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We are back from Montreal, and we are in the process of getting back into the routine that we normally have, albeit with the most extreme reluctance. Despair at not being independently very wealthy set in not long after departure yesterday.

As usual, the BwB was awesome, and the height of the trip for us both. The panels and dealers and art of the Con, along with the city of Montreal itself, were just added bonuses. Despite the much more extensive time that we had this time to have conversations and quality time with the other members of the BwB, it is never enough.

A special note of thanks and gratitude goes to Mr. X and X-Ray, for having the courtesy and courage to put up with us dundering New Hampshirites as roommates yet again; it is appreciated a great deal. Also thanks to Mentat and Ser Scot, who accompanied me out into the city to get some last minute con supplies that were necessary.

The convention center was multiple blocks in size, which meant that finding the room that had the panel you were looking for a bit of a walk. The building itself was distinctive, having long vertical windows that were yellow, pink, blue, or green in color, alternating. There were also constructions inside that gave the appearance of being arteries or veins. Quite unattractive, really; and I do not know what purpose they were supposed to serve.

I thought that the city of Montreal was quite attractive; much more so than I was expecting. Granted, the total number of blocks covered in the city was a ridiculously small percentage of the overall city; but, what I saw was much better architecture than I had been led to believe. There was a dearth of good eateries within close proximity, but there were restaurants to be had, depending upon what you were looking for. In addition to a large Chinese restaurant ratio, there was also a decent amount of Italian places, which pleased me to no end. I regret not having had the opportunity to go back to any of them.

The party hotel was the Delta, where the four of us were rooming, which was convenient. Whenever one of use was done for the evening, we did not have to go far to retire. The party floors were the fifth and the twenty-eighth, so if you were on the fifth, you could avoid the crowds and elevators completely and go up the stairs. Ditto if you wanted to go from your room down a couple of flights.

I think Parris has already mentioned some of the problems that the party hotel had with the operational end of things, but one point that I would like to reiterate was the stupidity of having a bank of six elevators in the lobby, and only one of them being set aside for the party floors. I have no idea how bad the line for the two party floors became down in the lobby, but someone dropped the ball on that one, for sure.

I personally thought that the party room was the most interesting room, from an architecture point of view, that we have had, since Regina and I first became addicted to this whole con-going thing. There were three bathrooms, which was a great advantage. We had one set aside exclusively for the use of the water and sodas that we made available to the guests. The other two were right by the door, which normally would not have been a plus, except that it was in a recessed alcove, so you did not have quite as bad a crowd as one might think.

The third was upstairs, and the fact that there was a second floor was the most appealing thing about the place. From one spot on the upstairs landing, I was able to lurk – er, I mean, observe almost all three rooms in the place, and see what was going on in almost every area.

As an added bonus, the rooms had floor-to-ceiling windows that allowed for great night time views of the city, and the curtains were a nice gauze material that was subtly colored for an added effect.

We had a great turnout for the party, and I overheard or directly received multiple compliments throughout the course of the night on how the place looked. We had plenty of people for both the setup and the cleanup the next day, and while I was not there for the majority of the setup, being out on the town getting the aforementioned party necessities, I am under the distinct impression that things went smoothly. When you have done something enough times, one would hope that things go this way, and let’s face it, the BwB knows how to throw a party. We should probably be put in charge of many other things, when you get right down to it……

Other people have already mentioned the various knighting and the quests and have pictures, so I will not go into that here. I know Regina was made a Duchess, so I am presuming that I was made a Duke; I really wasn’t paying complete attention, to be honest.

We did encounter some slight complication during the cleanup. Due to either a lack, or a mis-communication on the part of the hotel and staff, and the con organizers, the maid was in the room at nine the next day, cleaning things up. In this case, “cleaning†meant throwing practically everything that was in the room into either garbage bags or random boxes with no organization whatever. If some of us had not arrived earlier than the ten am meeting time, who knows what would have been thrown out. Supplies that had been used, saved from the 2007 World Fantasy Con, and transported to this con for the party, would have been lost. Not to mention various items of outright personal property.

Fortunately, to the best of my knowledge, nothing was lost permanently, and we had everything back in order with our usual efficiency.

I only ended up going to two panels. Werewolves of Brigadoon was the one where the panelists were George, Peader, and Kari?, an historian on the Celts. The panel was easily one of the best, most informative, and funniest, that I have gone to over all of the cons that I have attended so far.

A quick aside – something that this con had which I had not encountered before were panels that were an hour and a half long. Considering that there are panels where you are looking at your watch after fifteen minutes, I was not sure how this would turn out. I cannot speak for anyone else, but the two panels that I did attend made the time seem short.

The other panel that I managed to get to was, I For One Welcome Our New Zombie Overlords. This was entertaining despite the fact that of the four moderators, only one of them regularly watched movies or read books pertaining to zombies. It was a good thing that we had some intelligent questions from the attendees, admittedly.

Apologies to Tenalpia, Mandy, Dracarys, Tyria, and Mr. Tyria for not being able to say goodbye.

Saying goodbye to the people that I was able to see one last time is the epitome of bittersweet, if anything is.

As usual, thanks to everyone for all of the excellent conversations, and when the hell are we getting together next?

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We are back from Montreal, and we are in the process of getting back into the routine that we normally have

I completely misread this as getting back into the poutine that we normally have.

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Had a great time and loved meeting everyone. I actually did very little actual Con stuff. Went to the Werewolves of Brigadoon panel, the Zombie one, and George's reading (the flosser!! wtf?!!). All three were awesome.

And of course, the BWB party. I did a short stint on the bar, and at the door. The door was fun. Explaining to people what the BWB was, and inviting them in. I eventually felt like I was bringing people into a cult. "Come on in, join us, meet the leader (a la Simpsons) muhahaha". Good times.

I had the most fun just hanging out with everyone. Finding Foufounes was just to schwankingly awesome. Seeing Loon's and Tenalpia's sigs just sent me and Mr. Tyr into yet another fit of giggles. I can't even say anymore about that without losing it, heh.

Finally back home. Day of hell at the airport. Our flight was cancelled, and the Air Canada people supposedly had us on the next one two hours later. Get to the desk only to find out that it was for the 9:30pm one. Finally got us on the 4:15 only to find that just Mr. Tyr had a seat, I was on standby. Couple hours of stress, but I got on too. That flight was delayed, and I was starting to feel like we lived in the Montreal airport. Yes, I am having a drink right now.

Still, overall a great time, and I miss everyone already.

p.s. yes I failed my mission. sorry Brady :P

Go Team Schwank.

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Human Battleship

Only 4 of us participated in the Human Battleship game: me, Ser Scot, Lucky Pierre and Pebble that Hides.

This was a game organized by a Japanese group and the rules had to be translated into English. This slowed the process down a bit as there were a lot of questions about the play.

Basically, each team has an even number of players and one captain. The players represent the ships and are blindfolded and armed with various inflatable weapons. The captain rolls the (giant) dieand then tells one player to move that number of steps forward. Steps are either large (high speed) or small (slow speed). At the end of the steps the captain could tell them to turn and fire. “Fire†meant bopping the opponent over the head with your blow up weapon.

One of the major debates was if telling a person to “turn†was counted as a step or not.

The game was fun, but the pace was often slow and was more fun to watch than play. (based on all the laughter of the audience)

I’d love to play again but with a few changes.

Water pistols would totally rock and eliminate the need to “turn†(but also increase the space needed). Steps should be in any direction. Make sure EVERYONE knows all the rules before the game starts. Have the commanders timed so they don’t take too long making the decisions.

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Human Battleship

Only 4 of us participated in the Human Battleship game: me, Ser Scot, Lucky Pierre and Pebble that Hides.

This was a game organized by a Japanese group and the rules had to be translated into English. This slowed the process down a bit as there were a lot of questions about the play.

Basically, each team has an even number of players and one captain. The players represent the ships and are blindfolded and armed with various inflatable weapons. The captain rolls the (giant) dieand then tells one player to move that number of steps forward. Steps are either large (high speed) or small (slow speed). At the end of the steps the captain could tell them to turn and fire. “Fire†meant bopping the opponent over the head with your blow up weapon.

One of the major debates was if telling a person to “turn†was counted as a step or not.

The game was fun, but the pace was often slow and was more fun to watch than play. (based on all the laughter of the audience)

I’d love to play again but with a few changes.

Water pistols would totally rock and eliminate the need to “turn†(but also increase the space needed). Steps should be in any direction. Make sure EVERYONE knows all the rules before the game starts. Have the commanders timed so they don’t take too long making the decisions.

You neglected to point out who WON!

;)

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I had a fantastic time at the Con. I liked it for several reasons.

First, of course, the BwB was in full effect and I just really, really enjoyed spending time with everyone. It was wonderful to meet some of you that I had not met before, as well as to see peeps from previous days of glory.

Second, Neil Gaiman was an eloquent and inspiring Guest of Honor. I went to as many of his events as I could and always left feeling slightly dazed, wondering at the rosy glow suddenly overlying everything. He's the kind of speaker that reminds everyone about why we like what we like, and why we are awesome for doing so.

Third, I really liked the programing this year. Every panel I went to was killer. Here are a few that I went to:

- Werewolves of Brigadoon (already mentioned upthread)

- Once Upon a Time, There was a Little Gender Variant Metaphor (great discussion of gender and sexuality in sci-fi literature)

- Preparing to Write a Series (with GRRM)

- Peadar's reading, which was awesome, of course. It was from the newest book he is working on (I guess technically his third novel). As usual he's able to create worlds and cultures ripe with totally unexpected twists. I also really liked Steven Boyett's story and plan on buying his book when it comes out.

- a screening of Coraline introduced by Neil Gaiman (NB. he talked a bit about the script for The Graveyard Book movie, and how he embraces changes to the original story since books and movies are different media)

- a reading by David Levine, a new Wild Cards writer - he's got a story that is being inserted into Wild Cards Volume 1, which is being re-released with three new stories. His reading time was cut short because one of the other authors went over their time, but we did get to hear about some secret Aces from the CIA in the 50s. (NB. Also, GRRM made a chilling comment about a certain fact in the Wild Cards universe that I never noticed - in the WC-verse, the World Trade Center towers were never built because that's where Jetboy's plane crashed and where his tomb was built.)

There were a million other interesting panels that I had circled in my program but couldn't see. So PROPS to the programming people - they did a really fabulous job and I am grateful!

I also went to the Business Meeting, which I'd never done before. I figured that since this was my 3rd WorldCon I needed to get involved. It turned out that I walked into the furor over the Semi-prozine category. A committee was formed to deal with the issue, for which I volunteered. Of course, 20 or so other people also volunteered, and since I have not reached Smof status, I'm wondering if I will be allowed to participate in any meaningful way (or at all). We'll see.

Anyways, I had a great time and will post if I remember any more exciting details.

I've put my photos up with some small commentary.

edit. fuck it, i can't spell and won't even try.

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Back home now. Well, got here last night but collapsed immediately (flight was longer than expected due to some random airport issues that had us delayed on the runway for approximately an hour, because it wouldn't be a con for me without random, annoying delays) and then had to go to a training all of today.

I managed not to cry while leaving this year :/ but I kept getting really emo on the plane. Miss you all already. I need to have vast amounts of money so I can travel every weekend. Anyone want to start some sort of cannibal diet Ponzi scheme extremely successful company so we can all be rich?

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Photo gallery fixed

Thankfully the photos I uploaded earlier had been loaded but I could not save in IE, Pebble now has Firefox on her shiny laptop and it is much better off because of it and therefore I was able to save the gallery without needing to reload all the pictures again - HURAH!

Therefore I owe Pebble's laptop an apology for foul language, sorry, please, please, please forgive me :grouphug: :grovel:

Just got back from seeing Niagra Falls by night. Wow! They are so beautiful when they are all lit up in different colours, we got some great photos. We also bought adventure passes which came in wallets exactly like the con badges - it feels exactly like we are back at the con! Pebble has just added a "Blame Pod" badge to hers! :lol: You guys should have come with us. We did the Fury of Niagara experience which gets you soaked, it was fucking awesome!

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