No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on January 16, 2014

Yesterday was all fog all day. There were points that you couldn’t see across the street much less down the block. Driving was a challenge with the additional challenge in the evening of people who don’t know how to drive in fog. High beams even more so those most annoying halogen high beams are going to reflect not magically cut through the fog. Low beams and slow down people for safety.

I am hoping for the Broncos and the 49ers in the Superbowl but am expecting the Seahawks and the Pats.

Why do we even have a professional basketball season? Just give the trophy to the Heat and the MVP to LeBron and be done with it. There really isn’t anyone else out there that is looking like a champ.

Looking forward to the Winter Olympics. Already figuring out my TV schedule. I do notice that we have more X Games like challenges this year than last time around. And if you want to see good real hockey rather than a brawl with some hockey tossed in, the Olympics is for you.

Waiting to see what the weather is going to do before making any plans for what I am going to do. I have an idea of where I am going to start.

I do so love that Caroline is a self starter in the morning. She is good at getting her bag packed and herself ready. We have a schedule and we stick to it ,which gives her sometime to play before she goes off to school.

Fig has taken to chewing on wires attached to computers and iPads. I am trying to figure out how to stop this behavior before she gets herself in trouble. None of the other cats showed this sort of behavior. She also is the cat most likely to get stuck somewhere hard to get to. She is our hidey cat.

Creative brain has been in overdrive. Time to get out some materials and to some art.

But first I have to strip out all the electronics from the main household system and redo it to see if I can figure out where the loose connection is. I have an idea but I also have a feeling that that I need to rerun some of the cables. Then I am going to have to reset all the clocks and the like and probably put a few things back on the Internet to get everything working correctly. That will probably take most of the morning. I do know where all the remotes and game controllers are.

I am grateful for machines that work the way that they should.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 15, 2014

It was announced recently that Chi Fi a science fiction convention in Chicago proper (as opposed to a convention in the Chicago area) was cancelling its 2014 convention due to problems with the hotel, which was the venue for the convention. Chi Fi has a pretty strict anti harassment policy that states that it forbids “harassment of any kind, including verbal assault, physical assault, battery, deliberate intimidation, stalking, or unwelcome physical attentions.”. Apparently the hotel manager was uncertain if his staff could help maintain such a policy and expressed concern about some of the more colorful characters that can attend these kinds of conventions. The manager used the word “freaks” or rather “those costume freaks”. Thus creating a rather uncomfortable atmosphere right off.

The hotels and management who have learned to embrace the fans have had repeat business during sometimes that rather slow to dead for them and help keep the business in the black. Hotels that have hosted certain conventions for years know what to expect and how to accommodate them.

Dragon Con is a good example of this. They took a dead weekend for a lot of the hotel industry (labor day) and made it worth the hotels while. The host hotels know what to expect from Dragon Con. A lot of the employees have been there for years. I know a number of the staff by first name and I know about their families too. They have watched Caroline grow up and have told me that they are impressed as to how polite she is to everyone. Yes, we see each other for a short time every year but they have gone above and beyond to make sure that everyone has a fun and safe time.

Not that there haven’t been bumps or misunderstandings over the years but they have been worked out. The Marriott removes a majority of its furniture so there is more room for people. I do wish they would leave some seating on the second floor but that is their choice. They also put out chairs and tables on the 10 floor making easier for large groups to meet up there. All the host hotels are golden about making sure there is water for everyone. You can decide which hotel to stay in based on how much noise and how much sleep you want to get.

I remember the first time I had to sign an agreement to not destroy the hotel at a convention. It happened the year after someone had taken a battle-axe to the elevator creating 1000s of dollars worth of damages. These have become pretty much de rigueur with science fiction conventions and now seem pretty much a part of checking into any hotel.

I don’t think that fans are the only group that can be hard on hotels. I have heard from various hotel employees that the science fiction fans are much more polite than some other groups they have through there every year.

I have been at hotels where there has been a certain amount of point and laugh from the staff and the other guests. Those conventions are uncomfortable outside the convention area. Those hotels tend not to be used in the future by the convention. Also conventions that decide to do major construction work during the convention and not tell the con committee doesn’t get very high marks either.

I think that Chi Fi did the right thing. There were signs that this was not going to go well and that the guests of the hotel that were attending the convention were not going to be treated with the same respect that the hotel would give any other convention that was at that hotel.

And I think that is the bottom line. You want the hotel to treat the science fiction convention the way it would treat a Shriners convention or a religious convention or a group of bankers. The fans are the customers and should be shown the same respect that the hotel shows to all its other customers. They shouldn’t be considered “freaks”.

I am grateful for hotel management that gets it.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 14, 2014

It is in January that I take a look at the conventions that I will be going to and figure out what I am going to make for each leading to, for me, the big show at Dragon Con.

One of my usual conventions (LunaCon) may be a no go this year. I didn’t go last year either due to a number of factors including Peter’s health. This year I might not be going due to happier circumstances that I will talk about when things solidify a little more.

So that leaves me Farpoint, Shoreleave, and Dragon Con to show at. I have to see if there are any other shows that might be a good place to display my art. If anyone has any ideas, I would like to know.

Usually I use Farpoint and Shoreleave to motivate me for Dragon Con.

Also this year I am going to be building a costume for me for the workmanship contest. It is one of those labor intensive costumes that I contemplate and then discard so this year I plan on doing it. I see a lot of rubber floor mats in my future.

I plan to introduce some new dolls this year. I haven’t done a doll in about two years and it is high time that I started again. Next March will be 10 years since I took the first doll course from Wendy Froud. Time to use that information to create art.

I am thinking that it is time to turn Holmes and Watson into puppets.

I still have the hand puppet Firefly idea floating around.

Also a soft doll idea that might work. I need to do a test or two. If so I don’t think it has been done in fandom and, if it works, it will be cute.

There has been a discussion on one of the doll groups about using one’s fabric stash before we aren’t around to use it. So this year I plan to work my way through the stash with minimal buying of new materials for my projects.

Monster puppets part deux are in the future as well.

I am grateful for things to work with.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 13, 2014

Which it hasn’t in a while. I think it was probably a month ago that I last had a Monday feel like a Monday. Between the holidays and travel, it has been busy. This time last week I was walking around the Johnson Space Center in Houston TX talking to scientists, astronauts, and other learned people.

I am taking this as the start of 2014 for me since it is the first week that even looks close to normal. In doing so I am adjusting my weekly schedule to fit things I want to do this year slightly differently. Part of it are the leftovers from 2013 that I want to tidy up sooner rather than later.

Caroline has another challenge in that she is going to be participating in NYSSMA this year for the first time. I need to get a few details for her form and then send it in to her music teacher. She is already working on the piece she needs to have cold by April.

She also wants/needs to get working on her Science Fair project. She wants to do a project on water filtration to make dirty/bad water safe to drink but in a way that can be done for very little to no money and possibly recycled materials. She was reading about the problems that children have with bad water and how that kills more children than war. That is due in March. So we will get working on that. I have to get the teacher’s permission for the project.

I am going to try to add some creative time every day. If I take some time to create something creative being it writing or physical art, maybe I can shake myself out of my malaise.

Crafty Tuesday is slated for tomorrow and maybe I will really have something to show y’all. Or I could talk about some stuff I have seen going on recently in the semi-professional art world that seem rather scary to me.

I am grateful for things that make it easier to sleep.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 11, 2014

I’ll admit I have been mostly sleeping the past couple of days. Some bad nights led to some power naps which lead to some bad night but I think I have it sorted out now or will by the middle of next week. Part of it is probably recovering from an iffy sandwich I had at Space Center Houston (it was too sweet).

Yesterday we went to get Caroline’s passport renewed only to discover that until she is 16, it cannot be renewed but she will get a new passport. Also now one needs both parents with ID and the child to renew the passport. It is a combination of fraud procedures and preventing parents from taking the children out of the country without the other parent knowing. So we did what needed to be done and hope to get her passport soon. We will be doing this one more time since it will expire when she is 15. But she needs a passport considering all the traveling she does.

I did finally get iPhoto to talk to me again. I promptly backed up the photos on this computer on my separate hard drive. So there will be links to photos shortly.

I started tell myself a story in my head. I should probably write (or type) it down before I lose it. It was kind of fun to have my writing brain working so well. I am unsure exactly where it is going but the characters are fun.

Also I have a crazy idea of something I think might do well in art shows. I have to make a prototype and see if it will work.

However today I am making about finishing putting things away from our travels. There were a couple of things that fell by the wayside from our trip to Atlanta that I want to take care of. And I need to get back to the inbox for scripts and books.

Not feeling the NFL right now. I am hoping that we get it down to the Colts and the Saints. I think that would be one of the best match ups. I am figuring that the money people are hoping for the Pats and the Seahawks since that gets two large markets with large following on both coasts. Although the Pats vs. 49ers would give them the same things. The rest of the teams have smaller markets and following and it would be hard to write up the “stories” that we read before the Super Bowl.

Been reading up on procrastination and ran across this beauty entitled Why Procrastinators Procrastinate and the follow-up piece entitled How to Beat Procrastination. I would say that I am a procrastinator at times and I have felt the hot wet breath of the panic monster breathing down my neck. I do a lot of planning before executing an idea.

I am grateful for Caroline’s abilities being recognized by her school.

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