Orycon

We all run on two clocks. One is the outside clock, which ticks away our decades and brings us ceaselessly to the dry season. The other is the inside clock, where you are your own timekeeper and determine your own chronology, your own internal weather and your own rate of living.
-- Max Lerner

Saturday, November 18, 2000
One year ago: Catching Up
Two years ago: Fatigue
Three years ago: Publicity

I woke up early, and convinced H--- to switch places with Jack who was sleeping sitting up in the armchair. He must have been cold, since he had no covers, not even the bedspread. (I'm not so saintly that I was willing to sleep in the chair, but I figured his daughter could do it.) I woke up for good around eight o'clock, after sleeping on a very hard hotel bed. I don't think we should have let arranging for a roll-away bed slip by us!

Since Jack didn't get in until four, I let him sleep and took H--- to the breakfast buffet. The sausages were the best thing! I tried to get H---- to try the Tai chi class, but she wouldn't.

My first panel was on new breeding technology and the ethical issues involved. Marcia G---- was good as always, and Amy Thomson has experience in fertility treatments, but the discussion got a bit off-topic. Forrest Bishop was still sleepy perhaps. He would start on long statements, speaking more slowly than usual, and insist on continuing his train of thought even if others had comments.

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I visited the "internet cafe" (a phrase that still puzzles me) a few times during the day. This really is a great service! The volunteers are very dedicated. All I do is check my email, but other folks can get a chance to explore the net or do whatever they want, for twenty minutes or so.

H---- had wandered off during the bioethics panel. I'd told her that I would be in the riverview ballroom during the eleven o'clock hour, and asked her to check in with me there. Hmmmm.

My chosen panel in the ballroom (they run a bunch of small groups at different tables, all at the same time) had Kage Baker on it, which is why I'd picked it. Seeing her name on the schedule was a nice surprise! I'd enjoyed reading her two first novels this summer. The topic for the discussion was The Joy of Research, which was really aimed at aspiring fiction writers (which I am not). But I found it interesting anyway. It really fit right in with Baker's fiction -- she's written timetravel stories that are grounded from the places that she's lived and her day job at a Living History Center, thus 1600s Central California and Elizabethan England. The other authors there talked about mailing lists as resources, and recreationist groups (but SCA was mainly dissed). I only piped up to try and get back to the research topic, when group members started competing about who had ridden using the most authentic sidesaddle.

I think Jack woke up around eleven thirty, so he was just getting out of the shower when I got back to the room. He didn't like that H--- hadn't come back to where I was. He decided to go get some food, then look for her. I left him in the coffee garden, and set off looking myself.

I found her coming from the main hall where hospitality was. Ha! They'd kidnapped her and made her "volunteer" to slice mushrooms, which was funny because she hates them. She didn't mind the work, though. She sat with her dad and other club members while they had lunch. I went off and hung out in the fan lounge for a while, then went on to the dealer room looking for the new Kage Baker novel, still in hardback. I'd get her to sign it later!

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Going up the lobby stairs to the second level, I saw Cera with a group of folks, all in Bujold-related costumes. They looked great, in the grey and white uniforms of the Dendarii Free Mercenaries. We spoke for a few moments. She was journaling again for a while, but seems to have quit again.

I took H--- to a costuming panel on the stage in the ballroom. Lauryn Cone MacGregor and Anne Hoffert were presenting, talking about good resources for patterns and techniques. Their focus was mostly historical costumes, but there were lots of good ideas for any costume. H--- is more and more interested in costuming and masquerade, but didn't want to go to the panel by herself.

The other small group discussion I went to also featured Kage Baker, along with Blythe Ayne who was new to me. Appropriation of Voice: do you have to belong to a culture to write about it? was the topic. Everyone said no, of course. To "appropriate" something is never a good thing. You might write in the voice of a character that isn't like you, of course. But some subjects are difficult to handle. It's a matter of perspective -- if your story is set back in history (or in the future), no one gets mad, since the members of that culture are all dead. What I wondered about: what about the cases presented as personal, but it turns out fictional (story of little deer)? People do seem to get upset about that. We mostly tried to stay away from the PC debate, thank heaven. That's an unfavorite topic for me, since most people use the term incorrectly, or are just upset that current social mores prevent them from making all their lame, racist, sexist jokes without being called on it.

I knew that Jack wanted to go to "Ask Doctor Genius," where panel members extemporize silly answers to scientific questions, so I went to the room where it was happening and grabbed a pair of seats. The room was filling up fast! When he wasn't there and the panel was actually starting (and it was standing room only in the place), I figured plans had changed, so I left. I found out later that he did turn up and squeezed in somehow.

I brought my book, Mendoza in Hollywood, back to the dealers room to get it signed. Kage said that she thought the second discussion group was a bit better than the first one, in terms of interesting things being said. Maybe so, but I liked the topic of the first one better.

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It took some time to gather all the folks who were going to dinner. Ten was probably too large of a group! And people kept darting back to their rooms to get jackets and such items. Finally we were all assembled: Jack, H---, me, Jim Kling, Jon, Johnny Action (con virgin), Jessica, another woman, and Elinor Busby. We walked a short distance through the cold (but the neighborhood isn't designed for pedestrians, really) to Chang's Mongolian Grill. I've eaten there most times I've gone to Orycon; it's good for groups, since you are in control of what you eat.

There was a short wait before we were seated, around ten minutes which wasn't bad. I dared another member of our group to press her face against the glass, as we two were standing outside and the rest of the group was inside. But I didn't do it myself, even when she took the dare.

The food I chose worked well -- pork with strong-flavored veggies and hot, spicy sauce ingredients for the first round, then chicken, pineapple, tomatoes, and sweet/sour type of sauce ingredients. I don't get the noodles thing; Why fill up your bowl with that when they serve rice?

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I went with H---- to the masquerade. We waited near the end of the line, but were admitted and found good seats with no trouble. The actual show was short! The Four Seasons group was the best, I thought -- four women in seasonal gowns, competing for the crowd's attention. H--- could see what's possible, and also the quality of costumes in the novice category which would be quite achievable for her. I left her to wait for the judging and walked upstairs, to find that the room where Whose Line would was still occupied with a boffer demo. So I went to look for Jack in the party room from last night. They were still trying to clean up! I left after a few minutes.

In a slight variation from previous years, they had seven "contestants" for Whose Line is it Anyway?, who shared the moderating duties between themselves. This was too many, I think, and the people who were moderating were distracted by their comedic tendencies. But it was all very funny! Jack (who did come in time to get the seat I'd saved for him this time) and I both wrote lines on cards that were used in the proceedings, which is fun, but no credit to us, particularly. (The contestants draw lines from their pockets at random intervals and insert them into the improvised skit.)

After this event, I decided to retire to our room and go to bed. I was exhausted! Jack had parties he wanted to go to, so I got out my book and started reading it.