{"id":339,"date":"2014-07-06T09:22:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-06T16:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=339"},"modified":"2014-07-06T09:22:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-06T16:22:13","slug":"westercon-final-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=339","title":{"rendered":"Westercon – Final Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

The earliest items for Sunday at Westercon<\/a>\u00a0begin at 10AM. \u00a0Since Melissa and I are flying at 11:20, we do not have time to enjoy the convention today. \u00a0Therefore, yesterday was the last day of the convention for us.<\/p>\n

It started much as the previous days had. \u00a0We woke up early enough to catch breakfast before attending a 10AM panel. \u00a0We ran into Michael<\/a> in the lobby, and he joined us. \u00a0We went to a place called the Blue Lemon and had omelettes.<\/p>\n

We made it back to the hotel and attended a couple of panels before going across the street to watch the live taping of Writing Excuses<\/a>. \u00a0Michael was the guest on the show, following Peter Beagle<\/a>. \u00a0Peter was a difficult act to follow, but Michael did well, and the audience was responsive with laughter and applause. \u00a0I’m really proud of Michael, and how far he’s come.<\/p>\n

After Writing Excuses, Melissa and I made our way back to the Westercon side, and tried to figure out what we were going to do next. \u00a0I was considering going to a World Building panel, featuring Brandon Sanderson<\/a>. \u00a0I knew it would be interesting, but I wasn’t particularly excited about attending it, as I feel that my world building is already pretty good.<\/p>\n

Melissa had spotted Mary Robinette Kowal<\/a>\u00a0in the lobby. \u00a0Mary Robinette looked different, as she was dressed in a regency gown and had a very convincing hair clip. \u00a0Melissa thought it might have been Mary Robinette’s daughter. \u00a0Mary Robinette saw us and invited us to attend the regency dancing panel that was coming up.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I’ve talked about dancing before. \u00a0To me, dancing is like cooking, in that I am very good at following instruction, but not so skilled at improvisation. \u00a0When I was doing amateur music theater in New Mexico and I joined the cast of Grease, the rest of the cast had been practicing the dances for a couple of weeks. \u00a0Within the first hour, I’d picked up the dances and was performing them more accurately than those that had been with the show from the beginning. \u00a0It sounds like I’m bragging, but I don’t mean to. \u00a0I can pick up and memorize the instruction, but I don’t take much joy in the dancing itself.<\/p>\n

Because of this, I’ve always been resistant to taking ballroom dancing with Melissa. \u00a0Melissa has a more normal skill level with dancing. \u00a0I usually try to avoid activities with Melissa where I will find myself frustrated with her, especially when it’s not her fault.<\/p>\n

Mary Robinette had invited us, though, and it was something well outside our normal comfort zone. \u00a0I told Melissa that it’s important to try and do at least one thing that frightens you at every convention, and she agreed. \u00a0We attended the regency dance.<\/p>\n

We were both a little nervous before the lesson began. \u00a0Mary Robinette was passing out dresses to some of the ladies that weren’t wearing any. \u00a0The room was one of the normal conference rooms, with all of the chairs pulled to the walls. \u00a0I looked around at all the other couples sitting around the room, and I saw that most of them were nervous, too. \u00a0At that point, I sat up straighter and stopped being nervous. \u00a0We weren’t the only ones out of our element, and that gave me comfort.<\/p>\n

The first part of the instruction was about posture. \u00a0We were to stand up straight, but relaxed, as though an invisible string was attached to our chest and was pulling us up. \u00a0This was difficult for me, because it was very close to standing at attention. \u00a0When I stood at attention in the Air Force, it was a very stiff stance, and we needed to not be stiff.<\/p>\n

We were then told to partner up with people we didn’t know. \u00a0I think Melissa and I were the only ones that followed that instruction, though I didn’t find that out until much later. \u00a0Melissa wound up in one line, and I wound up in another.<\/p>\n

I could write quite a bit about the dance, but I feel like I’ve already droned on quite a bit. \u00a0The instructor was very knowledgeable and funny, and he taught us not only about how to move, but how the people during the Regency period thought. \u00a0It was very interesting, and Melissa and I both had quite a bit of fun. \u00a0As I had expected, I picked the dance up very quickly, and received many compliments from the people that shared the line with me.<\/p>\n

After the dance, Melissa and I attended an event that was a mix of trivia questioning and book signing with the authors. \u00a0It was in the large room. \u00a0In the back of the room, tables had been set up for authors to sell and sign books. \u00a0At the front of the room on the stage, groups of 4 of the authors would be called up to be asked trivia questions. \u00a0Some questions had been gathered from the audience, and if those questions stumped the authors, the person that supplied the question would get a prize. \u00a0I supplied to Harry Dresden questions, but mine were never asked.<\/p>\n

This event was not very well executed. \u00a0They structure was not very consistent. \u00a0The people on stage often couldn’t hear the person asking the questions. \u00a0It was a little bit boring for both the people that were called up on stage, and the people in the crowd. \u00a0Melissa and I did our best to stay interested, but there was only so much we could do. \u00a0The event was not well executed.<\/p>\n

I left just before 8 to attend what was described as a Dresden Files LARP. \u00a0I love the Dresden Files, and I like role-playing, though I was a little bit uncomfortable with the LARP aspect. \u00a0Melissa went off to find food, and wound up having some drinks with Michael and Jim. \u00a0I think Melissa had the better experience.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t that the game was bad. \u00a0When I found out what it was all about, and what they were aiming for, I relaxed quite a bit, because it was really just a collaborative storytelling experience, much like the roleplaying games I try to enjoy normally. \u00a0One of \u00a0the problems was that 10 people had shown up to participate, and I was the only one that was prepared to get into a character and roleplay.<\/p>\n

I did my best. \u00a0I assumed an accent, got into my character, and assumed the spotlight several times, so that I could cast it to other players in the game. \u00a0There is a phenomena in these sorts of games where if you roleplay with confidence, and try to play with people, they will usually reciprocate. \u00a0You can pass your confidence, real or imagined, on to other people. \u00a0This was no exception, and the people I played with responded fairly well. \u00a0Unfortunately, there were just too many people for me to charge up, and the person running the game was somewhat inert.<\/p>\n

When the game was done, I felt clever and tired. \u00a0I returned to my room instead of going to con parties. \u00a0Melissa was there, and we went to bed relatively early.<\/p>\n

Overall, \u00a0the convention was a success for us. \u00a0There were ups and downs, but more ups than downs. \u00a0Melissa had a really good time and enjoyed herself. \u00a0I had a good time, and I feel re-energized to write again. \u00a0That’s one of the things I love the most about conventions like this. \u00a0My writing engine gets refueled.<\/p>\n

It’s been a really great weekend, and I’m looking forward to Convolution<\/a>. \u00a0I bet Melissa will join me for that one, too, which would be fantastic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The earliest items for Sunday at Westercon\u00a0begin at 10AM. \u00a0Since Melissa and I are flying at 11:20, we do not have time to enjoy the convention today. \u00a0Therefore, yesterday was the last day of the convention for us. It started much as the previous days had. \u00a0We woke up early enough to catch breakfast before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}