valarltd | Friday, May 28: the Fun Begins

We got up about 8 because Bunny wanted a swim. She swam, I did the treadmill and stationary bike until about 9. I kept an eye on her through the windows.

I found the hot tub i wished I'd known about Thursday night!

Anyway, around 10, we went up, ate, and got dressed. I just wore civvies and my boots and hat, but Bunny put on her Slytherin uniform. And very gorgeous she was too. Pictures when i get it developed.

I sorted out what we needed to do. We got in line about 11:45, since it had already snaked back to a distant exit door. i left her in line while I ran a couple errands. Bunny is a lovely child, very smart, but has no sense of direction whatsoever. She gets it from my grandmother. I OTOH have subscribed to the adage "Corellians can't get lost" since i was 12, and done my best to live up to it. She hadn't figured out the hotel enough to find her way back, so i went.

I bumped into

irene_heron (whom i had been introduced to the night before) and delivered her the promised CD of vids. Mine and Mudd's, about 24 total. He has 2 new ones up now.

So we made it to the head of the registration line. The registrar asked "last name?" I said "Sparrow." She looked at me and said "The real one." And I handed over my driver's license. The badges were found, and we proceeded to the Atrium. Bunny and i sat and mapped out our schedules, so we could work the Gofering in around it.

In the Gofer Hole, we learned that we were expected to do 12 hours of work. OK, we finangled and wibbled and worked them all in.

On to the Art Show. We got Bunny's paperwork and I had to dash for the "Erotica vs. Porn" panel. It was a lot of fun.

obi_ki and her son showed up for it. He writes femmeslash. We finally decided there must be a connection with the characters for a story to be erotica,. The characters need to connect with each other, and the reader needs to connect with them. Or else it's just mechanics with pasted in names. About 10 minutes before the end, the Solo-clone (over whom i drooled so last year) wandered in wearing a tee with a Union Jack on it. Makes it very hard to continue discussing the mechanics of SW Trilogy smut.

I checked on Bunny in the art show, who was still having some problems. I finished filling out her paperwork while she headed for her first Harry Potter panel.

My 3 was "Bifictional: writing both het and slash." C. Bichler and i got together and discussed the status of The Slash Reader for which i'd written a paper. We talked a lot. Bifictional folks tend to be in the mushy middle, like bisexuals. Both sides think they're perverts. And that led into "what happens with three-somes, foursomes or poly households?" it is really het if it's a woman having sex with 2 men? (any sexual act in which 2 or more penises are involved is a homosexual act, it's been said)

I had about an hour at 4, so I nipped back to the room for a quick coke. Caffiene, the breakfast/lunch/dinner/midday snack of champions. Came to the unpleasant conclusion that

jkb's Jedi robe was not in Lansing, but over my sewing machine in Memphis. (it is indeed)

At 5, she and I had "Star Wars: Are we willing to go where Lucasfilm wants to take us." She got locked out of her car, and was late, so I had to face a roomful of "Yeah, we like the prequels and EU" folks all by my lonesome. I felt like a Roman Christian looking for a bottle of Lion-repellant. But i think it went well. We talked of plot-holes, and jossing canon, and continuity problems.

At 7, I was on "Myths and legends." I suspect from the hostile glare that I had a pagan in my audience who did not appreciate me mentioning the fact that most primitive religions involved blood sacrifice, often human. But I discussed a number of myths. The ever-delightful Windsong was in the audience and gave us some Great Lakes Tribal myths. I asked if anyone incorporated mythology into fanfic, and got all negatives. I used the Inuit Sun and Moon myth in "Sources of Power" and discussed that. I tossed out the notion of writing AUs in times when the myths were actual living religions. my co-panelists talked of how some cultures wove myth into their daily lives, and for others the gods of the stories were far-off.

Bunny and I nipped out to Charlie Kang's for a quick dinner. Very, very good, esp. the stir-fried shrimp. Didn't like the lemon chicken, too sweet for my taste, but the sesame chicken and hunan beef were perfect. Bunny never caught on that in the North, the restaurant assumes one is intelligent enough to sweeten one's own tea. She ordered "sweet tea" at least twice more on the trip.

By 9 I was pooped out. So I went to "Slash pairings: equal and unequal" Unfortunately, I thought it was the "Why do some SW pairings stand the test of time?" and ran it that way for almost 10 minutes before someone asked.

jkb took over while I recovered enough to go on.

There was room running, and door-checking. We were down the hall from "Their heads are pastede on, yay!" (not the official title) Which had many naked and near-naked men, with their faces covered by velcro. Many BSO (beloved slash objects) had their heads added to the velcro and much could be done. Naked Jon Pertwee with a sword was something. But the Blair-blowing-Blair bit was inspired. And I think the Jack Sparrow head ended up on every pic, with every other head, before the end of the con. I liked the Wedding chapel.

Bunny worked from 8-10 in the Zine reading room, and 10-1 in the con suite. Snape and McGonagell wandered in and Snape scolded her for being out of bed.