WorldCon: A Trip Report of Sorts

[scarlettina]

Back from WorldCon, feeling as though the convention wasn't quite what I hoped for. There were good parts, but it was all colored vaguely gray by things that were completely beyond my control and not quite as I would have had them. Even when I made a point of doing things that would make me happy, things I enjoyed, something always got in the way, which was hugely frustrating. In an attempt to accentuate the positive, however, here's what I do remember that was goodness and brought me joy:

• Being swept off by JoS to Filene's Basement, getting lost on the T and ending up strolling through the verdant Public Gardens and Boston Commons, as already recounted here. (Nature makes me happy.)


• Getting together with mabfan and gnomi, who presented me with challah on two separate occasions and gifted me with a piece of scrumptious homemade Butterfinger banana cake (long story). I adore them both and wish we lived closer to each other.


• Seeing as many of the Malibu crew as possible (a.k.a. the heretofore mentioned back-east posse) including kradical, terri_osborne, quarkwiz and her husband, suricattus, greeneyedkzin, kefiraahava and so many others. You evil, wonderful people make me homesick.


• Attending Esther Friesner and her husband Walter Stutzman's renewal of their wedding vows, which was a pleasure to attend not only because they are so clearly devoted to each other, but because it was also an opportunity to finally see my friend D, who was the officiant, be the rabbi he studied years to be.


• Accompanying jaylake to the Hugo ceremony and cheering him on when he won the Campbell Award (and watching Frank Wu win the Hugo for best fan artist).


• The "Two Beers and a Story" challenge, despite the fact of my computer's crash.


• Doing the reading I did in the SFF.net suite, despite a busted computer and having relatively little to read.


• Watching friends KK and GH participate in the otherwise lackluster masquerade to carry off two well-deserved award ribbons in their classification.
  
• Attending readings by kradical and jaylake.


• Meeting aynjel and DL, both very cool women indeed.
  
• Buying myself a beautiful, hand-painted silk scarf and an autographed first (and only) edition of The Bird of Time by George Alec Effinger.

These were the good things.

The toughest of the tough things was my computer's meltdown. There were we, ensconced in the bar at the Sheraton—me, kradical, davidlevine, jaylake, and suricattus—all set to launch into Two Beers and a Story, and my computer wouldn't boot. I ended up writing on aynjel's PDA and keyboard, which was a great option but a challenge at the same time. Watching your computer catastrophically fail and then trying to be creative is, well, not something I want to try again any time soon.

I won't catalogue the other tough stuff; it's not worth remembering and I've spent most of yesterday— a day I took off from work—detoxing from its after effects. No sense in dredging it all up again after a semi-effective purge.

As for the computer's status, here's the latest: When I bought my machine, I purchased AppleCare, Apple's technical support package. Lazy-ass that I am, I never actually activated it. So yesterday, when I took my machine in, I learned that I have to reinstate the service by supplying a proof-of-purchase to Apple. This meant calling CompUSA in Portland, OR to have them mail me a duplicate receipt. That'll take 2-3 days. Then I have to FAX that to Apple. It'll take 2-3 days for me to show up in the database. Only then can I bring the machine in to Apple for repair and be sure it's covered.

This means I'll probably be without current technology at home for at least ten business days. Today, I'm logging in from work to post this LJ entry. This is all what I think of as the Stupid-Janna Tax. I don't do what I need to or should and pay for it later. *sigh* At least the machine will eventually get the care it neeeds. And yes, I've learned my lesson.

And how did I write this LJ entry? Last night, I dug out my chunky, 10-year-old Apple PowerBook 540 with its 9.5-inch monochome screen, unreliable power source, and an operating system so old that it's got Y2K issues. (I love the security certificate error messages I'm getting on this thing: "This system is not yet compatible...") I fired it up and wrote on that. I e-mailed this entry to myself at work for posting since it appears that my ten-year-old operating system is incompatible with LJ's entry-posting code. This thing's a brick, but a remarkably reliable brick in the end.

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

How could one arrange files to cause a meltdown?

I have had an iBook for about 7 months, and I like it so much that I caved and ordered a G5 iMac to replace my 6-year old PC desktop. I haven't heard about many major issues with Macs, but it's a guarantee that if you do hear them, it will be after you have spent money.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

I created a second Documents file higher in the heirarchy than the one provided by the system. I think I confused it into a meltdown. My bad.