WorldCon Reports

[RaceBannon42]

Ok it appears that Photobucket has recovered.

Here are my photos.

slideshow

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Race,

Thank you. Great photos!

[RaceBannon42]

Race,

Thank you. Great photos!

Scot,

I'm Steve, That Race guy no showed... What a douchebag.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Steve,

Yeah you're absolutely right! ;)

I loved Stego's impromptue appearance.

[LacyinTX]

Scot,

I'm Steve, That Race guy no showed... What a douchebag.

Well, you do kinda look like him. But without the doucheyness.

[Xray the Enforcer]

My WorldCon In A Single Photo

(from l to r: Mr. X, Yagathai, Lord Jo, Lord Dracarys)

[Adz of CCAA]

Looking through my photos, I just realized I forgot to mention The Captain and Crew.

See, GRRM, Parris and a bunch of other people associated with Random House went on a cruise of Lake Michigan on Friday evening. And it turns out that The Captain of that vessel was a huge GoT fan, to the point where he fired up the GoT theme song over the PA system during the evening. GRRM, being a man who appreciates a party, invited the The Captain and one of the Crew back to the private BWB party. At first I thought Captain Ben was cosplaying, so I walked up and asked him who he was -- of course he looked at me like I was an idiot, because that's an idiotic question to ask. :lol: Anyway, so props to Captain Ben and his crewmate Allen (I am pretty sure his name was Allen).

We - Alytha, Red Woman, boiled leather, Pod, Ithanos and me - went on the Architecture Boat Tour on Tuesday and Captain Ben was our captain, too. :D

[Xray the Enforcer]

We - Alytha, Red Woman, boiled leather, Pod, Mapu and me - went on the Architecture Boat tour on Tuesday and Captain Ben was our captain, too. :D

Nice!!!

I got a couple of good photos of you during the party. :)

[boiled leather]

We - Alytha, Red Woman, boiled leather, Pod, Ithanos and me - went on the Architecture Boat Tour on Tuesday and Captain Ben was our captain, too. :D

and of course The Bastard of Godsgrace let us he know he joined us... as we disembarked, but clearly he should be recognized as well.

[Adz of CCAA]

Nice!!!

I got a couple of good photos of you during the party. :)

I just saw the pictures. I love them. :)

and of course The Bastard of Godsgrace let us he know he joined us... as we disembarked, but clearly he should be recognized as well.

Oops! Forgot about him. :leaving:

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Here are the very few photos I took during Chicon 7:

http://s1159.photobucket.com/albums/p628/SerScot/

I've tried unsuccessfully to label each photo. One is of malt and mormont at breakfast on Friday morning. One is of Paedar with his goat puppet. One is of a really funky car I saw while Paedar and I were walking to lunch. One is of gender reversed Batman villains. One is of a harbor on Lake Michigan. One is of a big group of us having breakfast on Tuesday morning.

[Stubby]

Ten uninterrupted hours of snooze, vegemite on toast and a good cuppa have restored me somewhat.

Some of the good stuff has already been posted, so I’m just going to break it down into to my ten favourite things from this year. Also, my camera didn’t even make it out of my backpack in Chicago other than at the Field Museum on the Wednesday. Sue got snapped from fourteen different angles, even after Cam suggested that we had come all the way from Australia to see a dinosaur skeleton with a boner.

These are in no particular order.

1. Balls. Ten minutes of hilarity that I will never forget. Thanks for this one go to Luga, Yags, Frisco, that Steve guy, Mr X and Drac among others. There was archaeology, scrotums, epic level punning and live tweeting of the whole thing. Everything that nerds need for a good laugh. This discussion reduced me to tears of laughter. When it was followed up by the ‘he’s got the whole thing in his mouth’ incident it was only for the better. Does the group singalong with that incident count as filking? I hope not. I’m generally not a filker.

2. Dingo Lingo. Drac and the Red Woman underwent a continuing education in the proper and correct use of Australian slang. Laoise and I were happy instructors and both were willing students. It was Drac that coined the term Dingo Lingo and that was appropriate, as he seemed to be an Aussie magnet for the entire Con. Every time you turned around one of the antipodeans was hanging out with him. That’s easy btw – hanging out with Drac. tRW is my new sister in law, seeing as she is indistinguishable from Laoise. That too is cool.

3. Ron Donachie. Ron was very cool. He showed Laoise and I some pics on his phone with his head covered in latex and explained the whole SFX approach to making an artificial Ron. He coincidentally showed up to the same place where a bunch of bros were having dinner on the last night and came over and hung out. As we were leaving the restaurant, he came out again and I promised him that the BwB wasn’t actually stalking him. His awesome wife said she knew that as they were stalking us. Good blokes, the pair of them. Ron was massively proud of the Hugo win and rightly so. :thumbsup:

4. The whirlwind that was Cam. Whilst I was sure that Cam was over-compensating with the length of his ribbon tail and his enormous, er, beer stein only Jebus knows the truth. Cam jumped into con with both feet and - despite comparing me to a mandrill which is weird as I don’t have a blue face – made con the better for the rest of us. Many of the laughs of this con can be laid squarely at Cam’s feet. Props must go to Jebus for rooming with Cam and for winning the contest they had, judged by reference to volume, longevity and effect.

5. BwB expansionism. At the bar, which tended to get quite crowded, we were very good at subconsciously annexing and overtaking nearby tables until there was a goodly portion of the bar under our control. All done in a very subtle and peaceful manner. Mwahaha.

6. GRRM’s reading. The info revealed therein indicates that the World Book is likely to be a fascinating tome.

7. The arrival of and enthusiasm shown by a Japanese translator of Fevre Dream when he turned up to the Saturday night party to meet GRRM. It was infectious and very cool.

8. Bartending on the Saturday night. It’s a great way to meet everyone in the group and fun to do. Watching the reaction of the people that tried Drac’s evil concoction ‘the Master at Arms’ provided many moments of schadenfreude. Especially the bloke from New Zealand (not a BwBer) that necked his shot, said he was ok, and smiled. Then he dropped his iphone into the ice bucket, dropped his camera to the floor, grabbed a handful of ice from the bucket and stood there for five minutes sucking down water.

9. The new boarders and bros we met on this trip. I know I’m going to miss someone and apologies if I do: boiled leather, the red woman, adz, Ser Scot, Frisco, smegma, alytha, mentat, alguien, hedge wizard, hedgerow, Jo, Tyler, Bastard of Godsgrace, lady narcissa, alchemist, Tim Brook-Taylor toft, the Red Viper, Space Bandito, Tristan, David P, Master of Coin, John P, ItisKnown, Trebla, Chataya, mouse, Angalin, Paedar, DaveAx, that Steve S guy and last but by no means least, Lodey. More friends and bros to spend time with in the years to come. I love this fan group. It’s a shame racebannon42 didn’t show up.

10. The catchup with the people we met two, four and six years ago. The tyranny of distance is appalling at times. Hearing of everyone’s exploits and achievements over the years was simply awesome. I miss everyone already and am looking forward to London.

I ate way too much bad food and spiked my readings to the point that I had to behave for a few days. I got all emo at the end and had something in my eye for most of the Monday night. I watched helpless as Laoise struggled through the con crud with heroic effort. I spent too much money. I have a sore back. I wouldn’t change any of it.

[LugaJetboyGirl]

Stubby, god damnit, I now have some damn thing in my eye, too.

[Mr. X]

I got all emo at the end and had something in my eye for most of the Monday night.

Stubby, god damnit, I now have some damn thing in my eye, too.

Seems to be an epidemic. It's reached Brooklyn too.

[Xray the Enforcer]

That douche Racebannon would never succumb to the eye-watering illness. Douche.

[LacyinTX]

I'm blaming ConCrud *sniffle* and Pod!

[Lord Dracarys]

There's no way any post I could write would do justice to the awesomeness that is the BWB. I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being the awesome, interesting, smart, generous, and insane people that you are. I don't know what I'd do without you.

Think I've got something in my eye...

[Prince Lodey]

Can't even begin to recount the awesomeness that was Chicon - thanks goes out to everyone for all the amazing organization, raging, partying, helping, coming together, and the genuine love and laughter. The BwB looked out for each other in a heightened way - could always count on someone for a needed hug, laugh, drink, smoke, or bite to eat. All those amazing times where there were countless numbers of us raising a glass and engaging in song or group laughs, and those little pockets where you got to spend quality time 1 on 1 getting to know someone new, or really catching up with someone you haven't seen in years...those all meant so much. Made some really great new friends and really proud of where the BwB has come. I will parrot Frisco when I say that it was weird having it be one of the smoothest, no drama BwB Worldcons ever and that is a testament to those that have stood up and worked so tirelessly on and behind the stage. I missed a lot of old friends (Stego & RaceBannon42 to name 2) and know we will meet again, but I am blessed to have spent time with many others. Thank you all for that.

Sorry about the eye Drac ;)

[Yagathai]

Watching the reaction of the people that tried Drac’s evil concoction ‘the Master at Arms’ provided many moments of schadenfreude. Especially the bloke from New Zealand (not a BwBer) that necked his shot, said he was ok, and smiled. Then he dropped his iphone into the ice bucket, dropped his camera to the floor, grabbed a handful of ice from the bucket and stood there for five minutes sucking down water.

To be accurate, Drac assembled the apple "pie", but the cocktail was mine. IRL trolling FTW!!

[Ser Camaris]

Hi Everyone,

Got back safe and sound yesterday with no hassles at all (and even got three seats by the window to myself on my international leg - bliss). But, I am feeling intense post con emo, which is exarcerbated by the distance I now find myself from so many amazing people.

I am not going to list all the people I loved meeting in the BWB, for two reasons. One is I will undoubtedly and unintentionally forget someone because I suck with names and faces and board handles, and linking the three. But the main reason is that every BWBer I met was amazing.

I am always amazed by the quality of people that the BWB attracts and brings together, we are from different nations and ideologies and backgrounds and professions and yet, somehow, it feels like a home. Some of the bros I had met before, some I had long and glorious histories with on the board, and some, quite frankly, I had no idea who the hell they were! And yet I can honestly there is none of you that I met over the con that I wouldn't have wanted to know as individuals, and whom I would love to see again, even if the BWB events had not brought us together. That's a pretty amazing thing for a group of this type.

To me the BWB embodies all that is good about fandom, with none of the negatives that were so apparent in other groups at the Con. It's inclusive and welcoming, it's passionate about its particular fandom and exists to celebrate GRRM's works in a way that I believe is a credit to him, and it has a deeply felt history. But, it is not cliquey and it welcomes newbies in the most incredible fashion, it does not set itself up in oppoistion to other fan groups but tries to make them wlecome when our paths cross and it tries to give back to the spec fic fan community as a whole. And, everyone pitches in to try and do their part to make the BWB run, there are no people who take and do not give in rteurn. That is unique.

I do have give a particular shout out to the organisers and "leaders" of the BWB events (I use quotation marks because they truly are servant leaders who give of themselves to the group) who put in so much work and sacrificed so much of their Con. You truly are wonderful and we all love and appreciate you. To the minions, thank you for the way you made me feel apart of things. To Parris, thank you for being you. You are wonderful beyond words.

To everyone from the BWB I met over the Con, I want to say a thank you. This was my first trip overseas and you made sure I will never forget it. Thank you for welcoming me and making me feel like I had come home. I didn't think anyone would remember me (bar those who had met me) and I suck at meeting new people, but you really did make me feel like I was with my family. The generosity of spirit I found really did amaze me and warm me and damn I have something in my eye right now...

I hope to see you again soon, and if any of you are in Melbourne there is a room at my house with lots of towels (snicker) that is open to you. Please stay in touch, whether via facebook (http://www.facebook.com/camaris) or email (david.goodwin AT easingthebadger.com - please do email so I have your contact details).

I know this may read overly sentimental but I don't give a damn. You have no idea how much you all mean to me, and how much joy you brought to my stay in the US and to my con. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Ser Camaris