jinian

My panel is among the candidates, so please go express your interest. ("Real-life Science Fiction" under Science/Tech.) I want it to happen!

Up early due to light sleeping, I went down to Heteronormativity in YA SF and ate my blueberry bread there. Good panel -- lots of YA dystopias mentioned and critiqued, the passivity of the titles right now (so many of which are past participles), Delirium mentioned as actually referring to homosexuality ("unnaturalism"), appearance policing even when there's no romantic choice possible, overt reproductive or sexual pressures.

[I got Delirium at the library today and was surprised at how good it is. Sure, the whole reason Ordinary Girl questions her dystopia is presented as being An Outsider Boy With Golden Eyes, but there is a lot more going on than that -- some good slow reveals of just how fucked up things are, decent worldbuilding, and lots of relationships among women and girls.]

Geek Girls and Self-Objectification panel: already complained about it. Check out http://doctorher.com/?p=1208 for an updated presentation by Courtney Stoker on the same subject as the panel's source material.

Lunch: more delicious farmer's market bounty, hanging with roommate and her friends.

Reproductive Justice: lots about the different things this can mean, not just the ability to decide when to be pregnant, but access for both parents, the ability not to fear your kids will be taken into foster care, and more interesting issues. Mostly not that SFnal, though we got into some works at the end. The Testament of Jessie Lamb won awards, but the premise is appalling (pregnancy kills you! your choices are to die before or after the baby is born; also you are comatose at the time!) and one of the awards is the Man Booker Prize, so enough about that forever. It did remind me of The Clockwork Rocket, which I recommended. And in When She Woke by Hilary Jordan the scarlet A is for abortion and covers your entire skin.

Shoujo Fairy Tales: Obviously Princess Tutu was the queen of this panel, and I tweeted Håll Om Mig Nu as a panel summary. (yes, I rewatched it when I did that, taking betsy somewhat aback when she came in to very loud music partway through; and yes, I also rewatched it right now; and yes, I still got chills both times.) A few notes on Japanese fairy tales: Natsume Yuujinchou, Xxxholic, Kamichu; Susan Napier, Thomas Lamar.

[Don't go looking for my Twitter account expecting content or anything; it's just for Twit-specific things.]

I debated chilling in the room at that point, since I was tired, but found myself unable to chill while Eleanor Arnason was reading something. The thing that killed me dead at the Aqueduct reading, though, was Liz Henry's poem about the moon landing. Kiini Ibura Salaam's stories were very good, too. And this is where the Wiscon Chronicles explaining Moonfail were explained aloud. I bought all three books.

Dinner with boxofdelights, who knows me too well, at Buraka. Wonderful as always. Quick stop at Ragstock for a shirt to go with my other silk clothing-swap skirt; I genderfloomped femme this year, which I had basically planned, if only through thinking men's clothes are too hot for dancing in.

When we came in, the line for the dessert salon was still going in, and it was halfway through its timeslot. Why people do that I will never understand. I went away for a little while, came back and got leftovers (seedy strawberry-rhubarb crumble and perfect blackberry panna cotta), and watched the speeches just fine. Really liked Andrea Hairston's about SF and expectations, and bucking them to fulfill SF's promises in her own way.

After that I danced all the things. Once again I fail at dancing with people, but I think I can sometimes tell when they want to now? If you grab my hands, even I will definitely clue in, though I am still crap at doing anything about it. (Sorry, S!) The "cops" -- probably hotel security -- came by to legitimize our rocking at about 2am, and we broke it up around 2:30.

Me as a pony by Alex Heberling, who draws fantasy comics as well as MORE PONIES and OUTFITS.

Vid party: Pretty fun, mostly with a couch to myself, which led to literal curling at times. I did get some company when maevele and friend were around, yay. Vids looked better when F.lux was turned off, despite being projected on a textured tan wall. My amazing swap skirt came from futuransky, who clearly has no shortage of wonderful clothes, as she was wearing a great minidress with silk-screened octopuses. The sing-along had a few too many newer songs I don't know, but the Occupy vid and a truly amazing Clark/Lex were definite highlights of the show overall. (I can find neither right now but will link the playlist when/if it goes up.)

Farmer's market: Very depopulated in the rain! You could walk at your normal speed and even go around slow people; this unfortunately meant people felt free to stand around doing nothing in the path, but oh well. Even the booths were thin on the ground. But I got delicious foods and admired impossible things like cooking-only foods (golden oyster mushrooms!) and flowers.

• Kalamata olive bread


• Cinnamon roll with frosting (breakfast; too sugary)


• Sugar snap peas (also breakfast; just sweet enough)


• "Hull-less" popcorn named "Baby Rice"


• Pint of strawberries


• Beautiful rosy-red radishes (if oyceter had been here I might have gotten the black spanish radish to share, but that thing was big)


• Cheese curds (2 bags for $6 rainy-day special)


• Chevre with ash


• Little blueberry bread


• Raspberry turnover


• Little rhubarb pie


• Pesto-and-something croissant

So, picnic on more market goodies, then off to the green room to prep for my panel on PONIES Fantastical Girlhood.

What I should do: eating. What I want to do: NAPPING.

I did get a little sleep on the plane, since I had a row to myself and could become horizontal enough, but it wasn't really that long a flight. And since then I've had to switch to a later connection, which sat on the runway, went back for more fuel to reroute around the thunderstorms, sat some more, and finally got here. Plus I barely missed the first hotel shuttle I saw, but at least by then I was outdoors, not in a stuffy hot tube.

I will pursue some form of eating and then napping.

And hey, I already talked to some people! Cross that off for the day. :)

Who's going? Whom can I bribe in appropriate or excessive fashion to cause them to go? Anyone want to get a room?

Monday morning! Sensibly there were very few panels scheduled at 8:30, and indeed I didn't plan to be up then. I pretty much did wake up early, so I went to the empty room that would contain the next panel I wanted and ate cranberry bread with a side of interwebs.

Last panel:
Animated Revolutions. The summary mentioned Gargoyles, She-Ra, and Pirates of Dark Water, and Jaymee brought up a couple of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons as well. I've only seen any appreciable amount of She-Ra, but I thought it was a great concept. Looks like I definitely need to see Gargoyles -- a mixed-race woman is the main human character, she lives a realistic life as a working-class cop in NYC (apart from the animated stone beings), and she apparently has actual sense! Add a decent character arc for the villain, and I will be checking to see if Scarecrow has this on video.

I made another visit to the dealers' room to pick up a stunning and warrantedly expensive necklace from Laurie Toby Edison. (She asked me to show her my research movies next time I see her. Must remember!) I also bought a pretty, steampunkish brooch revised by Betsy Urbik -- no nonfunctional gears, but filigree and chains and a dangling hot-air balloon charm. I finally got to see elisem and play with beads a little! We were going to go sing at the Signout, but the timing didn't work out.

Lunch was with boxofdelights at Nick's, which she pointed out was the second year in a row -- but it is a comfy hole, and I need a comfy hole by Monday! Then we eventually managed to get ourselves to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, where it was ridiculously hot in the conservatory but also beautiful. We wandered and lounged in the grounds just a little, but needed to get her back to the hotel by 5:30. On the bus back she let me read her copy of Something More and More, which I'd meant to buy but hadn't, to finish the two stories Nisi had left us all hanging on at her readings. Great stuff; I want to read more about the character in "Pataki".

I walked up State Street again to go to the lake that way, via Jamba Juice. There was a place I hadn't sat before, between frat houses as usual, and I finished Ash by the water as the sun went down. The bugs weren't too bad, and a few people and one dog came by but weren't a bother. I saw what I think was a river otter swim by on an errand and return the way it came. It was still pretty hot, but by the lake it was better, and when I left the heat had dissipated in town a little as well.

After all this, though, I really needed a shower, so I took one and then went to the Dead Cow Party to hang out with kalmn. Seamed my sweater front and back quickly to try it on, discovered I need to take in the back, and ripped it back. Felt an urge to watch a movie (but what?) but didn't pursue it. Ate all the cheese things at the buffet: cheddar curds, fried curds, cheese and macaroni. Yay Wisconsin.

Relaxed for a while in the newly spacious room with meganbmoore and went to sleep.

Today I packed and paid up and arranged a shuttle, and forgot my toiletries in the room. Good thing I'm not leaving yet. It is warm and humid but beautifully windy. I'm considering the park by the lake and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

I really wish the entire world would stop letting the garlic bagels touch the other bagels. It's especially weird when the other bagel is sweet, like the lovely dark-swirled cinnamon-raisin bagel at Gotham. Of course, the salty cream cheese is pretty fucking weird too, so the garlic is almost a detail. Their music is making me happy, though, all cheerful 80s this morning. I know marzipan_pig has Opinions about "Come On Eileen" but I enjoy it.

Time to go give Betsy a hug before she leaves. Pictures later!

Vid party was excellent! I'm anxiously awaiting the playlists so I can link my favorites. I do wish vidders would put notes about what fandom(s) they've used as a standard thing; sometimes they do, but sometimes I would kind of like to watch that show but am clueless how to find it.

Sleeping eight hours was excellent!

Going to the market with oyceter was excellent! I am set for pastries for the rest of the trip, partly intentionally and partly because I couldn't decide between the turnover flavors from the Pilgrim's whatsit folks (they are not actually Amish I don't think, but you now know how they dress) so bought ALL the turnover flavors. We did not get all the delicious meats or vegetables due to lack of available refrigeration or cooking facilities, or the {salpiglossis tree peonies lisianthus herbs etc.} due to lack of dirt. (Oyce's window looks onto a charming top-of-roof vista; my view is dominated by a giant American flag.) I did get sheep's milk gouda to bring to hattifattener, which I hope will do okay in the room AC and its shrink-wrap until Tuesday. We got a latte for Oyce and a cherry sakura green tea for me, then hung out briefly.

Then it was time for lunch. Yay laziness. I went with kalmn and the juggler to Frida, a nearby tex-mex place I hadn't been to before. There were murals of Frida Kahlo paintings, and we sat by the one with the parrots, which pleased me. We discussed whether the birds as painted on the wall were real species, since the artist had prettified them in blue and purple shadings and made them more similar to each other. The original birds I believe as accurate.

Afternoon panels included Celebrating Diana Wynne Jones, in which lots of people said smart things and I pointed out that Year of the Griffin is grad school, not undergrad like its setup implies. Next were Nisi Shawl's GoH readings, one from a short story about Sandy Denny and a bit from her eagerly anticipated Belgian Congo steampunk novel, Everfair, including audience participation in singing Everfair's national anthem; I introduced myself on strict orders from grad friend V, and we agreed to talk sometime in Seattle rather than using con time on near-home people. I made the hard decision on whether to attend a reading by awesome people including pameladean, a tasting of homemade ice cream, or the manga/anime gender binary panel when I discovered that the panelists hadn't read far enough in Otomen to encounter my favorite part, and I successfully recommended it to all. (I talked a lot in this panel. Possibly I should volunteer for a panel someday instead of just being a mouthy audience member.)

Now I should go find dinner. The Tiptree auction is tonight, and I want to go to the Haiku Earring Party for a bit too. I feel all sociable, but if I'm doing stuff later then downtime at dinner is a good plan.

Oh, snide Concourse elevators. Never change.

Finally I have no edges left of the epic post-Wiscon headache, though it may resurge in the evening as it has been. Earlier I weeded in the traffic circle until I got too hot, to the usual public approbation, and now I am eating pickled herring and considering how to be less dependent on other people for happiness. Most of you probably figured this out when you were twelve, but I continue to be a late bloomer.