Arrgh, My Feet

The original plan for today was for us to stay at California Adventure until only 5 PM or so; however, the plans changed over time. CA was less busy than Disneyland. This actually led to us wanting to ride things more, because the queues were shorter. We ended up riding California Screamin' three times. I found myself appreciating the coaster more on the third run-through. We went through the Tower of Terror twice, and as luck would have it, we ended up on the second trip in the half of the ride we hadn't been in on the first run.

( More park talk )

I will spare you all further discussion of amusement park rides, other than to say that the twists and turns of Mullholland Drive may be good preparation for the Business Meeting. Also, while wrapping my little toes in Band-Aids kept them from blistering, I've ended up with blisters on other parts of my feet instead. Normally I don't have blisters on my feet until the end of Worldcon. Ouch! If you see me limping about the stage at the Opening Ceremonies on Wednesday, you'll know that I'm not acting.

Worldcon, Day 0: SMOF Central

The night before the Worldcon is SMOF night. Bids wanting to go after the dedicated folks who come in at least a day early all hold parties on the night before the con. Also, Nippon 2007 was holding a reception for staff. We'd stayed late at California Adventure, so we arrived near the end of that reception, but our timing was good, as their suite looked straight out at Disneyland, so we had a better seat for tonight's fireworks than we'd had for the show last night -- and we were in the park last night!

We made the rounds of all the bid parties we found: Australia in 2010, Kansas City in 2009, and all three of the 2008 Bidders: Columbus, Denver, and Chicago. Conrunning types were, as you might expect, thick on the ground. Indeed, it was much easier to run across people whom I needed to meet than it will be the rest of the weekend, I expect.

At one party, I spoke with Robin Johnson, chairman of Aussiecon One. Talking about Worldcon attendance figures, he mentioned how annoying he's found it that the number in the Long List for A1 is 606 when he says he knows it was over 700. I gave him my business card and told him, "If you can dig up better information, the FOLLE Committee would be happy to revise the figures for you."

Outside of Denver's party, I found L.A.con IV Chairman Christian McGuire and retrieved from him my most prized ribbon: "Former Worldcon Chair" plus my Department Head ribbon and the Committee ribbons for my staff, two of whom, Pat McMurray and Don Eastlake I soon thereafter met and presented with ribbons.

There was much smoffing going on, the rest of which I have neither time nor energy to discuss. For those of you reading this with whom I spoke and did not give name-checks here, my apologies! This will probably keep happening all weekend, as I just don't have time to list everything that happened. After more talk, some of it productive, Lisa and I headed back to the room to try and unwind a bit and get some sleep.

I have my call time for Opening Ceremonies rehearsal. Fortunately, the ceremony is not until 1 PM, and I don't have to be in place before 10 AM like I do the following three days for the Business Meeting, so for the first day of the convention, at least, I can sleep in a little bit.

Luxury

Didn't have to get up until about 9 AM today. For the next three days after that, somewhere between 9 and 9:15 is when I anticipate arriving at the room where the Business Meeting will be held.

I still have newsletter articles to write regarding Match Game and one for Friday's late edition regarding the Mark Protection Committee meeting (which, if all goes as planned, will be after the Saturday Business Meeting).

In a few minutes, I will climb into my WSFS uniform and head over to the Convention Center. In a little while those of us involved in Opening Ceremonies will gather to go over what we'll be doing. I hope it turns out well. It's more loosely scripted than makes me comfortable, but that's because I'm obsessive over detail.

Worldcon Day 1: Opening Ceremonies

This afternoon, L.A.con IV officially started with the Opening Ceremonies, and I was part of it.

( Story With Pictures )

I'm quite pleased at how the Ceremony turned out, especially because we'd had next to no chance to rehearse and the lines were still in a state of flux until shortly before the ceremony. Vince, Colin, and I did get one brief chance to walk through what we'd be doing on stage. Early birds got to see us blocking it out twenty minutes or so before the ceremony started. Ah, live theatre.

Lisa (who took all of these photos) also managed to record video of a portion of my contribution to the ceremony, but it's 12 MB. I'm trying to decide whether I want to use that much of my file/photo storage space for a single video clip like that.