Current mood:	cheerful
Current music:	In a moment, the "New Frontier" video
Entry tags:	conventions

Back from Minicon!
Yes, I am back safely.



The weather decided that Friday was a good day for heavy snowfall, so the trip down was a bit fraught, particularly on the small suburban bus that actually took me near the hotel. I arrived early enough that I was able to help the consuite set up, though, and got their first batch of rice going in the rice cooker. I hadn't operated one before, but the instruction manual was pretty clear. We had the gumbo and rice combo ready by the time my hotel room was ready for check-in.

Sadly, the artist guest of honor got a last-minute job offer, so he wasn't able to make it. His art was still on the badges and convention t-shirts though. Overall, attendence was pretty light, at least partially due to the weather.

The first panel I attended was "RPG Settings as Pure Worldbuilding", which among other things discussed the habit of creating campaign settings just to see how things work out.

Opening ceremonies were the usual fun.

Then I decided to take in Bela Lugosi in "Black Dragons", but the film room crew hadn't checked out how long the movie would take, so it was almost over.

Next was something a little unusual. One of the attendees, Karen Cooper, had made a time capsule back at the time of the Apollo missions, and had decided to open it at the convention. Here's the instructions she was given at the time, and since the time capsule turned out well, might work for you. Wrap the paper items you want to keep safe in less-important newspaper, wrap that in cloth (Karen used one of her mother's old bedsheets), wrap *that* in aluminum foil, and then wrap the whole thing in durable plastic. (Karen used her Brownie "sit-upon" which gives those of you familiar with Brownies an idea of what this looked like.)

Once unwrapped, inside were notices of President Eisenhower's death, a random day's newspaper, and the main event, an extra section on the Apollo 12 moon landing. "All these years I thought it was Apollo 11." The newspapers were spread out so that everyone got a chance to look at them. I was struck by the editorial page and how similar not just the letters on the Vietnam War were to those I see today on the Iraq War, but how similar the letters on pollution were to those now on global warming.

After that, I went to see "Decadent" Dave Clement in concert in the Shipside Room, and subsequently to a couple of parties. I was saddened to learn that Dreamhaven Books will be leaving its Lake Street headquarters sometime this year, as soon as they can find a new place--supposedly the redevelopment over there is going to help the neighborhood, but right now it's killing existing businesses.

Saturday morning, I got up very late and enjoyed a long luxurious shower (I hope the ones at work are fixed now) so was late for breakfast. Still good though.

The first panel I attended was "Unusual Jobs in Fantastic Worlds." Things like worm milker, dragon polisher, holodeck scenario designer, etc. One of the panelists had spent time in Nepal, which brought home to her just how many jobs needed to be done by hand by someone before the advent of labor-saving technology. Also discussed was how much of these non-heroic support jobs should the story show, and how much could just be implied. Watch for a new anthology titled "Outsorcery."

I was away at lunch and missed most of "The Psychology of Fiction", but apparently one of the authors is doing a story set around a school that follows Campbellian development theory.

After that, it was "Why are So Few People Willing to Play Anything Other than D&D?" We talked about the reason why (especially in areas with few gamers) it's hard to get groups to try other systems, how to coax them to try different things, and some systems that are well-suited to doing non-D&D stuff. One that I want to look up is a pulpish game called "Spirit of the Century," in which your fellow players help write your character's biography.

I followed that by seeing "Wild Women of Wongo" (which had a rather disturbing ending in some ways) and most of the Roger Corman "Little Shop of Horrors."

I went to "The Destruction of Identities In the Future", but much of it was identity theory and politics that went well above my head. Notably, there was one legally deaf person who mentions that he can't quite fit in with hearing culture, but that he can't identify with the "deaf culture" either, since he had his hearing loss later in life.

This was followed by the Riverfolk concert, and then I hit the parties. The one I spent the most time at was the Livejournal party (no surprise there) where I got into conversations on mailing list moderation, grammar (especially as it applies to future English) and Yu-Gi-Oh the early manga.

Sunday morning, again sleeping in. By the time I was ready to go, I realized it would be too much trouble to come all the way up to the room again to check out, so I did it a bit early. Of course, this meant hauling my luggage around the convention space. Ah well.

Morning panel was "Young Adult Books Adults Might Like Too." There are some spiffy ones, though it looks like the market for Harry Potterish modern fantasy might be slowing down. It seems likely the next big trend will be graphic novels, to try to capture the still-strong manga market.

And then it was "Geek, Be Not Ashamed" which talked about fannish socialization, geek social fallacies, how to handle dealing with aggressive non-fans, that sort of thing.

I dropped by the huckster/art show room. Got this year and last year's t-shirt ( the latter for my volunteer work), a few books, a present for my niece's upcoming birthday, and a Phil Foglio print. Someone had misunderstood when the bidding ended, and come in while the dealers were setting up for the morning, making minimum or +$1 bids on all the Foglios--he or she was disqualified and their bids cancelled.

Then a quick stop by the consuite for last-minute food, and catching the hotel's shuttle bus to the Mall of America. Most of their stuff was closed today for Easter, but the train still ran, and thus to home.

I hope all of you had a decent weekend.