Worldcon Day 4: Nonstop Madness

Sorry folks, but while you've probably heard from other people about all the madness I've been involved with today in the Business Meeting and with Match Game SF, I'm just too worn out to write anything about it. Maybe later, but now I must sleep.

Worldcon Day 5: An Apology

I don't always realize the impact of what I'm saying. Last night during the brief -- maybe 30 minutes -- I was out on the party floor after Match Game, I was informed that something I said while presiding over the Site Selection Business Meeting was taken far differently than I intended. While thanking the bidders on the 2008 Site Selection, what I apparently said was that I congratulated the bidders for a "reasonably well-run campaign." This made at least one of the non-winning bids feel very unhappy with me for downgrading their performance with the "reasonably" modifier.

Now there are two things that went wrong here. First, I've been known to describe the Worldcon I chaired as "reasonably well-run," and that this was the best we could have expected. Second, and more importantly in this case, in reviewing my thoughts at the time, I think what I meant to congratulate the bids for was a "reasonable, well-run campaign." I hope other people see the distinction I do here, and how easy it was to accidentally run them together while speaking.

I have to deal with so many unreasonable people in fandom that my telling people that they are "reasonable" should be taken as a compliment. Perhaps it's sad that this is the case, but I do mean it.

In any event, I took the opportunity last night while eating one of the last of the Chicago Hot Dogs to apologize to their committee and supporters, and I'm taking the same opportunity here to apologize to the Columbus and Denver Bid Committees and to anyone else I offended by my hasty, run-together, mal-punctuated comments, and assure you all that I was attempting to issue a compliment, no matter how mediocre I ended up sounding.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my 41st birthday -- or possibly 40th, as August 27, 1999 never happened for me as it's the day that vanished while I was flying to Australia for Aussiecon Three. Yesterday, I received a very nice birthday card signed my many, many people in the fannish community (not surprisingly most of them probably are now wearing "WSFS Business Meeting Fandom" ribbons). Thank you all very much!

It galls me that I just don't have time to sit down now and write my thoughts on yesterday's activities, because there's a good chance now that I will never get around to it as the memory cools. I'll try to write something, trust me; whether it's what I would have written had I a couple more hours available mid-day yesterday is another matter.