Antcipation PR 1 Published

Anticipation, the 2009 Worldcon in Montreal, has published its first progress report in PDF from the Anticipation web site.

Now, while I'm one of Anticipation's parent non-profit corporation's directors, I didn't know exactly when the PR was coming out myself until I saw the announcement, so it's mostly as new to me as anyone else. I'm biased, of course, but it looks like it has a good mix of convention information, including a clear statement of how many rooms are blocked in the main/party hotel (500 peak night) and that they plan to use a housing bureau rather than have people book directly with each hotel. (There are pros and cons to both systems.) Room booking will be available early next year.

(Speaking not from any inside information but from years of personal experience, I still think it's best to be there on Day 1 booking your room for your Worldcon stay. I know I'll be doing so.)

( Minor nit about site selection results )

Now we Americans can but hope that the US dollar doesn't fall even more against the Canadian dollar. At the moment, the two currencies are roughly at par, after many years of trips to Canada being "20% off." At least the tax rebate scheme is still in place, so we'll get a refund of any GST paid on hotel rooms or larger (>CA$50 before tax) purchases as long as we fill out a simple form and save our receipts.

Packing

Although I tried to take most of the material I will need to stage Match Game SF up to Oregon the last time I drove there, I unfortunately forgot the poster tube full of the large posters for the wall and for the front of the contestants' tables. I also meant to leave my folding luggage cart up there in Oregon so that Lisa could bring it along to Norwescon along with the other material. That makes it much easier moving stuff from our room to where we're staging the game. So now I have the poster tube that I'll have to take as my second checked bag, and after packing the remaining game material and the folding cart into my other bag, I find myself getting dangerously close to the 50 pound limit with some stuff still to go.

And on top of that I'll have my computer backpack containing one laptop and my briefcase with the other computer. (The second computer controls the sound effects for the game, assuming we actually have someone to operate it.)

Normally I've not minded checking my CPAP machine inside my luggage, but the weight is likely to be a problem. I'm considering taking the risk of carrying the CPAP along as a second personal bag and hoping that Alaska won't balk at me. I know TSA will allow the machine through -- it's just that Alaska's web site is vague on the subject.