a weekend at SMOFCon
So this weekend I joined the ranks of the SMOFs at SMOFCon in Austin.
(For the uninitiated, a SMOF is a Secret Master of Fandom, also known as The People Who Run the Big International Conventions)
Lots of WorldCon people were there, including reps for all the current bids. Also got together with lots of Texas conrunners.
Austin was great - beautiful, and full of delicious food. Our hotel was right on Sixth Street downtown and we walked all over on our long meal breaks. And there was plenty of socializing in the atrium, too.
I went to some great panels and a couple of moderated discussions, so it did feel like it was worth the price of admission.
The drive up to Austin was crazy but uneventful. SUVs spent ridiculous amounts of time driving dangerously close together at speeds exceeding 70 MPH in snow flurries. Gah! While I was gone the ancestral homestead got a couple of inches of actual snow - the banana tree was apparently totally blanketed in white.
On the way home, I drove into a driving rainstorm, so it was actually worse than the snow. The visibility got so low I could barely make out the traffic. Thank goodness it didn't get that bad until I was in familiar surroundings.
(For the uninitiated, a SMOF is a Secret Master of Fandom, also known as The People Who Run the Big International Conventions)
Lots of WorldCon people were there, including reps for all the current bids. Also got together with lots of Texas conrunners.
Austin was great - beautiful, and full of delicious food. Our hotel was right on Sixth Street downtown and we walked all over on our long meal breaks. And there was plenty of socializing in the atrium, too.
I went to some great panels and a couple of moderated discussions, so it did feel like it was worth the price of admission.
The drive up to Austin was crazy but uneventful. SUVs spent ridiculous amounts of time driving dangerously close together at speeds exceeding 70 MPH in snow flurries. Gah! While I was gone the ancestral homestead got a couple of inches of actual snow - the banana tree was apparently totally blanketed in white.
On the way home, I drove into a driving rainstorm, so it was actually worse than the snow. The visibility got so low I could barely make out the traffic. Thank goodness it didn't get that bad until I was in familiar surroundings.