Nik's Saga

Sometimes the strangest things hold mirrors up to reality.

You really know that you've been stressed at work when a colleague looks surprised and a bit worried when you greet him cheerfully when he knocks on your office door. OK, so I have an excuse to be a bit less stressed - classes have ended, I've finished marking the reports submitted by my students on their final year projects (and damned good some of them have been), and I'm in the lull before the exam scripts arrive. I've handed the learning outcomes and the rest of the Bologna-related bumf up to the powers that be, and I've even managed to work out the intended learning outcomes, assessment methods and lecturing schedule for the completely-overhauled practical computing module. I can now start writing the lectures and, all being well, have them done before the end of June.

I'm hoping to go through tomorrow being relaxed and cheerful too, mainly because it is a bank holiday and I don't have to go in to work. And tonight is Walpurgis, so I think that I shall celebrate with a glass or two of wine. It's certainly spring-like here at present - we have sun, heat and long days... although there's snow forecast again for Friday, I'm told. Don't you just love a little randomness in life?
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It has been Sunday.

Not only that but it's also been ludicrously hot - the hottest April day in Akureyri on record at 21°C. It was quite windy with it, which was annoying as I have three small windows that can be opened plus the door onto the balcony. Unfortunately, if there's any wind then the door moves about, banging into the wall or the frame and creating very annoying dancing reflections all over the interior walls. Hmm... perhaps if I get a solid door hook then I can attach it to the door and to the balcony fence to hold it in place. I could really do with, say, three different length hooks to allow for different heat conditions... no, a single one will do to start with. Perhaps I'll pop up to Byko tomorrow and see if I can get one there.

The general Sundayness has meant that I've done some reading, some embroidery, and watched a bit of television. Not a lot really.

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We're now less than a month before Revel and there's still a huge amount of dressmaking to do.

Martha came over today and we started making her gown. It's based on one the Mediaeval Miscellany patterns (it's a 1530 Tudor gown), which means that it has to be altered to make it work properly as well as fitted. We've got it all cut out and Martha has instructions on how to make it up. My next problem is to make the patterns for the matching male garb for her husband Svenni. That'll be tomorrow and Monday evening, I suspect. I'm almost certainly going to have to get more brown paper to make patterns for everyone else... better do that on Monday.

I'm torn between trying to put the sleeves on my kirtle and add the necessary trimmings to make it look more shiny, or leaving everything as it is and letting everyone else shine in their nice new gowns while I just wear something plain and get things done on the day. The latter has a certain appeal, particularly given my aversion to cameras. In the meantime, given that my nice new beads arrived yesterday I've been making up more jewellery - mainly to go with the Tudor gowns that are being made over the next month. Revel may only be a small event, but it should be visually quite impressive.
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Good old reliable Toyota.

It was a little late (although still within the legal lee-way) but today I went to have my MOT-equivalent. I pootled along to the testing station at 08:20, gave them my registration number (enn-ell fimm-eit-tveir) and was handed a ticket bearing the legend "004 litla braut". OK. So far so good until that point. The big sign outside said Nr 002 Dyr 2, which made relatively little sense. There are, however, two testing sheds, a big one for larger cars and trucks, and a smaller one for more normal cars. Looking at the queue of four SUVs lining up in front of the larger shed and the one smaller car outside the little one (together with the memory that I've always used the little one before)... and the fact that it said "little line/route" on the ticket I put myself in the shorter line and was in the shed sitting at the side reading Analog while the car itself was tested a mere ten minutes later.

And it passed! I've heard tales of the reliability of Toyotas before, and I'm now inclined to believe them from personal experience. I think I've once had a car pass an MOT straight off and it was a younger car than the Carina is now. I'm quite impressed. I'd gone in expecting to get the sticker that allowed me six weeks to get whatever was wrong fixed before I had to take the car back for a retest, but this is me cleared until next February.

When I got back home this evening my neighbour Jóhann congratulated me on a successful test (I'd earlier asked him what time the test centre opened) - he also has, as he put it, a good old reliable Toyota and has had one for years. I could certainly be tempted to stay with the company in future after this.
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Today I was given a terribly artistic floral arrangement.

I imagine that it has a name but, horticultural ignoramus that I am, as far as I'm concerned it's a Big Red Flower. It's definitely one of these Scandinavian chic things, and I think I'm going to keep it in my office to brighten up the place.

The flowers were symbolically presented to the successful applicants in this year's KEA research funding round (there's a news item on the KEA website but it's all in Icelandic). My colleague Kamilla and I were awarded 350,000 krona to do research into the effect on driving reactions of speaking on a mobile phone using a hands-free set. We don't actually have a driving simulator but we have instead an experimental protocol that has been shown to mimic driving reactions very well. Naturally this presentation also included the photoshoot but I'm only in the indoor shots as I had no idea they were going to do a further photograph outside and had to dash home to get my camera in time for the next presentation of the day.

Which was the presentation of two scholarships to first-years students in my faculty, one of them being Ingólfur in my department, by the CEO of Hugvit, one of the larger Icelandic software companies (Hugvit also have a news item on their website, again in Icelandic). I took a variety of photos for the departmental records - I'm planning to use one of them in next year's departmental handbook.
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I was going to write about a pleasurable little surprise, then I started watching Dr Who.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and a bit of software that allows me to convert mpgs to proper DVD format, I sat down this evening to start watching the new series. I've decided that I like Martha far more than I've liked any companion since the first Romana - she's intelligent but still has a sense of wonder that I find quite attractive. So there I was, happily watching the episode and then the Doctor admitted that he didn't have a brother anymore... the sad geek in me immediately thought The Master! The Master! and that line in Planet of Fire - "Doctor, could you do this to your own..." How sad am I?

My pleasurable little surprise was awaiting my return home after a long day of meetings, sitting there in my mailbox ready to make me go "squee!" very, very quietly. It was my first issue of Analog - Science Fiction and Fact. This is a thin, book-sized magazine printed on newsprint with a firmer cover that contains a selection of new SF short stories and science fact articles. I think it's going to sit in my handbag for a while so that I can steal clandestine reading moments at work from time to time. Squee indeed.
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The plans for Revel are coming along well.

We've got the main items in place, we know who's responsible for what, and we've even got the English language publicity material ready to translate into Icelandic (my job over the last couple of days). The website, which has moved server, is now offering a basic service with working contact details. I'll update it over the next few days to make it a bit more visually interesting and add the photo albums from previous events, but at least it's there. Once we get the Icelandic version of the info then I can set it up as a bilingual website, which would be a good thing. My main remaining tasks are to finish the garb workshops, to source/make event tokens, arrange the A&S competition, sort out a banner-making session and another couple making boards and components for games. Now if only we could get the official announcement that we're an active group again before the event, everyone would be delighted.

For now, though, I'm tired and going to bed. I have what promises to be a long day full of meetings ahead of me tomorrow.
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As well as St. George's Day (hurrah!) it's also International Pixel-Stained Techno-Peasant day. A day for giving away creative work online. Okay, so my published stuff is academic or poetry but instead here's a short story I wrote for an SCA event. I'd describe it as a shaggy herald story...

Let me tell you, gentle reader, a tale of mystery and magic, of monsters and of men, of a sword and of a shield.

It was some years ago now, when I was herald to Sir Matthew, whose honour and duty had caused him to journey far from his birthlands in the west and to build his hall in the northern isles, here to pit himself against the many foul creatures that plagued these lands. Sir Matthew was a good knight, and a bold knight, and he had won much honour and fame with his liege-lord for ridding his birthlands of the Lion-demon of Yrran, the Fire-beast of Malradis and the Shadow-lord of Kelmana, so much that the king was pleased to call Sir Matthew as much a friend as a liegeman.

And so it was on the night before Sir Matthew took ship for the north that the king called Sir Matthew to him and showered him with gifts; a great black warhorse with which to chase his enemies; a great serpent-steel blade with which to strike his enemies; and a great glittering shield with which to protect himself from his enemies. For, said the monarch, Sir Matthew's shield was sadly bent and its colours sadly worn by years of battle, and was unfit for such a noble knight to bear on such a great quest. At this Sir Matthew was saddened, for his shield had been his companion through many an adventure, but he would not speak against his king's wishes and, smiling and proffering many thanks, mounted his new horse, thrust his new sword into its scabbard, slung his new shield across his shoulders and urged his mount forwards onto the north-bound ship.

It was with great rejoicing that the people of the northern isle lined the quayside as Sir Matthew's ship arrived. For many years they had been plagued by trolls from the mountains, by gryphons from the plains, and by kraken from the seas, but now at last had come a hero to deliver them from these monstrous beasts. And so Sir Matthew and his lady built a great hall wherein they feasted and gave alms to the poor of the land while he waited for news of the fell creatures that were his quarry.

Soon after Yule word came from the mountains that the trolls were on the march, attacking villages in search of children to eat. Sir Matthew immediately donned armour, mounted his warhorse and rode off in search of battle. He was not afraid, for many times before had he faced trolls; many times before had they charged out of the mountain caves at him and many times before had he beheaded them with a single blow. For many days he rode, but in each village he visited he heard the same tale: the trolls had already moved on. Great were his strategies, many were the nights that he sat, poring over maps to try to divine where the trolls would strike next, that he might be there first and destroy them, but each time he rode forth to meet them the trolls had already departed. In time, Sir Matthew grew wroth and shook his fist at the heavens, cursing the trolls and the fate that had brought him to the northern isle.

It was at this moment that he saw a figure amidst the rocks. Tall she was, and fair, with hair the colour of straw that cascaded down to the waist of her silk shift. She spoke not a word, even when Sir Matthew gallantly hailed her, but raised her arm and pointed at his shield that shone in the sunlight, shaking her head sadly before disappearing behind an outcrop of rock. The bold knight searched for many hours but found no trace of the pale maiden and, sadly, mounted his charger once more to return defeated to his hall.

For many days he sat disconsolate; soon it would be time to send messengers back to the king with tales of his success against the trolls... except that there was no success and Sir Matthew grew both sad and angry by turn. He swore a great oath that he would defeat the beasts of the isle if it took the rest of his days to do so or he would die in the attempt. His mood was only lightened when a tale came in from the coast that the fishing boats of the isle were is great danger and could no longer put to sea, so fearsome were the krakens that terrorised the waters.

Boldly Sir Matthew rode out, sword and shield in hand, the hooves of his charger splashing through the shallow waves as he challenged the kraken to come and meet him on the shores. He was not afraid, for many times before had he faced kraken; many times before had they thrown themselves out of the water at him and many times before had he beheaded them with a single blow. For many days he rode, but at each beach he visited he heard the same tale: the kraken had already moved on. Great were his strategies, many were the nights that he sat, poring over maps to try to divine where the kraken would strike next, that he might be there first and destroy them, but each time he rode forth to meet them the kraken had already departed. In time, Sir Matthew grew wroth and shook his fist at the heavens, cursing the kraken and the fate that had brought him to the northern isle.

It was at this moment that he saw a figure rise from the waters. Tall she was, and fair, with hair the colour of straw that cascaded down to the waist of her silk shift. She spoke not a word, even when Sir Matthew gallantly hailed her, but raised her arm and pointed at his shield that shone in the sunlight, shaking her head sadly before disappearing into a rockpool. The bold knight searched for many hours but found no trace of the pale maiden and, sadly, mounted his charger once more to return defeated to his hall.

Now did Sir Matthew take to his cups, for he believed that his skill had deserted him and his future could only be filled with dishonour and disgrace. Soon it would be time to send letters back to the king, and Sir Matthew could not bear to write of his failures. It was only when word came from the great plains that the gryphons of the plains were once more preying on the people's cattle.

Sir Matthew took up his sword and shield once more and mounted once more his charger. The hooves of his charger threw up clouds of dirt as he galloped across the plains to face the winged hunters. He was not afraid, for many times before had he faced gryphons; many times before had they swooped down out of the sky at him and many times before had he beheaded them with a single blow. For many days he rode, but at each pasture he visited he heard the same tale: the gryphons had already moved on. Great were his strategies, many were the nights that he sat, poring over maps to try to divine where the gryphons would strike next, that he might be there first and destroy them, but each time he rode forth to meet them the gryphons had already departed. In time, Sir Matthew grew wroth and shook his fist at the heavens, cursing the gryphons and the fate that had brought him to the northern isle.

It was at this moment that he saw a figure step out from amidst the high grasses. Tall she was, and fair, with hair the colour of straw that cascaded down to the waist of her silk shift. This time Sir Matthew was ready for her and, spurring on his steed, galloped to her side and swept her up into the saddle behind him, determined to speak with her. Why was it, he asked, that in the lands of his birth foul creatures threw themselves at him that he might slay them and rid the world of their vileness? Why was it, he asked, that in this land, more full of monsters than ever had been, could he who was the most acclaimed hunter in all of the kingdom track not even a single beast? And why was it, he asked, that she kept pointing at his beautiful bright shield in such a way? She protested not his questioning and answered all that he would ask of her.

At this Sir Matthew smiled as he released her, then kissed her hand before she walked back into the long grass and disappeared. This time he rode back to his hall in high spirits even though he had slain naught and the time had come to send letters back to the king.

This was when he called me to his side and handed to me the letters he had written, one of which contained the tale I tell you now. And once he had put them in my hand he gave me a personal message for the king, one which I was to deliver to his majesty's own ear and not other. "Tell him," Sir Matthew said, "Tell him to send me my damned shield."
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I'm not impressed with Vista.

No, I haven't gone out and bought a copy, rather it's that Jóhann and Gina next door have bought a new computer which came with it pre-installed and I've been helping them set it up. I'm really glad to be able to help them out as they're very nice people and look after my snail mail for me when I'm away gallivanting about Europe.

This has meant that I've gone through the process of setting it up from connecting all of the bits together and turning it on for the first time, creating users and setting up internet, email and so on. Frankly, I'm less than impressed. The interface is full of pretty graphics that make no sense whatsoever and no doubt use up processor time and memory just to look impressive. Yes, I know that Vista has been 'inspired' by MacOS X, but I tend to turn off most of the 'pretty' things in MacOS too and prefer to work with a fairly clear desktop and a menu with my commonly-used items rather than having icons all over the place. Especially active icons that dance about whenever you happen to mouse over them. It's all part of being a professional computer user - I have my customised desktop setup that allows me to work efficiently.

The problem I found with Vista is that there are too many controls that aren't obvious - such as how it handles changing from one user to another. There's a small triangle that suggests another menu sitting at the bottom of the main menu next to the off button. There was no suggestion whatsoever that this was where the change user control was to be found. With basic interface problems like that it doesn't surprise me that Dell's had to backtrack on phasing out XP. Having now tried it out I certainly have no intention of 'upgrading' to Vista.

Tonight I also had dinner next door - the temperature has hit 10°C so it's definitely barbecue weather. J&G have a gas grill on the balcony and, in true Icelandic fashion, as soon as the snow's gone the barbecue comes out. We had a great meal and a good chat - it's so nice to have good neighbours.

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By Eck! Turner Classic Movies has a cracking line-up this weekend!

It's Sci-Fi weekend and I'm very glad I'm not actually planning to do anything else, as I'm now intending to do lots of

things that involve at least being in earshot of the television. For my viewing pleasure over the next couple of days I have

The Time Machine
Ice Pirates
Soylent Green
Logan's Run
Forbidden Planet
The Power
Brainstorm
2001: A Space Odyssey
2010
Village of the Damned
Westworld
Demonseed

OK, so I'm not going to watch all of them (for instance I watched Westworld on TCM the other week) but I suspect

that I'll get through at least half, sad sci-fi looney that I am. At least I sould be able to get through a fair bit of embroidery while I'm at it, so I won't feel too guilty about it. :)
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Sometimes the packaging is as good as the contents.

Today at work I had a visitor from the University of Skövde in Sweden. We discussed a number of academic things, including setting up an Erasmus partnership that would allow for staff and students to go on exchange visits between the two universities. I'm all for this - and not just for the chance to go and visit interesting new places. Skö:vde does a lot of teaching in English so exchanges are quite simple.

I was rather surprised that my visitor gave me a small gift - a University of Skövde cheese slice. I like these Scandinavian cheese slicers, as they're quite possibly the best way of cutting cheese for melting (much less mess than a cheesegrater). What particularly impressed me though was the bag in which the cheese slice was packaged: it's a beautiful raw linen drawstring bag that will be perfect to hold a waterbottle for SCA events (I know - I tested it with a Volvic bottle I happened to have in the office). Not only that, but it's a regular evenweave linen that is almost crying out to be embroidered with something.

Tonight we had a planning meeting for Revel. Most of the tasks are now assigned to people, and I've got a number of things to do before the A&S meeting on Tuesday. Including working out what we're going to do at Tuesday's meeting. Ah well, no rest for the wicked.
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Today's holiday was a good excuse to relax, do some embroidery preparation, and catch up on a couple of the DVDs I picked up in the UK.

One of these was Primeval. It looks interesting enough - sort of a cross between Stargate and Torchwood, in some ways. I know, this is all old hat to all of my friends in the UK but things take a while to reach me, remember. :) Although I'm not entirely sure that you'd have had five or six volcanoes erupting at once even then, my knowledge of paleobiology is sufficiently indistinct to make me blind to anything but the most major of errors. I think I'm going to enjoy this series.

As for embroidery preparation, I edged and mounted upon a frame a rather nice piece of 32-count linen ready to stitch a rather nice blackwork design that Mum found in a magazine somewhere. It's supposed to be a wedding anniversary design but, as usual, I'm adapting it into something else. For some reason several of my friends seem to have decided to get married or have other significant events this year so I foresee a lot of embroidery on the horizon. I might even start it while I watch House later this evening.

In spire of yesterday's snow today has been quite bright and sunny, sufficiently so that I could almost believe that summer is on its way. I was rather surprised this morning to hear the sound of a corps of drums coming from the carpark beside the shopping centre next door. A quick trip out to the verandah allowed me to watch a very strange procession of teenagers (who might have been the Icelandic equivalent of Scouts or something similar) all carrying Icelandic flags and marching up towards the church. They were followed by a group of differently-uniformed kids without flags, then a selection of assorted parents with small children.

Very strange - I shall file it with the other features of expatriate life that have surprised me.
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Two inches of it, to be precise.

Last Sunday evening I was watching Sky News while they were talking about the harsh weather that was making its way up the east coast of North America. Hmm, I thought, that'll be here by midweek then. It normally takes a couple of days for a hurricane or other weather system to come up across Greenland and then down again to hit us. And, sure enough, when I got up this morning I knew that it had snowed even before I opened the blind - there's a certain quality to the light bouncing off snow that is quite distinctive. When I got out to the car I had to brush two inches of the white stuff off the roof and bonnet before I could drive into work for my final computer architecture session.

These weather patterns are quite normal at this time of year. Tomorrow is a bank holiday - Summardagurinn fyrsti, the first day of summer - which is traditionally marked by using the day off work to go skiing. This will be my third summarfyrsti and it looks like this one will be just as white as the last two.

After some less-than-thrilling meetings today I went up to the hospital to visit Ásgeir, whose appendix decided to rupture on Monday, causing him to be rushed into hospital for surgery. Thankfully he's doing well and is bright and cheerful, although this does mean that we're going to have to a bit of organisational reorganisation for Revel as he's not going to be up to anything to strenuous for a couple of months (he doesn't believe this, but I know from personal experience that it'll take a while to heal fully). I did have a rather shaky moment in the hospital as at this time last year I was spending about six hours a day sitting beside Mum's hospital bed but thankfully I managed to keep everything under control.

They're quite civilised in the hospital - he's got his laptop computer for watching DVDs and his mobile phone for staying in touch with people. Admittedly, I know that anything really complex or serious is referred down to Reykjavík but all the same, the relaxed attitude up here is quite refreshing compared to the Royal in Liverpool.
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Tonight was Klakavirki A&S night.

It's now six weeks until our Revel In The Midnight Sun and we've decided to have weekly A&S meeting until that point so that we can be sure that we get everything done. I've also just signed away every Saturday until then to finish making garb - I did try to run a garb workshop for seven last Saturday but my flat isn't big enough and the average amount of dressmaking experience is sufficiently low that I don't have enough time to help everyone effectively. We did complete the chemises but I really don't think that it would be effective to try to do gowns under these conditions so we're splitting people into pairs and I'll concentrate on completing the garb for that pair in one day. It also means that people only have to give up one two Saturdays (one for garb-making and the one immediately before the event for last-minute organisation) rather than all of their Saturdays. I can do it because there's only me, but other folks have families and social lives. :)

As usual, we had a pot luck meal. I did my normal cake of some sort, while Martha and Arnfriður made Flampoyntes from a recipe at www.godecookery.com. They were very surprised at the amount of sugar and cheese that goes into it, and next time we'll use a bit less sugar and a lot less spice. As well as the cookery we also did a lot of work on people's heraldic devices. I doubt that many of them will end up being registered but I've done a basic conflict check and they seem reasonably clear. A couple of the devices are really quite imaginative and inspired - I particularly like the seahorse on a semy of tongues of flame (but I'm beginning to develop quite a liking for semy designs). The plan is to paint them on fabric to hang about the feast-tent, but that's another A&S meeting.
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It's only a week since Eastercon finished and yet it feels like forever.

I realised this as I sat in the office today and wrote a fully-commented (i.e. every line of code commented plus extras for program sections) piece of assembly code as part of the solutions to a homework for my computer architecture students. And no, it wasn't just because I was writing assembler. Although I suppose it might have been the second mug of coffee that did it... :)

After work I paid a quick visit to the craft shop for the final components for yesterday's project - a Tudor-style (or maybe I should call it Tudor-inspired) necklace. This one's a gift for someone, but it did occur to me that I might make some more and try to sell them. The linked chain design is certainly period, as is the general style of having a large pendant with drop pearls, but the looped design around the edge is my solution to the problem of how to mount the large stone without needing to do a lot of cutting and soldering. The chain itself is left in two lines so that it the ends can be pinned into the edges of a gown front. I think it passes the 'six feet test', and I might try a variation where I cover the looped setting with pearls to get a richer look.




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In particular Henry VIII.

One of my recent acquisitions has been the Six Wives of Henry VIII with Keith Mitchell as the eponymous king. The BBC miniseries first broadcast in 1970 was, and still is, one of the most lavish television productions ever made and consists of six ninety-minute plays each focussing on a different wife. The cast is quite spectacular, with anyone who was anyone in British television at the time turning up within it (I particularly like Patrick Troughton as the Duke of Norfolk).

As well as the three disks containing the six plays it comes with a fourth disk of related material; the 2003 television version of The Other Boleyn Girl (not the film version - that's not due out until the end of the year), an episode of Days That Shook The World focussing on the execution of Anne Boleyn, and finally a true gem of a programme: the Henry VIII episode of Six Faces of Royalty. The episode is only half an hour and dates from 1973. It is part of a series in which Dr Sir Roy Strong, the then-director of the National Portrait Gallery, discusses the character of six monarchs based upon their portraits. It contained many beautiful images that I wanted to grab as screenshots for later perusal including some from the Royal Collection that aren't seen often.

The only... problem... is Roy Strong himself. He looks like a porn star giving an Open University lecture. The hair, frightening moustache and sideburns, big glasses and suit were so seventies it was almost frightening. His moustache alone should be preserved for the nation. Nonetheless I think it's a series that I'd buy if the BBC brought it out on DVD.
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Recently I added the feed for Givawayoftheday to my reader, and it has quickly paid off.

It's is a source of free software, giving away a complete application everyday. Ever since the con I've been trying to download the latest version of Finale Notepad so that I can tune my lute properly - you write the music, it plays it so you can write a sequence of the appropriate notes for tuning, set it off playing and start tuning. For some reason (possibly Síminn, possibly Iceland as I couldn't download it from work either) the Finale website recognised my username and password but couldn't return the appropriate information to me. This was extremely frustrating.

In steps Givawayoftheday, coming to the rescue with today's freebie - a musical composition and notation package called MagicScore. It does the same job as Finale Notepad but has a better interface and more functionality (because you normally have to pay for it). Hurrah! Now, do I have time to tune my lute as well as everything else I have to do before folks arrive for the rescheduled stitch'n'bitch this afternoon? I suspect not. Tomorrow, then.
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They can do hand transplants now, can't they?

Can I volunteer, please? I felt my hands beginning to scrunch up on Saturday and it's got gradually worse over the last couple of days. It's clearly not the change in temperature, as that wasn't an issue last week (even it we did land at Keflavík in a snowstorm) given that it was so bright and sunny over the weekend. I have a nasty suspicion that they're going to start flaring up from time to time and I hope that those times stay at least weeks apart, as it's frustrating not to be able to do the needlework thing. And I won't go into the issue of not being able to tune the lute yet... hurrah for painkillers.

I just wish that they didn't feel like balloons at the same time. *Sigh*
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That Was The Weekend That Was.

It's been a few years since I've been to an Eastercon - recently due to being here in Iceland and, prior to that, being distracted by depression and the somewhat-less-expensive SCA. To tell the truth, I hadn't signed up for Convoy at the point that it was cancelled, so when the word went out that Contemplation was taking over at short notice I thought that, on principle, an Easter without an Eastercon would be a Very Bad Thing Indeed and signed up immediately. At this point I began to get quite excited about the whole thing - two conventions in the space of a couple of months after being away for so long... yes, that was definitely something to be anticipated with pleasure.

Thursday confused me. For some reason I'd managed to persuade myself that the opening ceremony was on Thursday afternoon, not Friday; I've no idea why, but it meant that I could have a relaxed meal and catch up with some old friends that evening, as well as a change to have a good wander around Chester on Friday morning. The Crowne Plaza turned out to be an excellent con hotel for many reasons, including the city of Chester itself. Unlike many cities, the city centre is almost entirely small shops, a situation due entirely to its mediaeval layout and architecture. This means that there are a lot more interesting shops close to the hotel, including the market which would be ideal for a con with a masquerade as it has several fabric stalls. Once the convention started I didn't really have much chance to go back into the city between the items I was on, the items I was interested in, and the periods I spent in Ops or on the Orbital or Redemption desks.

A little frustrating that may have been - particularly as I didn't get to the Japanese shop, although Chester's close enough to Liverpool that I'll pop back when I'm over in July - but it's a price I'm willing to pay for a good programme. Contemplation's programme certainly held its own there; there were more items that I wanted to attend at Contemplation than at Intersection in 2005, so I take my hat off to Fran for creating it. Alright, so there was no masquerade with its associated chaos costuming, but they kept the spirit of the event with the paper doll masquerade. I must admit that I tend to volunteer to do an Ops shift during the masquerade as I'm not such a big fan of it but this was, I think, an inspired alternative.

One of the things that I particularly love about conventions is that they're about science as well as fiction. There was certainly enough of this to keep me happy, this year with the theme of climate change. To me, talks are relatively easy to do - they're just lectures - but panels are far more subtle and interesting. As a panellist you can't control where the discussion is going to go and you have be be quick-witted enough to keep up with the course of the debate. I feel that it's a great honour to be invited to be on an Eastercon panel, as it means that your peers in fandom recognise your knowledge in an area, and in some ways this is more rewarding than recognition out in the real world. I did enjoy the George Hay lecture even though the material was familiar to me - although I think it would have been fun to do the gorilla attention experiment with fans as it's just the sort of surreal thing that would appeal and would have illustrated a lot of points quite nicely.

Of course, Contemplation also had its fair share of silly stuff. As a gamer I've always been a fan of things like the mixer games and the Teledu challenge, and it's always heartening to be in the company of a large number of Mornington Crescent players. I just wish I'd had some time to do some real gaming - when I first looked into the gaming room I could quite happily have run off with about a third of the games sitting on the table and yet I didn't get a chance to play any of them. But that's a sign of a good convention, when you come away wanting more, much more. And the Convention committee can certainly pour themselves large congratulatory glasses of malibu for pulling it all together in such a short time.
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It's all over and I'm sitting at Manchester Airport once more.

Today was, understandably, a light day. We'd already cancelled the SCA demo as Gonz and Leda (with most of the kit) couldn't make it. Still, this meant that Andrew and I had plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast and then to pack up and ship everything down to our respective cars before the 11am session on Human Factors in Space Travel. Or so we thought. As it was we ended up having a late breakfast talking to Eddie and Malcolm and had enough time for a quick wander around the dealers' room before my 12:00 ops shift.

We did, eventually, make it to the Healthier Fans panel. Fans are, on average, a bit bigger than the rest of the population - partly because all of that sporty stuff eats into your reading time and partly because we know that we're misfits and so we welcome other misfits quite happily. There are also quite a few folks with various illnesses and disabilities who similarly spend quite a lot of time in books. This means that we tend to have more special requests of hotels (food allergies, mobility problems and so on) and, as the age of the average convention-going fan increases this is going to become even more evident. Fortunately fandom is a very supportive environment and is quite open to the idea of having an early morning low-impact aerobics class on the programme... although a lot of people are likely to still be in bed after a late night in the con bar. :) I mentioned one of the best con presentations that I've ever attended - at Follycon in '88 - in which a fan who just happened to be a qualified GP explained precisely what happened to your body during a convention: the combined impact of irregular fatty meals, plenty of alcohol and lack of sleep. Hopefully Orbital '08 will be arranging something similar for next Easter. It would be interesting to see how thoughts have changed over 20 years.

20 years... it's just struck me that I've been going to conventions for over 20 years. Eek!

The only thing left after that was the closing ceremony and the post-morte...er, the suggestions for future Eastercons. Actually Andrew and I escaped the latter, preferring instead to grab a very late lunch in the bar and spend my hard-earned (!) groats. (For non-convention-goers, a groat or Gopher Repayment Token is a chit you get for going an hour's worth of work for the convention; they are redeemable at the bar or restaurant at an exchange rate of £1 per groat.) Neither of us wanted to leave, but Andrew had the drive back to St. Andrews ahead of him - nominally six hours - and I had to drive up to the airport in time to check in.

The traffic was, predictably, horrendous on the motorway and took me twice as long as expected to get here. I dread to think how Andrew's doing on the M6. In spite of this I got here and, in a major breakthrough in customer service, the shops were open until 20:00, which allowed me to get the Palm cable I've been looking for.

When I get back from work tomorrow I'll write my overall thoughts on the convention. Until then I have a plane to catch.
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Now I remember why I started focussing on SCA events not conventions.

Because SCA events are a darned sight cheaper than conventions. :) Although this one hadn't been too bad until today, at which point I signed up for Eastercon in 2009 (LX2009 in Bradford) and caved in and bought a beautiful Anne Stokes print of an enchantress on a pegasus, signed by the artist. Now all I have to do is work out how to get it home in one piece. I've also picked up a book of short stories and one or two other little things, so thankfully my luggage shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The day started with a fascinating item on the construction and firing of fireworks - no practicals, but a lot of very interesting background information. From there I dashed off to sit on the Redemption desk for a couple of hours before my panel appearance on the Adamist or Edenist panel. This was originally going to have people supporting one side or the other of the two major social blocks in Peter F Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy but became a more general discussion on the merits of nanotechnology against biotechnology and its likely effects on humanity in the next couple of hundreds of years.

Back then to the Orbital 2008 desk, giving me a couple of hours before my latest shift in operations. This two-hour shift turned into a four-hour shift, but that wasn't a problem. There aren't many people signing up to do ops shifts and it's one of those things I'm happy to do assuming I don't have lots of programme clashes. Tonight's programme item was a panel on Hey Dude, Where's My Ice Age?, including a panel all of whom were of an age to remember being told in the seventies that the next ice age was just around the corner. It was a more satisfying panel to be on than Friday's as we were all scientists and tended to discuss the evidence and the solutions rather than sitting there wringing our hands about how evil we are in the West.

The evening was rounded off with the Beyond Cyberdome Intermission, another I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue-style quiz that replaced the lack of a Beyond Cyberdome robotic destruction derby. Finally we had the, er, adult section of the paper doll masquerade, in which Andrew won a prize for being the most... graphic... entry. It's what happens when you get bored sitting in ops... :) Photos may follow, but they are certainly rated 18+.
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Today the con got into full swing.

I didn't really want to get up this morning, but as I was on a panel at 10:00 I thought it might be a good idea to go and have breakfast first. I felt a bit out of place on the panel, Climate Change - Planning Our Environment as it was a bit Green, while I'm more of the well we've screwed up the environment, what can we do to fix it planetary enginering type rather than waving my hands and saying 'we have to save energy' and expecting everyone to listen to me. In spite of this it seemed to go pretty well.

At this point I made a quick trip into town before my first stint at the Redemption desk and discovered Chester Market. Oh my. It's full of fabric, craft and haberdashery stalls, enough to make me sorry that there isn't a Masquerade at this year's Eastercon, as this place would have been a goldmine for the chaos costuming. There was a tiny craft shop that quite overwhelmed me in terms of its stock, and I ended up buying a kit for a beaded crocheted bracelet to start while I was sitting on convention stands selling memberships. I didn't actually start it while sitting on the Redemption 2009 desk for the next hour, but I was pleased to have it all the same.

I got away from the desk just in time to get to the video room to see episode one of the comedy series Astronauts, written post-Goodies by Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie. There's been quite a lot of Goodies-related material appeared here, so I'm going to have to write a combined review of the convention for the Goodies Fan Club.

The George Hay Memorial Lecture - an annual event designed to spread scientific knowledge among the masses - was interesting but all familiar stuff as it was on the human brain, its visual system and how to trick it. The idea was that everything we see is an illusion, and he proved this to be the case. This caused great amusement in the crowd as they came up against some very effective and unfamiliar optical illusions.

Unfortunately by this point I was very tired, so I retired to my room for a snooze, returning in time for Dr. Who. It was so good of the BBC to put on a literary episode just for us. :) It was quite amusing sitting and watching it on a large screen as part of a large audience as there was an excellent atmosphere. Another dinner in the hotel carvery, then it was off to the Teledu Challenge, a set of silly games run by the people behind the forthcoming Year of the Teledu convention. Very silly and jolly good fun.

My lute finally arrived this morning. I took the opportunity of a quiet ops shift to try to tune it, not entirely successfully even with Chris' help. Nevertheless, people were fascinated by it, and Steve> has quite a good photo of 'me and my bent one'. It was good day, and I finally fell into bed at about 1:45. Two days down, two to go.
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I'm a C programmer - of course I start at 0.

It's been an 'only at an SF convention' sort of day. After a leisurely breakfast Andrew and I wandered into town to have a look around and ended up doing a little shopping. I'm particularly pleased that I've finally got a new set of Lamy fountain pens with three different widths of italic nibs, as I feared that I wasn't going to be able to get hold of them until I went through Heathrow or Gatwick again.

We returned in time for the how to moderate or be on a panel and the opening ceremony - so far, so normal. Then reality took something of a right turn as we went to a talk on Greek Theatre where I got to be part of a Greek chorus. Then discussion over dinner then ended up including large sections about English lace-making (it comes in two basic types, I'm told - Catholic and Protestant). Then it was time to put to work some of the interesting suggestions that I'd heard earlier in the day as I moderated a panel on Superscience in the Victorian era which went quite well as I had some very good panellists. One of the enjoyable things about being the moderator is that you only have to have a passing acquaintance with the subject and I ended up learning quite a lot about Victorian (and Edwardian) science fiction. I had no idea that there were so many early SF writers then.

Next it was off to the Gytha North Drunken Rabble Pick, Play or Pass Filking Event. There were about a dozen of us, and we sang songs that Gytha had either written or liked including, as requested, Cadgwith Anthem. Which is now a song that I can't get out of my head except for when I tried to lead it, at which point it disappeared entirely. Nevertheless we did get through it in the end. We then rounded off the day with I'm Sorry I Haven't An SF-ing Clue, the antidote to convention panel games, which was very amusing although rather crowded. I think that next year they might be better to put it in the main hall rather than one of the smaller rooms.

All in all it has been a good start to the convention. The hotel seems pretty on the ball and is serving good food in both the bar and the restaurant, including late-night hot snacks, which seem to be well appreciated. The only problem I've found is that the smoking area is right in the middle of the concourse so you have to walk through it to get from A to B pretty much no matter where A and B are - and there are some people smoking some rather strong cigars out there. There are also no partitions between the smoking area and the restaurant, green room or main hotel bar, although at least there is a door between it and the con bar. The result is that you can smell it throughout the con (except for Ops and the games room). Yeuch!
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Call it a one-day holiday in Chester.

I've taken the bold step of arriving at the hotel the day before the convention. Mostly this is in order to relax a little before I throw myself into the convention - and to recover from a couple of days hard sorting in Liverpool. And, to be honest, if I had stayed another day I'd have pent it doing either more sorting or sitting in front of Dad's computer maintaining it. *Sigh*

But instead I'm here. Hurrah! I did have a couple of problems finding the hotel, mainly because I memorised the instructions from RAC rather than print out the map and it wasn't quite as easy as it looked, but in the end I got here in time to go out into Chester to have a bit of a wander before Andrew arrived. I'd forgotten quite how lovely Chester is. It's been years since I came here, and as I wandered through the doubly-named streets - both 'modern' names like Eastgate and the 'traditional' names like Via Praetorian - I found myself wondering why Mum and Dad had just ignored this place for shopping. I suspect it's a little more expensive than Liverpool city centre but the shops are far more interesting (like the architecture, for the most part).

Fortunately Andrew had no such problems finding the hotel, as his satnav guided him directly to the hotel car park. The hotel itself is small but seems to be going out of its way to make the convention welcome, even to the extend to producing its own readme with details of the food and other services available. If it had just a bit more function space it would be great for a big con but it certainly seems to be somewhere I'd be happy to revisit. We've just come back up from a very good dinner down in the main restaurant - extremely reasonable prices for food about which I'll let Andrew wax lyrical later - and are planning an early night ready for the fun to begin tomorrow.
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And none of them purple.

My sister has a thing about mermaids. My Mum had a thing about UFOs. The result is that I now have two rather large embroideries of mermaids to finish. One of them is the Mirabilia Mermaid of the Pearls, which is about two thirds done, and the other is the Teresa Wentzler Mermaid which has barely been started. These are not going to be short-term projects, and right now I'm considering when I'm actually going to be able to take them back to Iceland with me. I've also got a nearly-completed high mediaeval lady and I've finally found what happened to my Arthurian one that I left here to work on while I was at home - it had been parcelled up and hidden in my wardrobe.

Today has been another day of clearing things up and throwing things out - this time predominantly mine, but generally things that I should have got rid of years ago but thought that Mum would feel hurt if I did. It should keep Dad quiet about my room for a while. Honestly, if he complains much more about the boxes I've carefully stacked out of the way in the far corner between the wardrobe and the wall, I swear that I'll either throttle him or look seriously into the cost of storage. Maybe that would shut him up.
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I'm sorry about the lack of posting recently - between Síminn refusing to let me connect to Blogger and Michel's visit I haven't been able to upload anything for a week and a half. I'm still looking into the Síminn problem and hope to be able to start uploading properly again soon.
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I have a confession to make.

Until now my knowledge of Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention has been, shall we say, abstract rather than concrete. So when Kevin requested that I sing Cadwith Anthem at the GNDRMF on Friday night I realised that I was going to have to do a bit of research and learn it first. Or indeed consciously listen to it first. Before I left the office yesterday morning, then, I put in a quick order to Amazon for The Best of Steeleye Span and, while I was at it, The History of Fairport Conventions (plus the Glenda Jackson/Robert Hardy Elizabeth R, but that'll be another post). I was therefore quite impressed when they arrived while I was eating breakfast this morning. As it happened, I had to go out to Warrington to Hobbycraft (it would be criminal not to, you understand, and I didn't spend too much and what I did buy was absolutely essential...) which gave me an excellent opportunity to stick it in the CD player.

Oh my.

I'm not normally one for turning turning the volume above about 6 out of 20, but this definitely called for an 11 and left me feeling both embarrassed for not having bought this stuff before (given that I quite like filk) and delighted at my new discovery. I managed to listen to Fairport Convention this afternoon while finishing clearing out Mum's office so that Dad can redecorate and move in (he couldn't face the clearing job so I volunteered as I'd be here). They're fun, but I think I prefer Steeleye Span - certainly enough to spend my remaining eMusic downloads for the month on All Around My Hat and Below The Salt. Clearly my next couple of month's worths of subscriptions are going to have to be split between Downland and Steeleye Span. :)
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In spite of going into work before flying down to Reykjavík.

I much prefer it when I can work at home in the morning before catching a flight - or, alternatively, catching an earlier flight - but I had a variety of meetings this morning which meant that I had to go into the office. The problem is that no matter how little you have planned something else always comes up to fill your entire allotted time and more. So today I ended up leaving the office late then making it to the carpark before realising that I'd left the printouts of the tickets on my desk. I eventually got to the airport with about 15 minutes before departure time. Fortunately the internal air services here are like trains - so long as you arrive five minutes you're okay. The basic rule of thumb is that if the aircraft is on the tarmac (which it was) you're cutting it a bit fine.

So it was then off to the duty-free stores of Keflavík airport, where they're doing a lot of alterations and improvements to the terminal. It was here that I saw a truly horrendous thing: Burberry wellies! Who on earth would want chav wellies? Lots of rich people who don't know about chavs, I suppose. As usual we had a long wait for the luggage at Manchester then I picked up a Fiat Punto for the week and drove the short hop back to Liverpool.

The fun bit about that drive is THE BRIDGE. Their capitals. It always amuses me to see the signs to the Runcorn-Widnes bridge, because the only other location I've seen fully capitalised on signs is LONDON. Clearly THE BRIDGE is just as important. :)
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Not much to report today.

But what do you expect on a Sunday? The weekend was supposed to be a bit more active - for instance I was supposed to drop in at a housewarming party last night but I was feeling a bit grotty through the day so I didn't feel up to it - but I've really spent it sleeping and doing a little bit of crafty stuff. The picture on the right is my new SCA journeyman minstrel knot. I needed a new one for the demo at Eastercon and didn't have the correct colours of
ribbon so I've made one from cord instead. I did check with the guildmistress first as to whether cord would be okay and she's happy enough. I'll get some more ribbon and try the knotting method with that after next weekend. I may well have two novice knots to hand out for Revel so I'm planning to make them in the same basic manner.

I found the pattern in one of my beading magazines. It's a Chinese prosperity knot that was used in the original design to support a pendant. I turned it upside down and used three threads, leaving the bottom section as a fringe (sort of). I then put a couple of stitches through the fringe to cinch it together rather than to have the six threads falling down in two bunches.
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