Vicarious Worldcon Report - So Far
Earlier this summer, Tara and I made plans to not go to LoneStarCon 3 so that we could save our money and my vacation for Loncon 3 next year. Admittedly over the last month or so, I’ve regretted that decision, even though the financial and vacation issue is still valid. So, with bouts of boredom, and feeling sorry for myself, I’ve been attending LoneStarCon 3 vicariously through friends and others posting on various social networks (primarily Twitter, Facebook and Live Journal).
Thursday was fairly quiet. I was moderately busy at work, and there wasn’t that much going on at LoneStarCon yet to be reported on.
Friday, however, was the day I most missed being there. I followed the Twitter stream (using #WSFS) for the preliminary business meeting. I was fairly happy with the results. The item I was most worried about - the amendment to remove all of the “fan” categories from The Hugo Awards, except the new Fancast category, went down quickly to an overwhelming objection to consider. The most recent proposal for a YA Hugo Award also went down to an objection to consider, but the people originally moving the motion had asked that it be withdrawn earlier, so I cannot wholly complain. The Best Dramatic Presentation Extra-short (<15 minutes) also went down to an objection to consider. The other amendments made it to the main business meeting.
Friday was a quiet day at work, but somewhat short since I had to get home to help Tara take The Girls to the vet. Afterwards, we did some running around to get stuff for The Kid’s birthday on Tuesday - and pay too much to have it shipped up to where he is via FedEx due to the lateness of our shipping.
I did start Saturday morning following the business meeting twitter stream again. Pretty good results as far as I’m concerned. The two items that both seemed to be at least partially designed to keep supporting and voting membership prices high (and they are high enough to make a lot of people feel excluded from Worldcon, and excluded in a way that lessens the value of The Hugo Awards) were referred to committee, as was the YA proposal.
The amendment to just strike the requirement that electronic publications be opt-in, without providing anything to ensure that paper publications would be available to those who don’t want electronic publication, was accepted.
The amendment that would have expanded Best Fan Artist to include performing arts was basically gutted before being passed. If I understand the final text, it basically does nothing at this point. I’d have supported that one in its original state at least a bit. I do see a possible problem there that graphic/visual artists could see this as taking their Hugo Award away and giving it to Filkers - not too far of a stretch from the admitted idea of making sure that Filk could be awarded under that category.
Aside, Filk is a bit of a hard fit for The Hugo Awards. As far as I know, only one musical album has ever made the final ballot for The Hugo Awards, last year’s nomination of Seanan McGuier’s Wicked Girls, which was nominated for Best Related Work. Many argued that they belong in Dramatic Presentation, but I don’t agree. I’d like to see something that would allow The Hugo Awards to recognize Filk, and possibly other fannish performances, but I’m not sure how to do it. And, I’m likely to not be in the position to do anything related to The Hugo Awards for at least the next Worldcon, possibly more.
Saturday was when I noticed not being at LoneStarCon 3 the most - Tara has gotten a bad cold, and there wasn’t much to do at the house. I only got out long enough to run over to Costco, and in part because of how I was feeling, in part because it was Saturday afternoon at Costco, and in part because Costco’s air conditioners weren’t keeping up with San Diego having a dew point in the high 60′s; I didn’t enjoy that trip as much as I do sometimes. Finally, by sitting down with Tara and watching more of The Legend of Kora off of DVD, I felt a bit better.
The evening ended for me with the mixed news: unofficially, the 2015 Worldcon was awarded to Spokane - the bid I’d been marginally part of since near the beginning - but the 2014 NASFiC went to Detroit - I’d been part of the competing bid for Phoenix, again marginally, for most of its existence as well. In at least one way, I’m actually glad Detroit won. If next year’s NASFiC had been in Phoenix, I probably would have needed to go to promote Westercon 68, and possibly help out. This way, I can concentrate on going to London without that distraction.
This morning, before church, I got caught up on the official info for the 2014 NASFiC and 2015 Worldcon, and am hoping that the rest of the weekend I’ll be able to keep busy enough to not start feeling bored, depressed and missing being with friends at LoneStarCon.