(no subject)

I'm not really a thinky person, and thus never feel I have anything to contribute to panels. I was persuaded to be on a panel at this year's Swancon because I was under the impression that I just had to get up and talk about The Persuaders. In fact that was not the case, as the panel was about dead fandoms generally. But as it was still just talking about TV shows I had a really fun time anyway. I would have liked to have had more control over keeping the panel on topic, and I really like Cricketk's idea about a specific chair for panels. I know some experienced people take on that role automatically and usually those are the most well organised panels. Where this falls down, is panels made up of newbies, or less extroverted people who are there to talk about their area of experience/interest, or people who don't feel comfortable 'crowd wrangling', as Cricket put it. Or worst case scenario when you get experts who just want to hear themselves talk, or talk about themselves and no one else gets a word in edgewise, which pisses off both the audience and the co-panellists.

So, what I'm thinking is, this is something I'd be good at. I have no problem telling people to shut up, and I'm a pretty good organiser. So I guess what I need to do is watch and learn and also go on some panels, as long as they talk about tv shows, slash or the internet.

Actually, could we please have Naomi Novik over? That would be helpful, I can talk about Temeraire!

Why it was the best Swancon ever.

I do realise that the posts about what I did at each day at Swancon aren't going to be of much interest to most other people, which is why I'm putting them under the cut, so people can move on by. The reason I have spent so much time (that I should have been writing this essay, no I'm not procrastinating, why would you think that?) writing down everything is because my memory is for shit and I really did have the best time at this con.

The main reasons why this was the best con ever for me I think were -

- This is my sixth con (including my first one where I came for one day) and I feel comfortable in the environment now - I no longer find large quantities of fanboys/men in a confined area a bit uncomfortable-making, and had in fact forgotten I ever did until psycho_tabby mentioned having that reaction.

- I know so many more fans now, just from feeling comfortable enough to talk to people, gradually at first, and it really does feel like family.

- Getting involved. Probably a combination of feeling comfortable and being friends with several of the people running the con made it easier to wander past people and say 'you look stressed, can I help you with anything?'.

- Running Quidditch (with help from black_samvara who sewed the teddys Quaffles back together and kept score, and mr_booboo and psycho_tabby to turned up to play blood sports be my team captains.

- Being on a panel with ddpm and making a new friend. Yays!

- Meeting Rob Shearman who was friendly and generally awesome and interesting.

- Bunny was there, and while it would have been better for everybody if she were less full on, or at least quieter nobody made us feel like pariahs (at least to our face). Also made new fan-parent friends.

And last but not least (only slightly embarrassingly) there were a lot of panels about old BBC shows, especially Dr Who, which I love so much. I would have liked to gone to other panels as well, because there were some awesome ones. I'm kicking myself for not even noticing Karl Schroeder until Sunday afternoon's panel 'Painting the Future Green' which I went to because the synopsis was

Concerns about energy efficiency, carbon emissions, and sustainability are changing the direction of technological development. When we think about the aesthetics of future technology, how will the green trend affect SF and our visions of the future?

The panel was fascinating, the other panellists were well informed and interesting, including, uncredited, tikiwanderer.

Looking back at the other panels with Karl on I really wish I'd got to a couple of them. Isn't that always the way though?

Awesome con! Thank you to fred_mouse and angriest and mynxii and strangedave and to everyone else who put in so much work to make it great.

(no subject)

So I bought tickets for Harry Connick Jnr for me and cricketk - and shortly after that she got hit by a car.

Today I went to Karrinyup especially to pick up the tickets - and the ticket printing machine had just broken.

*is paranoid*

The girl said her computer said I could pick up my tickets at the venue from 'gate one' only. Yeah I can just see that going well. I'd end up getting lost in King's Park and ending up sacrificed in a satanic ritual or falling off the escarpment or something.

So I went and got them from Warwick, and then escaped, only having bought $5 pink-spotted thongs and $3 green Converse knock-off sneakers for Bunny from Best & Less.

Which weren't anywhere as pretty as the $80 Sketchers I drooled over in Betts Kids in Karrinyup. Seriously, $80 for kid's sneakers??? Even if they are silver and sparkly and embroidered. *sighs enviously*

more Swancon

( Saturday )