- Sun, 21:00: I have now seen the BSG miniseries, so @nadyne can take me off Geek Probation. OH MY HEART. Lost count of the random outbursts of sobbing.
- Sun, 21:02: Also I did laundry, taxes, some desk-cleaning, some inbox-cleaning, and even a few dishes. #accomplishments #adulting
- Mon, 01:06: My fitbit #Fitstats_en_US for 3/29/2015: 614 steps and 0.3 miles traveled. http://t.co/gFMrr7HEB6
- Mon, 02:12: Jerkbrain avoidance strategy: phrasing email subjects to avoid cliffhangers. "Good news from Dr!" vs "My labs are in..."
- Mon, 02:20: Binocular vision is wasted on the phone in bed, so I alternate eyes.
- Mon, 02:29: Due to Github activity, my brain is now cheerfully caroling "This time baby, we'll be futureproof!"
- Mon, 02:34: RT @DavidNelsonNews: If not a suspect Wile E. Coyote is at least a person of interest: (h/t Reddit/Tumblr) http://t.co/tSxlAw7NNF
- Mon, 06:58: Photo: All I can think of here is Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend, though he’s certainly a lot more dressed... http://t.co/EAEAfEEzaI
- Mon, 07:23: Discovered how to delete imported contacts on LinkedIn. This is going to make my recommendations so much less creepy.
Mar. 30th, 2015
Belated entry: FOGcon, Saturday
Mar. 30th, 2015 11:00 pmSo the last actual update from me was pre-FOGcon; I'd run afoul of beer bash and decided that I was going to be miserable at home in my own bed. I woke up cheerful and perky and drove in. This time the valets were much better briefed on the event; I was asked if I was here for the thing. I was. Yay!
There was exactly one person at the convention this year who I was hoping to avoid. It was the person who used to play some role in gathering up issues for That Damn Helldesk Program and had some organizational role in the releases. I had met her in person exactly once: she was sitting at the other pole of the horseshoe table across from me, looking quiet, serious, pale, and vaguely miserable.
Naturally, she was working registration desk when I arrived. I wasn't sure which name they would have filed me under (for credit card purposes I gave them my wallet name as well) but it was under the correct name, albeit with my wallet name on the back. I declined the offer to reprint, and scribbled out my wallet name with some vigor. She didn't mention work and neither did I; I don't know whether she recognized me.
As I was looking at the description of the panel in the nearest room, and debating which panel I wanted to go for, someone called me by name. The correct name. It was![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
emceeaich, who I hadn't seen since the rollout of ALL THE NEW THINGS. And where emceeaich is, cynthia1960 is often nearby, in this case being fitted with a very nice corset.
We decided that since it was noonish, lunch was probably an excellent life choice, and so we headed up to the lobby. The lobby combines restaurant, bar, and general lobby lounge area, with a dedicated restaurant section behind the large freestanding wall that composes the bar, and then lounge in front of it. However, restaurant service isn't limited to the restaurant area, which makes for a pleasant, but sometimes chaotic, experience.
Someone stopped by to chat with Emma and Cyn; something about her demeanor suggested she recognized me, but hers was a very common name; it turned out she wasmetaphortunate! Hooray!
After lunch I went to the downstairs lobby to figure out what panel(s) I wanted to see. There were plenty of people about. I chatted with a few of them. I pulled out my traveling laptop George to check my mail.
Before I made any sort of decision about panels, it was check-in time at the hotel, so I did that so I'd have a place to leave some of my gear. I relaxed in the quiet for a bit, then figured I'd wander panel-wards by way of the con suite, which was on my floor.
I walked in to a con suite full of awesome women talking about weightlifting. I was enthralled. These are the sorts of conversations that don't tend to happen when bros are bro-ing about being bro-ful and loud, and I could have enjoyed an entire convention just like this. And that was how I metkshandra, and I recognized forestofglory's name but couldn't place the exact acquaintance. (Someone whose badge name was Melissa was saying a lot of the awesome things, and Michele from the concom was there being awesome too.)
When I was packing for the convention, I had tossed a number of things into a large transparent plastic box, just the right size to fit in a large tote bag with some room left over. It is in fact large enough to hold George, some jellybeans, several menstrual pads, makeup, hair pins, glitter, a notepad, a package of highlighters, and some other random things. I had found a few packages of pop rocks under some boxes on my bookshelf while shuffling things around in preparation for moving (whenever that's going to happen). Long story short,norabombay was totally overreacting and I did not die from eating shelf pop rocks. And I tossed one in the box, because why not.
The discussion turned from weightlifting to obscure dietary restrictions, and someone mentioned that one of the weird ones was lactose in pop rocks. People were sort of baffled, because why do POP ROCKS need MILK. I remembered that I had tossed it in the box. I whipped out the package of pop rocks. Yep, lactose.
Cliff wandered through. It turned out that describing the helldesk software to someone who used to work on http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_Remedy_Action_Request_System is an actively painful experience for that person. It is a solved problem, and Virtual Hammer has attempted to re-invent the weasel by glueing several gerbils together (which, I might add, would be doubly illegal in California).
Saw some people who are identified in my notes as Wendy and K.ethicalslut identifed my Dreamwidth d button, and we got a picture together.
The banquet was next, and ethicalslut was looking to pull together a table of interesting people. I was amenable to joining this table. I identified someone in line who I thought might befirecat, and I was correct. Also at the table were Aahz, and several other people.
The banquet was great fun. After that, there had been a lot of people, so I went up to my room for a bit.
I decided to go for some lobbycon time. I ran into forestofglory, and this time had managed to identify people we know in common (kaberett, among others). Shweta Narayan was passing through, and they and their husband sat down in the group, and I met the Designated Extravert of the group, the adorable, cheerful Mippo (a tiny stuffed animal which looks like the delightful intersection of Moomin and Hippopotamus). Emma and Cyn joined the group as well.
There was an unfortunate incident with Shweta and some too-hot water, and ice became necessary. It was lovely to meet them though!
I got a large amount of loonembellishment done.
Eventually I was dizzytired and went off to bed.
There was exactly one person at the convention this year who I was hoping to avoid. It was the person who used to play some role in gathering up issues for That Damn Helldesk Program and had some organizational role in the releases. I had met her in person exactly once: she was sitting at the other pole of the horseshoe table across from me, looking quiet, serious, pale, and vaguely miserable.
Naturally, she was working registration desk when I arrived. I wasn't sure which name they would have filed me under (for credit card purposes I gave them my wallet name as well) but it was under the correct name, albeit with my wallet name on the back. I declined the offer to reprint, and scribbled out my wallet name with some vigor. She didn't mention work and neither did I; I don't know whether she recognized me.
As I was looking at the description of the panel in the nearest room, and debating which panel I wanted to go for, someone called me by name. The correct name. It was
emceeaich, who I hadn't seen since the rollout of ALL THE NEW THINGS. And where emceeaich is, cynthia1960 is often nearby, in this case being fitted with a very nice corset. We decided that since it was noonish, lunch was probably an excellent life choice, and so we headed up to the lobby. The lobby combines restaurant, bar, and general lobby lounge area, with a dedicated restaurant section behind the large freestanding wall that composes the bar, and then lounge in front of it. However, restaurant service isn't limited to the restaurant area, which makes for a pleasant, but sometimes chaotic, experience.
Someone stopped by to chat with Emma and Cyn; something about her demeanor suggested she recognized me, but hers was a very common name; it turned out she was
metaphortunate! Hooray! After lunch I went to the downstairs lobby to figure out what panel(s) I wanted to see. There were plenty of people about. I chatted with a few of them. I pulled out my traveling laptop George to check my mail.
Before I made any sort of decision about panels, it was check-in time at the hotel, so I did that so I'd have a place to leave some of my gear. I relaxed in the quiet for a bit, then figured I'd wander panel-wards by way of the con suite, which was on my floor.
I walked in to a con suite full of awesome women talking about weightlifting. I was enthralled. These are the sorts of conversations that don't tend to happen when bros are bro-ing about being bro-ful and loud, and I could have enjoyed an entire convention just like this. And that was how I met
kshandra, and I recognized forestofglory's name but couldn't place the exact acquaintance. (Someone whose badge name was Melissa was saying a lot of the awesome things, and Michele from the concom was there being awesome too.) When I was packing for the convention, I had tossed a number of things into a large transparent plastic box, just the right size to fit in a large tote bag with some room left over. It is in fact large enough to hold George, some jellybeans, several menstrual pads, makeup, hair pins, glitter, a notepad, a package of highlighters, and some other random things. I had found a few packages of pop rocks under some boxes on my bookshelf while shuffling things around in preparation for moving (whenever that's going to happen). Long story short,
norabombay was totally overreacting and I did not die from eating shelf pop rocks. And I tossed one in the box, because why not. The discussion turned from weightlifting to obscure dietary restrictions, and someone mentioned that one of the weird ones was lactose in pop rocks. People were sort of baffled, because why do POP ROCKS need MILK. I remembered that I had tossed it in the box. I whipped out the package of pop rocks. Yep, lactose.
Cliff wandered through. It turned out that describing the helldesk software to someone who used to work on http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMC_Remedy_Action_Request_System is an actively painful experience for that person. It is a solved problem, and Virtual Hammer has attempted to re-invent the weasel by glueing several gerbils together (which, I might add, would be doubly illegal in California).
Saw some people who are identified in my notes as Wendy and K.
ethicalslut identifed my Dreamwidth d button, and we got a picture together. The banquet was next, and ethicalslut was looking to pull together a table of interesting people. I was amenable to joining this table. I identified someone in line who I thought might be
firecat, and I was correct. Also at the table were Aahz, and several other people. The banquet was great fun. After that, there had been a lot of people, so I went up to my room for a bit.
I decided to go for some lobbycon time. I ran into forestofglory, and this time had managed to identify people we know in common (
kaberett, among others). Shweta Narayan was passing through, and they and their husband sat down in the group, and I met the Designated Extravert of the group, the adorable, cheerful Mippo (a tiny stuffed animal which looks like the delightful intersection of Moomin and Hippopotamus). Emma and Cyn joined the group as well. There was an unfortunate incident with Shweta and some too-hot water, and ice became necessary. It was lovely to meet them though!
I got a large amount of loonembellishment done.
Eventually I was dizzytired and went off to bed.