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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Farthing Launch Party's LiveJournal:

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    Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
    7:23 pm
    [rushthatspeaks]
    Room share offer
    My housemate and I are coming from Boston to Farthing Party, and have a non-smoking room at the hotel for the nights of the 28th, 29th, and 30th. If anyone is in need of accommodations, we will have a double bed you could use any or all of these nights, for a one-third share of the room cost for the number of nights you use it. Let me know here or email me at my username, no breaks/spaces/underscores/capitals, at gmail dot com.
    Thursday, July 17th, 2008
    10:25 pm
    [stakebait]
    Does anyone need a roommate?
    I will be coming up for the Farthing Party and could use a roomshare. Is anyone looking for a roomie?

    Current Mood: content
    Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
    10:32 pm
    [tanac]
    Hotel share?
    Jeff and I will be staying at the main hotel Thursday through Sunday nights, and would be delighted to share our room (and split costs!) for all or any of those evenings. If anyone's planning to stay longer, we're actually in town until Wednesday, and would be happy to extend the reservation if we would have a guaranteed room-share to help defray costs.  We've reserved a double/double for $113.90CAD/night (plus taxes), which we'd split evenly.  We neither snore nor smoke, and prefer the same.

    Looking forward to seeing everyone! 
    9:47 am
    [wild_irises]
    Hotel update
    The hotel has rooms, both for individuals and group members. However, what I was just told was that if you are a member of "book launch," the rooms are more expensive than if you are not (by $5/night CDN, but even still ...).

    I've made a reservation, not as part of the group. I'm posting this in case it's something that someone who works with the hotel can fix, since it probably wasn't the intention when the hotel contract was signed.
    Monday, July 7th, 2008
    3:46 pm
    [wild_irises]
    Hotel?
    Repeating a question from a couple of months back: has anyone been able to book a hotel reservation with the group rate? The site currently says "unavailable" and (as has been mentioned) that could mean "full" or "not yet set up" or "screwed up." I'm not sure which.

    Also, I'd be happy to share a room Thursday through Saturday nights. I'm an excellent roommate except that I snore.
    Thursday, June 26th, 2008
    2:38 pm
    [carbonel]
    Schnenectady, anyone?
    I'm having eye surgery in a couple of weeks, and that means I won't be able to fly to Montreal. (Details available on request.)

    I love trains, and I've been looking at options for taking the train from Minneapolis to Montreal. The problem, as [info]papersky points out, is that there's a 20-hour overnight layover in Schenectady in the eastward direction. (The timing works much better in the homeward direction.)

    So -- is anyone driving up from New York who'd be willing to pick me up in Schnenectady? Or is anyone else in the same boat, so that it might pay to rent a car in Schnenectady to drive to Montreal?

    Other suggestions solicited.

    Current Mood: hopeful
    12:23 pm
    [papersky]
    Starting to work on program, membership nagging
    I'm starting to work on program.

    I'm only programming people who have memberships or who I absolutely know are coming. There are several people I'm fairly sure are coming and who I want on program who have not yet bought memberships.

    If you're coming, please buy a membership now or at least let me know you'll *definitely* be buying one later.

    The last date for buying a membership is August 12th.
    Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
    10:56 am
    [papersky]
    Tea tasting?
    If enough people are interested, we could have a tea-tasting in Camellia Sinensis early on Saturday evening. We could either have a "Beginners" tea tasting, or one specialising in green, or black, or new and exciting teas. It would cost $20 each if we had ten people, and then proportionately less up to a maximum of 20 people. It would last about an hour.

    Interested?
    Friday, May 30th, 2008
    9:24 am
    [papersky]
    Hotel
    OK, the hotel should have been sorted for the last week. I didn't post before because of book-finishing head-downness. Sorry.

    Anyone tried it and can confirm it's now working?

    Also, membership acknowledgements will be going out from Cenk this weekend. Join now, there will be no at-the-door memberships accepted!
    Monday, May 19th, 2008
    12:04 am
    [ckd]
    hotel block? Boston travelers?
    Has anyone actually been able to get a booking in the room block? The website says it's "unavailable", which could mean "already full" or could mean "still doesn't exist". I haven't tried calling the hotel directly yet. They're offering a "Get Going Canada / Voyez Du Pays" rate that's not too much higher, but requires a (non-refundable) first night's deposit and "reservations are non-transferable".

    Also, who's planning to go from the Boston area, and how? Last year I think we had planes (me), trains buses because the stupid trains don't go from Boston to Montreal ([info]rushthatspeaks?), and automobiles ([info]xiphias and [info]cheshyre). Since at the moment Air Canada wants almost $700 for round-trip flights (and I expect that to go up if it goes anywhere), I'd be more than happy to share the driving and expenses if anyone's planning to drive up this year. (For that matter, if enough people are going, a rental car might total out cheaper than bus fare.)
    Monday, April 21st, 2008
    2:02 pm
    [papersky]
    Farthing Party 2008, Definite Announcement
    I have negotiated with the hotel, and everything is exactly the same as last year. There will be program. There will be conversation. There will be cool places to eat nearby.

    It's Labor Day weekend, August 29th to 31st, in the Doubletree Plaza, Montreal. Rooms are $139 for a double, book soon to avoid irritation.

    Hotel phone number: 1-800-561-4644
    Use the words "Jo Walton" and "Book launch".
    Hotel web site use the code "BKL".

    This year's "Thank You For Existing" recipient will be [info]elisem.

    Membership is $35 Canadian or $40 US for cheques, and $36.60 or $41.60 for Paypal.

    Farthing Party
    c/o N. Cenk Gokce
    H-10 Daybreak St.
    Nepean, ON K2G 6T9
    Canada

    Please make the cheques payable to Cenk Gokce, and put Farthing Party in the memo line. If you include your e-mail on the cheque, he will send you an e-mailed receipt as well.

    or via PayPal to:

    farthingparty@gmail.com
    Sunday, January 6th, 2008
    10:33 am
    [papersky]
    Farthing Party 2008
    So, I have not done the bit where I talk to the hotel, but assuming that it's OK with them, how does Labor Day weekend seem for everyone else?

    The only real disadvantages are that it'll be hot, and like this year, it'll be too soon after I come back from Britain so I'll have to start organising while I'm away. But that worked out OK.

    I'm definitely not doing this in 2009, because of Anticipation, and I'm not thinking about future years beyond that yet, so let's make this one a good one.
    Saturday, September 15th, 2007
    8:05 am
    [papersky]
    Some stuff.
    [info]dd_b's photos of the party are online here there are a lot of them and some of them are brilliant.

    [info]mrissa has a con report here

    [info]rysmiel's review of Mochica.

    If anyone else has con reports or restaurant reports, or photos, please link here.
    Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
    1:56 pm
    [papersky]
    Looking forward
    Well, I had a fabulous time. And I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you for coming! If you write reports, please post here with links -- and I'd also appreciate restaurant reviews here, for updating and improving the restaurant guide.

    I'm going to be knocking around some ideas I have for doing things differently next year, and would appreciate input.

    1) Instead of all 1 hour panels, how about some half hour panels and some 90 minute panels?

    2) Talking to Geri and some other people the other day, the idea came up that having the Renoir party space for Saturday night is better than hanging out at Gateries the way we did on Friday, but is it $400 better? Would that $400 be better spent on having a consuite that wasn't big enough for a party but was open for hanging out in smaller groups all the time? Do we want to do this? Would anyone be prepared to run and help run such a consuite?

    3) There's a worldcon in Montreal in 2009. So no Farthing Party. But what about having a Farthing Party party in the worldcon...?

    4) It's never too soon to consider asking: What's a good weekend in September in 2008?
    Monday, September 10th, 2007
    9:45 pm
    [redbird]
    Two restaurant notes
    This is, fairly obviously, mostly intended as useful for next year. I'm posting it mostly because [info]papersky asked me to write up the first part.

    First, the one place in easy walking distance that had both tea that I and [info]adrian_turtle liked, and coffee that [info]cattitude liked, is Brulerie St. Denis. They have a wide variety of good black teas (though I mostly just drank Assam) and of tisanes. (Also many green teas, flavored teas, and flavored coffees, but we didn't try those.) Friday evening, in there for a quick dinner, I found they were out of the rosehip tisane, so asked about the "hobit" [sic] blend. The waitress brought it over for me to sniff, I ordered a pot, and it was good. I think it's mostly camomile, linden, and anise. (I am not usually an anise fan.) As a side note, I was less impressed with the BLT than [info]pnh reported being, but extra mayo helped.) The list of teas on the menu is in French, but some of the names are the same in both languages, such as Assam and Darjeeling, and others aren't hard to spot (dejeuner Irlandais for Irish breakfast). The tisane names may be more difficult, though chamomile is camomile; I knew the French for rose hips because my grandmother used to get a brand of rose hip tea that was labeled in French and English, and somehow "eglantier" stuck in my memory.

    Cattitude doesn't usually like French roast, and their coffee is closer to the lighter roasts he generally drinks. [I turn the rest of this paragraph over to him] <rant> I don't like French roasts. They require cream and sugar, and I prefer my coffee black. The only alternative to French roast I'd found near the hotel was Starbuck's, and they do an even worse Seattle roast. Brulerie St. Denis does (based on two samples) either a full city roast (American standard) or something between a full city and a mocha roast (which has nothing to do with chocolate). They roast their own coffee, too, so it's very fresh and hasn't lost any of its flavor. This is a prerequisite to my view of an ideal universe, or at least an ideal morning.</rant>

    Second, last night we had a quick dinner at Pique. It's basic decent Chinese food, some Szechuan (as the sign outside advertises) and some Cantonese. When the waiter brought the orange-flavored beef he warned me that the peppers were very spicy, but none of us found it so. We only tried three dishes, but were basically pleased: it's quick, reasonably priced, and near the hotel. If you don't want dairy but are okay with meat or seafood, you'll likely do well here; there were few vegetarian options.
    Sunday, September 9th, 2007
    10:15 pm
    [beable]
    And while some of the time travelers in Montreal may be real ...
    ... some of them may just be pretending.

    December 8th is being suggested as Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day
    Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
    1:08 pm
    [papersky]
    Program: Ready to Print Version
    In fact, it would be printed if we hadn't run out of ink!

    ( Whole program as of now )
    Saturday, September 1st, 2007
    4:11 pm
    [papersky]
    Friday: An actual Plan
    11h00 Early Bird Brunch. Meet in L'Evidence, 3619 St Denis. (How many people will be there for this? I tried to make a reservation yesterday and they wanted numbers.)

    After brunch, probably split into two groups, one going with [info]rysmiel to the Musee des Beaux Arts and one going with me to the island and the Time Travel bookshop. Or, well, other options. This is flexible and can be decided depending on weather at the time.

    16h00 [info]zorinth meets people who have arrived since brunchtime, in the foyer of the Plaza, and leads them to Toi Moi et Cafe for afternoon tea. (Maple Delight are remodelling their downstairs as a maple museum. Fascinating as a maple museum will no doubt be, they no longer have room for more than about ten people to eat ice-cream at a time. This sucks.) Toi Moi et Cafe is a cafe further north in the Plateau, on Laurier, another cool area. They're big, they're open in the afternoon, and they have ice-cream and baklava cheesecake, along with a zillion other kinds of cake. They also have coffee and a reasonable range of fairly good tea. ([info]redbird, you've had lunch in their other location by Marche Atwater.) Those of us who have been doing things since brunch will also aim to meet up there for 16h30.

    After afternoon tea, we will lead people back to the Plaza, and people will spontaneously form groups for dinner.

    20h00, or after dinner onwards -- meet at Les Gateries (3443 St Denis) to hang out. I went there yesterday evening at about eight and it was almost empty. I talked to them and they allowed as how they might have room for me and 40 or so close friends to hang out there next week. It's a cafe. They have nine million kinds of coffee, they have several kinds of beer, some on draught and some in bottles, they have wine, they have dubious tea and OK tisanes, they have soft drinks and juice, they have cakes and croque monsieurs and sandwiches and snacks if anyone has, for instance, just arrived on the train from New York or driven in from Ottawa after work and needs to eat. We will, with any luck at all, have registration there, so people can get their badges and programmes. They are open until midnight. It's a much more relaxed and welcoming space than the hotel bar.
    Friday, August 31st, 2007
    11:53 pm
    [davidgoldfarb]
    A note on the hotel
    There may be some of you out there who are going this year, and didn't go last year, and are sharing a room. In the hopes of saving you a little aggravation, this note:

    Last year, the hotel seemed to have big problems understanding that people sharing a room might not be checking in all at the same time. Last year I shared with [info]dhole. I checked in. They gave me a cardkey. Well and good. [info]dhole checked in. They gave him a cardkey...and in the process voided mine. At some point I tried to get in to the room and couldn't. I went to the desk and complained, so they gave me a new cardkey...and in the process voided [info]dhole's. Finally we managed to get together and present ourselves simultaneously so that we could both have keys that worked.

    I gather that some other people last year had similar problems. I'd advise all to keep this in mind.
    12:59 pm
    [hittite]
    Farthing Party Registration CLOSED!
    I just wanted to inform people that we have now closed registration for FarthingParty '07 since I need to do the funds transfer to Jo today to make sure she receives it prior to the start of the event.

    Thank you and have fun, wish I could join you this year too!!!

    Cheers,

    --Cenk
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