Norwescon post #1
Mar. 25th, 2005 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperIt's been a pretty easygoing convention so far. As per usual, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird, mamishka, spazzkat, and I are rooming together, and we've had some fun so far.
Paul and I left work a bit earlier than we'd expected yesterday, partly because we were both chomping at the bit to get gone and partly because Dara had called home yesterday morning--after I'd left for work--to ask if I could bring her a couple of things she'd forgotten. Paul and I had had no plans to go back to MurkNorth, so we wound up going to Rite Aid instead on the way out and getting what she needed. We picked up soda and snacks as well, then got on 405 to head south for the convention hotel. We listened to a bit of music on my iPod, and then a bit of music on Paul's iPod, an exercise which convinced me I really need a car charger for my iPod. But I've also noticed that the last couple of times I've used an iTrip on my iPod, it's reset the date and time. Foo.
Anyway, we made decent time down to the hotel, and once we arrived we bumped into Dara pretty much immediately. Then we checked in, and the desk clerk chick asked us how many of the complimentary cookies (this hotel hands out complimentary cookies to Norwescon guests every year ^_^) we wanted. Paul said, "Two... four... eight! No, no, two's okay." As we walked away, he turned to Dara and me and said, "I saw an opening and I went for it!"
I immediately replied, "That's why you are the better gamer!" This won me quite a few giggles. ^_^
We didn't do too terribly much last night besides get registered and then have some dinner and drinks. After dinner we touched bases with Mimi as well, wound up watching snippets of Logan's Run in our room (several scenes of which Mimi had actually not seen before), and finally headed off to a radio play performance by Phil Foglio, his wife Kaja, and their whole little group involved with Girl Genius. That was fun. ^_^ One of these days I shall have to read all of that comic in earnest. Girl geniuses? I approve.
After that, not too much. I came back to the room to write a bit, and I watched a bit of Fellowship of the Ring, and then Paul showed up and crashed. Then Mimi showed up and shared her cheesy poof snacks, and I wrote some more, and then bed.
First thing I did upon getting up today was go find the hotel exercise room and do a workout. They have a decent exercise room here, including three treadmills--the fancy kind with sensors and such that can give you all sorts of different workouts. It wanted to know my age and weight and such for purposes of calculating my target heart rate, which was all very fancy; me, I just wanted to walk for 40 minutes. I made 2.1 miles, which is better than usual for a treadmill workout for me, and upon my return to the room Paul informed me that I was "gooder" than everyone else. Heh.
After that we were in theory going to go to the art show. This did not occur, because #1, the art show was closed, and #2, I had to call our bank because my debit card had been mysteriously refusing to process transactions. When I called in to customer service, I discovered that our account had been hit by a random security survey and they wanted to just have Dara and me verify a few transactions. We did that, they unlocked the account, and that was that.
I took the obligatory swing through the huckster room, looking for two books: the first of the Robert Sawyer booksframlingem urged me to get, which I found and bought, and Mississippi River Blues by Kathleen Ann Goonan, which I did not. I also checked the one table selling general Celtic-flavored CDs in addition to filk, and was disappointed to not find any albums by either Altan or Anam, which I hope to acquire. I did see a CD by Heather Alexander's new band Uffington Horse, though, and I'm tempted to get that.
I also really wanted to find a new sweatshirt, as I had never been able to replace the Norwescon sweatshirt I was wearing when I broke my arm. They did not, unfortunately, actually do sweatshirts this year, so I wound up buying a long-sleeved denim shirt with an embroidered picture of a cat with eyeglasses and a book above the breast pocket.
The highlight of the afternoon so far has been a science fiction trivia game show sponsored by the Science Fiction Museum, which was fun to watch. They had a whole slew of questions in a variety of categories, and the especially fun part was that they swapped off people on the panel based on how many questions each person missed. Paul got up there and wound up scoring the highest number of points (in no small part due to his finely honed knowledge of Godzilla and Buck Rogers), which got him the opportunity to take the first choice of the prizes the guy running the show had available. His choice: a Star Trek storybook LP with a couple of children's stories on it. He claims he shall display this proudly in his living room.
And we've made our obligatory sweep through the art show. Most of the stuff in there was stuff I've seen before, though one artist had some wonderfully detailed and realistic figure sculptures that I liked, especially her 'Wood Elf' sculpture. There was also a painting which would be an amusing workout inspiration for me given my recent "Walk to Rivendell" activity; it showed a road sign with markers with the mile counters to various places in the Shire.
There are a lot of writing panels going on, but I find myself strangely uninterested in actually going to any of them. I figure I'll get my fill of writing panels at this year's Writer's Weekend, for one thing; for another, I feel like I'd just rather write. It's sort of a 'learn by doing' thing, I guess.
So far we've bumped into a few friends, wandering around:jiapa and tinlail and lyricae, which was all good.
Right now we're all in the middle of afternoon downtime, so I figure I'll be working on the book for a bit until we decide what to do for the evening. Probable highlights: dinner at Pizza Hut, and Klingon Karaoke!
Miles today: 2.1 (treadmill)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 55.71
Miles to Rivendell: 402.29
solarbird, mamishka, spazzkat, and I are rooming together, and we've had some fun so far. Paul and I left work a bit earlier than we'd expected yesterday, partly because we were both chomping at the bit to get gone and partly because Dara had called home yesterday morning--after I'd left for work--to ask if I could bring her a couple of things she'd forgotten. Paul and I had had no plans to go back to MurkNorth, so we wound up going to Rite Aid instead on the way out and getting what she needed. We picked up soda and snacks as well, then got on 405 to head south for the convention hotel. We listened to a bit of music on my iPod, and then a bit of music on Paul's iPod, an exercise which convinced me I really need a car charger for my iPod. But I've also noticed that the last couple of times I've used an iTrip on my iPod, it's reset the date and time. Foo.
Anyway, we made decent time down to the hotel, and once we arrived we bumped into Dara pretty much immediately. Then we checked in, and the desk clerk chick asked us how many of the complimentary cookies (this hotel hands out complimentary cookies to Norwescon guests every year ^_^) we wanted. Paul said, "Two... four... eight! No, no, two's okay." As we walked away, he turned to Dara and me and said, "I saw an opening and I went for it!"
I immediately replied, "That's why you are the better gamer!" This won me quite a few giggles. ^_^
We didn't do too terribly much last night besides get registered and then have some dinner and drinks. After dinner we touched bases with Mimi as well, wound up watching snippets of Logan's Run in our room (several scenes of which Mimi had actually not seen before), and finally headed off to a radio play performance by Phil Foglio, his wife Kaja, and their whole little group involved with Girl Genius. That was fun. ^_^ One of these days I shall have to read all of that comic in earnest. Girl geniuses? I approve.
After that, not too much. I came back to the room to write a bit, and I watched a bit of Fellowship of the Ring, and then Paul showed up and crashed. Then Mimi showed up and shared her cheesy poof snacks, and I wrote some more, and then bed.
First thing I did upon getting up today was go find the hotel exercise room and do a workout. They have a decent exercise room here, including three treadmills--the fancy kind with sensors and such that can give you all sorts of different workouts. It wanted to know my age and weight and such for purposes of calculating my target heart rate, which was all very fancy; me, I just wanted to walk for 40 minutes. I made 2.1 miles, which is better than usual for a treadmill workout for me, and upon my return to the room Paul informed me that I was "gooder" than everyone else. Heh.
After that we were in theory going to go to the art show. This did not occur, because #1, the art show was closed, and #2, I had to call our bank because my debit card had been mysteriously refusing to process transactions. When I called in to customer service, I discovered that our account had been hit by a random security survey and they wanted to just have Dara and me verify a few transactions. We did that, they unlocked the account, and that was that.
I took the obligatory swing through the huckster room, looking for two books: the first of the Robert Sawyer books
framlingem urged me to get, which I found and bought, and Mississippi River Blues by Kathleen Ann Goonan, which I did not. I also checked the one table selling general Celtic-flavored CDs in addition to filk, and was disappointed to not find any albums by either Altan or Anam, which I hope to acquire. I did see a CD by Heather Alexander's new band Uffington Horse, though, and I'm tempted to get that.I also really wanted to find a new sweatshirt, as I had never been able to replace the Norwescon sweatshirt I was wearing when I broke my arm. They did not, unfortunately, actually do sweatshirts this year, so I wound up buying a long-sleeved denim shirt with an embroidered picture of a cat with eyeglasses and a book above the breast pocket.
The highlight of the afternoon so far has been a science fiction trivia game show sponsored by the Science Fiction Museum, which was fun to watch. They had a whole slew of questions in a variety of categories, and the especially fun part was that they swapped off people on the panel based on how many questions each person missed. Paul got up there and wound up scoring the highest number of points (in no small part due to his finely honed knowledge of Godzilla and Buck Rogers), which got him the opportunity to take the first choice of the prizes the guy running the show had available. His choice: a Star Trek storybook LP with a couple of children's stories on it. He claims he shall display this proudly in his living room.
And we've made our obligatory sweep through the art show. Most of the stuff in there was stuff I've seen before, though one artist had some wonderfully detailed and realistic figure sculptures that I liked, especially her 'Wood Elf' sculpture. There was also a painting which would be an amusing workout inspiration for me given my recent "Walk to Rivendell" activity; it showed a road sign with markers with the mile counters to various places in the Shire.
There are a lot of writing panels going on, but I find myself strangely uninterested in actually going to any of them. I figure I'll get my fill of writing panels at this year's Writer's Weekend, for one thing; for another, I feel like I'd just rather write. It's sort of a 'learn by doing' thing, I guess.
So far we've bumped into a few friends, wandering around:
jiapa and tinlail and lyricae, which was all good.Right now we're all in the middle of afternoon downtime, so I figure I'll be working on the book for a bit until we decide what to do for the evening. Probable highlights: dinner at Pizza Hut, and Klingon Karaoke!
Miles today: 2.1 (treadmill)
Miles out of Hobbiton: 55.71
Miles to Rivendell: 402.29