onyxhawke

After Friday night I never did put my contacts back in so if I didn't recognize you, I'm sorry I couldn't actually see you from more than a few feet away and your name tag was a total lost cause.

I really love Ravencon, and in case I didn't mention it enough times during the con Vietnam 1 about two blocks down the road is one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at.

My Q&A/Pitch session was so packed that we never got to the pitch session. Lot's of good questions, some of which I can predict will be asked at any given Q&A session, but loads of others too. It was nice to have an actively interested group.

The Mil-SF panel was fun, we covered a decent amount of ground, and everyone on the panel actually contributed.

If you are free the second weekend of April next year you should Ravencon on your list of things to do, the short list.

If you want to be a programing participant and couldn't get onto the programming this year definitely start emailing soon. Most of the panels I was on or looked in on had five or six panelists.

Names you need to meet at a con: Gail Martin, Kelly Lockhart, Chuck Gannon, Peter Prelwitz, Bud Sparhawk, Allan Wold, Gray Reinhart, David Coe, Randy Milholland, James Maxey, Ed Shubert, I've met all of these people but Randy, Gray & Bud before and they are all fun.

Thank you again to the staff and volunteers at Ravencon, my co-panelists and the folks who helped me with the anime panel via Facebook.

Having gotten buried in reading, both work and fun, I completely neglected to book a flight for Ravencon this year. That's now done. Next years con schedule is rounding out too. It looks like; Boskone, Norwescon and World Fantasy Con.

Those who were at Lunacon will be unsurprised that the Good is by far the longest section.


The good:
I arrived just before seven pm Thursday, having not eaten since mid day, I was merely famished. Dave & Barb Freer were in the lobby ready to start eating anyone who stopped moving, or was wearing an attractive cologne not having had a chance to eat since very early in the day. Eric Flint was there, as well as the Hoyt Collective. Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon arrived not to long after I did. We finally departed a bit after nine when it became noticeable that the Freer's and I were possibly not joking about which people would taste best with teriyaki and which with mango and papaya slices. ( Read more... )

Next Con:
Ravencon!

Conjecture has wrapped and i met some fun people. Getting to meet sartorias , shweta_narayan ,gregvaneekhout and half a dozen others was fun. I got to catch up with old friends, and was saved the wrath of a con chair when someone else brought up a topic i was told not to mention. Conjecture was a smallish fairly laid back con. The hotel wasn't bad, in fact for the cost of the rooms you got a real nice place to leave your things while you wandered around to parties, panels and other events.

The Darkcon party was a blast and had some interesting mixed drinks. I may some day be forgiven for assisting my friends and other party goers in trying some of them.


It's sorta funny how all cons have their own vibe and how much or little the vibe changes year year. I've been lucky enough to get to Ravencon is a quietly intense literary con that is moving strongly towards being more of a general SF con. Right now it has a feel that is remarkably similar to Boskone despite the lack of cross over.

Arisia, which is only a month and half a city away from Boskone is very different. Arisia is very much a general con, and a great place to make friends across the sf/f fandom spectrum. Costumes are probably as high as 1 in 10 people, where as i don't recall seeing anyone at Ravencon or Boskone in costume.

Pi-Con is higher-than-most-energy con, with a much younger base than the others I've mentioned and is heavily into gaming, with strong filk, fannish, and literary elements.

Conjecture, which was about the same size as Raven had a good mix of interesting people, but I think it needs more people from outside the immediate area to get it from a fun con to a great con. Myself, Jason Cordova, and David Drake seemed like the only real "outsiders" at the con. Everyone else seemed to know each other. This can be fun, and it was but there was a lack of spark that you get when new elements are mixed in at the right proportion. I do intend to go back some day because I did enjoy it, and i'll probably decide to make a real vacation out of the trip.

One thing I won't be doing if I go back is visiting Hunter's Steakhouse. We had reservations, got their at 8:45 Saturday night, and it wasn't too busy. We got sat pretty much right away. It took 15 minutes before our drink order was taken. The two tables that were sat after us, one by fifteen minutes, one by thirty both got their food before we did. In fact when the first of them was sat, the waitress had our drinks in her hands, put them down on an empty table, took their drink order, walked back by the drinks and our table like none of it was there. She then came back with something for the new table, and again walked by our drinks three times.

This is when one of the people i was with got up and got our drinks. The waitress came back as we are all drinking and apologized, saying that she was coming back to give them too us. Ten minutes had elapsed while our drinks sat there. Were now almost forty minutes into our window to eat and get back for one of the party of six to get back to a panel.

Time goes by...

Our orders come, I looked at the steak of the person who had ordered medium well. Generously speaking it was medium, honestly speaking it was too red for a lot of people who like medium rare. Not surprisingly she sent it back. About three minutes later the steak is brought back, it's still medium. Again it goes back. On the third try it was close enough to medium well for this person to eat. I've eaten with this person before, and never seen her send anything back. I've cooked and waited tables, and getting it wrong once is sad, but forgivable getting it wrong twice is about the time you should start worrying if the pooch is on birth control. It took us almost two and half hours to get in and out at a half full restaurant.

Conjecture was the last con of the year for me, and much as I wish i could go to WFC, Calgary is just too far to when I've been to Denver and San Diego already this year. I should be at WFC next year, and in Montreal. Ravencon and Lunacon are the only definite dates at this point. I'd like to go to Arisia, Balticon, and Boskone this year but other events might push them down the scale.

Don't forget davefreer's Slowtrain is available in hard cover on 10/1, and the paperback of Pyramid Power is now available. It should be noted that the Slowtrain review up does contain spoilers.

The fabulous ladies and gentlemen at Conjecture have given me my schedule, I'm pleased.

Friday 4-5&change
Pitch Session / Agent Q&A
Mike "OnyxHawke" Kabongo

Friday: 5:30
Zombie Ninja Monkey Pirate Robots
Mike "OnyxHawke" Kabongo, Batton Lash, John W. Oliver, Martin Young

Saturday 10am
The Science and Art of Logistics
Stoney Compton, Rick Galli, Mike "OnyxHawke" Kabongo, Jefferson P. Swycaffer

Saturday 1130am
Writers' Groups: How and Why
Mike "OnyxHawke" Kabongo, Shweta Narayan, John W. Oliver, Greg van Eekhout

Sunday: 10 am
Military in other genres
Jason Cordova, David Drake, Mike "OnyxHawke" Kabongo, Martin Young

1pm
Where has all the science gone?
Mike "OnyxHawke" Kabongo, Lynn Maudlin, Stephen W. Potts, Nathaniel Smith, William H. Stoddard


Per usual, anyone who sees me wandering around when I'm supposed to be someplace please, please, please point me in the right direction.

And don't mistake me for a morning person while I'm in CA, it's three hours behind my normal times. Hell, i don't expect to sleep Friday night.

And no it's not to late to go, the Con Chair mentioned she wants more of you there. Besides, there's a rumor going around about the con book bio of a certain person who will be there...

I just got an auto call from the airline saying my flight has been canceled. I'm now on a flight that was scheduled earlier, but now leaves later and (in theory) arrives earlier. I should probably call my ride...

For those who missed it, Sartorias held a Bittercon over the weekend, and DaveFreer posted and JamesEnge commented on during it.

I actually managed to leave my house a bit early today. Which is good, otherwise i would have ended up dithering around and packing another ten pounds of stuff into my bags. Not stuff i needed, but merely stuff I saw and couldn't resist the challenge of trying to fit it into my bag. My drive down to the shuttle was fine. I got there early, the shuttle was clean, nearly empty and on time. I got to the airport and despite hellalot of people in front of me (okay, about 15) i was seated in Legal Seafoods at Terminal C 13 minutes after stepping uff the shuttle. This is several kinds of marvel at Logan. Normally it takes people twenty minutest to understand they do need their ID, and it is helpful to remember what city they are flying to. I adore competent travelers!.

I ate. for the first time in about 22 hours and the food was excellent even for Legal Seafoods. I saw hellalong lines at the check point. Marvel of marvels, it took less than 15 minutes to go from back of the line to shoes back on. I adore competent travelers!.I get to my terminal and there is something new. Something glorious and new. Something glorious and powerful and new. I speak of course of the power outlets installed int he new bench seats that not only don't have stains and rips, have power outlets..I nearly leaped for joy. Instead, i sat down,. plugged my laptop in, hit the power button and heard The Call.

Yes, the call telling me my flights gate had been changed. I was ok with this. Really. Then I got to that gate, where there were also clean, unripped, powered chairs and found out sorry no connection for you ! Yep, the 13 minutes someone had booked between my landing in JFK and leaving for Denver wasn't gonna work with the delay of the incoming flight. The nice, nice man offered me a direct flight. I said 'Sure, you're the best!' and nearly did a happy dance.Then he even called and got my bags moved. If he'd been a woman i would have proposed. Then he told me the bad news.My  shiny direct flight doesn't leave until about three hours after the flght i was supposed to be on. Oddly, this new flight landed only about 35 minutes after the flight i should have been on. I went meh and trudged off to the bar. Here, my challenge is to remain sober enough over the next couple hours to be allowed to board my flight.

Sadly it is way to lound to do slush or anything productive.