Thursday: Coventry/University
I met hhertzof in Coventry to show her the sights. Which mostly consists of the cathedral, but we did walk all round the centre of it. Most importantly, I went all the way up the 180 stone steps on a narrow spiral staircase. Which you wouldn't think would be much to write home about, but the last time I tried a spiral staircase I couldn't manage any more than two storeys. But I was fine this time, although I don't think I could do that too much. I did take some photos.

Then we went to the university. I acted like a tourist, taking photos of bits of it and we had a drink in what is no longer the Airport, but is now called "the bar". I was surprised that my orange juice was so cheap until I remembered that the last time I bought a drink there it had vodka in it... Interestingly, although they've completely re-done the bar, the toilets have not changed at all.

Then we discovered you can't go through to the union, so we went outside. The door is now after Natwest. HSBC has changed into Satander and is inside the union, as is the chemists. I had to stand there for a while, trying to work out where I was because there was nothing familiar I could use to get my bearings. I eventually worked out that I really was standing in what used to be the Marketplace. I didn't look round it that much, but I think the Cooler is now the Copper Rooms. On the plus side, at least the koan was still there.

After that we met up with selenay936 in our room and worked out who was having which bed. And went to dinner. Which was exactly the same as last year - I could eat two things, but they had to get me a separate thing without the gravy/sauce. I didn't help stuff con packs on the basis that it involved walking round a table, and then went to bed early.

Friday
I had a restful day, apart from taking hhertzof to Forbidden Planet and ending up buying the first three Doctor Who stories on DVD. The first panel I actually went to was the first book one.

Book Thread 1: SF Shorts: The book panels make me feel like I've read very little SF, which is true. But they come up with some interesting ideas for books to read and without one in 2005 I'd never have read any Lois McMaster Bujold.

Writing Blake's 7 audio: This was really interesting and made me want to listen to them (they are all sitting on my PVR after BBC7 broadcast them). They said that the reason they didn't make a sequel was because not enough people remembered the original. The CDs were aimed at fans, but also at people who'd never seen Blake's 7. Simon Guerrier said he'd written one having only vague memories of bits of B7. Ben Aaronovitch rang him up in a panic giving him a week's deadline, which actually meant he needed it that year as Ben has the same thing about deadlines as Douglas Adams had. Simon had it done the next day! And then Ben made him make the science real.

Artificial Intelligence: This was an interesting discussion, but I can't remember any of it, apart from Dexter.

Starship Cool Wall: This was a fun panel. It included lots of shouting to try and get ships put on the right side of the cool wall (it went from supernova to uncool to cool to positively cryogenic). They had Space Stig to settle arguments, who was dressed in white and wearing a Storm Trooper helmet. But I still think Liberator should have been further over the cool side.

Atlantis and Universe: The new Voyager or Next Gen?: This was mostly the three panellists talking, and although they had interesting things to say, I much prefer panels with the audience getting to say more. They did go off on a big tangent about what they disliked about Atlantis, but did agree that Universe had a good premise and aren't using it. And there was universal dislike of the communication stones, despite there being a few instances when it was used well. Apparently Universe isn't technically cancelled.

And then it was midnight, so I went to bed.

Saturday
Rather than doing nothing until midday, I went to the Vices in fanfic panel. Which apparently was supposed to be at 10pm. There was lots of talk about what was a vice and commonly used ones (drinking, smoking, coffee drinking) and how vices tended to be put in because the characters do stressful jobs, but we don't want their vices to kill them.

At this point I sat in the bar and I want to say I spoke to altariel and Simon Guerrier and another bloke who's name I've forgotten, but they were all writers and talking about writing. So I just listened, since I didn't feel qualified to be in the conversation. But it was interesting all the same. And I got altariel to sign her Doctor Who book.

Why is new Dr Who more popular than old Dr Who?: The panel all agreed right at the start that it's not. There were graphs to prove it. They pointed out, rightly, that even when it wasn't on people knew what a TARDIS was and what a Dalek was, even if they hadn't seen Doctor Who. And it's just as soapy now as then, it's just that soaps are also more soapy.

After a break for lunch and signing up for Redemption 13, where I failed to remember my address (fortunately they could look me up in the computer and copy my Red 11 registration), I went to Does listening to fans make a show better or worse?. I think the conclusion was that it's a bad idea because the fans are just a small proportion of the number of people watching.

Tips for playing Scrabble was useful, although some of the things they came up with I'd worked out on my own. I'm still upset you don't get bonus points for cool words.

Poi workshop: I'd wanted to do this last time, but it clashed with something else I wanted to go to more. I think. So I tried it this time and enjoyed it. It's harder than it looks, which can be said of a lot of things. I was just about getting the weave when we had to stop. But I bought the poi and discovered our hotel room had just enough space to practise in. As does my lounge if I move the dining room table. I can now nearly do it for quite a while before I hit myself in the head because I'm not doing it vertically enough.

Cliches in fanfic: I remember this being interesting, but can't remember what was discussed at all.

After that I went to the bar. I think. It all blurs together after a while.

Sunday
Writing bad Blake's 7 fiction was hilarious. We had to fill in the blanks in a story. I was useless at coming up with suggestions, but other people came up with some great ones.

After that I went to the dealer's room to pay Richard for the poi and then ended up going to the charity auction, which was in the same room. And then ended up buying a Star Trek glass (which sounds good until I tell you it has Nero on it). But it was only £1.50. I escaped before I could buy any more to play pass the hotel key with my roommates.

I then fulfilled my resolution for the day to talk to some new people. And then went to get the guests' autographs and managed to go down there after the session ended, so ended up getting them to sign my CDs as they were standing at the book stall chatting.

Worst SF show of all time showed me that I don't watch that much TV and perhaps it's just as well...

Man of Iron script reading: this is always the highlight of the con. It's a Blake's 7 script by Paul Darrow and two years is long enough to forget how awful it is. You might think some of series 4 is bad, but this is far worse. Fortunately, the script reading makes it hilarious. The sexy Servalan this year was disturbing (in a good way).

Computers in SF. I really enjoyed this panel. We collectively came up with names from computers in SF. Then we classified them into whether they could move about on their own or not. Then into whether they had free will or not. Which involved some discussion on the part of some of the computers. And then whether they had only one function or lots. Which led to the conclusion that the way to create a homicidal computer is to give it free will and only one function.

Then we stayed up at the Dead Dog Party. At least until I realised I was too dizzy to sit up without falling over. At which point I discovered the lift stopping and starting produced a really horrible sensation. Unfortunately we were on the sixth floor and the stairs made me dizzy from going round and round.

Monday
It seemed like the whole con decamped to the waiting room on Platform 1. But, on the Monday after the con two years ago I was coming down with labyrinthitis and felt dizzy. This year, the Monday after the con I felt better than I had two years previously, which was amazing.

Tuesday: Doctor Who Experience
I met shinyjenni and hhertzof in London. We first ate Chinese (there's a Chinese in Earl's Court that does Beed Ho Fun (noodles I can eat!) with no sauce. Result!) and took photos of the TARDIS at Earl's Court. Then we got to Olympia and discovered you have to go up in a lift...

Then we did the experience part, where you can't take photos. Basically, you have to save the Doctor. So you get to walk through Starship UK, fly the TARDIS (how exciting was that?), get threatened by Daleks (two of them were red so that was ok), walk through a forest that apparently had Angels, but I didn't see any (also had UNIT symbols, which I missed), and get threatened by more monsters in 3D.

And then we took lots of photos of everything.

Then we looked round the shop. I was determined not to buy anything, and ended up buying a program, a Dalek keyring torch and a ten colour pen with a Dalek at the top. The person who served us said it had been a nightmare last week when it was half term. Because we'd gone on a weekday in term time, it was nice and quiet.

After that I had mandarin sorbet and a really nice smoothie at Patisserie Valerie and accidentally bought two books in Foyles. So that was more of an expensive day out than I planned...

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Now I have hunted through my drawers to find where I unpacked my travel alarm clock to and then packed that.

But in the meantime, I leave you with interesting news about the Red Dwarf specials, or possibly interesting news about Robert Llewellyn's use of Twitter, depending on how you look at it.

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I got up at 7am, which was hard work, and woke hhertzof up and we proceeded to pack and make our way to selenay936's. Leaving took slightly longer than expected, but the roads were lovely and empty. We just then spent a while chatting at selenay936's, so by the time we got to the hotel, checked in, unpacked and registered, we were just in time to go to the 12 o'clock panel.

There was nothing I particularly wanted to go to for a while, so I went along with selenay936 and hhertzof to So You Want to be an SF Writer (which I don't), but it was interesting. I'd heard that the hotel was freezing, so packed plenty of warm clothes and then found the Royal Suite that this panel was in was boiling. Outside the room was the con noticeboard, where I offered my copy of Arthur C Clarke's obituary from The Guardian, since they didn't have one from that.

Then we attempted to go back to the room for some lunch and hoped to find a back way there, but only found a dead end. And the real ale bar where luckykaa, redbrown and some other ZZ9ers and other people I've shot at with supersoakers at Winspit were.

After lunch there was The Hovercraft of Disbelief where people talked about things that threw them out of stories - ie lack of research. It doesn't help when you have a lot of specialist knowledge in a subject because it means there's almost bound to be something wrong.

After that I went along to the Card Making Workshop, but since it was all about stamping, mostly, and my card making will involve sticking things on bits of paper it wasn't that useful. I did end up with multicoloured fingers, though. I left early to go to Be Careful What You Wish For - The New Dr Who. However, since all I wished for was the BBC to show some Doctor Who so I could see it, I'm happy.

I did the first and last fifteen minutes of Star Trek: Is There Anyone Still to Explore? (I had dinner in the middle) and didn't entirely feel like I'd missed much. After that I had to find a new room on a different floor that seemed like miles away down corridors that all looked the same. It was worth it for the panel on Are TV Novelisations and Tie-ins Proper Books? The consensus was 'yes' straight away, so the discussion was about various novelisations and tie-ins and how good they were. Afterwards I accidentally fangirled altariel, whoops.

The opening ceremony was in the biggest room which was really freezing. Afterwards we ended up talking and wandered down to the Real Ale bar. We got distracted by Electic 21's quiz and managed to get quite a few answers between the three of us, although as we did it various other people came by and offered answers.

Then we found some ZZ9ers hanging around, so spent time chatting, although no one fell in the pond. I meant to go to the ceilidh, but never quite made it. So instead went to the last panel of the night on It's Crap but we Like It, where I realised I watch crap cop shows & murder mysteries but not crap anything else. selenay936 and I agreed that Midsomer Murders is on crack.

Saturday
Friday night selenay936 and I argued over how late we could get up and still be ready in time for the things we wanted to do, and then both ended up waking up ages before the alarm anyway. I was tempted to go to the first half of Living in a Networked World, but went to the Morning Bellydance Class early. It was, of course, in the hot room, but was good fun. I am crap at it, though.

It finished early so I went to the last half of Ashes to Ashes - Manchester to the Met which had some interesting theories on Ashes to Ashes' secret (which no one is allowed to spoil in these comments). The Doctor - Saviour or Trickster God told me that there was religious imagery in New Who, which I had completely missed.

After a leisurely lunch I went to A Way of Life or Just a Hobby? where the panel decided the question wasn't the right question anyway. And did point out how similar fan cons are, no matter what it is you're a fan of. And that normal people live very boring, tiny lives. I now feel quite sorry for my neighbours who do nothing every night except watch TV and play a console game with driving very loud.

There was nothing I particularly wanted to go to, so wondered round the dealers room, bought Stardust and then got it signed by Neil Gaiman. I hope I like it now. What's the point of fannish awards was mostly about fanzines, but interesting nonetheless.

Dinner next, and it was handy I had my pot noodles (or pot potatoes, as dad calls them, since they are potatoey, not noodley and very nice). Out of Space and Time: Perils and Pitfalls of Book Collecting told me there are very crazy people out there. Books are things to read not to sit on a shelf and collect dust, no matter how pretty they look.

The Masquerade and Cabaret was very good, although I couldn't feel my feet by the end of it. It finished too late to do the Blakes 7 Wobblevision, so I think we just sat around and chatted and tried to warm up. And I didn't quite make the disco that I had planned to go to. But I did bump into someone I knew from uni, bizarrely (Nelis, for the benefit of Fuzz, Andrew and anyone else who might be reading this). Technically, I did bump into him in the morning but I completely failed to recognise him.

Sunday
Sunday I could have gone to panels from 10am to midnight, but you can't go to that many. Certainly my back can't. It started, though, with breakfast and snow. I was very glad I didn't have to go out because some of the flakes got quite big. None of it settled, though, thankfully.

Books in the Web was the first panel I went to, and it was really interesting to hear the opinions of putting books on the web for free from publishers and writers. As they pointed out, a lot of people borrow books from libraries and other people and it doesn't stop them from buying books. And if you're being asked to shell out £7 ish for one, you want to be sure you'll like it.

I wasn't sure about going to the Was Sam Tyler really the Master? panel because it sounded silly. But I was glad I did because the topic was exhausted pretty quickly and it just turned to crack. Subjects discussed included the TARDIS sewage system, how you never saw a loo on the TARDIS and therefore how the Doctor and his companions must be fitted with a crap teleporter. Also, somehow, Eastenders makes more sense when crossed with Doctor Who...

Star Trek: The Ethical Implications of Terraforming reached a conclusion fairly quickly and ended up being two people from the audience arguing and not letting anyone else speak. So I went back to the room for lunch and instead went to all of Politics in Young Adult Fiction, which turned out to be the right decision. It was mostly about the definition of Young Adult and what you're allowed to put in it.

Neil Gaiman's guest of honour talk was very good. He read a short story that I enjoyed and the first part of The Graveyard Book which I quite liked. He told stories of previous Eastercons he's been to, as a fan, and he generally came across really well. I do like his blog, but I really ought to get round to read his books.

I must have done something for the hour and a half after that, but I'm buggered if I know what it was. But just before dinner there was Why is Blake's 7 Still Popular? which was a really nice panel talking about how great Blakes 7 was. So no arguing there. Also, jmswallow told us the exciting news that BBC7 have commissioned a second audio series and four anniversary specials set before the series starts. And there might soon be an announcement of a TV re-imagining ala Battlestar Galatica. Fingers crossed. I want to say it's a bit like the Hitchhiker's Film, being talked about for ages, but then I remembered that film did happen.

Fan History: Why Bother? turned out to be a particularly contentious panel, which after such a pleasant one, I couldn't be bothered with, so had dinner instead and was in time for Spaceship in a Decaying Orbit - A Balloon Debate which turned out to be really funny. Partly because Marvin was one of the occupants (I didn't vote him off because it was too amusing not too) and nickeyb was great as Rodney McKay. Best bit was when McKay was going on, as he does, and Spock, who had been voted off, went and gave him the Vulcan nerve pinch.

The Death of UK Physics basically concluded it wasn't doing well due to lack of money and the only solution was to write to your MP. Although that raises the question of whether I write to the MP I voted for or the one where I live. I'm inclined to the former due to the party they're in.

I tried to go to Don't Cross the Streams, talking about SF and fantasy, but seriously needed some sleep. I'd been there fifteen minutes and had no idea what they'd said, so I went for a lie down with my eyes closed. In anyone else it would be a nap but I never have got the hang of napping. I got up in time for Where Does Slash End and Porn Start? which was quite amusing.

Martha Jones - Most Heroic Companion I hadn't originally planned on going to, but went to support selenay936 who was on it. I was glad I did because it was the funniest panel of the night. The vote between Ace, Steven, Barbara and Martha went to Martha, but the debate did include who had the best arse out of Zoe and Martha (Zoe won, probably due to the catsuit) and whether more heroic acts involved taking off more clothes.

That woke me up a bit, so more chatting followed, until I had to go to bed in order to be awake enough to drive home.

Monday
More arguing about what time to get up and again we woke up before the alarm. I discovered at breakfast that there was soya milk out and tomatoes, but it was too late, and I was happy with my hash browns and beans, followed by coco pops. This morning the soya milk came in a teapot...

We eventually managed to pack and check out, then sat around in reception chatting before I walked hhertzof to the bus stop. Or rather, to one bus stop before finding it went in the wrong direction. The one that went in the right direction was in the other way past the hotel, of course.

I got back in time for Is there a Future for Trek with no TV Series? which quickly concluded the answer was yes and then went on to discuss the various forms of media it came in. Hitchhiker's: How a Radio 4 Comedy Took Over the World was a great discussion on how great Hitchhiker's is and all the different forms it came in. Neil Gaiman was a big fan, which was quite cool to find - he's as normal as the rest of us despite being a famous writer!

Time for lunch and then home. I asked Reception how to get out of the hotel, which was handy, and then found John Cleese even handier because the signposting was crap. I managed not to panic on the M25, but did spend some time on a hill in Wycombe in neutral as I tried for every gear when it looked like I was going to have to stop on a steep hill...

I got home well before it got dark and found my pink daleks weren't going to come off my t-shirts quite as well as I hoped - bits of them are coming off. I'll be finding bits of pink daleks on my carpet for quite a while I think...

Permalink | 2 comments | Categories: Cons: Eastercon

I really, really don't want to do any fannish stuff now, I don't know if it's because I enjoyed talking to people more, because I'm all fanned out or because I'm just tired. Or a combination of all of them. I will also be the only non-trainee in my department at work tomorrow, and Rotaract meetings Tuesday and Wednesday night, so don't expect anything more coherent than this out of me until later in the week/next week probably.

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After discovering the Redemption curse struck for the second time, we made it to Hinckley, no thanks to Tom Baker (on the sat nav) who tried to tell us we had gone down the wrong road as we approached the hotel.

We joined a long queue to check into the hotel, but made it up to the hotel room with the aid of Daniel, who we passed on the way, and we made it to How to run a panel. Which was very useful, although made me worried, since it suddenly hit me that we were running a panel.

A break to enjoy our very nice executive hotel room (with fridge!) and we went to Books 1: Leave your sword at the door, where I was a little out of my depth due to my tendency to read trash for most of my life. The first half of Forensics in fact and fiction was very interesting and it was a shame to leave it for the stewards meeting, but the latter was necessary to find out what's going on, and in my case change my duties so I could go to the sword fighting workshop. Although this did then mean missing the Life on Mars panel, but it's not a Redemption if you don't miss things.

The Opening Ceremony was entertaining. I couldn't quite be bothered to get up for the mixer game, though. It did seem a bit tricky by the need to find someone who didn't like Doctor Who. The next panel was Torchwood: Is Jack carrying a torch for the Doctor or just a hand? I'm still undecided, there were some really good arguments both ways.

Then I stewarded and watched the Celidh. The dances were the same as at Burns Supper a few weeks ago, even some of the music was the same. I didn't dance, though, because I was falling asleep, having not had any the week leading up to the con, so was boring and went to bed instead, so I could stay up the rest of the weekend. Although I confused myself with the double bed not being able to decide which side to sleep on, and still managed to fall out of it at one point.

Saturday

Saturday I decided I wasn't that excited about any of the 10am panels, so I got up in time for breakfast, which consisted of a bowl of cornflakes with some warm soya milk. I was quite impressed I managed to eat the whole bowl. Then I had a nice leisurely shower, spent lots of time discussing my requirements for dinner and spent £2.60 in the dealers room on two books, which was pretty good going.

Then I went to the American Tribal Style bellydance workshop. It was really interesting to learn about and have a go. It could have quite easily been two hours, though, because one hour went by so quickly, and we overran slightly, so I was a bit late to Dr Who: The invasion of the fangirl.

This was interesting, as people talked about the fandom before and since the new series, and scariness of the OG forums, and Russell T Davies making Sarah Jane Smith into an old cat lady. It turns out that only in Britain did Doctor Who fandom use to be male-dominated, so quite what that says about us, I don't know.

I left early to steward, then found out my session was cancelled, but I got a groat anyway and had time to lunch, so that was handy. After that I stewarded again and got to listen to Jane Killick talking about Writing the Babylong 5 Season by Season Guides. There was all sorts of stuff I never knew about Babylon 5, like how grumpy JMS was (he was tired), and why Bill Mumy thought Lennier had such a crap ending. None of which I should probably repeat here.

Then I went to Scott Fredericks' Writing for Radio Workshop. It turns out he's acted, written and is now a radio producer, so he knew all about it. What was most interesting were the things he talked about that didn't quite match what the websites tell you. And there's loads more than the websites tell you.

I left early to get to our panel on The good the bad and the ugly: Web design in fandom. Which had just the right number of people, so our fears (and my nightmare the previous night) were allayed. There were lots of good points that people came out with, that were written up and will be posted for all to see. A lot of things were pretty universally hated (and loved) which was a finding in itself.

I actually made it to the Man of Iron scriptreading this time round. I'd heard bits of the script before but hadn't realised just how cliched, and bad it is. The acting (and the so bad it's funny aspect of the script) made it really funny to watch. I liked Algor's Sean Connery accent, Tarrant's smiling, Dayna and Soolin draping themselves over Tarrant, and Avon's running and falling.

I then had dinner, which was interesting because they'd made me salmon and then given it to someone else. I got it in the end, though, and in time to get to What would you cut first? Making a TV show to budget. There were lots of good suggestions, it was almost hard to see why you needed to spend much money at all.

The Masquerade and Cabaret were good fun. Although the second half I was stewarding the side door, which I found was behind the speakers, so I couldn't hear. But I got to hang out with the performers and watch them being nervous instead.

Then was a panel I wouldn't have been interested in two years ago: What will humans be eating in 100 years time. Mostly we talked about food in America, as they have a tendency to send it over here and it ends up catching on. But I learnt all sorts of things about the food there that I'll have to look out for next week.

I then actually participated in a Blake's 7 Wobblevision. I always thought these things looked good fun, which they are. I didn't anticipate the amount of time in advance trying desperately to remember the plot, and eventually looking it up thanks to the hotel's free wireless access. I then discovered it actually involves some acting ability, which I don't have at all. I still don't know the plot, not least because in the tradition of all TV, we shot it out of order. I'll have to re-watch it.

After that I didn't quite make the disco, so stayed around and chatted before bed.

Sunday

Sunday I decided I couldn't quite face more soya milk and the faff trying to get it, so I had the porridge I'd brought with me instead, before going off to SF and gender roles. We found lots of examples of good female role models, and of ones that aren't so much. And discussed gender, since that needed defining.

Then there was the talk on The new Blake's 7, which isn't something I knew much about. I was impressed by their trailers and the reasons they had for the things they changed, and why they did it in the first place. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully it will be good, even though it will never be quite the same.

The Backsword workshop didn't seem like it lasted two hours at all. I had the same problem there I had in taekwon-do, which is that it doesn't matter how many times a move is demonstrated, I then get completely clueless by the time I have to reproduce it. I managed in the end though, it just takes me a while. I did remember two-thirds of the way through that I have RSI in my knee and actually it doesn't really like all that bending. I brought my bandage, just forgot about it completely. Much as I enjoyed the backsword though, I think I prefer fencing.

After lunch I went to Creating an alien culture. There were all sorts of cultures discussed. The trouble is, we decided, that since we're not alien it's tricky to create something that is completely alien. We also talked about ones we believed in, and someone brought up the idea that it either has to correspond to something in our world, or have internal consistency (or both) for us to believe in it.

The Closing Ceremony was good, if short. The Ruler of the Universe result was the best bit, as the total number of votes cast was twice the number of people at the con and thereby elegible to vote. Although the winner was declared, alliances were formed and in the absence of a calculator the candidate with no votes was declared the winner.

I then found myself dragged into doing a Sherlock Holmes wobblevision. To which I never quite found out the plot, but it did involve me wearing a moustache of orange cardboard. That stayed on as long as I didn't have a facial expression. It handily finished just in time for the stewards debriefing.

After which was dinner at which we discussed online names, which led into the next panel, Online pseudonyms: How do we pick them? Should we use them? There were some interesting stories of how people came up with theirs and why, and that there is a lot of information about us on the internet. Unless, of course, you have someone with the same name as you in some of the same fandoms, and then if you google our name you don't necessarily get me.

The last panel was Swordplay for writers, which I went to because I like swords, I don't intend to write any sword fighting. It was interesting to hear how and why different swords were used. Then we got to play with them, and find out how heavy they were. The backsword was the prettiest, though.

Then there was just the Dead Dog Party left, which was actually called that for the first Redemption I've been to. I established that the sofas were not designed for short people, so ended up having to go back to the room to get a pillow to use as a cushion - we had six each after all, so there were plenty to spare. Although in my absence I was described as 'so straight' by someone who shall remain nameless. And apparently people think Sel and I come as a pair, although we didn't see that much of each other for most of the con, being in different panels a lot of the time.

We ended up lasting till 1.30, which considering I was fading at 11.30, was not too bad.

Monday

Somehow we checked out of the hotel before the deadline, which never happens. Daniel helped us load the car and we actually got to catch up for the first time in the whole con. This is the trouble with Redemption, it's great fun, you get to meet lots of new people (and people whose names you recognise) but you end up not seeing people that much.

Sadly, though, we had to leave at some point. But it's only two years till the next one, and my panelling experience can't have been too bad because I have ideas for three more. And I have now signed up for Orbital (Eastercon 2008) which is only just over a year away.

Permalink | 2 comments | Categories: Cons: Cons

Permalink | 1 comment | Categories: Cons: Cons, Photos

Edit: Dad has just reminded me I have a flickr account! So all my photos of the guests (apart from the blurry ones) are there, unedited (sorry Saz).

Friday

Friday I discovered that hot banana milkshake is a bit sickly and I found where my sister's house is. And also the Sheraton's carpet is not good when you're already feeling dizzy (I eventually worked out how to walk while looking up at the ceiling).

After dinner with Dana, me and Sel had meet and greet tickets. By the time we'd sat in a cold room and come up with a crack fic for Sel to write I had pretty much reached the point of really not caring when Joe Flanigan (Sheppard) came and sat next to me. He moved away a bit when he found out I had flu. He had hairy hands.

Other highlights included: Aaron Douglas (the chief in Battlestar Galactica, apparently) appeared on stage and I tried to work out whether I recognised him; me failing to work out why I recognised Craig Veroni (Peter Grodin); Jason Momoa (Ronon) hugging Joe and picking him up (they hadn't seen each other since October); Jason Momoa doing some dance, with a lot of noise; Jason Momoa with glow sticks in his hair; Rainbow Sun Francks crying over a bear surrounded by empty bottles (someone kept the tissue he used)

By the time that finished it was gone 10, and I'd definitely reached the stage of not caring about anything except sleep, so we went to bed.

Saturday

Saturday I did manage to feel better, although still a bit fluey. So I accidentally woke Nic and Dana up and we went to spend the day sitting in the main hall. And I feel that I should be able to remember something about that. Never mind, I'm sure Sel will.

The autographs were interesting. There was a queue for Joe first - although I confused him totally and I ended up having to stand around next to him for a while (such a hardship - he's much less pretty in real life, and therefore more fanciable). Then we went through the others quite quickly - except Rainbow. Whose queue did have to be seen to be believed. He did apologise a lot, though, got distracted by ordering a curry, and kept being told by Aaron to shut up and sign. He wasn't terribly good at the shutting up part, though, at any time during the weekend.

The queue wore us out so much the evening consisted of dinner and Rosemary and Thyme, like the wild party-goers we are.

Sunday

Sunday I felt great - and therefore a whole lot better than most of the other people there. Ivy Isenberg, who is a casting person, is a bit mad, thinks about sex all the time, and had some interesting insights into what exactly it is she does. I totally agree with her that the casting should be about talent, not looks, but on the plus side we do get conventions where it's hard to decide which guest to drool over more.

Ellie Harvie was really funny. On Sunday she did some of her stand-up act, and some improvisation, which was even funnier.

I asked Joe Flanigan a question (go me!) on behalf of Sel. Although in all fairness, I wanted to know the answer as well. He keeps trying to pitch ideas like Shep on a skateboard and on a surfboard, but he did say he's planning some more serious pitches too. He also revealed he used to be very shy, took an acting class to get over it and it ended up being the only job he hasn't been fired from.

Jason Momoa was in and out of most people's talks in the afternoon, especially Rainbow's. Although Rainbow was sat at the back, heckling, during Jason's. He quite liked the idea that Ronon is sleeping with the boss-lady.

Aaron Douglas was quite funny, although I had no idea what he was talking about half the time.

Craig Veroni definitely thought they should Bring Back the Brit. He revealed his wife had had a baby two weeks previously.

Sunday night we actually made it to the party! Only thing with Sunday night parties is that a lot of people have gone home. But we happily sat chatting, and I danced occasionally. It was somewhere in the region of 2am when we went to bed.

3.22am by the TV clock we got woken up by the fire alarm! Which confused me totally at first, because I tried to turn it off with my clock (didn't work), thought it might be a test, tried to put my slippers on (I didn't bring them), couldn't quite remember where I'd put my coat, and wouldn't have taken the room key with me if Sel hadn't thought of it, and thought about putting my jeans on when we were already outside the room.

We were back 20 minutes later. I was amazed by the number of people who were unsure about the whole evacuating thing (are they mad?). Once we got outside I guessed the evacuation point might be in the car park but couldn't find anywhere obvious. On Monday morning I looked on the notice on the back of the door but that wasn't any more illuminating. It was a false alarm, thankfully.

Monday

Monday is usually the post-con coming down day. Except that we hadn't even left the Sheraton before I found out we had tickets in the ballot for Court 1 on men's finals day at Wimbledon. And hot coco pops milkshake is very nice.

So, I had a good time (even if I can't remember some of it) and we're booked for Peg 2, on the very flimsy basis that it's a few weeks before Redemption and we can work out what we're going to do at our panel.

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The annoying part of the weekend was just being really tired really early. I also managed to eat an entire bar of Plamil chocolate in a day. Whoops!

I an unimpressed at the shops round here and their grapefruit. They have recently decided that instead of actually getting some pink grapefruit (which I think is the nicest) they would just split the red grapefruit into two and call one lot red and the other lot pink. So now I'm on porridge for breakfast instead.

My watch battery died on Monday (it's been dying for a week). The last time I got a new battery I remember it being expensive, so instead I bought a new watch. It's great, and has a metal strap, which I've never had before. Only problem is I can get it on without undoing it. The instructions for making it smaller tell you for lots of different watches, so I don't know which one applies to mine. And none of the options seem to work. So I now have a watch I can wear that doesn't tell me the time and a watch that tells me the time that I can't wear. How helpful.

This post brought to you by I'm too tired to be coherent.

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I wrote down a list of all the things I went to, then a list of all the ones I wanted to go to and it was almost as long. I had a good time though, despite the cold (not helped by my roommate and I not being able to agree on the temperature, so our compromise was that I was cold and she was hot). I've signed up for Redemption '07, will be stewarding again (it does remove the indecision on which panel to go to when they all look equally interesting), and even came up with an idea for a panel to run. Oh dear.

Here follows a fairly lengthy report, with images.

Friday:
When we eventually made it (due to slight trauma of locking keys in boot) the first place I went was the dealers room. And did very well - I only bought one book. Then there was the first book panel, at which I picked up a few recommendations. Or would have if I could remember any of them, or had written any of them down. Then I stewarded, dinnered and opening ceremonied before getting bored waiting for the pub quiz to start and wondered off to the alien lifeforms panel. Which was interesting, although wondered off topic into depressing!

The evening was the celidh, which was interesting on carpet, but at least easier than in two inch heels. As I'd woken up at the usual time that morning (annoyingly, because I didn't need to) I went to bed early, in order to stay up late the other two nights.

Saturday:
Saturday began with talking about slash - which did become something of a theme in the writing panels. Although, for the life of me, I can't remember what we actually discussed. Then the veil dancing workshop offered a chance to get up and do something practical (I can only sit down and listen to/talk in panels for so long). The veils were remarkably easy to get tangled up in, and involved more exercise than it first looked (my arms got quite tired!). It came in handy for recognising moves made by the dancers in the cabaret.

Then I went to hear Jason Carter talk and found out who he was in Angel (I didn't recognise him, or remember seeing his name in the credits when I saw the episode). He was very interesting and funny. I was quite impressed he remembered the words to Modern Major General (or whatever its called), if not the tune. The fanfic writing styles panel, I suspect probably went a bit off topic, as I can't remember any of it. After that I got to steward the dealers room, so I could see Blakes Junction 7, although not hear it. It was enough to remind me how funny it was though.

I then couldn't decide between two different panels, so I wondered round the Zocalo instead. I was attracted by (and did play) Giant Jenga, which was good fun. Although I ended up late to the next panel because I couldn't leave until we had finished the current game - the tower wasn't getting quite thin in places by then. I also went along to the Beeblebear's picnic - and ended up with a Beeblebear. Admittedly, I have been meaning to buy one for years but could never quite decide what colour to get. I now have a mint coloured one, imaginatively named Minty.

The next panel was discussing how much exposition we need, which went into different sorts of media, and generally agreed that most of it was because the author/producer/writer/whoever was assuming we were all stupid and had the memory of a goldfish. After this I spent some quality time in the bar and had a very nice dinner. Or at least it seemed nice at the time.

The panel on the Star Trek and Blakes 7 Federations was most interesting because someone fell asleep in it (and snored quite loudly!). After that I missed half of the fancy dress and cabaret because something I ate for dinner disagreed with me and I went to bed in order to avoid throwing up. The worrying part was the number of people who remarked on Sunday about how much better I looked!

Sunday:
Sunday had lots of writing workshops going on. The first I went to (well, was late to, 10am seemed quite difficult to manage for some reason!) was about editing fanfiction. There were lots of different ideas at that one. After that was Blakes 7 Fashion - otherwise known as a good excuse to laugh at the costumes. The people doing it were quite organised, as they had a projector and some pictures, which was handy because there were some I'd forgotten (or possibly just blocked out of my memory).

Then there was the writing workshop, where we got some interesting stories from people who had turned pro, and others who were hoping to. Then I couldn't miss the Ruler of the Universe hustings. I was impressed by all the candidates - it was really hard to choose just one. The fanfic writing workshop afterwards was smaller than the writing one, so it was quite a nice friendly group It was interesting to hear how different people write, and how many problems seemed to be universal!

I only made it to half the B7 signing workshop, as I had a stewards debriefing. I don't remember half of it, but it was much more interesting to learn words like thief, rebel and psychostrategist, than it would have been to learn ordinary boring words. I stewarded during the closing ceremony, so that was interesting to see from the back.

Then I managed four panels in a row. First was on Tolkien - I realised in that one that I've read very few fantasy books, even though my absolute favourite book is fantasy (Alice in Wonderland). The Egyptian gods panel did turn into something of a general discussion into Stargate, Xena and other historic (and not so historic) gods. Books 3 was nice and small, although I did manage to have the opposite opinion to everyone in it, on every topic, it seemed!

The future of SF and Fantasy was the biggest, but was one of the times it seemed everyone at the con agreed on something (apart from how good it was) - we don't like reality TV! Being the last panel of the con, it overran of course. And could have gone on all night, except the bar was calling. I was relatively hardcore, staying up till 2.30am (even though the bar shut at 11pm!). The time seemed to go so quickly.

Monday:
I'm not sure how we managed get woken up by the alarm at the same time as previous days, but still not be ready for 11. It takes talent, I think. There were plenty of people hanging around though, so we could put off the con ending for another hour before driving home in the snow (and spending an hour in the coldest Little Chef ever).

The most interesting thing I found about the people there, beyond being able to talk to absolutely anyone, was the variety of different opinions there were on most topics.

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A multi-part post. It's quite long, so it's interspersed with livejournal to make my life a bit easier.

Firstly, the New Years Resolutions.

2004 Resolutions

2005 Resolutions

Taggart

New Year

On an entirely different note, I have discovered how to make my friends pages have no cut tags (as long as I'm logged in). It makes other peoples friends pages do the same thing and it's great! I don't read my friends page very often, but I do read other peoples (mainly because I can't quite be bothered to put them on my list) but it means I can actually read them!

I'm writing this in Semagic, which is great (I especially like the quick links thing) but I'm still going to have to put it into Blogger to spell check it, send it to lj, then change the links from cut-tags to actually links.

Oh, and happy new year everyone - may your 2005 be better than your 2004.

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I don't need to write a con report for SG8 because Sel has already done one I will add that Paul McGillion is a guinness, although completely off his rocker. He is also, as he felt the need to tell us many time, single. Oh, and he told me I was a 'saucy thing'. Which took me aback a bit, although I have to admit I was a bit flattered.

Of course, the best bit about any con is talking to friends. And friends of friends, who by the next con are friends. It's a bit like university was in that respect. I now really want to write a Sam/Jack slash fic. Yes, you did read that right - we're talking quantum mirror here to make Sam male.

Although it's not going to be serious (assuming I can think of a plot, that is) it did make me think. If we assume that the only difference in this universe is that Sam has a Y chromosome instead of an X, then she probably wouldn't be called Sam (or Samuel). It is entirely possible that her parents were going to call her some variation of Sam either way, but it would be more likely, assuming she's the eldest, that she would be called Mark. My parents certainly never had any intention of calling me Nick (or Nicholas - although at the time I don't think the shortening of my name occurred to them). If I was a boy I'd have no name because they couldn't agree on one.

Although if I gave mirror Sam a different name, that would no doubt confuse everyone. And talking about Mark/Jack slash, doesn't have quite the same ring to it as Sam/Jack slash

I also thought I'd post my dream. It is weird, but bearing in mind I can actually write down what happened, it's not nearly as weird as most of my other dreams, which I just can't describe.

It involved me and Sel sneaking about a car park trying to get breakfast (in a building, I should point out, probably a hotel of some sort). I ate rather a lot of crisps and had to give out, even though I'd only eaten half a bowl (a big bowl). The reason for this was something to do with Avon's book, which was called The Serbian Montenegro.

Sel was enthusing about it, I think. I discovered that it was actually a series of books (lots of books!) and they were a sort of Lord of the Rings thing. By that I mean there was a family with twin boys and a younger girl, and a brother. The twins were obviously Elladan and Elrohir, and yet the father was Elrohir, and the brother Elladan. I can't make sense of it now, but it seemed perfectly fine at the time.

I also remember that the picture of the father had short light hair. He looked like someone I recognised (ie had seen on TV) but I couldn't work out who. Sadly, my alarm clock went off 25mins early because there had been a power cut in the night and it gets fast on battery power, so I never worked out exactly what was going on.

Yes, I can see the men in white coats coming to take me away - but as long as they include Stargate's no 1 doctor, I don't mind!

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I had a good time at SG8, more because of the people who were there than the actual con itself. And I got away from it all for a bit. I came back, of course to crises - they still haven't stopped either. I have a Tae Kwon Do grading tomorrow, but I managed to write my Elrond essay for Idol Reflection.

I'm ridiculously far behind on my TV watching - I still haven't seen Have I Got News for You from two weeks ago. When I actually get 5 minutes to think I'll post more (like about just how nice Paul McGillion was - much better looking than he is on screen - although he is completely off his rocker).

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I think I've pretty much had all of my holidays worked out for next year (which includes conventions as holidays).

I've got:

• Redemption at the end of February
• Australia from Easter (end of March) till mid-April
• National Conference on May Day bank holiday weekend (where I will be celebrating my birthday)
• Banbury Camping Rally at the end of August (assuming the rest of the club talk me into it and we get a luxury tent between us - I really don't like camping)
• SG10. I just knew they were going to announce more of them at some point. There's no way I'm doing SG9 the week before Redemption, but since I know I'm going to be talked into going to SG10 anyway, I might just as well admit it now.

At least, of those, Australia and SG10 are the expensive things. Australia I'm saving for now, and I'll have time to save for SG10. And I should still have 9 days holiday left from work, although I may keel over from alcohol poisoning and lack of sleep after all of that.

I've been reading lots of Harry Potter fan fic recently. The thing about it that's really annoying me is that it's all full of Americanisms. Now, I know they changed the title of the first book, and presumably Americanised everything else, so there's probably no grounds for me complaining. But Hogwarts, does not have semesters. Some universities do, but I didn't go to one (on purpose) so I really don't understand how you fit two semesters into three terms. And unless boarding schools work differently, no-one is going to graduate. They'll just finish school and leave.

Something that really confused me in a fic today: Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were told to charm the windows of the first floor of the house they were living in at the time so that nothing would get in (as they were possibly going to be attacked). I spent a fair few minutes trying to work out why they would want to charm the windows of the first floor and not the ground, until I realised it had been written by an American, and they meant the ground floor.

Admittedly, this also confused me completely when I was in Las Vegas. When we first went down from our room back to reception I was looking in the lift for the button that said 'G'. The American friend I was with had to press the '1' button for us, because I was just lost. I really can't get my head round it for some reason, even though it ought to be more logical that our system.

I also meant to post this link last time - Funny Olympics animation. I particularly liked the fencing one, but then I would.

A fic I read today included a bit where Sirius and Remus had an argument. I got quite excited when they were building up to it because I love a good argument in my fic. I commented on someone else's a while back, when she had Elrond and Celebrian fight, that it was my favourite bit. She replied to say she knew I'd like that bit. So I know I like arguments, other people know I like them, I just don't know why. I know there are people who write them so the two people involved can have make-up sex, and there are people who read them purely for the sex. I read them for the argument - once they make-up I'm bored and skip the sex.

I was going to say I think I'm weird but I know that I am. I also think this morning came as a bit of a shock after three increasingly late nights followed by three increasingly late mornings, so I'm tired now and should probably go to bed once my housemate's out of the bathroom.

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Very odd. Blogger keeps telling me it can't publish, yet when I check it has.

Redemption was good. I learnt about stage fighting, tried belly dancing, made an Enterprise out of CDs and bog rolls, helped film the models made out of rubbish, talked about hunks, biology, Crusade and doubtless other things I've forgotten. I met people I haven't seen for a while, people I'd never met before, got chatted up (why that surprises me, I don't know), drank a lot, slept a little, showered a lot (it was a very nice shower). Had to come back to reality though, but not before booking for 2005.

I mentioned to a couple of people that I had just discovered LOTR fan fic and both said that they felt fan fic based on a book was wrong. I can totally see their point and I do agree. Not that it stops me though. I don't why some things rather than others compel me to read and others to write as well. Just looking at them:

Star Wars: TPM - this was the one that introduced me to the whole idea, so I've read masses of it, mainly Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon stuff and some slash. I've also written quite a bit of this one.

Quantum Leap - read Al-related stuff and written an episode for the virtual series

Babylon 5 - have read some Sheridan/Delenn stuff but then only really read Dark Mirror, although I got lost somewhere in there and need to start again (for the third time!)

Stargate - have written a bit and read quite a lot, mainly Sam/Jack and Daniel-centered stuff

Angel - have read a few things, all of which were quite good. Strangely, haven't found Buffy fan fic so interesting, not sure why. Perhaps because it was reading about Wesley that brought me into it in the first place and there's not really any characters in Buffy I want to read about so much

Farscape - only really read John/Aeryn but that does have a tendency to get boring. Have started stuff, but not finished any

Star Trek - the only Star Trek stuff I've really read has been Paris/Torres, but now that the virtual series has finished I've changed to Enterprise and thats all been Trip/T'Pol. Must catch up with the stuff on Trip/T'Polers.

Alias - mostly read Syd/Vaughn but there's some really good stuff there there's not as well

LOTR - mainly been hobbit stuff so far, but I have just discovered Aragorn now as well

Bugs - I was reading and writing in this before I knew it was fan fic. Wish I had kept in this fandom now, there's much more fic out there, specially ones which solve the end of series 4 cliffhanger

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I have updated my site, but the ftp couldn't connect, so I'll try again later. Annoyingly, I don't have a photo of me with Garwin, but I'll have to ask if anyone else does. It was only when I was playing about with my photos that I realised I have to scan in the ones of me with the guests (well, JR and Chris, I have my eyes closed with Jay, so I won't bother). I'm not sure whats going on with the one with Douggie as its so bright you can't see my face. I hate giving my camera to other people, because you have no control over how the photos are going to come out.

Spent loads of money this weekend. I found Never Been Kissed in Virgin. Its strange how much the character of Sam Coulson shares with Vaughn. And then ordered some books. Had to use amazon as the internet bookshop don't seem to have two of the books I want, which is a bit shit, frankly. At least all the ones I want are out, so I can get them all delivered at the same time. And then I bought my Gatecon ticket. My credit card bill next month is going to be hideous, as the hotel bill from last weekend will also be on it!

Have to go back to work tomorrow. That's a bugger. My boss asked my on Friday (as I was leaving and was therefore tired and not in the mood) whether I was feeling motivated to get the stuff I was doing right. If course not! My only motivation in going there at all is that I need the money. Although I did get quite excited when I discovered the printer can photocopy two-sided to two-sided on its own without you having to put the paper back in at all. Its quite sad really.

I've also decided not up update my livejournal any more. I can't be doing with it really, but I'm going to keep the id in case I want to use it again, or comment in other peoples or contribute to any communities.

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Haven't posted for a while due to being tired. I got 3.5 hours of sleep Sunday night (entirely my own fault) and not that much more any night before that. Then it took me 9 hours to get from Blackpool train station to Oxford train station on Monday, where I was constantly changing trains (busy) and sitting around at Birmingham for so long I thought I wasn't getting home. Not good. And just realised I haven't told my video The Bill is only an hour long tonight. But new Buffy!

Anyway, will maybe do some website stuff this weekend as my photos will be back by then (I took 2 films worth!). Spent serious amounts of money even before Chris Judge's talk on Sunday. Where I paid half of �150 to grope Garwin Sanford (Narim). I'd much rather it had been JR's (Martouf) but he was too expensive, plus it was apparently quite bony. Garwin did at least have a nice arse, even if he is nearly the same age as my mother.

Er, what else. All the usual stuff really. Will put something on my site maybe, or write it in here when I'm feeling more inspired. I must do something with this as well, I've been getting inspiration from reading other people's recently.

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I almost wish I hadn't watched the thing on Human Instinct now, it was gross. And kind of scary. And reading angsty Alias fic with lots of UST, probably not helping. I so need the time off this (long) weekend, work's getting a bit stressy now. I think we should get more time off a year, it would really help. Plus if we didn't get so overworked. Not that I can really complain, given that I start and finish on time nearly every day, although I have done some overtime every week since August now.

Looking forward to SG5. Considering how I can convince Jay and JR to pick me up so I won't look so short in the photo Will have to hatch some plans when I meet up with everyone on Friday. Looking forward to going up to uni as well. I haven't been there since term 2 last year, so its been a while. Its always strange though, because it feels like home, apart from the bits that have changed, those feel weird. Plus being able to walk across campus and not recognise a single person. That so rarely happened while I was there.

Have thought about packing, but still working myself up to it! Will do some in the morning when I'm feeling more awake, hopefully going to get a lie-in. Instead of planning to go to bed at 11 and getting there at quarter to 12, I am going to stay up and watch Buffy. So it will be at least tomorrow by the time I get there. Which will doubtless be my earliest night until Monday, which will be ridiculously early.

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Have lots of Buffy, Angel and Alias to download but no time to download it in! Was really busy at work today just after lunch, then there wasn't very much to do later on. Which was probably just as well. We're being checked for ISO a week on Thursday, so really need to find the time to go through all the projects and check everything is there and signed.

Only one more working day to go! Really looking forward to seeing Jay Acavone again, he was so funny last time. Having said there's no way I want my photo done, I can't help thinking that one with Jay and JR Bourne would be quite nice

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Watched part of the SG4 video. I've only seen the opening ceremony, but I remember now how I lost my voice afterwards from so much screaming! I need 3 passport photo (I think thats what he said) for Tae Kwon Do, so of course I have 3, and there's no-where in Wallingford to get more. Watched 3/5ths of Buffy, because RealPlayer refuses to play part 4, which is really helpful.

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