snifff sniff

The Bad News: WorldCon is over.

Well, it's the end of Denvention, and I'll certainly miss it. Sure it's crazed and over-stimulating, but I love it.

Day 5 in review:
Morning began with a panel on science fiction and museums and libraries which was mostly focused on the problem with keeping institutions on the "side" of science fiction and/or convincing them that SF is "worthy." I used the panel time to, are you ready?..... to start a new project. lol You knew it had to happen. And it's appropriate given the venue -- see, I started Black Swan's Dragon's Lair:


You can't really tell but so far I have 3 colors in-- black, purple, and yellow.

After the morning panel I headed upstairs to get my lunch smoothie and join the line for Charles Stross' autographing. Gasp-- no more "black sand beach" smoothies. Only banana-mango and banana-strawberry. That just wasn't going to cut it. Do you suppose it was a gentle sign that it was time for me to leave? lol The Stross line was far more productive because look who is schmoozing at the head of the line--

Yes, that's our Kathryn!!! We got a little chatting in before I headed off for he EOS/HarperCollins "what's coming up" slideshow and she went off for more signatures.

Now, Kathryn and her husband drove so that allowed for extra packing space, but if you come to a con, you should be prepared if you are a booky person --

That's Kathryn's suitcase of books for signatures. She'd like you to know that's only half of them. Dedicated book geeks will understand -- at least I know I do! But I was flying so I only brought: 2 hardbacks, 1 trade paper, and 7 mass markets. lol You think I'm nuts don't you? Oh well.

My final panel options seemed to have disappeared, so I wandered the halls, caught up on the upcoming cons announcements, and picked up my substitute lunch (a hot dog). Oh and I bought a pair of earrings, but I don't have a picture of them and I'm too tired to go take one now.

Oh guess where dinner was -- Yup. You're right.

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To finish off my splendid time at WorldCon, I'll tackle some of the little things, in no particular order that you should know about conventions, Denver, and the Denver Convention Center --
At cons you learn to stand in line. We have it down to a science (well, some of us do... those registration lines were a horse of a completely different color)

That's a pretty short line as lines at cons go. You get used to it.

We also specialize in milling around and schmoozing:


This

is a voodoo board. I highly recommend them for conventions/large events. Without having to interrupt everything with 7 million ringing cell phones, or with tracking people you don't have numbers for, but you're certain are around, you use the voodoo board. the name of everyone pre-registered for the con in listed on the board; as you come in you circle your name to say you have arrived; if you want to leave a message for someone, you put a push pin next to their name, jot your note, and leave it in an alphabetically divided box next to the board. It's really very handy. Sure, in the era of blackberries and cells it's fading, but it's such a fannish institution I don't think it will ever be abandoned.

Denver has been very welcoming to us:

Yea, we got street banners!

The Hyatt across the street from the convention center has this interesting "meaningful" statement that wraps all the way around its building.

No, I haven't read it all. I just thought "superincumbent soil" sounded sciency enough to be part of my WorldCon memories.

We always hang what I've come to think of as the "sacred banner."

And I always take a picture of it.

The Denver Convention Center:
1. has a main ballroom branded by --

a California vineyard???? And how is it that Korbel is featuring a "California champagne"--- I thought they had to call it sparkling wine? Ooops, don't tell the vintners of Champagne.

2. has the nicest smelling hand soap in their restrooms. Not that nasty pina colada crap.

3. has really cool light fixtures which make me think of scifi, mutant pinecones

And they helped create a really nifty look (to me at least) in one place:



4. has pretty good lighting and great sound systems in the rooms

5. puts some sort of soporific drugs in the air of their meeting rooms. I can't be so tired because I haven't been to bed before 3am all week. Nah, that couldn't be it. lol

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The GOOD NEWS:

I'm going to Anticipation -- WorldCon 2009 in Montreal !!!! Well, I hope I'm going. I at least have a membership.

Even with my happy news, I think the near is sad. Don't you think he's going to miss me?


Tomorrow is my "experience Denver" day. I plan on hiking over the the State Capitol building to see the mile high step, visiting the main branch of the public library, checking out the exterior of the art museum, visiting the historical society, checking out any statues or architecture that captures my eye, and possibly visiting the firefighters museum. You can expect full reports. And probably a couple pictures too.

Quote of the Day:
"If you scratch a Ph.D. physicist, you'll get an 8 year old very quickly." Ellen Klages