WSFS MPC Retirement
Aug. 15th, 2025 08:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeOn Thursday morning of Worldcon Seattle 2025, I attended the final meeting of my term as an elected member of the WSFS Mark Protection Committee. There was a fair bit of confusion about where the meeting would be, but we did eventually end up at a meeting room in the Sheraton.
As is typical these days, all we did was receive some reports and punt most decision on to the MPC's next term. I did address the members at the end and thanked them for having been able to serve as an elected member for so many years. The MPC then officially thanked me and I got a round of applause.
I told them at the meeting that they might want to take a good look at me, as there's a non-zero chance that this would have been the last time they were going to see me.
After the meeting, Don Eastlake and I both had errands best suited to Walgreens, and since I knew where is was, we walked there together and got our stuff. I'd initially considered getting a burrito from Chipotle to have later, but the lunchtime queue there was out the door, so I thought better of it.
That was the sole item at Seattle 2025 for which we needed my membership badge. Kayla will do the rest of the work this week.
As is typical these days, all we did was receive some reports and punt most decision on to the MPC's next term. I did address the members at the end and thanked them for having been able to serve as an elected member for so many years. The MPC then officially thanked me and I got a round of applause.
I told them at the meeting that they might want to take a good look at me, as there's a non-zero chance that this would have been the last time they were going to see me.
After the meeting, Don Eastlake and I both had errands best suited to Walgreens, and since I knew where is was, we walked there together and got our stuff. I'd initially considered getting a burrito from Chipotle to have later, but the lunchtime queue there was out the door, so I thought better of it.
That was the sole item at Seattle 2025 for which we needed my membership badge. Kayla will do the rest of the work this week.
cars
Aug. 15th, 2025 01:26 pmtravelswithkumaTodays girls tooks bears tos places calleds Motors Worlds. https://motorworld.de/en/muenchen/
This places was fulls ofs cars. Was nices ,buts nots fors bears. Nots alls thats muchs funs. Girls seams tos haves likes tos looks ats thes cars.
This places was fulls ofs cars. Was nices ,buts nots fors bears. Nots alls thats muchs funs. Girls seams tos haves likes tos looks ats thes cars.
tops ofs germanys
Aug. 14th, 2025 05:36 pmtravelswithkumatodays girls gots bears ups earlys. thens wes wents ons trains, ands anothers trains, ands thens anothers stranges trains. tills wes gots tos thes tops ofs germanys. this was ways ways ups ins mountains. hows highs? girls says was 2962 meters ups.
bears thinks its this places https://zugspitze.de/en
Bears was mosts worries whens girls feels downs ons trains. bears worries bears was toooos muchs tos carrys. Girls says shes alrights, buts hers camars is sorts brokes somes. shes tells bears nots to worrys as shes cans stills takes bears pictures.
Was longs longs days, ands girls is nots soooos ups tos verys muchs.
bears thinks its this places https://zugspitze.de/en
Bears was mosts worries whens girls feels downs ons trains. bears worries bears was toooos muchs tos carrys. Girls says shes alrights, buts hers camars is sorts brokes somes. shes tells bears nots to worrys as shes cans stills takes bears pictures.
Was longs longs days, ands girls is nots soooos ups tos verys muchs.
water valve
Aug. 13th, 2025 07:13 pmcalimacA few days ago, we got a dismaying notice: our water would be turned off today for a period of 5 hours during the daytime. Some work needed to done on the valve controlling the whole complex.
If we were working, we could have been gone the entire period, but as it is, we're home. What if we needed to flush a toilet more than once? So we filled every pot, basin, and pitcher we have full of water, and prepared.
Didn't need to worry. About an hour into the 5-hour period I turned on a faucet just to check. It was running. I went out to where the complex's valve is and found a repairman. He said he was almost done. The 5-hour period was just cautionary in case something went really wrong.
If we were working, we could have been gone the entire period, but as it is, we're home. What if we needed to flush a toilet more than once? So we filled every pot, basin, and pitcher we have full of water, and prepared.
Didn't need to worry. About an hour into the 5-hour period I turned on a faucet just to check. It was running. I went out to where the complex's valve is and found a repairman. He said he was almost done. The 5-hour period was just cautionary in case something went really wrong.
we didn’t plan to go to worldcon
Aug. 13th, 2025 08:57 amsolarbirdwe didn’t plan to go to worldcon
like, at all
even though it was fucken here, right downtown
because until a few months ago it was going to be utterly impossible, economically (we’ve only really dug out of a two-year financial crisis just now, just the last month or so)
and also because of the pandemic and how that’s never fully ended (check out how people who study long-term covid do conferences and tell me again it’s over)
and also because I have some ambivalence about it anyway, despite all the work I’ve done on cons including a couple of worldcon bids, a NASFiC, a couple of v-cons, and arguably way, way too many norwescons (because of the way the latter fell out when i was finally done there)
and also because, well, look the fuck around you, fascism everywhere and month to month reanalysis of whether we have to leave the fucking country (and the depression which inevitably falls out from that)
and so on
but it starts today, and we didn’t plan to go because we literally couldn’t
and yeah
i’m pretty sad about that.
i have work today, anna has work today, tomorrow, and friday. sunday’s the last day and probably a half day like they usually are. i guess that leaves saturday for… something? anything? i don’t even know. i was gonna do the tesla takedown protest, like usual. maybe i still will. but after that…
anybody gonna be around?
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
Mansions of Madness
Aug. 13th, 2025 04:39 pma_cubedWhile visiting purplecat last year and this, $OFFSPRING and I enjoyed playing the Cthulhu Mythos game "Mansions of Madness" with her and B (and maybe G last year, too). We also enjoyed a game with $NEPHEW this year. Having discussed the possibility of a remote game with $NEPHEW and taken advice from purplecat I have bought a copy. The second edition of this game introduced a program to take on the role of the "Keeper" (aka dungeon master) which in the first edition meant someone had to run the game for the other players. The program now tells you what you can do and provides guidance on things like how the monsters move about the board, and keeps track of monster health. It also includes some fun puzzles. Nice for me is that it plays fine on the Steam linux program, which uses a Windows emulator under the hood to allow Windows-based games to play on linux. This game is one of those that works perfectly according to the database of game support. As it's not a heavy 3-d action game or anything, it's not that surprising, I suppose.
Looking forward to playing it with the family here. $WIFE likes Cthulhu Mythos so may be willing to play with us. We probably won't get to a remote game with $NEPHEW until the Christmas/New Year holidays, though, with the time zone issue making the timing awkward. The way we play (semi-role playing, heavy co-op discussion of actions) it was taking much longer than the suggested times. It will probably get faster as we become more familiar with the game, but even so, the time difference UK-Japan is long enough to make scheduling tricky, though not impossible.
purplecat last year and this, $OFFSPRING and I enjoyed playing the Cthulhu Mythos game "Mansions of Madness" with her and B (and maybe G last year, too). We also enjoyed a game with $NEPHEW this year. Having discussed the possibility of a remote game with $NEPHEW and taken advice from purplecat I have bought a copy. The second edition of this game introduced a program to take on the role of the "Keeper" (aka dungeon master) which in the first edition meant someone had to run the game for the other players. The program now tells you what you can do and provides guidance on things like how the monsters move about the board, and keeps track of monster health. It also includes some fun puzzles. Nice for me is that it plays fine on the Steam linux program, which uses a Windows emulator under the hood to allow Windows-based games to play on linux. This game is one of those that works perfectly according to the database of game support. As it's not a heavy 3-d action game or anything, it's not that surprising, I suppose.Looking forward to playing it with the family here. $WIFE likes Cthulhu Mythos so may be willing to play with us. We probably won't get to a remote game with $NEPHEW until the Christmas/New Year holidays, though, with the time zone issue making the timing awkward. The way we play (semi-role playing, heavy co-op discussion of actions) it was taking much longer than the suggested times. It will probably get faster as we become more familiar with the game, but even so, the time difference UK-Japan is long enough to make scheduling tricky, though not impossible.
Music@Menlo: the last week
Aug. 12th, 2025 03:26 amcalimacThe Menlo Festival ended on Saturday, and today saw the publication of my review of the previous Sunday's concert. It was put off a week because it was a vocal program and the previous week's issue was clogged with three opera reviews. I had my review of Cabrillo in that issue instead. The put-off publication meant I had an extra day to write the review, which I appreciated after having just finished up the Cabrillo one.
I don't have much to add to it. My editors cut my 875-word review down to 650 words, mostly by cutting detail and context, but they left all my main points intact, so despite a few minor added glitches, I count this as good editing.
That Sunday concert was the last time I went up to Menlo this year. All the free concerts and coaching sessions I wanted to hear are online, and it's less time-consuming (a major issue for me right now) to watch them online than go up there. As for the two remaining mainstage concerts I wanted to hear, I bought livestream tickets for those and also appreciated them from home. Unlike the free concerts which are up permanently, these are available only to purchasers and just for a few days.
But it's fortunate you don't have to be live, because the first one took place on Friday while I was at Cabrillo. It was the Viano Quartet, old favorites from when they won the Banff competition six years ago, doing a standard program that even included an encore, which Menlo never does. I liked their crisp and witty Haydn Op 76/5 and their dark and wretched Shostakovich Ninth better than their attempt at jollity in Mendelssohn's Op 44/1 or the wet late-Romantic sop of a very young Anton Webern's "Langsamer Satz" (which means "slow piece," in case the German title impressed you into thinking it indicated something significant).
The other concert, on Saturday, was a must-hear for me because it featured my two absolute favorites of all string chamber music for larger ensembles. Brahms's Op 18 Sextet was a good performance, but I missed the sly and coy elements that make for a great version. First violist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu showed just a little of the burning grit that enlivened her playing of the second viola part the last time I heard this piece here, four years ago. Mendelssohn's Octet, on the other hand, was all that could be asked for. The players were sorted as two quartets in dialog, which is how Mendelssohn wrote the piece, and the two quartets showed slightly different tone colors. First violinist Benjamin Beilman put all the necessary passion into his solos and drove the rest of the ensemble in speed and energy - with an unusual dark and mysterious quality to the slow and quiet passages.
Also on the program was 180 beats per minute by Jörg Widmann, which I heard here eight years ago in a student performance, at which time I called it "a concise technobeat moto perpetuo with some minimalist sensibility." The professionals put more heft into it than the teenage students did, but not more fire. (The student performance is still online, so I could make the direct comparison.)
Now all is over, and it will be quiet for two weeks until the beginning of Banff, which I'm also attending online only.
I don't have much to add to it. My editors cut my 875-word review down to 650 words, mostly by cutting detail and context, but they left all my main points intact, so despite a few minor added glitches, I count this as good editing.
That Sunday concert was the last time I went up to Menlo this year. All the free concerts and coaching sessions I wanted to hear are online, and it's less time-consuming (a major issue for me right now) to watch them online than go up there. As for the two remaining mainstage concerts I wanted to hear, I bought livestream tickets for those and also appreciated them from home. Unlike the free concerts which are up permanently, these are available only to purchasers and just for a few days.
But it's fortunate you don't have to be live, because the first one took place on Friday while I was at Cabrillo. It was the Viano Quartet, old favorites from when they won the Banff competition six years ago, doing a standard program that even included an encore, which Menlo never does. I liked their crisp and witty Haydn Op 76/5 and their dark and wretched Shostakovich Ninth better than their attempt at jollity in Mendelssohn's Op 44/1 or the wet late-Romantic sop of a very young Anton Webern's "Langsamer Satz" (which means "slow piece," in case the German title impressed you into thinking it indicated something significant).
The other concert, on Saturday, was a must-hear for me because it featured my two absolute favorites of all string chamber music for larger ensembles. Brahms's Op 18 Sextet was a good performance, but I missed the sly and coy elements that make for a great version. First violist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu showed just a little of the burning grit that enlivened her playing of the second viola part the last time I heard this piece here, four years ago. Mendelssohn's Octet, on the other hand, was all that could be asked for. The players were sorted as two quartets in dialog, which is how Mendelssohn wrote the piece, and the two quartets showed slightly different tone colors. First violinist Benjamin Beilman put all the necessary passion into his solos and drove the rest of the ensemble in speed and energy - with an unusual dark and mysterious quality to the slow and quiet passages.
Also on the program was 180 beats per minute by Jörg Widmann, which I heard here eight years ago in a student performance, at which time I called it "a concise technobeat moto perpetuo with some minimalist sensibility." The professionals put more heft into it than the teenage students did, but not more fire. (The student performance is still online, so I could make the direct comparison.)
Now all is over, and it will be quiet for two weeks until the beginning of Banff, which I'm also attending online only.
So Much for Switzerland
Aug. 11th, 2025 09:00 pmkevin_standleeWhile I was traveling to Seattle, Lisa was heading to Lucerne, Switzerland, where I had arranged for her to stay at a Holiday Inn Express in a suburb of that city. The location was good (only about 150 m from the station platform on the suburban rail line), but the property was not. It was the most expensive Express we've ever booked, and Lisa reported that room was tiny, had a bunch of gnats swarming on the windows, and was generally not a good room. They did acknowledge that Lisa could stay in the room (I'd worked that out with them by email in advance), but the housekeeper apparently kept coming to tell her she wasn't supposed to be in the room. After a few hours of this, she'd had enough, handed back the keys, and left. Unfortunately, getting back to Munich, while possible, took a long time and involved riding in the Chair car of a NightJet sleeper train (covered by the rail pass; she would have bought a compartment, but there were not available) to Salzburg and then a Dreaded Bus Rail Replacement service to get back to Munich. This morning, Lisa relayed to me the sad story.
The hotel acknowledged by email to me that Lisa had handed over the keys and left. I contacted IHG and complained about the room condition and the poor treatment she received. IHG says they are going to work to have all of the points I used to book that room refunded.
Holiday Inn Express is a decently good brand in the USA and Canada. However, our experience of those in Europe has been for the most part deeply disappointing, unlike all of the other IHG properties, like the Crowne Plaza in Ljubljana and the Holiday Inn (not Express) Heathrow Bath Road.
That's now two cases where Lisa had an unsuccessful sortie from Munich to what was supposed to be a multi-day stay but turned into an unwanted extra train trip. At least the train trips were all included in the cost of the rail pass. I think Lisa will be regrouping for a few days.
Kuma Bear reported a bit on the trip. He likes trains as much as we do, but maybe not this way.
The hotel acknowledged by email to me that Lisa had handed over the keys and left. I contacted IHG and complained about the room condition and the poor treatment she received. IHG says they are going to work to have all of the points I used to book that room refunded.
Holiday Inn Express is a decently good brand in the USA and Canada. However, our experience of those in Europe has been for the most part deeply disappointing, unlike all of the other IHG properties, like the Crowne Plaza in Ljubljana and the Holiday Inn (not Express) Heathrow Bath Road.
That's now two cases where Lisa had an unsuccessful sortie from Munich to what was supposed to be a multi-day stay but turned into an unwanted extra train trip. At least the train trips were all included in the cost of the rail pass. I think Lisa will be regrouping for a few days.
Kuma Bear reported a bit on the trip. He likes trains as much as we do, but maybe not this way.
no better satire could be written
Aug. 11th, 2025 09:31 amsolarbirdHoly hell. The Tesla Truck is such a complete fucking sales disaster that he’s getting a corrupt deal with the military to buy them as targets.
I repeat:
Only a couple at first. Still, no doubt it’ll be at full price or some shit. Gotta claw those losses back somehow, right? Try this, see who complains.
Regardless, “OFFICIAL US MILITARY TARGET” stickers for Teslas, y/y?
Also, I may need to make yet another new sign for the Tesla Takedown protests because holy shit xD
Posted via Solarbird{y|z|yz}, Collected.
Manys Trains
Aug. 10th, 2025 09:46 pmtravelswithkumaGirls ands bears hads ans adventures. was nots funs adventures. Wes roads trains tos fars aways places, ands thens wes roads lots mores trains, alls nights longs. Bears is verys tireds. Girls looks verys verys tireds. This trips mays haves beens tos muchs fors girls. Bears does nots knows whats tos dos.