I have my badge and the Worldcon sun is in my eyes
Ever since they replaced the dead hard drive on this computer and I got home only to have to drive all the way back to the store to have them install the wireless driver, my wireless has been unreliable. Having to turn the computer off (or pull the battery) to restore function is annoying when it happens once a week, but maddening when it happens a half-dozen times in a night. Like last weekend, when I was trying to do stuff to make the house less crazy-making, the Muse Fusion, and get ready for Worldcon all at once.
So, yesterday I got up early (for a non-work day) and headed off to make them re-install the driver. To get there, I drove on a highway, and was reminded that on the trip to Muse Con, the car had made an intermittent strange, not-loud (but not right) rhythmic noise if we hit about 65 MPH. Except that now it was doing it if I got to 50. Erg. In dealing with the infection and root-canal in two sessions, I'd totally forgotten about that noise.
So I went to the computer store, where I had to talk to a manager to get them to just reinstall the driver instead of making me choose between them doing nothing at all and them keeping the computer for a day or two to do full diagnostics. While they had the computer signed in, I drove back to the Firestone I'd passed to say "Hi, I got my tires at your now-defunct downtown location, and now I have this noise..." Hours in a hot waiting room with nothing to write upon but my Kindle and $200 later, I have a new tie-rod, rotated and rebalanced tires, and no noise.
So then back to the computer store, where a sympathetic couple said, "you haven't been here all this time, have you?" and I got the computer back. It would have been more fun to have been there, actually, since the computer store is clean, has free wireless, and air conditioning (and no Judge Judy clone-shows on a TV you aren't allowed to touch). Oh, well, I got several hundred words written.
Then I had other errands--cat food, people food, program My Angel's phone so she can call the lady she's working for at the con to confirm when she's needed--Oh. 24 hours earlier than she remembered. Glad I took the whole week off! Better give up on housework (except can't leave the fish filters another week, oh, and this stuff needs to be out of the 'fridge and in the compost, and...) um, yeah. Time to pack in a hurry AND do other stuff.
So, I never got the words transferred over from my e-mail to Word, and the internet in the room costs money, so here I sit in one of the lobby areas, where the internet is free and the sun is shining in a skylight onto my face so I'm glad I learned touch-typing, and
I HAVE MY BADGE. Fans I know (and fans I don't know) keep hurrying by, taking luggage to their rooms or engaged in the important business of setting things up. Soon, I'll need to go back to my room, where I can see the words I wrote yesterday and weave them into the story I'm working on, because there's no way to plug the thing in here where I'm sitting. But for now, I'm here, and as far as I'm concerned, the con has started.
If you're here, feel free to stop by and say hello! You can leave a message at my room, find me at Filk things, at the Broad Universe table, at programming I'm on, or "around". I would have said "at the pool", but sadly there isn't one!
Thu Aug 30 1:30-2:00 pm.....Writer Under Glass #4 in the Fan Lounge
Thu Aug 30 4:30-6:00 pm.....Storytelling the Old-Fashioned Way in Buckingham
Thu Aug 30 9:00-10:30 pm.....The Exploration of Gender Roles in SF in Dusable
Fri Aug 31 12:00-1:30 pm.....Art in an Ebook Market in San Francisco
Fri Aug 31 3:00-4:30 pm.....Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading in Grand Suite 3
Sat Sep 1 12:30-1:00 pm.....Reading: Deirdre Murphy in Dusable
Sat Sep 1 3:00-4:30 pm......Autograph Session 10 in Autograph Tables
Sun Sep 2 1:30-3:00 pm......Where's Thursday? San Francisco
That last, by the way, is just WRONG. Thursday was always in Chicago, or perhaps a near suburb. Saying it's in San Francisco--what were the programming planners thinking? That's like saying your favorite superhero is Adrian Monk.
So, what are you doing this fine Worldcon week?
So, yesterday I got up early (for a non-work day) and headed off to make them re-install the driver. To get there, I drove on a highway, and was reminded that on the trip to Muse Con, the car had made an intermittent strange, not-loud (but not right) rhythmic noise if we hit about 65 MPH. Except that now it was doing it if I got to 50. Erg. In dealing with the infection and root-canal in two sessions, I'd totally forgotten about that noise.
So I went to the computer store, where I had to talk to a manager to get them to just reinstall the driver instead of making me choose between them doing nothing at all and them keeping the computer for a day or two to do full diagnostics. While they had the computer signed in, I drove back to the Firestone I'd passed to say "Hi, I got my tires at your now-defunct downtown location, and now I have this noise..." Hours in a hot waiting room with nothing to write upon but my Kindle and $200 later, I have a new tie-rod, rotated and rebalanced tires, and no noise.
So then back to the computer store, where a sympathetic couple said, "you haven't been here all this time, have you?" and I got the computer back. It would have been more fun to have been there, actually, since the computer store is clean, has free wireless, and air conditioning (and no Judge Judy clone-shows on a TV you aren't allowed to touch). Oh, well, I got several hundred words written.
Then I had other errands--cat food, people food, program My Angel's phone so she can call the lady she's working for at the con to confirm when she's needed--Oh. 24 hours earlier than she remembered. Glad I took the whole week off! Better give up on housework (except can't leave the fish filters another week, oh, and this stuff needs to be out of the 'fridge and in the compost, and...) um, yeah. Time to pack in a hurry AND do other stuff.
So, I never got the words transferred over from my e-mail to Word, and the internet in the room costs money, so here I sit in one of the lobby areas, where the internet is free and the sun is shining in a skylight onto my face so I'm glad I learned touch-typing, and
I HAVE MY BADGE. Fans I know (and fans I don't know) keep hurrying by, taking luggage to their rooms or engaged in the important business of setting things up. Soon, I'll need to go back to my room, where I can see the words I wrote yesterday and weave them into the story I'm working on, because there's no way to plug the thing in here where I'm sitting. But for now, I'm here, and as far as I'm concerned, the con has started.
If you're here, feel free to stop by and say hello! You can leave a message at my room, find me at Filk things, at the Broad Universe table, at programming I'm on, or "around". I would have said "at the pool", but sadly there isn't one!
Thu Aug 30 1:30-2:00 pm.....Writer Under Glass #4 in the Fan Lounge
Thu Aug 30 4:30-6:00 pm.....Storytelling the Old-Fashioned Way in Buckingham
Thu Aug 30 9:00-10:30 pm.....The Exploration of Gender Roles in SF in Dusable
Fri Aug 31 12:00-1:30 pm.....Art in an Ebook Market in San Francisco
Fri Aug 31 3:00-4:30 pm.....Broad Universe Rapid-Fire Reading in Grand Suite 3
Sat Sep 1 12:30-1:00 pm.....Reading: Deirdre Murphy in Dusable
Sat Sep 1 3:00-4:30 pm......Autograph Session 10 in Autograph Tables
Sun Sep 2 1:30-3:00 pm......Where's Thursday? San Francisco
That last, by the way, is just WRONG. Thursday was always in Chicago, or perhaps a near suburb. Saying it's in San Francisco--what were the programming planners thinking? That's like saying your favorite superhero is Adrian Monk.
So, what are you doing this fine Worldcon week?