Minicon 40 Livejournal Community
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Thursday, March 19, 2009
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Time to de-Friend this group. It's served it's purpose. I'm still in 41 until 42, but I doubt any further important announcements will come out of Minicon 40.
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Minicon 41 is just around the corner. Please check out the website and please join or watch ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) minicon41 (assuming you're interested in Minicon 41, but I figure if you were interested in Minicon 40, the odds are pretty good you're interested in Minicon 41).
This community is probably pretty much obsolete now, unless anyone has yet to post pictures or reports from Minicon 40! (Of course that's unlikely . . . yeah, right.)
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
RiverFolk
Saturday March 25th 2006
at Harriet Manor
2456 Harriet Ave S.
Mpls. MN 55405
Doors open at 6:00pm
Show starts at 7:00pm
Suggested Donation $10
Please feel free to bring wine and or Tapas
to share
An invitation only music circle will happen afterwards probably starting between 9:00pm and 10:00pm
everyone is welcome to stay and hang out and eat and drink and make merry.
There are movies upstairs and games downstairs and something to make everybuddy happy at least for a time.
If you arrive after 6:50pm please enter through the back door or the secret door on the northside of the house
but don't tell anyone about it shhh!
'Cause it's a secret
No shoes are ever allowed to be worn inside the manor in efforts regarding historic preservation.
You may chose to bring a soft soled indoor only slipper for each foot.
Smoking is allowed in the gardens out back (okay someday there will be gardens out back for now settle for snow hiding crab grass and weeds)
No guns are ever allowed inside the manor those breaking this rule may be taken out back and shot!
(With what we will shoot you remains to be determined)
Guest rooms are available at no cost but are on a first come first serve basis, please call our reservations desk at
612-724-2514
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Saturday March 11th
David Stoddard
http://www.davestoddard.com/%3Ehttp://www.davestoddard.com
at
Harriet Manor
2456 Harriet Ave S
Mpls MN 55405
612-724-2514
Doors open at 6pm
show starts at 7pm
Suggested Donation $10
If you arrive after 6:50pm please use the secret side door located on the north side of the house.
Please feel free to bring wine and cheese to share
Music party will follow probably between 9 and 10pm
(any snacks are welcome at this point in the evening)
Please feel free to RSVP if you haven't already because it's nice
So far I know of about a dozen folks planning to attend. But we'd really like more then that. So bring somebody, spread the word and help us make Dave feel his long drive was worth while. Thanx.
Thursday, January 5, 2006
If you haven't yet joined minicon41, I recommend it as that's the next Minicon; Minicon 40 is (sadly) long over.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
There will be a postmortem Minicon 40 meeting at our house on Saturday, April 30, at 3 p.m. Greg says that he hopes it won't go more than an hour.
We'll have some very basic pop and munchies. If anyone wants to stick aound afterward and play Zar or Fluxx or Trivial Pursuit, I probably could be talked into that.
3328 Colfax Ave. S.
Minneapolis
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Did anyone take pictures at the Ankh-Morpork Masked Ball; specifically of the costume winners? I tried shooting some with an old 35-mm, but they just plain didn't turn out.
Maybe it's time for me to go digital.......
Sunday, April 3, 2005
I put one of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jonsinger's porcelain tea cups in the benefit auction at Minicon, but I don't know what it went for. Jon would like to know. Anyone?
K. [it was glazed with clay from Neil Gaiman's yard...]
Saturday, April 2, 2005
This is a reminder that if you want to read/post about Minn-StF events other than Minicon 40, you should check out mnstf.
For the benefit of anyone who isn't reading that community, I'll post about today's Minn-StF meeting/party; but this should be the last time I do that as y'all will check out mnstf if you're interested in that sort of thing. (And I trust those of you who already read both communities will forgive this bit of overlap and just consider this a reminder re today's meeting).
The next Minn-StF meeting/party is today (April 2nd) at the home of Carol Kennedy and Jonathan Adams (3328 Colfax Ave S, Minneapolis. Cats, very limited smoking, music welcome, children welcome but not child-proofed, FFI: 612-823-2784). Carol ran at-con registration, so you may very well have met/seen her there. cakmpls notes that music is welcome/encouraged and a separate room can be provided for it; ditto for gaming, if needed. There will be chili around 6pm; and possibly soup, too.
Minn-StF "meetings" are actually very casual social gatherings (a.k.a. parties) and are usually held on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month at homes of Minn-StF members. The start time is 2pm, though more people tend to show up around 4 or 5pm. Parties run as long as they run, usually 'til at least 9 or 10pm. There will be a brief business meeting around 5pm where future meeting locations will be mentioned, and folks can make any other announcements of interest.
If you've ever hung out in the consuite at Minicon, that should give you an idea of what to expect: conversation, food, and drink; sometimes music, sometimes games. People wander in and wander out; meet at Minn-StF and head off to dinner or an event elsewhere.
There should be plenty of leftover snacks from Minicon, but we really want to start encouraging people to bring food or drinks to share to club meetings. Used to be how things were done, but in recent years has happened less and less. Would like to see this practice return as they money hosts get for supplies doesn't go all that far. Bringing something is, of course, not required-- but if you can and are so moved, bring something to share.
If you're interested in hosting a future Minn-StF meeting/party, talk to jbru or me. Thanks!
Friday, April 1, 2005
I was much impressed by the huge improvement in the con this year: It had gotten so dull that I didn't come last year at all. This year the panels covered a variety of interesting topics. The art show had no schlock-art in it. I took part in the art auction here for the first time; I even helped take the art show down. The con programming was well-organized over a small and easily accessible area, and the con-suite was _not_ on an elevator-breaking level. The jigsaw puzzles were a good idea. Registration was very easy to find.
The hotel had no food that I could find, but food in the neighborhood has improved, so the hotel didn't matter. It was good to be back on the same ground as of old, too. I could go on, but I won't.
Great job, Greg and concom!
C. J. Mills
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Counting everyone--including comps for former GoHs and such--the final count is 630. About 26 memberships (either attending or supporting) were not picked up, so the "warm body" count is just over 600.
Current mood:  pleased
Hi! I brought a bowl of hamburger casserole to the Nanny Ogg potluck, but the people who were on duty in the consuite when I came back for it didn't know where to look. Any idea who might have kept hold of such things?
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Just so you all get a bit of good news, if you like the stars and so on:
"The Senate-House bonding leaders and the Governor met today and agreed
to a total bonding bill of $886M that includes $22M for the Minnesota
Planetarium!!!! This baby is gonna fly! This is great news."
Happy Happy Happy!!!!!!!
Current mood: yeah!! Stars!!
If you have posted a con report for Minicon 40 elsewhere (your livejournal, usenet, a website), it'd be really cool if you'd post a link to the report in this community. Thanks!
[And thanks to those who have already done so or have posted things both here and elsewhere!]
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
However, they're not mine, so this doens't invalidate my earlier claim that I was done.
Mitch WINOLJ emailed me a pointer to his Minicon 40 photo gallery.
[Edited to substitute direct URL to Minicon gallery from Mitch in preference to top-level URL from Cas.]
Current mood: chipper Current music: Computer fans
Or was there rather a dearth of room parties at Minicon this year? When I went around looking for signage, I think I identified 5 or 6 parties total, of which only 1 or 2 were not in the poolside/cabana area.
Not that it mattered overmuch, since I was too busy having fun jigsawing the night away in the consuite, but I did want to do a reality check wrt this observation...
Current mood:  curious Current music: (the sound of deafness)
Chain bookstore bashing, potential discussion, yadda yadda bing bang can be found HERE. I've left it public so people can read it. Chock full of MHO and talking out my *ahem* keyboard.
Dragging the non-minicon oriented discussion away by it's hair!
Again: Minicon = yay! happiness!
-Pere
Getting to the convention took a bit longer then I expected. This process started with mplsfish, thorintatge, thunder_monkey and I meeting up at the Courts (mplschaos -read only for non-residents.) At this point we split up based on errand requirements, with mplsfish and Thorin driving the Fish Van straight to the hotel and thunder_monkey and I traveling together to make several stops on the way acquiring various supplies -including food- along the way.
Our first stop was at a very cool hardware/home improvement place in Northeast Minneapolis which was supposed to have hot-lamination machines on sale for $20. Great store. I'm sad that I can't remember the name of the place. They turned out to be out of the machines, however, and a rain check wouldn't have done us much good.
Next we stopped lunch at a very groovy middle eastern restaurant on Central Ave. NE. and sat down for some Gyros. Way num. I also had an Orange Crush, for which my passion extends back decades. The place doubles as a Shisha bar, and is apparent quite the hopping place, nights. The smells were great.
During the after meal cigarette portion of dinner we tried three times to call the hotel to see if rooms were still to be had in the room block and if such rooms could be found pool side. Each time the hotel operator transfered us to a national booking system which told us to call the hotel directly. (Lather, rinse, ...) Finally I suggested t_monkey ask for the hotel front desk and not mention reservations to the hotel operator. This worked and a few minutes later we had a reservation for a smoking double poolside. Finding out where our room was to be more then make up for the fiasco of trying to make the reservation. Choice digs.
After that target for a new swim-suit for thunder_monkey, then to Office Max to get a lamination machine (for, alas, more then $20) and other related materials, then, finally to the hotel to make an in person.
Checking in was a breeze and within 20 minutes of arriving our gear was safely stowed, we had offered crash-space to thaadd and were ensconced on comfy chairs on the porch. There we stayed most of the weekend. Shortly it was off to register, which was fast and easy (go cakmpls!.) Roomword, after that I bumped in to Dad (Steven Brust, WINOLJ -but the link is his blog) and had a nice conversation with he and netmouse while the two of them caught some dinner. During this my youngest sister (Antonia, WINOLJ) showed up with her boy, Jason, and I got to enjoy Dad's version of "What Are Your Intentions Toward My Daughter?", which, involved questions such as "If my Daughter was a cat, and there was a dog in the yard, and his tail was wagging, what sort of soup would you eat?". I thought Cheddar and Bacon was a pretty good answer.
r0ckc4ndy and msgillian, t_monkey, and my roommates for the weekend showed up fairly late in the evening and were pleased with the location of the room. huggiblysoft, my ghod-sister -read: Daughter to my Ghod-Mother- also came by around then. Very pleased to see her, as always, especially since she announced plans to come for at least two days, this year; usually she and Bev only make it for Saturday each year.
Later in the evening I wandered down to the north tower rooms for some music. When I got there it was a blues guitarist I didn't know, davidwilford with his fiddle, and a drummer putting one of the larger trash bins to percussive purpose to good effect. Needless to say, I jumped right in, and just as I was getting around to thinking a cigarette might sit well with me lollardfish showed up with his guitar, a bottle of Tullies' and buttonlass. Better and better. In short order the room was full of cool music making folk and if, as we played, I put my doumbek to lessening effect, I'm certain the use to which I put lollardfish's Tullies' improved.
When I made it back to our Kick-Ass Room Poolside I discover something which was to be a constant for the rest of the convention: The room had become something of an unofficial "Axillary Smoking Consuite". All areas of the room and porch were filled with people, and people were sitting in chair in the hall outside the porch. Loved it. Sadly, this did result in my not making it back to the music room until after music had broken up. On the positive side, though, this resulted in my favorite moment of the convention:
I was standing just inside the porch talking with I-forget-whom, when a total stranger wanders past me, and into the room. In the room were Dad and netmouse, Mom (mplsvala), Antonia and Jason, and possibly a couple of others talking about philosophy, IIRC. A few minutes later out comes this unknown and, noticing that he's wearing a badge, I make an opening gambit and we end up introducing ourselves. Good thing I introduced myself first. I don't think I managed to say a single word after he said "Nice to meet you, I'm Terry."
Even meeting a GoH for the first time in a elevator (Larry Niven at CONvergance last year) seems less strange.
Saturday morning is a bit blurry. I remember that I was up before noon and went out to do something foodmanshipfully with mplsfish and thunder_monkey, but if I did anything else interesting before t_monkey and I setup office on the porch I can't recall what it was.
Making the LJ badges went swimmingly. The idea had been to bring a photo-printer, a lamination machine and badge lamination envelopes and to make people sharp looking badges with their LJ usernames and userpics on them. We'd have a digital camera so I could take pictures for people who didn't have userpics and wanted one. The free WiFi in the pool area would allow me in addition to downloading existing userpics, also let people who didn't already have LJ accounts set one up on the spot, get a pic taken and then get a badge.
For me, it was rather like whitewashing the fence. I came up with the idea, but it turned out that thunder_monkey's laptop was better for the software, and he for the work. I but and laminated the first two badges, but it quickly developed that others around were better at that part too. Pretty soon my duties were limited to running around telling people to come get badges made, checking people off the TODO list and fetching soda. Started out project manager and ended up gopher. No complaints here. huggiblysoft (who laminated most of the badges and cut quite a few, and thunder_monkey we're glued to their chairs for about six hours while I got to run around the hotel talking to people. They didn't have any complaints either. Awfully damned fannish of them. drewen took several photos for people which I hope to get mailed tomorrow night, and I did get to help with that. I held the light. Key grip? Maybe just grip.
I'd like to give a list of the others (I know there were at least four or five) who help especially with the cutting, but I'm afraid I can't remember names. Not remember the names of the people who help you sucks. If you are one of these people or remember who someone who was was, please drop a comment.
I'm planning on doing several more badges sometime in the next week or so. I'll make a post about that sometime soon. Meanwhile, if you didn't get one and want one mailed to you comment here or email me directly at corwin AT mpls DOT cx.
During the badge-making a pretty girl I met (well, officialy met) last year sent me flowers. A dozen long-stemmed roses. I spend much of the rest of the night fighting off requests from girls (very often my sister cari_rose) who seemed to feel roses a more suitable possession for a girl. Feh.
We waited until the LJ party had been going a few minutes and then headed up to cakmpls's room for the LJ party. Lots of people there, and more laptops then I've seen in one place at a convention. Pretty geeky, I'd say. Great idea sraun!
Later that night the poker game in the consuite got me but, fortunately, not before mplsfish got to me with ideas about the hot-tub. Both of these things worked out well for me, in the obvious ways. I'd planed to make Saturday a late-night -I don't often wake up in time for closing ceremonies on Sunday- and alierajean and Elizabeth (WINOLJ) facilitated. We spent hours in the hot-tub talking about politics and, later, about logic. Pretty cool, and I was pretty well convinced I was wrong about something fairly fundamental which is always nice. (More about this in my own journal, sometime later.) These are the sorts of conversations I associate with fandom in general and Minicon in specific. Huzzah for those.
Sunday I woke late in the afternoon and immediately set out to deal with food. Food soon resolved in pizza, and a hour and a half later 8 pizzas materialized. I had decided to pay for them out of pocket and accept reimbursement later on, and am pleased to report that I profited eight dollars. That can't have been too bad a deal for anyone. One sad note, however, was that the large veggie white-sauce pizza turned out to be a personal pizza so a couple of people didn't end up with food they were happy with. I did get a couple of useful pizza ordering tricks passed on to me, for future reference, however. I have learned from my mistakes and I'm sure I can repeat them, exactly. I'm so writing software for this.
One of my semi-annual Sunday traditions seems to be being recruited for future conventions. This time it was laurel and kaustin who got me. Also, that afternoon msgillian came up to me, handed me some money and explained that I had beat the pool. Apparently, there was a pool regarding how long after arriving at the convention it would be before I was locked into volunteering for some or other department. (I had been talking about how I was looking forward to a convention with no particular responcibility.)
I tried to split my time, the rest of Sunday, between the poker game and the music circle but the poker game got more of it. Bummer, really. It's hard to leave a poker game when not many people are playing. Especially when your winning. By the time the game was over so was music and mplsfish and t_monkey were making noises about heading home by way of breakfast. Breakfast seemed to good to resist so, with tears in our eyes, we packed up our computers and printers and implements of destruction and headed off into the morning.
The dead-dodo was groovy, but I had barely steam for the few conversations I managed to have there. I went with vague hopes regarding music, but left after only an hour or so with strong feelings about sleep. Alas, the latter seems to be dogging me, so here is my convention report. Enjoy.
Minicon 40 was a heck of a lot of fun for me. Thanks, Greg.
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