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jack* Eastercn was great fun
* I have some good books, including some old classics and sequels I'm curious about but didn't want to buy, and some duplicates of my most accessible favourites to give away
* The travel was all pretty successful.
* Many nice people I knew went, and I got to know better, which is very nice.
* There were lots of interesting things, I've a whole bunch of percolating questions that'll crop up on
* I went to coffee with China Miéville. I'd tried Iron Council but couldn't get into it, and had the impression of someone like Anne MacCaffrey, but he looks more like Vinnie Jones, and talks like he looks. His guest of honour slot wasn't devoted to anything about him, just here's an essay which recently occurred to me, now I'll talk about it, which was really interesting.
* I described him and Neil Gaiman as stubbornly not convinced that they're not a rockstar (with the charisma to pull it off). Neil failed to be kissed by anyone though, sorry foreeverdirt. (I would have asked him for a kiss to send you if I'd met him, but never did :))
* I wore my cloak increasingly more over the weekend. In my opinion, it went surprisingly well with the blue Hawaiian shirt. Worn inside out it's a lot more science-fictiony, as it's incredibly silver, but blue with flashed of silver lining is definitely the look I like.
* The hotel was very nice. They had mazes of twisty passages, but I liked the decoration, just the right mix of posh, tasteful, nice decoration, but sufficiently interesting not to be boring. And of course, slowly helpful notices appeared, "You are in a maze of twisty passages all alike" in the maze of twisty passages and "Beware of the Leopard" on the leopard statue.
* However, they slightly failed in some ways. I got the impression the staff doing what they regularly did were pleasant and helpful and knew what they were doing, but that they'd drafted in extra staff to deal with the vastly increased number of people for meals, for the extra bars, etc, who were nice, but didn't really know what they were doing.
Eg. when approximately a thousand people all want a glass of beer at once, it may be more helpful to place more emphasis on "serve pint, get exact money, next customer" than mainting the illusion that people will amble past the bar, strike up conversation, and casually mention that perhaps they're a little thirsty and did the bar have anything appropriate, and they'd be sure an appropriate little amount would find it onto the hotel bill later, and can I wait two minutes while you try to get the till to give a receipt? I don't blame the staff (who were obviously helpful, just didn't know enough) or the con committee (who did a great job), it's just a shame the hotel hadn't given some more directed training beforehand.
* I run out of socialising. I'm in a situation where I can just speak to someone standing there and we have lots in common and can speak easily. However only some of the time can I *do* that, after three days, I just stall and listen, without meeting new people.
* And there were a lot of friends there, but none I'm quite close enough to I can just flop with not worrying about whether I'm saying anything or not.
* And several panels had interesting ideas, but were frustrating, as there seemed to be someone waffling and I wanted to shake them, but I had too many different things to say at once and they jammed, me unable to work out what would be really most useful and what wouldn't.
* The "Crossing the steams: What's the difference between scifi or fantasy?" especially. Weston was very funny, and had a good point ("one of the things,and imho the only important one, that defines science-fiction is being rationalistic about physics"), but insisted on making it vociferously rather than consistently, when listening to other people would have been really interesting. And so everyone present only wanted to shoot that down rather than talking about anything else, but it was hopeless.
* I spent four days almost continuously in one building, only going outside just to experience fresh and snow for a couple of minutes each day. I think that's the longest I've spend inside, but can see why Americans and science fiction authors can imagine living entirely inside.
* Thanks to Sebby, who got me half his room in the main hotel, and was a interesting, polite and inoffensive room-mate. I hope you were glad of someone to share with too.
* I have some good books, including some old classics and sequels I'm curious about but didn't want to buy, and some duplicates of my most accessible favourites to give away
* The travel was all pretty successful.
* Many nice people I knew went, and I got to know better, which is very nice.
* There were lots of interesting things, I've a whole bunch of percolating questions that'll crop up on
* I went to coffee with China Miéville. I'd tried Iron Council but couldn't get into it, and had the impression of someone like Anne MacCaffrey, but he looks more like Vinnie Jones, and talks like he looks. His guest of honour slot wasn't devoted to anything about him, just here's an essay which recently occurred to me, now I'll talk about it, which was really interesting.
* I described him and Neil Gaiman as stubbornly not convinced that they're not a rockstar (with the charisma to pull it off). Neil failed to be kissed by anyone though, sorry foreeverdirt. (I would have asked him for a kiss to send you if I'd met him, but never did :))
* I wore my cloak increasingly more over the weekend. In my opinion, it went surprisingly well with the blue Hawaiian shirt. Worn inside out it's a lot more science-fictiony, as it's incredibly silver, but blue with flashed of silver lining is definitely the look I like.
* The hotel was very nice. They had mazes of twisty passages, but I liked the decoration, just the right mix of posh, tasteful, nice decoration, but sufficiently interesting not to be boring. And of course, slowly helpful notices appeared, "You are in a maze of twisty passages all alike" in the maze of twisty passages and "Beware of the Leopard" on the leopard statue.
* However, they slightly failed in some ways. I got the impression the staff doing what they regularly did were pleasant and helpful and knew what they were doing, but that they'd drafted in extra staff to deal with the vastly increased number of people for meals, for the extra bars, etc, who were nice, but didn't really know what they were doing.
Eg. when approximately a thousand people all want a glass of beer at once, it may be more helpful to place more emphasis on "serve pint, get exact money, next customer" than mainting the illusion that people will amble past the bar, strike up conversation, and casually mention that perhaps they're a little thirsty and did the bar have anything appropriate, and they'd be sure an appropriate little amount would find it onto the hotel bill later, and can I wait two minutes while you try to get the till to give a receipt? I don't blame the staff (who were obviously helpful, just didn't know enough) or the con committee (who did a great job), it's just a shame the hotel hadn't given some more directed training beforehand.
* I run out of socialising. I'm in a situation where I can just speak to someone standing there and we have lots in common and can speak easily. However only some of the time can I *do* that, after three days, I just stall and listen, without meeting new people.
* And there were a lot of friends there, but none I'm quite close enough to I can just flop with not worrying about whether I'm saying anything or not.
* And several panels had interesting ideas, but were frustrating, as there seemed to be someone waffling and I wanted to shake them, but I had too many different things to say at once and they jammed, me unable to work out what would be really most useful and what wouldn't.
* The "Crossing the steams: What's the difference between scifi or fantasy?" especially. Weston was very funny, and had a good point ("one of the things,and imho the only important one, that defines science-fiction is being rationalistic about physics"), but insisted on making it vociferously rather than consistently, when listening to other people would have been really interesting. And so everyone present only wanted to shoot that down rather than talking about anything else, but it was hopeless.
* I spent four days almost continuously in one building, only going outside just to experience fresh and snow for a couple of minutes each day. I think that's the longest I've spend inside, but can see why Americans and science fiction authors can imagine living entirely inside.
* Thanks to Sebby, who got me half his room in the main hotel, and was a interesting, polite and inoffensive room-mate. I hope you were glad of someone to share with too.