WorldCon/Spokane, Days 1-5
Aug. 24th, 2015 07:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
totchipandaWell, obvs daily posting about WorldCon fell by the wayside. It didn't seem to be quite as good of a con to me as San Antonio was. I dunno. Not a lot of programming that I was interested in and the con layout was a bit confusing. There was a whole block of rooms that you had to go up, over, down, over, and back up again to get to. The con suite was on the top floor of the hotel, and I understand why it couldn't be anywhere else, but the set up was very poor. It was in a suite-room and there was no place for anyone to sit, except for a couple of rooms across the hall which were regular hotel rooms with the beds removed. Trying to get on the elevator up to that floor was an exercise in patience, if not outright futility. It also seems a bit odd for the connecting hallway between the hotel and the conference centre to lead to sleeping rooms rather than more conference rooms, and I recall there being mention of food service contracts in place which meant that the con, nor anyone else, could serve food on the premises. (Specifically, I recall attendees being notified on facebook that we weren't allowed to bring in outside food at all.) not their fault, but we ended up spending more money on food because we are not patient people.
And definitely not anyone's fault, but the fires in central Washington made everything more interesting too. Every day has been hazy and smokey, with friday being the woooorst. It was orangey all day with the smoke in the air, and I heard that not only were people recommended to stay inside after 3pm, but the president declared a state of emergency over air quality?
There was a pretty funny moment on their FB page on Saturday when attendance hit 11, 330 members. Memberships! Award ceremonies! Blue skies! Yay!
I was interested in the outcome of this year's Hugo awards too after the puppy slate controversies. I didn't go, and regretted it since our wifi at the hotel was so spectacularly bad that it literally would have been faster to walk over to the con and ask about it. It took 45 minutes to get Twitter to load enough to see if the general outcome was puppy-free (it was completely puppy-free, but the puppy stance on the topic makes it difficult to declare a victory. No puppy-nominated wins, the SJWs are intolerant assholes who vote like a herd of sheep! if there has been any puppy-nominated wins, yes "classic" science fiction prevails! Take that SJWs!)
On Saturday we attended the Regency dance lesson in the most adorable and stunningly gorgeous hall. I got roped into dancing a set when someone had to leave lol. Afterwards, we (and mum) took the opportunity to go to Hancocks and Joann's. Oh those stores are dangerous. I got some patterns and a cute scarf, Nicole and mum bought fabric lol. We will probably find ourselves in one again before we go back to Canada. On our way back to the hotel, we discovered the magic of Sonic and wish we could have milkshakes every day (and indeed, purposely went out last night to get another one lol)
Yesterday we went to the con for a grand 2 hours. One for a panel, and one to wander the dealers hall one last time. I wanted to pick up some books, but book prices have come down on the last few years to only a dollar or two difference, and the exchange rate is so poor that it would actually cost more to buy books at American prices. Like a $14.99 US book would cost $19.93 cdn at the current exchange rate, when the Canadian list price is $17.50. Just not worth it, even though it made me a little sad to not give books a home! After that realization, we decided to go to the mall for lunch since the con suite was impossible to get into (it was closed and there was a huge crowd outside waiting). To get to the mall, we walked outside through the riverside park, where after lunch we took a gondola ride down to Spokane Falls and then a train tour of the park, which was the site of the 1974 world's fair. We were going to ride the 1908-built carousel with antique horses as well, but by then we were still so full from lunch and it was so hot out and the carousel seemed to go so fast and just the gondola ride had made my motion sickness flare up that we decided not to ride it.
Today we are leaving for Seattle-area. Naturally, I had weird dreams all night and woke up at "what the hell" o'clock. There's a raised train track right next to our hotel that was very active this morning. Sometimes the trains make enough vibrations to shake the door, which was happening this morning, so I was also scared that my car would wiggle itself loose from its spot, roll back and crash into another vehicle. Sigh, anxiety sucks.
Spokane has been wonderful, smoke and all. I love all of the architecture downtown, so much of it has been preserved since it was constructed. The prettiest one was a parking garage that was built as a parking garage in 1928 that is still standing and in use as a parking garage. I love it here and I never want to leave.
And definitely not anyone's fault, but the fires in central Washington made everything more interesting too. Every day has been hazy and smokey, with friday being the woooorst. It was orangey all day with the smoke in the air, and I heard that not only were people recommended to stay inside after 3pm, but the president declared a state of emergency over air quality?
There was a pretty funny moment on their FB page on Saturday when attendance hit 11, 330 members. Memberships! Award ceremonies! Blue skies! Yay!
I was interested in the outcome of this year's Hugo awards too after the puppy slate controversies. I didn't go, and regretted it since our wifi at the hotel was so spectacularly bad that it literally would have been faster to walk over to the con and ask about it. It took 45 minutes to get Twitter to load enough to see if the general outcome was puppy-free (it was completely puppy-free, but the puppy stance on the topic makes it difficult to declare a victory. No puppy-nominated wins, the SJWs are intolerant assholes who vote like a herd of sheep! if there has been any puppy-nominated wins, yes "classic" science fiction prevails! Take that SJWs!)
On Saturday we attended the Regency dance lesson in the most adorable and stunningly gorgeous hall. I got roped into dancing a set when someone had to leave lol. Afterwards, we (and mum) took the opportunity to go to Hancocks and Joann's. Oh those stores are dangerous. I got some patterns and a cute scarf, Nicole and mum bought fabric lol. We will probably find ourselves in one again before we go back to Canada. On our way back to the hotel, we discovered the magic of Sonic and wish we could have milkshakes every day (and indeed, purposely went out last night to get another one lol)
Yesterday we went to the con for a grand 2 hours. One for a panel, and one to wander the dealers hall one last time. I wanted to pick up some books, but book prices have come down on the last few years to only a dollar or two difference, and the exchange rate is so poor that it would actually cost more to buy books at American prices. Like a $14.99 US book would cost $19.93 cdn at the current exchange rate, when the Canadian list price is $17.50. Just not worth it, even though it made me a little sad to not give books a home! After that realization, we decided to go to the mall for lunch since the con suite was impossible to get into (it was closed and there was a huge crowd outside waiting). To get to the mall, we walked outside through the riverside park, where after lunch we took a gondola ride down to Spokane Falls and then a train tour of the park, which was the site of the 1974 world's fair. We were going to ride the 1908-built carousel with antique horses as well, but by then we were still so full from lunch and it was so hot out and the carousel seemed to go so fast and just the gondola ride had made my motion sickness flare up that we decided not to ride it.
Today we are leaving for Seattle-area. Naturally, I had weird dreams all night and woke up at "what the hell" o'clock. There's a raised train track right next to our hotel that was very active this morning. Sometimes the trains make enough vibrations to shake the door, which was happening this morning, so I was also scared that my car would wiggle itself loose from its spot, roll back and crash into another vehicle. Sigh, anxiety sucks.
Spokane has been wonderful, smoke and all. I love all of the architecture downtown, so much of it has been preserved since it was constructed. The prettiest one was a parking garage that was built as a parking garage in 1928 that is still standing and in use as a parking garage. I love it here and I never want to leave.
