Wander's Wonderings

I am home again, after a swift and uneventful drive. Both Sam and Z are snubbing me at the moment, after spending nearly half an hour glued to my ankles. I expect they will attempt to pin me in the bed once I go there.

Con*Strict was wonderful as always, hanging out with people I generally only get to see once or twice a year. I did some Sanctuary pimping, and encouraging people to go read White Wing by Gordon Kendall, as I want to write/request it for Yuletide. Got some encouragement and good thoughts on the Sanctuary big bang story I am writing -- and I managed to get in 15 mins of writing/100+ new words every day. So far this every single day thing is working for July.

Many other excellent conversations and panels/discussions, plus I got the borders of a dozen crochet stars finished. I think I am going to leave that project out where I can see it, to attempt getting Even More Done.

Most astonishingly, I appear to have placed first in the Up Close and Emotional icon challenge!

Thank you to everyone for a wonderful con!

Fascinating: Tiny internet servers (Link goes to NYTimes, which may require (free) subscription).

Happiest of happies to batdina! (Now belated - I had meant to post this yesterday, sorry!)

The Original Original Recipe for Coca Cola

Thoughts for Purimfest are coming together, and I see from my AO3 dashboard that whoever got me is Very Fast! I also need to get some thought going for my Cockbert Big Bang story again.

I am off and away to Gallifrey One's Catch 22, Islands of Mystery convention, this weekend, and Escapade the following, and staying in the LA area for the days in the middle. Wheee! I will have the netbook (and the work PC) but will not be around as much as usual. Not to mention dependent on hotel internet.

I got nothing done today, it seems like. I forgot I was out of cat food, and had to dash out to the sound of yowling outrage (Sam was happy to get wet food for dinner, Z had no idea what to do with it) though I did come away from the store with a cat-tree as well. It was on sale. Z hasn't figured out how to get to the very top yet, but I am confident he will in very short order.

Yesterday I got another Postcard written: Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Knight, to The Doctor for jamie and On AO3 here.

I have an idea of doing a 5-things piece based on yesterday's character meme, for Methos, but have had no get up and go to actually do it today. Maybe I am just cold, though it was much warmer than yesterday.

And because I got essentially no work-work done today I will have to do it tomorrow. Oh well. My own silly fault. I did some mill-treading yesterday, but am very uninspired to do it today. Bah.

I have figured out what I want to make for Gallifrey, so I have at least one new piece to wear -- I am going to (try) to get the periwinkle frock-coat made, that was always meant to be part of the Doctor-figure in the 3 Sisters. Just got to get my get up and go in order.

First off - thank you everyone who commented on yesterday's entry. I do intend to reply to everyone, but I'm not quite there. The hugs and good thoughts were & are much appreciated.

I went to the Estrella war-practice event here today, mostly because it was also the polling for the next Baron and Baroness of Tir Ysgithr, so I felt it important to cast my ballot. I would have been happy with any of the three, and the one I expected to win did, and I think they will do a good job. I will need to make a few more 14th Cent outfits though. I'm glad I went & saw people, and was sorry to just come home, rather than going to dinner & hanging out with people for longer, but I was not in a sufficiently social place. But I will definitely be at the household meeting next week.

Got a tiny, tiny bit of writing done, mostly an exercise - I picked one of the sets of bingo-prompts & wrote for fifteen or twenty minutes, just writing. I may keep going with it - there does seem to be potential for an entire story there. I will need to decide pretty quickly if it's going to be all-original, semi-fannish or all-fannish, though. I will see what develops.

In other news, I have my membership & hotel arrangements for Gallifrey in Feb. Really looking forward to that.

I am off to Con*Strict! Wheeeee!

Back in Tucson on Monday late.

Iron Poet (also called Bouts-Rimes) is a fun thing they do at BayCon, where one is given the last word of each line and a limited time (overnight or about an hour, depending on whether the list is in the newsletter) to write a 14-line poem. They generally do it twice, once on Saturday and again on Sunday. I've won with 3 out of the 5 poems I've done. A nice explanation is here on the BayCon '08 page.

Below are the 3 winners. If I manage to find the other two (why do I have so many *different* working notebooks?) I'll post them too.

There is no '08 poem because I was not able to attend this year, though since the first set of words is posted on the website, maybe I'll write one anyway....

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Baycon '07 Iron Poet Grand Prize winner
(Extra points for including 'silver' for the silver anniversary of the convention, and 'gnomes', for reasons I've forgotten.)

In Memoriam

O where might one begin to find a name
Among the serried stones that mark such loss?
Rank on rank march onward, grey with moss,
And every pillar marks a soul who came
To this far place, to stand against the flame
That threatened to devour all; to toss
The bones of chance and reach across
The void to hold the line. O t’was not fame
That moved them thus, desire to be known,
But desperate need - and desperately brave
(Now, genii loci, gnomes, myth glorified)
They joined together, sent the silver tide
That drowned the flame, and died, each one alone;
No homecoming, unless home is a grave.


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BayCon '06 -- Saturday winner
(Extra points for including as many kinds of purple as possible, in honor of Kitty VonBraskat, the con chair)

Still there stands the melancholy pillar
Where once in lilac haze spread Naessa City
The stairs shone fair on blacksmith, lord and miller
And sun and shadow chased the argent Kitty.
Amethyst the air that sere now burns
And ash and smoke wreathe hyacinthine urns.
An Ilium, that long withstood the killer
But still succumbed to time that ever turns
The river runs in dark serenity
The star lanes flow from Vos to Hillary
Where corporations ceaseless strive to jerry-
Rig a copy- a lavender obscenity:
For Naessa pillar yet she burns - a freaky
Violet Fire - a timeless purple tiki


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BayCon '05 -- Sunday winner

The summer has begun, the gull and jay
are crowing with delight by shore and lake
The rains are gone, the sun now strong - oh thank
Whatever force or form you wish! The bay
Now blossoms boats, the hills rejoice and break
Their spring-long, mourning-green with rain and dank
’Neath grey-clad skies. The golden poppies make
The sun shine double-bright. Bees dance in frank
Amazement at the sight, while sparrows woo
And tease above where duck rubs beak with drake.
The oak and laurel, hawthorn white with May
Are summer’s stalwarts, dressed as artists drew
Of old in ageless light. Yet winter’s yew
Stands dark to say: The summer cannot stay.

I am off to Baycon in just a couple of hours -- yes, my plane leaves at 6:45am. I am staying up for it, since I have to leave the house no later than 4:30am to get to the long term lot & get to the airport Well In Advance so I can sit about the gate and Write Dammit! for some time before the plane actually leaves.

I am taking the computer, and will, I hope (or Face Retribution!) post to LJ about the trip.

California, here I come!