Wiscon Not-Quite-Report 2

Man..I feel like I've attended fewer panels than last year, but I've definitely been doing more stuff in general, mostly hanging out talking to people. So I haven't had a chance to update here. And despite the netbook, I guess liveblogging isn't for me. I'd rather listen at the panels, and the computer is too much of a distraction for me.

I have no freaking clue why I'm awake. I was up past 2 and didn't intend to wake up until shortly before the 10am panels. But I woke up at 7:30 with thoughts of the Governor's Club, which I will articulate later when more of my brain is awake. It was enough to keep me awake and prompt me to see if there were any Governor's Clubs rooms still available. The online system didn't offer one to me, so I have to assume that they are not. No surprise, since reservation's been open for nearly 24 hours now. I did reserve a regular double queen room while I was in there.

But now the computer is a distraction when I should just by lying down with my eyes closed some more, sleep or not. I am going to be so fried at work this week.

Saw random shirts for sale on shirt.woot.com today, but they're already out of Larges, so no go. XL would be okay, but I don't need to spend more money on literally random things.

The GoHs for next year are seriously cool, and now I totally need to read more of their stuff.

To all of my Clarion classmates, and any Clarion attendee, but particularly 2008 and 2009 ones, you seriously need to come to Wiscon. You have no idea what you're missing out on.

Apart from the chance to hang out and chat with my awesome self, there's some other interesting people too.

Registration's now open for Wiscon 34, so go do it!

Wiscon Advice - Not a Report

There's this unreality about the idea that Wiscon is over. I feel like I haven't had any chance to just sit and process all the ideas and things. It's just been input, input, input for hours and days. And now it's over. What happened?

Before I get back to writing con reports, what's on the top of my mind is some advice for future Wiscon-goers, especially newbies.

* Wiscon officially starts with The Gathering on Friday afternoon and ends with SignOut around noon on Monday. So if time off work is an issue for you, you can definitely just take all or part of Friday off and that's it (assuming you don't work weekends or Memorial Day). But if you can either come a day early or leave a day late, definitely do so. If you can do both, do both. If you can only do one.. I can't really say whether it's better to come early or leave late. If you come early, you have time to look around Madison when you're not exhausted, and ease into things, greeting people and meeting people in a slow trickle. You can attend the Room of One's Own reading on Thursday night or help with the packet stuffing earlier. You won't be bored. If you leave late, you don't have to worry about packing and checking out while SignOut is going on, you can participate in the PostMortem discussion, you can attend the Dead Cow Party, you can help with con cleanup. Mostly, you can sleep. Or try to. I plan to try. You can decompress.

* If you see something while you're out shopping or shopping in the dealer's room that you're pretty sure you want to buy, just buy it. Don't rely on the idea of going back later. The store might be closed, they might be sold out, you might forget, you might have no time whatsoever. Seize the moment.

* If you absolutely want to check out the Farmer's Market, or the Tiptree Bakesale, or the Art Show, things like that, make sure you know when they're going on and don't forget! It's too easy to get sucked into conversations or panels. All three of those benefit from going early, I think. Art starts to sell, the bakesale could very well sell out in an hour, and vendors at the market will start to pack up and go home.

* If you think you might want to go to Wiscon, but you're not sure, just go ahead and register. You can always cancel or transfer a hotel reservation. You can always transfer, get a refund, or put off your Wiscon membership for next year. Rooms will fill up. Memberships may sell out, and will definitely keep going up in price if you wait too long. Just hold off on buying plane tickets until you're more sure.

I'm running out of things to say without pausing to think up something, so it's probably good to wrap this up now. One last piece of advice: Don't forget to steal some hotel soap.