It's the little old lady from Pasadena. The little old lady from Pasadena (Go granny, go granny, go)

[hazelchaz]

Photos now online:
Remodeling Monster part 19: Painting Touch-up, Spare Room Closet Repairs (03/04-Oct-2007)
... part 20: Water Heater Closet, Painted Shed (09-Oct-2007)
... part 21: Guest Room Floor, Water Heater Closet Checking (15/16-Oct-2007)
Anime Los Angeles 4 barbecue and meeting (14-Oct-2007)
Caroline's Birthday Party (20-Oct-2007)
Library Night at Malibu Speed Zone (20-Oct-2007)
Masonic Book Hand-Off (21-Oct-2007)
LASFS/Aftermeetings part 299: Coral Cafe (25-Oct-2007)

The picture of aurorahermione is from the birthday party.

Zoom, zoom. The weekend of the 20th was a busy weekend for us. midnight_rocket's birthday party AND a gathering of library_lynn's co-workers at Malibu Speed Zone (i.e, go-kart racing). On top of that, colleency asked for help with sodas for a Costumers Guild West halloween party in Orange County.

Then on Sunday, I took my father to meet a brother Mason from San Diego fandom, to pass on a bunch of his old Masonic books and rituals and exposés. Things like books of masonic ceremonies from Idaho and Pennyslvania and Ireland and Japan. Old books -- well, I say old; nothing was less than 40 years old, because they all date from dad's involvement in Freemasonry in New York in the 40's, 50's and 60's. (He found that the lodges in California were too political for his tastes, so he let his membership lapse. A genuine "Rusty Brother.") The oldest item in there was a book that had been printed in 1794. It doesn't have its original covers; the pages were re-bound, probably sometime in the 19th century.

Anyhow, I'm not a Mason. While these things often run in families -- Grandfather was a Mason, and I expect his brothers were as well -- dad's break with Freemasonry in California meant that there wasn't really any example of "This is a nifty thing to get involved with."

Freemasonry is one way to get used to public speaking. (Joining Toastmasters is another.) Masonic rituals and ceremonies are basically plays or pageants. To participate, you learn your lines, so (like any theatrical group) you can get over your stage fright in the company of friends.

Freemasonry also means that Robert Ross (my masonic friend from San Diego) can go to any city in the world, and find people he has something in common with. Lots of things give you this ability, of course. I understand if you know Esperanto, you can do the same thing. (And find a newspaper you can read, too.) I've more or less got that through fandom. As far as public speaking... well, I try not to do too much of that. With animelosangeles, I speak at opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies, and between times our fine toastmaster (Tadao Tomomatsu) takes care of speaking on behalf of the convention and myself.

Dad's made it clear that if I were interested, he'd re-join and sponsor me. But... I don't need another regular demand on my time. I've never run for any lasfs office, not counting Loscon chair, because I don't want to be obligated to attend the meetings every month or every week.

A bittersweet day, really. There was one bit of Masonic bling in the collection that Dad and Robert insisted I have to keep, because it's passed from father to son. I'll have to get it displayed properly, with some kind of explanatory label. Can anyone explain it? I'll get the chapter and verse from Dad when I see him next, I guess.

Oh, and I heard a new light bulb joke.
How many past masters does it take to change a light bulb?
That's already been addressed.

Halloween: we got 46 kids this year. Possibly a few more blew us off because the line was too long. Doing a trick to get a treat takes some time to process. I need to print up a dozen or twenty extra copies of some of the Pumpkin Carols so we can handle crowds more readily. We gave out the jumbo Pixy Stix -- there's only 50 in the case, so when we handed out the last few I was really worried we'd run out. (Usually we get 30-36 kids.)

A few of the kids came prepared with something to do. But most of them ended up singing a pumpkin carol, hopping on one foot while turning around, doing a couple of cartwheels, or the stick trick (let go of broomstick, twirl, grab it again before it falls). For the under-five set, we were satisfied if they could hop up and down for each year of their age.

I think I want to get a "plank" like the pirates use for the "Rum Party." A "walk the plank" trick might be fun, and easy to store from year to year.

I need to go out and get some kind of light-up halloween decoration. Need to have a little pizazz so they notice our house.

Oh, and how's animelosangeles coming along? Pretty good. We had a long meeting in mid-October. (Next meeting's in December, because Loscon gets in the way of things.) We barbecued up lunch at noon, and got down to business about 1:30; we were mostly done by 4 o'clock with the general meeting, and other smaller meetings broke out after that.

The hotel's playing silly games with us. Their construction means that we're missing about four rooms that we hoped to use, so things will be tight. Our room nights are strong, though. We'll be sharing the hotel with West Point Academy -- we don't know if it's a recruiting thing, or an alumni meeting or what.

We do still have a number of positions that need to be filled. If you're interested in helping out, the Committee Structure and Roster is on the website -- lots of places with "Help Wanted" on them.

I'll be at Pacific Media Expo, the 9th to 11th of November; then in Indianapolis on business, the 12th through the 16th. Anyone in the Indiana area want to meet up?

Comments

Alas, Halloween was a disappointment

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

We only got one clutch of kids and I think it was Joe's brood (two houses north across the street) and their friends, all piled into his SUV and looking for porch lights on. I''m thinking about trying chocolate chip cookies using smashed butterfinger bars as the chips.

On my way home last night I saw someone on Rockhill who was setting up an inflatable haunted castle. Woot.

(and one of my younger co-workers, dressed up, went out and got loot. (he's old enough for a real beard but has it trimmed at the "I'm thinking about growing a beard but am still waffling" length))

[nolly.livejournal.com]

You could probably talk me into working something or other...info, reg, autographs, tech...

Working

[hazelchaz]

Truly? Days or evenings?

Re: Working

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Probably either but not both. Preference for days, but if you desperately need evening people, I can probably do some.

[made-of-paradox.livejournal.com]

Last year, Halloween was disappointing. This year, I took my twins trick-or-treating in a friend's neighborhood.

For tricks, would singing the alphabet song be good enough for 4-year-olds? Or counting backwards?

ABC, etc

[hazelchaz]

Yes, in fact one of the little ones volunteered and did that.
counting backwards: that's a good one, thanks

Re: ABC, etc

[made-of-paradox.livejournal.com]

This cutie is at the point where that's one of her favorite tricks.

Her class went to see the circus today, her daddy and I went as well, and I ended up carrying her down the stairs to get out at the end. She counted down the yellow-marked stairs as I stepped down each one.

Her twin brother has learned signs for fingerspelling. At least, he's learned some of them. He signs ABCDEFVWXYZ on a regular basis. :) (He really likes the XYZ part.) He'd probably sing the alphabet song cheerfully.