Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

About Noon today, Lisa and I headed to Reno for another five-hour round of Westercon shopping. We made another run to US Foods Chef'Store, then Smart & Final Extra, then WinCo Foods. In between, we went to Staples, where I purchased more paper and more ink, just be more certain and not run out when I go to press with the Program Book. Unfortunately, one of the cartridges I picked up was an HP 951, and this printer uses a 952. I have to go back to Reno on Friday, so I should be able to exchange that one cartridge. I hope to not run out of ink before then.

The pile of non-perishables is taking over a hallway, and part of the family room. Lisa is feeling moderately confident that, along with the perishables and drinks we've ordered from Raley's in Tonopah (to be collected the day before the convention, while we are moving into the Tonopah Convention Center) that we won't run out of food for our members. Except for the barbecue on Saturday, we're not serving a bunch of sit-down meals, but there will be plenty of snacks and sodas. She also discussed the Bar with Kevin Roche & Andy Trembley, our Mixologists, and our shopping trip today included picking up disposable serving glasses for the drinks from behind the bar.

For transporting this stuff, I have reserved a U-Haul trailer, but the reservation couldn't confirm the pickup location. I called them this evening and spoke to their Northern Nevada traffic department. They told me to expect a call from them on Thursday, and that they currently expect to be able to get me a trailer from Fernley, so I won't have to drive to Carson City or Winnemucca or something like that.

According to this article, a long-discussed rail-centered logistics center for the Fernley Area (straddling the Lyon-Churchill county line) appears to be moving forward. The area in question is well-suited to such a use, has nobody living around it to complain about the noise and such from what would probably be a 24/7 operation, and would generate a whole lot of business. Also, Fernley, being part of the greater-Reno-Sparks-Carson City area, is part of one of the significant logistics nodes in the USA. This would, I think, be a much bigger deal for Fernley than anything Tesla might do at the Tahoe-Reno park at USA Parkway. And anything to get more freight off the roads and onto the rails seems like a good idea for me.

As something of a follow-up to my previous entry, and for Lisa's benefit because I'd mentioned it to her this past weekend, here's the story about Chinese Chopsticks Made in America.

Purely from a logistical point of view, it makes more sense to me for the USA, with lots of wood of the right type, to make chopsticks for export to China than for China, with a wood shortage, to import raw logs. Besides, I bet the shipping rates are really good, due to the huge imbalance of trade: most of those containers heading west across the Pacific are empty, so shippers are likely happy to have something other than air to transport. (Despite what I do for a living, I don't have any particular special knowledge of trans-Pacific shipping.)

I also think it's foolish that most or all toothpicks here are made in China, considering that it's likely that much of the wood was shipped to China from the USA or Canada.