several updates
Friday, November 20
Went to the Ramada Plaza to sign the hotel contract and put down a deposit. We are now actual conrunners, not just posers. Then had dinner with marahsk, dlacey, and Catherine at El Trompo. Discussed SFContario and assorted future plans, including Midwest Construction 2013 in Windsor.
Saturday, November 21
First Annual General Meeting for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Society of Upper Canada at World's Biggest Bookstore took less than an hour. By-laws and enabling motion passed. Officers and directors re-elected by acclamation.
SFContario concom meeting following the AGM got lots done. Hotel contract announced. We have three guests so far; Diane is still working on getting an author guest. Got some good discussion about the web site. Lots of tasks assigned during the meeting. Much work to do.
Sunday, November 22
Worked on SFContario stuff. Got the committee site set up and populated the calendar.
Tuesday, November 24
Marah felt like Mexican, so she and mvt went to El Trompo again. I joined them.
Wednesday, November 25
Took sposter's design and mangled it a little in the process of getting online registration working at http://sfcontario.ca/html/register.html.
Thursday, November 26
Thanksgiving dinner: six of us (Merle, Marah, me, Cheryl, Andre, and peterjohnson had big smoked turkey sandwiches at Caplansky's.
Friday, November 27
Merle made plans for us to see her niece Rachel in December. We haven't seen Rachel in a while, so this is good.
Went to reading at the National Film Board of pilot for a new television series, Earthfall, written by Robert J. Sawyer. Five members of SFContario concom were in the audience; I didn't see any Ad Astra or Polaris people there. ;) Afterwards, I said to Rob "I assume you already have plans, but we're going for dinner, you're welcome to join us". What actually happened is that while Rob apparently had no plans, everyone had plans for Rob. More than a dozen of us ended up at the Friar and Firkin next door. No place to sit. Group broke up. Merle, Marah, Diane and I tried to go to Ho Su on Queen for dinner, but they were just closing.
We ended up at New Ho King at the north end of our Chinatown. We ordered a bunch of stuff I didn't really want. We dropped Merle off, then dropped Diane off, then I had a craving for spaghetti. Marah took me to Fran's on College.
Saturday, November 28
I worked on more convention stuff. Then Merle and I went out to see 2012. Got there just in time for 6:30 show. It was sold out. Merle suggested we go to the later show. I said we could see The Road while we were waiting (that had been one of Merle's choices). We had average-ish sandwiches (cold in the middle) in the little bar at the theatre. Quick reviews:
The Road: Yawn. Think of Mad Max done as a boring, depressing chick movie. Father and son wander around destroyed post-apocalyptic landscape looking for cans of food. Father loves son. Angsty flashbacks about dead wife/mother. Dirty bad guys occasionally show up but not much actual action follows. Even the cannibal scenes were milked for emotional content, I mean, really. Couple of naked shots (from behind) of Viggo M. for the demographic too old to get excited by New Moon. More emotional blah blah at climax. Whatever.
2012: Silly movie with less scientific rigor than The Day After Tomorrow. Lots of special effects money spent on cliche earthquakes and assorted things blowing up. Some of the car and plane bits were mildly entertaining. Acting was really good all through the movie, from Danny Glover to Blu Mankuma to Woody Harrelson (he was really fun) and a ton of other good actors. But the best thing about this was the D-Box seats. Totally worth the extra $7; these turned an otherwise average movie into an excellent roller coaster ride. Even if you see this in a regular theater, this movie is worth watching for the acting. I have to say that the song "The Kid and the Dog are with Me" was very applicable to this story.
Need sleep now. Dim sum and more convention stuff planned for Sunday. Must also plan laundry before Smofcon.
Went to the Ramada Plaza to sign the hotel contract and put down a deposit. We are now actual conrunners, not just posers. Then had dinner with marahsk, dlacey, and Catherine at El Trompo. Discussed SFContario and assorted future plans, including Midwest Construction 2013 in Windsor.
Saturday, November 21
Sunday, November 22
Worked on SFContario stuff. Got the committee site set up and populated the calendar.
Tuesday, November 24
Marah felt like Mexican, so she and mvt went to El Trompo again. I joined them.
Wednesday, November 25
Took sposter's design and mangled it a little in the process of getting online registration working at http://sfcontario.ca/html/register.html.
Thursday, November 26
Thanksgiving dinner: six of us (Merle, Marah, me, Cheryl, Andre, and peterjohnson had big smoked turkey sandwiches at Caplansky's.
Friday, November 27
Merle made plans for us to see her niece Rachel in December. We haven't seen Rachel in a while, so this is good.
Went to reading at the National Film Board of pilot for a new television series, Earthfall, written by Robert J. Sawyer. Five members of SFContario concom were in the audience; I didn't see any Ad Astra or Polaris people there. ;) Afterwards, I said to Rob "I assume you already have plans, but we're going for dinner, you're welcome to join us". What actually happened is that while Rob apparently had no plans, everyone had plans for Rob. More than a dozen of us ended up at the Friar and Firkin next door. No place to sit. Group broke up. Merle, Marah, Diane and I tried to go to Ho Su on Queen for dinner, but they were just closing.
We ended up at New Ho King at the north end of our Chinatown. We ordered a bunch of stuff I didn't really want. We dropped Merle off, then dropped Diane off, then I had a craving for spaghetti. Marah took me to Fran's on College.
Saturday, November 28
I worked on more convention stuff. Then Merle and I went out to see 2012. Got there just in time for 6:30 show. It was sold out. Merle suggested we go to the later show. I said we could see The Road while we were waiting (that had been one of Merle's choices). We had average-ish sandwiches (cold in the middle) in the little bar at the theatre. Quick reviews:
Need sleep now. Dim sum and more convention stuff planned for Sunday. Must also plan laundry before Smofcon.