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Rose City Comic Con Day 3
Sep. 7th, 2025 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olivermossAKA - two more pictures of the same people in front of the same backdrop.
This morning I had to choose between the Flanaverse panel, the local ghosts panel and the horny books panel. I hated to choose, but I'd been doing author panels all weekend so I went with Horny on Main:
N. E. Davenport, Aiden Thomas, Gabriella Buba, Isa Agajanian, Casey McQuiston, Rachel Gillig
I enjoyed the panels and didn't really expect them to enlighten me about writing, but this was probably the best talk about writing. ( Mild NSFW )
How The Pros Do It
Scalzi, Kingfisher, Aoki, Anders
Turned out to mostly be about keeping to a writing habit or not. Still fun.
And that was the end of the con. Glad I went, even if I hoped it would be more social this time around. Three of the presenting authors were trans and there were a lot of visible trans people there. With everything going on, that's soothing. Still sucks to be alone with no community, but yeah, experiences like that are still good.
Something about being on my phone between panels at a con felt like an echo of fifteen years ago. Not sure if in a good way or bad, but it just is
This morning I had to choose between the Flanaverse panel, the local ghosts panel and the horny books panel. I hated to choose, but I'd been doing author panels all weekend so I went with Horny on Main:
N. E. Davenport, Aiden Thomas, Gabriella Buba, Isa Agajanian, Casey McQuiston, Rachel Gillig
I enjoyed the panels and didn't really expect them to enlighten me about writing, but this was probably the best talk about writing. ( Mild NSFW )
How The Pros Do It
Scalzi, Kingfisher, Aoki, Anders
Turned out to mostly be about keeping to a writing habit or not. Still fun.
And that was the end of the con. Glad I went, even if I hoped it would be more social this time around. Three of the presenting authors were trans and there were a lot of visible trans people there. With everything going on, that's soothing. Still sucks to be alone with no community, but yeah, experiences like that are still good.
Something about being on my phone between panels at a con felt like an echo of fifteen years ago. Not sure if in a good way or bad, but it just is
Allston Christmas, and fish drowners
Sep. 7th, 2025 10:56 amflexagonSo for those who aren't local, Be It Known that the vast majority of apartments here have leases beginning on or around September 1. Simultaneously and relatedly, the streets fill with U-Hauls and the sidewalks fill with random boxes and pieces of furniture marked "FREE". This last phenomenon is called "Allston Christmas" after a local suburb, but it happens across many towns in the area. It's like a big, disorganized Everything Swap.
Overall a very domestic week. If you count the intended-to-be-final walk-through for my new condo, I put serious time into four different places. Then I went kitchen-feral on Saturday and made both quatre quarts cake and sushi. Workouts did go okay as well, but with less to specifically report.
I groused and griped about the final outcome of the Google-vs-DOJ antitrust case, which of course Google lost. ( If the powerful can be found guilty but then nothing happens to them, what good are the courts? ) The judge could have hurt browsing a bit, and instead he hurt all of tech. Maybe all of the country.
I learned a good new insult from an otherwise so-so book. The insult is "fish drowner", and I am taking it to mean someone who fucks up the apparently unfuckable. The person who snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, the person who manages to drown a goddamn fish. The person who maybe had one job, and had the power in his hands to break up a known monopolist, and... simply didn't do it.
- I picked up two new kitchen pots from the squirrel, and ended up giving him an onion chopper device that he loves... amusingly this was not as a direct swap, but it worked out well.
- Tuesday I spent about four hours helping a distant-ish friend pack stuff intended for a storage unit. I learned how to vaccuum-bag, which was cool, and MacGuyvered some garment-hanger boxes, and then was able to ferry a bag of stuff to the ballerina. And... silently I judged, because there was so much stuff. I came home, and the next day I got rid of a big bag of clothing and put out my own "FREE" stuff on the sidewalk and reorganized my kitchen. LOL.
- Friday I spent nearly 8 hours helping my acro base unpack and organize. Our goal was to get all his boxes open / broken down / gone, and we did it. So satisfying. We took a 2BR place from a giant pile of boxes to a place that looked like he lived there (and had had a messy week). We also got to see a couch left on the sidewalk disappear within an hour, and the same for a few other things that just didn't seem to have a place in the new apartment. He has different hobbies and different stuff than I do, but his attitude about objects is so much more like mine that it made for an interesting contrast with Tuesday.
- You are wondering: well, miss minimalist, did you get any free stuff this Christmas season? Yeah, I did. The two pots (I got rid of one), a pint glass, and a pair of parallettes from R (good for doing pushups without having to warm up my wrists first).
Overall a very domestic week. If you count the intended-to-be-final walk-through for my new condo, I put serious time into four different places. Then I went kitchen-feral on Saturday and made both quatre quarts cake and sushi. Workouts did go okay as well, but with less to specifically report.
I groused and griped about the final outcome of the Google-vs-DOJ antitrust case, which of course Google lost. ( If the powerful can be found guilty but then nothing happens to them, what good are the courts? ) The judge could have hurt browsing a bit, and instead he hurt all of tech. Maybe all of the country.
I learned a good new insult from an otherwise so-so book. The insult is "fish drowner", and I am taking it to mean someone who fucks up the apparently unfuckable. The person who snatches defeat from the jaws of victory, the person who manages to drown a goddamn fish. The person who maybe had one job, and had the power in his hands to break up a known monopolist, and... simply didn't do it.
Other cons tabling at RCCC
Sep. 6th, 2025 10:09 pmolivermoss* I was surprised to see the Orycon booth, as sad as it was. Oregon's 45 year old sci fi and fantasy con is ending this year, next month actually. I was going to avoid the booth, but instead I talked to them and asked why. They said they are getting smaller each year and rather than hang on, they want to end on a high note and make room for something new. Also, they said they intend to attend whatever new con pops up. Maybe that is the just the stock PR answer, but the guy I spoke to seemed sincere. I am kinda impressed. Then he rambled and said that the aging leadership wasn't attracting the younger crowd and I kept my mouth shut. I did mention that I was on OFSCI for a while, but he doesn't know who I am or my history with Orycon/OFSCI.
I asked about the endowments the con has for writing scholarships, bringing in a filk guest each year, etc. He didn't know what I was talking about. But, a planned ending as opposed to a collapse hopefully means it's all being handled properly.
* Andrew was at the Kumoricon booth? With what looked like an undercut? Not going to get into why I Have Questions about this. Those questions I will never get answers to (and it might be for the best that I don't), but I am glad I talked to the Orycon people even if... actually, especially since they were not the Orycon people I used to work with.
* Last year the SPEW people were grabbing people and pulling them into their little HP area. Last year a lady grabbed me like she knew me and something was urgent and pulled me in. I was so off balance I went with her and then quickly noped out. I had decided if they did that cute RP that involved a) touching people and b) assuming people are thrilled to suddenly be in an HP photo booth I was going to be significantly less chill about it this time. Fortunately, they were not doing their RP bullshit this year. Honestly, not sure how they got away with doing that all weekend last year.
I asked about the endowments the con has for writing scholarships, bringing in a filk guest each year, etc. He didn't know what I was talking about. But, a planned ending as opposed to a collapse hopefully means it's all being handled properly.
* Andrew was at the Kumoricon booth? With what looked like an undercut? Not going to get into why I Have Questions about this. Those questions I will never get answers to (and it might be for the best that I don't), but I am glad I talked to the Orycon people even if... actually, especially since they were not the Orycon people I used to work with.
* Last year the SPEW people were grabbing people and pulling them into their little HP area. Last year a lady grabbed me like she knew me and something was urgent and pulled me in. I was so off balance I went with her and then quickly noped out. I had decided if they did that cute RP that involved a) touching people and b) assuming people are thrilled to suddenly be in an HP photo booth I was going to be significantly less chill about it this time. Fortunately, they were not doing their RP bullshit this year. Honestly, not sure how they got away with doing that all weekend last year.
Rose City Comic Con Day 2
Sep. 6th, 2025 08:57 pmolivermossWhen I was in the line to get in there was a group of teenagers behind me. They kept smacking into me like I wasn't there or trying to sneak part of the group in front of me when the line went around corners. I don't like people pulling that shit on me because I am at the event solo and it happens a lot. Then I decided, yanno, I am going to have people bumping into me and being annoying all day because they are hyper, oblivious, entitled, actually need to for some reason, etc. I don't want to start the day out like this. So I stopped and was all 'go ahead, sick of this, go in front of me since you want to so bad' and they didn't even pretend like to be shocked or innocent. They just enjoyed cutting one (1) whole person and didn't bother the people in front of them because it was another group.
Oh No, I've Made a Huge Mistake:
Casey McQuiston, Aiden Thomas, Isa Agajanian, T Kingfisher, John Scalzi, Ryka Aoki
This was actually kinda sort a writing panel. It was more about RL events derailing book projects, or saving them, but yeah. Anyway, it was fun.
The Leyfarer's Chronicle: The Dreams of Dragons
And then there's these weirdos. They are all full time DMs at TPK Brewing, where I play D&D. The pub, drinks, etc are all these for their custom world setting and ongoing storyline with 150 players. I am one of the 150 Leyfarers doing the ongoing story. This was a lore heavy actual play... real play... live D&D thing. (I know the term is 'actual play' for these 'watch D&D played live' thingies but that term is still weird to me, so I assume it's confusing to other people as well). The guy on the far right is my group's DM.
Then I wandered a bit more and came home. I still need to pick what to do tomorrow because almost everything I want to do overlaps time-wise. There's another writing panel, the Flanaverse panel and some people talking about the ghosts of Portland.
Oh No, I've Made a Huge Mistake:
Casey McQuiston, Aiden Thomas, Isa Agajanian, T Kingfisher, John Scalzi, Ryka Aoki
This was actually kinda sort a writing panel. It was more about RL events derailing book projects, or saving them, but yeah. Anyway, it was fun.
The Leyfarer's Chronicle: The Dreams of Dragons
And then there's these weirdos. They are all full time DMs at TPK Brewing, where I play D&D. The pub, drinks, etc are all these for their custom world setting and ongoing storyline with 150 players. I am one of the 150 Leyfarers doing the ongoing story. This was a lore heavy actual play... real play... live D&D thing. (I know the term is 'actual play' for these 'watch D&D played live' thingies but that term is still weird to me, so I assume it's confusing to other people as well). The guy on the far right is my group's DM.
Then I wandered a bit more and came home. I still need to pick what to do tomorrow because almost everything I want to do overlaps time-wise. There's another writing panel, the Flanaverse panel and some people talking about the ghosts of Portland.
Rose City Comic Con Day 1
Sep. 6th, 2025 08:21 pmolivermossGoodies so far:
I also got my copies of What Moves The Dead by T Kingfisher and Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston signed, but I already owned the books.
The place was packed, more that it's typically been in my experience.
I went to the Plot and Pacing Panel:
N. E. Davenport, Isa Agajanian, Casey McQuiston, Charlie Jane Anders, John Scalzi and Ryka Aoki. Amazing line up, but that many authors and that broad a topic, it was mostly just going to be some random chatter. During the Q&A session some guy asked if fanfiction was an acceptable form of writing practice or does it hurt your own voice too much. Then John Scalzi went 'Fanfiction writing is writing' and the audience cheered.
Weirdly, it was the tag end of the panel before that was more interesting about writing. They were having writers submit 'back of book blurbs' for their projects for critique and actually, the people running the panel gave interesting feedback.
Next was Sidekicks and Side Quests:
T Kingfisher, Terry Brooks, Gabriella Buba, Rachel Gillig, Aiden Thomas
This panel was more unfocused. Before the panel started Terry Brooks was walking around thanking people for showing up to his panel, but I had no idea who he was. I actually thought he was just a guy making jokes and not an actual panelist. Between Terry just giving advice that may or may not have anything to do with the topic, people being excited to be on a panel with Terry and T Kingfisher answering a question on research by explaining in depth the purpose of caterpillar inflators while Aiden looked like he was about to tap out... yeah, amazing line up... but if you wanted to go to learn about writing in general or these topics in particular, lol no
I roamed the exhibit hall a bunch. It was amazingly crowded.
I also got my copies of What Moves The Dead by T Kingfisher and Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston signed, but I already owned the books.
The place was packed, more that it's typically been in my experience.
I went to the Plot and Pacing Panel:
N. E. Davenport, Isa Agajanian, Casey McQuiston, Charlie Jane Anders, John Scalzi and Ryka Aoki. Amazing line up, but that many authors and that broad a topic, it was mostly just going to be some random chatter. During the Q&A session some guy asked if fanfiction was an acceptable form of writing practice or does it hurt your own voice too much. Then John Scalzi went 'Fanfiction writing is writing' and the audience cheered.
Weirdly, it was the tag end of the panel before that was more interesting about writing. They were having writers submit 'back of book blurbs' for their projects for critique and actually, the people running the panel gave interesting feedback.
Next was Sidekicks and Side Quests:
T Kingfisher, Terry Brooks, Gabriella Buba, Rachel Gillig, Aiden Thomas
This panel was more unfocused. Before the panel started Terry Brooks was walking around thanking people for showing up to his panel, but I had no idea who he was. I actually thought he was just a guy making jokes and not an actual panelist. Between Terry just giving advice that may or may not have anything to do with the topic, people being excited to be on a panel with Terry and T Kingfisher answering a question on research by explaining in depth the purpose of caterpillar inflators while Aiden looked like he was about to tap out... yeah, amazing line up... but if you wanted to go to learn about writing in general or these topics in particular, lol no
I roamed the exhibit hall a bunch. It was amazingly crowded.
(dean) there's gold under the rust
Sep. 6th, 2025 05:38 amnorthlandsfree coffee from the kind lady at dunkin, another trip to the dark tower, along the highways in hiding, and kinship. makes having to work so much easier
we haven't given up. we just have to rest and restart.
we haven't given up. we just have to rest and restart.
FIC: Fidelis (Our Flag Means Death, Fang/Izzy Hands)
Sep. 1st, 2025 01:02 pmdelphiTitle: Fidelis
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Relationship: Fang/Izzy Hands
Rating: Teen
Word Count: ~5600
Content Info: This fic is set in the afterlife. There is major character death referenced, but the characters in question are still present in the story.
Summary: Izzy has spent the last decade on a small island in the middle of nowhere with only a dog for company. One day, an old friend comes to call.
Notes: Inspired by the ‘Fang’ and ‘Water’ squares of my 2025 Izzy Hands Bingo card. Also available on AO3.
( Fidelis )
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Relationship: Fang/Izzy Hands
Rating: Teen
Word Count: ~5600
Content Info: This fic is set in the afterlife. There is major character death referenced, but the characters in question are still present in the story.
Summary: Izzy has spent the last decade on a small island in the middle of nowhere with only a dog for company. One day, an old friend comes to call.
Notes: Inspired by the ‘Fang’ and ‘Water’ squares of my 2025 Izzy Hands Bingo card. Also available on AO3.
( Fidelis )
