Minicon 40: Friday (LJ edition)

[ckd]

For once this year, I took the first day of a con off work and actually did manage to not go in to the office anyway.

Of course, leaving for the airport in the morning had a lot to do with that.

So, flights. BOS-ORD, ORD-MSP, on UA. Nothing too exciting (a ground delay getting out of BOS), and I enjoyed United's channel 9 ATC feed on both flights.

Arrived MSP at about 1630 local. Headed to the curb to catch the hotel shuttle, which was scheduled for 1700. I made a quick gratuitous phone-post to my LiveJournal, and then boarded the van along with two other people who'd been waiting.

Unsurprisingly, they were also headed to Minicon. I did think one of them looked familiar, but didn't figure out why until later. (Sorry, Steve. Or perhaps not sorry, as I suspect incoherent fanboying would have been even more annoying to you than LiveJournal neepery.) The other was netmouse.

We hit traffic on the way to the hotel, so I had a little extra time to look at Minnesota from the ground for the first time. I was amused to see some of the businesses I see ads for on Twins games when watching MLB Extra Innings and getting the MSC feed; in particular, despite never having been to Menard's, upon seeing the sign I immediately thought of the jingle. Mindworms!

Arrived at the hotel, checked in, dropped my stuff off in the room, got badgificated, and (naturally) immediately started seeing people I knew like elisem and meeting people I didn't yet know like truepenny. I spent a little time looking around the dealer's room and the art show before heading up to the opening ceremonies/Ask Dr. Mike.

The opening ceremonies were good, though I was far enough in the back to have trouble hearing folks when they weren't using the microphones. After they ended, though, I was finally able to remedy my inability to get to the Ask Dr. Mike at Noreascon 4, and also managed to move up to the front and acquire a much better seat, which was next to mrissa, pameladean, and others.

Ask Dr. Mike was as hysterical as I'd heard. No description I'm capable of would do it justice; suffice it to say that his riff on "The Three Laws of Robotics as given by Susan Calvin's brother John" was only part of it.

Afterwards, more mingling, then an attempt to get dinner with elisem, truepenny, and Dr. Mike WINOLJ. The hotel restaurant was taking forever to seat folks, so we wound up sitting in the bar and ordering food there. Somehow truepenny's hamburger took less time to come than the club sandwiches that elisem and I ordered thinking it'd be quick...sigh. Mine did arrive in time for me to eat and get to my 2130 panel, at least.

Said panel was "Political Blogging: Threat or Menace?" This suffered from the usual temptation to get into the politics instead of the blogging, though we did manage not to get too far off into the weeds. With five people on the panel (the others were laurel, joel_rosenberg, davidwilford, and mgs) plus audience contributions, I didn't wind up saying too much; often a point I was going to make would be brought up by someone else before I could mention it. The panel went well, though, and was fun to be part of.

Then off to the con suite balcony area, where I had a chance to meet even more folks I'd known online for various lengths of time (including dd_b and Cally Soukup WINOLJ), and be introduced to people they knew through other online (or offline) fora. This continued until I just got too tired to keep going, and headed for my room and bed. (Not having to allow energy for the walk home from the hotel, this wound up being quite a bit more tired than my "usual" level of time-to-leave-the-con.)

All in all, a good first-day-of-con.

(EDIT: add mgs's LJ-name to the panelist list; thanks to sraun)

Comments

[luned.livejournal.com]

Oh, my. You have been infected by the Menard's earworm. They've been using that stupid banjo music for as long as I can remember. What's worse is that they play the jingle over the PA in the stores. (I still end up shopping there anyway.)

[ckd]

I find myself somewhat amused to render it as "things smell funny at Menard's".

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

We have a Hardware Hank's near us, and the first week we lived here I found myself singing with quiet glee, "You've got a lot more going for you with Hank's, Hardware Hank's!" I also turned up the radio to sing along with the Larry Reid's White Bear Dodge commercials, because it meant we were home.

I got over that part.

[sraun]

Martin Schafer is mgs.

[ckd]

Added, thanks!