_DSC5800
Originally uploaded by bovil
Yes, total picspammage domination. I've got a few general pics from the con too...
We spent a year in purgatory on the Baycon 25 (and Westercon 60, yes, the year of two cons) staff. It's disappointing to see what's gone down, but not surprising.
For my Baycon staff peeps who left:
You're going to hear a lot of "this happened before." You're going to hear a lot of "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
This has happened before, and over the same issues. Leaving, though, isn't the insane choice. Banging your head against the wall over and over when problems aren't fixed over and over is the insane choice.
I don't blame any of you for deciding that reassurances things would be fixed weren't reassuring enough. There comes a time when only results are reassuring enough.
Don't let this ruin your fun. Go to the con. Don't go to fiddle while Rome burns. Don't go to show off your "Not my con, monkeyboy" button. Go to spend time with your friends, some who are still on committee, some who aren't on committee, some who never were on committee. You'll be surprised.
For my Baycon staff peeps who stayed:
Robert has it right. You've got 4 months to rebuild the departments that left and put together a con.
That said, don't lose track of the message that the folks who left gave y'all. You've worked with them for many years. They aren't a bunch of malcontents and drama queens. There are problems inside Baycon, and ignoring them doesn't help anybody.
For the Artistic Solutions Board:
You blew it. Big time.
You lost the trust and support of over a dozen key people, people who have done great work for Baycon, people who have dedicated years of their lives to make Baycon a great event.
You can focus on the drama. You can focus on the tone. You can rail against communications failures. You can blame people for not being patient enough. It doesn't matter.
Suck it up. You lost the trust and support of many senior staffers. You lost it over some piddly paperwork.
This has happened before. It's Baycon's cycle. The board has to step up and break the cycle unless you want this to happen again in another 5 years.
Artistic Solutions has to acknowledge its mistakes. It has to correct those mistakes. It has to show how those mistakes will be avoided in the future. It has to, on a regular basis, show the remaining committee members that business is being attended to.
It has to rebuild trust with Baycon's staff and volunteers. Without that trust, Baycon's attendees are going to stop trusting in the event too, and that's the end.
Oh, and see if you can do this without all the bitterness and recriminations that followed previous walk-outs.
So, since it's the beginning of a new year, the "by the numbers" post:
K got me going to the gym last year before New Year's (end of December 2008).
It took me about a week to reach the point where I wasn't dying after 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. K picked me up a heart rate monitor, and I started using the heart rate programs on the machines. This was good because it warned me when I was pushing myself more than I should.
Just before FurCon 2009, I weighed myself for the first time in ages and came up over 230 pounds (how much over, I don't remember). Just before FurCon 2009, I bought a bunch of new 36" waist jeans because my old 36" jeans were wearing out (because they were too tight). Except for one pair, they were a bit tight.
I worked up to an hour a day on my preferred elliptical machine, and once I adapted to it, moved to a different elliptical machine that's more flexible. I switched to two days a week on stairmill.
In early November, I weighed in at 201 pounds. I cut 5" off the end of my belt. I bought several pairs of 34" waist jeans. They're tight enough to not fall down without a belt, but still not tight.
November and December being the months of eating indiscriminately (and missing workout days because of travel, parties and, surprisingly enough, work), I've bounced back up to the 205-210 range. That said, the fit of my clothes hasn't shifted significantly, so I'm not particularly worried. It's also moving back down again.
I've switched one day a week to an actual treadmill. I hate treadmills, but I'm slowly losing the false motion impression that lingers after I stop. I still ache the day after, but I'm aching a lot less the day of.
I'm not going to be back down to my driver's license weight (190, in 1999) by FC or Galli (as I had hoped), but I'm also not worried about that.
I can touch my toes without unlocking my knees again (and I haven't been able to do that since I was 13 or 14).
I'm able to fit in clothes that I bought more than 5 years ago (and my kilts fit better). I should fit in the suit that I bought in London a decade ago. I might get back down to 32" waist jeans, but I'm not sure I really want to buy a half-dozen pairs of jeans again in 6 months.
All in all, a rather satisfactory place to be.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
reichmarshall is a disturbing freak. I dare you to watch this.
Worldcon is coming to Reno in 2011 (driving distance from the Bay Area!). If you're interested in the event and would like to help it succeed, would you please make a promotional post in your journal?
Sample:
If you're planning to go to the 2011 Worldcon in Reno or maybe just even thinking about it, please check out ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} renovationsf, the LJ newsletter and information community of Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention. To get the latest from the convention and its attendees, join the community. |
To post this block:
- Copy the text in the block below
- Open your LJ editor (web page or client)
- Find the option to switch to HTML posting. In the web interface, it's a tab next to "rich text." In Semagic, it's a "HTML" button at the bottom-right of the window.
- Find the check box control for "don't auto-format entry" and check it.
- Paste the block into the post body
- Find your security options and set your post security to "Public"
- Post that sucker!
Promotion HTML code block:
At the moment it's seriously lacking in a lot of areas.
It needs better contact management and categorization, and perhaps a method for blocking undesirable contacts. Right now things are manageable, but that will change over time.
It needs an update notification system. Scheduled email summaries, IM integration, something.
It needs output services. I built a trip using "trippy" (which is a pretty cool and useful extension, by the way) but I've got no way to output it (other than a screen print).
I need to go out shopping for jeans. The jeans I have now are too big and too bulky to just belt comfortably.
I plugged a new power supply into the dead Dell. It's alive again, and is my new living room computer. It's got a few issues (Ubuntu linux doesn't really like the audio chipset, and the wireless keyboard is useless until it's booted into an operating system) but it's turning out to be a pretty good little media station (particularly since it's not powered up and overheating 7x24).
I am playing with free VOIP services. I've got a Gizmo5 (sipphone.com) account set up using Ekiga client (yes, I've tried Gizmo, Qutecom and linphone, this is the combo that works nicely with my hardware and Windows). I haven't set up Skype yet, but I may...
My spare work computer is going back to work, to do worky things. I've actually got need for it there again.
It's hard to write a WFC report without sounding like I'm dropping a lot of names, but then again, it's WFC. Well, there's also "running hospitality" so dropping names is all I've got left.
Jetse de Vries is a total blast. Jim Minz and I got some time to sit down, drink chipotle vodka, and tell stories from back when we were both total nobodies. Drinking with Jeremy Lassen may be good for the soul, but it's not good for the liver. Jeff and Ann Vandermeer are a total runaway train, you never know where things are going to end up with them. Garth Nix is just incredibly nice and fun to talk with. Nora Jemisin... kind of like Minz, I knew her (online) before she was published and we had a nice time chatting about the old days. I don't think Tempest Bradford's brain ever stops running, or even slows down for that matter. Victoria Blake isn't nearly cynical enough to be in publishing, but it looks like she's going to succeed at it in the long term. Neil Clarke is just amazing. Liz Gorinsky is really cool.
The rest is a blur.
Wednesday we moved in the stuff at our house. 4 car-loads, I believe.
Thursday we decorated and opened. Yvette and I did the "perishables" run. Costco came through with our business delivery, barely on-time. Spike and one of her friends did our first ice run. We provided support and space for the Vandermeers' most excellent party.
Friday we opened again. Well, Rich, Spike and Yvette opened (this was the pattern). There was a slight miscommunication on when lunch should come out and when breakfast should end, but that was solved for the next day. I did a giant Costco restock run; it's a miracle the car survived.
Saturday we opened again. I did the BevMo run for Amontillado, and Edgar's birthday cake was delivered.
Sunday we opened again. Coffee was a bit late because we ran out and had to get more at Safeway. We didn't close at 1:00, but started taking down and packing decorations. K picked up the Rug Doctor to do the carpets, and we did our second room. Around 5:00pm we brought out all the left-overs and dead dog party started.
Monday morning (after way too little sleep) we cleared out the suite and did the rest of the carpets. Moved out all of hospitality, only 2 car-loads going out.
Big thanks to:
- Cindy, for keeping track of our dollars; come Friday morning I knew I had to trust the receipts and not my personal spreadsheet
- Aaron, for getting the logistics runs that we really needed done done.
- Ann and Jeff Vandermeer and their crew (Victoria and Neil particularly), for keeping the ideas flowing and inspiring us to take the theme places we never expected
- Rich, for sound advice, even when in some cases we knew already because it helped us adjust our priorities, and for getting up every morning to open things
- LaMont, for always being there, and taking the job he was worried he wasn't experienced enough for
- Radar and Lisa H, for all the help moving in, and all the help keeping things going
- Spike, for repeatedly coming up with process improvements that made things run better (and for offering her help at the last minute when we hadn't even really thought of asking)
- Johno and Chriso, for getting the food processes organized enough we could just carry through on them
- España, for being her cheery self and pouring a lot of drinks
- Jo and Krys for always keeping up with the restock demands
- Henry and Letha for finding the time in their busy schedules and Letha's help with move-out
- Mark & Yvette for decor, haulage, and a lot of work
- Mo, for the most amazing Poe portrait and those wacky tikis (and a lot of work)
Seriously, we had the best crew and a great committee. I'm not sure I'm interested in working on another WFC (but ask again in a decade when someone out here feels like doing it again), but it was a great time working with everybody.
andy
Rather than buying another refurbished machine from the Dell factory outlet, I'm seriously considering a build-to-order box from Central Computers. Here's the specs I'm thinking about:
Intel Core2 Quad Q9550 2.8Ghz
ASUS P5QL Motherboard
4gb RAM
Sanity check?
The Epson R2200 that we got used we were only able to get a few dozen prints out of before it clogged to the point of no return. We gave it to
didjiman (who already owned another R2200), figuring that he might be able to get it to work.I ordered a Canon i9900 to replace it. It has a user-replaceable print head, so clogging is a repairable issue (and can often be repaired by pulling the head and soaking it). It's been a real workhorse, but ink costs are a bit high. Costco is a help with that, but only to a degree.
Since I've started taking more photographs, I started looking into the printer a bit more thoroughly. I discovered that the colorfastness of the Canon inks isn't that great.
I finally decided to start looking for a bulk feed system and alternate inks. The only problem is that the i9900 has been out of production for a few years and everybody who used to sell conversion kits for them was out of stock. Well, almost everybody.
It turns out Absolute Inkjet (part of Ink2Image) was listing a bulk feed system for the i9900, and archival (by dye ink standards) ink. I ordered it.
I waited.
And waited.
About 6 weeks later I got an invoice and a tracking number. It came in a week or so after Labor Day.
It's actually a pretty sophisticated system, with really cool substitute cartridge for the default "sponge" style cartridges. There was only one problem: one cartridge had the retaining tab snapped off.
It took about a week to get through to ink2image (my first email was lost, but using the web contact form worked) and they sent me two spare cartridges. The cartridge swap was dirt-simple.
Because of the ink change, the whole printer needed to be flushed. One of the other things ink2image sells is "refillable" ink cartridge sets; one set and a bottle of head cleaner (that they charmingly refer to as "Dead Head Recovery Fluid") is a suggested purchase along with the bulk feed kit.
I'm glad I went with the bulk system rather than just using refillable cartridges. They're easy enough to fill, but a bit messy to reseal. Still, 8 cartridges filled with cleaner (and over 2/3 of my cleaner left) and the printer was flushed.
Priming the bulk system and installing it wasn't a piece of cake, but it wasn't too difficult. I only made a mess of the red ink, because it was more difficult to monitor while priming than the other cartridges.
The ink I went with is the Lyson Photonic ink for Canon printers.
If you consider doing this, it's very important that you know something: These inks do not match the colors of the OEM Canon inks. You can't run these inks unless you can print using custom ICC color profiles. If you do, everything is going to look washed out and brown.
ink2image provides sample ICC profiles for a few paper types, but for really good results you're going to need to use a print calibration system to match your screen output. On the cool side, Lyson claims that, properly calibrated, the Fotonic inks will produce a color range similar to that of traditional photo chemistry (much better than that of most ink-jet printers).
I spent quite a bit of time yesterday doing calibration runs, and I've learned a few things:
- After adding ink to the external tanks, it's possible to end up with streaky output. I think this is a side-effect of letting the ink level run too low before refilling. Running a few prints solves this problem.
- The wide-gamut inks look better on photo paper, even properly calibrated they lack brightness on plain paper.
- A photo that looks good on the screen isn't necessarily going to look good in a print. The exposure has to be much better to produce a good print than it has to be to look OK on the screen. Rodeo prints are looking good, pics from Saturday night are blah.
- Bulk ink is crazy-cheap, even the archival ink costs about 1/5 the cost of ink cartridges. The "AbsoluteMatch" ink for Canon costs less for a 4oz (120ml) bottle than a single cartridge of Canon ink (15ml) costs.
- @MaryRobinette Giving Obama the Nobel Prize for Not Being George Bush is one of the biggest pieces of pwnage in history.
- @whump: Shorter Obama Nobel Rationale: the World is watching you and hope you listen to reason, instead of the neocons.
- @DaveHolmes So, wait: YAY Chicago lost the Olympics, BOO our president won the Nobel, and it's the OTHER SIDE that hates America?
- @randomfacebookcommenter: Think of it as the "Welcome back to sanity!" prize.
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