Is very clear our love is here to stay. Not for all year, but ever and a day.

[hazelchaz]

Friday at Noreascon -- pictures are online. Click on Michael Siladi's vacuum cleaner to see them if you haven't already.

Our 2004 Xmas 1-page newsletter is online. We keep running out of ink when we try to print it, but that's another story... (We did this last year and we liked it so much we decided to do it again.)

caprine got to work on our "Brain-Scanning" gimmick for the Space Cadets side of the Future Worldcons (inter_action and laconiv) party, while I was out shopping as I mentioned previously. I'd seen that the hotel-provided sodas were on the Coca-Cola axis, so I concentrated on getting a variety of Pepsi flavors and 7up/Dr Pepper stuff, and I threw in about four or six cans of iced-coffee. (Which looked like cans of Guinness in a darkened room, but that's another story...) And, as always, lots and lots of bottled water.

Michael R. Nelson was running the newsletter at Noreascon. He is one of the rare individuals who has run a Worldcon newsletter twice; I was hoping to have an interesting conversation about what lessons he'd learned from the Mil Phil experience that he was applying to the newsletter this time around. He had some people working for him I want to cherry-pick for the next big newsletter I run... including, of course, the ever-reliable Jan van 't Ent. The newsletter office was set up in function space in the convention center, specifically in the Concourse area. It was behind Information, and near the internet terminals, and pipe-and-draped behind their area were the actual copiers they used for repro. Michael, anyone, if you're listening, how did it work out as a work environment? Pleasantly hectic and energetic? Unpleasantly noisy and disruptive? I imagine having to leave at 2:00 am or whenever they closed down the Hynes meant you didn't have the all-night sessions for the morning newsletter that I've seen time and time again, how did that work out for producing the first-issue-of-the-day with the program changes?

I caught Nancy Lebovitz in the dealer's room; I explained that Christian B. McGuire and I had decided to add her to the Fan Gallery because her calligraphic buttons were fannish icons. It's rare for us to add hucksters to the exhibit, but we felt that her slogan buttons were important enough to fandom to warrant inclusion. YMMV, of course... I also met Bill Burns (efanzines.com) who might be someone we'll add soon. Gotta talk to Christian about that.

I also ran into Connie Willis; not only is she a former Loscon goh and L.A.con III toastmaster, but she's also goh at laconiv. So I made sure to get her picture. (I should send her a copy of A BEAR WENT OVER THE MOUNTAIN #1, because she's mentioned in it from that Loscon in 1999. Hmmm. I bet Elayne has her address.)

Ran into Sydnie Krause. Now there's a girl that needs a JAILBAIT ribbon. And, in fact, I gave them to her, and she handed them out throughout the convention. She's tall for her age; although she does still sound like she's a young high-schooler, her size can fool you if you're not paying attention.

While we were setting up the party room - us and the Brits - we learned that their shopping trip was caught in traffic. Yikes! We went to Plan B, which was to spread out all of the L.A.con IV supplies and add Interaction signs, and just not tell anyone that most of the special British food hadn't arrived. Then an hour or so before party time we got the call that they'd made it to their hotel, and loaded all of their specially-shipped and brought-in food items and decorations in the car with the fruits of the shopping expedition.... and then got lost in traffic between where they'd parked, and the Sheraton. We had some knuckle-biting moments there, although of course the room was lovely with the sparkly tableclothes we had left over from our L.A. in 2006 party at Torcon 3, and we had lots of delicious cookies and soda pop. Yet it wasn't quite the well-rounded assortment of food we'd all hoped for.

Fortunately, the car arrived just in the nick of time, and we could rearrange the room again. Which was good, actually, because the food looked kind of sparse the way we'd had it. Now we had an abundance of food - and it looked like an abundance. (This being Worldcon, of course, it didn't last forever, but we had a good spread through and past the peak traffic period, i.e. after 11 pm there was still a wide selection of goodies.) They also brought in a helium tank and a bunch of colorful balloons, and filled the ceiling with them.

caprine had provided buttons (which library_lynn and Maria and others helped whomp) for Space Cadet careers, and had worked out a video loop on the iBook (it was actually a PowerPoint thing) to go when we put the Brain Scanning helmet on people -- which she promised was amost completely painless, and that very few Space Cadets had had their brain explode. She had a nice patter, and doled out various career assignment such as "Big Red Button Pusher" to the fans. (We did this schtick again at Loscon, and she several different video loops; and next time out, she's promised us sound effects. Way to go, caprine - you rock! Remember that, please!)

At our party Friday night, I met Zara Baxter and Lucy Zienkiwicz who suggested I make ribbons that said "PERVY." More on that ribbon idea later, when I get to my yaoicon coverage... I met a lot of friendly Brits and other anglophone fans from hither and thither. Noreascon is where I realized that if I stood for TAFF, and won, I could possibly meet a whole lot of friendly Brit fans.

Speaking of ribbons, Mike Sheffield and Sharon Morgan (aka Sharon Sheffield, I believe) had "Heinlein Society" ribbons that I learned were made by the same little Tucson ribbon company that makes mine. I learned later that when Kathie and Janet at RV Awards saw the name "Heinlein Society" they first thought of "Hemlock Society" and were relieved to learn that the ribbons were just for blood donors who were helping to save lives, not end their own...

The party was held in function space. We had a door to the kitchen area, where we could (for example) find all the ice we wanted. Also sinks for washing-up. When we were cleaning up at about 1:00 am, we ran into Tamie Inoue in the kitchen, cleaning off the Yokohama in 2007 bid party's things!

After we'd got everything boxed up, and ready to move out of the room, (in)famous Barea smof Michael Siladi was hanging out with us, and he grabbed a vacuum cleaner to tidy up the floor. Eric P. Scott noted that there was something oddly soothing about watching Michael Siladi vacuuming... (Seriously, Michael, thanks for helping us.)

Other LJ fans I met, not previously mentioned: flickgc, jhulten. (May I connect your full-name index pages on my website to your livejournals?) Oh and it looks like I left out LJ's for cherylmorgan and timill (as flickgc kindly pointed out) last time.

Other Brits and Europeans not mentioned earlier: James Bacon (TAFF delegate), Steve Cooper, Colin Harris, Vincent Docherty. I know I met more (after all, the UK 2005 was the more-senior Worldcon in the party room, they had pride of place, they were in charge of the party and it was the natural place for the Brits to congregate even if they weren't working the party or the convention) but I was "on duty" most of the time and didn't take as many pictures and write as many notes as I would have had otherwise.

Comments

[flick.livejournal.com]

jamesb and colin_harris. Wow: I have a Purpose In Life!

Your purpose as expect

[hazelchaz]

Wow, you're really plugged in! I appreciate the info -- I haven't quite found everyone on LJ yet, of course.

(Did my box arrive yet?)

Re: Your purpose as expect

[flick.livejournal.com]

I find it's easier if you're an easly adopter, as it were, then you hear about most of the new people who turn up!

(No, 'fraid not. But, Christmas post... When did you post it?)

[esprix.livejournal.com]

Allison ALWAYS comes up with good patter. We lurves her.