WisCon 34 report

[sasha_feather]

Our lovely houseguests were aria, themeletor, and, briefly, epershand. In fact on Friday morning I woke up to find these three chatting in the living room, two cakes on the kitchen table, and glass growlers full of beautiful beer in my fridge. My life is pretty hard, I tell you.

Thursday we picked up some things from jesse_the_k, had lunch, and I hung around the hotel trying to do set up for Access. Mostly I was too early. I had supper with a bunch of people at a fancy pasta place; I was crabby; then later I went to Geekeoke and had a really good time. I got way too drunk on only three drinks (I suspect Karaoke Kid makes them strong) and jackshoegazer took me and some other folks home.

Friday I got my daily walk in (essential for my mental health, I am finding), headed to the hotel, continued to do set up for Access, and grabbed lunch with people (this was the fangirl lunch with wintercreek et al. which she has written about in her journal.)

I was on the panel "Flesh Colored Bandages and Skin Jobs in Real Life & SF". The room was full, the audience members said really good things, and the panelists did also. I felt like I talked a lot, but wrdnrd paid me a compliment regarding the things I said, so I think that was OK. I couple of people wanted to talk about it later, including one man who was interested in low-cost assistive tech. I think a good panel idea for next year would be, Do-it-Yourself assistive tech.

I hosted the first-time-attendee dinner which I really enjoyed. I took a large group of people to the Great Dane, not all of whom were first-timers. This was a good way to meet new people and also something entirely different from my normal con experience, which was refreshing. Unfortunately I turned my phone off and later had a couple of voicemails and texts telling me that someone needed to blue-tape before Opening Ceremonies (oops). Fortunately, someone else did it anyway.

I skipped the Gathering and the Opening Ceremonies in favor of chilling out. Attended the Carl Brandon Society, LJ/DW, and Karen Healy's book launch parties for a while before heading home.

Saturday

Had lunch with kal. Went to "Not Another F*cking Race Panel" which was hilarious and amazing. Ate a scone that were_duck made (dairy-free). Dropped in on "Fanfic and Slash 201" but wasn't feeling it, so went for a brief walk in the hot sun. Came back to catch the end of "Diversity in Gaming" which I enjoyed.

In the afternoon, I was on a panel called "Disabled Fen: Cluebricks, Ranting, Tips and Tricks". This panel went OK; karnythia and popelizbet were also on it and they are awesome. We had a small but interested audience. There were some things said on the panel that maybe I should talk about under lock.

jesse_the_k brought me supper while I blue-taped for the Tiptree Auction. Then I went swimming very briefly which was very much the right choice for me and allowed me to unwind. I should do this more often.

I skipped the auction and went up to the vid party which was amazing. starlady and I did the beer run. You can see the playlist with download links at damned_colonial>'s journal. This was a fantastic event. I think I stayed until about 1:30.

Sunday

Caught the very end of "Judging the Tiptree".

Don't remember what I did for lunch. Possibly the Old Fashioned with owlectomy, laceblace, skud, et al. Yes, that's right. I had an elderflower mimosa. I came in a bit late for "Fighting Imposter Syndrome" which was the best panel I attended. The panelists all had good things to say about the causes of IS and what to do about it. One person said, "Don't put all your self-esteem eggs in one basket" and to give yourself room to fail by making the stakes for failure very low (such as in knitting). I asked about "women's work" being devalued by society and the panelists and audience members had good things to say about money and concrete vs. abstract rewards. There were paper signs we could hold up saying "YOU ARE NOT ALONE." Towards the end there was what I am jokingly calling an "altar call", where people could come up to the mic and talk about what specifically made them feel like an impostor. The audience held up their signs. It was great!!! We all feel this way. Panel was four women, one man.

Went to Locksport Redux which hypatia was teaching in the spontaneous programming room. I am bad at picking locks but had fun, and this was a great low-key event (hahahah). Took a break for coffee with j00j and futuransky.

antarcticlust and Eric brought me dinner while I did set up for Guest of Honor speeches; we ate and went for a walk. I went up and took a nap and shower in someone's hotel room. The GoH speeches were amazing. Here is Mary Anne Mohanraj's speech. Left to set up and host Galactic Marmalade Party, and I got my photo taken in the photo booth. Stayed up until 3 am playing sock puppet theater with grrremlinski, Pete, raanve, and others. Nisi Shawl also did some singing and dancing at our party!

Monday

Went to lunch with cr0me_kitten and djkittycat which I really enjoyed. Took them to Anthologie and I bought a tie. I didn't go to any programming except the WisCon post-mortem. Did a bit of cleaning up. laceblade and I tagged along with some people to the Governor's club (a fancy place in the upper levels of the hotel where you can get free drinks and shit if you have a room there and a key card). Later we went to the Dead Cow party and then back to the bar where I was almost too tired to eat my food. Gathered up anna_bird and went home.

Tuesday I slept.

The end!

Comments

[raanve]

Your suspicion about Karaoke Kid & beverage strength is, I suspect, correct. Iiiiii was also drunk by the time we went back to the hotel room. ;)

Sock Puppet theater was one of the highlights of my con. &hearts!

I'm glad I got to see you! I think you're one of the best. :D

[sasha_feather]

I think you are one of the best too! :D Your sock puppet can make out with my sock puppet anytime. O_o

[sophygurl]

Still trying to connect faces/names/online names. Were you the puppet streaker? Because that was hilarious.

[raanve]

No, that was grremlinski, who is infinitely clever. :D

[sophygurl]

Ah, I thought everyone there was pretty clever myself!

[sasha_feather]

I mis-spelled her name; there is one more "r" in it!

[anna_bird]

Thank you for taking care of me! It was lovely to have a taste of Wiscon. Next year, damn it. Oh, and the drink menu survived all the way back to Texas, although it's a bit rumpled from airport shuffling. :)

[sasha_feather]

Yay for the drink menu! I was happy to take care of you for a little while. <3

[jesse_the_k]

Yeah! You chaired Access and hosted dinner & parties and attended workshops! Way to go.

And you had fun!

[sasha_feather]

Indeed! No wonder I am tired and a little crabby. I think I should do less next year. Like maybe JUST chair access and have fun! And maybe one panel... :D

[owlectomy]

You were seriously a rock star this weekend -- get lots of rest, it's well-earned!

Aw, I wish I had not fallen over asleep Sunday night. Sock puppet theater sounds AWESOME.

[sasha_feather]

Sock Puppet Theater was pretty awesome, but it was also pretty late (and fueled by late-night punchiness). It was really great to hang out with you and I hope I didn't embarrass you too much by burbling about your book. :)

[wintercreek]

Yay, it was so nice to meet you in person!

I would like to hear your thoughts on the Disabled Fen panel, as it was one I wanted to attend and missed due to schedule conflicts.

[sasha_feather]

So nice to meet you too! I was glad we got to have lunch together. I will try to write up that panel shortly.

[futuransky]

It was so great to see you! I think that with both our schedules there was really no way we were going to get to talking about the Symp article this weekend... IM or email me once you've recuperated a bit and we'll talk. :)

[sasha_feather]

Great to see you too! Will do.

[trouble]

I would love a DIY_assistive tech panel.

I'm going to start saving up for next year now. :)

[jesse_the_k]

Oh my yes!

[rhivolution]

So pissed that I missed out on the Disabled Fen panel. Will totally have to dig up writeups if there are any.

[grntserendipity.livejournal.com]

I thought your panel was awesome! (I was the one who suggested the "Panel of Listeners" :)

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

Hi! Did I talk to you in the hall on Saturday night outside the vid party? :D

Also, can you elaborate on your "listeners" idea, either here or by PM? I'll add it to my Access folder. (You could also put it in the WisCon survey).

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

I'm bummed that I missed your panels this year!

And yeah, you did a lot! I did way less than you and I was overwhelmed!

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

I was glad I got to see you for some things and catch part of your diversity in gaming panel! It is surprisingly easy to miss people at WisCon, I am finding. Next year I am going to try not to over-commit (she says futilely).