more confluence pics

Performing "Three-headed Woman" in Chris Conway's concert
at Confluence. Thanks to Dave Alway for the photo!


Not much time online (only one dial-up telephone line), hence the dearth of Blatherings.

The cottage seems to be good for my tendinitis, probably because I spend far less time on the keyboard. I'm able to type for longer periods at a time and did more paddling than last time during a canoe paddle to Adaskin's Bay tonight. As Jeff pointed out, it's a long way from me being able to do a canoe trip, but I still figure it's much better than I was able to handle a year ago. :-)

Spent a couple hours in the hammock this afternoon, listening to an audio novel ("Grass For His Pillow" by Lian Hearn) but fell asleep partway through; now I have to figure out where I dozed off.

Question: Does anyone out there have suggestions on how to handle a kitchen ant problem without chemicals?



Confluence photo: Jodi, Andrea, me, Allison, Michelle and Tom. Thanks to Dave Alway for the photo!

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cottage

Chris Conway took this photo in Greenwich Village, NY.


At the cottage. The water's warm enough for comfortable swimming (as opposed to "holy toledo, that's cold, get me OUTTA here" swimming), so I'm spending as much time in it as possible.

I do slow laps in front of the cottage, and when my arms get tired I float on my back, arms and legs outstretched, watching the clouds drift by. I find it one of the most relaxing activities in the world, with the water below, sky above, letting the gentle breeze take me where it wants. I usually wake up before it takes me too far.






Leaping into my German Verb Drill book again, spurred by the knowledge that we're going to Vienna (and a brief visit to Berlin) in a couple of months. Anita and Scott give me tips, and help me with vocabulary. I'm also reading slowly through my copy of "Amerikanische Liebesgeshichten", a book of romance stories I picked up in Vienna last December.

The English version is on the left-hand pages, German on the right. The first story is Morley Callaghan's "The Snob", a story I remember reading in school. Right now I can only pick out a few words in the German version, but I'm hoping that eventually I'll become more fluent. "Es war in der Buchabteilung des Kaufhauses, dass der Student John Harcourt plötzlich seinen Vater sah..."

If you didn't see my last entry, the big Urban Tapestry news recently is that ALLISON is going to be at OVFF, woohoo! Jodi and I are very, very happy about this. OVFF this year has Ookla the Mok as GoHs, Scott Snyder as Toastmaster, Heather Dale as Interfilk Guest, and Mary Frost Pierson and Elaine Richards as Listener Guests. It's going to be quite the party. :-)

NOTE: I only have a dial-up line here, so please don't send me any big files, thanks.

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travel prep & concert pics

Urban Tapestry in concert at Confluence. Thanks to
John Hall, who took all the photos on today's Blathering.
From left to right: Jodi, Allison, me.


Many thanks to John Hall, who gave me permission to post some of the photos he took at our Urban Tapestry concert on the weekend.

Allison's coming to OVFF! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!! Jodi and I are pretty darned happy about this. :-) :-)

Our friends Scott and Anita are visiting from Germany starting today! Time to practice some of the German vocab I've been learning lately!

There are way too many exclamation marks in this Blathering but I don't care!

In this Blathering, I thought I'd give list of some of the online services I've been finding useful while traveling, or in travel prep. Most of these were selected after much online research, and I welcome comments and other suggestions from anyone using these or similar services.

Audiobooks:

I can't stand being on a long flight (or even in a line-up at the bank) without something to read. The problem with taking a regular book on a longish trip is that once you've finished the book, it's dead weight. I've found my iPod wonderful this way because I can just stick on a couple of audiobooks and it doesn't add any bulk.

I use Audible.com, which has two levels of membership (one or two audiobooks a month). So far, I've listened to Lian Hearn's "Across The Nightingale Floor" and Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything." The only downside so far seems to be that although you can sign up online, you need to phone to cancel.

If you do decide to sign up, please do list me ("ohi") as the person who referred you; I think I get some kind of credit, not exactly sure.

Internet access while travelling:

When using dial-up access while on the road, I use MaGlobe, which has dial-up access numbers around the world. I used it on our Arizona/Nevada trip with no problem, and it saved me a pile of money/hassle.

Long distance phone charges

My dad was the one who told me about Goldline, which I use at home as well as elsewhere. You can put as much or little into your account as you'd like, and then use a special access number when making long distance numbers. Thus I can call from pretty much anywhere with lower rates (e.g. calling the USA for 4.5c/minute, Japan for 6.2c/min, Germany for 4.9c/min, UK for 4.5c/min). Calling from a payphone adds an extra .80 at the beginning of the call.

But there are also access numbers around the world, with varying charges. In theory, for example, I could make calls from Germany back home to Canada for .09c/min. I used this service on my Nevada/Arizona trip generally with no problem, though I had trouble accessing the local number in Las Vegas with my cellphone (using the hotel and other phones were fine).

If you sign up for this service by phone, please do mention me as the person who referred you.

Airplane seating

Picky about where you sit on an airplane? Check out Seatguru.com, which lists seating plans for many different types of planes, along with comments about which are good and bad seats.

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confluence (part 3)

Tom West, the person who introduced me to filk.


Happy birthday to my niece Sara! Sara found out last week, by the way, that she is one of seven winners in her age group (9 years old and younger) in the Toronto Star Children's Short Story Contest, out of 2034 entries! I'm bursting with auntly pride, of course. :-)

Confluence report continued from Part 1 (which also has a list of other people's reports) and Part 2 posted yesterday:

The highlight of the weekend for me was getting together with some of the attendees of Alpha young writers' workshop, which is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing workshop for young writers organized by Diane Turnshek, an sf writer.

Diane used to work for Inkspot, moderating the Young Writers' Speculative Fiction message board. After Inkspot was shut down, she continued to be involved with the young writers from the forum. The bond was so strong between these writers, in fact, that some of them began to meet in person, and Diane got involved in organizing workshops and other events.

Anyway, it was wonderful to finally be able to meet some of these young writers at Confluence. Here's how the meeting was listed in the pocket program:





Sort of sounds like a comic book hero fight, as one person pointed out. :-)

And here are some of the Alpha writers I ran into the lobby on Sunday, with Diane Turnshek (in front):





Diane gave a short speech about how they wouldn't have been there if it hadn't been for me and Inkspot; I was deeply moved. Seeing evidence of the goodstuff resulting from Inkspot helps tremendously in taking the edge off some of the badstuff that happened near the end. It was wonderful to see this flourishing young writers' community in action, thanks to the efforts of the amazing Diane Turnshek and others.

The community recently moved a few weeks ago, and young writers interested in speculative fiction are welcome to visit The Inkspotted Phoenix.

More pics from the weekend...

One of the things I like about the convention is its small size, which contributes to the friendly and creative atmosphere, with more opportunity for hanging out with people than at larger conventions. Nice to have some one-on-one chat time with Andrea on Saturday night, for instance. Here's Andrea in the lobby on the last day of the convention:





Allison and Jodi at breakfast:





Jodi and I assist in Dave Rood's concert:





Sigh...lordy, can that guy ever sing/play, and I was tickled to be asked to play in his concert, as I was for Chris's. One of the things I love most about filk is the musical collaboration aspect, the exchange of ideas and music:





Performing for the sake of performing is fun, of course, but my personal passion is making music with -other- people...writing, performing, improvising.

Allison got randomly selected for a security check both to and from Pittsburgh:





And because I think it would be funny to have three pages in a row with Michelle photos:





In case you couldn't tell from these photos and my report, I had an absolutely fantastic time at Confluence and plan to come back again.

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confluence (part 2)

Continued from part 1, posted earlier today:

One of the many highlights for me from the convention was seeing Tom West and Michelle Sagara West (my friends from university days; I've known them over 20 years) get to know some of my friends I met in the filk community. For a long time, there seemed to be no overlap between my filking and non-filk worlds. This has gradually been changing over the years, I'm happy to say.

Tom, Michelle and Rand chat just before Chris Conway's concert (Steve Brinich in background):





Jodi, Allison and I helping to perform "The Alien Jellyfish Song" in Chris's concert (Pete Grubbs in foreground as sound guy):





We also performed on this track on Chris's Alien Salad Abduction CD, by the way.

Chris was amazing, despite feeling ill. At the end of his concert, my friend Tom (who was the one who introduced me to filk in the first place) turned to me and said, "Thank you SO much for telling us to come to this concert." You can find more information about Chris and his music at www.chrisconway.org/.

The wonderfully entertaining and talented Dan Hart performing an Elvis song in the Kinderfilk on Saturday morning:





Me and John Hall:





Jodi, Allison and I had great fun at the Dorsai room party, by the way. I tried some Tully (sp?) and embarrassed myself by having a small coughing fit.

Jodi performing with Chris in his concert (Pete Grubbs in foreground as sound guy):





Joey got Allison, Jodi and me hooked on this amazing dessert wine:





Loved Dave Rood's concert, and also enjoyed performing with him:





Blade, John Hall and Mary Bertke at breakfast on Saturday morning:





Encounter at Fourpoints (the convention was at the FourPoints Sheraton Hotel), a parody of the first episode of Star Trek The Next Generation:





The Klingon in the picture, third person from the left, is Randy Hoffman. :-) From Randy: "...The cast on stage are (from left to right) Kim Eklund as Datum, Heidi Pilewski as Queue #1, me as Warp, Barb Carlson as Queue #2, Kevin Hayes as Placard, Kira Heston as Toy, April Geiselman (mostly obscured) in a stellar performance as Wisely Cracker, and Tracey Levino as Queue #3."

Chris, Michelle (LOVE her expression in this photo) and Joey:





Chris and Andrea, who finally got to meet in person at this convention:






(to be continued)

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