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 my calendar, I realised and got changed in time to spent ten minutes or so chatting in the Chicon 8 Zoom party, which was nice. Then there was time to get a beer and be ready for the Hugos.

Journey Planet didn’t win, alas. There were a few technical glitches, some very good winners, some rambling by GRRM as Toastmaster (which I don’t mind, especially in a year where I am comfortably at home and in total control of my environment) to which the Discord chat responded with relentless negativity, making me feel a bit bad for any newbies there. There was unfortunately also several serious missteps by GRRM that were less charming, and which he was quite rightly excoriated for, all the more surprising on a year when so much was pre-recorded.

Overall this year didn’t feel particularly hopeful or positive, despite a few nice surprises. Which I guess is not surprising, this is 2020… but on a purely personal, emotional level I usually come away from the Hugos feeling pretty good – this year I called it a night at the In Memoriam. I’ll watch the highlights tomorrow.