KJ

-- Mostly to save for myself for posterity, the WisCon 45 vid party playlist, complete with links (where available) and detailed warnings.

-- A new gameplay trailer for Final Fantasy XVI has dropped. I don't know how I feel about an advertisement for a game that focuses way more on the summons than on any of the characters, and it's awfully dark and murky. Hopefully we get some more story- and character-focused content later. But after FFXIII and FFXV being a bit of a bust for me, I don't know how excited I can get any more.

-- However, I'm legit excited that Dragon Age 4 has an official title now! A release date would be a great next step. Do we dare hope for 2023?

It's not that late and yet I'm tired -- it was a long day. I think expending so much social energy all at once took more of a physical toll than I was expecting. Still, great day! In bullet form:

• Slept in a little bit, then quick Starbucks breakfast before the first panel, which was on being a fan of problematic things; it covered some of the same ground as mentor monsters yesterday (and with one of the same panelists, Jessica Finn (pelicanismo

• A nice laid back lunch of pasties with forestofglory in the Capitol Square

• Attended two afternoon panels, one on fanfics that have outsized influence on their fandoms (and sometimes even beyond their fandoms) and one (featuring the one and only readingtheend!) called "How Dead Is the Author, Really" about applying the critical principle of "death of the author" in the age of social media, when most authors are not only very much alive but able and willing to engage with readers and reviewers, for good or ill. The latter was an excellent panel, another best of the con, with some thinky thoughts that I'll have to chew on more when I'm more awake.

• Last panel of the day was my third as a panelist: City as History, City as Liberator. This had almost the same panel description as the virtual panel I was on in 2020, but even with the same moderator we had a fairly different focus: we talked about how the pandemic has changed our relationship to the environment, about how cities can inspire and reflect social change movements, about cities as characters, about non-traditional SFnal cities like spaceships and space stations. We got a lot of kind words afterwards, and if you're a con attendee with access to the Discord, I highly recommend checking the thread out -- we had a few notetakers who provided a really good sense of what we talked about and saved all our recs.

• A quick dinner, a little room relaxation, and then the annual dessert salon with GoH speeches. For COVID safety reasons, we did speeches and presentation first, then dessert to go after. First they replayed Rebecca Roanhorse's excellent GoH speech from WisCONline in 2020 -- which still resonates two years later, but in some different ways than it did before -- and then Sheree Renee Thomas gave one of the most beautifully poetic speeches I'd ever heard.

• The Otherwise presentation, which focused on the 2019 and 2020 winners because the jury hasn't selected winners for 2021 yet, and then the traditional filk which was instead about the persistence and resilience of WisCon in the face of all the adversity it's faced these last few years.

• And finally, speaking of that adversity, we got an update on the Save WisCon fundraising and volunteer recruitment effort, which was a resounding success: SF3 raised more than enough money and got enough support to not only succeed in running the con this year, but committing to WisCon 46 in 2023. This was followed by the announcement of next year's amazing guests of honor: Rivers Solomon and Martha Wells!!!

So, it's been a great con, and I can only hope next year is even better -- and maybe a little less fraught with pandemic concerns, although I've given up even guessing at this point. But it's not over yet -- one more panel for me, and then my flight isn't until 5:30 so I'll attend the postmortem and maybe get to hang out with folks a little more.

First full day of the con has been pretty good, relatively laid back. To my great joy, both Michelangelo's (the coffee shop that's essentially extended con space) and Short Stack (the all-day breakfast place) have outdoor seating, so I had breakfast at the former (with forestofglory!) and dinner at the second (with a friend I used to sing in chorus with but now consider more of a fandom friend). In between, I relaxed in my room, worked on a puzzle during the Gathering, and did a three-hour shift at the registration desk. Working the reg desk was great and may now be my favorite way of volunteering at a con: there are waves of busyness but there's plenty of downtime to get to know your co-volunteers, it's relatively low stress compared to some other volunteer roles, I can sit the whole time, and I get to see people as they're coming in to the con. Wins all around! After dinner I dropped in and out of the vid party a couple of times and also dropped by the Speculative Literature Foundation/Serendib Press party, where I chatted with folks and had one of a selection of Indian sodas (mostly tropical-fruit based; since that's not really my cup of tea, I picked a Limca, which is similar to Sprite but not as sweet).

Now I'm in the room for the night, ready to kick back and watch some more Exandria Unlimited to wind down before bed. Two panels tomorrow! Plus farmer's market, Otherwise auction, art show, and I hope more time with friends.

(Written on Friday night, neglected to post until Saturday evening)

So, WisCon. It's happening, both in-person and virtually, and unless something changes drastically in the next 10 days, I'll be there, in Madison.

I've thought a lot about this, weighed the risks and my options, and I've come to the conclusion that I would rather accept the risks involved than not go. I'm happy talk more about my reasoning in comments if anyone is interested, but since I want neither to focus on justifying my decision nor for anyone who feels differently to get the impression that I'm trying to change their mind, I'm going to leave it at that for now. If you will be there, let me know! I'm currently on four panels -- three in person, one virtual -- but the schedule is still a bit in flux, so I'll share it when things are more settled.

Also, I wanted to make sure that folks know that there will also be a full virtual convention running, and the registration price has recently dropped to only $25! While I'll probably focus my participation on in-person events, as mentioned I am on one virtual panel, and I'll definitely check in online throughout the weekend. I'll be really curious to see how the hybrid model works out. And I'm so glad they were able to offer the option.

Today was basically just some Discord chatting (mostly in the Postmortem thread and the Fond Farewell) and a video call with other members of the concom. The transition back to everyday life has begun, starting with closing my laptop and moving it back upstairs once I've finished this post.

I'll probably have longer, more complete thoughts on the online con experience later, when I'm a little more awake and after I've had time to digest. For now, I just want to say how happy I am that the shift to an online con was a success. Perfect, no, I'm sure there are many things that we can point to that could have gone better (and I'm sure we'll hear about all of them in the days to come). I can think of a few myself. But thanks to the heroic efforts of many people, we were able to pivot from an in-person to an online con in less than two months, which frankly feels like a goddamn miracle. Thank you, heartily, to everyone who put in the blood, sweat, and tears to make that goddamn miracle happen. I'm so happy we didn't have to have a year without a WisCon. I look forward to making the return to Madison someday.

Considering that I typically finish con-related activities in the evening, you'd think I'd have no excuse not to write up each days events on the day of, but I've been getting tired weirdly early. Maybe I'm subconsciously transitioning to Madison time?

Also, many new people here! *waves to new people* I look forward to meeting you all, if I haven't already. :) (If we met at the con, and your DW username is different from your Discord one, let me know!)

Anyway, yesterday was good! I spent the morning popping in and out of Discord, and then at noon I had my first panel, on The Good Place. The online panels are half an hour shorter than the in-person ones typically are -- 45 minutes instead of one hour 15 -- and the time just FLEW by. As a result, I didn't talk as much as I might have usually done, but that's okay; I got to talk about what I think is the most interesting aspects of the show, the way it continually reinvents itself, and when I went back to read the chat later I saw lots of agreement with my points. But really, it was so short. The panelists kept talking on the video chat a good ten minutes past the actual end of the panel, and I wish it was a conversation we could have had with the audience. Then again, I don't think an hour 15 would have been long enough, either. :) I have a feeling that this could be a panel that recurs at WisCon every year for awhile. There's just so much to talk about! I also spent quite a bit of time hanging out in the chat thread after, talking with some of the other panelists and attendees, and as a result I unfortunately only ended up half-watching the Decolonizing SFF panel that followed mine. I might try to go back and watch the full video, later. Next up was the annual "Not Another Race Panel", in which PoC have a panel discussion about anything but race issues. I've always wanted to attend this panel, but never managed to make it work out in my schedule -- I've always either been on a panel in the same time slot, or had something else up against it. I am so, so, glad I finally made it there, because it was super fun.

That led into "dinner break" (which in Pacific time is 3pm-5pm, so more like a tea break). I spent part of that time chatting with a couple of people in a spontaneous video chat, mostly more conversation about The Good Place, and then I took a real break from my computer before it was time for the Otherwise Auction. Although it was plagued by technical difficulties (more than any other event has been so far), brainwane was still a hilarious and charming auctioneer who provided us with a fun time. She kept the proceedings moving along, switching between life performance and pre-recorded skits. Because the stream had to stop and re-start several minutes in, the auction ran right up into the last panel for the night: the now-annual Best Superpowers for Banging panel. This was, as always, a hilarious time, and at least of the events I've attended so far, the one most enhanced by the simultaneous text chat running beside the livestream of the panelists.

I spent a little time popping in and out of the Discord after that, but I confess that this is the aspect of the con where I've been the least comfortable. Finding and joining spontaneous conversations is the hardest part of any con for me, and I'm finding it even less natural in the message board format. I've learned that in-person cons are best for me when I attend with friends with whom I can meet up and connect on a regular basis, and then use those connections as a jumping-off point to make new ones. That's been harder online, as we are in different spaces, different conversations, often different time zones.

Anyway, I am back now and ready to get back into the swing of things, and also spend a little time prepping for my panel later this afternoon. "See" you over there!

So this is a very strange experience, trying to slip into con mode with no transition from everyday life. For FogCon, my transition is the drive to Walnut Creek (a place I rarely go for any other reason); for WisCon, it's taking a day off work to travel, plus the transit time in the plane. But Thursday is typically my busiest work day right now, so taking the extra day seemed unreasonable, and I was working up until 5pm. Since the first event started at 5:30, I had to go almost immediately from closing my work laptop to opening up my personal one, with no time or space to transition into the con headspace. I at least changed my outfit, at the suggestion of forestofglory -- I'd picked a particularly work-like outfit today, so shedding that and moving into my Agent Carter t-shirt, Wonder Woman earrings, and a comfy pair of cut-off shorts did help to change my mindset, but given that I still have to do the weekly grocery shopping tomorrow morning, I'm not sure I'll be able to fully relax into con mode until that's done.

I did attend the two main events today. First was GOH Rebecca Roanhorse's reading, at which she read from a short story and her forthcoming novel, and then answered questions about such thing her working process (both before and during COVID-19), her approach to world-building, and what it's like to write for Star Wars. She is a great reader and an interesting speaker, and I'm glad she was able to do a live reading. The second event was a pre-recorded Doubleclicks concert. I've definitely heard of the nerdy folk-rock sibling duo before, but it would be a stretch to say that I'm familiar with their music, so it was a fun introduction to them. Since they weren't able to be in the same place, they took turns singing (basically no one has been able to figure out how to record live music together online, due to lag issues), but they had clearly recorded on stream together, and their performance chemistry is excellent. I hope I get the chance to see them play together someday.

After that, I needed to eat dinner, and as I mentioned I don't feel quite ready to entirely disappear into con space yet, so I signed off for the night. I hope I'm more able to make the break from my everyday life tomorrow once my chores are done, at least during con hours. Wish me luck, and see you all around the internet!

Registration for the first-ever entirely online WisCon (aka WisCONline) is now open!

I hope to "see" many of you there. :) I know it won't be the same as in-person WisCon, but I'm happy the event is coming together and looking forward to being a part of it.

I have booked my plane tickets for my epic May travels! My 25th college reunion is the last weekend in May, and Wiscon is the weekend before. It seemed silly to go home in between, so I'll be gone for a week and a half. Flying into Madison on Thursday, 5/21 and out of Philadelphia on Sunday, 5/31. I'm sure I'll see some of you at each event -- and perhaps both??

Now, the question of how I get from Madison to Philadelphia is an open one. I have tentative plans to visit folks during the week between events. Train, bus, rent a car? I'll have to figure out and price my options. If anyone has advice, I'm happy to hear it!

I survived my first modding experience! The panel was called "The Rise and Fall of Tumblr"; in the words of the panel description, we discussed "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of this Blue Hellsite", and I felt like we got a good balance of all three of those aspects. Before the panel started, I suggested to the other panelists that we start with other aspects of the site and community before we got sucked in to talking about the adult content ban; in an hour and fifteen minute panel, we started discussing the ban around half an hour in, and ended up with about 20 minutes for questions, and that felt about right. The hashtag was quite active, and I recommend checking it out.

My second panel on social media was immediately afterwards in the same room, but it was a different enough collection of people and topics that it didn't feel like a rerun of the same panel, or a single panel spread across two sessions. Unfortunately not too much Twitter action on that one, but I enjoyed being on the panel.

That was the end of my official programming, but I attended one more panel: Fanfiction: Threat or Menace, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the AO3. The framing of this panel was interesting -- it was a reunion of folks who had been on a fanfic panel in 2008, at a time when the larger WisCon community tended to be more hostile to fic. The panelists started out by reading the original panel description aloud, and boy, it was a doozy. They started out by discussing the questions raised in the original description, then moved on to talking about today's fandom community and AO3, and it was a great conversation, with a good amount of audience participation. Hashtag is here.

Tonight was dessert salon and Guest of Honor speeches. I wore the same outfit that I wore to the Hugos in Kansas City, along with the dragon pendant I ordered at Worldcon, and they matched amazingly well. Desserts were tasty, speeches were AMAZING, and I know I always say this but I highly recommend checking them both out once the transcripts (and videos?) are eventually posted -- Charlie Jane Anders's speech, especially, would be best experienced in video if it becomes available. The Tiptree Award presentation was particularly nice this year, because the winner was a story that had been translated, and the translator was also recognized, which is so important. Then next year's guests of honor were announced: Rebecca Roanhorse and Yoon Ha Lee! They should be fantastic, I am excited to see them both.

After a bit of room hangout, I decamped here, both to write this and to get some downtime -- I've been pretty much on the go since I got up this morning, so it's good to start winding down. Going home tomorrow -- not ready, so ready, as usual.