Westercon, Day 0: Baseball Outing

I have gone back and written up my travel in a backdated entry that, if I understand how this works, is not supposed to show up in friends list feeds. If it seems long, note that I originally had four pages of closely-written notes taken while I traveled, and I decided after typing the first page that it was more detail than even I wanted, and started over.

( A Trip to Petco Park )

Petco Park is a good baseball park. I'd say it compares favorably to the place currently named AT&T Park where the Giants play. This was the first time I'd ever seen the Giants in person at a road game, and I'm glad I went, even though the results of the game displeased me. I thank Sandra and Jim for setting it up, but I'm sorry that so few people actually bought tickets after expressing such interest.

Now I must get some sleep. I'm not getting up early on Saturday.

Sleeping In

Today is my lightly-loaded day, and after my nearly-sleepless day yesterday, I was grateful to get a full eight hours sleep. Today I need to get registered -- registration last night was open during the hours I was at the ball game -- and deliver site selection ballots mailed to me to be hand-carried on account of the mail ballot deadline having lapsed. Also, I have one panel, on convention running. Things get busier tomorrow.

Westercon, Day 1: Settling In

After sleeping in, we were a bit rushed for time, and too late for breakfast, but just in time for lunch. After that we headed off to the Opening Ceremonies.

( Convention natter )

With lunch past and the Match Game fliers posted, I was much more relaxed, and we headed back to the room to rest a bit before the evening festivities.

Update, Sunday July 2, 08:00: Fixed Craige Howlett's name.

Westercon, Day 1: Lounge Lizards and Elevator Challenges

One serious knock I have about this facility that is going to be a challenge this entire weekend is that it has only three elevators, and there is no access by stairs from the ground floor to the upper floors. There are emergency fire stairs, but they lead down only to exterior ground floor alarmed emergency exit doors. This is most annoying. The party floors are 3 and 4 (I'm on the fourth floor, having volunteered to be in the "buffer zone," but it's still a hassle waiting for an elevator.

( Meet the L/i/z/a/r/d/ Guests )

I realized that I should have brought the new camera with me to the reception, and once again made the round-trip to the room to retrieve it. After some fumbling, I seem to have managed to take some photos, as Conrad obliged me for posing outside the Pavilion where the light conditions were better and I didn't have to use the flash -- the flash does poor things to his glittery skin.

( I seem to have got the infernal contraption to work )

( Kevin gets banished from the room )

The news on Lisa's computer is not looking good, incidentally. It continues to have erratic problems seeing the hard drive. It's not the drive -- that's a new drive, and one that works fine in other computers. It's the machine. When I get a chance, I will see about digging out the extended service contract we bought on that machine and getting it repaired. We can, however, use my computer to project the Match Game opening titles and Lucas Back in Anger and Prix Victor Hugo.