12 October 1998: Meeting, Walk, Reading, etc.

Monday, 12 October 1998:

Meeting, Walk, Reading, etc.

Sunday was no less relaxing than Saturday. Okay, I piddled around on the computer for a while after waking up, but then I went to the SF3 annual meeting.

Actually, the meeting is no great shakes. It's the meeting that SF3, as required by law for non-profit organizations, must hold at least once a year. Business usually involves electing officers, recapping anything that's happened in the last year (usually whatever's going on with WisCon), making jokes, and seeing if there is anything else to argue about. Usually there's not much. Tracy mentioned the book exchange she organized earlier this year, and said she'd like to do another one. I'm all for that.

One thing about fandom in general is that it's getting older. ("The graying of fandom" is a term that pops up now and again.) At 29, I am one of the youngest people in SF3. Although there are younger people in fandom, many of them tend to gravitate towards the media end of things (which some fans don't consider "real" science fiction, and I must admit I think most media SF pales in quality compared to most written stuff), and many of them have little interest in running conventions or much of anything else, and mostly are there to party and hang out. (Which, I must admit, is a lot of what I do - the hanging out rather than the partying. Although I seem to connect more with the older fans than some.)

So one issue that came up at the meeting is some sort of "outreach" to try to bring more people into the group. This is tricky, since SF3 doesn't do a whole lot: There's WisCon, the book discussion, the weekly socializing downtown (not really SF-related), and that's about it (other than quasi-SF3 things like the local APA). So there isn't a whole lot of motivation for people to join up if they're looking for science fictional endeavors.

I suggested - and admitted that it was a strange suggestion - that perhaps SF3 should have more of a presence at WisCon, since we're the parent organization. Of course, again, there's the question of what we'd offer people to do as part of the group.

I'm no expert on fannish history, but it rather seems like SF conventions have ghetto-ized the SF by making it such that SF is only really discussed at the conventions, and SF groups don't really do much talking about the medium outside of the conventions. Rather perverse, but it makes sense.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, so I phoned Karen and we went for a walk. It was quite a long walk, actually: We walked from her office to Picnic Point, and then along the Point out into the middle of Lake Mendota. It took a little under an hour to get there, and then we sat and talked for a while, and walked back. We were quite hungry when we got back (and my feet hurt), so we drove to Monty's Blue Plate Diner - a good burger-n-other-food joint on the East Side - and ate. We had a half-hour wait for a table, and I was really tired and hungry and nearly nodded off at the table. I felt better once the food arrived and I scarfed it down.

All-in-all, a nice afternoon.

I had figured that I'd just about overcome all the challenges that my ride to work had to give me, but this morning Mother Nature threw in one more: Wind. It was very windy, and particularly biking up that last hill it was very strong and hard to make headway against. I was pooped once I pulled into Epic's driveway. But, I made it, and only stopped once, to make a deposit at the bank.

While I was in the shower after the ride in I looked down at my calves and thought, "Holy shit! When did they get so freaking big?" I guess now I know which muscles are being exercised by all this biking. Although my thighs feel pretty muscular, too, particularly right around the knees.

Maybe tomorrow I'll try to find those dumbbells and start working on my arms a bit.

Finished reading Bujold's Shards of Honor tonight. I think I mentioned that it's one of two (or maybe three, depending on whether you count Falling Free) precursors to her Miles Vorkosigan series, focusing on his parents. An interesting book, it mainly focuses on his mother, Cordelia Naismith, a ship captain for Beta Colony, which ends up on the other side of a war with Barrayar, home of Aral Vorkosigan. Aral and Cordelia meet when both are stranded on a planet, and end up falling in love, which of course becomes tricky when war breaks out.

It's good to see the book focus on Cordelia, because her influence on her son Miles is profound, but also quite subtle, since he is raised on Barrayar and is his father's heir. So Aral's influence is overt, and Aral figures in the story once in a while, since he's a major political figure and Miles, well, has a tendency to get into trouble.

The book is also intriguing because Cordelia basically walks into a very complicated political situation, where the war against Escobar (which Beta Colony was drawn into) was instigated by Barrayar for very specific - and essentially internal - reasons, which Cordelia has no knowledge of until it's all over. It's pretty rare that I read anything where the protagonist is a small part of a much larger game, and where we see that game only obliquely, through her eyes.

The novel is, really, background for the Miles stories, but it's a pretty good read anyway.

Oh, and I also picked up Sonny Rollins' new album, Global Warming. So far, it doesn't kick ass like +3 does, or Saxophone Colossus does, but it's pretty good.

Michael Rawdon (Contact)