Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

We lingered over breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express this morning. I see that HIX is remodeling their breakfasts and partnering with Cinnabon, replacing their signature cinnamon rolls. (Not that I could have much of either, with my diabetes and all.) We left the hotel at 9:45 AM, made a brief shopping stop at Walgreen's, then dropped in for a very brief visit with my sister at the nursing home. Kelli was looking pretty good, and we were happy to see that one of her friends were coming to see her as Lisa and I left. After one last stop to buy a USB thumb drive at Fry's, we left Sacramento for the Bay Area, with but one more stop (gas at the truck stop at Lodi Junction). For a change, our travel plans went exactly to form, with us threading the needle between the end of Sacramento's commute and the beginning of the Bay Area high traffic. We got to the hotel just before 2 PM, and the Hilton let us check in right away. We even got what I consider the second-best parking space in the entire hotel, due to its proximity to the convention center doors.

( What a Load of... Stuff )

While Lisa washed her hair, I went down to the convention center, where set-up was moving right along. Dave McCarty, the lead Hugo Award Administrator, and I went to the Hugo Office, where we worked on the finalist certificates. While not required, many Worldcons give finalists certificates recognizing them making the final ballot. One of the specific things we were putting on this year's certificates are gold-foil labels embossed with the corporate seal of SFSFC, Worldcon 76's non-profit parent organization. SFSFC bought an embosser and 1000 seals back in 1993 after ConFrancisco, and we used the seals on the 2002 certificates as well. I'm the corporate secretary of SFSFC, but I've never felt comfortable removing the corporation's seal from the state where the corporation lives, so I've left it with the deputy Secretary, who got it to Dave today. I embossed a couple hundred seals (there are quite a few finalists when you total it up), and Dave and I applied them to the certificates. That's a good job done.

I noted that the Hugo Office for this Worldcon is a lot more comfortable than the one we had in 2002, when the ceremony (and the office) were in the un-air-conditioned Civic Auditorium across the street. Poor Lisa had to spend an afternoon up on the top floor assembling (and in one case having to re-tap with the tap-and-die set she had in her truck because that's the kind of person she is) Hugo trophies in the heat until someone came to relieve her and lock up the office.

( Registration Awaits )

I met up with Linda Deneroff (coming off her Seattle-to-San Jose road trip with Joni Dashoff) and Linda, Lisa Deutsch Harrigan, my wife Lisa, and I went to Ozo Sushi for dinner. It was nice to not have to rush. I don't expect a lot of unhurried meals for the next ten days. LDH had a movie to see at 3Below, but Linda stayed with my Lisa and the three of us went over to Flames to make a reservation for a breakfast meeting I'm hosting for the WSFS Division leadership on Thursday, and then we went by Safeway for some groceries.

There's a pretty good-sized mini-fridge in our hotel room, so I got yogurt and milk and Lisa got some grape juice. Unfortunately, as my tote bag was full of SFSFC corporate seal, I had to buy a bag at the grocery store, and even more annoyingly, I discovered when we got back that while I was charged for all four yogurts, only three of them got into the bag. I decided it wasn't worth the walk back to Safeway and wrote it off. Oh well.

Things are coming together here in San Jose. I'm really glad to be here.

Lisa and I drove to San Jose today to spend one night at the San Jose Hilton. This is because we'll be staying in the Hilton during Worldcon due to the logistics of both the Business Meeting and, Programming permitting, Match Game SF. Hotels do not go into the level of detail that Lisa wants about hotel rooms. There was a (relatively) low cost weekend rate at the SJ Hilton tonight, and there were some other things that Lisa and I wanted to get done in the San Jose area if possible, so we drove from Fernley this morning. Getting the various errands done put us in to the hotel relatively late, so we didn't get as much time around downtown as we might have wanted, but we managed.

Because the hotel room has a refrigerator, and there is a microwave oven next to the hotel business center for the use of guests (alas, no microwave oven in the hotel room), and there is a Safeway grocery store three long blocks from the hotel, we may well stock up on groceries to make our budget for meals during the week-plus we'll be in San Jose in August stretch farther, and simply to make it possible to get meals relatively quickly. I wish we'd had a refrigerator in the hotel room at the Fairmont when we were there for the 2002 Worldcon. I co-chaired that convention and didn't get meals several nights of the convention because I didn't have time at traditional meal times, and by the time I could eat, most or all places were closed. There are a lot more places to eat in downtown than there were in 2002, but I'm still concerned about getting fed. It should be easier for people who are not also working at the pace we'll be working.

One unfortunate bit of news we discovered while walking around downtown is that the downtown Walgreen's location appears to have closed down. That's a shame, because having that Walgreen's only three or four blocks from the convention center was very convenient for a large number of sundry items.

I took a whole lot of detailed photos of our Hilton king room, but do not have time to do a full write up or to post them tonight. Some other Worldcon business came up while we were driving to San Jose today, and I had to deal with them urgently tonight. We drive home tomorrow (and I intend to stop and visit my sister in Sacrament on the way). I'll write up the photos and post them all as soon as I can.

Late this morning the last of the chain controls lifted from I-80, and as soon as we could after lunch (which turned out to be 12:30 due to unwanted delays) we set out for the Bay Area. Caltrans had done a fine job of clearing the roads. As we headed over, crews were cutting back the snowbanks. We were at the speed limit most of the way over the top. We stopped in Tracy for dinner (because we wouldn't be able to get to San Jose in time to go out to dinner with the folks who had arrived at the San Jose Worldcon division heads meeting weekend earlier).

We parked in the Convention Center parking garage, which is $20/day, but does allow 24 hour/day parking. We checked in to the Marriott and were able to get a room on the same floor as the "con suite" for our meeting weekend. Kuma Bear liked our hotel room.

( Kuma is King of the Pillows )

Tomorrow we have a full day of meetings with various Worldcon 76 committee members. Saturday is the only full day we all have, so we have to make the most of it.

I've taken pictures of the Marriott hotel room where we're staying this weekend. I'll post the pictures later so people who have rooms here during Worldcon 76 have a better idea of how the room is arranged. Our reservation during Worldcon is at the Hilton at the other end of the convention center. I've never stayed there that I recall. We hope that sometime we'll be able to stay the night there between now and August.

Doing some research for someone who reads my journal, this morning I went to the Winchester Mystery House, where I thought I had seen in the past an old style medallion maker.

( A Blast From the Past )

While I was there, I took a couple of pictures of the House itself.

( One of San Jose's Most Famous Sites )

If you're still undecided about which site to vote for for the 2018 Worldcon and are wondering what there is to do and see in San Jose other than the Worldcon itself, this is one of the places I think everyone should go see. It's not walking distance from the convention site, but it's a relatively easy public bus ride, and I suspect that if there was enough interest, we might be able to arrange for transportation for a group to go see it. (I'm not in a position to commit to that! I can't guarantee it! I'm not volunteering to organize it!) But if you can go and visit the house and gardens, try to do so.

With the Business Meeting behind us, our official commitments to Westercon were done and we were more or less free to spend the rest of the day without a cloud of must-get-this-done over us.

( Bear Sits With Dragons )

We checked in with Dave Clark at the Cargo Cult Books table to confirm that we can transport a box or two of his overstock back with us tomorrow when we head homeward, as long as he knows he won't get it back for a few weeks, as it will be a while before I'm back in the Bay Area.

Around 6 PM, I went to a rather impromptu and informal gathering of staff and committee of Sasquan, which was actually the first Sasquan meeting I've attended and probably the last until a projected all-hands meeting in Spokane next spring.

( Bear Flies the Flag for Montreal )

After helping with the Montréal set-up, Lisa and I went with Scott across the street to the Italian restaurant on which we'd had our eye earlier. Unlike the other place in the mall, they didn't insist that all of their meals had to be heavily spicy, so Lisa was able to get something she liked, while I was still able to get a sufficiently spicy pasta meal to suit me.

( Did Somebody Say There Was a Launch Party? )

We spent the rest of the evening mostly bouncing back and forth between the SJ2018 and Montréal 2017 bid parties, with a side-trip to Westercon 69's victory party in the Con Suite. As Midnight approached, we had to bail, because on Sunday we have a drive to Ely ahead of us and we have to be able to get checked out and on the road again for the Road Less Traveled.

After getting back to the motel by light rail — my van is still in the shop with no pickup date yet known, although I hope for tomorrow afternoon — I fixed myself some dinner. (This is why having a mini-fridge and microwave oven are near-musts for my motel stays here) After that, I knew I needed a walk, and headed out for a walk along First Street. I immediately smelled smoke. There was a fire somewhere in the area. After concluding by the lack of people rushing around that the fire wasn't immediately around us, I investigated further. There was a helicopter hovering to the north, near US-101. I decided to walk in that direction to see what was up. From the general direction of the plume of smoke, I thought it might have been at Casino M8trix or the Doubletree (ex-Red Lion) Hotel, formerly the Bay Area's Fan Central Station. But by the time I got down to the freeway (about 2.5 km), the smoke had dispersed, the helicopter had departed, and there was no sign of further disruption. Rather than walking back to the hotel, I caught the next light rail train going my way and rode back down North First Street. I never did find out where the fire was.

I have added more photos to the BayCon 2009 Photo Set, starting with this photo. Photos include costumes from people who came within camera range during the day and at the SJ2011 Westercon table, including this lovely gown, a great Bat-Group, a cute little Supergirl, and Miko as Agatha Hetrodyne from last the Cinderella story told in the last between-books interlude on the Girl Genius web site.

About 5:15, Glenn Glazer and I went to Costco to shop for party supplies for Westercon San Jose in 2011, and I helped carry stuff up to the room and set up the party, although I admit to bailing out for a while during set-up to go get something to eat. I spent most of the evening in the SJ2011 room, handing out stickers, keeping food and drink stocked, and talking to people about Westercon (and other things, of course). I did get out once and made a round of the other parties on the party floor, or at least those where I could get through the door. Things were crowded and loud. At least my own personal logistics were pretty simple. Unlike last night when I drove back to Fremont, I'm renting part of lisa_marli's room, which was right next door to the SJ2011 party room. Several people asked why we had a sleeping room on the party floor. I pointed out that under those circumstances, nobody was going to file a noise complaint against us, especially as there was a louder party next door. Mind you, although we had plenty of people through our party, we didn't have to worry much about noise compared to the other parties on the floor.

After we closed down around 1:30 or later, I brought the computer down to the lobby and took it to the Registration area, where the wireless network is actually solid, as opposed to 50 meters and one floor away at Fan Tables. I'm now sitting at one of the desks used for self-service registration during the day. This is the only time I have to get this stuff uploaded. I just waved to Miko carrying her costume out of the hotel. I wish I'd got a picture of her after she removed the hoop skirt. (Trust me, nothing X-rated; it was designed to be seen.)

Because it's so late and I'm so tired, this entry is almost certainly pretty disjointed and you can blame typos on my groggy state. I have no time to post photos inline here and comment them further, so I'm going to point you to the Flickr site, where I do have descriptions posted. If you're one of the people whose photos I took, I hope you like them and of course you can use them for yourselves. (I'd appreciate a photo credit if you pass them along or post them elsewhere.)

If you're wondering what the area around the San Jose Westercon bid's proposed site is like, we've posted a video slide show of a walking tour around the area. This is based on photos (and some live video) I took in late January and concentrates on restaurants, shops, and services (plus things like where to park) in the downtown San Jose area centered on the Fairmont Hotel.

I'm particularly sensitive to this issue because one of the complaints I heard during ConJose was that "There's nothing here" on account of if you walked out the front door of the Convention Center, you indeed could not see any restaurants within line of sight. There were and are, however, lots of restaurants in the area; they're just a little bit beyond that first row of buildings blocking your view from the Convention Center. So this video is partially my way of saying, "There are places to eat around here, and here's proof."

And I literally walked the walk here, because aside from driving to the hotel itself -- my van is in one of the shots -- everything here was a result of me walking around with a camera.

This morning I drove to downtown San Jose and parked in the surface parking lot closest to the Fairmont. The parking programs have changed of late downtown, but free weekends 6 am - 6 pm are currently in force, and the parking lot entry and exit gates were both open, and the machines would not dispense tickets. ( More meandering about parking in the area )

For about an hour before I had to head off to the Stealth game, I took photos around the Fairmont, in particular taking pictures of every restaurant I could find near the hotel. One of the big complaints at ConJose was that people would come out the front door of the hotel and convention center and see no place to eat -- which is true because there aren't many in direct sight from those two places -- and then conclude there was no place to eat in downtown San Jose, which is emphatically not true.

After shooting both stills and video -- I couldn't resist shooting video of light rail trains passing by -- I stowed my camera under the seat and walked over to the Shark Tank for the Stealth game. That's about a 10-15 minute walk, and I felt smug about parking downtown for free when parking in the lots near the Arena is $10 and up.

After the game, I retrieved my camera and continued shooting more photos, now with the light coming from the west rather than the east. Besides restaurants, I photographed things I think potential con attendees might be interested in knowing were nearby, such as ATMs, a Walgreen's, a Kinko's FedEx Office, UPS Store, US Post Office, and the grocery store located a short walk from the Fairmont. I also took pictures of some of the local attractions, such as the Tech Museum, the Children's Discovery Museum, and so forth.

As my time permits, I plan to put together these photos and video with a map of downtown San Jose to point out where things are relative to the Fairmont. There really is a lot to see, do, and eat in the downtown area if you're wiling to walk more than a block and don't get disheartened just because the only thing you can see out the front door of the hotel is the Plaza de César Chávez.

If things go really well, I hope to make a custom slide show video that we'll be able to show at our room parties. (Yes, if it works, we'll put it on the bid's web site as well.)