Done yesterday (20110704 Mo)

[mdlbear]

0704 Mo
  * up 6:45; W=198.8; drugs, nose, laundry, light
  & took out garbage, since YD hadn't done it.
  @ How an Elm Tree Helped Win America's Independence : TreeHugger
  * leave the house at 9am for 10am panel; go home for Colleen afterward.
  * Monday, Jul 04 10:00 AM to Monday, Jul 04 11:30 AM in Regency Ballroom 2
    The Future of Privacy
      Technology has made it easier for people to find and share
      information. At the same time it's become much more difficult to
      preserve personal privacy. How will the challenge to privacy affect us
      over the next 50 years? Is this a right to be protected, or is the
      concept of privacy an illusion -- for example, how much privacy did
      people have living in small towns before mass communications? 
  * took Colleen and YD to con; back around 3:30.
  % tired.  Not quite out of spoons, but about halfway.
  * do I have a membership in Westercon 65?? (I think yes) -> we have 2.
  * YD made dinner: lemon turkey with biscuits.  I probably ate too many
    biscuits; they were tasty.  A dozen for three people; do the math.
  : Call from Mom
  @ The Beer Archaeologist | Smithsonian Magazine (gmcdavi)
  @ firecat | mini-linkspam (good articles)
    Tempo trouble is especially thought-provoking
  % This evening's somewhat stiff glass of gin seems to have really relaxed
    the knot in my right shoulder.  So... good.
  % sleepy.  8:30 
  * Tried a velcro loop attaching Minnie to Chami's "shoulder"; it seemed to
    work very well.  The best configuration may be a short loop between the
    "Y" and Chami's handle.
  = according to Colleen the final body count at Westercon was 540.  That's
    pitiful. 
  * split Westercon concert  
  * bath 11:15; splat ~midnight

Yesterday went pretty well. I got to the con around 9:30 for my 10am panel on the future of privacy, when went back for Colleen and the YD. We finally got back home somewhere around 3:30. I cleverly packed my netbook charger, but cleverly forgot the netbook itself (after carefully syncing it, of course). <irony>Clever bear.</irony>

My evening glass of gin seems to have helped considerably with the spasmed muscle in my right shoulder, so that's good. The YD made dinner - lemon turkey with biscuits. I ate too many biscuits. That's not so good for my weight.

Westercon is definitely in trouble -- the final body count, according to Colleen, was 540. Now, admittedly, falling somewhere between Baycon and Worldcon, in an expensive but wretched hotel and a bad economy, one can expect fewer people than usual. But still... Hopefully the next two can, with top-notch committees and plenty of publicity, reverse that trend.

Some links in the notes.

Comments

[gmcdavid.livejournal.com]

Too bad about Westercon. Convergence has the opposite problem. Despite the economy, it has been growing every year. It is at, and perhaps somewhat over, the capacity of its facilities. The con hotel and the other hotel within walking distance get booked solid long in advance. The issue here is one of limiting growth.

[donsimpson.livejournal.com]

540? It didn't seem to me like that many people were there. But I didn't get out of the dealer room much, and since I was commuting to the con, I wasn't there except for dealer room hours.

[ravan.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! The last SiliCon 2009 had nearly that many people (~450), at nearly the peak of the economic meltdown, and it took a bath financially. I would have expected WesterCon to bring at least 1000, even in a down economy.