Adventures of an Urban Jungleboy

This weekend bovil and I attended Westercon 64 in San Jose.

Due to a confluence of happy circumstances with the Fairmont we acquired a free upgrade of our room to a suite, so we asked that it be put on the party floor so the London in 2014 Worldcon bid could use our parlor one night for a bid party.

Three weeks ago, on the way back from my parents' in Redding, we stopped for lunch at Granzella's and realized we could stage a hoax bid party to host Westercon 66 (2013) at Granzella's. (This would make as much sense as attempting to have a Worldcon at Casa de Fruta, which was the hoax bid we perpetrated at the LACon IV Worldcon in 2006.)

When we announced our "bid" one week before Westercon 64, the response was huge; the single filed, real bid, for Portland, Oregon, had not been doing any promotion at all, and our joke fired up all the frustration around the issue. By the time this weekend rolled around we suspected that the joke might actually defeat the Portland bid in the balloting, which would throw the decision to the Westercon business meeting. bovil and I had several serious discussions about what to do in that event and decided that we would accept a nomination to actually run Westercon 66 if the membership actually asked us to do so in the business meeting. There were a number of hurried conversations to make sure we had the key people available if that happened.

( It did, in fact, happen )

So: Andy and I will be running Westercon 66 in 2013!

We're looking (first) at venues in Sacramento, in alignment with the Olive Country beginnings of this string of events. Registration, etc., will begin as soon as the necessary legal paperwork is in place to allow us to accept money (ficticious business name, etc).

Right now the "ZellaCon" Facebook group is our only web presence; we'll be using that temporarily as a communications medium if you want to volunteer/ask questions.

Edited to correct some minor errors on my part about the parliamentary details of reconsideration; thanks to kevin_standlee for the corrections

bovil and I are hoping to RV-camp at this year's Bay Area Gay Rodeo, being held August 13-15 at Driscoll Ranch.

El Monte RV rental was recommended to us, but their quoted rate was over 800 bucks.

Anyone have any other recommendations? Or have a Class C RV they'd be willing to loan us for a weekend?

If not, we may knuckle down and tent-camp. I just like the idea of having the kitchenette. Plus a real-ish bed.

Today at lunch I (finally!) disabled the Twisted Image Community Calendar on my twistedimage.com website.

Back when I set it up oh-so-many years ago, all the handy-dandy web calendaring resources didn't exist.
At one point over a dozen groups and organizations were using the TI calendar to promote their events, and it was a community service I was proud to host and maintain.

I also disabled (set to bounce and delete) the email address for the calendar, as it just filled up with thousands of spam messages.

bovil decided that we should go to the St George Spirits "prom" open house as the school goths.

Yesterday I took care of one of the tasks lingering after Costume-Con 26.

I had about 20 award certificates (most from the Parallel Dimensions in Design show, plus one reprint of a mis-announced Fantasy and Science Fiction Masquerade award) that had not been delivered to the awardees (they weren't ready before the convention was over). I've been carrying the folder with me to various and sundry conventions this summer, but it was apparent at WorldCon that I'd delivered all I could that way.

Yesterday I got them all packaged up with cover letters, franked, and dropped into the collection box at the Willow Glen post office.

There is one final certificate, but I just got the postal address for that this morning, so it can head off tomorrow.

Underneath the cut...

( Our short and sweet wedding ceremony under the cut )

A minor request --

Those of you who are making a special trip to witness the legal pronunciation this evening, it's going to be short* and sweet, probably right at the beginning of things, perhaps in place of a particular motion to which the Treasurer always Objects.

It is *not* supposed to overwhelm or completely displace the other regularly scheduled insanity that is the weekly meeting. We did the big hoopla back in 2005. So just keep that in mind for the sake of the other attendees and the restaurant, 'k?


And an answer for folks who object that marriage is only for a man and a woman because it's point is to foster procreation:

Um, no. SEX is for procreation.

Marriage is for promoting family ties and stability, both between the immediate parties to the marriage and their extended families. Always has been, according to my understanding of the history of marriage compacts. I understand how some folks might get that confused these days, since many churches teach that sex is shameful except in the context of marriage. But that's their problem.

Remember:
Sex is for procreation.
Marriage is for family.


*Short Short. As in similar to the ceremony from 1:59 to 2:10 in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxsEE5tTkcQ

Got your attention, huh? :-)

Tonight is the "Meet and Greet" kickoff party for the annual Alameda County Leather Corps title contest weekend.


They've asked me to be part of the entertainment lineup, so if you find bar Leather events entertaining and want to hear me belt out a lounge number (or two, or three, or ???; I don't know the exact lineup yet), head on down to The World Famous Turf Club in Hayward tonight!

22519 Main Street
Hayward, CA 94541
510-881-9877

BBQ from 6-7:30, show from 7:30 to 10PM.


The Contest itself is being held the next evening at the Hill and Valley Club in Hayward; details are on the ACLC site. bovil and I have another engagement on Saturday, so I'm really pleased I can help them out tonight.


Addendum: tonight's performance will also feature the debut of the new Shiny Pants I bought this month (from the same folks who sold me my Original Shiny Pants)

I worked a lot on the Costume-Con 26 online scheduling tools this weekend, and the result is now available online.

Select "Program and Exhibits" from the top menu and you'll find "Prelimnary Program Schedule" offered near the top of the left menu.

If you want to refer someone there, you can use this link: http://www.cc26.info/show_prelim_schedule.php which actually redirects to the correct page.*

The schedule is still subject to massive changes, of course, but the online view is generated directly from the latest input to the program db, so it's always fresh.

*(Geekery: the redirect gets around the issues the secure server has with drilling down directly into the secure part of the site)

The rough cut of the Costume-Con 26 educational program is now available for viewing at this online program listing page

It's got some gaps and a duplicate or two, but all the data is now in the online database, so you'll see it maturing quickly as we continue to update it with participant responses.