The Undead Antelopes of Eastercon (Dysprosium 2015 report)
Saw lots of people, did lots of things, bought my own body weight in books.
UNINTENDED PARTICIPATION: Had an entertaining few days, including being on a panel (Not For The Squeamish) because Tim Kirk came up to me on the first day and said “We’re short of people on a biology panel”. I had volunteered and not heard anything - apparently that was a common organisational glitch. Despite that glitch, all the panels and talks that I attended were excellent.
THE HOTEL: Pretty much all my grumbles were to do with the hotel, not the con itself. Weird layout; lifts that tried to bite you; not enough chairs in the real ale bar; lack of soft drinks (apart from coke) in the real ale bar; lemonade not being sold by the pint in either of the bars; the bizarre voucher system for food that the staff hadn’t been briefed on (they had it running smoothly by Saturday) and the even more bizarre double-queueing for breakfast on Friday.
EASTERCON BIDS: The Cardiff mob seem enthusiastic, but I can’t help thinking that their bid would have received more approval if they had stuck a map or a photo or the hotel rates or SOMETHING up as a slide. It came across as very unprepared.
BSFA AWARDS: I did try REALLY hard to read all the novel nominations, but my kindle died when I had only completed 2 and got partway through another 2. (I was really not getting on with Nina Allen's The Race, so I put that one to one side). For all the other categories it was hard to pick a favourite, so even when the ones I voted for didn't win, I was pleased.
HUGO NOMINATIONS: I’m so glad I’m not on Twitter. It seems to have turned into various factions shouting at each other for having Bad Wrong Fun.
COSPLAY: Ming decided to wear his work suit as an experiment. He said he was getting more comments about that than he does when he's in a media costume. Someone else (Claire?) commented that if there had been Hall Costume tokens, the stewardesses and aircrew would have collected quite a few.
QUOTE OF THE CON: "Be careful, you’re standing too close to the Martian war machine."
THE UNDEAD ANTELOPES OF EASTERCON: The hotel décor included photos of antelopes, deer, etc. The animals looked a bit odd. When inspected a bit more closely, that was revealed to be because the photos were of museum dioramas with stuffed animals. Why these were chosen to decorate the function rooms that were names after space shuttles remains a mystery to me… Perhaps someone told the hotel that fans like stuffed animals and they got the wrong sort?
UNINTENDED PARTICIPATION: Had an entertaining few days, including being on a panel (Not For The Squeamish) because Tim Kirk came up to me on the first day and said “We’re short of people on a biology panel”. I had volunteered and not heard anything - apparently that was a common organisational glitch. Despite that glitch, all the panels and talks that I attended were excellent.
THE HOTEL: Pretty much all my grumbles were to do with the hotel, not the con itself. Weird layout; lifts that tried to bite you; not enough chairs in the real ale bar; lack of soft drinks (apart from coke) in the real ale bar; lemonade not being sold by the pint in either of the bars; the bizarre voucher system for food that the staff hadn’t been briefed on (they had it running smoothly by Saturday) and the even more bizarre double-queueing for breakfast on Friday.
EASTERCON BIDS: The Cardiff mob seem enthusiastic, but I can’t help thinking that their bid would have received more approval if they had stuck a map or a photo or the hotel rates or SOMETHING up as a slide. It came across as very unprepared.
BSFA AWARDS: I did try REALLY hard to read all the novel nominations, but my kindle died when I had only completed 2 and got partway through another 2. (I was really not getting on with Nina Allen's The Race, so I put that one to one side). For all the other categories it was hard to pick a favourite, so even when the ones I voted for didn't win, I was pleased.
HUGO NOMINATIONS: I’m so glad I’m not on Twitter. It seems to have turned into various factions shouting at each other for having Bad Wrong Fun.
COSPLAY: Ming decided to wear his work suit as an experiment. He said he was getting more comments about that than he does when he's in a media costume. Someone else (Claire?) commented that if there had been Hall Costume tokens, the stewardesses and aircrew would have collected quite a few.
QUOTE OF THE CON: "Be careful, you’re standing too close to the Martian war machine."
THE UNDEAD ANTELOPES OF EASTERCON: The hotel décor included photos of antelopes, deer, etc. The animals looked a bit odd. When inspected a bit more closely, that was revealed to be because the photos were of museum dioramas with stuffed animals. Why these were chosen to decorate the function rooms that were names after space shuttles remains a mystery to me… Perhaps someone told the hotel that fans like stuffed animals and they got the wrong sort?