Do I contradict myself?

I'm off to the wilds of Jackson, WY!

Working remotely until the end of the month so I can spend time with my girlfriend (who lives there).

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I won't be in Finland for Worldcon, but I *will* be in Jackson, WY for the 2017 solar eclipse. If you look at the eclipse map for Wyoming, you'll see that Jackson is smack in the path for totality.

This is going to be very cool!

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I like the "On This Day" feature over on Facebook. It's kind of a near way to go back and look at what I was doing a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, or more.

8 years ago, I was up in New England for Conterpoint, that year's Permanent Floating Northeast Filk Convention. In 2012 I'd just come back from England. I was there for a friend's wedding and it was lovely! In 2014, I was also in England (not surprising, because I was living there at the time) and I was regretting the last pint the night before.

A year after that, in 2015, I'd just arrived in Stockholm for several days holiday before going of to Åland for Archipelacon. It was a great trip. really relaxing. Stockholm, Mariehamn, Turku, Helsinki. Had a lot of fun on that trip, both alone and with other people.

Some day I'll get back there.

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A weekend at FKO was just what I needed, but it doesn't work well with "having enough sleep"

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Time to shut down here at work and pack for FilkONtario!

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I'm back from Jackson and GAFilk both. I'm mainly going to discuss the trip back from Jackson first though :)

Because of pricing, it was cheaper for me to fly back via Seattle (like, several hundred dollars cheaper). The flight was JAC -> SLC -> SEA -> JFK, with the SEA to JFK leg being a redeye. My plan was to just sleep on that flight and then go to work in the morning. The timing wasn't bad other than the 3-plus hour layover at Salt Lake, but there's a decent wine bar there and plenty of places to eat so I grabbed a meal and a couple of drinks and was at my gate in plenty of time. The connection at Seattle was a comfortable hour and 10 minutes.

Comfortable, that is, except that the plane needed de-icing and sat outside waiting for equipment for long enough for me to watch the first half of the new Ghostbusters film and left an hour after our scheduled departure time. Which meant that I wouldn't even get off the plane before the boarding door was closed on my connecting flight. No real worries at that, because it's free to change flights in those circumstances and you have free access to the Delta site on the plane's wifi. I looked and my flight was delayed and my flight to JFK was showing as "On Time" so I found a flight to JFK that left at 7:40AM the next day (and even scored a business class seat for not too much) and changed my flight (at which point my old flight vanished from my Delta app -- this will be important). When I got off the plane at Seattle, I went up to the gate agent and told him that I'd missed my flight. He immediately offered to rebook me, which I didn't need, but I asked about a hotel voucher. He said yes, and printed out a hotel voucher, a meal voucher, and a copy of my new boarding pass. I thanked him and left to head out to the hotel shuttle. Just as I'm leaving the building I get a text from Delta that my bags have been loaded onto my flight. I'm boggled, since at this point I'm not flying out until the next morning. So while I'm waiting for the hotel shuttle, I pull up the flight tracker and discover that my flight from Seattle has also been delayed. I could have made it. Ah well.

The hotel shuttle was full and just drove past the stop we were waiting at, so I split a cab to get there with a couple who'd been waiting there for longer and had already seen one shuttle drive by. So off to the hotel, where I grabbed a good 5 hours of sleep in a real bed. The hotel restaurant didn't open until 6:30 and I wanted to be on the 6:00 shuttle (never having been to SEA I thought I'd give myself a little extra time). I was through security in plenty of time thanks to Global Entry, which includes TSA Pre-Check. So I grabbed breakfast and boarded my flight. I'd paid for wifi on the plane so that I could work, and since I was sitting in Business Class I basically worked and drank Bloody Marys all the way back to JFK.

The one last thing to do when I got back to New York was to retrieve my luggage. I wandered off to Terminal 4's Delta Baggage Office and explained that while I'd missed my connection in Seattle, my luggage hadn't. The agent told me that he had good news and bad news. The good news was that my suitcase and snowboard had indeed made it to JFK. The bad news was that they were in Terminal 2 and I'd have to get over there. Ugh. (Not horrible but an annoyance).

All told, though, I did OK. I got a fair amount of work done on the flight, had a few drinks, got my stuff and made it home not too late. Which is good, because the very next day I flew out to Georgia for GAFilk!

But that's a tale for another day.

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...whether or not I should bring a guitar with me to Wyoming? I know that I can carry it on the plane with me and have it shoved in the closet. If I wasn't bringing my ham radio gear I could get all my clothes into a small carry-on and then check the guitar (don't give me that look; I check my guitar all the time when I fly. The case is battered but the guitar itself is fine).

The thing is, I *want* to bring a radio with me, and the conditions are iffy enough that I want to bring the bigger radio rather than the smaller one.

But do I want to bring a guitar? I'll be there for two weeks, after all. And my girlfriend likes when I play and I like having the guitar there to noodle on.

I should decide this sooner rather than later.

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I'd already decided that I was going go Finland for Finncon in Tampere this coming year (which means I'll miss Conterpoint, the 2016 NEFilk, since they're the same weekend).

And now I've just registered for IceCon 2016 in Reykjavík in October.

Add in Worldcon and it's going to be an expensive year for fannish travel!

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I'm sitting in Spokane International Airport, on my way back from the Sasquan All-Hands meeting; the last big meeting before the convention itself. I felt it was important to come, even though it's just a short visit, because I'm the Area Head for our First Night and I really, REALLY wanted to see Riverfront Park. That's where our First Night celebration, our "welcome to Worldcon and welcome to Spokane" party, is going to be.

I *love* the park. It's a great location, just a short way across footbridge from the Convention Center. There's plenty of trees for shade. Lots of wide, paved paths to get around, and most of our grassy spaces are easily handled by even a small mobility scooter (yes, we checked for accessibility -- we want this to be as inclusive and accessible as possible). The people with the park and Visit Spokane have been working with us and I think that it's going to be a lot of fun.

Now, a few things I noticed about Spokane itself. This is my first visit to the city (indeed, to the state of Washington) and I think it'll be a great venue for Worldcon. The downtown core is very compact, easily walkable for those who walk (and cutouts in most curbs for those on scooters; it's not perfect but it's very doable). The main party hotel is a bit of a trek from the Convention Center but probably not any worse than it was in Montreal, and I think there's less traffic in Spokane.

The people are ALL friendly and cheerful; I was REALLY impressed with how the staff of the Red Lion a the Park took the time to repair my friend Nolly's scooter when it stopped working (and she wasn't even staying there). Hotel staff, restaurant staff, random passers-by...everyone was genuinely very nice. The people who work in the park, the staff from Visit Spokane, even the TSA coming into the airport was cheerful and friendly and smiling. (I'd say that the TSA staff were welcoming, but I'm leaving).

Foodwise, the city has a lot to offer, and by New York standards I think it's really very inexpensive. A pint of good local beer in a hotel bar costs $5 (sorry UK fen, it's a US sized pint, so it'll look small to you). Certainly back in NY I couldn't touch at that price, even in a regular bar. There's a decently diverse restaurant scene with a nice wide range of prices. There's some GREAT local wines that I'm looking forward to sampling more of.

If, like me, you're a runner, you're going to love Spokane. There's a great trail right along the river that's wide and flat and connects with the trails in Riverfront Park as well. I'm half-toying with having a Sasquan Unofficial 5K. It looks great for walking and biking, too.

I'm getting really excited about Sasquan. I think First Night is going to be a blast and that Spokane is gonna be a great town for Worldcon.

I'm excited about it!

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I'm waiting impatiently for Friday so I can go to GAFilk. I haven't been for a couple of years now and I rather miss my filk family!


Anyone else reading this going?

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I've been super-busy since I moved back to New York from London. I haven't finished unpacking yet, and in addition to doing support for the London project, I've jumped right into another project. Also, the day after I got back I drove down to Maryland for the baby-naming of my brand-new niece. (Nothing like a 5 hour drive on jetlag. Thankfully).

But I'm back and ready to party, promise. More real content soon, including my farewells to London, stuff about Worldcon and Worldcon bids, musical things.

Watch this space. DW comments

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I haven't even started posting my pics from Worldcon yet, and I too another few hundred this weekend in Lyon!

One amusing incident that took place after Sunday lunch in a very nice fish restaurant. La serveuse asked if I needed my parking sticker validated (in English, once it became obvious that I didn't quite get the French). And I managed, in my worse-than-I-hoped French, that no, my car was in New York.

She asked me, " Vous habitez à New York ?" (Do you live in New York for those whose French is even worse than mine)

"Ah, non, j'habite à Londres." (which is true, at least temporarily!)

To which the reply was "Votre voiture à New York. Vous habitez à Londres. Vous mangez en Lyon. Je vous déteste." (I'm pretty sure she was kidding about the last part, although I *am* an American, so who knows ;) )

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This past weekend I was up in Mississauga,ON for FilkONtario 23. I knew I had to come, since Tim & Annie were the Guests of Honour and it's been FAR too long since I've seen them. The Filk Waifs were Rand and Erin Bellavia who are always a delight and for whom this would be their first guest appearance together. I didn't previously know Interfilk guest Katt McConnell, but I'm REALLY glad to have met her; she and her husband Sean are both great people and she's a bodhran player! I got to play with a drummer :)

I spent a lot of the convention either riding the soundboard or wrangling microphones. This is one of the great things about filkcons, really. Not only do I get to go home for a weekend and make music with people (seriously, making music is the next best thing to sex and you can do it in groups in the hotel corridors without the police being called) AND I get to play with sound kit.

Lots of wonderful people and I'll try to get a real conrep up in a day or few. I took about a thousand pictures which will go up on Flickr as well.

Big thanks to everyone who was at the con -- you all made it special

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This past weekend, my sister, brother and I ran the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run in Washington, DC. While Mark and Margaret are far more serious (and far faster) runners than I am, I knew that I could train up to it (given I was ready for a half-marathon in November!) My brother lives down that way and my sister had a conference in town starting Monday, so the timing was perfect.

I'll talk more about the weekend as I sort through the (non-race) pictures, but this one was taken by my Dad using my sister's phone after the race. My brother, who's way faster than I am, decided to start in his group, but my sister's less speedy. She decided to start back with my group; she'd cut her pace back and I'd try and run faster.

It was pretty chilly when we got to the start on Sunday morning -- 42F/6C -- but the day was clear and sunny. And there's an energy once you start running in a large group of people with lots of cheerying bystanders that's pretty warming. By the time we were 2 miles into the race, I was almost regretting wearing cool-weather running gear.

I'm REALLY pleased with how it all came out. When you run a race like this, you have your clock (or gun) time, from when they start the race, but you also have an electronic chip that tells you exactly when you start and finish. My brother's chip time was good enough for a 7:43 pace, but my sister and I stayed together the entire run and I managed a 10:03 pace! Considering most of my training runs have been about a 10:30 pace, that's pretty good (for those in the metric world, that's 6:15/km)

Saw my parents and sister in law among the onlookers at several places along the course, cheering us on. And lots of fun signs that people were using to cheer us on (my personal favorite: "Blisters are Braille for awesome").

We've already decided we're going to try and run it again next year!



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Sort of, at any rate. I have a long grocery list (literally) of last minute things people have asked me to bring over; it's not clear that I'll get to the store to get any of them.

For them as want to know, AA123 leave JFK 19:45, arrive STN 08:00 (business class, baby!). I'm still not sure how I'm getting to the con from the airport; best suggestion so far is bardling's of train to Peterborough and change to Grantham.

I'll have both my US and UK mobile with me -- the latter is +44 (0)7800 996256 and I'd obviously prefer if people called me on that one ;)

For now, though, dead tired. This is the first time I've looked at a computer all evening and I'm just about to pop into bed because I don't feel like going into the con with sleep dep -- I'm already going to come out of it with it!

See some of you in Grantham!

Tomorrow morning, I head to the airport and GAFilk!

Off to bed now, because I'm tired and I'd rather not START the con with sleep dep ;)

Oh, and I should note that after a week of not being online at all at a wonderful convention and in a lovely country, I have entirely bankrupt pants (and probabably more email than I really want to look at right now).

If there's anything you think I should see, please post it here (especially if, there's anything about FilkContinental!).

I'll have a writeup a little later and many many pictures on Flickr. But Virgin Festival 2007 in Toronto?

Made of win.

So...

I need to make my travel plans. I'm likely to arrive in Germany (either Berlin or Frankfurt, depending on airfares and schedules) the Friday morning of the con, and leave the following week sometime (possibly Thursday evening?). Right now I'm leaning towards Berlin.

Can I snag a lift to the con with anyone? And maybe a couple of days couch space after the con?

Also, I seem to be doing a set at the con -- can someone lend me a metal-string 6-string for this so I don't have to pack along my guitar?

I left $CLIENT in North York at about 3:30; I'd finished what I needed to do for the day and figured there'd be extra traffic if I waited to go later; with a 6:30 flight, that would give me plenty of time to check in, get through passport control and security and relax.
( Or so you'd thinkCollapse )

I left $CLIENT at 3:30 to get to the airport for a 1-hour flight scheduled to leave at 6:30

It's now just shy of 2:30 the following morning and I've just walked in.

No, it was NOT one of my better travel experiences.

This trip was an adventure and a half. There was predicted Weather for Friday evening, so I'd not have been surprised to have the flight delayed. And, of course, I was flying into LaGuardia, which also meant that I'd not be surprised to have my flight delayed. It's a horrible airport to fly into, it really is. It's been operating well over designed capacity for years.
( Cut for text almost as long as the wait wasCollapse )
Oh, and I think I need a travel-related userpic.

...I slept comfortably (of not long enough).

Oh, and the Four Points has free wireless internet in the room.

The hotel's high-speed Internet blocks IRC. Go figure.

This is the WEIRDEST layout of a room I've ever been in. There's an actual hallway, with the WC and tub at one and. Down near the bedroom part is the sink. I mean, I can see it being apart because it's convenient for people doing their hair while someone else is in the toilet or the shower or something, but...a hallway? There's a nice balcony, though.

I was tired, so I only walked a couple of miles downtown today. Now I'm ready to drop into bed.

The prostitute who solicited me this evening was really cute and appeared to have a sense of humour. It didn't change my "No thanks, not interested" answer, but it was a nice change.

Back in NY, turned the heat back on (my flat is somewhere below 50F/10C right now), have a pot of citrus green tea on the stoevchen and thinking that I need to find something resembling food for dinner. This may involve chipping out my car.

The flight back was crowded because another flight to the NY area had been cancelled -- the meant no free seats and no chance of an upgrade, and no real overhead space. There were 3 infants sitting around me, all of whom were quiet and well behaved.

Tea now, LJ catchup and email stuff in a little while.

Did I miss anything while I was mostly away from LJ the past week?