NASFiC was this past weekend. The first thing I did was check if I was in the art show, although I had signed up pretty early I never heard back, although I did get contacted on an art-related item which seemed to indicate I was set. Still, I was glad to see my art in the tidy, single page gallery they had chosen. On the plus side, was a nice clear layout gallery with names and bios prominent and the format was landscape, so pieces looked good. The disadvantage was that the images had no additional info or links, even …
ReCONvene
Yesterday was ReCONvene, a single-day virtual convention put on by the NESFA/ gang. It has two program tracks with panels, gaming, lectures, plus a Discord server and an art show on their website. I participated in all of that except the gaming, of course. The convention started at 4pm my time, but the first panel I was actually interested in was at 5pm so I spent the first hour in the Discord and checking out the art show. The art show was beautiful; it was a single gallery on one page, with a title card and five images per artist …
Water from the sky
The heatwave has properly broken and we can think again! In the end I sold four fans altogether at CoNZealand, so I’m calling that a success. This weekend is ReCONvene, which is a single day convention and I’ve just signed up for the Open Art Show so I don’t expect sales necessarily, especially given that it is tomorrow and there hasn’t been much communication. Still, the programme schedule looks good and there was no cost to the art show so no risk. Then next week is NASFiC (my first) which is a bit bigger of course. Virtual conventions are easier …
Beat
CoNZealand is all wrapped up. I sold one fan and got a nibble on another, plus a commission for a third, so not gangbusters but not bad for new territory. Didn’t do much else other than skim through the Discord this morning, but at noon it was time for a live recording of Octothorpe, which was a good episode with several discussions of future projects, exactly the sort of vibe I hope for after a good convention. One of the things that got mentioned was fannish Discords popping up in the wake of CoNZealand, which is something I briefly pondered …
Days, what even are those?
Day three of the convention, I think? Watched the Greg Broadmore guest interview, which was pretty great. Went to a Peadar Ó Guilín which was great, not the least because although the subject matter was dark the author is just has the most mellow, positive vibe imaginable. Kicked around the Discord having nice conversations for a bit until the afternoon lull, it was very hot here so I walked the cats, twice. Alice is getting very adventurous, Quentin less so. For some reason I had missed selecting the party stream on the Grenadine site so it didn’t pop up on …
Oh, so it’s going to be that sort of Worldcon
Went to a couple of parties, one small and informative the other packed to the second Zoom page. Did a little more last minute Exhibits stuff, bounced around a few enjoyable Discord conversations, and ate some Tim Tams. Then it was the fallow time so I napped, we ordered pizza and watched a super bummer episode of For All Mankind and I was ready for the evening. Did a little more last minute stuff, potentially got roped into a probably super fun (??) fannish project, contemplated getting a drink… … and then I remembered the artist reception is at 6am …
CoNZealand Day 1
The first half of today was last minute convention set up, my own (art show) and theirs (Exhibits pages). Then after dinner, going through the schedule a ticking off far too many panels, as is tradition. I spent too long trying to figure out how to get Grenadine to show my schedule local timezone – turns out that isn’t a feature it offers, it will only show the local time when you click on a specific item. However, someone on Facebook mentioned that it does allow you do download an .ics file of your schedule and your calendar will do …
Well that went fast
Right around the time of my last post I had signed up to volunteer for CoNZealand, and a solid chunk of the hours between then and now were filled by helping out with Exhibits. There’s been a lot to do, but its also been fun playing around with some tools that I otherwise wouldn’t have access to, specifically building WordPress pages in Divi. Also learning quite a bit about the New Zealand fandom and genre scene. I also spent most of last week in the pre-Hugo deadline crunch, absorbing a lot of written material in a short time. It’s funny …
ID2020
I mean, it’s a weird year for Independence Day on every level, even if it was something I was invested in. Last year we had a barbecue, I made a playlist with songs about places in the US (it’s much harder to find good songs for some states than for others), and it we enjoyed the sun. I added to the playlist it over the past year; I Am America by Shea Diamond is a current favourite, but lockdown plus greys skies mean no barbecue even if the mood lent itself. On the other hand, Hamilton is on Disney, and …
Life in the UK
Yesterday we went to Southsea so I could take my Life in the UK test. This was our first train trip since the before-times, I don’t know how busy that route used to be, but it was pretty empty around 2pm when we went down and a bit busier but still chill on the way back around 5pm. Masks are mandatory on public transit and everyone was in compliance, outside I only saw two or three others. Even though I know all these things have been outsourced, I sort of expected the testing centre to be a large government-type facility. …