Worldcon diary: day 1 at Renovation
Tom's adventures at his first world science fiction convention, part one.
The flight from Albuquerque to Salt Lake City was like any other, but the number of people with geeky T-shirts and scraggly hair waiting for the connecting flight to Reno gave a clue of our shared destination. The woman across the aisle from me on the plane was editing a fiction manuscript to pass the time! It made me realize was a solitary business it is being an aspiring writer. The only other person I've actually seen editing a piece of fiction is me!
I got the shuttle from the airport and checked into my room at the Peppermill - like all the large hotels here, also a casino. The most science fictional thing about the trip so far is the room itself. The television bears this warning:
This television is equipped with a silent alarm and tampering with it will sound an alarm in Security. This television has been modified by Sony to work only at the Peppermill.
What is doesn't say is that it really doesn't work at the Peppermill either. After a minute or two on a given channel, it starts to look like streaming video over a bad internet connection, and then usually goes altogether dead until you switch to another channel and back again. So you can watch PBS, for example, if you repeatedly intersperse it with a few seconds of ESPN, say.
The TV also has the interesting feature of turning itself on at random times. It took me a while to determine that hitting the power button puts it in a "standby" setting where it only appears to be off, but is actually just lurking in wait.
Then there is this warning on the snack tray and minibar:
Mini Bar and Snack Tray are on live sensors. If items are removed an automatic charge will be added to your folio.
Alright then. So how does this work? Weight detection with each item having a unique weight. Cllever RF tags on each bag of peanuts? Or criss-crossing lase beams, perhaps? I'm not touching it. I have no desire to learn if it is also capabe of delivering a "quaint, old-fashioned electric shock" to my pilfering fingers.
I've taken to muttering "open the pod bay doors, Hal" when slipping my key in the door lock to enter the room.
Oh yes, the convention. So many things on the schedule that it's very difficult to choose. (5-10 in each slot on Wednesday, about twice that on subsequent days). Things didn't really start in earnest until noon Wednesday, but I arrived early and passed the time watching a fun and inventive anime series, "Read of Die", which was showing in one of the meeting rooms.
I expected to be well entertained by John Scalzi's account of his visit to the Creation Museum. Of course creationism is an easy target for the scientifically literate types wo read sf, but Scalzi takes it over the top. A fun time was had by all.
Next came a panel of "designing believable physics", which I assumed would be about how sf writers can play around with the laws of nature to create interesting alternate realities or something. It turned out to actually be more of a discussion of how the laws of physics, values of physical constants, etc., influence the universe as we know it. A nice topic, but more science than science fiction. It was nice to see and hear Gregory Benford, who was one of the panelists.
The opening ceremony introduced the guests of honor - Ellen Asher (Science Fiction Book Club editor for 34 years), writer Tim Powers, artist Boris Vallejo, and Locus founder Charles N. Brown, who died in 2009. Dr. Demento helped out with the introductions, and things were nicely wrapped up with a fun musical number by Tricky Pixie.
I then went to a sparsely attended interview with upcoming writer Aliette de Bodard, who writes historic fantasy and alternate history stories, usually in an Aztec milieu. She had some interesting thoughts to share on her writing process, sources of inspiration, and writing in a language that is not her native tongue.
I indulged my interest in gaming by attending a presentation on game design and development by Steve Jackson (Steve Jackson Games) and Jon Schindehette (Wizards of the Coast). Lots of interesting observations and anecdotes.
I wrapped up the day with a presentation about the art collection of Ken Moore by the executor of his estate. Alas, a computer crash destroyed her slide show, so what I had hoped would be retrospective of the history of sf art became more a series of reminiscences about Mr. Moore and his interests.
All in all, a rewarding day, full but not overwhelming. More anon.
The flight from Albuquerque to Salt Lake City was like any other, but the number of people with geeky T-shirts and scraggly hair waiting for the connecting flight to Reno gave a clue of our shared destination. The woman across the aisle from me on the plane was editing a fiction manuscript to pass the time! It made me realize was a solitary business it is being an aspiring writer. The only other person I've actually seen editing a piece of fiction is me!
I got the shuttle from the airport and checked into my room at the Peppermill - like all the large hotels here, also a casino. The most science fictional thing about the trip so far is the room itself. The television bears this warning:
This television is equipped with a silent alarm and tampering with it will sound an alarm in Security. This television has been modified by Sony to work only at the Peppermill.
What is doesn't say is that it really doesn't work at the Peppermill either. After a minute or two on a given channel, it starts to look like streaming video over a bad internet connection, and then usually goes altogether dead until you switch to another channel and back again. So you can watch PBS, for example, if you repeatedly intersperse it with a few seconds of ESPN, say.
The TV also has the interesting feature of turning itself on at random times. It took me a while to determine that hitting the power button puts it in a "standby" setting where it only appears to be off, but is actually just lurking in wait.
Then there is this warning on the snack tray and minibar:
Mini Bar and Snack Tray are on live sensors. If items are removed an automatic charge will be added to your folio.
Alright then. So how does this work? Weight detection with each item having a unique weight. Cllever RF tags on each bag of peanuts? Or criss-crossing lase beams, perhaps? I'm not touching it. I have no desire to learn if it is also capabe of delivering a "quaint, old-fashioned electric shock" to my pilfering fingers.
I've taken to muttering "open the pod bay doors, Hal" when slipping my key in the door lock to enter the room.
Oh yes, the convention. So many things on the schedule that it's very difficult to choose. (5-10 in each slot on Wednesday, about twice that on subsequent days). Things didn't really start in earnest until noon Wednesday, but I arrived early and passed the time watching a fun and inventive anime series, "Read of Die", which was showing in one of the meeting rooms.
I expected to be well entertained by John Scalzi's account of his visit to the Creation Museum. Of course creationism is an easy target for the scientifically literate types wo read sf, but Scalzi takes it over the top. A fun time was had by all.
Next came a panel of "designing believable physics", which I assumed would be about how sf writers can play around with the laws of nature to create interesting alternate realities or something. It turned out to actually be more of a discussion of how the laws of physics, values of physical constants, etc., influence the universe as we know it. A nice topic, but more science than science fiction. It was nice to see and hear Gregory Benford, who was one of the panelists.
The opening ceremony introduced the guests of honor - Ellen Asher (Science Fiction Book Club editor for 34 years), writer Tim Powers, artist Boris Vallejo, and Locus founder Charles N. Brown, who died in 2009. Dr. Demento helped out with the introductions, and things were nicely wrapped up with a fun musical number by Tricky Pixie.
I then went to a sparsely attended interview with upcoming writer Aliette de Bodard, who writes historic fantasy and alternate history stories, usually in an Aztec milieu. She had some interesting thoughts to share on her writing process, sources of inspiration, and writing in a language that is not her native tongue.
I indulged my interest in gaming by attending a presentation on game design and development by Steve Jackson (Steve Jackson Games) and Jon Schindehette (Wizards of the Coast). Lots of interesting observations and anecdotes.
I wrapped up the day with a presentation about the art collection of Ken Moore by the executor of his estate. Alas, a computer crash destroyed her slide show, so what I had hoped would be retrospective of the history of sf art became more a series of reminiscences about Mr. Moore and his interests.
All in all, a rewarding day, full but not overwhelming. More anon.
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