tiredThe food service at the Convention Center is the best that I've ever seen at a convention center. It's not cheap, but it's also not the usual run of very bad food we expect as part of convention center fare. I had a hamburger, and Lisa a mini-pizza, neither of which were bad. Our friend Raven O'Neill joined us for a little while, and after eating we walked around the dealer's room.
Lisa was feeling tired and went back to the room for a while. I wish I could have done so, too, but I had a panel at 5:30 on "Butchering the Sacred Cows." I'm too tired to summarize it, but it was about discussing standard convention elements that maybe we could or should do without. In the end, most of the things we discussed, we decided probably should not be cut -- but there may be some things we could do without.
Returning to the hotel, I worked on writing items for the Newsletter plugging Match Game SF and noting that the Thursday evening game had been postponed until Saturday night. Lisa had made an effort to put up promotional posters, but there doesn't seem to be any place in the hotel or convention center where we can put up flyers, darn it.
After dealing with the newsletter, Lisa and I got back into our WSFS uniforms to attend the "Babel Ambassador's Reception" (Meet the Guests). Lisa, realizing that it was a Star Trek-themed event (she hadn't read ahead, and I hadn't realized I should point it out), chastised me and left me to her own devices as she returned to the room to change into her Starfleet blue uniform. She returned just as I needed to leave for the Mark Protection Committee meeting, and as an impromptu costume parade was forming. Prizes were even given, I found later, with Lisa placing credibly in her medical ensign's uniform relative to Raven, who was wearing her "Mirror, Mirror" outfit.
Once people were able to find the well-hidden MPC Meeting (cleverly concealed on the Mezzanine level), the meeting went well, and we covered a pretty long agenda in less than 45 minutes. Among many other things in our committee report, the MPC will recommend that the Business Meeting instruct the MPC to form a committee to study the promotion of the Hugo Awards, as has been discussed for some time now on the SMOFS e-mail list.
After that, I headed off to the parties for about 90 minutes or so, and connected back up with Lisa, who had wisely avoided the MPC in favor of wandering the party floor with her rocket pack (including Kuma Bear) and having her picture taken. After several more photo stops for both of us, we headed back to the room before midnight. Parties visited included Google's Recruitment Party (thanks for the swag!), the Hollister in 2008 Bid Party (I had a very heated conversation with someone whose name I will not mention but who was convinced that all of the talk about how the ballot was 'fixed' seemed to think that Hollister really meant it and that there was a serious chance that a write-in for Hollister would win, causing all sorts of chaos -- as I hope everyone reading this knows by now, the rules are such that an invalid, unfiled bid cannot deadlock an election -- and anyone who thinks that Hollister is going to poll enough votes to have even a chance of a majority needs to get some humor injections), and all of the real 2008 bids.
I won't be able to sleep in on Thursday, on account of needing to be at the Business Meeting early to work on set-up. Good thing we brought a mini-fridge and bought some milk and cereal, or else I wouldn't get breakfast, and that's not good. I already feel bad about missing dinner on Wednesday night.