Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

As bad luck would have it, I had two simultaneous meetings on Saturday at 11 AM PDT. As I'm the Secretary of the SFSFC Board of Directors, I had to prioritize that.

( Corporate Kevin )

After the SFSFC meeting, I went over to the Montreal in 2027 Worldcon Bid Committee meeting, which was mostly over, but those people who wanted to talk after the actual meeting about various SMOFfish topics hung around for a while since they had their WSFS rules expert there. I find that there are many things about WSFS that people think are required but that are not, when you actually read the rules. Conversely, there are things that are required that some people, including some Worldcon committee management, do not in my opinion think they should have to do, and sometimes they simply won't do them because there's nobody out there who will compel them to do so. No, I'm not going to go into specifics.

I'm glad I went to the Wigwam for a big breakfast on Saturday morning. Between the emergency firewood unloading and two longish meetings, I was a bit tired and hungry when I got done with everything. Furthermore, Lisa wanted to go grocery shopping on Sunday early morning, so I should have gone to bed much earlier than I did. As it was, I only got three hours of sleep before the alarm awakened me just after midnight.

Lisa and I drove to WinCo Foods in Reno, leaving the house at about 1 AM and getting home around 3:45. A fairly routine trip, with (not surprisingly) no traffic to worry about and the only challenge being dodging forklifts, pallet jacks, and aisle full of staff stocking shelves.

I ended up napping for a couple of hours, and when I woke up I needed to put in some work helping the Montréal 2027 Worldcon bid, which hosted the SMOFCon 41 Con Suite this evening.

( Montreal in Seattle )

SMOFCon is always a time to make connections and talk with other people about plans for future events, such as in my case Westercon and Worldcon. I did participate in a number of such conversations this evening. I am not going to talk about them now because the plans need to develop and reach a point where we can deliver on them. However, I will say that in general, and subject to change, if Montréal wins their bid, I expect to be chairing their WSFS Business Meeting, and I have been working on having a team selected to operate it. We haven't won yet, and we aren't the only known bid, so it is premature to say much more. There are, after all, two Worldcons to come before 2027.

I then hung out in the Con Suite until about 11 PM, and as much as I like this part of the convention, I did pull myself away to go back to my room, unwind, take care of some bid business, and get ready for tomorrow, which as usual will be the busiest day of the convention. I'm going to be recording the Worldcon and Bid presentations (for posting to the Worldcon Events YouTube channel) and also the evening "keynote address" by featured speaker Jim Wright of Stonekettle Station. As the SMOFCon 41 website says, "He’s going to speak to us about his experience in analysis and commentary, with a special focus on the Sad Puppies’ attempt to hijack the Hugos, and how he helped turn that into a positive experience for fandom." I do not yet know where his presentation video will be posted, but I'll write about it when it happens.

I expect to have several announcements to post tomorrow, or possibly in the wee hours of Sunday morning, maybe backdated. That's because I will be busy a lot all tomorrow evening, with the Probability & Statistics Seminar (not on the published schedule; it's a private item open to all attendees of the convention, which has given us Cascade 7 for that purpose) happening after the keynote.

Not much happening on Tuesday. Worked on the Day Jobbe during the day, then did some stuff for the Montreal Worldcon bid in the evening. Yawn. So little happened that I went to bed while forgetting to make a journal entry and instead put in this back-dated entry to try and keep up my string of posts.

This morning, after sleeping in for about four hours (i.e. 7:30 AM), I had enough energy to go get breakfast from the Wigwam Restaurant. Bringing it home, I used the last of the blueberry jam I bought in Montreal on my bagel. There was no point in trying to stretch it out because it goes past its use-by date fairly soon. I found that jam during the World Fantasy Convention trip and bought two more when I was there again for SMOFCon. I have no more trips there booked, although I wouldn't mind having an excuse to go again. (Not just for the jam!)

I realized this evening that I forgot to write something yesterday, partially because yesterday I did less than I meant to do.

( Eggspectations )

After walking off some of that breakfast, I went to the place where I should have gone on the first day of the trip, because it would have saved me money in the long run.

( Off to the Market )

I had more ambitious plans for yesterday, but in order to make the right time for breakfast, I actually had to get started on the bits of Day Jobbe earlier than I do (in absolute terms) most days when I was at home. Also, I ended up needing to do a few reports, which were not difficult but did use up time. I'm glad my manager says I can take (most of) Thursday and Friday off as well. As a consequence of those distractions, I tried to make an early night of it.

Today was a "culture day." In the morning I went to the McCord Museum, which was offering free admission in recognition of its 100th anniversary. There I saw their exhibit on the Indigenous people of Quebec, which was sobering and moving. On the walk back to the hotel, I tried once again to find a new jacket, as the one I have is wearing out. Most of what's on offer in the shops here is too heavy for what I am looking for. I found one that was the right style and color, but wasn't big enough. I'm a 3XL, which can be challenging.

Returning to the hotel, I finished off the rest of the food from the Atwater and rested for a while. I tried to check in for my flight tomorrow, but there was no way to enter my vaccination information in their forms, so I'll have to do it at the airport showing the printed documentation. I redid my plans so I'll leave a bit earlier to allow time to deal with the paperwork.

In the late afternoon, I set off to see an exhibition of Salvador Dali's illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy. This was intriguingly presented, and I'm glad I got to see it.

( The Restaurant Not Visited )

Near the Dali exhibition at the Old Port of Montreal was Restaurant Porto Mar, which was quiet enough that I felt safe eating here. The schedule with Loscon/Westercon and Worldcon means I will not be able to attend SMOFCon in Lisboa in December, but at least I can have a Portuguese meal. I had one of their set meals, and I was very good.

This afternoon, I did as much packing as I could. A goodly part of my luggage is now full of Winnipeg Worldcon bid material. It's good that I had left sufficient weight in my 23 kg checked-luggage allowance, and that I can carry my CPAP machine as an extra carry-on.

My flight leaves from Montreal at mid-day on Wednesday, but thanks to having to fly first to ORD, then to SEA, and only then back to RNO, I won't get back to Reno until very late. I will stay in a hotel near the airport rather than drive the 50 km home after being up from what amounts to 2 AM in my destination time zone in order to do Day Jobbe work before completing the packing and heading for the airport. I'm in business class on the first and last legs of the trip (a side-effect of using my Alaska frequent flyer miles), so maybe I'll be able to relax a bit and sleep a little on the two shorter legs if not on the long middle one.

I walked 16,000 steps yesterday and 13,000 today. My legs and feet can feel it, but with me eating so much, I'm glad I'm also doing something work it off.

Tuesday was the only day I had available for tourism in Montreal. And it turned into not even a full day at that.

( Anticipation coda )

( Mailing my dirty laundry home )

( Just in time for the downpour )

( Finally into the Metro )

( Fancy Meal for our Last Night )

Alas, our train leaves at 9:30 AM and we are definitely not going to get enough sleep tonight. Lisa and I are tearing up our hotel room trying to repack as much as we can before going to bed.

travelswithkuma has more pictures of our exploits today, including pictures of the wonderful fish pond on the lobby level of our hotel.

For known reasons, Thursdays are usually my busiest Worldcon day. I registered without incident and dealt with the most pressing things, but many others remain, and I have four panels in a row, one of which is actually canceled but which people were expecting to attend. Lisa and I made a hand-lettered sign and put it on the door of the room where the "phantom" panel was to happen, giving us enough time to run get something to eat at the noodle house across the street from the hotel. A cloudburst drenched us as we dashed across the street back to the hotel with my take-out noodles. I'm eating lunch and dealing with business here during what would be the "phantom" 14:00 panel and hoping that my sign is enough to redirect people to the correct 15:30 panel.

(The same items is listed at 14:00 and 15:30 in different places. The second one is real; the first is correctly removed from the grid, but is in the detailed schedule.)

I've been handing "Worldcon Chairs Photo Op" business cards with the Sunday 11:00 at the Business Meeting info to any Worldcon chair I see. Among those we have seen is Hiroke Inoue, with whom we were happy to spend a few minutes talking along with his wife Tamie. Alas, Inoue-san has to fly back to Japan on Friday because of work commitments. That's so sad, to be only able to spend about 24 hours at Worldcon. But jaylake would know something about flying halfway 'round the world for a mere 24 hours of Worldcon.

Cheryl now has the pictures and video from our Montreal trip online. If you want to get a feel for the convention center and environs, including the restaurants (yum), check out her reportage.

And do have a look at the photos, so you'll see what I meant about really wanting to use the Auditorium for the Business Meeting if it were just a little bit larger.

Re amended to add: While I'm not displeased by positive comments, I suggest that people post their feedback on the original message at Cheryl's Mewsings. She's the one who did the work, after all. I merely opened doors and held bags like a good production assistant.

My flight is at 4 PM, so I'm aiming to get a taxi to the airport between 1 and 1:30. Therefore, if we're going to do any exploring today (and get breakfast, and pack), we'd better get a move on.

If you are coming to Montreal from a long distance away, it's a good idea to tell your bank that you are doing so. This makes it less likely that they will see you trying to withdraw money from an ATM a long way from home, decide that it is suspicious activity, and lock your card down. I had to spend more than ten minutes on the phone with them -- while Cheryl waited for me to come back so that I could join her, John Mansfield (Anticipation's Fixed Functions division manager), and Ben Levy, (Dealers' Room area head) for dinner -- wading through menus, entering my ATM card number, and answering security questions so that they would turn the card back on. I don't really resent Bank of America for this; the pattern is suspicious. I meant to call them a week ago, but the hold-queue time was something like twenty minutes, and so I gave up, intending to call again, and I never did so again. I did advise my credit card issuer that I'd be on the road in Montreal this weekend and please don't shut off my card.

Edit, 0625: filled in missing name after prodding in comments.