*F* Well, more Convention Reminiscing, basically
Leo Breebaart
Everyone's probably already getting fed up by now with all the Discworld
Convention reports and stories floating around on a.f.p. (I haven't logged
on yet as I write this; I just *know* they'll be there :-) ) -- but what
the hey. Just because it took me a bit longer than the others to get back
to my computer shouldn't mean I'm no longer allowed to get the chance to
say in public how wonderful the Convention was, how much I enjoyed it, and
what a terrific job the Committee did in organizing it. Folks, it was
*brilliant*.
***
I won't try to turn this into an hour-by-hour convention report. It would
take me pages and pages to describe it all, and I'd never be able to
properly capture the spirit of the event to my own satisfaction anyway.
Besides, I'm too tired: over the past five days I think I got about twelve
hours of sleep max, and I'll probably be walking around like a zombie for
the rest of the week. (This fades into insignificance when compared to the
Committee members and Terry himself, all of whom should, as far as I can
judge, not even have *survived* the weekend. I think the only reason why
Mark Lowes kept walking all the time was that had he stopped moving for
longer than two minutes he would probably have keeled over and never gotten
up again).
Anyway. For me, Discworld '96 was two conventions, really. There was the
official event, with the talks, the panels, the games, the readings, the
signings, and all the other good stuff the Committee had organised for us.
And then there was, interleaving and harmonizing with that, the unofficial
event, which I think of as "my first a.f.p. meet -- making up for being
geographically challenged".
The official part of the con was something I had definitely been looking
forward to, but I was a bit apprehensive about the a.f.p. aspect. Live
interaction with my fellow human beings is not something I am particularly
good at at the best of times, and meeting such a large group of people,
many of whom already knew each other personally from earlier meets --
well...
Luckily I needn't have worried. Everybody was so friendly, nice, open, and
simply determined to have a good time (and this includes, by the way, all
the non-a.f.p. people I met as well) that I don't think anything short of a
second bomb going off in Manchester could have spoiled the fun. The
atmosphere of collective goodwill and camaradery was quite amazing, really.
The official part of the convention went swimmingly. Of course there was so
much happening that I probably attended not even a third of it all, but
scheduled events generally happened where and when you expected them, and I
thought the programme was very well-balanced (things you could look at vs.
things you could participate in, major events vs. minor events, 'serious'
vs. just plain silly stuff etc. etc.)
The one thing that nearly everyone I've talked to was unhappy about was the
hotel itself, although my own experiences were quite positive: when I
arrived on Friday afternoon the lobby had about five thousand people in it
(or so it seemed), yet within five minutes I was checked in. And on the
other occasions that I asked reception for help they were courteous and
indeed helpful beyond what could have reasonably been expected of them. On
the other hand: yeah, there were quite a few minor irritations, and I
didn't attend the now infamous gala dinner, which I understand was, um,
interesting. In fact it was probably that dinner experience that pushed
many people into an antagonistic frame of mind after which the hotel could
simply do nothing right anymore.
Let's put it in a positive perspective: at least we now have one area where
DiscCon '98 is definitely going to be able to improve upon its predecessor.
And that a second Convention is indeed going to happen is something I not
only fervently hope, but am already quite convinced of, judging by the
enthusiasm with which everybody said all those "see you in two years!"
goodbyes at the end of the weekend.
Well, if I don't stop soon this will become pages and pages long after all.
I'll just end with a few memories and images that I think are going to be
sticking in my mind for quite a while...:
- Colette and Alan's ice-breaking a.f.p.-party on Friday, with everybody
squinting at each other's badges and going "But you look *nothing* like I
expected!".
- Terry's reading from _Hogfather_. From the bits we heard I think it's
going to be another humdinger of a novel. For instance, there's this
absolutely hilarious scene where Death and Albert take over the -- but
no, that would be a spoiler, now would it... Suffice it to say that the
Death of Rats has what must be almost an entire page of SQUEAK! EEEK!
EEEK, SQUEAK! dialogue, and Terry read it it all out loud. It was
wonderful.
- The hotel room with no windows, but a wall-sized mural of New York by night
instead.
- The 'What is a.f.p?' panel session. I believe there were exactly two
people in the entire audience who didn't already know, and who had not
come to heckle us.
- The Unseen University Lecture. BANG! FLASH! BANG!
- Pizza, garlic bread and Belgian chocolates. "My God, we're *all* geeks
here!"
- Taking part in the Unseen University Challenge With Colm and Mike and
Rob. We lost, but honourably. (Phew!)
- The Cannibal Lemmings Theory of Discworld Rotation. "Oh, I just had an
out-of-body experience."
- ppint.'s small colored bottles with transparent liquids. It's a good
thing I knew more or less what to expect and didn't actually drink more
than a few molecules of each.
- Rather prosaic, but nevertheless: buying _Johnny and the Bomb_ and _Feet
of Clay_ and reading them both in one go during the ferry trip home.
Bliss.
- Getting my copy of the Annotated Pratchett File signed by as many
a.f.p.'ers as I could find, up to and including Terry, Stephen Briggs,
and the Alien Podling (never seen such a quiet and happy baby!).
- Chinese food, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tron passwords, one red rose, and
absolutely no afproposals at all, nosirree, not me, never. Uh-uh.
- Terry and his team in the UU Challenge finals wearing our Burger King
hats.
- Ice Cube Neck Massages -- 'nuff said.
- Playing Mornington Crescent and Mallet's Mallet (sp?) until four in the
morning. On the one hand, I think I was the only person at the table (in
the entire bar, in fact) who wasn't drunk. On the other hand, both games
were new to me, and while the rules to Mallet's Mallet are, as everyone
knows, very simple indeed, Mornington Crescent is a bit trickier. :-)
- Bouncy Castles. Amazing how silly people look when bobbing around on
those things. Anybody who says they saw me on one is merely spreading
viciously untrue rumours. I went nowhere near them. Honest.
- And finally, just one word: custard.
I'm going to post this now, and then read all the other articles and find
out how much I've duplicated :-)
--
Leo Breebaart (l...@cp.tn.tudelft.nl)
Hugh Nolan
l...@cp.tn.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart) wrote:
<snip>
>- Playing Mornington Crescent and Mallet's Mallet (sp?) until four in the
> morning.
was passed around. I never did find out who provided them, but many
thanks they were wonderful.
> On the one hand, I think I was the only person at the table (in
> the entire bar, in fact) who wasn't drunk. On the other hand, both games
> were new to me, and while the rules to Mallet's Mallet are, as everyone
> knows, very simple indeed, Mornington Crescent is a bit trickier. :-)
Quote from Alex TEH "I'm losing a word association game to someone who
doesn't speak English as a first language."
Hugh
Alex the Eternally Harassed
On Wed, 03 Jul 1996 16:59:45 GMT, hu...@hughn.demon.co.uk (Hugh Nolan)
wrote:
>Quote from Alex TEH "I'm losing a word association game to someone who
>doesn't speak English as a first language."
I wouldn't have minded, but it was *my*[1] game!
[1] My if you can call it that...
How about a MM cascade:
Sausage
--
Alex (TEH)
And Lo! and Verilly did the almighty Rood fall into the Holy Custard!
Harass me at Al...@dial.pipex.com or Al...@conduit.co.uk
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/alexr/
John Fouhy
In article <31dc180f...@news.dial.pipex.com>,
Alex the Eternally Harassed <Al...@dial.pipex.com> wrote:
> >Quote from Alex TEH "I'm losing a word association game to someone who
> >doesn't speak English as a first language."
> I wouldn't have minded, but it was *my*[1] game!
I don't know what MM stands for, but I'll guess by looking at the
preceeding conversation that it is something to do with word associations..
In that case:
> Sausage
Baldrick
-=)> John <(=-
PAK
In article <31e107a...@news.ftech.net>, Murky B
<ma...@monark.ftech.co.uk> writes
>X-No-Archive: Yes
>It's gonna be hard to say this, but . . . . m .. . Ma. . . Mallets
>Mallet. There seddit quick.
>
>It was a game on a summer kids TV show which, thankfully, I'd
>forgotten about until just now. . . .
Ah What a wonderful show that was, I remember Mallets Mallet well -
"Mallets Mallet, It's a word association game, you mustn't Pause or
hesitate or you get a bash on the head like this <cue bashing FX> or
like this <another FX as he hits the other kid> and the first word
is..."
Happy memories, but was Singing in the shower also on that show or was
it on during the weekend?
Paul
--
{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~}
{ ___ __ _ _ __ Queen - Mother Love }
{ ( ,\ ( ) ( )( )( ) "I've walked too long in this lonely lane, }
{ ) _/ /__\ )()( )(__ I've had enough of this same old game, }
{ (_) (_)(_) \__/ (____) I'm a man of the world, and they say that }
{ I'm strong,}
{ Pa...@ingsoc.demon.co.uk But my heart is heavy, and my hope is gone,}
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hazz 2000
My daft filing system says <hH6hDCAU$m4x...@ingsoc.demon.co.uk> is
actually a piece of coherrent info by PAK <Pa...@ingsoc.demon.co.uk>
><cue bashing FX>
Diddit Bongg Tinggggg!
Ben Chalmers
In article <hH6hDCAU$m4x...@ingsoc.demon.co.uk>
PAK <Pa...@ingsoc.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> In article <31e107a...@news.ftech.net>, Murky B
> <ma...@monark.ftech.co.uk> writes
> >X-No-Archive: Yes
> >It's gonna be hard to say this, but . . . . m .. . Ma. . . Mallets
> >Mallet. There seddit quick.
> >
> >It was a game on a summer kids TV show which, thankfully, I'd
> >forgotten about until just now. . . .
> Ah What a wonderful show that was, I remember Mallets Mallet well -
>
> "Mallets Mallet, It's a word association game, you mustn't Pause or
> hesitate or you get a bash on the head like this <cue bashing FX> or
> like this <another FX as he hits the other kid> and the first word
> is..."
>
> Happy memories, but was Singing in the shower also on that show or was
> it on during the weekend?
Neither, singing in the shower was on Sunday WAC, whereas MM was on Wacaday.
Singing in the shower later was reborn as Bopping in the Bathroom, which I
believe made it to the heady hights of Saturday WAC (which by this time was
probably the travesty known as WAC90)
Naturally, as ever, I should state my one and only claim to fame is that I
sang in the shower with the Bangles - and won!
--
Name :Ben Chalmers. The Anti-Hedgehog(tm) Taking hedgehogs away
Email:b...@bench.demon.co.uk from the common folk
csap PROTO-FAQ: csa...@bench.demon.co.uk since 1996