Confluence 2004 & Noreascon 2004

[msagara]

I just received email with my tentative schedule for Noreascon, and it looks good. I'll be rooming with andpuff while in Boston, and I'll be there for all four days of the convention (I usually only manage three), so I'm looking forward to it. It looks like I'm on a panel with papersky, so I'll get to meet her in person, which I'm looking forward to as well.

I spent the weekend in Pittsburgh at Confluence, and I had a wonderful time.

It's a smaller convention, and because of the size, I actually had time to spend with people; I also didn't spend so much time walking long halls between one function space and another, and everything was -- as one would expect from the concom -- excellently organized and very friendly. I met a number of interesting people, and got to listen to ohiblather, allisona and jodimuse in concert for the first time; they're Urban Tapestry, for those of you who don't follow filk or don't know them. It was one of the highlights of a convention that had many.

unclechristo played for an hour and a half, and he was fabulous. He was very, very funny, and his voice is really flexible -- he can sing in a number of different styles, and he can play several unusual instruments.

I met a couple of people from the yahoo list, which was fun; I spoke with Larry Smith's wife (I'm embarrased to say that I'm blanking on her name, although I talk to her at every convention I see her at :/). I got to speak with Ann Cecil & Jim Mann, but missed getting a chance to grovelling thank Laurie Mann for her great forebearance in Worldcon programming the year that I botched the on-line form rather badly <wry g>.

And I got to meet Christina Schulman in real life for the first time, which was great. She's funny, and she's very smart, which for me is the killer combination.

I also met Rand Bellavia of Ookla the Mok (I could be spelling that wrong), and I will repeat that the combination of funny and smart is a killer one, for me. Really liked him.

I owe trektone dinner. He very thoughtfully bought dinner for my husband and I before we realized the bill had arrived at the table. And I would, of course, like to treat him to dinner in exactly the same spirit when I see him at Worldcon in Boston. I'm missing people. I know I'm missing people.

But it was a well-run convention with few enough people that one could actually sit and talk at leisure to new people one happened to meet, which I really enjoyed. I'd recommend it to anyone, and I'm hoping that we can make it back there next year, when the GOH is Tamora Pierce.

Comments

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I think there was some territorial discussion about dinner, in particular who is paying for it <wry g>.

Larry Smith's wife (?) is, I believe, Sally Kobee.

Thank you!! That was the name! Sally Kobee. I talked with her for almost an hour in the dealer's room, and it was all bookseller neep.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Territorial? I don't think the subject ever came up prior to the presentation of the bill. Hee!

The discussion about Japanese-ness was very entertaining, don't you think?