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Bay Area Signing/Social Report Possible Spoilers.

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Drew Gillmore

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Oct 28, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/28/98
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I don't see anyone else doing this, and while it's still fresh in my
mind...well, here's a report.

Of sorts.

<DISCLAIMER>

Further down I discuss some Q&A with the Creator that may inevitably lead to
Spoilers for _The Path of Daggers_

</DISCLAIMER>

I was drinking most of the time, so my recollection of details may be a
little fuzzy. My Wheel of Time was definitely wobbling.

I got to the Bay Area in time for the book signing. In fact, I got to Bill
and Hawk's place in time to make Hot Monkey Love with a few people before we
went to the book signing. Not that Hot Monkey Love was made, just that there
would have been time for it if we had so chosen.

Anyway, we got to Future Fantasy at 2:30. Chris Mullins, Michael Steeves,
Batya and I all rode with Hawk, and we met up with Noell Milota at the
bookstore. Bill wasn't feeling well and stayed at home. Wuss. (We missed
you, Bill) Future Fantasy had a policy in place in which if you had not
bought the book at their store then you had to wait until everybody that
*had* bought a book and wished to have it signed went through before you.
Fortunately, there weren't many people willing to spend full price at some
rinky dink bookstore and the number of people who were in front of us was
rather short.

Also there at the bookstore were Eric Fulton and Brian-Something-Or-Other,
Dave H-Someone and a couple of lurkers. Others in attendance at that time
were a lot of people whose names I don't remember as I stood in line with
Chris discussing some plot points with a lurker. Actually, that's a lie. We
spent most of the time in line trying to figure out how we could get Jordan
to sign a Terry Pratchett book, or a Goodkind. I can't remember which.
Maybe it was both.

We also discussed what questions to ask. Most were discarded as frivolous,
or obvious RAFO answers. I hadn't thought about it too much, but fortunately
Chris had, and he had a few that he let me borrow.

The first question Chris channeled through me had to do with the female mega
sa'angreal on Tremalking, and the Seanchan damane there. We were wondering if
the female sa'angreal would have the same effect on female channelers as the
male sa'angreal in Cairhien had on Rand. Our impression of events was that
Rand did not willingly channel into the thing, but that it just pulled the
One Power through him. Unfortunately, RJ answered the question with a "Yes,
if they tried to channel through it." Uh. Okay. Whatever. My second
question was whether or not we would get to see the Battle of Tar Valon or if
it would happen "off-screen". He opened his mouth, hesitated a second and
shot me down with a "Read And Find Out". Bastard.

Chris used his moment with the Creator to open himself up to a huge RAFO, but
*his* question was answered. Chris asked if Moghedian had been raped by
Shaidar Haran. The answer was "Yes, among other things."

I don't remember most of the other questions. A couple of interesting things
I do remember, however. The first is that the reason tPoD seems short is
that Jordan could not go any farther without writing a *whole* lot more. The
stage it seems, is once again set. Another interesting thing was Jordan
asking Hawk if she was into leather, and if she was "top, bottom, or switch".

Dirty old man, indeed.

Another interesting point that may just be my interpretation of things, is
that someone asked if Lanfear had been raped as well, right on top of the
Moghedian question, and he answered right away with a "No". It could be any
number of explanations, but it seemed to me that it was a given that Cyndane
was Lanfear from the context of the conversation.

Like I said, just my interpretation.

Someone else who was paying more attention could fill in here.


The next thing we did was went to the Thai House to drink. Or at least,
Darkelf and I drank, with a little bit of sipping done by Eric and Chris.
However, Darkelf and I got married (Work *that* in, K-J) and consummated the
marriage with a pitcher of Stout beer (Thanks, oh Dimly Lit Sprite). I
taunted Noell with the thought that Cal would beat UCLA until with four
seconds left in the game, I relented and admitted that, in fact, Cal would
probably not be coming back.


After that, things *really* get fuzzy. We went to Amber, an Indian
Restaurant, and had food, and talked. Rick Moen, Rajiv, Phetsy, Paul Ward,
and "Justin" showed up. Other people showed up, but they were sitting at the
other table and I don't remember all their names. (Someone else is *really*
going to have to help me out here...anyone make a total list?) Mansur Ward
made a cameo.

I had Chicken Vindaloo, that was supposed to be spicier than it was,
according to Chris Mullins, but since I was already full of beer I couldn't
taste much anyway.

Somewhere in there my ex-fiancée showed up(1), and I mentally checked out for
the evening. I remember going to Brian's apartment complex for the rec room
there, more beer, lots of pool, then a jaunt to Bill and Hawks for an hour or
so. At that point I had been up for somewhere near forty hours, and had
drank sufficiently enough in my sleep depraved condition to make thinking
straight a tricky situation.

I'm not sure how it ended. Badly, one would assume, but you'll have to get
that part of the story from someone who A) was there, and B) was *there*, if
you know what I mean.


--

Drew Gillmore www.leisureforce.com

1) Don't ask. Weird situation. I'm sure most everyone at the Social
is/will be thoroughly confused(2) to find out that she's my ex.

2) About what? Well, that's what you get for not attending.


Kevin 'Evinrude' Bartlett

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Oct 28, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/28/98
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In article <716rin$ilm$1...@holly.prod.itd.earthlink.net>,

Drew Gillmore <kidprob...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Chris used his moment with the Creator to open himself up to a huge RAFO, but
>*his* question was answered. Chris asked if Moghedian had been raped by
>Shaidar Haran. The answer was "Yes, among other things."

Hm, so we now know that Myrdraal have at least _one_ eye...

Kevinrude
--
klba...@u.washington.edu - Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~klbartle/lanfear.html

Paul E. Ward

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Oct 28, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/28/98
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Justin H. Howell wrote:

> "Drew Gillmore" <kidprob...@hotmail.com> writes:
>
> ><DISCLAIMER>
>
> >Further down I discuss some Q&A with the Creator that may inevitably lead to
> >Spoilers for _The Path of Daggers_
>
> ></DISCLAIMER>


> I asked why Elayne thought even a Forsaken couldn't break the shield
> Adeleas and Vandene were holding on Ispan, expecting the answer that
> Elayne is clue-impaired. The correct answer is that holding a shield
> on someone depends not only on relative strength and fatigue, but
> also on whether the shield is held by channellers of the same sex as
> the victim. Thus two women (A&V on Ispan, or Ispan and Falion on
> Nynaeve in CoS) can hold another woman, but three women just get
> severed if they try to shield Rand.

Hmm... considering this, the cross-sex Healing of severing being more
effective seems much more plausible (ie, there are some glaring
differences when you mix men, women, and the True Source as opposed to
just men *or* women, and the True Source).

> As a curiosity, it is also
> possible for multiple people to hold a shield without linking, but
> this is less strong and less precise, producing basically a layered
> shield.

We found this out when Rand was captured by the TAS and stuffed into a
box.

> I didn't hear (or hear of) anything else not recorded here or in Drew's
> post, though as Drew said,


> >Someone else who was paying more attention could fill in here.

Um... lessee... I think Batya (Beth? Batcha? Sorry about butchering
your name...) wrote down the one quote that I think we had for the
evening. I refuse to mangle the quote, so hopefully someone with a
better memore than mine will post it.

And Hawk, when can we count on pictures being up?

--
Paul Ward
nom...@cats.ucsc.edu

Justin H. Howell

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Oct 29, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/29/98
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"Drew Gillmore" <kidprob...@hotmail.com> writes:

><DISCLAIMER>

>Further down I discuss some Q&A with the Creator that may inevitably lead to
>Spoilers for _The Path of Daggers_

></DISCLAIMER>

I asked why Elayne thought even a Forsaken couldn't break the shield
Adeleas and Vandene were holding on Ispan, expecting the answer that
Elayne is clue-impaired. The correct answer is that holding a shield
on someone depends not only on relative strength and fatigue, but
also on whether the shield is held by channellers of the same sex as
the victim. Thus two women (A&V on Ispan, or Ispan and Falion on
Nynaeve in CoS) can hold another woman, but three women just get

severed if they try to shield Rand. As a curiosity, it is also


possible for multiple people to hold a shield without linking, but
this is less strong and less precise, producing basically a layered
shield.

Then I asked about Elayne's Rod of Pleasure, and got a RAFO with
the explicit warning that we might not ever get to the FO part.

The popular "are you sure we should be able to figure out who
killed Asmodean" question used up my second trip through the line.
Next time through I asked about the chronology of Eharon and Shiota,
since Bashere describes statues from Eharon as being much older than
the Shiotan statue DKS put on the cover. We know Deane was born in
the village of Salidar in Eharon (Glossary from LoC, IIRC), yet part
of Bashere's lecture mentioned that Shiota also was pre-Hawkwing.
It turns out there is a textual inconsistency here. RJ couldn't
remember which comes first (apparently historical details aren't
as engrossing for him as for me), but one was part of the Ten Nations,
and the other covered the same area (Illian + Altara) between the
Trolloc Wars and Hawkwing. He said the Guide has the correct order,
though since I don't have the Guide I don't know what that order is.
A minor error, really; either that statue was from Eharon and
Bashere mentioned much older Shiotan statues, or Deane was Shiotan
and the statues were as written.

As Paul mentioned, RJ mumbled something about Sammael. My interpretation
is simply that he meant "right, he's dead, whatever you say", but
I can see how one might take it more seriously. I'll believe my
favorite male character died when I see him come back in a new body
sucking up to Moridin, at which point I'll go looking for a new
favorite male character (Mat or Demandred, probably).

I think the only other WoT-related comment I heard was that if RJ
dies before this is done, we won't find out about this famous last
scene since the hard drives of his computers will be reformatted six
times and every scrap of paper in his house having anything to do
with tWoT will be burned. He seems to feel quite strongly about this...
On a related topic we may get an encyclopedia after the series ends,
but no endless series publishing all of his notes, analogous to Christopher
Tolkien's History of Middle Earth volumes.

I didn't hear (or hear of) anything else not recorded here or in Drew's
post, though as Drew said,

>Someone else who was paying more attention could fill in here.

--
Justin Howell
jhho...@ucolick.org

Brian Kantsiper

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Oct 29, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/29/98
to
Drew Gillmore wrote:

> Someone else who was paying more attention could fill in here.
>

You left out the best part. The jump shot I made on the 2-ball.
Sheesh.

Ken Kofman

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Oct 29, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/29/98
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Hi,

In article <71al8d$4...@veenet.value.net>,
Hawk <mer...@value.net.DELETEDELETEDELETE> wrote:
>Paul E. Ward <nom...@cats.ucsc.edu>, <36381B58...@cats.ucsc.edu>,
>shouted:


>
>>Um... lessee... I think Batya (Beth? Batcha? Sorry about butchering
>>your name...) wrote down the one quote that I think we had for the
>

>Batya. Or Beth. Or "Hey you". She answer to almost everything.
>
>I do recall her writing something down, but I don't know what she did with
>it. I'll try to remember and ask her.


>
>>evening. I refuse to mangle the quote, so hopefully someone with a
>>better memore than mine will post it.

I'm not Batya, but the quote is from Rick Moen, who said, "You
can be replaced with a simple Perl script."

Anyway,

KenK

Justin H. Howell

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Oct 31, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/31/98
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"Paul E. Ward" <nom...@cats.ucsc.edu> writes:

>Justin H. Howell wrote:
>> "Drew Gillmore" <kidprob...@hotmail.com> writes:
>>

>> ><DISCLAIMER>
>>
>> >Further down I discuss some Q&A with the Creator that may inevitably lead to
>> >Spoilers for _The Path of Daggers_
>>
>> ></DISCLAIMER>

>> As a curiosity, it is also


>> possible for multiple people to hold a shield without linking, but
>> this is less strong and less precise, producing basically a layered
>> shield.

>We found this out when Rand was captured by the TAS and stuffed into a
>box.

We did? My recollection was that they used a circle of 13 to establish
the shield, dropping to the traditional circle of six to hold it. If
they'd done the independent layered shield Rand would almost certainly
not have felt all six "soft points" to use LTTs terminology. And of
course since each shield would be only one AS in strength he could
have quickly blasted his way through all six. I don't see much
utility in this non-linked shield option - maybe use two Ashaman
on a strong woman (Elaida being the most satisfying potential target)
with the idea that if she could break through one, it would take all
she's got and she'd be too exhausted to break the second.

Btw, I like your Cadsuane/Verin/Callandor loony theory. Have you come
up with a way to put Setalle Anan into it, too?

--
Justin Howell
jhho...@ucolick.org

Paul E. Ward

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Oct 31, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/31/98
to
Justin H. Howell wrote:
> "Paul E. Ward" <nom...@cats.ucsc.edu> writes:
> >Justin H. Howell wrote:
> >> "Drew Gillmore" <kidprob...@hotmail.com> writes:
> >>
> >> ><DISCLAIMER>
> >>
> >> >Further down I discuss some Q&A with the Creator that may inevitably lead to
> >> >Spoilers for _The Path of Daggers_
> >>
> >> ></DISCLAIMER>
>
> >> As a curiosity, it is also
> >> possible for multiple people to hold a shield without linking, but
> >> this is less strong and less precise, producing basically a layered
> >> shield.
>
> >We found this out when Rand was captured by the TAS and stuffed into a
> >box.
>
> We did? My recollection was <snip: his recollection>

Um, that may have been the case, but I believe the whole "layered"
shield thing was discussed.

> Btw, I like your Cadsuane/Verin/Callandor loony theory. Have you come
> up with a way to put Setalle Anan into it, too?

Well, I did come up with a way. Essentially replace Verin with
Setalle Anan, then set Verin on the side taking notes (an event like
this *should* be documented and the brown would be happy to do it) and
not participating in the link. What happens then is that the man
they're working with convinces them to pass control of the circle to
him to see if the flaw in Callandor still causes bad side effects.
They do so, but he then turns on them.

Both of them try to squirm out of the link. Verin embraces the
source. Whether from the male channeler's attack or from trying to
leave the circle, Setalle gets stilled. Then, Verin tries to link
with them. Since Verin is trying to link with her, Cadsuane is able
to move from one circle to another safely. They then shield the male
channeler (Their Warders got Callandor away from him?) who was pretty
weak anyway (you don't think they were that stupid, did you?).

I knew I could work Setalle Anan in somehow.

--
Paul Ward
nom...@cats.ucsc.edu

Noell Milota

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Oct 31, 1998, 3:00:00 AM10/31/98
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On Thu, 29 Oct 1998 15:35:39 -0800, Brian Kantsiper
<brian.l....@aerosmith.lmms.lmco.com> wrote:

<Damn, but that's a long e-mail addy!>

>Drew Gillmore wrote:
>
>> Someone else who was paying more attention could fill in here.
>

>You left out the best part. The jump shot I made on the 2-ball.
>Sheesh.

*chuckle*

He was too drunk to remember half of the people who attended the Social,
and you expect him to remember a shot you made?

Nice to see you posting, Brian!


--
Noell Milota <no...@concentric.net>

"Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize
a mistake when you make it again." - F. P. Jones

Michael Steeves

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Nov 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM11/2/98
to
Displaying a firm grasp of the obvious,

"Drew Gillmore" <kidprob...@hotmail.com> wrote:
} I don't see anyone else doing this, and while it's still fresh in my
} mind...well, here's a report.
}
} Of sorts.

Seeing as how it's been a good week since this damn thing happened,
I'll add what few cents I can scrounge up amidst the pocket lint of my
memory.

} <DISCLAIMER>
}
} Further down I discuss some Q&A with the Creator that may inevitably lead to
} Spoilers for _The Path of Daggers_
}
} </DISCLAIMER>

I'll leave this in there, but I don't recall too much that was
mentioned at the signing by RJ that would be a spoiler for PoD.

} I was drinking most of the time, so my recollection of details may be a
} little fuzzy. My Wheel of Time was definitely wobbling.

Wot 'e said.

{ snip much of prelude }

} We also discussed what questions to ask. Most were discarded as frivolous,
} or obvious RAFO answers. I hadn't thought about it too much, but fortunately
} Chris had, and he had a few that he let me borrow.

Actually, we were trying to come up with something approaching the
"Canonical list of stuff that if we asked Jordan would get us thrown
out" back at my end of the line, and having a blast in doing so. Some
questions we had:

o Rand and Elayne-- Incest or just Wrong Wrong Wrong?
o Aiel Logistics-- Surely you jest?
o Aiel vs. Stormtroopers-- Who would win?
o Aiel vs. Fremen-- Plagiarism or theft of Hebert's ideas?

There may have been more-- I was getting beaten by Hawk after she
heard my first suggestion (Rand and Elayne), which may have affected
my memory.

} Chris used his moment with the Creator to open himself up to a huge RAFO, but
} *his* question was answered. Chris asked if Moghedian had been raped by
} Shaidar Haran. The answer was "Yes, among other things."

Praise be to Jordan, allowing us to close out that question. He also
mentioned that Myrdraal *aren't* sterile, but that they would make a
woman sterile.

I had two questions for him. The first was if we were going to be
moving to more of a "short timespan, lotsa action" format, since the
past couple of books seemed to have fit this format (disclaimer: it's
been a couple of years since I've read _A Crown of Swords_, much less
_Lord of Chaos_, so my sense of book-time may be off slightly), at
which point he replied that he didn't deliberately plan the book to be
in that format, but if he continued the book would be another 600
pages in length.

The second, which I didn't really get a chance to ask, was if Rand is
in LTT's head during the period of the Sealing, which could explain
LTT's mental state fluctuating in and out of some semblance of
sanity.

After the signing, we stood outside of Gamescape, and held a vote. I
motioned for beer, Drew seconded, and after a quick stop in Gamescape
(where I impulse purchased a copy of "Family Business") we were off
to:

} The next thing we did was went to the Thai House to drink. Or at least,
} Darkelf and I drank, with a little bit of sipping done by Eric and Chris.
} However, Darkelf and I got married (Work *that* in, K-J) and consummated the
} marriage with a pitcher of Stout beer (Thanks, oh Dimly Lit Sprite). I
} taunted Noell with the thought that Cal would beat UCLA until with four
} seconds left in the game, I relented and admitted that, in fact, Cal would
} probably not be coming back.

Let us not forget also the most excellent Oktoberfest that they had as
well.

} After that, things *really* get fuzzy. We went to Amber, an Indian
} Restaurant, and had food, and talked. Rick Moen, Rajiv, Phetsy, Paul Ward,
} and "Justin" showed up. Other people showed up, but they were sitting at the
} other table and I don't remember all their names. (Someone else is *really*
} going to have to help me out here...anyone make a total list?) Mansur Ward
} made a cameo.

Ken Kaufman was there as well, along with a couple of others, but like
Drew said, they were at the other table.

} I had Chicken Vindaloo, that was supposed to be spicier than it was,
} according to Chris Mullins, but since I was already full of beer I couldn't
} taste much anyway.

'Twas good Indian food-- the Chicken Tikka Masala was, indeed, made
extra hot and spicy, like I had requested.

After stuffing our faces, when it came time to divvy up the bill Rick
suddenly had the need to "powder his nose", and was thus absent when
we were collecting the cash. Of course, Rick's also a noted Linux
weenie, and since he can't afford a real OS anyways, this is slightly
more excusable in that light.

} Somewhere in there my ex-fiancée showed up(1), and I mentally checked out for
} the evening. I remember going to Brian's apartment complex for the rec room
} there, more beer, lots of pool, then a jaunt to Bill and Hawks for an hour or
} so. At that point I had been up for somewhere near forty hours, and had
} drank sufficiently enough in my sleep depraved condition to make thinking
} straight a tricky situation.

After the pool, it was back to Chez Bill'n'Hawk, at which point I also
tended to zone in and out of things. I think Lawn Order was played,
after we all sang along to a couple of selected tunes from the Doctor
Demento discs that Rick so thoughtfully provided. I think I slept, at
the time.

} I'm not sure how it ended. Badly, one would assume, but you'll have to get
} that part of the story from someone who A) was there, and B) was *there*, if
} you know what I mean.

Yeah. I know what you mean. There are rumors of other depraved
activities, but thankfully I wasn't among the (conscious)
participants....

-darkelf
"He said I'd blown a seal. I said 'Fix the damn
thing and leave my private life out if it, OK,
pal?'"
-_Wet Dream_
--
Mike Steeves (mste...@tiac.net) -- http://www.tiac.net/users/msteeves
"Just another empty gesture with an empty glass.
Just another comic actor behind a tragic mask." -Marillion

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