Norwescon 25 I Did It Again
Apr. 2nd, 2002 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolphins_logI've been going to Norwescon since number 4 in 1980. That means this was my 22nd Norwescon. I must be the "old fart" of the group.
Juli and I both had Thursday off. We were going to take care of things around the house and Juli wanted to take some time to go to Raven's World in Silverdale to get some t-shirts for the con. However the night before I took the time to look up the convention schedule. That's when we found out the con had programming that started at 2:00 pm, earlier if you counted the four kid functions.
We had a great breakfast Thursday. I pulled out the sourdough and feed it the night before. This time I did something right. They were the best sourdough pancakes I've made yet.
We departed under a soft spring rain, you know the kind, fresh, clean, quiet because of the new vegetation. The rain ended by the time we got off the Southworth ferry in Fauntleroy. We made a quick stop at Wonderworld in Burien so I could get my fix of comics. Wonderworld is going to the box system which mean I wont miss my titles any longer. Yea! Juli searched over the used books but didn't find anything on her "missing" list.
The Room Fiasco and I get angry:
We got to the hotel at about 4 and checked in at the front desk. That's where things went a little wrong. When I made my reservation back in January I requested a room in the quite wing. I requested the tower where Gene and Mike were, but the tower was the first to fill. Oh well, that's to be expected. Then she gave us our room number, 5259.
"Wing 5?" says I. "That's the party wing. We requested a quite wing."
"Only part of it are parties," we were told. Then she pointed out on the map card where we were.
"Um," says I. "That's the 5B wing, where out there. That's all parties."
"No," says the nice girl. "You'll be right here on the edge." She draws a mark on the map where I know there are no rooms, simply a corridor between wing 5 and 5B. I say nothing, but my fuse has been lit.
When we get to the room we find it is not only smack in the middle of the party wing, but it's next to the ice machine, elevator, and pop vending machine. This is bad. I called the front desk and complained. They told me to call again early in the morning when non-con guests would be checking out.
Juli and I found Gene, Mike, Sky and Mark's room. I was very angry [Marvin Martian noises] which pleased Juli to no end. She prefers it if I get angry. She feels that if I'm angry then she isn't going over the top if she's angry. "He's madder then me! It's great!" From there we went to Denney's. Juli was wanting a BBQ burger all day long. Julie and Mike found us while we were on our way out. They all ready had dinner, but that didn’t stop them from joining us for a visit. We’re a great crowd!
Later that night, sure enough, there is a thrumming party next door. Add to that, poor Jerrilynn has a bad cold and couldn't help but snore heavily. Not much sleep.
Next morning I called the front desk. I'm sorry sir, we wont be moving anyone. We're just to busy with the con, the group you are part of, sir, so you're well aware...." I was giving in. That's when Juli stepped in.
"No, wait, give me the phone." Juli turns on here professional voice. I can hear the girl on the other end trying to get a word in while Juli explained things to her. In the end we were moved to a quieter room. It was a smoking room and it was still in another party wing, but it was a quieter wing. "The trick," Juli told me later "was that you were letting her interrupt you. I wouldn't let her interrupt me. I had control of the conversation." Yeah, she my wife. ^-^
Panels and Programming:
Most of the panels Juli and I attended were the fan writing panels that Mark and Gene were on. Chris Nilsson moderated all of them. For examples he brought in some of his APAs that he made while at WSU. Chris had heard of the term APA and thought it was an interesting concept. He spearheaded APAloosa, a zine he and his friends put together without really knowing what an APA was. Chris also brought a copy of Lone Oak Legends, an Elfquest fanzine that Mark put together back in the early 80’s. It was there we discovered that our group of friends is Marks fault. He’s the one common denominator that brought us all together.
One other panel Juli and I attended was the 9/11 panel which discussed what affects 9/11 is having on Fandom and the genre. Greg Cox, my old room mate from college who now works for Tor in New York, mentioned that he had to pull a Star Trek: Kahn book because it had a segment where Kahn blows up the World Trade Center. Other people on the panel mentioned that they, too, had WTC items that they had to remove from projects.
One of the editors got a story submission from Afghanistan that made her suspicious. The creator said he was a poor Afghani yet the submission was well written and seemed well educated. There were other things in it that she couldn’t talk about. She showed it to the FBI. They came back and told her to delete it from her hard disk and not talk about it. She rebelled a little. She agreed that she would delete it from her hard disk and that she would not talk about it’s contents, but that she was going to a convention in Seattle where they would be talking about this very thing. She would talk about receiving it and she would discuss the background of the incident. The FBI relented.
The monitor speculated that the attackers thought they were attacking a nation of fat merchants. They forgot that fat merchants don’t become fat merchants unless they are the most efficient creature in your niche.
One of the final remarks came from Greg. “Life goes on. They’re still making Harry Potter movies.”
Movie Previews
Don’t expect much. Hollywood is just coming off of two near strikes and doesn’t have much to offer. Sure, Harry Potter, Star Trek [probably the last movie], Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Spiderman. There is one psycho thriller killer movie coming out where Robert Dinero is the one trying to solve the case and Robin Williams plays the killer. This is not a comedy.
I Acquire Things
I picked up the symphonic soundtrack to El Hazard. Cool! I also bought the 2nd DVD of Esceflone . I know I can get a better deal at Suncoast, but I thought I’d give a Norwescon dealer some of my business. Also a t-shirt of owls around what looks like a dream catcher. I didn’t buy the Norwescon t-shirt. It was an image of “The Wizard of Oz” that didn’t appeal to me that much.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
genebreashears thought it was great. I bought the work shirt with the neat “Norwescon” patch stitched into it over the pocket.
The very bestest thing I bought was a piece of art called “Sinja’s World” by Rob Alexander. I saw this piece when it came out about eight years ago. It’s an illustration of a little child drawing sidewalk art in chalk. The picture she’s drawing is a realistic image of a set of stairs going down to some tall golden doors. It’s real cool! I wanted to get one of the prints when they came out three years later, but couldn’t justify it. This year Rob had it hanging in the show again and I pointed it out to Juli… again.
“You show it to me every year. I know you love it. Just get the damn thing!”
So now we have it.
Food
We had the one meal at Denney’s, but the rest were in the lounge for either the buffet in the morning, or dinner at night. Saturday Night we headed down to the lounge after watching the masquerade on the TV. We didn’t have enough room for everyone, the bar was so crowded. Gene and Mike ate dinner in the restaurant. We had BEER. Oog. The beer they served us came in large 25 oz glasses. I had one and felt pretty good. Then Julie, not mine but the one with the “e”, bought me another. I shared, but I drank most of it. Then Julie bought “Buttery Nipples”. They were too good, and Juli and I both got one for ourselves.
They say I didn’t get drunk, [you’ll probably all say it again, too] but I was feeling pretty damn good. I’ve never had that much alcohol. I’m embarrassed to say that I did have fun though. There was something about a card for $10 off of lap dances and nipples. I’ll leave that tosora_kitsune to discuss if he chooses to.
Sunday and we say good by
Sunday I got up in time for Gene and Marks 10:00 panel. Juli chose to sleep some more. When I got back Juli was sitting up in bed and playing sea hunt on her Visor. We had about an hour to check out. Jeff and Jerrilynn had all ready left. Our car was conveniently parked, that is convenient if we were still in room 5259. Now we had a long walk with lots of baggage. No problem, just a haul.
We then headed to the art auction. Juli had a piece that she was bidding on and wanted to get the bid back. It was a piece painted on a slice of rock, of a tall masted ship. It took a bit of a battle, but she won it for $105.00, which I think was the highest bid of the auction. There were three pieces that went for $105.
Afterwards we all went off to the Route 66 diner, or what ever it’s called. We always have a “Good By” dinner to sort of cap off the con and make it not feel like it’s petered out. It’s okay food, but the friendship is the best.
Juli and I drove through the surface streets of Burien to Fauntleroy and caught the ferry home. I thought of driving around, but this way we got to relax and look over our bootie.
There is something to be said about getting out of familiar surrounding with friends. It’s energizing and great for the creative juices. For that alone, I have to conclude that Norwescon 25 was a successful con.
Juli and I both had Thursday off. We were going to take care of things around the house and Juli wanted to take some time to go to Raven's World in Silverdale to get some t-shirts for the con. However the night before I took the time to look up the convention schedule. That's when we found out the con had programming that started at 2:00 pm, earlier if you counted the four kid functions.
We had a great breakfast Thursday. I pulled out the sourdough and feed it the night before. This time I did something right. They were the best sourdough pancakes I've made yet.
We departed under a soft spring rain, you know the kind, fresh, clean, quiet because of the new vegetation. The rain ended by the time we got off the Southworth ferry in Fauntleroy. We made a quick stop at Wonderworld in Burien so I could get my fix of comics. Wonderworld is going to the box system which mean I wont miss my titles any longer. Yea! Juli searched over the used books but didn't find anything on her "missing" list.
The Room Fiasco and I get angry:
We got to the hotel at about 4 and checked in at the front desk. That's where things went a little wrong. When I made my reservation back in January I requested a room in the quite wing. I requested the tower where Gene and Mike were, but the tower was the first to fill. Oh well, that's to be expected. Then she gave us our room number, 5259.
"Wing 5?" says I. "That's the party wing. We requested a quite wing."
"Only part of it are parties," we were told. Then she pointed out on the map card where we were.
"Um," says I. "That's the 5B wing, where out there. That's all parties."
"No," says the nice girl. "You'll be right here on the edge." She draws a mark on the map where I know there are no rooms, simply a corridor between wing 5 and 5B. I say nothing, but my fuse has been lit.
When we get to the room we find it is not only smack in the middle of the party wing, but it's next to the ice machine, elevator, and pop vending machine. This is bad. I called the front desk and complained. They told me to call again early in the morning when non-con guests would be checking out.
Juli and I found Gene, Mike, Sky and Mark's room. I was very angry [Marvin Martian noises] which pleased Juli to no end. She prefers it if I get angry. She feels that if I'm angry then she isn't going over the top if she's angry. "He's madder then me! It's great!" From there we went to Denney's. Juli was wanting a BBQ burger all day long. Julie and Mike found us while we were on our way out. They all ready had dinner, but that didn’t stop them from joining us for a visit. We’re a great crowd!
Later that night, sure enough, there is a thrumming party next door. Add to that, poor Jerrilynn has a bad cold and couldn't help but snore heavily. Not much sleep.
Next morning I called the front desk. I'm sorry sir, we wont be moving anyone. We're just to busy with the con, the group you are part of, sir, so you're well aware...." I was giving in. That's when Juli stepped in.
"No, wait, give me the phone." Juli turns on here professional voice. I can hear the girl on the other end trying to get a word in while Juli explained things to her. In the end we were moved to a quieter room. It was a smoking room and it was still in another party wing, but it was a quieter wing. "The trick," Juli told me later "was that you were letting her interrupt you. I wouldn't let her interrupt me. I had control of the conversation." Yeah, she my wife. ^-^
Panels and Programming:
Most of the panels Juli and I attended were the fan writing panels that Mark and Gene were on. Chris Nilsson moderated all of them. For examples he brought in some of his APAs that he made while at WSU. Chris had heard of the term APA and thought it was an interesting concept. He spearheaded APAloosa, a zine he and his friends put together without really knowing what an APA was. Chris also brought a copy of Lone Oak Legends, an Elfquest fanzine that Mark put together back in the early 80’s. It was there we discovered that our group of friends is Marks fault. He’s the one common denominator that brought us all together.
One other panel Juli and I attended was the 9/11 panel which discussed what affects 9/11 is having on Fandom and the genre. Greg Cox, my old room mate from college who now works for Tor in New York, mentioned that he had to pull a Star Trek: Kahn book because it had a segment where Kahn blows up the World Trade Center. Other people on the panel mentioned that they, too, had WTC items that they had to remove from projects.
One of the editors got a story submission from Afghanistan that made her suspicious. The creator said he was a poor Afghani yet the submission was well written and seemed well educated. There were other things in it that she couldn’t talk about. She showed it to the FBI. They came back and told her to delete it from her hard disk and not talk about it. She rebelled a little. She agreed that she would delete it from her hard disk and that she would not talk about it’s contents, but that she was going to a convention in Seattle where they would be talking about this very thing. She would talk about receiving it and she would discuss the background of the incident. The FBI relented.
The monitor speculated that the attackers thought they were attacking a nation of fat merchants. They forgot that fat merchants don’t become fat merchants unless they are the most efficient creature in your niche.
One of the final remarks came from Greg. “Life goes on. They’re still making Harry Potter movies.”
Movie Previews
Don’t expect much. Hollywood is just coming off of two near strikes and doesn’t have much to offer. Sure, Harry Potter, Star Trek [probably the last movie], Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Spiderman. There is one psycho thriller killer movie coming out where Robert Dinero is the one trying to solve the case and Robin Williams plays the killer. This is not a comedy.
I Acquire Things
I picked up the symphonic soundtrack to El Hazard. Cool! I also bought the 2nd DVD of Esceflone . I know I can get a better deal at Suncoast, but I thought I’d give a Norwescon dealer some of my business. Also a t-shirt of owls around what looks like a dream catcher. I didn’t buy the Norwescon t-shirt. It was an image of “The Wizard of Oz” that didn’t appeal to me that much.
genebreashears thought it was great. I bought the work shirt with the neat “Norwescon” patch stitched into it over the pocket. The very bestest thing I bought was a piece of art called “Sinja’s World” by Rob Alexander. I saw this piece when it came out about eight years ago. It’s an illustration of a little child drawing sidewalk art in chalk. The picture she’s drawing is a realistic image of a set of stairs going down to some tall golden doors. It’s real cool! I wanted to get one of the prints when they came out three years later, but couldn’t justify it. This year Rob had it hanging in the show again and I pointed it out to Juli… again.
“You show it to me every year. I know you love it. Just get the damn thing!”
So now we have it.
Food
We had the one meal at Denney’s, but the rest were in the lounge for either the buffet in the morning, or dinner at night. Saturday Night we headed down to the lounge after watching the masquerade on the TV. We didn’t have enough room for everyone, the bar was so crowded. Gene and Mike ate dinner in the restaurant. We had BEER. Oog. The beer they served us came in large 25 oz glasses. I had one and felt pretty good. Then Julie, not mine but the one with the “e”, bought me another. I shared, but I drank most of it. Then Julie bought “Buttery Nipples”. They were too good, and Juli and I both got one for ourselves.
They say I didn’t get drunk, [you’ll probably all say it again, too] but I was feeling pretty damn good. I’ve never had that much alcohol. I’m embarrassed to say that I did have fun though. There was something about a card for $10 off of lap dances and nipples. I’ll leave that to
sora_kitsune to discuss if he chooses to.Sunday and we say good by
Sunday I got up in time for Gene and Marks 10:00 panel. Juli chose to sleep some more. When I got back Juli was sitting up in bed and playing sea hunt on her Visor. We had about an hour to check out. Jeff and Jerrilynn had all ready left. Our car was conveniently parked, that is convenient if we were still in room 5259. Now we had a long walk with lots of baggage. No problem, just a haul.
We then headed to the art auction. Juli had a piece that she was bidding on and wanted to get the bid back. It was a piece painted on a slice of rock, of a tall masted ship. It took a bit of a battle, but she won it for $105.00, which I think was the highest bid of the auction. There were three pieces that went for $105.
Afterwards we all went off to the Route 66 diner, or what ever it’s called. We always have a “Good By” dinner to sort of cap off the con and make it not feel like it’s petered out. It’s okay food, but the friendship is the best.
Juli and I drove through the surface streets of Burien to Fauntleroy and caught the ferry home. I thought of driving around, but this way we got to relax and look over our bootie.
There is something to be said about getting out of familiar surrounding with friends. It’s energizing and great for the creative juices. For that alone, I have to conclude that Norwescon 25 was a successful con.
