wiscon and home
Jun. 1st, 2012 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishThis couple of weeks has been good for me. My fingers are getting twitchy and odd phrases strike off ideas like sparks. Very slow time travel. Language as the originator of memory. We used to be star people. I'd forgotten what it feels like to want to write.
A few months ago I listed all the things I want to do, as sort of a way to demonstrate to myself that there is literally not enough time to do them all. Means I've been less worried about lower-priority things like learning to play go well, or writing interactive fiction, or what have you. Helpful as far as it went: gives me a bit more focus, all that. I'm starting to think I need to write out a list of goals and steps I can take to further those goals. You know, like a real grown-up. Having something specific I can do every day is likely to help a lot.
The above was written on Monday in O'Hare, over the course of several hours during which it was too warm to think or focus on anything for more than about five minutes at a stretch.
Since then nebulous work-related stress has eaten much of my energy. Scared that this is going to be an ongoing state of affairs; pushing on anyway, because other options are worse.
Anyway,
Wednesday night we flew in to Madison through O'Hare, which continued to be a perfectly decent airport as far as I'm concerned. Thursday was lunch with an ABG friend we'd just seen at the beach, and then I barricaded myself in the room to finish the readings and critiques for the writers workshop Friday morning. Missed the Room of One's Own readings, which irritated me a bit since that was most of the reason we'd come in so early. Oh well.
The workshop went pretty well: comments both helpful and encouraging (oh look, another story I need to double in length), good people, etc.
Afterwards I volunteered at registration for most of the afternoon. My job consisted of asking for people's names, flipping through a box to find their badge, handing out the badge and any dessert tickets, and (if they'd not been to Wiscon before) giving a quick spiel on the virtues of the pocket program book and the First WisCon Dinner. It was a lot of fun: I got to see everyone as they came in, meet a couple of new folks, and generally make myself useful. Would volunteer again.
Satyrday and Sunday are a blur of panels, the dealer's room, and hanging out withrbandrews and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
diadelphous and occasionally merseine. Panels and such tended to be 'good but not mind-blowing,' with occasional audience-member-thinks-zie's-a-panelist issues. Still well worth attending. Had dinner at a tapas place on Sunday with aamcnamara, LaShawn, and Klagor, which was as much fun and awesome as expected. (Looking forward to Readercon and a different but equally awesome selection of #vpxv.) Completely failed to locate any of the small number of people I only know from DW that I knew would be at the con; mostly continued to not introduce myself to people I think are awesome, although I did finally go up to elisem and say hello.
Through a combination of repacking, compressing, and generally finding extra space we didn't know was there, we managed to pack everything into the same four bags we came with, and dodged having to check luggage. Seriously, I have no idea how we managed to squeeze everything AND MORE into the same amount of space. Mad packing skillz, yo.
And now home, and work, and generally feeling drained, and all that jazz.
A few months ago I listed all the things I want to do, as sort of a way to demonstrate to myself that there is literally not enough time to do them all. Means I've been less worried about lower-priority things like learning to play go well, or writing interactive fiction, or what have you. Helpful as far as it went: gives me a bit more focus, all that. I'm starting to think I need to write out a list of goals and steps I can take to further those goals. You know, like a real grown-up. Having something specific I can do every day is likely to help a lot.
The above was written on Monday in O'Hare, over the course of several hours during which it was too warm to think or focus on anything for more than about five minutes at a stretch.
Since then nebulous work-related stress has eaten much of my energy. Scared that this is going to be an ongoing state of affairs; pushing on anyway, because other options are worse.
Anyway,
Wednesday night we flew in to Madison through O'Hare, which continued to be a perfectly decent airport as far as I'm concerned. Thursday was lunch with an ABG friend we'd just seen at the beach, and then I barricaded myself in the room to finish the readings and critiques for the writers workshop Friday morning. Missed the Room of One's Own readings, which irritated me a bit since that was most of the reason we'd come in so early. Oh well.
The workshop went pretty well: comments both helpful and encouraging (oh look, another story I need to double in length), good people, etc.
Afterwards I volunteered at registration for most of the afternoon. My job consisted of asking for people's names, flipping through a box to find their badge, handing out the badge and any dessert tickets, and (if they'd not been to Wiscon before) giving a quick spiel on the virtues of the pocket program book and the First WisCon Dinner. It was a lot of fun: I got to see everyone as they came in, meet a couple of new folks, and generally make myself useful. Would volunteer again.
Satyrday and Sunday are a blur of panels, the dealer's room, and hanging out with
rbandrews and diadelphous and occasionally merseine. Panels and such tended to be 'good but not mind-blowing,' with occasional audience-member-thinks-zie's-a-panelist issues. Still well worth attending. Had dinner at a tapas place on Sunday with aamcnamara, LaShawn, and Klagor, which was as much fun and awesome as expected. (Looking forward to Readercon and a different but equally awesome selection of #vpxv.) Completely failed to locate any of the small number of people I only know from DW that I knew would be at the con; mostly continued to not introduce myself to people I think are awesome, although I did finally go up to elisem and say hello.Through a combination of repacking, compressing, and generally finding extra space we didn't know was there, we managed to pack everything into the same four bags we came with, and dodged having to check luggage. Seriously, I have no idea how we managed to squeeze everything AND MORE into the same amount of space. Mad packing skillz, yo.
And now home, and work, and generally feeling drained, and all that jazz.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-01 07:43 pm (UTC)But maybe I'm just in a mood to think Berlin-y things are interesting right now.
Totally agree about O'Hare too. Of all the airports that have boned me horribly, I don't think O'Hare is one of them. Contrast with ROA, which I have literally never once flown out of or into on time. And only twice (in 12 years) managed to get my luggage through.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 03:23 pm (UTC)O'Hare: not nearly as bad as its reputation! I wouldn't mind it at all except that it's where my luggage goes when it goes places without me. (Exception: if I'm going through O'Hare and my luggage goes places without me, it goes to Denver.)
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 03:42 pm (UTC)