What's Wrong With This Picture?

While walking back from Disneyland earlier in the week, I spotted how this Worldcon was being identified on the convention center's sign board. It seems like convention centers are not capable of listing our event names correctly. ConJose had all sorts of difficulty with getting our convention name listed correctly, and L.A.con IV appears to be no exception.

( See what I mean behind the cut )

I brought this discrepancy to the attention of the convention management, including Facilities liaison, but they've got more important things to deal with, and I do sympathize. It's just that I'm sure it must be pretty simple to fix for someone in the Convention Center's office. This probably sounds deeply obsessive, but it is sort of a Mark Protection issue, as we're not showing our flag properly.

Follow-up, 28 Aug: I spoke with Facilities head Kim Marks Brown, and she told me that they did actually ask the Anaheim Convention Center a couple of times to fix it and got nowhere. In my opinion, this is all they could reasonably expect to do on this. It's annoying, but not earth-shattering. Darn convention centers anyway. But there's only so much a convention committee can do.

Worldcon Day 3: Bleargh

Here we are continuing on Worldcon Daylight Time, on the day that feels like "Worldcon Saturday" but is actually Friday.

I hate having to be up so early for the Business Meeting; remember that it's earlier for me than for most of the attendees because I need to be there early to set things up, as does Pat McMurray, the Secretary.

One of the challenges is that the Business Meeting and Match Game share equipment, but we don't want to haul the entire four-box setup to both events. Therefore, we have to re-pack boxes for each event, and make sure we don't forget anything, because it's too far to just pop back to the room for anything we forgot unless it's more than 30 minutes before the meeting. Yesterday, for instance, we forgot the call-bell for Match Game, as it was still packed in the Parliamentarian bag.

On our way to the convention, we bought a 35-pack of bottled water. It wasn't enough. We drank the last of it yesterday and are working on more today. The hotel tap water is not as vile as some places, but still not great.

Walking the Walk

I'm fortunate to have a room on the sixth floor and therefore can reasonably walk up and down the stairs to my room, rather than having to wait for elevators. There is even an all-stairs path from the ground floor to my room that does not involve going through and emergency exit; however, it's a rather convoluted path going through two sets of function rooms on the fourth and third floors. Anyway, last night I measured it off, and I can report that from my room on the sixth floor to the doors where I'm most likely to enter the Convention Center it is 450 Standlees. Now that's not full strides since many of those are stair-steps, but it's still a considerable number. And I expect it's still faster than waiting for elevators.

Worldcon Day 3: Business Meeting Background and Photos

Today's food and drink consumption at the Business Meeting:

Coffee: 5 gallons of 5 ordered.
Decaf: 2 gallons of 4 ordered.
Hot water: 3 gallons of 4 ordered.
All 72 items of assorted muffins, rolls, and cookies were eaten.

Lisa took some photos, for which I'm grateful.

( Business Meeting photos behind the cut )

Lisa also shot a video of my opening statement to the Business Meeting, but I think it's too large to put on YouTube, if I remember the requirements.

I'll post a Business Summary on laconiv soon.

Match Game Show Photos

We forgot to take our camera with us to the daytime Match Game, but yourbob did, and he has posted photos of the show. See this posting for details. Thanks!

Psst! Hey Little Girl, Would You Like a Ribbon?

Lisa sent me out to the Subway sandwich shop around the corner from the hotel while she took a bath. While I waited in line, the little girl in front of me started eying my long string of ribbons (currently 17). According to the woman with her (her mother?), she only spoke German, a language I can't speak at all. The little girl was fascinated with the ribbons, and reached out and ran her hand over them (with my permission and encouragement). She pointed out some of the pictures and English words for them. I thought it was very cute.

They got their sandwiches and sat down. As I was paying for mine, I found one ribbon I had that I hadn't yet applied to my string. So as I left the shop, I stopped and gave it to her. She seemed very happy. I walked back to the hotel with more of a spring in my step, despite my feet being awash in blisters.