(1) IT’S TIME TO PLAY: NAME THAT ELEMENT. You might remember the petition to honor the late Terry Pratchett by giving element 117 the name Octarine — “the color of magic” from Pratchett’s fiction. An article at Nature Chemistry reviews the competing names up for consideration for element 117 — and others.
SB: Petitions like this provide a lot of insight into how people grieve the loss of public figures, but it’s hard, if not impossible, to associate Lemmy with the periodic table or even chemistry and physics. While Lemmy’s death is still fresh in people’s minds, one has to wonder if future generations of scientists would have any connection to him. The petitioners also reference the large mass and expected metallic properties to connect the element with heavy metal music, which is clever on one level, but Lemmy considered Motörhead hard rock not heavy metal. Besides, lemmium would not fall under any of the acceptable categories outlined by IUPAC for naming elements.
KD: You’re probably right, although the petitions have turned out to be a fun way to get people from all areas of life talking about the new elements. We’ve also seen ‘starduston’ and ‘bowium’, in honour of David Bowie. Another example is the one I set up, to name element 117 ‘octarine’, after the colour of magic in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. Obviously I’m biased, but I still maintain that it would be rather appropriate for element 117, which will fall into the halogen group. Octarine is famously described as a sort of greenish-yellow purple, and these are, of course, all halogen colours. It even has the correct -ine ending for the group. According to the mythology of the books, it’s only visible to wizards, witches and cats, which also seems appropriate for an element that’s only been observed by a select few. The odds of IUPAC agreeing to this are probably a million to one but, as Pratchett himself wrote in several Discworld books, million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
SB: Once you described octarine, I can see how it fits into the halogen family. For an idea like this to gain traction though, someone on the research teams would need to be a fan of Discworld and advocate for it. So far, the mythological concepts used for element names have come from Greek, Roman and Norse sources. These classic mythologies tend to have more universal recognition. Is modern fiction the same as cultural traditions used to explain nature in the ancient world?
KD: Well, all stories have to start somewhere. IUPAC’s rules don’t put an age on the mythology rule, and indeed cobalt, named after the sprites that apocryphally lived underground where its ores were mined, might arguably be considered to be more recent. There are forty-one Discworld books, which have been translated into thirty-seven languages; I’m certain they’ll be remembered for many years to come. Likewise, the periodic table will probably be around for a while; any story we reference now will eventually be old…
(2) A VISIT TO THE SIXTIES. The keen-eyed Traveler at Galactic Journey argues that 55 years ago women were having an impact on the field greater than their numbers suggest.
1961. The year that an Irishman named Kennedy assumed the highest office in the land. The year in which some 17 African nations celebrated their first birthday. The air smells of cigarette smoke, heads are covered with hats, and men run politics, industry, and much of popular culture.
In a field (and world) dominated by men, it is easy to assume that science fiction is as closed to women as the local Elks Lodge. Who are the stars of the genre? Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Sheckley; these are household names. But if there is anything I have discovered in my 11 years as an avid science fiction fan (following another 20 of casual interest), it is that there is a slew of excellent woman authors who have produced a body of high quality work. In fact, per my notes, women write just one ninth of the science fiction stories published, but a full fourth of the best works.
(3) AND TODAY? This past year, according to William Shaw’s “The top 5 science fiction stories of 2015” in The Oxford Student, women wrote most of the best sf stories. (Three were published by Apex Magazine, and the other two by Uncanny Magazine.)
3. Pocosin by Ursula Vernon [http://www.apex-magazine.com/pocosin/]
The tone of story is best summarised by its central image of drinking whisky with Death. A contemplative tale about an old woman who takes in a dying swamp god, this is a slow, sad little number which nevertheless sparkles with the sense of wit and worldly wisdom that a story involving passive-aggressive banter with the devil really ought to have. Melancholy without being mawkish, funny without being daft, this is a gem of a story that highlights some important environmental concerns.
(4) WHAT MAKES A NOMINEE A NOMINEE. Brian Paone seems to be getting ahead of himself, but perhaps that’s an occupational hazard for the author of a time travel novel. See “Being nominated for a Hugo award is winning in itself”.
I found out this week that my time-travel romance novel, “Yours Truly, 2095” has been nominated by Hugo Award board member Christopher Broom for the most prestigious award a science fiction novel can receive: a Hugo Award. When I first started outlining the book, back in 2012, my goal was just to finish the book, without making it sound like a big pile of smoldering poo. I never expected 1) how happy I am with the finished product 2) then how many people have bought or read the book in the only 9 months its been out 3) then how many positive 4 & 5 star reviews its consistently receiving and finally 4) that I would ever be nominated for anything, never mind a Hugo!
When I told a friend, and fellow author Randy Blazak, his response was, “this will shoot you into the stratosphere.” I appreciate his enthusiasm for what this might do for my career, but honestly, I’m just on cloud nine that I was even nominated. I’m not even thinking of the future yet.
The award ceremony is in Kansas City during the weekend of August 17. For the first few seconds, I contemplated not going, since being at the ceremony is not a prerequisite, but it was my wife (who I always say might be my worst critic, but my number one supporter) told me, in not so many words, not going wasn’t an option.
So now I will be planning (airfare, hotel, etc) over the next few week to attend an award ceremony–not only any award ceremony, but the most prestigious award ceremony of the year–waiting with bated breath to hear my name and book title called out from the podium. And if it doesn’t win, it will not be a loss. It’s already been a greater win for me than I could ever have imaged 4 years ago when I started writing the book.
Sounds like he poured a bit too much of that timey-wimey stuff into his coffee… The nominations won’t be known til after the first round of voting closes March 31.
(5) SUPERHERO MOVIE MAKERS MAY BOYCOTT GEORGIA. Variety reports “Disney, Marvel to Boycott Georgia if Religious Liberty Bill Is Passed”
The Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios indicated opposition to a Georgia religious liberty bill pending before Gov. Nathan Deal, saying that they will take their business elsewhere “should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law.”
With generous tax incentives, Georgia has become a production hub, with Marvel currently shooting “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” at Pinewood Studios outside Atlanta. “Captain America: Civil War” shot there last summer.
“Disney and Marvel are inclusive companies, and although we have had great experiences filming in Georgia, we will plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law,” a Disney spokesman said on Wednesday.
(6) THE TITANOGRAPHY OF TOLKIEN. NASA has updated the Mountains of Titan Map.
This map of Saturn’s moon Titan identifies the locations of mountains that have been named by the International Astronomical Union. The map is an update to a previous version published in 2012 (see Mountains of Titan), and includes an additional mountain area (Moria Montes), along with several “colles” which are collections of hills.
By convention, mountains on Titan are named for mountains from Middle-earth, the fictional setting in fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. Unfortunately for “Lord of the Rings” fans, Titan’s highest peak is not Doom Mons (see Radar View of Titan’s Tallest Mountains).
(7) DOG HOUSE RULES. Kate Paulk’s latest policy statement, in “Why The Internets No Can Has Nice Things” at Mad Genius Club.
Those who have asked to be removed are being asterisked instead to indicate that they asked to be taken off. My perspective is that this is a list of people’s recommendations. There is no need to ask for permission, any more than anyone needs to ask for permission to post a review or purchase the work. Frankly, I think asking to be taken off anyone’s list of award-worthy pieces is an insult to the people who genuinely believe the work is that good, so unless someone asking to be removed is prepared to institute a policy that requires prior approval before purchasing their work, reviewing it, and so forth, they stay on the list.
If someone wants their very own asterisk on the list, they need only ask me. I’m not that difficult to get hold of, and I am asterisking those who ask on the two list posts. I’ll asterisk someone who asks here, too. There may be a delay, since I do have a rather demanding full time job, but it will happen.
(8) NOTHING SUCCEEDS LIKE SUCCESSION. In the Playpen at Ferretbrain, Arthur B. asks:
How do you become the Sad Puppies organiser anyway? Divine right? Killing and eating the heart of your predecessor? Satanic pacts? Who gets to choose who drives the clown car?
(9) DOUBLE-THREAT. How It Should Have Ended not only corrects the illogical events in the The Force Awakens but does it with Lego characters.
(10) COVER LETTER. Karen Junker provided the text of the email she sent to We Are ALL SF members.
Dear We Are ALL SF patrons, I want to apologize to you personally for not getting in touch with you sooner regarding the cancellation of We Are ALL SF Con. Frankly, I have been very ill and I have not known what, exactly, to say.
The con was cancelled after I resigned from the convention board and without the knowledge or consent of the board. There was a lot of confusion and things became too difficult to save the situation. I was re-appointed back to the board and since my name was still on the legal docs, the bank, and the Paypal account, it fell to me to send refunds. I did so by selling a personal investment so that the funds would be covered. I got the refunds out, but was not able to do much more than that, and it has been so emotionally grueling for me to see a project that I had worked on for over a year and poured much of my own personal money into to be destroyed, out of what amounts to petty nonsense.
If you see any public statements about me, please disregard. They are patently untrue. I have a proven track record over the past 15 years in the literary and SFF community. Why someone would attack me or an organization I am attached to is beyond me. I have spent a large sum of my own money in the past few years, putting on writers’ events and workshops and conventions and conferences. We Are ALL SF was no different. I am heartbroken that this great con, which would have been so much fun, was destroyed. I hope to see you again at another thing, some day, somewhere. I wish you well in your work and in your life. Yours, Karen Junker, Chairman, We Are ALL SF Foundation
(11) GIVE THEM LIBERTY. As always, plenty of Baen authors will be attending Libertycon 29 (July 8-10) — Griffin Barber, Rick Boatwright, Walt Boyes, Robert Buettner, David B. Coe, Larry Correia, Kacey Ezell, Bill Fawcett, Charles Gannon, Sarah A. Hoyt, Les Johnson, Mike Massa, Jody Lynn Nye, Gray Rinehart (Master of Ceremonies), John Ringo, Tedd Roberts, Chris Smith, Brad Torgersen, David Weber, Toni Weisskopf, and Michael Z. Williamson.
(12) MISSED ONE. I could have included John Scalzi on the list of “Science Fiction Writers Who Were Never Drunk on Saint Patrick’s Day”. Here’s an excerpt from his post “Why I Don’t Drink or Use Drugs” at Whatever.
It’s true: I don’t drink alcohol except in very rare circumstances (like, half a glass of champagne at my wedding), I’ve never smoked cigarettes, I’ve never taken an illegal drug, and outside of Novocaine at the dentist’s office, I’m generally reluctant to take legal drugs either; my wife always expresses surprise if I go to the medicine cabinet for ibuprofen, for example. So what’s the story there?
(13) MOST FUN SINCE ADAM. Tor.com collects their favorite tweets from #TheInternetNamesAnimals in “Boaty McBoatface Inspires An Epic Naming Battle on Twitter!”
Starface Gassy McSmashy #TheInternetNamesSpace pic.twitter.com/RB84qOWPlw
— Dr. Jillian Scudder (@Jillian_Scudder) March 21, 2016
(14) AN INDISPENSIBLE CULTURAL LANDMARK. The Ukulele Batman vs Bagpipe Superman – Theme Song Battle.
(15) IT WAS BARELY MADE TO START WITH. A remake of Plan 9 From Outer Space? Too late! It was released in the US as video-on-demand last month.
Now the long awaited remake of the classic film is here! In this edge-of-your-set, visually stunning, re-imagination of the original story, “Plan 9” is a spectacular sci-fi/horror adventure with jaw-dropping effects and zombies galore! It’s the film Ed Wood wished he made!
No matter what they say, I was not waiting for this.
And despite all that’s holy, a novelization also came out in February.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Janice Gelb, Mark-kitteh, Hampus Eckerman, Taral, and James H. Burns for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
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@Kendall:
Also Barrayar, which is very much a sequel to Shards of Honor. Weird. But these best-of-by-committee lists are always a confused mishmash.
It’s easy enough to replace ‘nominee’ with ‘finalist’; the problem is in replacing ‘nominated’. As far as I can see this wasn’t in the constitution in the first place, so there was no need to change it there, but what do we say in daily life? Last year The Goblin Emperor was ***’d for a Hugo. It’s an honour to be ***’d. Finalisated?
(I think the actual answer is ‘shortlisted’, but that produces an unpleasing lack of fit between noun and verb.)
Andrew M asked:
“Last year, The Goblin Emperor was a Hugo finalist. It’s an honour to be chosen as a finalist.”
JoeH, I was trying to pick things that didn’t have too much backstory. Which is sometimes hard for me to judge, because I’ve been listening to WtNV for so long. (Triptych, obviously, depends on the backstory… but I loved it too much not to nominate it anyway.)
So I’ve just talked to someone who is familiar with the consuite/parties situation for MidAmeriCon, and he says that the convention center basically requires the convention to buy all their food through them, and also to not give away anything that the convention center itself sells. So they’ll be able to have free soda and snacks, but the food as in meals situation is unclear; if there’s a giant Puppy-inspired membership bump again they’ll be able to serve food because of the extra cash infusion permitting them to afford the overpriced supplies, otherwise (and regardless) there will be food available for sale from the convention center itself.
Note: this is how I remember the conversation going; any errors are my own.
Also, I believe he said that the convention center and thus the consuite and parties closes at 2 am or so. There is apparently an outside grassy area with picnic tables though that people could relocate to.
Hotel parties are, as we know, nixed by the hotels in question, so any room parties should be very very discreet so as not to ruin things for everybody.
I have. Really like it. (Though the name makes me think there should be a manga/anime called Yumi and the Apocalypse.) It is a joit US/UK dealy and aired last year in the UK (though I wasn’t aware of it until the US release.)
In the case of the Philadelphia 2001 Worldcon, which may have had a similar food policy, my friends and I walked across the street to Chinatown to eat.
Cassy B. — Yes, that makes a lot of sense (choosing relatively standalone episodes). I went with Taking Off because of how it played into the continuing story — so. Many. Feels.
Cally – That hardly seems like a con at all.
Andrew M on March 25, 2016 at 8:59 am said:
In that construction, “shortlisted” is the answer. I think it possibly sounds better in British than in American. At least I’ve personally encountered the construction more often in British than in English.
Markos Kloos latest book in the “Frontlines” series, Chains of Command, is now available as a free e-arc at NetGalley – he announced it on Twitter and his website today.
@ RedWombat
Ditto. I see this sort of thing a lot in book communities dominated by small press and self-publishing. When someone posts a joyful squee at being nominated for an award where nomination consists of sending in some judge’s copies and an entry fee…well, I’d rather think they’re using it as a plausible excuse to toss some buzz into the world than because they misunderstand the significance. (And I’m not even think of the out-and-out predatory “awards” here. You see it for the Lammies and Goldies, which are generally considered respected awards despite the hefty entry fees.)
On the other hand, consider the economic solidity of the “Who’s Who in Peculiarly-specific-field” racket. Ego-boo is a common weak point in people’s critical judgment.
ETA: On the other hand, I’d never want to disparage the genuine joy that can come from knowing even one single person thought enough of your book to nominate it for a major award. It means a lot when you have no hope of ever making a short-list.
BDP Short recs:
The Expanse – “CQB”
Game of Thrones – “Hardhome”
Penny Dreadful – “The Nightcomers”
Person of Interest – “If-Then-Else”
Still juggling my last spot (Daredevil? Killjoys? Agents of SHIELD?). I put Jessica Jones in long-form because to my mind it really is all of a piece.
“I’m nominating X this year for the Hugo Awards”
“These are the Finalists for this year’s Hugo Awards”
“I’ve been nominated for the Hugo Awards this year”. “Oh, you mean someone added you to their ballot?”
“Announcing this year’s Hugo Award Finalists. The shortlist for this year’s awards can be found here.”
“My story won the Hugo Award this year. I was a finalist in another category.”
Nominee. Nominated. 1st round
Finalist. 2nd round
Winner/Invited to the loser’s party. 3rd round
I can see confusion (and abuse) persisting. Is there another word we can start using in general conversation to refer to the status of people on a list during the 1st round? “Pick”? “Long list”? “Seated up front on the roller coaster”?
Steve Davidson: My minority opinion. We should continue using nominee, with the same meaning fans have given it since the inception of the Hugos. We don’t have to burglarproof the word just because one or two people a year are “wrong on the internet” or actually claiming honors they haven’t earned. It isn’t a big problem at all.
We’re already using “Longlist” for the works outside the finalists that appear in the Hugo statistics documents. And it nicely complements shortlist/finalist.
For your 2017 Hugo consideration are two books that came into today for review by us…
NOVEL: Stephen Baxter & Alastair Reynold’s The Medusa Chronicles. SF. Exploration of Juiter by a cyborg. Appears to be based on Clarke’s 1971 story, A Meeting with Medusa if I read the press release correctly. Published by Saga Press, forthcoming in June.
RELATED WORK: Simone Caroti’s The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks. Published by MaMcFarland. It’s a greener look at his career as well.
Last year The Goblin Emperor was ***’d for a Hugo.
This looks like “swear like a sailor” madlibs, except you haven’t left enough space for the goat, the turnip, or the young lady who couldn’t afford a skirt, so I’m not really sure what the correct answer is.
http://blog.angryasianman.com/2016/03/why-cant-we-have-one-white-superhero.html?spref=fb
@Nigel:
Ouch.
@Nigel
So much on that last line. The number of times I kept hearing “Oh the Asian Martial Artist is also a stereotype”, so lets stick with the origin….ugh.
@Andrew M
Last year The Goblin Emperor was nominated for a Hugo. It’s an honour to be shortlisted/a finalist. The greatest honor is to win a Hugo. Losing to the first ever translated novel was pretty awesome in this fans eyes.
Included 2 options. Both look and sound fine to me.
For the 2016 Hugos Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form):
The Venture Bros. – All This and Gargantua-2
An hour long special from January 2015. If you don’t already know this series, I highly recommend it. I couldn’t find a good trailer for Gargantua-2, but the trailer for Season 4 is just awesome.
Am I the only one suspecting that the asterisking of SP works was designed as some sort of homage to David Gerrold?
For SBDP:
President Snakes by the Doubleclicks
I haven’t been able to watch TV/YouTube/similar since hit by truck messed with my brain. More time for reading so I don’t miss it as much as I expected but it puts a bind on nominating stuff. I think it would be wrong to put in my husband’s favorites.
For Graphic novel I’m considering:
Hereville How Mirka Caught a Fish by Barry Deutsch published by Amulet Books
Only a few days left. OMG get those ballots filled out with everything you have so far in case problems at last minute.
I’m still agonizing over where to put IF, tbh. Someone somewhere recommended putting it in Dramatic Presentation under the more or less appropriate length category, but… it’s text! You read stuff and type stuff back at it! (Or click things in it.) Is that really the best category-kind under which to nominate it? And yet to enumerate the wordcount of an average playthrough, for proper assignment to one of the prose categories, would be nightmarish.
I guess what’s got me is that putting *video* games under Dramatic Presentation is already a real stretch as far as I’m concerned. It just feels wrong.
@microtherion
They made plenty of jokes about the asterisks to make it clear it’s supposed to be a similar insult *giggles* . There were links to Hoyt’s post/comment on it where you could read their thoughts.
Personally I thought it was cute the way they were giggling over turning the asterisks around on the evil and ungrateful authors. Not everyone here found it as cute.
@Zil
I think it goes in long dramatic presentation because we don’t have a game category. The only other place would be Related and I don’t feel like that’s a better fit. I had the same questions with President Snake.
[Scroll Observe the File and Flee from Pixel]
I suppose what I find so odd is that the Puppies appear to be gleefully and with a great deal of apparent satisfaction doing the very things they furiously and indignantly complained were horrifically vile and unfair when they believed they were being done to them.
(To be fair, it does look like the ridiculous asterisk thing was a deliberate slight, unlike so much of what the Puppies have taken umbrage at. That was regrettable.)
If the Puppies were as serious as they claimed about representation and inclusiveness and openness to all fans, they would not try to shut out and humiliate all other voices in the exact ways they claimed they were shut out.
Batman/Hamilton Mashup that’s been in my Twitter mentions. LOL. I’m impressed.
BATLEXANDER MANILTON
@PIMMN
When you’ve been hurt and convinced it was done on purpose it can be hard to behave objectively.
Many who were bullied grow up and when in a position of power bully others. Being abused increases the chance you’ll be an abuser. Too frequently those who perceive themselves to be/have been the underdog turn around and perpetuate the very behavior they deplored in others.
I’m not saying puppy leader behavior is acceptable but I can see where it comes from.
As an adult one has choices. One can decide to be better than those who one (believes) abused/misused them. Or one can be like them. One choice shows growth and a willingness to take personal responsibility. The other is living a perpetual childhood/victimhood.
One hopes if a person sat down and thought logically they would choose growth and personal responsibility. The reality is most of us pick somewhere in between. The one you see online is usually the least responsible of us with a few rare exceptions. ETA: we usually find our way organically and emotionally because humans gonna human. We aren’t logic robots.
*dealing with Dan on the Rabid Puppy slate page and being triggered has made me reflective
And one more BDP(SF): I think I’m going to go with Drastic Voyage, the two-part closer to Archer season 6.
Oh, Sara Hoyt, in Mike’s pixel scrolls, let all thy sins be remembered!
BDP Short: I am ALL in for
Person of Interest “If-Then-Else”,
The Expanse “CQB”,
Agents of SHIELD “4,722 Hours”.
These have a great advantage of not only being the awesomest episodes of their respective series from last year, but of being largely stand-alone and thus understandable to non-regular viewers (while, of course, being extra good for regulars.) Watch and vote for these, you won’t be sorry. C’mon, they’re 45 min. each and should be findable online (even legally).
Video games, if nominated, have to be in BDP Long. Because they take more than 90 minutes.
“Crown for Cold Silver”: I liked it a lot, but it didn’t tick the “HUGO!” box for me. It’s cliffhangery, which makes sense since it’s #1 of a trilogy, but is disappointing when you want SOMETHING resolved. It also suffers from “nobody asks the logical question at the logical time” propelling the plot. A few too many Idiot Balls.
“Slow Bullets” was very good. I read it a few months ago, but it didn’t tick the box either. At least, not more than the 5 I have in that category. If I was allowed 10, sure. But it’s nowt to do with yapping canines.
I’m fine with shortlist/longlist — the meanings are pretty self-evident even if you don’t know the words before. I bought the Hugo Longlist anthology and it seems to have sold well with minimal confusion as to what it was.
(4) Did the “friend” represent himself to the ELO fanfic author as a member of the “Hugo board”? That’s a terrible friend, if so, lying like that to get the chap’s hopes up. I think a stern warning could go out to the “friend”. Ooh, do all us registered members count as The Hugo Awards Board?
The “party” situation at MACII sounds very, very dull and regimented. Not a proper Worldcon at all. I mean, it’s all right for the consuite IFF the consuite gets to operate all the hours the center is open (not just the night-time ones). But for bid parties and interest group parties, it is horrible. No local-to-bid-location booze, soft drinks, interesting food and candies? If I were going (which I’m not: poverty), I’d consider the only good thing about it to be that I’d get to bed earlier, sober, and not hopped up on candy and thus make the 10 AM panels and business meetings. Geez, are they closing the filk and gaming up at 2 as well?
Pups gonna Pup. Being insulting, illogical, and hypocritical is what they do. “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” 🙂 Like GSLamb several of the things on their list got mentioned by about the same amount of people in my house. Hell, there’s been times when there were more current Hugo voters living in my house than that.
@Darren Garrison: Yikes! This info is useful to those of us who have devices with very little storage space. If all books were that size, my free space of 1.5G would fill up really quickly.
Also, I used to know a guy who worked on that show and he said it really wasn’t fictionalized at all.
@TYP: Huh. I hadn’t thought of that. Considering Teddy’s rage against women having opinions, it might be safer to placate him and his gators, rather than mild-mannered Al Reynolds. The power of the asterisk!
(Or, y’know, it could just be spite and incompetence.)
Video games, if nominated, have to be in BDP Long. Because they take more than 90 minutes.
I concur. I nominated Fallout 4 in long form. Why? To me this is a long form presentation in a SF story line. Until I saw the Witcher 3 on the Sad Puppies 4 recommendations I never thought about this. But a huge number of people play games and some are quite long indeed.
Airboy:
Then we are two who will nominate Fallout 4.
The way the parties were set up at LonCon3 was very different than normal North American con parties but it was fun (if very noisy) an that seems to be close to what MidAmeriCon II is doing.
Here’s what MidAmeriCon II says about parties on their web site.
@lurkertype
Exactly. Reynolds is a member of civilized society. For all their tantrums and pouting, so are Paulk, the Other One, and Hoyt (by a hair, in the last case).
Teddy Beale, is not, nor are his cheeto-dust covered minions, on the other hand… But if we look at some of their antics as performance art for the markets they sell to, markets composed of grievance-culture white people, well, Teddy’s disapproval is more dangerous than Reynolds.
@Kip: (animated DKR)
Most of the DC animated movies target a 75-minute run time. DKR is an odd case, because it was released in two parts and then as a deluxe double-length single movie, so the total length is about 2.5 hours. In related news, Conroy and Hamill returned to do the key voices for The Killing Joke, which has been given permission to release with an R rating if that’s what it gets. (I don’t think they’re targeting that, but they won’t have to do a chop job if the movie merits an R.)
lurkertype said:
Unless, of course, they don’t.
Ack, I fell into TV Tropes and just now came out. Only lost an hour this time. However, I discovered Oor Crimson Marsupial has a page there!
Tasha Said:
I haven’t been able to watch TV/YouTube/similar since hit by truck messed with my brain. More time for reading so I don’t miss it as much as I expected but it puts a bind on nominating stuff. I think it would be wrong to put in my husband’s favorites.
I don’t read short stories; nothing against ’em, just not something I look for. My roommate reads tons. I just gave him that category: “Give me your five best picks.” I figure He hasn’t got nominating rights on his own, so it’s not as if he’s getting to double his vote. Ditto graphic novels. (Though I am nominating Stand Still, Stay Silent. It’s fantastic!)
Yes, the Loncon party system worked well. The parties were fundamentally queues, but that promoted socialisation. Had it not been for the Tolkien party I would not have got a bag to carry my things in.
I think if you read the MACII party announcement carefully it does allow distinctive food, though it begins rather confusingly by saying ‘roughly the same’.
Peace is My Middle Name wrote:
I don’t see what reputable source you are getting this from. The asterisk was what an asterisk usually is in sports records–an indication that there was something unusual about that year (and boy howdy was there) that may be explained in a footnote.
The Puppies, through a combination of guilty conscience and their preoccupation with male homosexuality, decided the asterisk was intended to represent an anus. We don’t have to buy in to their interpretation. Their combination of complete inability to understand other people’s states of mind (which we have seen many times) *and* their tendency to impute the worst possible motives to others to enchance their self pity and victim status (which we have also seen many times) means I do not consider them trustworthy on these matters, but your mileage may vary.
@Cat: I watched the Hugos presentation on the live stream. As the asterisks were being presented for the first time, I thought, “This is in really bad taste and if it’s not a deliberate dig it was a complete failure in thinking things through.” I didn’t need to buy into anyone else’s interpretation to conclude that. It was my immediate reaction.
@Rev Bob
Hard to catch the right tone for The Killing Joke and not go to an R rating.
I was always more a Marvel fan but, D.C. or not, it’s got be one of my favorite graphic novels. For anyone with an hour to, umm, kill there’s a really good version on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/hbPaaXGAGkg
@Cat
I think you are dead on in that interpretation, and the fact of the ballot stuffing meant that anything that won wouldn’t have “really” won that year if it had been on a slate.
I’m not blind, though, to the idea that the Hugo at each Worldcon must remain above suspicion. Part of that involves eating a lot of shit without being allowed to make a response. Part of me understands why, after the months of accusations of being bribed, of being tools, of being not real fans, why they felt the asterisks were in order. Another part thinks that part of being on the Hugo committee involves grinning and bearing it.
I think any attempt of the SP4 crew to justify behaving like very small children by pointing to the asterisks is going to have a limited shelf-life though.
rob_matic:
I eventually read anything and everything Höst writes – she’s my favorite fully indie writer I’ve happened across. I haven’t gotten to Pyramids of London yet, but I absolutely will.
The first installment of her most popular series, Stray, is available free at Smashwords and other places: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/48654. The series probably reads to most as YA science fantasy.
My favorite concept among her series is The Silence of Medair duology: our protagonist quests for the Ultimate Weapon to win a war for her people against the invaders. And finds it. And wakes up centuries later, after her side lost and has been blurred out as a distinct culture. Now what?
She has sales every once in a while, but I ignore them because I’m happy to give her her full regular price to keep writing.
Yeah, that’s the thing. IF is NOT “video” games, and it’s not uncommon for a piece of IF to be playable in 90 minutes or below. The yearly IF Comp even has a rule that judges aren’t required to judge any game beyond what they can play in two hours.
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The Hugo admins seem very anxious to avoid the “people didn’t get emails” problem from earlier this year — I just received five emails in a row confirming the current contents of my ballot…