Introduction
Allo allo allo. Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, a/k/a 
sturgeonslawyer, and also known at various times as Dan Oakes, net.roach, Evelyn (A Modified Dog), TPC Badger, and various others of which I'm too lazy to think at the moment. I rather expect that some old rasfw/rasfr friends may pop up here ... certainly hope so.
Active SF/F reader since before I knew what SF was: as a gradeschooler I associated "science fiction" with "scary stuff," and didn't want to read that, but was at the same time reading the juveniles of Silverberg, Del Rey, Leinster, and suchlike. Eventually I realized that there were more books by these people in the section labelled "science fiction," discovered Norton and Heinlein there, and the rest was inevitable.
First fanac: starting a club at my high school in 1973. We eventually published three very pretentious issues of an offset fanzine, fiction and fannish stuff combined, and the club continued after I left, so I guess that was a success.
First con: Discon 2, in 1974. My main accomplishments there were getting cussed out by Harlan Ellison (for being the 2,846th person to ask him that day when The Last DV was coming out), and spending so much money in the dealers' room that I didn't have food money or cabfare to the airport. Since I didn't know about con parties, food was a real problem; fortunately, I'd prebought banquet tickets, and someone at the table with me volunteered to take me to the airport. My travelling friend, Bufo, had the same problem, and tried to sell some unused camera film ... Forry Ackerman saw him doing this and lent him $20 on the spur of the moment. A total stranger: that's the kind of guy Forry was. (I make it sound like he's dead. Ummm, he isn't, is he?)
I've never been a very regular con attender, mostly because I have problems with crowds. I'd rather watch most movies on my TV than go to a theater, that kind of thing? But I've been very active in online fandom since ... well, let's just say I remember when sf-lovers was email only.
Worst fan experience: I had a leg injury the year of Confrancisco and could only attend one day. I picked Sunday, figuring on watching the Hugo ceremony. When I arrived, I found that the concom had made me the moderator of a panel on Saturday and had neglected to tell me. (And it was a panel I could really have sunk my teeth into!) For the rest of the day, I kept running into people who asked me where the heck I'd been... One result was that I didn't bother attending Conjose at all, and felt rotten about it afterwards.
I note with pleasure that a lot of classic fanstuff has made it to the Web, including things like The Enchanted Duplicator. Is there any hope for The Capture? Perhaps as a Powerpoint or Flash...?
sturgeonslawyer, and also known at various times as Dan Oakes, net.roach, Evelyn (A Modified Dog), TPC Badger, and various others of which I'm too lazy to think at the moment. I rather expect that some old rasfw/rasfr friends may pop up here ... certainly hope so.Active SF/F reader since before I knew what SF was: as a gradeschooler I associated "science fiction" with "scary stuff," and didn't want to read that, but was at the same time reading the juveniles of Silverberg, Del Rey, Leinster, and suchlike. Eventually I realized that there were more books by these people in the section labelled "science fiction," discovered Norton and Heinlein there, and the rest was inevitable.
First fanac: starting a club at my high school in 1973. We eventually published three very pretentious issues of an offset fanzine, fiction and fannish stuff combined, and the club continued after I left, so I guess that was a success.
First con: Discon 2, in 1974. My main accomplishments there were getting cussed out by Harlan Ellison (for being the 2,846th person to ask him that day when The Last DV was coming out), and spending so much money in the dealers' room that I didn't have food money or cabfare to the airport. Since I didn't know about con parties, food was a real problem; fortunately, I'd prebought banquet tickets, and someone at the table with me volunteered to take me to the airport. My travelling friend, Bufo, had the same problem, and tried to sell some unused camera film ... Forry Ackerman saw him doing this and lent him $20 on the spur of the moment. A total stranger: that's the kind of guy Forry was. (I make it sound like he's dead. Ummm, he isn't, is he?)
I've never been a very regular con attender, mostly because I have problems with crowds. I'd rather watch most movies on my TV than go to a theater, that kind of thing? But I've been very active in online fandom since ... well, let's just say I remember when sf-lovers was email only.
Worst fan experience: I had a leg injury the year of Confrancisco and could only attend one day. I picked Sunday, figuring on watching the Hugo ceremony. When I arrived, I found that the concom had made me the moderator of a panel on Saturday and had neglected to tell me. (And it was a panel I could really have sunk my teeth into!) For the rest of the day, I kept running into people who asked me where the heck I'd been... One result was that I didn't bother attending Conjose at all, and felt rotten about it afterwards.
I note with pleasure that a lot of classic fanstuff has made it to the Web, including things like The Enchanted Duplicator. Is there any hope for The Capture? Perhaps as a Powerpoint or Flash...?