(no subject)

Read this essay on civil liberties and civil responsibilities.

Darkover

I'm back from Darkover. I had fun, and the two new members of On the Mark had fun at their first Darkover.

It seemed as if attendance was down substantially this year. I don't have any facts, but it felt like we were down 25% or so. I hope that either I am wrong or the con recovers from the slump next year.

I missed Harold and Becky Feld this year (they were doing Thanksgiving with family in another city). I did get to see dglenn, which was fun. I also saw assorted other friends I mostly only see at this con, including Crystal Paul (who is employed again! yay!), Dorigen and Paul, and Cliff Laufer. (Cliff runs the music program, and he's also in Clam Chowder. He tends to be very busy at this con.)

( music )

I was surprised to find a note from Andrea and her husband Cliff when we got there; I didn't know they were coming. We spent some time chatting with them (mostly over breakfast Sunday). I also ran into Robert and Martha, who are actually from Pittsburgh but who I rarely see. I didn't spot any other Pittsburgh fans (aside from our group, I mean), though I did bump into an ex-Pittsburgher who I last saw in the SCA about 20 years ago.

I had forgotten how odd the environment in this hotel is. Between a near-absence of humidity and some weird temperature variations, the hotel can be challenging. Our room didn't have a thermostat, only a pair of dials -- one to control the fan and one that ran from "warmer" to "colder". The problem was that the fan was on or off, and it was on heat or on cold. There was, in short, no way to set a constant temperature in the room. Yuck. I thought all the rooms were like that until I discovered Saturday that Robert and Kathy had a thermostat in their room. Next year we'll request it! Sheesh.

The program listed Shabbat evening services, but the description was weird. ( Shabbat stuff )

Traffic on the way home was good until Breezewood, when I called Dani to let him know I'd be home in a couple hours. Shortly after getting onto the Turnpike, traffic slowed to a crawl. It alternated between crawls and moderate stretched (I mean 35 or 40, not 60) for much of the rest of the trip home, which took about three hours. Oops. It's a good thing we'd decided on the phone that we weren't going to try to go to Sunday dinner; by the time I got home and unpacked it was after 5, and I needed some unwinding time this evening. Darkover is a fun con, but I wish it were less of a strain to get home from! (Holiday traffic. Whee.)

And now I am home, catching up on email and LJ and placating the cats I so cruelly abandoned for two whole days.

invite codes

I learned at Darkover that I have some non-LJ readers. Hi! (I don't actually know who some of you are, but I'm told you're out there.) If anyone needs an LJ invitation code in order to create an account (which is free), drop me a note or leave your email address in a comment or something. I've got a bunch to spare.