WorldCon 2016 Day 4: Party Time!
First, here's a group pic of the Hugo Award winners, courtesy of B&N Sci Fi & Fantasy's Twitter post. The awesome lady near the front in the smashing turquoise dress? That's Michi Trota. I am OVER THE MOON happy for her and all the staff of Uncanny Magazine. I love the magazine; they publish some stunning spec fic. 
ANYway. Now back to the me-me-me report. Tired of me saying I'm having a good time? Too bad. I'm not tired of reporting it.My day started with a little Olympics news fix over breakfast at the delightful Kaldi's Coffee. The place was staffed for a Saturday in a business district...not for a Saturday with a bunch of caffeine-craving science-fiction fans in town. They kept ahead of the rush and remained unruffled throughout. Impressive. I would be at this place a lot if it were closer. Firepot Breakfast tea was the selection of the day.I can't seem to get a picture of the light rail. Yes, Kansas City has mass transit. Better mass transit than Chicagoland, even. It's a trolley, but a sleek, fifties-future aesthetic trolley --the system is brand new, so it's all clean, well-lit, and quiet. Rattle-and-shaky, but quietly so. Oh, and it's free at the moment, as well as being new. So you can go in a big circle around the couple of miles of downtown area without walking it all. It's completely unnecessary for the day to day of the con, but we used it last night getting to and from the pizza place, so I'm gushing about it now. Here endeth the mass transit envy gushing. Back to the con.After breakfast, I was off to face the crowds at the con. Okay, so...not crowds, exactly. C2E2, WizardWorld Chicago and GenCon have affected my threshold for defining crowd. Busier day in the booth, though. Saturday is the busiest day of th con.I still snuck away for tasty lunch from a con center vendor (it's true!) and for a panel on medical errors/misrepresentation in SFF/media in general. It was informative all the way from its beginning --defining the difference between accepted conventions (instant sedation, f'rex) and far reaching and egregious error--to a pleasantly technical discussion at the end on genetic modification tropes and portrayals of alien diseases and viral loads. The word plausible came up a lot.Fun dinner, and then the Hugo Awards. Rancor and drama may have occurred. I was not witness to nor privy to any of it. use the interet to look up "file 770" or "live blog Hugo Awards 2016," or search #HugoAwards on twitter and you will know almost everything about it I do. Personal highlights: Uncanny Magazine won in its category, and N K Jemison snagged Best Novel. Nasty folk on Twitter have bad things to say. I am ignoring it all. Toastmaster Pat Cadigan wrapped it all up with a remark to any losers who might be whinging: "Suck it up, Buttercup."I wrote this hanging out in a quiet corner of the Marriott listening to filk songs (again, the internet is your friend) and generally hanging out on the fringes. Good times in my comfort zone. Tomorrow's a big day, so I'm off to snooze early tonight. Early for me, that is.The latest in random pics. (Previously posted to Facebook) I'll let you decide which is which.1. A pretty but non-functioning drinking fountain in our hotel2. The line outside the con before opening3. Press taking pictures of people at Wordfire Press--Todd McCaffrey & Alan Dean Foster were there today along with Eric Flint, Charles Gannon, Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon, Cat Rambo, Walter Hunt...4. The best con sandwich ever. Pulled pork with crispy onions and fresh kettle chips on the side.5. Gaffer tape. A new discovery for me. I want some.
ANYway. Now back to the me-me-me report. Tired of me saying I'm having a good time? Too bad. I'm not tired of reporting it.My day started with a little Olympics news fix over breakfast at the delightful Kaldi's Coffee. The place was staffed for a Saturday in a business district...not for a Saturday with a bunch of caffeine-craving science-fiction fans in town. They kept ahead of the rush and remained unruffled throughout. Impressive. I would be at this place a lot if it were closer. Firepot Breakfast tea was the selection of the day.I can't seem to get a picture of the light rail. Yes, Kansas City has mass transit. Better mass transit than Chicagoland, even. It's a trolley, but a sleek, fifties-future aesthetic trolley --the system is brand new, so it's all clean, well-lit, and quiet. Rattle-and-shaky, but quietly so. Oh, and it's free at the moment, as well as being new. So you can go in a big circle around the couple of miles of downtown area without walking it all. It's completely unnecessary for the day to day of the con, but we used it last night getting to and from the pizza place, so I'm gushing about it now. Here endeth the mass transit envy gushing. Back to the con.After breakfast, I was off to face the crowds at the con. Okay, so...not crowds, exactly. C2E2, WizardWorld Chicago and GenCon have affected my threshold for defining crowd. Busier day in the booth, though. Saturday is the busiest day of th con.I still snuck away for tasty lunch from a con center vendor (it's true!) and for a panel on medical errors/misrepresentation in SFF/media in general. It was informative all the way from its beginning --defining the difference between accepted conventions (instant sedation, f'rex) and far reaching and egregious error--to a pleasantly technical discussion at the end on genetic modification tropes and portrayals of alien diseases and viral loads. The word plausible came up a lot.Fun dinner, and then the Hugo Awards. Rancor and drama may have occurred. I was not witness to nor privy to any of it. use the interet to look up "file 770" or "live blog Hugo Awards 2016," or search #HugoAwards on twitter and you will know almost everything about it I do. Personal highlights: Uncanny Magazine won in its category, and N K Jemison snagged Best Novel. Nasty folk on Twitter have bad things to say. I am ignoring it all. Toastmaster Pat Cadigan wrapped it all up with a remark to any losers who might be whinging: "Suck it up, Buttercup."I wrote this hanging out in a quiet corner of the Marriott listening to filk songs (again, the internet is your friend) and generally hanging out on the fringes. Good times in my comfort zone. Tomorrow's a big day, so I'm off to snooze early tonight. Early for me, that is.The latest in random pics. (Previously posted to Facebook) I'll let you decide which is which.1. A pretty but non-functioning drinking fountain in our hotel2. The line outside the con before opening3. Press taking pictures of people at Wordfire Press--Todd McCaffrey & Alan Dean Foster were there today along with Eric Flint, Charles Gannon, Mercedes Lackey & Larry Dixon, Cat Rambo, Walter Hunt...4. The best con sandwich ever. Pulled pork with crispy onions and fresh kettle chips on the side.5. Gaffer tape. A new discovery for me. I want some.