State of the Angel

Oct. 12th, 2025 04:37 pm
lovelyangel: (Haruhi Thoughtful)
[personal profile] lovelyangel
I rarely do these quizzes (remember way back when these were a popular thing?) but this morning I took a random detour and at Bored Panda learned How Old Is Your Soul? The result:

I am an Ancient Soul

Given my stage in life, this probably isn’t a surprise. I couldn’t have asked for a better result. (But, hey, it’s just a silly quiz.)

Life is Messy, Below This Cut )

keeping up with the paperwork

Oct. 12th, 2025 03:19 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
I got a paper letter from the Registry of Motor Vehicles yesterday, telling me it was time to renew my state ID card, and a billing email from Panix this morning.

I took care of both of those online. Both were straightforward, although the state required me to check more boxes--which makes sense, because Panix doesn't care where I live, am registered to vote, or also have email with other providers. Interestingly, the RMV noted that I'm already registered as an organ donor--but that, unlike voter registration, doesn't depend on them having my current address.

Obstetrix, by Naomi Kritzer

Oct. 12th, 2025 08:35 am
mrissa: (Default)
[personal profile] mrissa
 

Review copy provided by the publisher. Also the author is a good friend.

Thrillers and near-future SF are not the same beast. Naomi has written tons of the latter, but as far as I know this is her first foray into the former. And she nails it--the differences in pacing and focus are all spot-on for a thriller. The general plotline of this particular thriller is: an obstetrician under fire for having provided an abortion to a high-risk patient is kidnapped by a cult to handle their obstetrics (and general medical) needs. If you just went, "Ohhhhhh," this is the novella for you.

Some points of clarity: the cult is not a sensationalized one. It's a very straightforward right-wing Christian compound, not wild-eyed goat-chompers but the sort of people who firmly believe that they're doing the right thing while they treat each other horribly, the sort you can find in some remote corner of every state of the US. Without violating someone's privacy, I know someone who joined a cult like this, and Naomi gets the very drab homely terror of it quite right.

One of the things I love about Naomi's writing is that she never relies on Idiot Plot. You never have to say, "but why doesn't Liz just blah blah blah," because Liz does just blah blah blah--that is, she does try the things a sensible person might try, and there are reasons they don't work, or don't work instantly, or are considered but actually can't be tried for lack of some particular element of the plan. But Naomi's characters not only try things, they keep trying things. I love the doggedness of Liz and of several others who aren't even sure what they're reaching for, who have been in a terrible place to find it, but keep striving all the same.

(no subject)

Oct. 11th, 2025 09:27 pm
[personal profile] martianmooncrab
took a drive thru the so called war torn SW side around the ICE facility. The worst part was the 3 bicycle cops that jumped the curb and cut in front of me mid block and I almost hit them.

More folks with cameras and such and of course the Portland police standing about, there werent many protestors or demonstrators, or as they say paid antifa there. Geez, this is Portland people, we have our own style here and having fun is the best part, make it festive while exercising our 1st amendment rights! Oh and if the protestors were being paid, you know they would have union reps to ensure that it was equal pay for all.

TWICE is Not My Enemy

Oct. 11th, 2025 07:53 pm
lovelyangel: Sana RTB Special in Japan (Sana Concert)
[personal profile] lovelyangel
TWICE Enemy CD/DVD set with bonuses
TWICE Enemy CD/DVD set with bonuses
iPhone 13 mini photo

Back on August 26, TWICE released their sixth Japanese album, entitled Enemy. TWICE’s Japanese albums are a little hard to get ahold of here in the U.S., and I did what I usually do – I pre-ordered a copy from CDJapan.

I thought the release would beat the cancelation of the de minimis exemption for tariffs – but at the time of shipment, Japan Post had already suspended shipments to the U.S. My order was placed on hold "until the suspension is lifted." Of course, in the weeks that followed, the restriction remained in place, and eventually the order was determined to be canceled unless I specified an express service for delivery. And the extra cost of the service would include tariff charges.

I upgraded to FedEx FICP (FedEx International Connect Plus). At selection, the option seemed to indicate that tariff charges were included in the delivery fee. That would be more convenient for me. I can’t quite decipher the final order itemized breakdown, as what I paid for the initial order doesn’t seem to be included in the second version of the order. Overall, it seems that shipping and "customs clearance fees" were somewhat more than the cost of the album itself. I had actually expected worse.

I have another CD I’d like to get from CDJapan, but I guess that won’t happen. I do have one anime figurine on pre-order, and I shudder to think what is going to happen with that order next year. It’s clear who the enemy is.

Warner Japan did their typically lousy packaging (compared to Korean sets) – with no book, no photocard sets, no special extras except for one measly photocard. I did get the CDJapan First Press bonus - a photo coaster – which is more of a thin photocard than a usable coaster. Well, whatever. I had poor luck, pulling Chaeyoung for both items. She’s my 8th favorite member of 9.

My optical drives are boxed up right now, and I don’t want to dig them out. I can’t rip the CD into Belldandy, and I can’t watch the Region 2 DVD until I restore my full computer setup next month.

Still, I’m happy to have this disc set in my library. I haven’t been particularly keen on TWICE’s recent Korean albums – but their recent Japanese albums have been outstanding. I really like them. At least I can listen to the Enemy album on a music streaming service, as it’s available on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube music (which is the one I have).

Also, the TWICE Enemy Music Video is on YouTube.

Up at the Cabin, Quilt Show Edition

Oct. 11th, 2025 04:16 pm
lydamorehouse: (crazy eyed Renji)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
 buckeye butterfly
Image: Buckeye butterfly

My family and I are up at our friends' cabin for the weekend. 

These are the friends of ours who have a lovely place with a natural shoreline (which they planted and meticulously mantain) on Crooked Lake in Siren, Wisconsin. At the far end of their property there is what I believe is a "smooth aster" (the native version of a purple aster.) It has attracted so many butterflies this year, it's not even funny. We've seen the buckeye pictured above as well as a painted lady, a clouded sulpher, and (and this might sound strange,) my favorite, this chonk of a moth, the corn ear worm moth.

corn ear worm moth
Yep, total pest. Turns into chonk floof, baby mothra. 

The dock is all pulled in, of course, so we've been amusing ourselves in other ways. In the nearby town of Weber, there is a quilt show. Ihave reported on this event in the past. It's very small town, in the best way? We're talking about tables set up in the local high school, staffed by little old ladies and a (bad) taco bar serving food for $5.00 in the cafeteria. The whole event kind of smells like Oretaga taco seasoning, but there are rows and rows of quilts with "artist statements" like, "I thought this pattern would be fun to try. WRONG. So I put it in craft jail for a few years, but this year decided to finish it. So here it is. Enjoy." These ladies (and some gents) really don't mince words when it comes to their quilts. Another one read, "Not much to say. Just need to use up my scraps." Then it will look like this:

yellow quilt, Weber 2025
Image: complex, bright yellow quilt.

Mason and I then went for a drive to check out Clam Dam, which, frankly, is the best name for any dam, anywhere as far as I'm concerned. 

 So far, a nice, chill vacation. Just what we needed post-Gaylaxicon.

How about you all? Up to anything fun?

Library Update #14: Light!

Oct. 10th, 2025 08:39 pm
lovelyangel: (Haruhi Starlight)
[personal profile] lovelyangel
On Tuesday, new blinds were installed on the two windows and the two patio doors. They are elegant and quite slick, operable with a light touch from one hand. The wrong parts were ordered for the skylight blind, so that will have to be installed next week.

Today, the track lighting was installed. It took only 3 1/2 hours this morning. And, wow, the lighting is magnificent. I worked with the contractor to make sure all the right places had lighting – mainly where the artwork goes and for the worktable which he didn’t know would be in the middle of the room. He had already aimed six light heads at the bookwall, and the wall is beautiful.

Library Lighting, Facing South
Library Lighting, Facing South
iPhone 13 mini photo

Library Lighting, Facing North
Library Lighting, Facing North
iPhone 13 mini photo

Two banks of lights are controlled by two dimmer switches – and they divided the control exactly how I specified. The dimmer switches are quite cool, comparable to advanced ones they had at my workplace.

The room will look better once the art is up – much later in the process. It’s going to be great. I love the new lighting setup.
lovelyangel: (Tomoyo Perplexed)
[personal profile] lovelyangel
Bookwall Installed
Bookwall Installed

Installation of the bookwall began on Tuesday, September 30. It took three days to get the complicated framework installed. On Friday, October, 3, the entire unit was painted. I normally don’t mind the smell of paint and solvents, but this particular spray was unusually pungent and penetrating. I opened the doors of the house to ventilate the library on both days of the weekend, while the paint cured. The weather was cold, and it was generally a miserable Friday-Sunday in the house. Also, there was a fine, slippery, white particulate powder everywhere as a result of spray painting. The powder had gotten into the family room / kitchen and was tracked through the house – and got onto clothes.

On Monday afternoon, the rolling ladder was installed. It’s a near twin of the storage wall ladder - the difference being the darker wood steps intended to match the flooring. (The lighter wood on the storage wall ladder is intended to match the cabinets.) Like its predecessor, the rolling ladder is amazing.

Surprisingly, there were no shelves for the books. I was told the shelves were being painted – and wouldn’t be available until Wednesday.

Then There Was an Issue )

leek and squash risotto (non-dairy)

Oct. 10th, 2025 09:21 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
[personal profile] adrian_turtle made a leek and squash risotto for supper, and it was very good. It contains short-grain rice, broth, leeks, butternut squash, arugula, and I think garlic powder. It was topped with candied pecans, some pieces of squash, and leek-flavored oil. Most of the squash was cooked with the rice, to dissolve and make the risotto rich and creamy. The combination of ingredients gave the dish plenty of umami; I didn't miss the cheese that's typically added to risotto.

Jotting this down now before I forget, I may get Adrian to provide more details or a recipe link later.

New Worlds: A Good Investment

Oct. 10th, 2025 05:01 pm
swan_tower: (Default)
[personal profile] swan_tower
I'll admit up front that I am not the best person to talk about investments and the history thereof in any real depth. But it's a topic I want the New Worlds Patreon to address, even if only briefly -- so comment over there!

(originally posted at Swan Tower: https://is.gd/thDHSD)

Hospice Volunteering Meeting

Oct. 9th, 2025 03:43 pm
lydamorehouse: void cat art (void cat)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
This morning was my meet-up with Ashley, the hospice volunteer coordinator. We met at my favorite coffee shop, Claddagh, on West 7th. The meeting was half paperwork, half get-to-know you interview.

I guess the things of interest are these: I found out that a lot of people never make it through training. They start reading/viewing (most of it is online videos) the material and decide that hospice work is not for them. I told Ashley that could very well be me. I have no idea where I’m going to fall in all this. This did not faze her. Apparently, that reaction is common enough that they don’t even start processing the paperwork until you make it through everything online. Smart.

One of other things I found sort of fascinating is that I’ll need a couple of references. People who are willing to vouch for me. I think a lot of people use co-workers because she noted to me, specifically, that they could both be personal. Also? Drug and health tests/screening. Including, she said apologetically, marijuana. I laughed because a more teetotal person than me you will rarely find. They can ask me to pee in a cup and do a deep background check, but they can no longer legally ask if I’m up on my COVID and flu shots. How screwed up is that? Apparently, you can volunteer your immunization records at least. That one was a head shaker. You’d think that of all organizations that could require people be up on their vaccines are places that work with end of life. How rude would it be to pass on COVID to someone already dying? Make someone extra miserable on the way out. WTF. Worst timeline.

The materials have arrived in my in-box. I’m looking forward to checking them out, but I have to wait for a little while. I’m actually composing this off-line because Mason is taking the last portion of his LSAT right now, the dreaded essay. Cross your fingers for him. His score will determine a lot of his choices for law school.

Also, we're headed up to our frends Ger & Barb's cabin for the weekend. There's a quilt show in the nearby town of Weber that we're excited to see again. Should be a relaxing weekend.

If I don't write again for a while, I hope you all have a good weekend, too! Any fun plans?



===



EDITED TO ADD: As I am posting, I'm obviously back online. I'm going to go peek at the info now!

mrissa: (Default)
[personal profile] mrissa
 New story! What a Big Heart You Have is out in Kaleidotrope. The more I thought about the Red Riding Hood story, the more I thought that the grandmother/granddaughter relationship was pretty sketched-in...and it's been one of the most important ones in my life. Hope you enjoy.

silly body, this is not helpful!

Oct. 8th, 2025 11:07 am
elisem: (Default)
[personal profile] elisem
 Today does not need to be a trigeminal neuralgia day. It really doesn't.

Where is it happening? It's on the right side this time. 

How bad is it? Three instances so far, so I am braced for more, since that's usually how it goes. Wait, four. And it's not super-bad, just the little dungeon map of tiny passages filled with pain, leading outward and upward from my right upper jaw. Much of the upper cheek is involved, with what feel like lines curving downward from the outer right eye, and this time it's also doing the Monocle of Pain trick, where my eye is ringed in a weird hybrid sensation of ache/pain/coldness/tightness/tickling. That last bit is even more annoying than it sounds. 

What set it off this time? Temperature differential (cold). One accidental touch of cold against the right spot was all it took.


We shall see. Meanwhile I am going off to look again at the pattern of the trigeminal nerve in the face, so as to check whether the stuff on the cheek and the lines from the outer corner of the eye match where the nerves are.

Got a decent rest since the last wave, so maybe it will get bored and wander off.

Silly body.

Anybody else deal with this nonsense? Several people in my family have. 
lydamorehouse: (Default)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
Last night, Shawn had a volunteer gig at the Ramsey County Library in Shoreview. As longtime readers know, my wife really doesn't like to drive. She's licensed, but she's generally a nervous and timid driver. On top of that, Shawn has some PTSD from an accident that happened while she was pregnant with Mason. Thus she mostly avoids driving, outside of emergencies (though she did some while I was in DC at Capclave. Go, Shawn!)

Anyway, what this means that I tagged along to the event as taxi driver. Shawn was in her meeting with the Friends for an hour... and I was left alone like a kid in a candy store.

I brought home eleven manga. Like, my bag was literally stuffed with books.

I finished one already: Two Guys at the Vet Clinic / Doubutsu Byouin no Ofutari-san by Sinonome. It's a boys' love/yaoi about a one-sided crush between a veterinarian and his boss. I'd say it's nothing to write home about, but I'll end up writing all about it over on my manga review site which you can check out if that sort of stuff interests you: https://mangakast.wordpress.com/

Okay, onward!

-----
Gaylaxicon, SUNDAY

There are a couple of things that I forgot to talk about on Saturday. One of the coolest things that happened on Saturday is that at the Murderbot panel I ran into a polycule that I'd met at the last ConFABulous. I instantly recognized them because they all wear matching rainbow masks, but also they're half the age of most of the people at our con. Plus, I feel like I would recognize them anywhere they all (there are at least four members of this polycule) because they played in a last minute Thirsty Sword Lesbians game that I threw together last ConFABulous when it was revealed to me that one of their number had come all the way from Chicago JUST to try playing this game (and when they arrived the sign-up was filled.) I still use a term that one of the players came up with for the future social media, which is "Blab" (as a Twitter/Insta/Facebook stand in.)

Anyway, I gave them my contact info and I hope they actually reach out. Three of the four are local and so they invited me to possibly come run a game with them at some point. I hope they actually do reach out. I liked the four of them quite a lot. 

So that was really cool. Plus, I finally got to meet [personal profile] pameladean 's partner Cameron.  She was deep in discussion with my friend Rachel Gold and their partner(? friend?) Stephanie, so I think we exchanged nothing more than a confused back and forth (because Rachel bought a copy of Cameron's book for me, but it wasn't clear who was paying and if the book had gone to me or Rachel.) Still, it was nice. I'm only sorry that Cameron wasn't feeling up for being on more panels. I would have loved to have showcased her and her work more. ConFABulous is less of the kind of con where writers go, but maybe since she'll have a new book out maybe we could consider if she'd make a good GoH (again, if she's up for such a thing.) ConFABulous really doesn't do GoHs, but at least Cameron is local so it's not like it would cost the con a lot.

Sunday, of course, is generally the low key day at most conventions. Anywhere else people are hungover, etc. I, myself, was crispy. That midnight performance meant I got only five hours of sleep. So, I was definitely feeling "Sunday at the Con" in a very traditional way.

I put several "not to miss" panels on early, in the hopes of catching any folks who weren't conned out by that point.  I really wanted to catch "Problematic Favs" at 10:30 AM, because it was a panel that David Lenander suggested and I had initially resisted writing up, in part because Greg Ketter was a GoH. Greg, for those of you who aren't from the Twin Cities and/or don't know, runs Dreamhaven Books & Comics. Dreamhaven was the literal mailing address for Neil Gaiman for many, many years--so much so that the Minnesota Book Awards assumed that Neil actually lived in Minneapolis (he didn't, at the time he was living in Wisconsin, which disqualified him for the award and I was at leat partly responsible for making that clear to the MN Book Awards folks. That, however, is a story for another time.) Lisa Freitag, Greg's wife, had told me at some point that Greg is still very much in denial and won't talk about Neil. So, I started to self-censor myself/the convention, but then I thought, "No. That's not cool." David L. clearly really needed to process some of this stuff, so probably that means a lot of our local community does, too. Also, so many of us in the fannish queer community, particularly trans folks, are still pissed at the active harm that JKR continues to do. So, I decided, no, let's have at it. But, to make it work, I had put [personal profile] naomikritzer in charge because I know that Naomi has the skillset (and the wherewithal) to actually shout someone down and cut off the ramblers--which a lot of people (including myself) often THINK they have, but which Naomi has actively demonstrated on other panels I've seen her on.

Turns out this was a good choice.  

Most of the discussion was high level--there were some real, meaningful confessions and feeling and advice, but, inevitably, someone wants to relitigate this or that. Naomi just wasn't having it. In fact, at one point the person she had to actively cut off was David L., and I'm not sure I'd've been able to do that since he's an actual friend of mine (and Naomi's, to be fair. Also, I hope David is okay and knows it was done out of love.) We also had another guy, who I later found out was also disruptive in the "Superman is WOKE and other Media Malarky" panel, who was apparently wandering back and forth between the two panels demanding to be caught up on what he'd missed while listening to the other one. 

Maybe not the best start to Sunday, but you can't say it wasn't high energy!  *makes awkward face*

Post that start to the day, a bunch of us hung around and debreifed in the little lounge area behind registration. This is where I got a chance to talk to one of our special guests, Blue Delliquanti (https://www.bluedelliquanti.com/  <--if you are at all a fan of graphic novels and don't know their work, here's my recommendation: GO READ THEM NOW.)  It was from Blue and Lee Brontide, however, that I found out that that one guy was bothering both panels. Apparently, the only panel that went off without a hitch during the first hour was "Gay Vikings," which is only hilarious because I heard from both Dax and Eleanor Arnason that they felt unprepared. Adam Stemple who moderated the panel said that they were both so knowledgable and prepared it was almost ridiculously smart. I'm sort of sad that I coudn't be in three places at once. 

I conspired with [personal profile] tallgeese to blow off my final panel of the con, "Ask a GM" in order to finish the Star Trek session we started on Saturday. This was another one of those probably-not-a-good-adult-decision moment for me, but I tried to mitigate it by warning Don K., one of my co-panelist that I was intending not to be there. I totally got the Disapproving Dad look from him, which normally I can't withstand, but the truth was I was so exhausted at this point I would not have made a good panelist. I probably should have explained it that way, but I didn't. Now I have to live with my guilt.

And while that sounds flippant, I do actually feel a guilty even now. I'd put myself on that panel so that there would be a woman GM to represent. I also know that several people were curious what I might have to say about GMing, so I feel like I let them down. 

But, God got me. I was, in fact, punished for my sins.

I decided to try to play a new character at the Star Trek game (a Vulcan doctor) and there was so little for the Chief Medical Officer to do in the third act of that game, that I literally threw her on a grenade at the end of the game just TO HAVE SOMETHING TO DO. 

Despite that, I'd say it was, generally, a really good convention. It helps that I was able to recruit so many skilled panelists. However, I think that, should we do a Gaylaxicon again (and if I lose my mind an volunteer for the programming committee again) I would do a few things differently.
  1. Three tracks of programming was a bit ambitious, I think. I mean, you can't know how many attendees you're going to get, but three tracks is probably best for conventions that are regularly pulling THOUSANDS, rather than hundreds, especially since our crowd was also dipursed into two tracks of gaming as well. So, we essentially had five tracks of programming (if you count the games) and that just split the numbers too much. So, even the most popular panels weren't filling the rooms as much as I'd've liked. Maybe two tracks going forward? Two + gaming, at any rate.
  2. The other really big mistake of mine was my assumption that someone else would've alerted Dreamhaven to the names of our attending professionals. I heard through the grapevine that JM Lee left the convention early (and irritated) because he discovered that none of his books were available in the dealer's room. I will make it a point to--as EARLY as possible--start feeding any book dealers a list of people's books to have on hand and/or alerting authors that they should bring their own books to sell at the signing tables. Joey (JM) was a really early recruit of mine (and he's trad published), so I can see why he was shocked not to see any of this books available. I will complain here, only breifly, that Greg is terrible about answering emails (as is Lisa). I would have had to make a regular DRIVE to Dreamhaven to physically talk to someone in the store, but I should have done it, anyway.
  3. Then, obviously, as much previously discussed, I think the new rule going forward (again, if there is a forward) is no paneling after 7:00 pm. We just don't stay up that late. People can find their own fun the games room if they're late nighters, I guess. Midnight slash panel? Nope, "After dinner hour slash," is more like it.
  4. Plan an actual lunch break for panelists. That way there's no way to accidentally (which I did to both Haddayr and Naomi) book someone over a period when they should go get a food. I had initially thought that the hotel restaurant would mitigate this since we had half hour passing time between panels, but it turned out they were closed at a time when someone could have popped down and grabbed a sandwich to go or whatever.
  5. People really liked that half-hour passing time, though. So, that's a keeper.

Obviously, there were a number of things that I heard compliments about, regarding programming. Adam could not get over the quality of the topics and how amazing his fellow panelists were. I got this note from a lot of people, actually, so that made me feel pretty good. The other comment I heard a lot was that people were having trouble deciding among the topics in any given hour because they were all interesting. Again, I'll take that as a win, actually (though you could read it another way, I suppose. Depending on your preference for these kinds of conventions. There are people who like one-track paneling for a reason.) 

I don't know a lot about how the other departments did. Obviously, I participated in gaming, which, for me went well.  I think the banquet was, at least, a financial success. There were a ton of people there. I talked about some of the issues with the comedy show, but comedy is always a weird one for conventions as far as I'm concerned since, as I noted, humor can so easily fall flat with us neuro-spicy nerd types. The dealer's room seemed full and active, which is good, though [personal profile] tallgeese noted with some shock that we didn't seem to have a single vendor selling dice. Two of the community tables were perpetually empty: the Dungeons, Dragons & Drinks folks seemed to only show up long enough to refresh their free dice packages and Free Mom Hugs seemed entirely AWOL every time I passed their table, which was kind of weird. Possibly both groups thought we were a bigger con? I don't know what happened there.

But, yeah, otherwise, I felt it went off well.

blood draw etc.

Oct. 7th, 2025 05:51 pm
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)
[personal profile] redbird
I woke up at about 7:30 a.m., had a cup of black tea, showered, and went to my doctor’s office for a fasting blood, which I wanted to do before I see her in a couple of weeks. There was a little bit of annoying delay: Mt Auburn Hospital is being moved to a different MyChart system, and some balls are being dropped. Specifically, the order for my lab work wasn’t on the new system, so they had to copy it from the old system, which is in read-only mode for a few weeks, after which it won’t be available even to medical staff. Carmen said her office is going to be sending an email to all patients, advising us to follow up on existing referrals and orders for lab work before the end of the month. I hope that doesn’t miss too many people, but I made a point of telling Adrian about it.

Once they had my test tube of blood, I stopped at a couple of stores on the same block as my doctor’s office, to buy (frozen) ground lamb and some more cannabis edibles. Then I treated myself to an apple, grape, and brie crepe for breakfast, which I ate at an outdoor table. After eating the crepe, I went to CVS and got a flu vaccine, then took the subway home. I am feeling very accomplished, and a bit tired.

The flu and covid tests I mentioned in my previous post arrived yesterday.
elisem: (Default)
[personal profile] elisem
There's a quick sale going on at https://www.etsy.com/shop/LionessElise where almost everything is 35% off right now and a few things are 50% off. The sale ends when there's enough to handle some bills that need to get taken care of.

Thanks for looking, and for being awesome. Love you all.

The Big Day - Gaylaxicon - Saturday*

Oct. 7th, 2025 10:44 am
lydamorehouse: void cat art (void cat)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse

As the person who did much of the programming planning, I knew that Saturday was our action-packed day. This was intentional. If people buy day passes, it's usually for Saturday only. I wanted it to be worth it for those folks. 


Having ended my night around 11:00 pm, I had a 10:00 am panel the next morning. Last weekend was also the Twin Cities Marathon. It used to be that the marathon only screwed up traffic on Sunday, but now there are a bunch of other half-marathons and such like on Saturday as well. So, I got up extra early in order to drive around all of that and still pick up coffee for myself on the way into the con. I normally am somewhat unhappy to live as close as I do to a highway, but I was grateful for it both Saturday and Sunday because I could just swing around into downtown really easily. 


Was this the morning that I spotted Kyell Gold (https://www.kyellgold.com/news.html) headed off to coffee before the convention started? I think it had to be because Friday nothing started until after noon. Yeah, this makes sense because I had budgeted so much extra time to get around the marathon that I actually ended up at the hotel far earlier than I intended. I saw him leaving the hotel and, of course, tried to shout his name from the car. But that rarely works. So, before trying to text him, I parked--in by the way, the scariest most under construction parking ramp that I've been in, in a long while. Like, it is never a safe feeling to be driving under temporary load-bearing scaffolding. Anyway, Kyell was up for some company and so I agreed to meet him at Backstory Coffee. The coffee shop was about a block and a half from the hotel and--for future ConFABulous reference--is EXTREMELY queer friendly. The signs on their door remind patrons not to use gendered language when speaking to the staff!!  Love this! Also, the coffeeshop had cheap, hot breakfast options. I got myself a bean burrito wrap which, while messy to eat, was extremely good (and way cheaper than anything at the hotel restaurant.)


Kyell and I hung out together and chatted on their outdoor patio, something we could only do this year because who would have expected 80-90+ degrees in October?


Kyell and I walked back to the hotel together and I must have stopped in at the hotel restaurant (I think when Anton waved at me or because I saw Eleanor Arnason or both) because that's when I first discovered that KD Edwards had recruited so many of his own fans to show up for the convention.


My first panel was fantastic. It was one where I'd smooshed together two ideas that were similar. "Writing Queer/Different Stories in Times Like These: Hope A Little Bit Every Day." I mean, it's 2025, y'all. I don't know if you've looked outside, but it's rough out there, especially for trans folks. So the panel basically tackled how we continue to hope, despite what's going on. Dax, our moderator, asked us in our introduction to note where on the hope scale we were, with ten being the most hope. I was the only one who confessed to be hardcore hanging out around 2 most days. I'm not without ANY hope, but this presidential election, for me, felt like an extinction level event. I don't talk about that much because it brings down the room and the human mind needs more hope than I feel on a daily basis. But this panel was about how we go on despite a lack of hope and there were some real solutions that weren't just "go get involved" from the panelists. One of the more fascinating connections that got made was by Kelly Barnhill (and supported by [personal profile] naomikritzer ) which is that anger is just as important a tool as hope. Naomi referenced a recent Locus Award ceremony speech on the same idea: https://stone-soup.ghost.io/hammer-speech/


When I came out of the panel, there was a line for registration. Eventbrite clocked our total paid tickets as just over 200, but I believe that does not include all of our attending professionals (20+), performers (Ms. Shannan Paul, +3), a whole slew of community tables, a few other random badges that were comped for reasons of ad swaps, etc., and five guests of honor. With all those added back in our badge numbers were close to 260, which should probably still be adjusted downward a bit, due to some duplications, but IS STILL F*CKING AMAZING.


The largest Gaylaxicon has been according to its wikipedia page is 350 (in 1994 in Rockville, MD.) So, I feel pretty good about even just the raw number of 200.


 Anyway, at this point I stood around chatting with passing people in the halls and ended up being gangpressed on a lunch outing. If I have any complaint about Gaylaxicon, it would be about the hotel. I love the location and set-up of this particular hotel, I always have. It's been the site of many of my fondest memories, including getting to know [personal profile] jiawen for the first time during, IIRC, a Marscon. But, since becoming an Aire apartment complex as well as a hotel, something has changed. For one, there was a weird amount of fruit flies--that might have been due to the heat, but I had to wonder if it had to do with the fact that more people were LIVING at the hotel and thus creating more garbage and other opportunities for fruit flies. Eleanor told me on Sunday that when she called Patrick to tell him how things were going at the con, she started with "Calling from fruit fly central." I mean, they're harmless? But it was noticeable. Second, as happens at a lot of cons (always to my bafflement), the hotel seemed wholly unprepared for people to want to use their on site restaurant. I think due to its proximity to both the airport and the Mall of America, the Crowne Plaza's management just presumed that people would eat elsewhere and that's probably even true for other mundane conventions. Fans like to stick close to home. I think there's a number of reasons for this, but the most obvious one is that there's fantastic programming and games and dealer's rooms to get back to!  So, you just want to be able to grab a quick bite and get back to the con.


So, the lunch outing became a sort of comedy of WHY ARE CON HOTELS LIKE THIS? Someone had checked in with the front desk to see what was good within walking distance and we were directed to a Mexican restaurant in the office building across the parking lot. Fantastic, cheap and close. It was a little weird to get to as it turned out to be in the basement and, for reasons of weekend, I guess, the front doors which faced the hotel were locked. But we figure it out and... lo, and behold, the Mexican restaurant has a handwritten sign on it that says "Sorry, closed October 3-5"--like, literally the exact days of the convention. Okay, fine. Let's just go back to the Crowne Plaza. We arrived in time to find that they're closing--the hotel restaurant was only open until 1 pm. After that they didn't open again until dinner time. Naomi's blood sugar is dropping precipitously at this point and everyone has a panel at 2:30 pm. So people are arguing things like should we doordash? What do we do? What can arrive in time? Someone has found a pizza place nearby, but they're not answering the phone. Someone--Dax, maybe?--notes there is another hotel, a Hilton just across the street. We all march over there expecting a disaster (or high prices) but, other than aggressive misgendering from the waiter, we finally manage to eat. Luckily Emma has worked in food service before and cleverly told the server to bring our bills out before we even started eating. That way people could leave as a soon as food was consumed.


Everyone finally relaxed and we had this tremendous conversation about life, the universe, and everything.


Then, just as people were starting to talk about what else they had on for the day, [personal profile] haddayr discovered that she's actually supposed to have been moderating a panel that started at 1:00 pm. It's now 2:00. There were panicked tears. I felt bad, too, because I automatically said "don't cry" and, you know what? You can always cry. What is so weird about that impulse is that my son, who is 22, literally never heard me say "don't cry" in his entire life because I never wanted him to feel like emotions were unwelcome. I don't know what came over me, honestly--I think, and I told Haddayr this later, that what I meant to say was "if what you're feeling is shame for having failed a responsibility to the convention, then please don't. The convention will survive beyond what is, ultimately, a small mistake." But, of course, what she was really feeling was responsibility to her idol Eleanor Arnason, because the panel she missed was "Honoring Eleanor."


So that sucked, but we all hurried back to the hotel and I left Haddayr in deep apology to Eleanor. 


Next up for me was "Murderbot: Sec Units and Gender and Sexuality" and that started on topic but ended up being all about the Murderbot Diaries generally. I was the moderator so the off-topicness was entirely my fault, but the room was standing-room only and people just really wanted to squee (or, in some cases, complain or further examine some of the differences between the Apple TV series and the novellas/novels.) That was super high energy and, what was fun (? though somewhat annoying for the audience) is that we could hear the chatter in the hallway, which gave the impression (accurate or not) of a lively, busy con.


I didn't go right away to the Chocolate Symposium, but I did head up there eventually. 


My next big thing was running my Thirsty Sword Lesbians cyberpunk one shot which started at 4:00 and ran until 7:00 pm (with a half hour dinner break, as the con had a free buffet dinner in the banquet hall room.) I was overbooked with 8 players, but one of them couldn't make it, so we had a full table. That was a lot of fun, actually. I was a little worried that we'd be too loud in the shared game room, but I tucked us into the far corner so I think it was fine. I was smart and figured out how to pause the action before the dinner break with a cliffhanger (so people would come back!) Once again, even with only 2 and a half hours, I was able to come to a decently satisfying conclusion by the end. We only ran overtime by about fifteen minutes. My players were fantastic. Once again, however, the plot I thought we'd follow wasn't what the players latched on to--but as I've said a million times now, that's the game and the fun for the GM. Especially a system like TSL. It's 99.9% improv.


But, with an RPG to run, I missed out on seeing a lot of the really cool programming, but so I was able to stick my head in and watch a bit of Jim Johnson's presentation on Star Trek: Adventures and the end of Nghi Vo's North Country Gaylaxians reader discussion group.


So then came the comedy show at 8:30 pm...


As previously discussed, this was apparently past bedtime for a lot of our con go-ers. I wouldn't say that the mainstage room was empty, but neither was it packed. I felt really badly for the performers. We were a seriously TOUGH crowd. First, Miss Shannon wanted us to log into some site to answer some silly multiple choice questions and that took WAY TOO long. For a bunch of nerds, we all struggled much more than we should have. I, in fact, missed getting into the site in time to answer the survey, but, like it wasn't even all that funny of a bit and Miss Shannan clearly decided to just drop it after that, because I never got another chance to participate.


And, then...


There were several times in the first set where the performer was like, "Whelp, that died," like OUT LOUD. I wanted to say, "You don't know that for sure, we're just really bad at this!" but, I think that there were a couple of problems with this comedy show in general. First of all, unlike most cons by this hour, no one was drunk. This is the most sober convention I've ever been to in my life. I personally love it, as I don't drink, but there is not a lot of, shall we say, social lubrication going on. Secondly, the audience--probably for the first time for a lot of these performers-- was 100% queer. So, the "look how funny queer people are" jokes all fell a little flat because, "yeah, we know." There was one moment where the final performer made a joke involving, shall we say, the lady nether lips and it landed to a silent room. She said, "That usually kills in Edina," and I told her afterwards that, yeah, no, it was funny, it's just that your audience is actually sitting there quietly trying to decide if we'd be into that particular kink. People in Edina never think about labial folds. The whole idea that they exist is kind of shocking.


Third, sometimes humor works because we've all bought into what's supposedly "normal" behavior and so many fans, neurodivergent folks, and queers have already rejected that. Like, we know we're weird. So when people say "LOOK, THIS BEHAVIOR IS SO STRANGE! ISN'T IT FUNNY???" we're, like, yeah, I do that, so...?  A surprising amount of comedy depends on people being willing to find weird people weird, you know? And that can be fine if it's done with love and respect and these performers mostly treaded that line, but I do think that a lot of their jokes ended with so much silence because fandom is a special place where weird is wonderful.


Also, sensing the low energy in the room, the final performer tried to get everyone to sing-along, which, again, should work for a queer audience (musicals! ex-theater kids! whoo!) was also really excruciating because a good 75% of us are introverts who really barely wanted to be at the show to begin with because it might be crowded and there might be audience participation just like this. 


On the positive side, the middle performer lit up the room. First, she's a former marine corporal and you could see every lesbian (and bisexual, et al.,) woman in the room sit up and pay attention when she started telling stories about being in the military in what she called "the 1900s." She was sexy and funny in a way that really matched the general vibe of the room. Because her stuff was mostly personal stories, we were not expected to find any humor in a specific punchline. We could be delighted or horrified and when the funny stuff came, it could land bittersweet or out-loud guffaws without note because it wasn't "ba-dum, ba-dum, BUMP!" (cue laughter) kind of stuff. You could laugh when you wanted to. Her style reminded me of my favorite comedian Josh Johnson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Johnson_(comedian)) You might know him as "the Klan ribs" guy. 


I love her, and there were funny stories that got told by the other two, but... we were a very tough audience. I felt so badly for them!


Then I went to Kyell's reading at 10 pm because I needed to be there for the midnight slash slam. After the attendance at the comedy show, I thought, "Oh crap. The place is going to be a ghost town!" Kyell's reading was great. Kyell doesn't only write furry stuff, and so the first piece he read was from a fantasy novel. It was really good and I found out from him later that he sold out of the copies he'd brought of that one. So, that's a win.


The slash panel surprised me by being, for the hour, decently well attended. It is still always just me and Kyell bravely holding forth. One of these years I'm going to get an actual slam where people jump up to an open mike, but I mean, maybe this is just all part of my continued misconception of what conventions are like these days in terms of both attendance and "what the kids are into." 


Kyell started us off and read a very sweet (also rare pair) fic from the Zootopia fandom. I waffled about what to read, almost deciding on some of my original character Star Trek:Adventures fic. But, thanks to a random recitation of tags (and consequential audience curiosity about the tag "weird biology," I ended up reading a Bleach smut fic rare pair (Renji/Urahara) called "The Perverted Shopkeeper and the Beast" which you can find here (https://archiveofourown.org/works/55608391) if you want and at your own risk. 


A surprisingly lively ending to a very long day. I wasn't home and in bed until 1:30 AM.


This gay still parties!


===
I took this elsewhere to edit, so this is the font we get!

*It feels a bit weird going on with this after posting about Terry, but Terry was a big con goer and would have read a con report like this with great interest.

(no subject)

Oct. 7th, 2025 02:28 am
[personal profile] martianmooncrab
the allergy appt was a bust... same old bs

And Portland is not a dumpster fire... the only bad part of town is the block where ICE is holed up with their aggressive goosesteppers and snipers on the roof. This last week they knocked down an 81 yr old vietnam vet and his spouse and they were on the sidewalk. Observing. Oh, and he was using a walker. A veritable threat

I start my biologic shots next week, it was an experience getting my meds from the post office because they lost the refrigerated box. Eventually they found it after over 30 mins of looking, and my post office branch isnt that big. Even with a tracking number it was messed up. And, its 7k a shot, and there were 8 doses in the box. sigh. I also had to get my covid booster at least 2 weeks before starting the new med ... and since the VA isnt giving those out til the end of October, I had hoop jumping to get that done.

Terry Garey

Oct. 6th, 2025 01:47 pm
lydamorehouse: (Default)
[personal profile] lydamorehouse
 I noted a few days ago how much I wanted to try to go see Terry, maybe try to make it a regular thing again, like I had when she was at the Walker, but I found out today that she's died.

Oof. 

We lost another great one, y'all. I hope someone lets Locus know or File 770. Terry was never a big name in terms of her writing, but she (and her husband Denny Lien) were a very big part of fandom. 


RIP Terry Garey, 1948-2025

Oct. 6th, 2025 01:08 pm
bibliofile: Fan & papers in a stack (from my own photo) (Default)
[personal profile] bibliofile
I knew Terry a little, mainly from LiveJournal and then WisCon.

She was this amazing person, a good writer, a poet (founding member of the Lady Poetesses from Hell), librarian, and longtime science fiction fan. Formerly of the Bay Area and Minneapolis primarily, and many other places in her youth.