Panel Idea - "Why the hell do I keep coming to these things anyway?"


Spent the weekend at OryCon down in Portland. It was a bit off but otherwise a relaxing and social weekend. Normally I share a room with loree, but she was on on-call this weekend and couldn't attend. I stayed with jeliza, rubylou, and drakemonger instead, which was nice and social. The pattern of my Sci-Fi Convention experience for the past few years has basically become "drive X hours, stay in a hotel for the weekend, and hang out with the same 8-12 people I know from Seattle."

I'm getting pretty burned on the convention scene generally. I'm not really into the gaming, unless I'm going to a specific gaming convention and even then I'm reaching the end of my interest in the RPGA with recent shifts in the focus. The programming has been steadily less engaging to me as well. I looked through the entire programming guide Friday night, and found exactly one panel of real interest and even that I blew off by the time Sunday noon rolled around. I used to really like the dances, but it takes a certain level of energy to really make it work for me, and I've been disappointed the past few Norwescon years. My interest in costuming pretty much ran its course back in my SCA days. The art show and dealers room are fun to browse, but nothing that I feel like spending money on. As lovely as vixyish singing is to listen to, filk has never really been that much of a calling for me. I'm not really an 'aspiring writer' nor am I that keen on autograph collection. All that combined with my growing impatience with fandom generally, broken elevators, over-burdened service, and particular personality archetypes at these conventions.

At this point it feels like I should either get off my butt and actually get involved with the programming at the next convention, or I should consider just not going and finding other ways to hang out with my otherwise very busy friends.

On a more positive note, it was great to visit with rubylou, drakemonger, and others I only really see at cons or parties. I also had lunch with tara_firma who recently moved to Portland, and it was great to get a chance to visit. Browsed Powell's City of Books and more important the technical book branch store. They had a sale on math books, and while I didn't buy any or frankly even really understand half of them, I always enjoying browsing such things. Titles like "Hankel Operators and Their Applications", "Foundations of Hyperbolic Manifolds", and "Grobner Deformations of Hypergeometric Differential Equations" fascinate me. Read some prefaces and flipped through a number of them, but really I don't have any justified reason to actually digest that kind of material at this point in my career. Plenty of other things more practical I should be focused on anyhow.

Part of my attitude is colored by being in a bit of odd mood. Work is a bit uncertain and rough at the moment, although with the holidays growing close there will be extensive downtime to relax. Last Monday would have been appleang's and I thirteenth anniversary. Instead I've been living alone the last 8 years and 10 months. This December will be the ten year mark since Kim gave up on us and drove off with What's-His-Face. I generally I'm not really all that angsty and I'm looking forward to the holiday trip back to Texas, but I feel weighed down at times.

It was an odd con year, but overall I enjoyed the weekend.

I made more of an effort to check out the dances this year, and while the new Saturday DJ is better than the one they had a few years ago he was saddled with too many 'con favorites' that frankly suck. The Thursday night and Friday night DJs were playing a better mix, but still had a few too many 'industrial' songs in the mix for my tastes.

The programming has definitely improved over the fiascos of previous years, but few of the topics really struck me as all that personally engaging. I keep meaning to see if they want to beef up their game industry track and get on a few panels, but as with most cons it's more about being friends with the programming people than it being about qualifications.

Gaming was once a big focus of Norwescon, but with the death of Living City and the RPGA's focus on home play over 'big con events' it's been pretty much down to just a few dozen home games over the weekend. The location for gaming was better this year, as previous years stuck them in a room where old gamers go to die, and from the smell it seemed like a few had. I did play a Shadowrun Missions game this year which I've been blowing off since 2004, and it was my first chance to play 4th Edition Shadowrun. The system is a bit more streamlined, but there's still a million things to know and learn all over again.

I did a loop of the room parties Friday and Saturday night, but as they are primarily about booze I don't get a lot out of them. Plenty of socializing with beaq, loree, drakemonger, jeliza, and rubylou along with a few others who's LJ names are not handy.

As Sakura-Con was the same weekend, there were few animae fanboys at Norwescon and not much in the way of cosplay outfits in the halls. Given that the parking situation was terrible, it was just as well. Apparently there were a lot people flying this weekend, and all the lots around the airport were full by Friday afternoon.

Spent the majority of the weekend at Norwescon. Much time hanging out with loree, jeliza, rubylou, drakemonger, beaq, datavore, gement, ivolucien, lunar__angel, and many others. I made a point this year of making it to more programming, although the game industry track was a mixed-bag as usual. Didn't spend as much time at the dances as I'd have liked, but did make vixyish's set at the filk concert.

Next year I'd like to get more invovled with the programming and perhaps get on some of those game industry panels.

Had a good time at Orycon, although I spent most of it sleeping in trying to get over this damnable cold. A great weekend visiting with loree, jeliza, rubylou, drakemonger, and the usual suspects for the con, and brunch today with hollyqueen and hollyking. The new hotel is pretty swank, the programming seemed more interesting (if a little light), and the dealers room/art show seemed pretty good in terms of content.

The last two times I went to Seoul, I went to Canada for a gaming con the weekend after I returned. Ironically, there is in fact a gaming con in Canada this weekend--HP Lovecraft Birthday Party 2005--that I would have attended had the game choices included things I haven't already played.

So instead I'll day-trip to Cascadia Con to hang out with jeliza et al and see what the con has to offer. I'm not sure if I'm going to try to brave Bumpershoot Monday for Tegan & Sara or not. Ani Difranco was originally going to play as well, but had to cancel her tour for health reasons. I managed to stay up last night pretty late for the Living Greyhawk game, so hopefully I'll not be too jet-lagged by Tuesday.

I finally got around to watching the new season of Stargate SG-1. The cast now includes a mix of almost every current sci-fi actress I love: Amanda Tapping, Lexia Doug, and Claudia Black. Throw in Ben Browder and the rest of the original cast and I'm in fanboy heaven.

Joy.

Over the long weekend I listened to all the Timothy Zahn Star Wars novels which I have on audio book tapes: the Heir to the Empire triology and the Hand of Thrawn series. They are probably some of the best SW novels out there and capture the essence of the SW epic better than most.

In fact, like many franchise settings, the writers of the novels tend to 'get' the material even more than their original creator. I wonder what Ep 1-3 might have been like had Lucas realized the limits of his abilities as a writer and director and instead had turned over those roles to someone else, someone who's real talent lay in those areas. Perhaps they could have been brilliant works that stand the test of time like those first movies, but sadly no.

In the Star Wars universe, the women tend to be strong-willed, complicated, empowered. Leia set the stage for some of that in the original stories as a leader of the Rebellion, and many of the follow characters come from the same mold. Mara Jade, one of the cooler characters Zahn created, is such a woman. I like to think my own contribution to the Extended Universe via my Living Force character is also such a woman.

So why does Lucas have Padme become such a simpering wimp in Ep 3? That is probably the main thing about Revenge of the Sith I find most disappointing. Here was the woman who should have set the mold for Leia, and they have her hanging around her apartment on Couriscant crying, combing her hair, and sitting around helpless. Just dumb. Does Lucas think pregant women become stupid, or has it just been too many years since he actually lived with one?

It's probably just as well that Lucas is done with making Star Wars films. The universe he created has grown beyond him, and in ways that he either doesn't see or doesn't appreciate. I appreciate Uncle George's original vision, but perhaps it is past time he let control of it pass to someone who actually 'gets' it. Sadly, it is more likely to end up in the hands of people who just want to exploit it for how much money they can squeeze from the super-fans.

It was an enjoyable, low-key long weekend at the con. I didn't have as much time at the dances as I'd have preferred--should have made a point of going Friday night--but attended a number of panels and generally hung out with loree, jeliza, rubylou, drakemonger, artvixn, helix90, and others. The programming was a lot better organized this year, and the quality/smoothness of the convention seemed better overall.

Some amusing quotes from the weekend:

"Gayer than a great big bag full of gay things."

"You're using a tone of voice one would use when making a point."

"Who loves the chocolate..." [modified to the situation at hand]

Update: And some amusing (if obnoxious) gaming T-shirts spotted in the dealers area:

Well, I Rolled a 'Twenty' So You Bitches Can Suck It!

You're Not Just Wrong. The Rules Also Say You're A Dick!

The new woman on Monk is pretty hot. Quirky, but cute. Being a person with OCD, the show is damn funny in that way only making fun on one's own flaws can be. I guess as long as my weakness for crazy-girls remains focused on fictional women, I'm safe :>