http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2592

scarlettgirl and I are co-chairing Writercon this year. You can read chrisjournal’s announcement here.

Writercon is pretty much my favorite convention ever. I’m looking forward to helping make sure that Writercon ‘09 turns out as awesome as ‘04 and ‘06. :)

 

(OMGPRESSURE!)

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

http://rusty-halo.com/wordpress/?p=2591

We’ve started planning for Writercon 2009. If you’re thinking about attending, please fill out our survey so that we can take your input into account. :)

If you’re unfamiliar with Writercon, it’s a convention for fanfic writers and readers. You can see the schedule and panel descriptions from 2006 via archive.org. (We’re going to have a new website up asap.) The con is moving into more of a multi-fandom direction this time around (it started out focused on the Whedonverse) so even if you hadn’t considered Writercon before, you may want to think about it now.

Originally published at rusty-halo.com. Please click here to comment.

It's crazy hot. Our tiny window air conditioner is working overtime to keep the office... not very cool at all. But still a hell of a lot better than the heat outside, which kind of feels like the earth is trying to sear us right off the face of the planet.

I'm worried about the power. My apartment is on the top floor and traps heat like you wouldn't believe. I can go outside, but the cats are kind of stuck. *prays to the Con Edison gods*

The new roommate was supposed to move in today, but the lunatic old roommate claims her plans to move out yesterday "fell through" and she can't move out until 8pm tonight. *stabs* So new guy is pissed and has to wait an extra day, but hopefully he realizes that this isn't *my* fault.

The current roommate only paid half her rent for July, and I just found remnants of a shattered bowl that she clearly broke and didn't tell me about, and she still has to pay utilities for July, and she didn't move out on time, and she violated her six month agreement. I'm pretty sure this is more than enough justification for me not to return the remaining part of her deposit that I still have, after taking out the rent that she didn't pay. I just worry, because if she's really pissed, she could have her keys copied, sneak back in after moving out, and steal stuff, or hurt my cats, or wreak other kind of havoc. So maybe I should just return the money that she doesn't deserve, in order to keep the peace? Either that or have the lock changed, yet again, but that costs ridiculous money. Grrr.

The wank over at writercon makes me sad. I know there's lots of bigotry in the world, but I hate seeing it hit so close to home, in a place that's otherwise a safe harbor. I'm glad that people are responding, because letting bigotry stand without a response seems like condoning it. And I'm glad that people are (for the most part) being reasonable and genuinely trying to engage in dialog with the guy. I know intellectually that you're more likely to change people's minds with politeness and dialogue than with angry confrontation, but I'm having a hard time coming up with much beyond "Fuck off!" so I applaud those who are more articulate and restrained than me.

In other news...

I went to the Black Sun Festival in New Haven with 10zlaine this weekend. New Haven is a nice little pedestrian-friendly town with tons of vegan food, so we ate very well. The only band I really wanted to see was Chemlab, who were amazing, despite a fairly short set. I took nearly 400 photos; they're such a fun band to photograph. Lots of action, and very photogenic band members. ;)

I enjoyed some of the other bands as well. Das Ich was very good, a German band with very charismatic members who looked like they'd just stepped out of a fantasy novel. I didn't see all of Null Device's set, but they had some really interesting and diverse influences. The popularity of Combichrist continues to boggle my mind, though; I don't think they could be more boring.

Aside from seeing the bands in the evenings, I'd talked 10zlaine into going (after she'd talked me into going and then threatened to cancel!) on the promise that we'd hang out all day watching videos. She brought her DVD player and we each brought a ton of DVDs, but when we arrived we discovered that the hotel television had no inputs except for the coaxial cable that the cable TV was coming in through. Who ever heard of a television with no inputs? And it wasn't terribly old or anything. So after much struggle and me calling my dad trying to figure out what to do, we ended up driving to Best Buy and picking up an RF modulator, which was basically a converter allowing us to hook up the DVD player via the coaxial input. It took us until 3pm Saturday to work all this out, but we still managed to watch a lot: Sharpe 7, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Gun Shy, and the remake of The Thomas Crowne Affair (though we watched that one after the concert Saturday night, so I slept through most of it).

It ended up being quite a fun weekend; I'm glad we went.

I think that if there was a heaven, it'd be a lot like WriterCon. You're surrounded by hundreds of brilliant, talented people, all of whom share your interest in delving deep into the meaning of TV, movies, books. Everywhere you turn, there's an old friend who you haven't seen in ages, or have never even met in person, or else there's someone you don't know but would love to meet. There's even yummy vegan food in the hospitality suite, so you never have to starve. And random strangers keep coming up to you and either 1) thanking you for your website or 2) complementing your shoes. And then when you finally go back to your room, there's three people so cool that, even though you're exhausted, you stay up another hour chatting.

Heaven would probably have a nicer hotel, though, and in (my personal) heaven no one wakes up until at least noon. Aside from that, it was pretty much perfect. I just wish I'd had more time to talk to and meet everyone--there were so many awesome people that I did get to hang out with, but plenty more than I either missed entirely or passed in the hallway and went "OMG, it's you! We'll have to talk later!" and didn't see again.

There's no way to list everyone, but just, y'know, to everyone who was there: I miss you! I want to go back! The whole weekend was awesome!

( Here's a more specific con report )

So, yeah. The point is: WriterCon was awesome. And, seriously, if I could choose any social group in the world to hang out with, it would be the WriterCon crowd.

I'm pleased to announce the launch of the WriterCon 2006 Website. Check it out at www.writercon.com.

The site has the most up-to-date info about WriterCon 2006, as well as info on the hotel, frequently asked questions, news, a forum, and more.

Click here to register for the convention. You'll also find this link in the menu under "Registration & Store."

You can also register for the cocktail party and/or buy a WriterCon 2006 t-shirt.

If you have any questions or concerns about the site, you can write to me at web@writercon.com. Registration questions should go to registration@writercon.com.

Please feel free to repost this message to whoever is interested.

Enjoy!

[Crossposted to writercon]


And you thought I was totally out of fandom. :P

It seems that Pig has entered the 21st century and set up a MySpace page. Yay!

(Now I guess I have to keep my stupid MySpace account around... *grumbles*).

I saw Depeche Mode last night at Madison Square Garden. Totally awesome. They gave a great performance, and the stage setup was really cool (a bunch of huge fucked-up looking screens that alternated between showing the band and pre-recorded video stuff related to the song).

I love their 90s rock phase, so hearing "Walking in My Shoes" and "I Feel You" was great. I don't even need to say how cool "Personal Jesus" was, right? And seeing all of Madison Square Garden standing up and singing "Enjoy the Silence" was amazing.

I also really loved all the songs that Martin Gore sang. Dave Gahan is OMG SO HOT but Martin Gore has such soul and naked emotion when he sings. He totally brings out my "I want to pick him up and hug him" instinct (which normally only gets directed toward my cat).

I went with drujan and jaydk, and it was great to see a show with friends. (Although they kept sitting down! WTF?? This "sitting during a concert" thing is completely foreign to me.) Our seats were quite good, actually--kind of far back, but right in the center.

I'm going again tonight, because I checked Ticketmaster yesterday and I guess they released some reserved seats, because the seat it came up with for me was so good I had to take it. I'll just consider this my holiday gift to myself, I suppose. :)

So I missed Veronica Mars, on account of Depeche Mode (and my stupid VCR not recording). It's downloading, though, and I suppose I'll have to run home after work/before Depeche Mode and watch it. The opening band wasn't that good anyway.

I couldn't resist spoilers, though, so I read my FL's reaction already. And... well, I guess I'll wait until I actually watch it before I bitch about how much I hate Duncan (and Veronica with Duncan).

Real life stuff:

The new roommate moved in, and so far it's been fine. He's really nice and rarely around, and the cats like him. Cross your fingers that it'll continue this way.

I finished my part of the annoying freelance project. There's still a part two coming up (*shudders*) but hopefully that can wait until after the holidays.

Speaking on the holidays, I get a grand total of ONE vacation day (Monday, December 26). Lame. I have some of my own vacation days left, though, so I'm going to try to use them to take off that whole week.

Oh yes, and finally: Writercon! You can get your hotel reservations now. It's so going to rock.

I asked for VM fic recs the other day, and amerella totally went above and beyond. If anyone else is looking for non-LoVe Logan fic, check out the recs she posted for me. My favorite would be That's Amore by dark_roast (post 1x22). Well written, very disturbing, and totally Logan.

I've been so busy lately. Random life update:

Thanksgiving was fun. jaydk and her mom were really accomodating, and made the side dishes using vegan margarine and soy milk, so I could eat the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and green beans. And her mom bought me some frozen dinner type things, so I had plenty. Oh, and she made a yummy vegan pumpkin pie, using my favorite recipe. (Plus, they have a Trader Joe's, so I was able to stock up for the rest of the weekend.)

We watched 18 episodes of Veronica Mars, and jaydk got into it and was totally a Logan fan, despite starting with a "I hate Logan, I'm so sick of everyone raving about him" attitude. Hee! And she shared my utter lack of patience with the boringness of Duncan.

We also saw Harry Potter again (it was better the second time, felt less rushed) and saw Rent (awful, but of course, it made me cry my eyes out anyway). And we took care of her mom's dogs (cute, but man, dogs are annoying) and visited Target (huge! and creepy! but I did get season three of Family Guy for $18, so not entirely bad).

It was good to get home, though. I missed my cats so much, and I could tell they missed me too. Lucifer still hasn't stopped following me everywhere I go, and he's been much more patient toward my whole "picking him up and hugging him" thing. (He totally loves being held, but he usually has to pretend to get sick of it after a few minutes, otherwise he loses his cat credibility or something).

What else? Oh yeah, Writercon! There will be another Writercon in 2006! Of all the Buffy-related conventions I've been to (and there are many), Writercon is by far my favorite. There's really a great community of people who run and attend that convention. And this year I'm helping out! So, please do consider going, if you haven't already decided. :)

After being imprisoned in a room full of Goth people for two nights, miggy sought revenge by turning me into a doll.

I'm enjoying reading everyone's con reports. But so sad that the con is over. I miss you guys. If anyone's ever going to be around NYC, let me know and we'll meet up.

Oh, and I'm going to be at Vulkon in Oakland (August 27-30), Dragoncon in Atlanta (September 3-6), and I'm spending a week in London for the James Marsters/David Boreanaz Halloween bash. So if anyone's going to be around any of those and wants to hang out, also let me know....

*can't stand waiting two years for another Writercon!*

Oh yeah, and if you missed it, my insanely long and rambly con report is posted here.

Writercon rocked. I miss everyone so much. And I *so* don't want to wait two years before I see any of you guys again. *sniffle*

So let's see. I'm going to throw together some kind of little con report here, but I'm veerrrry tired so I can't promise that I'll remember everything.

( Tuesday )

( Wednesday )

( Thursday )

( Friday )

( Saturday )

( Sunday )

( Monday )

( Tuesday )

Overall, I totally loved the con, even though Vegas was icky and the hotel sucked. The panels were thought-provoking and well done, and the people were just wonderful. I'm so glad I got to meet everyone that I did. In particular, it was great to spend time with irfikos, inobunny, witling, _jolielaide, and saussy.

The con itself ran so smoothly, and was so perfectly done. I mean, it was clear that the organizers were there to make sure everyone had the best experience possible. They were totally in it to make it the best con possible, not to make money or fame for themselves. I'm so proud that these people, most of whom I've known since I got into fandom, managed to pull off Writercon and make it such an astounding success. And I'm so proud that our fandom has such amazing, interesting, talented, brilliant people.

My regrets: I wish I'd gone to more panels. I wish there had been longer and more specific panels (maybe character, pairing, show, or era specific somehow?) since my interest in the Jossverse is mostly Spike and male/male slash specific at this point. And because a more specific panel would be able to go in depth even further, which was really when things get interesting.

I met tons of neat people, but with a con this big, I guess you're bound to miss a few. I'm sad that I somehow managed to miss talking to many cool folks that I wanted to see (like fallowdoe, rahirah, shadowlass, fenchurche, Cynthia Martin, and several others). I'm sad that I was only able to speak very briefly with some people (especially members of the concom, who I know were insanely busy). And I really felt the absence of those who couldn't attend, especially kita0610, anniesj, and circe_tigana.

But those are just tiny regrets compared to the complete awesomeness of this con. Man, I so don't want to wait two years for another one. :*(

Vegas icky.

Writercon awesome.

Laura tired.

More later.

Oh my god *panic*. I have to be packed and ready to go to Writercon tonight. Because I'm leaving tomorrow straight from work.

*deep breath*

:::calm:::

Okay. Breathing.

I'm rushing home after work tonight to meet with my former coworker and show her how to take care of my cats. (She's cat-sitting for me). Then we're going to dinner (or, I'm taking her to dinner to thank her for cat-sitting).

Then when I get home, I have to 1) do laundry, 2) pack, 3) dye my hair, 4) clean my room so that when my coworker is cat-sitting she actually has somewhere to sit, 5) print out all the necessary Vegas info, 6) burn some Common Rotation for my MP3 player, 7) clean out my email account so that it doesn't overflow while I'm gone, 8) get a long night of restful pre-vacation sleep.

Yeah, that last one's not gonna happen.

I'm nervous. I've never been to JFK airport before and I've never flown Jet Blue before. I was going with drujan, but she decided she wanted to go earlier in the day, so changed her flight. (I couldn't, as I can't take that day off work.) So now I'm going alone. Scary!

Anyway, my cell number is on the list that secondverse sent out, so if you need to get in touch with me after tomorrow, that's how.

I somehow ended up seeing Van Helsing twice this weekend. Friday I saw it with drujan, Saturday I saw it in the same theater with jaydk. (Everyone else's schedules conflicted ... I got to hang out with each friend individually, though, so I didn't really mind).

I liked the movie, btw. It was very cheesy and stupid, style without substance, but fun, like a theme park ride. The worst parts were when we were supposed to take the lead actors seriously--Kate Beckinsale, in particuarly, was painfully dull. But the intentionally cheesy parts, like Dracula and his Brides, were awesome. I love the guy who played Dracula--he was so delightfully over-the-top. And all the references to old monster movies were fun to catch, especially since I just finished taking a class on vampire films.

drujan and I snuck alcohol into the theater, and I think we must've gotten pretty drunk, because we somehow ended up planning two vacations for this year, to Las Vegas and to Disney World.

Not sure about Disney, but I think we're really going to Vegas--just expanding the trip to WriterCon. It looks now like we're going to arrive Tuesday night and spend Wednesday and Thursday exploring the city prior to the con. Then I'm going to WriterCon (rooming with irfikos, irfikos' roommate, and miggy) while drujan is going to continue exploring Vegas.

I'm going to stay in a different hotel with drujan on Tuesday and Wednesday--we're going to decide tonight which one. This is so exciting--I've never been to Vegas before, but drujan has, so she has lots of ideas about what we should do.

We're probably going to stay really late on Monday and take an 11:30 PM flight home to NYC, which gets in around 7:30 AM, sleep on the plane, and then go straight to work from that. I figure it's best to get the most possible out of the trip, plus that way we can hang out with whoever's left on Monday, or catch up on any last-minute activities.

So, anyone else arriving early or staying late? I want to know who's going to be around. :)

You've all heard about SavingAngel.org, right? Looks to be the best AtS renewal site I've seen so far.

And you've all heard about writercon, yes? (See also: yahoo group, website). I can't pimp this con enough. I want to see everyone there. :)

I'm eating the best chocolate cake today, from GoBo. Free vegan desserts every Friday. I love my office.

It's 5:17pm. 43 minutes until I can go home and take a nap....

If you haven't seen it yet, there are a ton of updates to the WriterCon website:
http://www.the-sandlot.com/writercon/

The coolest thing is the list of attendees:
http://www.the-sandlot.com/writercon/attendees.html

I'm so looking forward to this con. :)

I noticed today that MSN has a whole section on visiting Las Vegas. Might be of interest to those attending writercon.

The airfare guide has links to a bunch of smaller airlines that may offer cheap Vegas flights. And there is also info on food, transportation, stuff like that.

I think that everyone on my friends list must have seen the announcement about WriterCon already, but just in case someone hasn't, I shall jump on the bandwagon and post about it, too.

WriterCon, the Whedonverse fanfic convention (for writers, betas, readers, etc., of all types of Whedonverse fic) is now open for registration.

You can learn more at:
http://www.the-sandlot.com/writercon/

Or go straight to registration:
http://www.the-sandlot.com/writercon/register.html

This is the one con that I'm really looking forward to this year.

chrisjournal had the wonderful idea to hold a Buffy fanfic convention. Read about it at the new writercon community.