks are in change of. Some of them are easy and flow pretty quickly, but others I have no idea how to make the subject sound interesting, because I just don’t know enough about it.
Given someone like Jack Dann with so much information in his Bio, where do you start? What do you leave out? How to you catch the eye of the fan, that might not remember who wrote a favorite book, when they are reading through the Pocket Program book?
On the Flip side, how do you make an hour with people that have little or no Sci/Fi work sound alluring enough to fill more than a few chairs? Oh sure, people will know who they are, but there are so many American Sci/Fi and Star Trek guest that there is bound to be someone far more fascinating in the next room.
Of course the big problem for me will be getting to go see a panel or two. After reading and rereading what the tracks have planned it is hard to make a decision. The Track Directors are not making it any easier. Every time I have to call one, they tempt me to come to their track with their best panels. Hopefully I will be able to make my list in a few days and will be able to stop fretting over the decisions.
Things are going well here. The basic structure of the database is in place and now I get to modify it based on this mornings meeting. There was a misunderstanding on my part of how some data is linked, but I knew if there was a problem it would pop up in the meeting, so I was ready to ask questions to get the information that would get things fixed.
Most of the meeting was taken up figuring out how to link the tables with out causing data corruption. They drew a quick doodle of how they keep things straight in their minds. Funny thing is the doodle looks like what I draw to figure out data relationships, so the solution was simple at that point.
Dragon Con
I stayed up way to late working on Dragon Con, but it was worth it to get it all done. I was able to send the Track Directors their new squeaky clean Schedules, free from pesky guest and room conflicts. There are a few guest travel issues but they mostly caused by the additional time I padded the arriving and departing times in case of rain or traffic issues. At this point though moving a panel has a huge ripple effect. I will have to revisit the list again tonight to see if anything can be done to resolve the conflicts.
I must have written or modified 15 or 20 queries and 5 or 6 reports over the weekend. I can say that if we miss an issue this year it will not be for lack of trying.
I also started writing up the titles and description for the panels that none of the tracks are in change of. Some of them are easy and flow pretty quickly, but others I have no idea how to make the subject sound interesting, because I just don’t know enough about it.
Given someone like Jack Dann with so much information in his Bio, where do you start? What do you leave out? How to you catch the eye of the fan, that might not remember who wrote a favorite book, when they are reading through the Pocket Program book?
On the Flip side, how do you make an hour with people that have little or no Sci/Fi work sound alluring enough to fill more than a few chairs? Oh sure, people will know who they are, but there are so many American Sci/Fi and Star Trek guest that there is bound to be someone far more fascinating in the next room.
Of course the big problem for me will be getting to go see a panel or two. After reading and rereading what the tracks have planned it is hard to make a decision. The Track Directors are not making it any easier. Every time I have to call one, they tempt me to come to their track with their best panels. Hopefully I will be able to make my list in a few days and will be able to stop fretting over the decisions.