Norwescon

Norwescon is the Seattle-area SF/F convention I’ve been volunteering at since roughly 2010. Once a year, I go get geeky with about 2,500 of my closest friends at a local hotel for a weekend.

Year 50 Day 333

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Me wearing a shirt that says 'yes, this is me flirting with you', standing in front of a group of convention photographers with their cameras aimed at me.

Day 333: Day three of Norwescon is done! While I had much less on my schedule today, it was still a very full day, with a mix of socializing, helping out here and there where I could, and some very well-deserved mid-day napping. Both of today’s shirts got a lot of laughs, and though I certainly wasn’t costumed, I got hauled into having my photo taken in the evening photography area, which seemed an obvious opportunity for a good selfie. Then a night of floating between the dance and the parties until it was time to fall over.

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Year 50 Day 332

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Me wearing a black cap, black suit jacket with grey pinstripes, black shirt, and Star Trek bow tie, in front of a stage with a screen showing a slide that says 'Welcome to the 2024 Philip K Dick Awards'

Day 332: Norwescon day two is done! (Yes, once again, posting this the next morning and backdating.) Today was all about the Philip K. Dick Award. I wore my now-traditional Friday morning/day “electric sheep” t-shirt, and attended the readings for each of the three attending nominated authors. The afternoon was a bit more hectic than expected due to tech demands requiring us to move the location of the ceremony from one ballroom to the next on four hours’ notice (physically, not much of a move, but arranging logistics and getting set for the needs of the new location kept me very busy), but in the end, the ceremony went off quite well, and it was kind of fun to have it on the main stage this year. The rest of the evening was dancing and then watching a Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow cast from the back of the room (because I didn’t have enough energy to be very participatory). All in all, another good day!

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Year 50 Day 331

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Me wearing a t-shirt with a parody of the famous Joy Division image, this one says 'Nimoy Division' and the imge shows a Vulcan salute. I'm standing on a stage in front of a large screen with graphics showing turntables, wave forms, and my DJ Wüdi at Norwescon logo.

Day 331: Norwescon day one is done! (So done, in fact, that I’m actually posting this on Friday morning, though I’ll backdate the post so it shows up on the right day on my blog.) Most of the day was running around, socializing, and helping out where I could, and then the evening was me DJing for the Thursday night dance. The dance went well for a Thursday night (since it’s the first night and still in the work week, it’s always a little more sparsely attended), and as always, I’ve recorded the full thing and in a few days will have it posted for anyone who wants to listen to four hours of music (with only a few fumbles).

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Year 50 Day 330

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Me in a hotel lobby wearing a shirt that says, "'That's what.' She". Behind me are a few people setting up tables.

Day 330: It’s day zero of Norwescon! Wednesday is when a bunch of us show up to do all the setup…and it takes a lot of setup to run a con like this. Lots of running around and Doing Things, with breaks to say hello to people, some of whom I see at the con meetings, and some of whom I haven’t seen since last year. Lots to do, but a good time is being had by all.

Year 50 Day 326

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Me sitting in a chair by a sunny window with my laptop open on my lap.

Day 326: Just a nice afternoon sitting in the spring sunshine and working on Norwescon bits (making sure the website schedule is up to date, getting as much music as possible on the laptop for the Thursday night dance, and preparing the social media posts that will get posted during the weekend).

Year 50 Day 324

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Me walking on the school’s sports track, wearing a hoodie and hat, and with AirPods visible in my ears.

Day 324: It’s a week before con, and I have only 10 messages in my con email inbox, half of which are song requests just waiting for me to have a chance to find the songs. I’m either doing things very right or very wrong.

Year 50 Day 323

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Me, wearing black t-shirt and hoodie, in a hallway at home, smiling.

Day 323: Got my “don’t forget you’re checking in for Norwescon in a week” email from the hotel today…not that I’d forgotten. It’s officially one week from con! (At least, it is if you’re one of the people who show up on Wednesday.)

Year 50 Day 312

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Me wearing a black t-shirt with the Norwescon logo in green, standing in Maxi's Lounge at the DoubleTree hotel, holding three old Star Trek LPs.

Day 312: Today was the final planning meeting before Norwescon 46 kicks off in just about two and a half weeks! Lots going on, but this is looking to be another good year.

Plus, more Star Trek goodies being passed my way from friends! (Gotta say, I’m definitely enjoying being the person people think of when they dig up old Trek stuff.) Three old LPs (1976’s Inside Star Trek, and two of the Star Trek Story Records, Record 1 from 1975 and Record 8 from 1976) and a neat little “Star Trek Lives” commemorative medallion from 1974 that I don’t have any further information on…yet.

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Year 50 Day 256

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Me in a hotel meeting room, wearing a black winter hat and coat with a rainbow scarft; behind me are a number of other people gathered around tables, all also bundled up in coats and hats.

Day 256: Today was our coldest Norwescon ConCom staff meeting yet! Not only is Seattle having a cold snap and topped out at 24° F outside, but the meeting room was having heat issues and was in the mid-40s at the start, and made it all the way up to 51° by the end! The things we deal with to make sure the convention comes together….

Year 50 Day 221

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Me, wearing a mask and a button-up shirt that’s black on one side and has Santa peeking out from behind the buttons on the other, in a hotel room with holiday decorations and people behind me eating and chatting.

Day 221: Today was the Norwescon December ConCom meeting, followed by the annual holiday party. Lots of good progress at the meeting (including getting not one, but two new website assistants to work with me), and then a fun time chatting at the holiday party. Even got some fun stories from Norwescon history, some of which are for ears only, and not for publication! Plus, many people were amused by my shirt.