12 October 1997: Some Sort of Social Thing

Sunday, 12 October 1997:

Some Sort of Social Thing

This afternoon I went to the SF3 annual meeting. Our local SF group is a legal non-profit organization, and I guess we're required to have one of these once per year. It mainly involved electing some officers, talking about the finances, and other mundane discussion.

I ended up volunteering to be the publications committee head, which basically means that if I have time I'll try to revive our fanzine, Cube, which has been on hiatus for a couple of years due to lack of an editor. Since I'm planning to drop out of one of my APAs in January, I might have time next spring.

I continue to be somewhat frustrated with the science fiction fandom I've encountered so far, as it generally seems to be much more concerned with social gatherings and much less concerned with science fiction. SF3 doesn't really do anything besides put on WisCon and hold monthly book discussions, although admittedly I'm not sure what else such a group would do. There are informal parties that are held, although not with any sort of science fiction focus.

Sometimes it seems like the individuals in the group go out of their way to avoid talking about SF much. This may be because of a long-standing joke that Madison fannish gatherings tend to turn into WisCon meetings (as opposed to Minneapolis fannish gatherings, which are rumored to all turn into parties).

Sometimes I think that I came to SF fandom about 30-40 years too late. I doesn't really feel like SF fandom to me, but just like "fandom".

Actually even before the meeting, I got a call from another woman in SF3 informing me that a couple of houses on their street were having open houses today. I've mentioned to some people that I may look for a house this winter, although I haven't really done anything solid toward that end (other than saving money for a down-payment over the last few years). Many Madison fans live in that area, and they've been lobbying me hard to join them. It's a nice neighborhood, but there's another part of town I like even more, and I'd like to do some looking there before I commit to anything.

Anyway, I didn't go to the openings, partly because of the meeting, partly because of my car battery problems (have I mentioned that yet? The battery's about dead, so I didn't want to drive this weekend; I biked to the meeting), and partly because I'd like to do some research into what I can afford before I start looking.

I went to the local co-op today, because earlier I tried some instant split pea soup I'd bought there are a few weeks ago, and it was yummy! So I decided to buy a bunch of it, and also browsed for other food I might like to try. I found some no-fat salad dressing and might try making myself more salads. I also unfortunately discovered some really yummy honey dijon potato chips.

A little later, while I was being lazy and playing Marathon on my Mac. I actually dislike how the greatness of MYST has been perverted into cheesy 3D shoot-'em-ups, but I was in the mood for something mindless. Then a friend of mine, John, called to ask if he and a friend of his, Erica, could come over so she could return some Babylon 5 tapes she'd borrowed from me by way of him, and borrow some other ones. (Got all that?)

They ended up staying a while, and it turns out Erica lives in an efficiency apartment with three (!!) cats. They enjoyed playing with my cats, Newton and Jefferson.

I spent the evening reading, watching the baseball playoffs, and working on the SF3 and WisCon web sites. It was not a dead calm day, but I had a good one, anyway. Now I need to make sure I get to bed at a decent hour...

Michael Rawdon (Contact)