Polaris: Day One, Entry Two
So, this morning, when I said that nothing exciting happened on the train? I forgot to knock on wood, because we were delayed three times by a freight train and ended up being a good 45 minutes late to my stop (sorry, vicki_james98!
Also, there was an adorable little girl who got on to meet up with her grandparents, who were already on the train. When she saw her grandfather, she was all excited. "Grampa! I misseded you!" So cute. (And then she talked non-stop. Reminded me of my niece.)
Pre-Polaris events included the usual shopping for groceries and stopping for drinks (the non-alcoholic, still-okay-to-drive kind) and ignoring the GPS lady's suggestions. Register, dinner, first panel: Fringe S4. Suffice to say that I forget a lot of what happened because the whole season was so freaking confusing, and thus so was some of the panel. ;) But others found S4 equally confusing, so that makes me feel a little better. :p~ Anna Torv got props for her awesome acting skills in portraying all sorts of different Olivias. (Question! Did they ever establish that the Observers are from the future? Somebody on the panel said they were, but I thought they were outside of time and existed everywhere, all the time?)
After that was a discussion on fangirls. The description did not quite match what happened; we (or, well, I; I shouldn't speak for vicki_james98) thought it would be something along the lines of how there are at least as many or maybe more fangirls that fanboys, why is that, that sort of thing. It turned out to be more along the lines of how girl geeks are misunderstood and misrepresented and under-represented (or flat-out ignored) in pop culture. Some of it was interesting. Some of it touched on things about which I hadn't a clue. (Yaoi? Or however it's spelled?)
Then we got to see Saturn through a telescope, which was just the coolest thing ever. Seriously, that was my geek-out moment of the day. You could see the rings and everything. SO COOL. (Yeah, I'm a loser who's never looked through a decent telescope before and who is easily excited by seeing a planet in such detail. It's still SO COOL.)
Then I wanted to go to a panel on SOPA and PIPA and copyright law and piracy. Some of it was interesting, some of it was way off-topic, and the part I was really hoping would be covered -- TV d/ls and the copyright surrounding that sort of thing (for no particular reason *cough*) -- didn't really come up until the last minutes, and we sort of got kicked out by the guy heading the next panel just as it really got rolling. The moderator's sort-of idea to cut down on piracy is to do a... shoot, I forget what it's called. A communal sort of sharing towards putting ideas into fruition. So, say I wanted to write a novel. I'd give an outline of it and how much I think I need to see it through, and anybody who thinks it's a good idea contributes money toward it. If it's a success, they get their money back and then some. If enough money isn't raised in the first place, everyone's money is refunded. (This doesn't directly address the piracy thing, though, so I'm not sure entirely how that works. But the guy had some interesting thoughts about copyright law and when copyright should expire, and how corporations shouldn't be able to own an idea.)
Then we sat in the lounge and listened to some Klingon karaoke, which was... interesting. :p~ (Also, Firefox's online spellcheck is A-OK with 'Klingon'. I love it.)
And now we're back in the hotel room. vicki_james98 is looking up info on Ad Astra because a) Jim and Shannon Butcher are guesting there next year and that's all kinds of awesome (they were at a Polaris event a few years ago, the year of the three fires*, and Jim Butcher is at least as amazing a storyteller IRL as he is as an author), and b) this is Polaris' last year as Polaris. *sad face* We're not entirely sure what the event will look like next year, if there's an event at all; at this point, I'm not sure that the Polaris organizers know what it will look like next year. There's a "Town Hall" meeting Sunday afternoon about this, so I guess we'll find out more then, but it's all very sad. Polaris is so much fun! And the only con I've been to!
But anyway, we're looking at Ad Astra as a possible alternative. The biggest challenge at this point will be getting here when school's still going on.... Less travel time! vicki_james98's been reading some of this past year's panels and events and such to me, and it sounds like it's a pretty awesome weekend.
Anyway, those are the highlights from today. Nothing early tomorrow so it looks like a full night's sleep ahead. :) Except I'm not really tired anymore....
* For those of you not on my f-list five years ago, there's this whole big awesome story about vicki_james98, her friend K, and I getting stuck on an elevator, and the fire alarm going off three times (not, as I originally suspected, drunk Klingons), and us having to evacuate the hotel. Very exciting stuff. Maybe I'll link to it in a later post, or you can go back to check July of 2007 (I think that was the year?) and see if you can find it.
Also, there was an adorable little girl who got on to meet up with her grandparents, who were already on the train. When she saw her grandfather, she was all excited. "Grampa! I misseded you!" So cute. (And then she talked non-stop. Reminded me of my niece.)
Pre-Polaris events included the usual shopping for groceries and stopping for drinks (the non-alcoholic, still-okay-to-drive kind) and ignoring the GPS lady's suggestions. Register, dinner, first panel: Fringe S4. Suffice to say that I forget a lot of what happened because the whole season was so freaking confusing, and thus so was some of the panel. ;) But others found S4 equally confusing, so that makes me feel a little better. :p~ Anna Torv got props for her awesome acting skills in portraying all sorts of different Olivias. (Question! Did they ever establish that the Observers are from the future? Somebody on the panel said they were, but I thought they were outside of time and existed everywhere, all the time?)
After that was a discussion on fangirls. The description did not quite match what happened; we (or, well, I; I shouldn't speak for vicki_james98) thought it would be something along the lines of how there are at least as many or maybe more fangirls that fanboys, why is that, that sort of thing. It turned out to be more along the lines of how girl geeks are misunderstood and misrepresented and under-represented (or flat-out ignored) in pop culture. Some of it was interesting. Some of it touched on things about which I hadn't a clue. (Yaoi? Or however it's spelled?)
Then we got to see Saturn through a telescope, which was just the coolest thing ever. Seriously, that was my geek-out moment of the day. You could see the rings and everything. SO COOL. (Yeah, I'm a loser who's never looked through a decent telescope before and who is easily excited by seeing a planet in such detail. It's still SO COOL.)
Then I wanted to go to a panel on SOPA and PIPA and copyright law and piracy. Some of it was interesting, some of it was way off-topic, and the part I was really hoping would be covered -- TV d/ls and the copyright surrounding that sort of thing (for no particular reason *cough*) -- didn't really come up until the last minutes, and we sort of got kicked out by the guy heading the next panel just as it really got rolling. The moderator's sort-of idea to cut down on piracy is to do a... shoot, I forget what it's called. A communal sort of sharing towards putting ideas into fruition. So, say I wanted to write a novel. I'd give an outline of it and how much I think I need to see it through, and anybody who thinks it's a good idea contributes money toward it. If it's a success, they get their money back and then some. If enough money isn't raised in the first place, everyone's money is refunded. (This doesn't directly address the piracy thing, though, so I'm not sure entirely how that works. But the guy had some interesting thoughts about copyright law and when copyright should expire, and how corporations shouldn't be able to own an idea.)
Then we sat in the lounge and listened to some Klingon karaoke, which was... interesting. :p~ (Also, Firefox's online spellcheck is A-OK with 'Klingon'. I love it.)
And now we're back in the hotel room. vicki_james98 is looking up info on Ad Astra because a) Jim and Shannon Butcher are guesting there next year and that's all kinds of awesome (they were at a Polaris event a few years ago, the year of the three fires*, and Jim Butcher is at least as amazing a storyteller IRL as he is as an author), and b) this is Polaris' last year as Polaris. *sad face* We're not entirely sure what the event will look like next year, if there's an event at all; at this point, I'm not sure that the Polaris organizers know what it will look like next year. There's a "Town Hall" meeting Sunday afternoon about this, so I guess we'll find out more then, but it's all very sad. Polaris is so much fun! And the only con I've been to!
But anyway, we're looking at Ad Astra as a possible alternative. The biggest challenge at this point will be getting here when school's still going on.... Less travel time! vicki_james98's been reading some of this past year's panels and events and such to me, and it sounds like it's a pretty awesome weekend.
Anyway, those are the highlights from today. Nothing early tomorrow so it looks like a full night's sleep ahead. :) Except I'm not really tired anymore....
* For those of you not on my f-list five years ago, there's this whole big awesome story about vicki_james98, her friend K, and I getting stuck on an elevator, and the fire alarm going off three times (not, as I originally suspected, drunk Klingons), and us having to evacuate the hotel. Very exciting stuff. Maybe I'll link to it in a later post, or you can go back to check July of 2007 (I think that was the year?) and see if you can find it.