Category Archives: conventions

A very Good Weekend

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This past weekend here in San Diego we had a fine little SF convention named Conjecture. Our Guest Of Honor was SF Author Allen Steele. This was a rather different experience for me than other local smaller cons as I was on five panels during the three days of the convention, three on friday afternoon and two On Sunday afternoon.

I had a blast. I moderated one panel and while my lack of knowledge on the subject could have doomed the panel, I had some great panelist, including Hugo award winning author Verner Vinge, and they saved my bacon. I must say that being on a panel in many ways is much more fun than watching a panel. When the odd idea or random connections occurs to me because of the conversation of the panelists I don’t have to hold back, or hold my hand up to offer a shortened thought, now I can speak my mind. (yeah I know that is a dangerous thing.)

Today I managed to get back into the swing of writing too.  Nearly 1000 words on a new short story that I had failed to launch three times before. If I can get it into shape in time this one might go to the Writers of The Future now that I am no so mad at them anymore.

 

Leaving for Worldcon

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So in about 25 minutes we will be hitting the road for the ten hour drive to Reno and the 2011 World Science Fiction Convention. I am excited and looking forward to the convention but this one will also have an undercurrent of sadness for me.

My friend Pat, who lived in Reno and introduced me to fanfic and Blake’s 7 passed away last year after a battle with cancer. Going to a worldocn in her town without her will be a sad affair. I will soldier on and enjoy myself, it is what she would have wanted, but ..well there it is.

 

 

Weekend wrap-up

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Well Condor 2011 has ended and I have to say I had a pretty good time this weekend. There were plenty of interesting panels, presentations, and person throughout the convention. I have come away with any short story idea, this one is a fantasy about water nymphs and spirits and will be another experimentation for me with my new writing style,

My headache seems to have at long last subsided. I saw a specialist on Weds and he advised 2 liters of water everyday to prevent migraines. That’s what I have done and the constant headache from last Sunday finally seems to be on the way out. So there will be a Sunday Night Movie tonight.

 

 

Condor update

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This will not be much of an update as we are about to leave for the convention. Condor, being a local convention, is one we attend from home rather than staying at the hotel. (My sweetie-wife does like to save the money.)

There were a number of good panels yesterday and I had a blast. We covered everything from why are zombies so popular right now to classic SF cinema such as When Worlds Collide. (Which I am now noticing is a suspensive sentence.)

 

Off for more fun and frolic, though today in the rain.

Back From Convention

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We got back last night from Loscon 37, the Los Angeles Area SF convention. This was a good Loscon and I had a great time. There were lots of interesting panels and presentations plus Saturday night I enjoyed the parties so much I stayed out past my knees’ endurance.

I would chat more about the convention, but I’ve been headachy today and am so now. This is going to be a brief post before bed.

It does, however, look like there is a road trip in the near future. The Mojave Air and Spaceport has an open house event every third Saturday they call Plane Crazy Saturdays, and on those Saturdays Xcor — a private enterprise rocket company — hosts open-houses. Xcor is a cool company staffed by cool people and if they stay on schedule they’ll be flying their sub-orbital spaceplane next year.

Not a dropship like Spaceship one and Two, but a craft that takes off like an airplane, scoots above the atmosphere into space — briefly — and then return to the spaceport to be readied for another flight.

I’m back

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with updates.

Turns out my lost post was made too quickly as Saturday was not super.

Oh most of the day went fairly well and I had a fun time at the San Diego Vintage SF screening of Them! However I learned just how modern I have truly become. During them film one of the characters, a female scientist named Pat, is looking at information on a clipboard. It was the style of clipboard with a flip-top cover, and she held the cover up while she read the sheets underneath. The camera’s POV was from the far side so all the audience could see was the cover upright and vertical, I saw it and the first thing my mind registered was a scientist working at her laptop. It took a moment for me to realize that I was NOT looking at a laptop fifty years early. I swear I had to make myself look and realize it was just a clipboard.

Anyway I Got home from the screening and with a couple of friends proceeded to play on the Xbox. I started feeling poorly, headache and upset GI tract. I had to suspend the xbox gaming and call it a night.

The next morning I was feeling a little better and I went and saw Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 with my sweetie-wife. (Good film I really liked it.) We had lunch and soon after I was feeling worse. We made it home but by that time I was weak and feeling like someone had overinflated my abdomen.

This is was state until yesterday. I made it back and forth to work, but beyond that I end no energy or inclination for anything more strenuous than watching videos, and not much of that.

(My Sunday Night Movie was going to be The Omega Man, but I couldn’t watch the entire film. I bailed early and went to bed.)

Tomorrow we’ll scoot for LosCon and luckily I seem to be recovered. I took a walk this morning, about an hour across uneven ground and I tolerated it well.

Weekend Update

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So today I hung out with my pal Bear. It was a typical Sunday Afternoon for us. First we visited our local specialty bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy. I did not buy anything as my ‘to read’ stack is currently five books high. (I personally am not a fan of buying books when I have not finished reading the ones I purchased the trip before.) Then a  quick stop at our local games store Game Empire — nicely located next to Mysterious Galaxy — where I picked up an expansion deck for Munchkin as a gift to my sweetie-wife.

We had a large lunch at Outback Steakhouse. hmm I love that Sundays I do not count calories. we discussed my re-invented zombies and I am pleased to say that now two friends — both fans of the zombie movie genre — have enjoyed the ideas I bounded around about re-inventing the zombie. I still am not sure that I have a plot that will fully form, but it could be that it will just take time. My Macbeth ideas bounced around my skull for nearly a decade before they became Cawdor late last year.

I am very sorry that Conjecture’s programming looked so weak this year. I love going to my local conventions, but I am there primarily for programming and it is on that basis that I judge if a con was a failure or a success for myself.

A post Westercon report

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There is one bit of data I learned at Westercon that truly was depressing.

In the Mohave desert right now, a new industry is being born. Passenger Spaceflight. In the Mohave you will find companies like Virgin Galactic and Xcor racing to establish the first safe, reliable, passenger service to space. Both companies are looking forward to at first sub-orbital hops, but much more could be had further down the road.

This is truly the American spirit. Bold visionary people, taking enormous risks as they build something new from the ground up.

When asked about regular operations and where the Lynx spacecraft would launch from, a member of Xcor told us that due to the business climate it all likelihood the company would move from California. The government climate makes it too difficult form the new industry to be born here. They can get their R&D done here, just as Rutan has with Spaceship One, but it looks like New Mexico is ahead of the nation in the race to make it an industry.

That is truly a shame.