Bay Area ConStruction Schedule Posted

This material was actually up on the SFSFC web site last night, as I try to get this stuff posted before making announcements about it. In case you aren't already on one of the mailing lists to which I've posted this press release, behind the cut is the official announcement about the schedule of events for Bay Area ConStruction, SFSFC's conrunning conference coming up in mid-July.

( Press Release behind the cut )

Thank You, Torcon

I have criticized Torcon 3 in the past, so I think it's only fair that I thank them for the check I received today. The convention is spending some of its remaining surplus funds on reimbursing the expenses that members of committee and staff incurred to attend pre-convention planning meetings. I attended one such meeting during the last year of the convention's planning. It was fortuitous timing: I was in the Detroit area working at my company's Auburn Hills MI office, and staying over the weekend during which there was a large committee meeting in Toronto. I took the train from Windsor to Toronto -- that was as much of an attraction as anything else, I must admit -- and shared a hotel room with Linda Ross-Mansfield and John Mansfield.

My incremental expenses -- that is, what it cost me to go from Detroit to Toronto; obviously my employer paid to get me to Detroit -- were reasonably well recorded, although finding receipts for things that old might have been challenging. When asked about my expenses, I itemized what I spent according to my files in Quicken (hooray for good record-keeping!), and T3 elected to reimburse me from those records.

Today I received a US dollar check for $240 in reimbursement of those travel expenses. I appreciate it.

Software Stupidity

I upgraded my anti-virus software yesterday, getting the latest version of Norton Internet Security. Ever since I installed it (which took about two hours of download-install-reboot-repeat), my computer seems to spend an inordinate amount of time spinning the hard drive even when nothing should be going on. This is highly annoying. I've complained to Symantec and told them that right now I wish I'd never upgraded, but had just renewed my subscription to the virus signature updates for previous versions.

It now takes between 3 and 5 minutes for my computer to boot, and between 1 and 3 minutes to shut down. That is, when it shuts down at all and doesn't have to be force-powered-off.

Sometimes I start thinking the anti-virus software is almost as bad as the viruses it's supposed to be protecting me against.

Of Course, That's Why I'm Executive Producer

I have fallen prey to another meme. First got it from fr_john, but have seen it lots of places since.

( Theatre Geek Test )

Seriously, my relatively low score reinforces why I ended up managing the people who put on the show, not doing the work myself. I have great respect for the people who "make the magic happen" and try to stay out of their way when the show is on and do what I can to support them from above during planning.