Hodgepodge

Several interesting panels - the one on plagues quite fascinating.
Two great filk concerts by filkertom and seanan_mcguire 
A prime rib dinner and then Trivia for Chocolate.
On the way to car to head home a few minutes of the Tesla Coils and we were well and truly "conned"
Wrap up today a few panels, maybe a filk concert and closing ceremonies where we get to hear the best songs made from some really words from opening ceremonies.

I love scifi cons.

Opening ceremonies were great - especially the talking skull Bob form the Dresden books - Jim Butcher is the Author GOH.

The improv "Who's Line Is It" - was a hoot. Tom Smith, Seanen McGuire, Gretchen Roper, a guy I don;t know and a friend of Seanen from the audience who was hilarious, made for a fun time.

The highlight was the singing Tesla Coils. If you have never seen these and get a chance DO NOT PASS IT UP! They actually make these two 7 foot tall coils make music and it is impressive. Even cooler is what they do to a CD (the current destroy the substrate so they are clear afterward)

We then went to a presentation that showed the results of what goes wrong when handling huge magnet from MRI machines and particles accelerators among others.

Fun stuff and now to breakfast and day 2!

 

Another great Capricon is in the books. jgaleckas and I had a great time and we got to see lots of friends and made some new ones. It was especially good seeing filkertom getting around pretty well, and while he may have injured his leg last year, his voice and enthusiasm are as strong as ever!

The panels were good, the filk was great and the con suite was well stocked and right in the center of the meeting rooms making it easy to pop in for a soda or snack and not have to run to the next event – good job con com!

Janice helped with striking the art show which is getting to be a regular for her. She enjoys helping and has made some good friends. I just read or nap while she does her thing.

Thanks to Helen and her staff for putting on one helluva con! Looking forward to Capricon 30 whose theme is Celebration.

I didn’t make a separate post for yesterday since it was a short day, did opening ceremonies and watched Hellboy 2 in the film room.

Today started with Brian Pelezewski’s excellent panel slideshow about the end of the shuttle and what’s next.

We then a few other panels before the Trivia bowl hosted by the always entertaining Bob Passavoy. I was actually on the winning team and answered several questions!

Somewhere in there we got sucked into Larry Smith's book stand and bought a pile of books. Larry likes us and we like him. It is a symbiotic thing.

Janice and I then went out for an early dinner at the Claimjumper restaurant across the parking lot which was pretty good, including sharing a slice of six-layer chocolate cake – as you might guess we did NOT finish it.

We did a quick spin thru the art show – light in content but some good pieces. Blame the economy. Janice then went to the film room and I hot the lobby where the only free internet is and caught up on the LJ.

In about 30 minutes I will head off to the Tom Smith concert – always a highlight of any con the world’s fastest filker is at.

After the concert we will do the party crawl an d head home.

The whole camp theme is working and collecting patches and stickers is fun and seeing old friends and making new ones is always great.

Still plenty of fun left for Saturday and Sunday so come on down.

Another Windycon is over - My 7th. The new hotel is nice, tons of parking, free wifi in the lobby and large meeting rooms.

The Tom Smith concert on Friday was fab, the panels were OK- although I found this year that most were dominated by one person and audience input thusly limited.

The ConSuite was good but the offerings a little behind Windycon standards and what was up with the 10:30 opening on Sunday?

The Art Show was good but light compared to previous years and the auction was dismal. Only about 2 dozen items and half were charity. This event is usually a highlight and quite entertaining but with a low turnout is was a bust. I suspect the economy was the major factor here.

Overall not one of the better Windycons but still worth the time and the money and we will be back next year, even if we have to come up from the farm in Missouri.

Specials kudos to my love jgaleckas who put in over 20 hours doing art show setup and teardown - go Janice!

Friday was the first day for Windycon, the longest running Chicago area scifi con, and it is the first year at the new Westin hotel in Lombard. I arrived a little after 3PM and handed the book bag over to jgaleckas who had been there since 9AM helping with Art Show setup. She hustled off to get the many John Ringo books signed (it is the first con that we have been at with Ringo so we had a pile).

After getting my registration badge, I headed out to the the four o'clock panel but alas the room wasn't set up. It appears there was a 'failure to communicate' on when the meeting rooms were supposed to be ready. I then  headed for the alternate panel in the Walnut room only to find a crowd outside the door. Standing on tiptoe I realized why - the room only had about twenty chairs and they were obviously full. I would guess that this room was either the only one left available or no one checked to see how big it was. We found out later that all the rest of the panels scheduled for that room have been moved to a bigger room. Thus goes the pain of a new hotel.

The dealers room is very big so lots of room for the money vacuums that are the hucksters (said lovingly) and the con suite is large as well with plenty of seating and the usual good spread. Windycon historically does con suite better than anybody.

I believe the lobby has free wifi but I will find out today. The opening ceremonies were good, with Walter Koenig telling a funny story about Star Trek 4 and John Ringo adding a comment about it. That was followed by Fannish Feud with the Techies vs the Filkers. The Filkers won. That was followed by Spacetime Theater doing their usual good improv comedy. We then cruised a few parties and headed home.

I entered a story in the Archon 32 writer's contest not so much because I wanted to win (which I didn't) but because they use a great guide for critiquing and you get a session with the judges where they give your MS back with comments and the scores in the various areas.

If you write, especially if you are unpublished like moi, you crave feedback from published writers. Archon had 3 judges and the feedback was mixed on my story.

Judge 1 loved the story and gave me 99 out of 100 - he said he thought I had a great grasp on what motivated my characters - go me!

Judge 2 is someone who teaches writing as well as being published which was obvious as she had marked quite a number of places in the MS with notes and comments - good stuff. She felt the story had potential but that my characterization and POV changes needed work. I had four characters in a 2500 word story so I knew I had not developed the characters much, but in the discussions I received some good tips on how to flesh out a character in just a few sentences. She gave me a 59.

Judge 3 just didn't get the story, also noting that I was weak in POV and character development and only gave me a 50.

After reviewing the story, I agree that I did make some POV errors that I can clean that up and I will have to work on the characterization and other items. These changes should make a better story.

But the thing that most struck me was the three totally different feelings they had about the story, which is why this is such a funny vocation - but I am glad for the feedback and look forward to submitting more stories.

I am sitting in the Hotel Collinsville lobby watching the fen rolling out the door and using their internet because the Gateway center is the typical pay to play that conventions do so well. As is typical on a Sunday morning, there are people sleeping on the chairs and couches who probably have been there since very early this morning.

As is also typical on Sunday morning, the programming is thin so I have a lot of time to kill. Once I catch up on internet stuff, I will try and write a scene in the novel. I will mosey over after noon to toss some coin into the virtual guitar case for Filker Tom Smith, who is recovering from a serious injury and has some serious medical bills to pay. It's too bad the kazillion dollar bailout didn't include a few bucks for Tom - it covered just about everything else right?

Anyway, Archon was good this year, even with a light program schedule. I think they are still recovering from hosting the NASFiC last year. The masquerade was fab, with several outstanding costumes in every class. I would not have wanted to be a judge. If you are into costumes and masquerades, Archon is one of the best. It is always superior to even the Worldcon masquerades.

The author list was small,  no one that we had many books by, in fact this is the first con in years that jgaleckas hasn't been in line getting books signed. Speaking of Janice she was thrilled to be picked to enter the hall costume contest with her Girl Genius outfit, the 6 foot wrench always draws attention. Go Janice!

I didn't win the writer's contest but got good feedback from the 3 judges, which is always helpful.

All in all a fun time. Tomorrow we start shingling the roof on the shop at the farm if the rain holds off.

The con has started. The lines for pre-reg were long as expected for the first morning. It took about 15 minutes to get through my line but jgaleckas took about 30 minutes. (one advantage of a last name starting at the end of the alphabet).

The Colorado Convention is a beautiful edifice with three levels. We were able to park in the garage attached to the center for reasonable price ($10 for 12 hours). The big blue bear looking in the front window is impressive. And plenty of escalators for getting up and down. I did not notice whether there were a lot of elevators for people in scooter and wheelchairs.  

The goody bag included a "fan hydration device" which is a plain squeeze bottle. Handy because there is no water in the meeting rooms at the CCC. The program book is slick and the pocket guide well done with excellent indexes.

Wi-Fi at the CCC is pay to play but if you walk two blocks to the 16th street mall they are supposed to have free Wi-Fi. I will probably check that out on Thursday.

I went to the following panels:

Giant Monsters - Bob Eggleton continues to amaze me with his knowledge of Japanese monster movies. 3 stars (out of 4)
Great Expectations - A panel where members read beginnings to short stories and novels and discuss the merits of said opening. Steve Silver was interesting. 3 stars
What Makes a Writer - I didn't know anyone on this panel and it was slow moving and not very interesting. Too much pontificating. 2 stars
Age and Wisdom - A wonderful panel about writing older protagonists into a story. Panelists were Lois Bujold, Elizabeth Moon, Bob Silverberg and Larry Niven. (wow). They had some great comments and good advice. The moderator, Margaret Bonham, did a great job keeping it moving and asking prompting questions. Humor and knowledge - best panel of the day. 4 stars

Opening ceremonies was a bust. There was no shtick or creativity of anything. The toastmaster Wil McCarthy didn't seem to know his lines and his delivery was poor. The introductions of the Guests was flat and all in all the worst opening ceremonies of any Worldcon I have seen.

The Summerfaire event also was dull with some activities but not much to garner our interest - no way this was as good as First Night at Noreascon 4. We left about 7 to get dinner and then headed for the Sheraton where the Con Suite and Party floors are. This is a problem because it is about 6 feakin' blocks from the convention center. In fact it the farthest hotel from the convention center. I cannot see many people using the con suite except at the end of the day when they head for the parties.

The con suite is big with lots of places to sit, but the food offering at 8:30 PM was dismal. They do have a nice bid party suite that is rotating among the various bid cities. Each bid city is also doing regular parties, which lead to another PITA. The party floor is the concierge floor which require a room key to be swiped to get there on the elevator. SO we had to queue up and wait for one of the two elevators that someone was able to swipe. Ugh.

We walked back - in the rain - to the CCC to get the van and head back to the hotel. Whoever came up with this bright idea of this location for a con suite hotel should be shot in the face with a doo-doo gun.

Tune in tomorrow for more adventures.

Today, jgaleckas and I start a 19 day road trip which for me will be the longest I have ever gone on. Highlights are the Worldcon in Denver, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon. (For details see Janice's post).

I will give daily updates on the Worldcon and other highlights as we go. I Hope to do a final wrap up of the Worldcon but that may not get up until we return home. I will also try to put together a complete travelogue but that will be too big for LJ so will go up on the website.

Internet access looks to be fair for the trip, so hopefully I can keep up.

Hope to see some of you in Denver.

Last day and the panels were a little thin but the panel on humor in scifi was pretty good.

Saw partiallyclips perform the last concert for the FuMP this afternoon.

After closing ceremonies we headed out to Outback for a steak.

Just laying in bed at the hotel watching the Braves vs the Nationals on ESPN. Tomorrow morning jgaleckasand I start the 10 hour drive back to Cicero. At least next year it will only be a 5 hour drive back to the farm.

This is our third MidSouth con and we real had a great time. The con is definitely different than the Chicago cons we go to for a number of reasons, one being the overall friendliness of everyone including the hotel staff.

I would say that this and Archon will be the two cons we go to every year now that we are going to be in Missouri soon. We may hit a Chicago con from time to time and there are a number of other local cons in the OK, MO and KS area so you never know.

I am looking forward to getting home and seeing Smokey and Flicker (the cats).

Saturday is always a full day at a con and today was that. Notable Panels:

Brain Drain was a discussion on the woeful education system in America and how stifled teachers are. It was very depressing and I may write a rant later on that subject.

Ben Bova did a hour long reminiscing on a variety of subjects that was humorous at times and quite insightful at others. Ben is a master at anecdotal humor and I especially loved the bit about Harlan Ellison.

I attended several writer's track panels and as always gleaned a few tidbits, from the typical fare there.

The art auction was good - we picked up a few interesting items but nothing really cool, and the Masquerade was better than last year but I always compare them to Archon which is unfair since Archon has one of the best around. lukeski entertained while we waited for the judges - he is a one man frenetic attack.

The highlight was the banquet where we sat at the same table as Bob Eggleton and Eric Flint. Both are interesting people and we had some terrific discussions. I am happy to report that Eric sees up to 8 books in the 1812/1824 series. Yay!

Now I rest.

Did some sightseeing in the morning - Beale street is a neat place with a very New Orleans feel - then back to hotel for registration.

First program was at 5pm so we hung out on the con suite for a bit. Hot dogs and other goodies made for a nice spread.

The panel on ebooks being used as a bonus or incentive to but paper books was a good one with Eric Flint and Selina Rosen carrying the load and making good points.

The opening ceremonies were the king's court shtick same as last year (and maybe the year before) with the GOH's getting gift baskets. An apology went out to Dr, Ben Bova the science GOH for the forgetting to out his bio in the program book. In a cool move they will send reprinted ones to any one sending an email with their badge number. And inserts will be available here at the con.

jgaleckas donned her Girl Genius costume, complete with six foot wrench, and wandered the halls getting photo ops and cool comments - mostly about the wrench.

The B movie panel was also great, Bob Eggleton was in that one and he is a B movie geek (as well as fab artist). The only problem with that panel was a guy in the front row who missed panel manners class 101 and kept shouting his comments often over what the panelist were saying. He did know his stuff but it was annoying. The panel handled it well (I would not have been as accommodating).

Definitely a good start.