Friday Night At NORWECON, 2012.

.....It's Friday night, and as usual about this time I'm listening to music in the Evergreen Rooms. :-) I was going to attend a panel on Habitable Planets, but the music sounded good as I walked on by and it drew me into the room. :-) So I plugged the laptop into the wall, on the correct side of the room this evening :-), and am catching up with NORWESCON reporting. :-)

.....I actually slept in a little this morning, so was running a little late when we went for our morning coffee run. The Faux Starbucks bar at the Hotel actually mixes a pretty good coffee. So I'm finding that I'm not missing our local Barista's as much as I have in previous years.

.....First panel this morning was a discussion on the Shuttles and whether they were a success or not since they are now retired. Lots of good discussion from a largely polite, and very geeky crowd. The comparisons between what it was estimated to cost to staff and run each mission and what it actually cost was as amazing as always. Did they actually deliver anything to us as far as scientific advances go? Not really. People seemed a lot more genuinely excited about the currently ongoing private space enterprises. And the science behind the shuttle disasters was interesting as well. It's amazing how much of what we read of the Shuttle disasters on the Internet is myth.

.....The day seemed really headed in a space direction as the next panel was a slide show presented by the Science Guest of Honor, Bridget Landry, from the JPL, on the Cassini Mission, one of the missions on which she is a Team Member. Lots of great pictures of Saturn, lots of its moons (Titan and Enceladus (sp?) especially), and the rings. Amazing to think especially that the Huygens - Cassini probe was based on technology that is over twenty years old at this point. Ancient in terms of electronics.

.....Quick run back to the room for lunch and to help TBT get set up for her panel. She and I ran to the Movie Previews. Which was not the best we've been to. Lots of talk, most of which we already knew, and less actual previews. A couple of interesting tidbits. Looks like that freakin' Peter Jackson can't leave things alone and is re-writing Tolkien even more than anticipated! Grrrrr!!!!!! We learned that the Necromancer is supposed to make an appearance at the Battle of the Five Armies. Grrrr!!!!!! I would have been fine with a battle between the White Council and the Necromancer at Dol Guldur. But why re-write Tolkien and bring the Necromancer to the Lonely Mountain! It does not make sense and is frankly unneeded! Damn Peter Jackson!

.....Looks like The Dragon Riders of Pern is finally starting to gain a little momentum. Nothing official of course, but things are looking promising. What was more interesting to me was the news that Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover may get a look. There have apparently been comparisons made between her set up of the political scene on Darkover and 'A Game of Thrones'. Which I could see. Throw in a little psionics and you've got something pretty cool! :-)

.....I ran TBT's books to her panel of 'Threads of Time' which was rather well attended. Esclarmonde and Elizabeth Phipps (sp?) were panel-mates. Lots of costume geeking. I'm not a costumer, so I mainly people-watched. :-) After which I went back to the room to take a break.

.....Delivered more books to TBT when she went to her panel of 'Cultural Costumes'. I went to another panel just down the hall on 'Exploring Other Cultures' which asked good anthropological questions. Lots of good food for thought, especially when someone who had migrated down from TBT's panel and questioned the fact that an entire panel on 'Cultural Costumes' appeared to be Caucasian people. It was stated as an accusation, and was neatly turned around by one of the panelists who asked if she had thought to ask the panelists background. Which, if she had, she would have found out that the panel members had the cultural background to speak to what they did. :-)

.....After that we drug the Rhys Monster away from the room for some dinner, which ended up being at Subway. Which wasn't bad. We've managed to NOT eat at all in the hotel restaurants this year. :-) Which is definitely helping the pocket-book. We spend about half as much by not eating 'out' at the Coffee Garden or Seaports. :-)

.....We toured the Art Show after dinner and let the Rhys Monster go back to the haven of the room. TBT wanted to relax for a while and so I went out for another panel or two. I'm listening to some Geek Rock now. In about ten minutes 'A Little Knight Music' will take up the stage. Which is a lot closer to SCA Bardic. I will migrate back to the room at 10PM as I think that we're planning on meeting Tsuruko and Bernie for drinks. We owe him for skipping out on his birthday last weekend.

.....Rocky Horror appear tonight. I might show up for the opening, but I'm already feeling a little sleepy so am not sure. Tomorrow looks to be a full day. More space, but also more writing panels. I think I need to hunt down Alys as well. She was in the hotel on Wednesday and I've somehow missed her so far. I may have to text her, or Facebook Instant Contact, and make an appointment to see her. :-)

.....Kept running into Althaia all day. She is definitely a space geek, as she has attended every space panel of the day. I also saw Bjorn Kolbjornsson today as well, in passing at the Movie Previews. I never even had the chance to say 'Hi' to him. I wonder if he is staying at the hotel?

.....Definitely a different vibe to NORWESCON this year. Less intense crowds. I'm not sure if the economy is finally starting to affect the Con or not. I'd say not based on the hotel having sold out last November. But it'd be interesting to survey the membership. Little to no Star Trek this year. Only a minimum of Star Wars. Still a goodly amount of Steampunk though. It has not yet run its course completely. I think the Victorian elegance is the draw. It'll be interesting to see what the next big thing is.

.....Aaron / Arontius.