actually a wiscon post

[aamcnamara]

Some Things of Awesome, numbered and cut-tagged:


1. People
Going into the weekend I was sad because aliseadae and vcmw and mlt23 wouldn't be there. But then I replaced them, so it's all okay! By which I mean I met new people, and met people I knew or knew of only from the internet, and saw some awesome people that I knew already. All of which were great, and I am full of bounce for all of it. (But I did not really replace you guys.) Also notable: I got to hang out with the MHC alums who go to WisCon--they go to the con because of the college, I go to the college because of the con (and them)--so that's always fun.


2. Panels
Panels I attended: Newspapers of the Tang Dynasty; Politics of Steampunk; White to White; Lesbian SF/F; Strangers Writing Strange Lands; Writing Disabled Characters in SF/F.
Panels I was on: YA--Why Then, Why Now?; Facebook and Its Discontents.

This was the Con Of My First Actual Panelist Experience. (I don't think doing the Young Writer Q&A last year quite counts, as there were as many panelists as audience members and most of the audience members were there because they were my friends.) I did not fall into the center of the earth, I am pretty sure I didn't say anything stupid, I may have said interesting and/or clever things. This was Awesome all on its own.

Lots of the panels I attended were cool and interesting, too. Panel notes will happen at mumblesometime. (I took them, but have not typed them up.)

I also went to one reading, which featured among others csecooney and shadesong. It was good, and I would have liked to go to more, but it is the fate of conventions to have lots of good stuff happen at the same time.

(Next WisCon I would like to do a Young People Read Stuff reading. So far, it's me and aliseadae. If we can come up with, say, two more high school/college-age people who want to read stuff--fiction, poetry, whatever--we could put our names into the hat. Anyone? Or does anyone know anyone who might be interested? Plausibly it might have to be a "college and a couple of years up" reading, so--anyone for that?)


3. Parties
Before this, I had not gone to parties at cons much! Mostly because this is the first time that I had actually stayed in the con hotel. Not having to worry about walking/driving/going somewhere after you are done getting very tired and talking to people was very freeing.

As it turns out, parties are where you find the people who you haven't seen at any other point in the weekend and get to talk to them. (Hi, snurri and haddayr!)

The haiku earring party was fun, as always. Eventually I will run out of people to give earrings to, but until that point I like picking earrings out and writing tiny poems, although I had a brief and crushing moment of confluence and irony.

Another Awesome was the vid party. I don't watch much media, but I think vidding is really really neat. There's something about the transformative possibilities, something about how it takes directly from the source material and recontextualizes things. It's like fanfic for a book composed entirely of sentences taken from the text of the book itself. (If there is fanfic like this, link me. Please.) Also, it doesn't hurt that many vids are very, very shiny.


4. Assorted

Cons, like colleges, are not organized for people who get up early, so I wandered the farmers' market early on Saturday, bought strawberries, and sat near the Capitol eating them.

Also on Saturday, the aforementioned mustachioed street magician. I love the Madison farmers' market and I like the street music (then and at other times), but street magician is a step above busker, I'm sorry. Especially with a very long thin curly waxed mustache and an outrageous accent.

Because of allergies, I made basically all my food ahead of time and brought it with me. I made my mom drive me to the store, bought things with my own money, prepped food and chilled it, packed a cooler, and kept it replenished with ice throughout the weekend. Then I just had to run up to my room at intervals and fetch down whatever I planned to eat. I ended up spending several meals picnicking by myself on the Capitol lawn, but the weather was beautiful and really at heart I am an introvert, so it was nice to get some time to just sit outside by myself, relax, and enjoy the day. (I mean, it would've been equally awesome if I had gone out for meals all the time with great laughing groups of friends, but this is what happened and I was okay with it.)

During one of these meal breaks, I also got a chance to wander down State Street, where I found an excellent used bookstore. I was not actually that interested in most of the books they had (or at least not interested enough to buy and take them back to Minneapolis with me), but it had fascinating architecture, with alcoves and back hallways and a kids' area set up like a castle.

As usual the Tiptree auction was entertaining, I didn't buy anything there but I bought books in the dealer's room (ellen_kushner's "The Man with the Knives"--oh, so beautiful!--Nnedi Okorafor's novel that's just out, Who Fears Death, and Ellen Klages' short story collection, Portable Childhoods), and the GoH speeches were awesome.

Also, the Tiptree songs consistently make me really happy.


I could call that a con report.

Comments

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

No, no, I could not replace you.

I was happy!