lydamorehouse: (Default)
Abeno Harukas, tallest skyscraper in Osaka (arguably in Japan.) 
Image: Abeno Harukas, tallest skyscraper in Osaka (arguably in Japan.)

I'm not normally a fan of tours of buildings. With the obvious exception of things like museums, I will almost always prefer to walk a neighborhood than to go inside a capitol building or the top floor of the world's tallest whatever. However, I spotted this tour of Osaka's tallest skyscraper on HeyGo and thought, why not?  The tour guide for this one was Timea Yamamoto, a Romanian woman who is living in Japan (and from the looks of her last name, likely married or related to someone Japanese.) 

We started the tour at the train station, which was probably my favorite part?

The Kintetsu Osaka Abenobashi Station in O
Image: The Kintetsu Osaka Abenobashi Station in Osaka

Another view of the Osaka train station
Image: Another view of the pedestrian bridges of the station.

Someone on the tour remarked that the city of Osaka is not normally on a lot of people's tour itinerary. It is the third largest city in Japan, and the things I know about it are kind of vague. Comedy? Industry??  A unique dialect? Frankly, I would love more tours of Osaka just to see if it's the sort of place I might add to my list of places to see. 

But, back to the tour. Once inside the building, I lost a lot of interest. There are some nifty things inside. There's a museum and one of the largest department stores in Japan and several observation decks, etc., but it's a building? With stuff in it? The tour was specifically to take us to Harukas 300 (so named because it is 300 meters tall.) The trippiest part was the elevator ride, in which they have you look up at the glass ceiling and the elevator shaft has a light show as you travel upwards at great speed. Timea was a little dizzy once she stepped off the elevator.

We had a lot of connectivity problems at the top to the tower, which didn't frustrate me as much as you might think, because once you've seen the city scape once, the shine wears off quickly (at least for me)

Osaka from 300 meters
Osaka from 300 meters up. (Note of interest, that big square section on the lower right is a cemetery.)

I also got a little sea sick near the end because Timea took us down into the gift shop and there was something about how the camera swung from one shelf to the next that made me a little nauseous. I'm normally okay with this stuff, but, for whatever reason, I couldn't cope this time, so I bailed out. 

This tour was still fun. Someone else on the tour was from Minnesota, someone named Lisa R., so that was cool? (Waving if you're an internet friend of mine!) But, I knew this one would be less interesting for me because of its subject matter. I'm just NOT a building person. I have done those things you're supposed to do in cities, like go to the top of the tall buildings, etc., (like in Paris, we did go to the top of the Eiffel Tower) but it never really does all that much for me.  

Otherwise, I had a quiet weekend. We did a bunch of errands and I worked on a new quilt. 
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 Kasuga-tashi Shrine in Nara, Nara Prefecture
Image: Kasuga-tashi Shrine in Nara, Nara Prefecture

This time our tour guide for the HeyGo tour was a middle-aged coffeeshop owner named Hiro. Hiro lives in Nara, where this shrine is located and he's... a bit of a character. Americans have this sense that the Japanese are all polite and/or deeply enthusiastic. Hiro, meanwhile, started the tour explaining to us that he finds visiting shrines to be deeply boring, but the food shops, now that's something!

He then proceeded to walk up up a row of food venders and stop at one. He was hungry and he bought himself a hashimaki (okonomiyaki on chopsticks). This by itself is fine? Like, I like looking at food vendors. I even took a postcard of what he got, because it did look very yummy.

Hashimaki
Image: Hashimaki (a kind of crepe-like omelet on a stick.)

But then, he proceeded to eat it ON SCREEN. I can not explain quite how WEIRD and off-putting this was. In fact, I had to look away. I went off to another screen because I couldn't stand it. 

He did get a nice shot of the okonomiyaki being made. 

okonomiyaki being made on a grill

But, he wandered into the parking lot to show us how busy it was, and then he kind of harassed a police officer who was just trying to direct traffic by asking him about how many visitors had been to the shrine so far. (All in Japanese, of course.) It was awkward though? Like the guy was clearly trying to walk away from him??

Plus, Hiro had a vocal tick where he snorted a lot??? It was just... awkward.

At one point, he just randomly talked to someone else trying to set up a stall. That guy blew him off, but he ended up being followed by a gaggle of college students, who asked him what he was doing, and while I could not understand all of it, but he expressly used the term 'gaijin' to describe us, which isn't exactly an insult, but it can be. If he were being polite to describe his job as being a tourist guide for foreigners, I would suspect he would be more likely to call us the more formal gaikokujin... (especially when talking to strangers, though I did notice he used casual speech with EVERYONE he interacted with, even the traffic cop.) However, it was pretty clear from the guffaws from the college students, that we were being insulted. 

Hiro was kind of a dick.

I did end up tipping him, but only because it was 5 am in Japan when he took us to this shrine and he complained a lot about the hazards of running a coffee shop in the era of COVID. Even so, I kind of regret the paltry five dollars, honestly. I did notice that there weren't nearly as many people dropping tips into his jar. 

For good reason. 

So, I guess this is a lesson learned. It really does matter who your tour guide is. They are not universally awesome... and it is also possible that Hiro is great most of the time, but was just not at his best at 5 am. His camera got crappy reception at the beginning of the tour, too, so that didn't help my ability to appreciate him.

The torii gate at the beginning of the shrine was lovely, though. It is apparently (I found out not from our tour guide, but from wikipedia) one of the oldest of the Shinto torii gates. 
Tori gate in front of Kasuga-tachi

And he walked us past some of the stone lanterns that Kasuga-taisha is famous for.

A row of the three thousand lanterns that Kasuga-taisha is famous for
Image: A row of the three thousand lanterns of Kasuga-taisha.

He told us almost nothing about this Shinto Shrine which is the home to four gods-- Ame no koyane (a divine founder of the Fujiwara clan), Himegami, Futsunushi no mikoto (a warrior god), and Takemikazuchi no mikoto (a thunder god/sword god.) At some point, a child of the gods was added to this grouping. Like, the path to the shrine passes through a deer park?? I would have loved to have heard something about that.

Anyway. I would say this was a bust. I would probably feel less grumpy about it if I had stuck to my guns and not tipped. 

Asakusa!

Dec. 28th, 2021 10:45 pm
lydamorehouse: (??!!)
 Sensou-ji in Asakusa (Tokyo)
Image: Sensou-ji, a Buddhist temple in Asakusa

So... I wasn't going to do another one of these so soon, but I MIGHT be a little addicted. 

A friend of mine in Canada alerted me this morning that a company called Ebisuya was doing a walking tour of Asakusa, a district in Taito City, Tokyo. I signed up and let [personal profile] rachelmanija know, in case she wanted to join us. 

Our guide this time was an amazingly charming young Economics major named Nae-Nae (I'm not sure of the spelling, but Nae is a Japanese girl's name, so I am guessing it's just hyphenated?? Could be Naenae, or Maemae, too.)  She was very forthcoming that this is a part time job for her, and that previous to the pandemic she used to be a tour guide for this company, Ebisuya, in-person. 

It was apparently very cold in Japan today (tomorrow,) though I can't remember what Nae-Nae said the temperature was. In the 20s F?

Like most of the guides, she started us at the train station. Rachel asked to see a 7-11 or a Lawsons, (a combi, aka a convenience store, the type of which Japan is famous for) and by chance there was a Lawsons just there at the corner. She took us inside... only to be promptly shooed out by the owner for filming inside the store! It was pretty hilarious, honestly.

We also saw a huge line for melon pan at one of the restaurants in the covered ally she took us down on the way to Sensou-ji (Tokyo's oldest Buddhist temple.) We were all briefly confused by how long the line was until I remembered that it was noon in Tokyo. (Nae-Nae apparently lost track of time too.) It was just a long lunch line!

Most of the tour was on the temple grounds.


Temple entrance
Image: Entrance to Sensou-ji.

Nae-Nae had to have been the most chatty of all the tour guides so far. She was really amazing at keeping up with all the chatter in the comments stream. Though, I don't think there were as many people on this tour as there was Yusuke's Fuji tour, for instance, so maybe it was a bit easier. I kept my own chatter going both with my friend in Canada in WhatsApp and on text with Rachel. 

I have to admit that I sometimes forget what it's like to be absolutely new to Japanese culture. I mean, I laughed out loud when NaeNae asked us if we'd "heard of samurai," because I sometimes live in my own head in a version of the geek relationship fallacy, except it's an otaku fallacy, where I just assume of course we're all Japan nerds here. This is why I am totally 'that guy' in the chats, who is trying to drop in helpful wikipedia links to things that NaeNae discussed in passing, like wabi-sabi, but probably coming off like a raging a$$hole. 

koi
Image: If you squint you can see the koi.

Like, there was this one person in chat who did not get what Nae-Nae was saying about koi. To be fair to this commenter, I was them once, long ago, and I need to remember that because I really, really wanted to jump into the comment stream and explain it all. I held back, but it went like this: our guide was trying to explain that koi has a double meaning in Japanese. The Kanji for the the fish (鯉) and 'love' (恋) are homonyms and so are pronounced the same but are different words, right? So it is considered lucky to see a koi fish with your koi, as it were, your love.  I managed to explain it pretty concisely, but, like, getting into Kanji is a whole thing? I had not known the words were homonyms until today, but, having studied the language long enough, I was totally primed for the idea that Japan is rife with homonyms. Rife. Like overly abundant in them. 

Anyway, my point is, I need to remember to practice patience in the chats on these tours. I mean, the joy of having a couple of friends on other chat lines means I can snark to them. 

It was fun, as always to see the people on the street. We saw a lot of people very dressed up in yukata, including one amazing woman who also had cat ears. She was hiding her face from Nae-Nae's camera, however, so even though I wish I'd taken a picture, I'm glad I didn't. 

You will probably be seeing more of these? I will try not to flood my journal with nothing but HeyGo tours, but, MAN, these are addictive. I'm going to go broke bleeding out all these tips, a few bucks at a time.

more temple
More temple grounds
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 view of Mount Fuji

If you're wondering what Mount Fuji looks like today (or, technically tomorrow) in Japan, here it is, courtesy of another tour via HeyGo

Our tour guide this time was Yusuke, a very cold (temperature-wise, he had a very pleasant personality!), middle aged guy who was nevertheless a lovely companion. He was also out of breath because apparently didn't realize that the cable cars didn't start until 9 am and so he had to make the climb up on foot. On the way down, he was joking how some jogger passed him by on the way up, but otherwise there were not a lot of people around. 

Also, at one point on our way down the hill, I'm pretty sure he went off to pee in the woods? He paused us in a spot and put his camera on something to hold it steady, excused himself, and I swore I heard him crunch off into the woods and... well. To be fair to him, the visitor's center wasn't open yet, either, and it's not like it wouldn't be MORE awkward to tell a bunch of tourists to hang on while you obviously went off to use a public toilet. 

Yusuke was doing his best, though. He even brought along a special camera so that we could get an amazing close up of the summit of Mount Fuji. 

Fuji's summit
Fuji-san's summit

However, every time he switched back and forth between cameras the live-stream would cut out. Luckily, someone in the chat feed knew enough to tell us to refresh. That got most of us back, though I think some others were having additional technical issues. For me, every time I refreshed, I had to remember to "unmute" him because otherwise I lost sound. An odd feature of HeyGo, I guess. But, considering the service I get for a small tip, I'm not actually complaining at all.

Because look at Fuji you guys. LOOK. 


lake kawaguchi, perhaps
Image: Lake Kawaguchi.

He walked us down the trail from the visitor's center/viewing area, and generally chatted about things with people who posed questions in chat. We had a lot of people worried that Mount Fuji was about to erupt, so he had to explain several times that, no, those were just clouds forming off the high peak, and, yes, they monitor it, and also, though it is considered an active volcano, it hasn't shown any signs of erupting for almost 300 years. 


tanuki and rabbit
Tanuki and Rabbit mascots at Kachi-Kachi Yama (the foothills of Fuji).

I was THAT girl in the chat, this time, because at one point we stopped to look at a statue of the mascots of Kachi-kachi yama (where we were, the foothills), which are a rabbit and a tanuki. There was a big discussion about "raccoon dogs" because most people don't know that tanuki are their own animals, so I was THAT girl who was "well, actually"ing in the comments about how tanuki are neither dogs, nor raccoons, (or badgers) and dropping wikipedia links to tanuki. Yusuke tried to explain why the rabbit is setting fire to the sticks on the tanuki's back, but the whole folktale is super convoluted, honestly, but basically the rabbit is seeking revenge on the tanuki for killing a woman and tricking her husband into eating her in a soup. The rabbit is a concerned neighbor? Don't ask. (But, you know, don't feel too badly for the tanuki, even if he is cute!)

As I said, I signed up for Yusuke's second tour an hour later, as well. Apparently, he had to take a bus to the Oishi Park where everything started. While he traveled by bus half way around the world, I passed the time munching on Christmas cookies and putting some finishing touches on my latest quilt (the back of the quilt is an old bed sheet of ours and it's worn in a few places, so I've added patches on the back in matching fabric.)  

The park he brought us to normally has big bushes of lavender, but they were fairly desolate this time of year. Still lovely, however.

Oishi Park
Oishi Park, Fujikawaguchiko, Minamitsuru District, Yamanashi  (interestingly one 2-star Yelp Review of Oishi says, "No point going there.")

However, as you can see, we had amazing weather. It was decently cold for Japan, 23 F (-5 C), but Yusuke assured us that the sun kept him very warm. There were quite a few more tourists in Oishi Park, and Yusuke said that he heard a number of different languages. What I noticed more, were the birds. We could hear a few crows or ravens on the foothill overlooking Mount Fuji, but not many song birds. Once by the water, there was just a lot more sound. Several times when he stopped, we could hear the waves lapping against the shore and the sound of the wind pushing the pampas grass into waves. 

This whole livestream tourist thing is a balm for my soul, I have to say. As I was telling a friend, I may never get to Japan, given the expense and the pandemic. At least this way, I can enjoy it pseudo-live? It's weird how present I feel in this virtual space? I think it's because Yusuke and I can discuss persimmons and the fact that I've heard that they're sweeter after first frost. And, when I spot rowers in the lake, I can ask, "Are those rowers?" and he will say, "Ah, you spotted the rowers! Yes, there are people practicing rowing on the lake." 

I'm not THERE, but I am? Do you know what I mean? 

HeyGo is really feeding something I didn't realize I was missing. I'm not a huge traveler, but I do LOVE it.  Plus, even though there are people like me in the chat and this one guy, Freddie, who I am fairly certain was a 'bot because all he'd say is, "Hello, my name is Freddy," there's a kind of spontaneous community too. It really is like booking a tour with a group... annoyances and all.

But, then you also get views like this:
Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi

Because here's the other thing. Even if I could make it to Japan, Yusuke reminded us that because Fuji is one of the highest peaks in Japan, the chances of it being cloud covered is 70%. Most people who go to see Fuji don't get to see it as clearly as we did (because Yusuke can follow the weather locally.) 

Anyway, I also had a great Christmas! More about that in the next journal. There aren't any HeyGo tours I'm interested in for a while, so we shall return to the regularly scheduled program.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 Meiji Shrine
Meiji Shrine near Harajuku Station

YOU GUYS, I WAS LITERALLY JUST HERE. (Well, I mean, at least virtually.)



I did the coolest thing just now. I joined a livestream on "Heygo" and walked around the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo with a woman named Eriko. She strapped her phone on a selfie stick and walked us around. What was amazing is that because it was live, we could chat with her and say things like, "Hey, what's to your left, Eriko?" and she would tell us. It was very literally like walking around Tokyo with a friend. 

I was not particularly interested at first in the idea of the 'cute culture" of Harajuku. But, it was decidedly delightful to walk down streets filled with small clothing shops, cosplay, etc.

A Clothing shop in Harajuku
A clothing shop.

Heygo allows you to "take postcards," but that also rather depends on Eriko's willingness to stand still. So I caught this one in motion. What is cool, of course, is that because this is live, we were seeing Japan as people were walking down the street going about their days. I asked her about the weather there and it was a balmy 11 C / 53 F there. No snow, bright blue sky. Other people also popped into chat, there was a long discussion about some punk band? Shounen Knife? Apparently someone wanted to know if they were still playing in Japan. Eriko was very confused (apparently not a punk fan) and wondered if this person was referring to Shounen Jump, which made me happy of course, as Jump is a major manga magazine.

Oh, speaking of, Eriko started us in the most adorable cat cafe that is just off Harajuku Station. We probably spent a good ten minutes of the walk just looking at the cats they had there. The connection is that apparently the cat cafe is like an internet cafe in that there is a library of manga for you to read, we saw that when Eriko went off to show us where the cats had their boxes (apparently, they have a private pass through to a special room for doing their business--but along that wall was the manga library.)

She ended the tour at Tokyo Plaza Omotesando (designed by Hiroshi Nakamura).

Tokyo Plaza
The center circle is the actual street view. Very confusing, but cool AF.

Anyway, I ADORED this. This is exactly what I wanted the future to be like when I thought about having to be stuck indoors with the pandemic. (Tagged this entry with "cyberpunk future is not as advertised,: but really, this is getting pretty darned close.)  If I had a better phone, I would totally see if Heygo would hire me to walk around Minneapolis/St. Paul with people. 

I'm so doing this again. On Christmas day, I'll be walking around Mount Fuji. See you later, friends! I'm on a real world tour now!!

lydamorehouse: (Default)
I am not planning on attending CONvergence this year. There are several factors that went into my decision. I am ready to do a lot of socialization, finally, but.... not with three thousand people, indoors. But, on top of that August is generally going to be a crazy month for me because we will be sending Mason off to Connecticut for school (Wesleyan University, for those who are interested.) 

When they made their decision to go in-person, I was asked if I wanted badges for me and Mason and I told them just what I told you. Next year, I'll be up for it, but this year I am taking a pass for reasons of COVID + College. 

Somehow the message didn't quite get through? Possibly because, long ago, I also filled out volunteer form? I did so, however, when there was still talk of possibly hybrid, we don't know. 

A couple days ago my panel assignments arrived.

They both looked great? I would happily done both of them (and more) in any other year. And, I re-read the descriptions a bunch of times but there were notes like "panelists should arrive in the room x minutes beforehand," and I started to worry that this was not a virtual room they were talking about, but a physical, in-person one. The biggest clue was that there was no link to a Zoom or any other technical info for an online recording/live-stream.

I hated doing it, because I don't want to get on someone's off list. but I had to say, "If this is in-person, which it seems to be, I am not attending this year.  Please take me off?" 

I feel especially bad about this because, independently, I happened to be part of an earlier email chain of a half dozen people who, when asked if they'd be willing to be a warm body to help save a panel that a friend of mine wanted to turn viable, EVERY single ONE of them also said that they wouldn't be attending in-person this year. Given that experience, I'm also wondering if I killed two panels?  I'm a little worried that they might be having a talent problem--I would find it difficult to believe that CONvergence, of all local cons, couldn't find enough volunteers to sit on panels, but maybe? Especially since they're limiting attendance?

I will say that I was surprised that they didn't do a better job with their online con. Last year, I took part in at least two panels at Virtual CONvergence. One was a live-stream and the other was a recorded reading (which they scheduled opposite one another? They had a full weekend schedule to fill and my fans had literally a single choice, either listen to my reading OR watch me talk, live. I mean, I don't have a lot of fans? But that one person had a tough choice! Which, I mean, I was finally on two panels at once, which is kind of a dream of every author...) But, anyway, that part seemed to be exactly like most on-line cons I'd been to that year, but I found their chat/hangout space to be much harder to navigate. For reasons known only to the con com, CONvergence didn't use one of the pandemic-standard chat platforms, like Discord or Slack. Instead, they had their own web site that you had to remember to go to? I think I went to it once. It's weird when smaller, less structured/organized/well funded cons did a better job with their pandemic cons... and so I very much understand the desire to be back in the venue that they shine in?  

But this also makes me fairly certain that there will not be a hybrid option for CONvergence, which make me sad. I am fond of virtual cons? 

Am I the only who is going to miss them??

lydamorehouse: (ichigo irritated)
Tie-dyed fabric close-up, many colored stripes.
Image: A piece of tie-dyed fabric hanging on a clothesline. It is a classic rainbow striped number.

Yesterday, it was lovely outside so I decided to tackle a project that I'd been meaning to do for awhile. After the whole medical craziness of Monday, arts and crafts were just what I needed to de-stress.

Several weeks ago, Shawn picked up some sheets on the "buy nothing" Facebook group for our neighborhood. They had looked decently blue in the photo, but when we bought them home they were a very washed out barely-there color. Shawn had been planning to use the fabric as an accent for some of her rugs and was vaguely disappointed. On the drive home, I asked, "What if I tie-dyed them?" Shawn got suddenly very excited by the idea of trying a rug made out of tie-dyed material, and so we got serious about finding a tie dye kit that was easy and color-fast. Shawn found a kit for kids on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tulip-One-step-Tie-Dye-Party-Kit/dp/B01FV60TAS/

I will say, this could not have been easier.

tie-dye on a clothes line
Image: a bunch of fun patterns of tie-dye on a clothesline.

I will admit to having had WAY too much fun. In fact, my hands are still purple because I blew off the instructions to wear gloves (in the Before Times, I would be mortified. Right now? I'm still very much, "by the time people see me, these will be back to normal." Not actually considering that, you know, I might go off to buy coffee this morning.)

Purple and blue close up, kind of spiral?
Image: Purple and blue close up, kind of spiral?

It totally worked to de-stress me.

Some medical updatery under the cut. 

Read more... the short of it: we got the appointment for Thursday )
Will keep those who want to know posted on those developments.


more fabric on the lines
Image: more fabrics on the line (in shadow, apparently, but hopefully you can see the general patterns.)

The other thing I did last night was attend the Lammy's, the Lambda Award Ceremony. They had a Discord and so I actually connected with some folks in the SF/F community, which was nice. I am just going to continue to say that I am often surprised by how much I truly enjoy online events. This one was very "bare-bones," in that they broadcast the actual awards on YouTube and hosted a short-lived Discord. The cool thing was that people came in from all over the world. I hung out in the lobby for a long time watching people come in and there were people from India, Botswana, the UK, and... dozens and dozens of places all across North America. This is the thing, I don't know that the Lammys is usually such an international event? I certainly never bothered to go when I would have had to travel and pay for hotel. 

The Nebulas are also this weekend and I'll be attending that... as is something called Cymera, which you may recall, I added a reading to? I have no idea if they accepted it in their Open Mic, but hopefully so. Fun times!
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 I am attending the Low-Key Virtual WisCON this weekend. 

The first thing I want to say is that I'm super grateful WisCON pulled together a virtual part of their Gathering. I have really come to love virtual gatherings? I suspect I am in the minority about this. But, I like being able to do all the things at home, on my own time, without all the expense. I'm not a fan of hotels? I like traveling, generally, but often hotels are my least favorite part. 

Plus, I know a lot of work goes into these things, even the spontaneous things. A LOT.

All of it unpaid.

That being said, I am finding kumospace kind of daunting and strange. 

Kumospace: Game-ified Zoom
Image: Kumospace, the Game-ifed Zoom.

I went into an empty room this morning and took a picture of what it looks like (with the map functionality pulled up.). Someone went to a lot of trouble to design these rooms to look like various parts of the Concourse Hotel. This is the Governor's Club. Apparently, this is similar to something else that people were more familiar with? I had never been in a space like this and it took some getting used to having to move my picture around in the space using arrow keys, etc.  Of course, this picture is deceiving, because it normally is filled with other people all of whom appear as these video squares. 

The icon near the bottom of the screen that says "people," can be popped up and you can read the names of the other people in the room, who otherwise only show up as their initials. But, as [personal profile] magenta pointed out, that's only useful if you know the names of the people you want to hang out with. 

The way it works is that as you move your icon around the room, you get within audio range of your fellow con go-ers, much like "real life." You hear people better when you are closer to them. People can form clusters of chatter, or move away and have more private chats.

Only, I found myself talking to myself as my icon moved around saying things like, "God, how do I get this thing to stop moving? Who thought this was a good idea? Do I hate this? I think I hate everything about this," people would suddenly hear me and respond! I found it kind of a new sort of virtual hellscape? Like the opposite problem of Zoom's "you're muted!" Except it was, OMG, you can hear me?? There is a mute option, as well as a way to turn your camera off. But, the default is to start with all of this on!

It... takes some getting used to. I mean, all of this sounds like complaining, but it wasn't terrible? I ended up talking both to Magenta and to Orange Mike... as well, as meeting some new people, which was cool. But, I could immediately see how this operation might take a lot of literal bandwidth as well as a certain amount of social bandwidth. In a lot of ways it does function more like a real party, but some of us were never super comfortable at real parties partly because they require you to physically move away from people you're no longer interested in talking to and that seems so rude? 

I was a little surprised that there wasn't a corresponding WisCON Discord, like last year. And... then someone spontaneously made an unofficial one. So, I've been on that as well today. I've decided to host a Zoom party -- because what is a con, without a "secret" pro party?? Only, this one isn't a secret at all, since I posted about it in the #writers channel of the Discord and added the information to the spontaneous paneling sheet. I may regret offering to host a three hour Zoom? 

I haven't tried to attend any of the scheduled virtual events. I will let you know if I get to any of them today.

I want to underscore that, despite the weirdness of this, I am enjoying it. I am very comfortable in virtual spaces. Discord is my home away from home and even though I find large parts of kumospace very WEIRD, I also am an old cyberpunk writer? I am always down for trying to figure out the advantages of a new system. 

Freedom~!!

Dec. 11th, 2020 02:40 pm
lydamorehouse: (Default)
 Last night was the last night of my Zoom class at the Loft!  Whoo!   Even if my Next Class goes, I don't have to go back to work until the end of January.  

Hooray!

My experience teaching this class has certainly been... something else, as we say here in Minnesota. Even if you don't know a teacher or have a student in your life, I'm sure you've heard the complaints. Thing is? It is really true that teaching on Zoom is weird. Why that is, is kind of  mystery.

It's ALWAYS difficult to get adult students to participate in discussion in class, but several times I felt like my students were using class as a substitute for a TV show. I'm not sure that's fair?  Students often give teachers blank stares? Part of the difficulty with Zoom is that it's nearly impossible read the depth of that blankness, if that makes sense.  Active, silent listening is much easier to tell in a classroom for some reason. Maybe it's full body language? Maybe it's simply the flatness of the screen somehow? I'm not sure, but people are harder to read when not physically present. 

The extent to which I rely on those cues in the classroom to direct my teaching style was really driven home to me by this experience.

Weirdly, I think I connected better with my asynchronous class? Which is the OPPOSITE of what I would have expected. On the other hand, I feel like I worked way too hard to make that class as good as it was? So, I mean maybe the connection simply takes a lot of work?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to being more present here and in the rest of my life. With luck, I can get back to writing the lesbian space opera novella I'd started.....

FuturConSF

Sep. 19th, 2020 03:06 pm
lydamorehouse: (Default)
I'm currently attending FutureConSF.

This is the con seemed to spring up right after I complained about how strangely un-international WorldCON felt to me. Obviously, FutureConSF was already in the works, but it was like an answer to everything I'd been wanting. Of course, gave them money and signed up IMMEDIATELY after hearing about it.

I have been to:
  • Future South & East Asia: What Future is Taking Shape in India, Pakistan, Philippines?
  • Science Fiction in Translation: A Hidden Treasure to Innovate the Genre
  • Solarpunk: New Seeds from the Ashes of Cyberpunk
  • Future East Asia: Techno-traditions in Japan and Korea
  • Future South America: The Melting Pot of Creativity in Brazil
 
And I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's panels:
  • Future China: The Rising Phenomenon of Chinese SF
  • Future Africa: Visions from Nigeria and Uganda

These are just some of the panels you can listen to, as well. If you're curious about the entire schedule, it's here: https://www.futureconsf.com/schedule



The bonus about how this convention is structures is that if you're looking at the titles of these and thinking, "Damn, I wish I could have gone to XXXX."  You STILL CAN. They are all available, free, on YouTube. In fact, just now, when I was making dinner I decided to catch up on the "Solarpunk" panel and it was great. I mean, you can't join in the chats about these panels once their posted or get questions asked, but you don't have to miss the content?  

Also I was talking to [personal profile] quadong (but don't tell him, since it's still coming in the mail) about the ways in which I've found to enjoy virtual experiences. One of them is to find real time/real life friends willing to "go to panels" with me. Keep in mind, I'm extroverted so cons for me were often about hanging out with and meeting people. So, like, this morning, I got up at 6:30 am so that I could connect via video chat with [personal profile] jiawen and we could watch the "Future East Asia..." panel together. Then, later I was telling a friend in Canada about this con and so she jumped on and watched "Future South America..." with me while we WhatsApp texted back and forth about what we were watching. I mean, it's NOT the same as wandering the halls.  Likewise, I realize that panelling is not even always what people sign up for cons FOR, but for me, someone who, in fact, did love the panels best, it's pretty close.  

I think the problem is the effort involved to some extent. I was really pleased that [personal profile] jiawen reached out to ME last night about this morning's panel so we could arrange something. I roped my Canadian friend in, but it was spontaneous... and lucky that she was interested. 

"Seeing" other people really does help me consider a virtual con a success. 

I am sad that I missed the virtual hangout that the con had organized, a kaffeeklatch, but it looks like they're doing one Sunday, too, so hopefully I can drop by, because cons for me used to be a combination of meeting old friends, panels, and meeting new friends. A zoom with strangers is often the antidote for that last one.

As an aside, I love zooming with strangers. This is very weird and I recognize that anything I'm saying about this should not constitute "advice" because as [personal profile] quadong reminded me, zoom is also work for a lot of people?  It is for me, but in a totally different way... and I seem to be one of the rare individuals out there that actually really feels a certain amount of connection via video chat?  I don't find it particularly more or less awkward than in-person communication.  Talking to people I don't know is something I really enjoy in-person and so doing it on-line is not all much different. 

But, this is one of the few upsides to being an extrovert during the pandemic?  I'm used to instigating conversation anyway? So, uh, life finds a way.... as it were, only in my case, conversation finds a way. 

I think, too, that one of the things that makes me happiest about virtual cons is the fact that so many of them are insanely affordable. If you don't want to (or can't afford to) contribute to FutureSFCon, you don't have to. It's all out there, for free. Also, this one, in particular, makes me feel like I'm traveling. Listening to people LITERALLY all over the world is AMAZING to me. 

It's possible I'm just easily amused.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
You guys, you guys! Remember my complaints about WorldCON? Well, someone was apparently planning something like this all along, check out FutureCON!

Check out their teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_u8MZvZ-fI&t=3s



I'm so excited for this! I supported them and signed up for their free YouTube channel right away! This is LITERALLY the thing I wanted.

So happy.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
latest piles of grub 
Image: latest pile of grub from CSA

Stuff we got this week: lettuce, green peppers, carrots, onions, kale, zucchini, corn, and jalapenos. 

Today was otherwise weirdly busy. I have a class coming up in September that's going to be entirely online. I'm going to be utterly honest. My teaching style is off-the-cuff and organic. I only have a basic outline for what I'm going to teach when I walk in a door. I depend a LOT on student feedback and discussion to spark pretty much everything that happens in class.  Basically, I wing it.

So... I need to build-up a lot of content to make any of that translate to a much more static lesson. And, I don't want to have to rush to do it all two weeks before class starts... which is often when the Loft let's me know a class is running. I'll be working on this for sometime I suspect. Which is good? It means using my brain?

I'm clearly tired. 

Gonna go to bed soon.

How's you?
lydamorehouse: (gryffindor)
I've been writing to various friends about how I would have run a virtual WorldCon enough that I want to distill my ideas here, in one place.

By now, we all know how disastrous the Hugo Ceremony was, but I have a much bigger and much more... mundane complaint.

I was telling [personal profile] naomikritzer via email this morning that it's clear that the same problem that GRRM has: being hidebound, enamored of the good,old days, etc., affected ALL of ConZealand this year. I suspect it's because they approached the idea of a virtual con the wrong way. They said to themselves, "These are what my favorite things about WorldCON are, so how do I translate that to virtual," INSTEAD of "How do I take the virtual world and import what I love about cons into the way people experience the internet??"

It's a subtle difference, but critical.

Like, what BAFFLED me was that ConZealand, THE WORLD SCIENCE FICTION CON, wasn't 24-hours.

Sure, okay, everything is on New Zealand time, because the main organizers live there, cool, cool, but why the hell not get volunteers in every time zone so that the people in Europe and the African continent could attend at their convenience, instead of having to get up at midnight and attend readings at 2 or 3 am. I mean, yes, there are night owls everywhere, but for fuck's stake, there are also FANS IN EVERY TIME ZONE.

I don't understand why World Con, this year didn't take advantage of that?

Like, also, for much of the world New Zealand is already tomorrow. Make that a theme? "Come to the Future, ConZealand, where is already tomorrow!" and then do a 24-hour con, where in the middle of NZ's night, fans in Germany or Lithuania or Croatia (or all at once) carry the torch by running English-lanugage (or subtitled, because fans could DO this,) panels with their country's biggest SF writers and fans, and then the torch is passed to Zimbabwe and India and Russia, and on and on across the globe until New Zealand wakes up again and can take back the reins?

How fucking cool would that have been?

We could have harnessed the global power of fandom and done something newsworthy for its AWESOME, rather than being called out for transphobic racist bullshit AGAIN.

It just pissed me off that when I woke up at my ungodly hour of 8 am, there was nothing at all to do, officially, at WorldCON. Sure, sure, the Discord was 24 hours, but that's not the same as getting to see a panel in... (let me see who might share a decent time zone with my 8 am with a quick Google) Okay, if I am awake at 8 am in St. Paul, it's a nice decent afternoon 2 pm in Spain, the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Portugal, Morocco, Sierra Leone, Western Sahara, Mauritania, and Algeria, just to name a few.

THINK ABOUT THIS.

I wake up at 6 am and hop over to the WorldCON schedule and see that people are deep into their afternoon over in the Republic of Ireland, so I watch a panel with Irish authors talking about the state of their fandom/pro-dom, and, then, I see that Ethiopia is having a watch party for its famous post-apocalyptic film Crumbs. Mmm, but I can't decide between that and watching the film Afronauts (set in Zambia, directed by a Ghanaian American woman.) After that, I decide to check out science fiction from the Indian sub-continent organized by the Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies®, Bangalore (IASFS), Indian Science Fiction Writers Association. 

You could have issued a downloadable and printable passport that people could have stamped if they attended a panel held in another country/by another country's fandom and encouraged people to try to "catch them all."

Think about how cool this could have been,.

It would have been easy, because it could have been crowdsourced into one of the most active and brilliant group of nerds in the world: FANS.

And it could have been done with just a little forethought and some organization. Put the world out early and ask for volunteers. Tell people, "offer up your SF/F content: movies, fannish clubs, authors" and say, "we will worry about translations once we get some excitement rolling," because you know that if somebody wanted to run an obscure Thai horror film that needed dubs, we could have found someone to do that shit ASAP, and make it available in dozens of languages. We could have contacted folks in Japan about running cosplay or debuting new anime that already has a huge international followers.  

There is stuff out there. It just might not be in English, but that's such a tiny hurtle, if you think big enough.

Also, WorldCon is often a destination con. Where were our local folks running around doing virtual tours of New Zealand natural wonders--stuff New Zealanders are uniquely able to show us, because THEY ARE NEARLY COVID FREE. They could have even showed up people, doing things, together, like going into a bookstore, and live-streaming videos from there. 

For con that invites the world in, it is a shame we didn't think to crowdshare it with the world.
lydamorehouse: (Default)
A view from the lookout near Stillwater, Minnesota, of the St. Croix River.
Image: NOT NEW ZEALAND. Instead, this is a picture from a scenic overlook near Stillwater, MN, of the St. Croix River.

I spent most of the day both yesterday and the day before, NOT "attending" WorldCON. In fact, when Mason admitted to feeling a deep yearn to go on a short road trip, I literally had him put his finger down as I flipped through a new book I bought called "Day Trips From the Twin Cities."

By chance, his finger hit the entry on Taylor's Falls, a town that we had spent some time near on our trip, last year, to Michigan. We'd stopped at the Interstate State Park there. We remembered the landscape as pretty and since Mason did not want to get out of the car at all, it seemed like a perfect destination.

So, we zipped up 35E to Highway 8 and followed that to Taylor's Falls. For those unfamiliar with my lovely state, Taylor's falls is only about an hour away. We crossed over into Wisconsin briefly to try to see if it was possible to see the falls of Taylor's Falls from the car, but it was not. So, we started down the river back towards home, but had a much better experience once we crossed back over and followed highway 95 through Marine-on-St. Croix down into Stillwater.

old school screenshot because my asus was being a butt
Image: old school "screenshot" with my phone because my asus was being a butt.

Exactly what we needed.

I did a little "attending" last night, however, since [personal profile] naomikritzer was up for a Lodestar (as, of course, was [personal profile] yhlee .)  I will tell you that was also somewhat of a disappointment. I mean, Naomi won! YAY!!  But, there were technical difficulties: https://watch.thefantasy.network/the-2020-hugo-awards-livestream/https://watch.thefantasy.network/the-2020-hugo-awards-livestream/  and so she had to stop and restart, and it was like that a lot last night? Plus, following various social media snark, I wasn't alone in thinking that George RR Martin went on a bit too long about the good, old days in between announcing the winners. If you have the patience to watch this whole thing, power to you. I didn't. I wandered off and did several other things, while checking into the Discord server now and again to see who was winning. By chance, I popped back on in time to see another Twin Cities denizen, [personal profile] elisem  win (yay!)

If you're curious who else won what last night, check out https://locusmag.com/2020/07/2020-hugo-lodestar-and-astounding-awards-winners/

After that, I stayed awhile to follow Naomi around to various parties, but I think many of us have forgotten how to people... or all the good conversations happened after I pooped out and went to bed (which, to be fair, again is pretty typical of my in-person WorldCON experience.)


lydamorehouse: (??!!)
Yesterday was my first "full" day at WorldCON/ConZealand. I attended a few programming events on Tuesday night, but not enough to really get a sense of how WorldCON was working for me.  

Now I have a bit more of an idea, and I have to say that I'm not finding WorldCon to be as fun for me as a regular member as Virtual WisCON was.

At least, SO FAR.

I should lay out a few caveats for those of you who maybe don't know much about me outside of my blogs about food and gardening. I am a published science fiction/fantasy author, who had her heyday in the early aughts. My first professionally published novel came out from Roc/Peguin USA in 2001. I won a few awards, was moderately well reviewed, yada yada. I also had a stint in Romanclandia when I switched to writing paranormal romances for Berkley (also a Penguin imprint) in the middle of that decade, (to be precise: 2006,) under the pen name Tate Hallaway. I have a bit over a baker's dozen of books traditionally New York publishing house published and a few that have come out from smaller presses. So, when I say "as a regular attendee," I mean not as a program participant, which is how I experience cons for the most part, even now. The last WorldCON I attended, which was when it was the 2016 MidAmerica Con in Kansas City, MO, I participated as a panelist... and, as it happened, the con wingman of [personal profile] naomikritzer who was up for a Hugo Award... which makes for a VERY DIFFERENT WorldCon experience than most people get.

So, to be fair, my normal experience of cons, even when not palling around with a Hugo nominee, is much more "insider-y" than most. That ABSOLUTELY does taint how connected I feel to a con.

However, I wasn't on any Virtual WisCON panels this year, either, but I somehow managed to find some good Discord chats to join in, I ran into people who knew me, and I felt more "with people" in a way I am decidedly NOT feeling here. Maybe it was having [personal profile] jiawen to watch opening ceremonies with? Or the spontaneous parties, where you could literally stumble into a jitsi meeting that someone organized on the fly? If those are happening here at ConZealand, I am not finding where they are. But, the fact that within minutes of going to the "Concourse Atrium" Discord Channel on the WisCON server I "ran into" several people I knew IRL but rarely get to see really made the Virtual WisCON experience feel startlingly like what happens at meatspace WisCON.

To be brutally honest, I tend to feel somewhat disconnected at Worldcons, so maybe this *is* actually a lot like my normal experience??

So, okay. What I have done so far at WorldCON includes a few panels, but mostly listening to a lot of readings. Those are entirely passive as a non-presenter. You can choose to go into them with your Zoom camera on, but most people go in dark since you're always, automatically muted and expected to stay that way. If you have questions for the reader at the end, you need to use the chat function and I am surprised the extent to which no one does? I do see the chat being used more at panels? Though because there is often a programming track on Discord, a lot of cross-talk seems to actually happen there.

So, I've been watching people read a lot.

I am rarely a fan of readings, so it's been pretty passive and pretty boring. Charllie Jane Anders did her level best to make her reading into a highly enjoyable performance piece, but I did not feel like I was in a room with her, and I'm not entirely sure why not. Maybe the room I'm set up in is kind of hot and stuffy? I don't know.

I tried hanging out in the con bar channel on Discord, but part of me got really irritated by the fact that I paid $190 dollars to watch someone I don't know type: "I've poured myself a Scotch. Wish I had cheese stix." 

The hallway wasn't much better.

I mean, this is partly how text channels on Discord servers WORK? I am a long time Discord user, so it wasn't just the chat function that bugged me. It very much may be an issue of the attendance fee? It's one thing when your expectations are low because you paid what feels like a more reasonable amount (I  choose to spend $30 on Virtual WisCON, though I could have attended for free). I am currently UNCERTAIN  how my $190 is being spent on Virtual WorldCON right now.

To be perfectly fair, I have NOT tried to join a voice and/or video channel on Discord. I do see that people are breaking out into those and I suppose that's where I'll find the WorldCON version of the spontaneous parties. I may just have to be brave and break into one of those or try starting one and seeing who might show up.

I did give myself a tour of the Art Show, while waiting for Charlie Jane Anders's reading to start, and that was okay and I even lingered on one piece and considered buying a print of it, but then I decided Shawn would kill me if I actually bought one of those cat and dragon type pictures. But it was really pretty. If are registered and you go, I recommend "Calico," because it's just a wintery scene with two calico colored creatures, one a cat, the other a dragon.... it's just nicely done.

I sort of tried to wander the dealer's hall. They do have it set up in a way that you can just click through the dealer's web pages in a way that almost sort of mimics the experience of wandering through a hall, but, like in real life, I hit two costume sellers in a row and I was like, "I'm not going to hit buy on any of this, what am I even doing?" and so bailed out.

I did go to one of the "Party Bands," because I was one of the featured guest at the Wizard Tower Press party yesterday. I had a hour where I was sort of a panelist, in that I did a reading and answered Q+A afterwards for the first hour of a Zoom breakout room/the party. I shared that party with Juliet E. McKenna and so I stayed to hear her reading and listen in to the afterwards. I felt that I had a really lovely conversation with people around the world about how f*cking cool birds are (flying dinosaurs!) and that very much a WorldCON experience because I learned that parrots are invading the south of France from someone French, living in the South of France. So, I mean, that kind of stuff is always awesome. I am absolutely the sort of person who enjoys the kind of rambling conversations you can get at Zoom parties with strangers and adding an international dimension was, for me, extra awesome.

So, I am having some fun?

So far, my favorite thing about WorldCON is seeing into the apartments/houses of people in OTHER COUNTRIES. During the training session on how to get the most out of ConZealand, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to see what was all happening in the background of a Japanese couple's... apartment? (It was small enough that at one point, the lady got up to get her and her male companion cups of tea and she only went partly out of the screen.) And I was like, holy shit, Zoom meetings are a house snoop's DREAM.

I admit that probably makes me a little creepy? But at one point during the Wizard Tower party Martha Hood's parrot wandered along the back of her couch, and, I  had to private message her on the Zoom chat because we had just been talking about birds and she failed to mention that SHE ACTUALLY OWNED ONE AS A PET. (I couldn't just talk to her about it because this happened in the middle of someone else's reading time.)  

I mean seeing other people's pets is always cool.  

But I  keep coming back to the fact that I paid $190 to do this.
lydamorehouse: (Mistaken)
Yesterday evening, we decided to order pick-up from Taste of India (one of our favorites) and play board games. My family adores Trivial Pursuit because it always ends up making us laugh hysterically over dumb things.

Willow, it turns out, just likes the box.

cat in a box
Image: smol black cat sitting in Trivial Pursuit box.

It was otherwise a fairly social day for me. On Friday, I have a regular Zoom with my friends who are a group of writers that I used to meet with at a coffee shop. In the middle of that, I ended up texting back and forth with [personal profile] jiawen about WisCON and so we hopped on to jitsi to catch up on stuff and we ended up watching the Opening Ceremonies together. That was pretty fun and not unlike going to the opening ceremonies with someone in Real Life (tm).  Hopefully, if things work out, I'm going to have a lunch with her and some other regular WisCON folks today in an attempt to recreate the experience of wandering down State Street with a bunch of folks you met at the hotel lobby. (Though, ideally, to recreate that, we should probably end up with too many people to reasonably get seated together and then dither for several minutes about what kind of food people want.) 

Other than watching the Opening Ceremonies, I didn't do much with WisCON yesterday. Hopefully, today I can try a few more things. 

lydamorehouse: (Default)
 As an old cyberpunk writer, I have to say that I'm deeply fascinated by how online communities are built and how things like Virtual WisCON work/don't work.  

So far? I'd say that it's working for me, on the whole. 

Yesterday, I interacted with the con in a number of different ways. I hung out on a couple of different channels on Discord, I 'went' to the You Tube stream of Rebecca Roanhorse's reading and Q&A, and joined a spontaneous jitsi meeting for writers.  I will detail my experience with each, below.

Discord:  I should preference any discussion about my interactions here by saying that I am an experienced Discord user. I have been on it for a couple of years already, having shifted to Discord to chat with a friend when Skype started acting up for her. I've created my own servers and joined existing ones. My profile on Discord is fannish, because that's exclusively what I use Discord for. My son uses Discord even more than I do, using the voice channel option to talk to friends, etc. So, even if I didn't know how to use a Discord function, I have another expert in the house.

So, my experience might be a little different from others, because I'm extremely comfortable reading and participating in conversations on Discord.

When you click on the WisCON link, it automatically dumps you into the "new arrivals" channel.  From there you can navigate out to other channels. I did what I always do when I'm new to a Discord server, which is I immediately went to read their rules or code of conduct channel, because some servers are very strict about keeping channels on-topic and I want to know what the culture is, obviously. 

WisCON seems pretty chill about the channels being on-topic. Administrators and moderators show up on your feed in a different color and I didn't notice one monitoring any of the chats I checked into, with the exception of # lobby-con.  Interestingly, I had my best experience in the lobby. I actually did that thing that happens at cons, where I happened to be in the channel when a couple of people I know dropped in an said hello.  So, I actually chatted with them (and a few other people I didn't know) about the Madison farmer's market, cheese curds, and life.  So, that felt very much like Con, honestly. 

The other channel I lurked on was # books-and-reading and read/"listened" to a conversation about the anti- culture of fan writing fandom. That one ended up feeling a bit cliquish, honestly? One of the users broke into the conversation to write something like, "If this were real life, I'd introduce [name 1] to [name 2]..." which is good socialization in real life, but on-line had the weird effect of making me, as a lurker, suddenly feel like I was intruding on a conversation between friends? The conversation then very much devolved into people they had in common, the places they lived, etc., and so I left the channel.  I mean, this is the sort of thing that happens at a con? But, it's different on-line because Discord does not let you know that people are 'in the channel' and not active. The only way you know someone is part of the "conversation" is if they post something.  So, this person couldn't have known that I was lurking and that I suddenly felt a little awkward when it was clear they were all real-life friends?  In other servers, this is where an active mod would come on and ask people to either stay on topic or move to a socialization channel. But, WisCON seems to be going for a very organic, make-your-own con on the fly vibe, which is perfectly okay. Like I say, things like this happen in real-life cons and I don't expect there to be someone on hand there to make sure conversations stay on topic. The # birds-of-a-feather area is clearly supposed to be informal. So, I'm not criticizing, just explaining my experience. Real life cons are like this, too.

YouTube:  So, one thing I really do love about the virtual con is that I have my phone set to beep me when WisCON sends out a notification of an event. I was in the middle of a late dinner when Rebecca Roanhorse started her reading, but I was able to jump in online about fifteen minutes in. I went to the Discord and went to # links-to-streams and clicked through to the reading there.  

Watching that reminded me that I'm not actually a giant fan of readings, in general.  But, I LOVED the Q&A session, so that was worth it.  Tempest did an excellent job as interviewer/moderator, IMHO.

I honestly thought the YouTube thing would be weird/distancing, but it was fine.  

Jitsi:  There is a section of the Discord for meet-ups spontaneously generated by anyone. It is in the # spontaneous programming channel. A con-goer named 'W' posted that they were hosting a jitsi for writing, and I asked if it was a hang-out for writers or if we would be hanging out and writing. Since it was at 10 pm CST, I did not feel like I could stay up to silently writie, so I was happy to discover that W was planning on conversation unless people really wanted to write together. I had a little trouble joining it because I wanted to switch over to my new iPad and for some weird reason clicking through from Discord didn't launch my app and so it never properly connected my microphone? But, when I opened my app and plugged in the jitsi address it worked perfectly, so whatever.

I should also note that I'm also extremely comfortable on jitsi as it is the video-conferencing option of choice for my regular RPG group. So, it was weird for me to have so many problems connecting.  I blame my own unfamiliarity with my new tech, the new iPad. 

Jitsi is just like zooming or Google hanging out so I had a lovely time chatting with my fellow writers in the meet-up.  We all used the chat function to exchange Twitter handles so now I'm Twitter friends with a half-dozen new people, which is wonderful.  By CHANCE I ended up in a room full of people who either loved cyberpunk or quirky religious stuff and so I did a thing I never normally do when not on panels, which is I pitched my own writing. I had the very weird experience of people saying, "Oh, I've heard people talking about Archangel Protocol before," which... only at WisCON, because, seriously, no one else has ever heard of me.

I have really discovered that I have no problem whatsoever connecting with virtual strangers on the internet any more than I do in real life. This is where being an uber-extrovert comes in handy. 

So, I ended the evening feeling like WisCON was a really fun con to be at virtually. It will be interesting to see how today progresses.

I wonder, however, how other people are doing with it? 
lydamorehouse: (Default)
I signed up for WisCON this year, so I am technically there right now.

As I was telling someone, I have been a Discord user for some years as I have a friend in the UK with whom I do the majority of my chatting with via Discord. I have a habit of keeping it on in the background so I can be poked whenever my friend is online, so I'll probably technically be more available at this con than any that I have ever been to before. Especially, since I also have the app on my phone. Feel free to send me a private message if you want to chat. This is me: lydamorehouse (she/her) #3291

I will be very curious how this will play out.

Discord seems to be the only place that things are going to be interactive. Maybe, since I'm not sure what is meant by 'streams,' in the information I was sent today. Otherwise, I guess I'll be watching YouTube videos with the rest of you? I get why WisCON isn't going zoom, though, since that's a problematic app and someone would have had to pay for a license if they wanted anything longer that 45 minutes and a certain number of people. 

I'm open to the whole thing, though. Should be fascinating, if nothing else.

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