Thursday At NORWESCON, 2012.

.....Well, it's 10PM and I'm in Evergreen Rooms 3 & 4, the Bardic Rooms for Thursday evening this year. "Kraken-Rohl" is getting ready to play. Amongst their membership? Sir Brand. A man of many talents. So many he doesn't quite know which one he wants to excel at the most. :-)

.....The laptop is plugged into the wall here. I find it amazing as I look about the room that every person in the room has some form of electronic connection. Some are blogging through Facebook. Some are texting. Some are recording with their Smart Phones. Some are checking their e-mails. But every single person in the room has that electronic connection, at least forty or so. It is amazing. Although you can tell that I'm one of the older ones here by the fact that I have this huge monster laptop that I'm typing into, rather than a Smart Phone or iPad. :-)

.....The crowds seem just a little smaller this year. Which seems strange when you consider that the hotel was sold out of the room block last November. It could be that it is only Thursday, and that it'll be as crowded as normal tomorrow. We'll see. But it was rather nice to be able to walk the halls and actually move easily.

.....Hmmm, bagpipes are a bit intense for the Evergreen Rooms. But he does play them well, so that helps. Amplification is not needed! :-)

.....NORWECON tried a new policy this year of opening up the badge lines a couple of hours BEFORE the panels and activities really started. Which makes sense. I'm not sure why no one thought of that before now. But it also meant that things didn't really get started today until around 4PM or so.

.....We mainly relaxed in the room most of the day. TBT worked on costumes. Even completed my SteamPunk hat. Which looks fantastic! I'll be wearing it tomorrow, that's for sure. TBT put up her art display around 2PM. I leant a hand as I could. I think she is going to post pictures at some point. Her panel is right across from the Artist Guest-Of-Honor for this year. I thought it looked good. Great location as it was easy to see from the entry door.

.....I did manage to put up June Faire flyers on all the bulletin boards and racks around site. Although I did notice later that at least one of them was pulled down. I'm hoping it was because someone wanted the information on it. :-) I've got a few extra copies in the room. I'll have to remember to put them up.

.....Attended my first panel at 5PM. It was a talk on the mission to the asteroid of Vesta. There were a few surprises. Primarily as it was found that Vesta was not exactly the cold and dead rock that everyone thought it was. There was a little bit of heat in its core. Various theories on why that was. But no one had definitive answers as yet. The panelists were all PhD's with lots of fascinating knowledge that is generally not read in the CNN newsbites.

.....Was going to go to the Opening Ceremonies, but got caught up in a presentation from the membership committee who wanted WorldCon 2014 to be in London. Hmmm, 2014. We might very well be free to go and do that then. If only it weren't happening at the height of the Tourist Season, in August. Still, London. At a SciFi convention. Hmmmm.....

.....Met up again with TBT to go to the panel on how to be a good panelist. We met up with Melusine there. Tsuruko and Bernie swooped in a little later. There was a lot of information presented. But having watched TBT run her panels over the past couple of years, there wasn't anything presented that TBT didn't already excel in doing. I don't think she learned anything new. Although, maybe a few things that she knew instinctively were spelled out in black-and-white, which may have given her validation of her own expertise.

.....After that panel, I wanted to go to a panel on Time Travel. But the room was packed, so I headed over to the Bardic Rooms a little earlier than I had anticipated. The first group I listened to "Rai Kamishira". Think of your average anime Japanese girl, with pink hair and everything, and you'd have a good image of the lead singer. They sang a fusion of Japanese and Rap. Which sounds strange when written, but didn't sound half bad as the subject was all good con magic stuff. :-)

.....The Dealers Room had the usual for the most part, although I didn't see Katherine. She wasn't looking all that healthy at Ursulmas either. I hope that she is doing O.K.

.....Moving in on Wednesday is still the best! You get in leisurely, and you get the chance to arrange for the room you would rather have than the one you will be 'stuck with' if you move in on Thursday. TBT mentioned that next year we should reserve a small block so that we get everyone together in one location rather than spread across the hotel.

.....Tomorrow looks pretty good on the schedule. Lots of writing and science panels that look interesting. Plus the Movie Previews! Come on Hobbit, we gotta see some Hobbit previews! :-)

.....When the Bardic closes down, I'll check the Dance Hall out and then call it a night. Kraken-Rohl likes their Sea Chanties. I find it interesting to see Sir Brand and Sea Chanties. But they are really working the angle, and it doesn't sound bad.

.....Aaron / Arontius.