Con report: FOGcon 3
Mar. 11th, 2013 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sereneThe way I do cons is not typical, but I'm not a typical congoer. For one thing, I've only been to two cons in my life -- or five, depending on how you count: two alt.polycons and all three iterations of FOGcon, the third of which was this past weekend. For another thing, I go to this small science-fiction (and mystery and other genre fiction) convention and I'm not a fan. That is, I read a lot of mysteries and a little bit of science fiction, but neither is a "fandom" for me, and I haven't spent any time in fannish circles except by dint of my friends mostly being fans. At any rate, I hear that "the real con happens outside of the panels," and that people spend a lot of rewarding time reconnecting with all their fannish friends and/or hooking up, and if you know me at all, you know that's not exactly my speed.
That said, I think I may have found my perfect social venue. Go figure. With the help of good personal boundaries (that is, knowing what actually makes me happy rather than what I "should" be doing for enjoyment), some low-pressure socializing with people I like, and a room of my own, I had a really good time at FOGcon.
Friday:
Worked until noon, then BARTed to Walnut Creek and took a cab to the hotel. I had been sick for weeks, but it was the first day I felt truly well, so the timing was perfect. (I've been home more than twenty-four hours at this point, and it appears I've avoided con crud.)
My volunteer shifts were not until Saturday, so I could have headed out to programming, but I was sweaty and tired and in need of downtime, so instead, I ordered my first-ever room service and took a nice, hot shower before propping my feet up and reading my book for an hour or so.
Went to a panel called The Craft of Editing, which I quite liked. I thinkwild_irises is a good moderator, and I got a kick out of the other editors, especially Jean Marie Stine, who was a good storyteller in both this and another panel I saw. Best quote (no context necessary): "I need at least a page of sex." (pantryslut)
After that, did dinner, but not much else, for the rest of the night. Lots of reading alone in my room. I love that.
Saturday:
Breakfasted with the fam, then went to A Great Read, which I wouldn't have attended if I'd known the panel would outnumber the audience, because I hadn't read the book, but I'm so glad I went. I get a huge nerd-boner from listening to smart geeks talk about literature. Suh-wooooon! After, they continued the conversation at lunch, but I was out of social energy, so I did lunch with family and then went to my consuite shift at 3, then probably read until my next consuite shift at 6 (during the banquet, which means almost no one came into the consuite, so I spent the time cleaning, filling food bowls, reading my book, and talking to the couple of people who did come in. Perfect).
I think I had already run into![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hitchhiker (a.k.a. Martin the Slacker, who had rolled out of bed at the crack of 2pm or something. :-) We spent a good deal of time the rest of the con following each other around to interesting things -- I very much enjoyed Favorite Non-SF/F Mystery Authors?, whose panelists may have been different from those on that list; I never take detailed notes in panels so I don't know. Got a lot of good reading recommendations, though.
Saturday night was my second-ever filk event, which was similar in essence to the one last year, though it had less filk and more French drinking songs, but hey. I had a good time, enjoyed Martin's enthusiasm, and stayed to the end -- it lasted wayyyy later than scheduled. Afterwards, in the consuite, I noticedwordweaverlynn looked about ready to weep or collapse with teh tiredz, and I asked her why she didn't go to bed. Turns out she was on close-the-consuite duty, so I shooed her off to bed and stayed to close the consuite. At 2, when that was done (after having to get pretty firm with some people who didn't want to leave -- really? are you grade-schoolers?), a few of us went up to my room and the one of us who was still wide awake talked at length about lots of things while hitchhiker and I said "Interesting!" a lot. It was time change night, so while the clock SAID 4am when they left, let's call it 5am for an accurate picture of how I felt when I awoke at 8.
Sunday:
Soooooooo tiiiiiiiiired all day Sunday. Had a quick breakfast with the fam, then went to what I thought was going to be my favorite panel. However, ten minutes or so in, when Annoying Straight Guy (*cough*) started whining about how the lesbians don't want to book him to read his collection of lesbian erotica, I realized two things:
1) I had the appropriate level of self-impulse for a person on three hours of sleep and not enough caffeine; and
2) I had hard objects in my purse
In order to keep myself from succumbing to the urge to throw the hard things at the annoying straight guy, I left that panel in a hurry.
Next was a very nice panel about flash fiction (I'm lucky there's a program online; I remember very little of the day without refreshing my memory.) And then lunch with the lovely and talentedlcohen and hitchhiker, both of whom are very punny and dear, even if they did make me late for stonebender's honored ghost panel, which was really wonderful, and included Jean Marie Stine again, whose book I promptly went and bought at the dealers' room, because I am her new fan. I even had the nerve to go up and tell her how wonderful I think she is as a panelist, and she may have gotten a little weepy.
Skipped the con feedback meeting, which I usually attend, to play Apples to Apples in the game room withhitchhiker and a bunch of other folks. It was fun, though I've never played with complete strangers before, and I found that the first half of the game is spent trying to figure out what types of judges they are. Still, pretty fun. I haven't played the mean and nasty version (cards against humanity?) and probably would have to be in a certain mood to enjoy it.
Guy and Carol gave me a lift home, bless them, where I promptly crashed for something like eleven hours.
The End.
Oh, and just so you don't think aliens took over my journal, here are some yummy foods I ate:
Room service lunch was seafood ballerine (scallops, shrimp, and mussels in a tomato-saffron sauce over pasta) and a grilled artichoke with garlic and parmesan, along with a little dish of roasted garlic something sauce. That's not what they called it; I just can't remember the name of the sauce, even though it's not something all that obscure. Brain and brain; what is brain? [Edit: remoulade]
Other meals included crab cakes; mixed berry creme brulee; TONS of consuite nibbles; seared scallops in a deeply weird sauce with some rice thathitchhiker kindly took off my hands; and hmm, what else? Oh, a really interesting and quite good watermelon and feta salad with raspberry vinaigrette and a large piece of excellent grilled salmon on top.
That said, I think I may have found my perfect social venue. Go figure. With the help of good personal boundaries (that is, knowing what actually makes me happy rather than what I "should" be doing for enjoyment), some low-pressure socializing with people I like, and a room of my own, I had a really good time at FOGcon.
Friday:
Worked until noon, then BARTed to Walnut Creek and took a cab to the hotel. I had been sick for weeks, but it was the first day I felt truly well, so the timing was perfect. (I've been home more than twenty-four hours at this point, and it appears I've avoided con crud.)
My volunteer shifts were not until Saturday, so I could have headed out to programming, but I was sweaty and tired and in need of downtime, so instead, I ordered my first-ever room service and took a nice, hot shower before propping my feet up and reading my book for an hour or so.
Went to a panel called The Craft of Editing, which I quite liked. I think
wild_irises is a good moderator, and I got a kick out of the other editors, especially Jean Marie Stine, who was a good storyteller in both this and another panel I saw. Best quote (no context necessary): "I need at least a page of sex." (pantryslut)After that, did dinner, but not much else, for the rest of the night. Lots of reading alone in my room. I love that.
Saturday:
Breakfasted with the fam, then went to A Great Read, which I wouldn't have attended if I'd known the panel would outnumber the audience, because I hadn't read the book, but I'm so glad I went. I get a huge nerd-boner from listening to smart geeks talk about literature. Suh-wooooon! After, they continued the conversation at lunch, but I was out of social energy, so I did lunch with family and then went to my consuite shift at 3, then probably read until my next consuite shift at 6 (during the banquet, which means almost no one came into the consuite, so I spent the time cleaning, filling food bowls, reading my book, and talking to the couple of people who did come in. Perfect).
I think I had already run into
hitchhiker (a.k.a. Martin the Slacker, who had rolled out of bed at the crack of 2pm or something. :-) We spent a good deal of time the rest of the con following each other around to interesting things -- I very much enjoyed Favorite Non-SF/F Mystery Authors?, whose panelists may have been different from those on that list; I never take detailed notes in panels so I don't know. Got a lot of good reading recommendations, though.Saturday night was my second-ever filk event, which was similar in essence to the one last year, though it had less filk and more French drinking songs, but hey. I had a good time, enjoyed Martin's enthusiasm, and stayed to the end -- it lasted wayyyy later than scheduled. Afterwards, in the consuite, I noticed
wordweaverlynn looked about ready to weep or collapse with teh tiredz, and I asked her why she didn't go to bed. Turns out she was on close-the-consuite duty, so I shooed her off to bed and stayed to close the consuite. At 2, when that was done (after having to get pretty firm with some people who didn't want to leave -- really? are you grade-schoolers?), a few of us went up to my room and the one of us who was still wide awake talked at length about lots of things while hitchhiker and I said "Interesting!" a lot. It was time change night, so while the clock SAID 4am when they left, let's call it 5am for an accurate picture of how I felt when I awoke at 8.Sunday:
Soooooooo tiiiiiiiiired all day Sunday. Had a quick breakfast with the fam, then went to what I thought was going to be my favorite panel. However, ten minutes or so in, when Annoying Straight Guy (*cough*) started whining about how the lesbians don't want to book him to read his collection of lesbian erotica, I realized two things:
1) I had the appropriate level of self-impulse for a person on three hours of sleep and not enough caffeine; and
2) I had hard objects in my purse
In order to keep myself from succumbing to the urge to throw the hard things at the annoying straight guy, I left that panel in a hurry.
Next was a very nice panel about flash fiction (I'm lucky there's a program online; I remember very little of the day without refreshing my memory.) And then lunch with the lovely and talented
lcohen and hitchhiker, both of whom are very punny and dear, even if they did make me late for stonebender's honored ghost panel, which was really wonderful, and included Jean Marie Stine again, whose book I promptly went and bought at the dealers' room, because I am her new fan. I even had the nerve to go up and tell her how wonderful I think she is as a panelist, and she may have gotten a little weepy.Skipped the con feedback meeting, which I usually attend, to play Apples to Apples in the game room with
hitchhiker and a bunch of other folks. It was fun, though I've never played with complete strangers before, and I found that the first half of the game is spent trying to figure out what types of judges they are. Still, pretty fun. I haven't played the mean and nasty version (cards against humanity?) and probably would have to be in a certain mood to enjoy it.Guy and Carol gave me a lift home, bless them, where I promptly crashed for something like eleven hours.
The End.
Oh, and just so you don't think aliens took over my journal, here are some yummy foods I ate:
Room service lunch was seafood ballerine (scallops, shrimp, and mussels in a tomato-saffron sauce over pasta) and a grilled artichoke with garlic and parmesan, along with a little dish of roasted garlic something sauce. That's not what they called it; I just can't remember the name of the sauce, even though it's not something all that obscure. Brain and brain; what is brain? [Edit: remoulade]
Other meals included crab cakes; mixed berry creme brulee; TONS of consuite nibbles; seared scallops in a deeply weird sauce with some rice that
hitchhiker kindly took off my hands; and hmm, what else? Oh, a really interesting and quite good watermelon and feta salad with raspberry vinaigrette and a large piece of excellent grilled salmon on top.
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