Costume-Con 39: Third Verse, Same as the First (and Second)
I continue to wake up ahead of my alarm, but that was still several hours after my normal rising time. After a negative COVID test cleared me to be able to face the day and after refilling the makeshift icebox in the room's second sink, I got showered and got breakfast from the nearest Starbucks (that's about 850 m today because the close one isn't open on weekends). After that, I took the Pemmi-Con material down to our info table and set things up. I was ready by 10, but apparently things down that way didn't open until 11. That's okay with me; I answered messages until people showed up to whom I could talk about NASFiC.
I tried to take more pictures today of the many wonderful costumes that passed our table. Unlike yesterday, I am not going to post them all to this entry. Click through the photos behind the cut and they will take you to my Flickr account, where you can look at all of them.
Unlike yesterday, I was in my "Casual Captain" uniform. During the 2005 Worldcon, one of the convention center security jokingly told me when I was wearing this on the Friday of the convention, "Hey, you're out of uniform."
I mock-seriously told him, "I'm the captain of the ship; I make the dress code. Besides, it's Casual Friday."
Jerry Majors-Patterson came by at an opportune time when I could have her watch the table while I went to use the restroom.
Sean Bassett and Lani Wong-Basset (and their son, whose name I didn't catch) were among those who stopped by the table. Sean and Lani recently were elected to the SFSFC Board of Directors, but I don't think I'd ever met them in person, as we've been meeting only via Zoom since the pandemic started.
Some outfits were bouncy. There's one that hasn't uploaded yet that was so big that I could only take video of it, as it wouldn't fit in shot for a still photo.
I thought this was especially pretty.
Again, please click through and have a look at the rest of them. I was great having the costumes effectively come to us.
Spike joined me in the afternoon and we spent out time talking to anyone who came by about NASFiC, including in many cases trying to explain what Worldcon was and why NASFiC exists and no, there won't be a Pemmi-Con in 2024, just this one convention in 2023, although there is a strong probability that there will be a 2024 NASFiC in Buffalo, New York on account of they are the only group that filed a bid to host it. However, as anyone who has followed me regularly knows, being the only bid on the ballot doesn't guarantee success.
I hadn't expected to sell many memberships this weekend, but we've sold a total of four (including some upgrades from voting to attending), which three more than I expected.
We packed up the table at 6 PM. Neither Spike nor I will be able to be at the table until after Noon on Monday, and the convention ends at 2 PM, but we intend to be here from Noon to closing. I've found that it's a good idea when possible to be out there at the end because there are people who have talked to us that will dither over buying a membership and put it off until the very end, so if you're not there to take their money, they may change their minds by the time they're back home.
I once again walked to BurgerIM to get dinner. This time I tried the salmon burger, to report on it to Kuma Bear. This was salmon with a pineapple slice and barbeque sauce. It was good, but I think I like the Spanish Beef better.
By the time I finished dinner, the Historical Masquerade was over and people were socializing in the foyer of the ballroom. I was happy to socialize, and also to go in and watch the awards, because the ballroom was sufficiently uncrowded (and most people were masked) that I didn't feel threatened. There were awards and photographs and congratulations, and that was the end of the last big event of Costume-Con 39. There's still the one day remaining, but the big events are done.
I walked across the "overland route" (the rooftop shortcut from the ballrooms to the hotel tower, a walk that always reminds me of the scenes from my Doctor Who film "The Zombie Legions" that we shot on that walkway, and I briefly visited room parties. I didn't have anything to eat or drink (although I took a bottle of water back to my hotel room with me), but it was sufficiently uncrowded and people were in my opinion being sufficiently well-behaved that I was comfortable socializing for a while. However, when my day starts early, it also ends early, and I wanted to allow enough time to write this up as well.
Tomorrow I have to run up to Palo Alto to see my doctor. I'm braced for bad news. Not as bad as others of my friends have had, though. We'll see what he has to say after he completes my first annual physical in more than three years.
I tried to take more pictures today of the many wonderful costumes that passed our table. Unlike yesterday, I am not going to post them all to this entry. Click through the photos behind the cut and they will take you to my Flickr account, where you can look at all of them.
Unlike yesterday, I was in my "Casual Captain" uniform. During the 2005 Worldcon, one of the convention center security jokingly told me when I was wearing this on the Friday of the convention, "Hey, you're out of uniform."
I mock-seriously told him, "I'm the captain of the ship; I make the dress code. Besides, it's Casual Friday."
Jerry Majors-Patterson came by at an opportune time when I could have her watch the table while I went to use the restroom.
Sean Bassett and Lani Wong-Basset (and their son, whose name I didn't catch) were among those who stopped by the table. Sean and Lani recently were elected to the SFSFC Board of Directors, but I don't think I'd ever met them in person, as we've been meeting only via Zoom since the pandemic started.
Some outfits were bouncy. There's one that hasn't uploaded yet that was so big that I could only take video of it, as it wouldn't fit in shot for a still photo.
I thought this was especially pretty.
Again, please click through and have a look at the rest of them. I was great having the costumes effectively come to us.
Spike joined me in the afternoon and we spent out time talking to anyone who came by about NASFiC, including in many cases trying to explain what Worldcon was and why NASFiC exists and no, there won't be a Pemmi-Con in 2024, just this one convention in 2023, although there is a strong probability that there will be a 2024 NASFiC in Buffalo, New York on account of they are the only group that filed a bid to host it. However, as anyone who has followed me regularly knows, being the only bid on the ballot doesn't guarantee success.
I hadn't expected to sell many memberships this weekend, but we've sold a total of four (including some upgrades from voting to attending), which three more than I expected.
We packed up the table at 6 PM. Neither Spike nor I will be able to be at the table until after Noon on Monday, and the convention ends at 2 PM, but we intend to be here from Noon to closing. I've found that it's a good idea when possible to be out there at the end because there are people who have talked to us that will dither over buying a membership and put it off until the very end, so if you're not there to take their money, they may change their minds by the time they're back home.
I once again walked to BurgerIM to get dinner. This time I tried the salmon burger, to report on it to Kuma Bear. This was salmon with a pineapple slice and barbeque sauce. It was good, but I think I like the Spanish Beef better.
By the time I finished dinner, the Historical Masquerade was over and people were socializing in the foyer of the ballroom. I was happy to socialize, and also to go in and watch the awards, because the ballroom was sufficiently uncrowded (and most people were masked) that I didn't feel threatened. There were awards and photographs and congratulations, and that was the end of the last big event of Costume-Con 39. There's still the one day remaining, but the big events are done.
I walked across the "overland route" (the rooftop shortcut from the ballrooms to the hotel tower, a walk that always reminds me of the scenes from my Doctor Who film "The Zombie Legions" that we shot on that walkway, and I briefly visited room parties. I didn't have anything to eat or drink (although I took a bottle of water back to my hotel room with me), but it was sufficiently uncrowded and people were in my opinion being sufficiently well-behaved that I was comfortable socializing for a while. However, when my day starts early, it also ends early, and I wanted to allow enough time to write this up as well.
Tomorrow I have to run up to Palo Alto to see my doctor. I'm braced for bad news. Not as bad as others of my friends have had, though. We'll see what he has to say after he completes my first annual physical in more than three years.