Friends and Fun

Posted by jukkahoo

This is more to do with Livejournal, but in essence goes here too.

I have hard time addings Friends to my - well - Friends-list. Those of you who have no idea of what I'm writing about: Livejournal has this option, where you are able to tag othe LJ's, in essence make them your Friends. More than anything, it's a convenient way to keep track of what those people whose LJ you're following. A good thing.

But is has that infuriating handicap (for me at least) of being called Friends. I like to think that people I call my Friends are that, friends and not just some people I happen to have run across at the internet (or possibly even had a brief chat with at some con perhaps). Thus I'm still clicking to my Bookmarks and  occasionally also some icons on some threads. Everything would be so much easier if I could just tag those people, like with Blogilista.

It's not that I wouldn't mind calling most of these people my friends. Far from it. It's just. Not. The. Way. I. Do. Things.

Sigh. I just have to get past this and start adding people to my Friends-list. Maybe I'll just add few right now. [...] Ah, much better.

Worldcon.

Yes, it was a lot of fun and now, after some three weeks (of which most has been spent wailing in misery with fever and various ailments of the body, I was sick as a dog) I can now safely say that this one was the most enjoyable one. Least amount of programming seen, but in view of meeting both new and old "friends" (ahem...), actual interaction (he said while smiling broadly at this clever way of including the name of the convention to this report) with people and getting down and dirty with fandom, this one takes the cake.

Yes, I loved it and would've loved it even more if our hotel wouldn't have been as far as it was and if my schedule wouldn't have been as hectic as it was. I'd love to have been able to get to Glasgow a full day earlier, acclimatize myself, but especially to have been able to spend a few days after the fact at there as well.

Meeting people was fun. I had this mission of interviewing authors, but after Thursday (ie. the First Day) I was ready to give it all up. I couldn't really be bothered - or bother people - with any extra hassle. My decision was a wise one, since I really was able to enjoy the whole deal a lot more that way. I did manage to have a nice chat with Liz Williams, but that's another thing and that was Sunday.

I managed to finish my FAPA-zine (Arimoniitti) just in time for the August mailing and decided to take some extra copies to distribute to people at the con. Got rid of some 30+ copies, mostly to various fen I've had some previous engagements with like Pete Young, Randy Byers, Jerry Kaufman etc, but also some people who were interested in Finndom (as my Finndom-article was the Main Story of the ish), like James P. Hogan and Neyir Genk Gökce. I think.

I didn't try to push Arimoniitti too much. It really was a rush-job with atrociously bad photocopying to boot, and I wanted to seek out people I had some kind of "connection" with. I had thought of leaving some extra copies to the Fan Room, but the sheer size of the Free Fanzines -table was over-whelming. I have never seen so many fanzines in my life! And I'm certain I wasn't alone with my predicament. I managed to haul a sizable (in a sense that I was travelling by an aeroplane and a baggage, with few books in it, too) bunch of fanzines back home. I have been reading them and will write something about them at some time. There is something special about old fanzines. All those young and eager fans trying to speak their mind, create chaos and fanac as fast as they can. Some of those names are now Old and Respectable BNF's - or in some cases - Real Authors! Goshwowboyoboy!

Books. Mentioned there and carried all the way from Glasgow to Helsinki. The sum of it all is way over 30, with Sari's purchases, over 40. And I/we were cautious. OK, the first day was a bit mad, but after that, I managed to calm myself and really seek out stuff that a) is very hard to find in Finland and b) I reall, really wanted. Like these wonderful small press books. Or some of those delightful fact books. Or those chapbooks. Or...

To me, the Dealer's Area was sufficient and plentiful. I could've easily spend four-five, ten times as much money as I did this time. More, much more, in fact. The sheer amount of books that will never, ever find their merry way to these Arctic Circles, was staggering. So they didn't have a lot in the way of media or some such, too bad. Not my fanac. Though, I may have been mistaken for not buying that DVD of Raumpatrouille Orion for £25 from the German Guy... But it didn't have subtitles!

I'll talk more about the actual programming and Fannish stuff next time. What was good and what wasn't. And the parties, Best buys and of meeting people. I did hug China Miéville, you know. No, strike that: China hugged me.

Comments

[Tarja]

We could have gotten in the same taxi with Charlie Stross and his wife the night he won the Hugo, but we decided to wait for the bus. *kicking self later*

[sari]

Minulla on vain yksi LJ-friend ja hänkin haudan takaa. Sam Pepys pitäisi ihan varmaan päiväkirjaansa anonyyminä LJ:ssä jos olisi olisi elossa. Ja hänellä olisi ikoneita kissastaan.

22.8.1662: "About three o’clock this morning I waked with the noise of the rayne, having never in my life heard a more violent shower; and then the catt was lockt in the chamber, and kept a great mewing, and leapt upon the bed, which made me I could not sleep a great while."