This afternoon, I flew from Reno to Phoenix to attend a Worldcon 76 division heads planning meeting in Scottsdale. The location was a compromise to make it somewhat easier for our DHs from farther east to attend the meeting. Had we met in Las Vegas, Lisa and I would probably have driven, but Lisa opted not to come to Phoenix so I flew. This ( Read more... )

After spending several hours setting up the Fannish Inquisition videos to upload, Lisa and I headed for the Sparks Nugget for Christmas dinner at Orozko. Naturally, because we had a reservation, this time we didn't need one, as they were not backed up. In any event, it was an excellent meal, including some of the nicest roast lamb I've ever had. (I ( Read more... )

I gave up on trying to edit the Fannish Inquisition videos from the Toronto SMOFCon. (I'd hoped to be able to edit out the waffling around with tech and similar wasted time.) It not only was going to take so much time that I would never get around to it, but MovieMaker crashed (twice) while trying to digest the two halves of the Future SMOFCons ( Read more... )

With about 1600 messages piled up on The Conrunners List That Shall Not Be Named, I started to skip through them, then gave up after 200 or so messages, declared bankruptcy, and deleted them all. I may continue to follow new postings, but other than a vague overview of the last two weeks of overload, I can say I didn't follow most of that ListFail ( Read more... )

I stopped reading The List That Shall Not Be Named last Thursday when I headed to SMOFCon. Today I woke up sick and ended up not going to the office, but after sleeping about 13 hours I staggered to my desk in the hotel room and have worked a full day anyway. In the meantime, as of the time I compose this post, The List has accumulated a staggering ( Read more... )

I will be organizing a Probability & Statistics Seminar (CAD10 buy-in, top three or four to cash depending on number of entries) at SMOFCon 31 next month in Toronto. This is a zero-sum game with no "house rake." All buy-ins go back out again to the winning players. (We're not running a casino here ( Read more... )

People commonly consult with me prior to submitting items to be brought before the WSFS and Westercon Business Meetings. I will usually help you prepare your proposal in a technically correct form even if I'm opposed to the substance of what you're proposing. That's because I much prefer debate on the floor of the Business Meeting to focus on ( Read more... )

My Nevada license plates for the minivan were waiting for me when I got home on Saturday, and Lisa installed them before we headed to Reno for shopping yesterday.

( Officially Licensed SMOF )

After scanning the first twenty or so messages of the over 300 backlogged set on The List That Shall Not Be Named, and at the advice of others, I declared bankruptcy and deleted the rest without reading. And I'm not reading the further follow-ons that closely, either, unless they manage to raise something interesting in the first few lines.

The List That Shall Not Be Named has (as I compose this) 319 unread messages, stretching back only to yesterday morning at 10:45 AM my time. I am too sick and too overloaded with Day Jobbe to even begin to read the messages.

Periodically The List goes wild, and it's usually one of only a handful of topics that causes it.