Reading roundup, Hugo homework, Worldcon plans
55. Ursula Vernon, Whiskerella (Hamster Princess 5) -- the last of the Hamster Princess books currently out, so there will be no more sparkly hamsters for me until October (which is fine, as I'm ready to take a break; binging these is probably not what one should do, anyway). This one was also pretty cute, with the Cinderella story subversion ( spoilers! )
- I'd recommend arriving early enough to register well before the first panel you want to go to -- registration lines can be kind of long. :P (I'm considering suggesting my mom and I try to do it Weds, but probably not worth the extra trip just for registration if you're not already in the area.)
- General comment: bring food and a water bottle, so you don't have to break for lunch/hydration long enough to fight the coffee shop lines (or find an Actual Restaurant) if you don't want to :D
Thurs:
- [Scurrilous History] I feel like I had an opinion on Mike Resnick, but I honestly can't recall what it was. XD So my main comment here would be -- anything with GRRM on it is likely to be PACKED so arrive early. :P
- FWIW I suspect I'll probably lean towards "Writing about Fighting" in that hour because I really enjoy Fonda Lee as a panelist, and am intrigued to see Marie Brennan :)
- Anything marked signup required, you'll probably want to try and sign up as soon as you can; they're generally full by the time the con rolls around (though if Worldcon is like Norwescon, you can sometimes crash the party if you just ... show up when it's happening, and there's room.)
Fri:
- I'm ... actually almost tempted to try and get there Fri in time for the Tai Chi session; I saw Steve Barnes on a few panels at Norwescon this year and he seemed like a very nice, chill guy. Recommended as a panelist. :)
- [Fireside] Readings are generally quite fun! And usually less packed than panels, unless it's like. GRRM or Connie Willis reading, or something. :P I've seen Elsa at Norwescon and IIRC liked her panels, though I know nothing about her fiction, and I can't imagine Alex not being fun to watch. :D
- JY Yang is doing autographs after all! That's probably where I'll be that hour, tbh.
- [Astronauts] I don't recall if I've seen MRK on panels in person, but I expect she'll be a really good one. Don't know anything about the other panelists though.
- Queer families looks like an interesting collection of people! As a side note, Jennifer Brozek (editor, I saw her mentioned on one of the other panels) is also generally a good panelist
- Guess I'll be with you on the Leckie autographing, most likely. :D
- The BookSmugglers reading looks like a nice set of people! If my stamina lasts that long. :D
Sat:
- The fanfic panel not having any panelists assigned kind of worries me, but otherwise looks like an interesting one :D
- I've been impressed by Kate Elliot as a panelist, so I suspect a kaffeeklatsch with her would be fun, too :) I've never actually done kaffeeklatsches, though, so not sure how they work.
- [Fantasy Aliens] I think I've enjoyed Keffy as a panelist in the past, and am of course very fond of Martha Wells as well. :D
Sun:
- Stroll with the Stars with MRK sounds like fun. :D That's one of the things my mom and I intended to do in 2015, but then decided to refrain because SO MUCH SMOKE. :P Crossing my fingers that NorCal won't be on fire like Eastern WA was ...
- [YA panel] Not only does it have SRB, I also really like Fonda Lee as a panelist -- the two YA panels she participated in at Norwescon were some of my favorites this year
Mon:
- Aww, Imposter syndrome AND Alex? I don't know any of the other panelists, but this looks like it'll be a good time :D
In summary, wheeeee Worldcon :D
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I was thinking of potentially registering on Wednesday, too, to get it over with... as it would be relatively easy to pop over after work, but not sure if I really feel like it (or like being in Santa Clara on Wed) or not...
Excellent suggestion about food! I was wondering if outside food/water WOULD be allowed -- sounds like it typically is? I would definitely rather not waste time standing in line for those things, and though I keep forgetting it sometimes, I no longer have the ability to just power through for hours without eating anything that I did in my 20s...
I feel like I had an opinion on Mike Resnick, but I honestly can't recall what it was. XD So my main comment here would be -- anything with GRRM on it is likely to be PACKED so arrive early. :P
Good point on GRRM's likely effect on the panel, though hopefully the early/weird timeslot will mean less competition... And LOL at the phantom Mike Resnick opinion XD I've read a couple of his short stories, which were amusing but not, like, amazing IMO? And I *think* I vaguely recall some kind of kerfuffle involving the SFWA? -- Ah, yes, it was Resnick involved in that.
I saw Steve Barnes on a few panels at Norwescon this year and he seemed like a very nice, chill guy. Recommended as a panelist. :)
Good to know! I saw his name on some panels that looked interesting in content but didn't know anything about him. I'll have to dig them up again and take a look.
I don't recall if I've seen MRK on panels in person, but I expect she'll be a really good one.
That's my sense from pretty much everything I've seen of her, from her SFWA communications to MRK reading the Kingkiller Chronicles fanfic porn she wrote for Rothfuss's charity fundraiser while in full Kvothe cosplay she made herself, so I would really love to catch SOMETHING with her, and so far I've read very little of her actual fiction, so a panel seems like the best bet.
And good to hear about Kate Elliott as a panelist. I like but do not love her fiction, so I think panel would be the best way for me to experience her :)
And good to hear about Fonda Lee, as well. I've not read any of her work yet, but as you know, I am curious about it.
- Queer families looks like an interesting collection of people!
Both that and the "Queer Joy" panel have a really high concentration of people I'd like to hear talk, but are schedule against other things I am also very interested in (Beagle autograph session, Leckie kaffeeklatsch). I do want to make it to at least one of them, though!
Crossing my fingers that NorCal won't be on fire like Eastern WA was ...
So far we're keeping our fires safely north of here... :/
- Aww, Imposter syndrome AND Alex?
Heh, the topic of the panel is actually not too interesting to me -- but at least more relevant than costuming -- but I agree that Alex is bound to be a very entertaining panelist, so I wanna be there! (Too bad Macey doesn't seem to be on any programming...unless I've overlooked her.)
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I didn't see Macey on any of the panels, though I assume she will be there? She was on the list of people helping fix the Worldcon program, I think? (And if she is, I don't know that I could be more grown-up about it than running up to her and being like "you're my favorite let's be friends and talk about math in fantasy" XD
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But yeah, given that I haven't seen Macey on the program or seen her mention intending to be at Worldcon in any of the Twitter-stalking I've done, I'm wondering if she pitched in to help with the programming remotely, but is not actually planning to attend ... :\
I guess in a pinch, we can just fan at Alex twice as hard? :D And math at her in Macey's honor.
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I'm sure she would be thrilled XD
Haha, deal, and I hope you will do the same :D I have not progressed to Twitter-stalking, but was hoping that San Jose is close enough to her home base that she could just, like, pop over even if she's not on any programming... Well, I guess we'll see...
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And I'm hoping so too! I'm a little bit sad that Alex's proposal to run a counter-Worldcon in the lobby is unlikely to occur now that the programming's straightened out, though I'm obviously much happier that it is. XD Since I figured Macey would definitely show up for AlexCon. :D
And lol the Twitter-stalking arose out of just how often I've felt Not Like Being Productive recently -- all three of the serpents have pretty pleasant Twitter feeds overall, which makes them an excellent substitute when I'm looking for something to mindlessly scroll through and have run out of Tumblr. ;)
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Heh, also fair. (As it happens, I was planning to wear my integrated circuit barrette in part for the purposes of having a conversation piece along those lines ;) Well, not the awfulness necessarily, but tech industry in general.
XD Since I figured Macey would definitely show up for AlexCon. :D
Haha, probably! And yes, that would be a pity (at least if Macey doesn't show up to non-AlexCon WorldCon :P Presumably enough of the ideas that would've made up AlexCon are now on the real agenda and so that part is less of an issue.)
and have run out of Tumblr. ;)
I was not aware that it was possible to run out of Tumblr, but am heartened to hear that it's possible to escape its Black Hole of Infinite Scrolling :P
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!!! Thanks for reminding me that I need to ensure that makes it into my luggage too. :D <3
I was not aware that it was possible to run out of Tumblr, but am heartened to hear that it's possible to escape its Black Hole of Infinite Scrolling :P
:D I think I can only because I almost never go tag-searching, I follow relatively few people, and I aggressively blacklist tags I don't care about. One day's worth of content is still generally 30 min to an hour, so if I don't check for a couple of days my patience pretty much always runs out before the scrolling does. :D But if it's only been a day and I'm in a very "bum around the internet" mood, it's not too difficult to get "caught up". :'D
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:DDD
and I aggressively blacklist tags I don't care about
This is probably the key trick, in that it's the only thing I don't do (didn't used to do when I still got onto Tumblr) -- partly because it felt so bizarre from, like, a design perspective to have to EXCLUDE things, and based on exact string matching (right? it's not any smarter than that, or is it by now?), too.
(Also, filtering out stuff is so antithetical to how I do LJ, that it just feels weird to adopt it as a default for Tumblr, even though logically I understand that it's no worse than the alternative of NOT LOOKING AT MY DASH EVER AT ALL... :P)
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Lol nope, you haven't missed anything. :D It's still not baked into Tumblr itself, either, as far as I know -- I just finally broke down and installed XKit. :P
NOT LOOKING AT MY DASH EVER AT ALL... :P)
:DD I've definitely been drifting away over time -- I think pretty much the only things I've posted in the last year or so have been updates to the fic K and I are co-writing -- and for a while in there wasn't checking my dash much anymore either. But then I started feeling the need for low-brain activities, and it crept back in. :'D
I have been seeing stuff around about a new social media platform called Pillowfort.io, which sounds like it's trying to strike a happy medium between LJ and Tumblr; I'm wishing them luck but the main reason I stay on either platform is the people (<3) so I suspect I won't bother to move until my people do. XD
(Love the appropriate icon, too :D)
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I actually have a Pillowfort account from like the second beta wave, I think, and I hope it grows up to be the alternative to Tumblr / happy medium that it dreams of being. After the untimely demise of Imzy -- which had a neat identity gimmick to it (but admittedly some terrible business planning XP), I don't have a lot of patience for actually jumping INTO new things, and the very little browsing of Pillowfort I've done hasn't shown me any must-have functionality, but I wish them well, and if people I know actually start using it, I may poke around some more. But not holding my breath :P
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Pft yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. XD
And nice :D re: Pillowfort. Let me know if you ever do start poking your nose in and maybe I'll come join too. :D
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