Shutdown and Restart

I’ve got PME writeups to write and posts, a bunch of interviews to make into episodes of the podcast, all kinds of various things to do but last night I was so zonky that all I could do was read email and news feeds and then look at PME pictures on Flickr. Yesterday was a rough day at work trying to hold it together but I should be back to a more sane schedule now. I’m up and feel approximately normal today.

I have seen a little bit of writeup here and there about the Saturday night BBQ from Scott Fletcher and Martin McKeay and others (Martin was the wheel man this year.) This was the last year for the “go grab food from Woody’s” style. It was way more organized than last year, with the money and transportation already lined up. I called at 1 PM and asked them how much lead time they needed to have 3 or so party packs ready by 6:30 PM. I called and made the final order when they told me I should, and still it took an hour and half past when I wanted it. The worst part of the whole thing is that both years I have not been able to actually host the beginning of the party because I’m sitting in the damn place waiting for food. I tried to coordinate from my cell in the restaurant but eventually it died and I was screwed. Sorry all you folks who waited and then bailed. There was almost no food left over (we bought twice as much as last year and had fewer leftovers) so plenty of people got fed but I’m sorry anyone was disappointed. Next year, if there is such a thing, it will involve someone else delivering food to us and I’m going to be at the pool partying the whole time.

Next year, with the show being a Friday through Sunday, the whole dynamic is different. Do we have the chill-out anti-event on Saturday night or Sunday or even at all? The engine that drove it the last two years is the lack of official events on a party night that most people are still there, and that situation won’t be present in the whole weekend conference. This will take some thinking. Maybe it will remain Saturday, be more organized and funded and catered in and we can have it be a “destination party.” From here on out, if I’m associated then I’m at the pool the whole time. I hate missing the fun parts of a party I’m helping throw. Thanks to everyone who attended, to Chuck Tomasi and Tee Morris for jumping in the pool and to Tee for doing it naked. People starting chanting for me to do it, and I claimed to suffer from “flickophallophobia” which is fear of photos of my dick getting posted to Flickr. Evo Terra refused to believe that was an ad-lib, but I did come up with the term on the spot. I did slip on trunks in a quick trip back to my room and later jumped in the pool myself, but minus the dangly bits on display.

Even with the disappointments and delay, it was still a great party. Thanks everyone who attended, sorry for those who left unfed, thanks to Martin McKeay for the transportation and Dave Hamilton and Backbeat for paying the bill. Thanks to Scott Fletcher for working damage control during the delay and explaining the history of the event to the newcomers and quelling the whiners. Thanks to Deb Shadovitz for bringing candles – she thought if we have another BBQ we could use them, so she just brought them without knowing for sure there even was an event! That’s the spirit the event is about to me. She also brought Kahlua, of which I partook freely. Thanks to everyone who chipped in, moved tables, carried food, cleaned up trash, made strangers feel at home, made new friends. All y’all rock!

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Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.

4 thoughts on “Shutdown and Restart”

  1. Me Personaly…I thought the first year was a great fitting end…I also think the same for this one. A wrap up party if you will. If it happens again next year, I say do it on Sunday.

    BTW, Thank you for getting all that together, and even going to get it.

  2. My cell phone died hours into my Chicago trip last month, and it upended the whole 5 day event. I was able to salvage a great trip, but I spent too much of my time in Chicago trying to locate a charger for my trusty old (and now discontinued) PDA phone. Lesson learned: bring TWO charging methods for the cell phone when traveling, Just In Case …

  3. CDC, I had a cell phone charger with me in the hotel room, just not at the restaurant.

    Kreg, your vote has been recorded. I think I’m with you, I like it as the wind down event. The fact that it’s not a hard sell of anything is part of the whole thing.

  4. I’m chalking it up to deja vu, as I can’t find it anywhere on the ‘net in a variety of different spellings. So I defer to your sudden moment of brilliance. Perhaps it was a shift in the quanta that exists between all synapses. Or my brain hiccuped.

    Great party. Amazing food. I wasn’t even going to eat until Brian Ibbott and Craig Patchet convinced me to try it. Mounds of food later…

    Evo.

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