julieandrews (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
julieandrews) wrote2008-06-08 08:40 am
julieandrews) wrote2008-06-08 08:40 am
Entry tags:
Wiscon Day 3 - Report 6
This is Saturday.
I got up early. Having a job that makes me wake up at the ungodly hour ofbefore noon 6:30, plus the time difference of -1:00, made my body not want to sleep in. Grr! Plus, I thought the first panel was at 8, but it was 8:30. An altogether reasonable hour if you think of it as 9:30.
In any event, I was awake in plenty of time to attend panels. I don't think the consuite was open yet at that point.
Balancing Creativity and the Day Job
M: Jennifer Pelland, Catherine Lundoff, Caroline Stevermer, Jordan Castillo PRice, Vandana Singh
One of the panelists joked that they got the early timeslot because programming probably figured people with day jobs would be awake at that hour. I don't know about the panelists, but it was true enough of me, grrr!
I attended this panel because I'm on the lookout for ways to boost my productivity. Even though my job is only part-time at the moment and not a lot of balancing needs to be going on, I thought they might have some ideas that'd be applicable to me.
Caroline likes to write before reading, speaking, listening to the radio or watching TV or anything like that. Which I translate to get to outputting before inputting. And speaking is the wrong kind of output!
Guilt about blowing stuff off, whether it's the writing or other stuff, was discussed.
Jordan advocated finding your 'sweet spot'. The time of day where you're at your best for writing. Then, don't let anything interfere with that time.
Also discussed was what co-workers think of the fact you're a writer. Which often leads to questions about what have you written, where are you published. Which Caroline equated to: "Oh, you're a writer? I'll be the judge of that."
And another note I wrote down, attributed again to Caroline: "Toys don't kill the pain." Which means if you're eating out, traveling, and shopping to dull the pain of having a day job you don't like, it's time to find another job.
Not to give the impression that Caroline dominated the panel or anything. Or even said all the important and interesting stuff that was said. She just showed up in my scanty notes more.
Then I believe I nipped up to the consuite and had oatmeal (a fabulous idea, that!), some coffee cake/danish-type thing, and I grabbed a banana, I think. Or maybe not. I didn't take notes of that part!
Fantastic Groves of Academe
M: Susan Groppi, Victoria Gaydosik, Tom La Farge, Ariel Franklin-Hudson, Keridwen Luis
I love schools in fiction, and have been toying with an idea of my own, so this panel was for me.
This was heavily slanted towards fantasy, at least at first, and if you hadn't read Harry Potter, you might've been lost for a good deal of the discussion, as it seemed to keep coming back to Hogwarts.
I wrote down some things I need to read:
Roald Dahl's "Boy", which I couldn't tell was an essay or book or fully autobiographical or what. So I need to look it up. But it's about his time in a boarding school, so useful.
Princess Academy - I have mixed feelings about this book. I'd had an idea for a princess school, so I was annoyed to learn I'd been beaten to it, by something that won a Newberry no less! Will it taint my idea to read this, so I shouldn't read it? Or will reading it annoy me sufficiently that my own idea can be a commentary to some extent about this, so I should read it? Well.. I now have it on hold at the library.
Stalking(?) by Kepling? I wrote down here 'English school' and that's all my notes say. I'll have to read other people's con reports or the wiki or do some Googling to figure out what this is.
Other schools mentioned besides Hogwarts were the College of Magics, Ender's Battle School, Starfleet Academy, Prof. Xavier's X-Men school, and probably others I don't remember or am not familiar with.
The audience participated quite a lot in this one. Among the things discussed was schools that are isolated, closed systems, such as boarding schools. Many schools in sf/f are for either the ostracized or the elite, or students that are both.
Victoria talked about the teacher as tour guide. Introducing students to things they may not be aware of. Like, here's this cool thing over here. It might be a museum, or a symphony. Opening up a new world for them.
Ariel said that, to her, colleges are magical places. And that Mt. Holyoke in particular looks and feels magical from the buildings.
One trend noticed in science fiction was schools where you learn at your own pace. Such as the home-schooled taught by computers.
Someone in the audience said that democratized magic, that anyone can do, would be technology.
Schools take raw children and turn them into cooked adults. So Keridwen said an important question is "What are the schools trying to turn the students into?"
One answer: People who will do what they're told in an organized fashion.
Real world schools of course entered into things and we got the idea that public schools in the US are teaching students to be workers, while private schools are teaching students to be managers. I wrote down Susan next to this note.
Other stories mentioned: Asimov's "Profession" and MT Anderson's V(?)
It's the bad guys that try to change the world. It's the conservative schools that produce the hero to keep the status quo.
Tom mentioned mentoring, such as in grad school.
Victoria wants more stories about teachers.
Tom wants us to reinvent the high school educational system. Behind you there!
The Tiptree bakesale started then, but I did not attend. I'm all for supporting the Tiptree Award, but I'm a little leery of food from bakesale-type things. This isn't a commentary on anyone supplying the baked goods! I have a couple of irrational anxieties. Except that what happened at this Wiscon means maybe it wasn't quite so irrational as all that. Plus the fact that I don't have money to blow on food with too many calories. There's books to be bought!
So, off to the farmer's market. K1 began the adventure with me, but then went to a writers' meeting. A far better idea than the farmer's market. Before she left, we stopped into a pizza place and I got a slice of penne pasta pizza. Which. Was. Awesome. Brilliant idea. There were also at least another dozen slices of veggie choices I could've had. Mac & Cheese sounded interesting in particular.
Right up front where we came upon the market was a kettle corn stall, which is kind of cool, but I've tried kettle corn and not liked it much. Then again, it wasn't real kettle corn at the time. I discovered the farmer's market was almost entirely food, which I guess you sort of have to expect from the farmer in the title, but I dunno.. I get more variety with local farmer's markets, I think. Home-made jams, honeys, cheese, ice cream, baked goods, cider, etc, etc.. But at this farmer's market, it seemed mostly produce, the obligatory cheese, and lots of plants and flowers. Oh, and meat. Blah meat.
But I didn't get the best look at it that I could've, because the place was a mob scene! I walked entirely around the capitol building, which looks way too similar on all sides. And not all four sides, but all 8 sides or something ridiculous. I kept thinking the next corner, I'd be back at the hotel, but I was still half a circumference away.
You could either enter the flow of foot traffic and be crowded and slow-moving, or you could do what I did, and skirt the whole thing and only catch glimpses of what's on the tables because you're mostly behind all the tables. It also seemed a few stalls were packing up already. It wasn't quite noon!
There were only a few people selling non-food items, and they were mostly near the shopping street anyway. I could've saved myself that walk around the capitol building.
I looked at a booth with dragons and other animals in colorful fabrics. I'd seen that type of thing before, but I would've loved to come home with a cute little dragon. I was eyeing the black and silver ones especially. The smallest ones were 14$ though, which was twice as much as I was prepared to spend. There were larger, Chinese style ones for 10$, but they didn't call to me. And they were still too expensive. I did feel bad though, because I talked to the woman running the booth to ask if she had a business card and she'd said her purse had been stolen. Privately, I thought she was a little foolish to have brought her purse to the thing anyway without locking it in her car. Especially as she said it had happened to her before(!).
Not sure what I did after that. Surely it wasn't quite time for another panel, was it? But my notes don't say, so look for the next panel in report number 7!
I got up early. Having a job that makes me wake up at the ungodly hour of
In any event, I was awake in plenty of time to attend panels. I don't think the consuite was open yet at that point.
Balancing Creativity and the Day Job
M: Jennifer Pelland, Catherine Lundoff, Caroline Stevermer, Jordan Castillo PRice, Vandana Singh
One of the panelists joked that they got the early timeslot because programming probably figured people with day jobs would be awake at that hour. I don't know about the panelists, but it was true enough of me, grrr!
I attended this panel because I'm on the lookout for ways to boost my productivity. Even though my job is only part-time at the moment and not a lot of balancing needs to be going on, I thought they might have some ideas that'd be applicable to me.
Caroline likes to write before reading, speaking, listening to the radio or watching TV or anything like that. Which I translate to get to outputting before inputting. And speaking is the wrong kind of output!
Guilt about blowing stuff off, whether it's the writing or other stuff, was discussed.
Jordan advocated finding your 'sweet spot'. The time of day where you're at your best for writing. Then, don't let anything interfere with that time.
Also discussed was what co-workers think of the fact you're a writer. Which often leads to questions about what have you written, where are you published. Which Caroline equated to: "Oh, you're a writer? I'll be the judge of that."
And another note I wrote down, attributed again to Caroline: "Toys don't kill the pain." Which means if you're eating out, traveling, and shopping to dull the pain of having a day job you don't like, it's time to find another job.
Not to give the impression that Caroline dominated the panel or anything. Or even said all the important and interesting stuff that was said. She just showed up in my scanty notes more.
Then I believe I nipped up to the consuite and had oatmeal (a fabulous idea, that!), some coffee cake/danish-type thing, and I grabbed a banana, I think. Or maybe not. I didn't take notes of that part!
Fantastic Groves of Academe
M: Susan Groppi, Victoria Gaydosik, Tom La Farge, Ariel Franklin-Hudson, Keridwen Luis
I love schools in fiction, and have been toying with an idea of my own, so this panel was for me.
This was heavily slanted towards fantasy, at least at first, and if you hadn't read Harry Potter, you might've been lost for a good deal of the discussion, as it seemed to keep coming back to Hogwarts.
I wrote down some things I need to read:
Roald Dahl's "Boy", which I couldn't tell was an essay or book or fully autobiographical or what. So I need to look it up. But it's about his time in a boarding school, so useful.
Princess Academy - I have mixed feelings about this book. I'd had an idea for a princess school, so I was annoyed to learn I'd been beaten to it, by something that won a Newberry no less! Will it taint my idea to read this, so I shouldn't read it? Or will reading it annoy me sufficiently that my own idea can be a commentary to some extent about this, so I should read it? Well.. I now have it on hold at the library.
Stalking(?) by Kepling? I wrote down here 'English school' and that's all my notes say. I'll have to read other people's con reports or the wiki or do some Googling to figure out what this is.
Other schools mentioned besides Hogwarts were the College of Magics, Ender's Battle School, Starfleet Academy, Prof. Xavier's X-Men school, and probably others I don't remember or am not familiar with.
The audience participated quite a lot in this one. Among the things discussed was schools that are isolated, closed systems, such as boarding schools. Many schools in sf/f are for either the ostracized or the elite, or students that are both.
Victoria talked about the teacher as tour guide. Introducing students to things they may not be aware of. Like, here's this cool thing over here. It might be a museum, or a symphony. Opening up a new world for them.
Ariel said that, to her, colleges are magical places. And that Mt. Holyoke in particular looks and feels magical from the buildings.
One trend noticed in science fiction was schools where you learn at your own pace. Such as the home-schooled taught by computers.
Someone in the audience said that democratized magic, that anyone can do, would be technology.
Schools take raw children and turn them into cooked adults. So Keridwen said an important question is "What are the schools trying to turn the students into?"
One answer: People who will do what they're told in an organized fashion.
Real world schools of course entered into things and we got the idea that public schools in the US are teaching students to be workers, while private schools are teaching students to be managers. I wrote down Susan next to this note.
Other stories mentioned: Asimov's "Profession" and MT Anderson's V(?)
It's the bad guys that try to change the world. It's the conservative schools that produce the hero to keep the status quo.
Tom mentioned mentoring, such as in grad school.
Victoria wants more stories about teachers.
Tom wants us to reinvent the high school educational system. Behind you there!
The Tiptree bakesale started then, but I did not attend. I'm all for supporting the Tiptree Award, but I'm a little leery of food from bakesale-type things. This isn't a commentary on anyone supplying the baked goods! I have a couple of irrational anxieties. Except that what happened at this Wiscon means maybe it wasn't quite so irrational as all that. Plus the fact that I don't have money to blow on food with too many calories. There's books to be bought!
So, off to the farmer's market. K1 began the adventure with me, but then went to a writers' meeting. A far better idea than the farmer's market. Before she left, we stopped into a pizza place and I got a slice of penne pasta pizza. Which. Was. Awesome. Brilliant idea. There were also at least another dozen slices of veggie choices I could've had. Mac & Cheese sounded interesting in particular.
Right up front where we came upon the market was a kettle corn stall, which is kind of cool, but I've tried kettle corn and not liked it much. Then again, it wasn't real kettle corn at the time. I discovered the farmer's market was almost entirely food, which I guess you sort of have to expect from the farmer in the title, but I dunno.. I get more variety with local farmer's markets, I think. Home-made jams, honeys, cheese, ice cream, baked goods, cider, etc, etc.. But at this farmer's market, it seemed mostly produce, the obligatory cheese, and lots of plants and flowers. Oh, and meat. Blah meat.
But I didn't get the best look at it that I could've, because the place was a mob scene! I walked entirely around the capitol building, which looks way too similar on all sides. And not all four sides, but all 8 sides or something ridiculous. I kept thinking the next corner, I'd be back at the hotel, but I was still half a circumference away.
You could either enter the flow of foot traffic and be crowded and slow-moving, or you could do what I did, and skirt the whole thing and only catch glimpses of what's on the tables because you're mostly behind all the tables. It also seemed a few stalls were packing up already. It wasn't quite noon!
There were only a few people selling non-food items, and they were mostly near the shopping street anyway. I could've saved myself that walk around the capitol building.
I looked at a booth with dragons and other animals in colorful fabrics. I'd seen that type of thing before, but I would've loved to come home with a cute little dragon. I was eyeing the black and silver ones especially. The smallest ones were 14$ though, which was twice as much as I was prepared to spend. There were larger, Chinese style ones for 10$, but they didn't call to me. And they were still too expensive. I did feel bad though, because I talked to the woman running the booth to ask if she had a business card and she'd said her purse had been stolen. Privately, I thought she was a little foolish to have brought her purse to the thing anyway without locking it in her car. Especially as she said it had happened to her before(!).
Not sure what I did after that. Surely it wasn't quite time for another panel, was it? But my notes don't say, so look for the next panel in report number 7!
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no subject
That's why I love the thread over on the Wiscon lj. People can correct any errors I made in note-taking, and fill in the gaps. Plus I get to see all the books mentioned at panels I wasn't at.