duff_2009

Cover page of my visual diary for the DUFF trip.

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Page One - My first reaction to winning DUFF

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Nominations are now open for the 2010 Down Under Fan Fund a.k.a. DUFF. Prospective candidates will have until January 31st 2010 to file the documents required to have one’s name placed in nomination and added to the ballot. The ballots will be published and distributed in early February, 2010. The voting period will run from February 10th thru March 31st, 2010.

Candidates should file the following documents:

A brief letter stating one’s intent to run for DUFF 2010.

Five letters of nomination, three from North America and two from Australia or New Zealand. E-mailed letters are acceptable.

A 100 word or less platform statement specifying the candidate’s reasons for running and qualifications for becoming the 2010 DUFF delegate.

An entry fee of $25.00USD (which will be added to the current DUFF account).

The duties of the winning candidate will be as follows:

Travel to Australia and attend Aussiecon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention on September 2-6, 2010 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Visit and get to know as many Australian Science Fiction fans as time will permit.

Become the DUFF administrator for the term running from Aussiecon 4 thru the 51st Australian National Convention (NatCon) to be held in 2012.

Raise funds and maintain an account to be used by the next southbound delegate(s) in 2012.

Publish a trip report covering the time of one’s travels in Australia and attendance at the convention.

Please send all documents and fees to the current DUFF administrators:

Steve and Sue Francis
PO Box 58009
Louisville KY 40268-0009
sjf1138@aol.com
sfsue@aol.com

Travel Alarm Clock

On the first day in LA I could not get the alarm clock to set. I could get it to tell the time and then it would not move forward.

I thought that I was just stupid and overwhelmed by jetlag so I handed it over to my friend Tracy. Who could not get the time sensor to move forward but who did get the alarm to go off periodically.

So we handed it over to *thefourthvine * who said she was seldom beaten by technology. And then it still didn't tell the time properly but it did go into a frenzy of playing *You are my sunshine* over and over without stopping until the batteries were removed.

So I handed the alarm clock over to *thefourthvine* who took it away, muttering that she would not be defeated by the machine.

Phone

All those following my anguished cries from America will know that my Australian phone did not work. And the various ones I bought in America and Canada were stupid things that I could barely get to text within the cities and certainly could not use to phone home.

I failed to achieve my goal of being accessible so that my mother could phone me if something went wrong. Instead I was only able to contact my Mum on the landline from the hotels. (And even that was incredibly difficult - the landline phone in the hotel in LA did not work, got no dial tone, had to be replaced.)

Which is, frankly, ridiculous. It was actually harder to phone home this time than in the 90s because at least then there were operators you could call.

This was such a source of frustration and difficulty to me - it actually reduced me to tears several times. I know - I checked several times - that I was dialling the right numbers and yet the phones I had simply would not connect with Australia. As far as I am concerned, telecommunications seems to have gone backwards in the past decade.

Breast Pump

I had thought this would be the most difficult form of technology to use while I was away. On one hand, there was the danger of mastitis if the pump was not efficient enough; on the other, the danger of losing my milk altogether.

I planned to use my own pump with batteries on the plane and then buy an American one that would plug in and use the right voltage in North America. But the battery-operated pump turned out to be so successful that I just stayed with that and followed a pump'n'dump regime.

I could get one to two goes from each set of batteries so I went through a heck of a lot of batteries (um, about 16-20 a day I guess). But this was still easier than buying one that plugged into the wall. (And I did leave them behind me with little notes attached saying that they still had juice, just not enough for my purposes).

The worst experience pumping was undoubtedly the JFK airport toilet (aka hell hole of misery). I would place that as more disgusting than even the occasion on which I accidentally dropped the horn into a rubbish bin in a public park in New York. Yes, reaching into the bin to get it back out was less gross than using the airport toilets.**

** And WASH it at the next available opportunity. I had been pumping in a park so no toilets there.

On my Duff trip Moshe Feder very kindly took me on an amazing tour of New York.

I just want to make a few posts about some of the art I saw there.

First, Arturo di Modica made this as an example of 'guerilla art'. During the 1987 depression he left it on Wall Street. The City of New York has kept it on 'temporary' display.

It has gained a cult following, which I find very amusing. Because when you think about it a bull on Wall St is really just as dangerous as a bear.


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I may be misremembering what Moshe said about this, but I think this sculpture is all that remains of the Twin Towers. It was in the plaza out the front?

I could not find anything on the internet about, but I expect that it was originally intended to play with space as a form of public sculpture. The meaning of this art has been completely altered.

After the 11th of September it was almost all that was left. It came through with some holes bashed in the top. It is now sitting as a form of memorial, in the absence of any official one yet developed.

I feel like I don't have words to discuss something so profound - I just want to focus on this one time aspect. That the artist's original intentions with this work are now virtually irrelevant. What it now stands for is a memorial.

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And here is a gorgeous 19th century sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I have no profound thoughts about the role of the viewer in interpreting/making this art. I just liked it.

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While I was at Anticipation I gave a PowerPoint presentation on art journalling. I mentioned that I would put it up on my lj.

It turns out to be too big to upload here, but just let me know if you would like to see it and I will email it to you.

This was my favourite panel I was on. As I suspected, I could not hook my Mac up to the projector, but as I anticipated, there was only a small audience so I just passed the laptop around.

I like small group discussions. Two other people had brought their wonderful journals along and we had a really interesting discussion about why you might want to keep a visual record of your day - scientific sketches, keeping track of botany that you see, record of a holiday or special occasion, emotional catharsis.

And here I am on the DUFF trip, being menaced by monstrous dinosaurs!

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he best - I really loved the art show. It was great! I understand that it was a small show by North American standards, but at least four times bigger than I had seen before. And such a great range of really beautiful stuff. I bought four things, could have been much, much more.

The staff were incredibly nice in showing me how to run things. I didn't spend as much time there as I had planned, as I was so fiendishly busy running (hobbling) from event to event. But I could see how beautifully organised they were.

The worst - I had anticipated that the dealers' room would be a magnificent array of fannish temptations. But it was actually fairly small. Bigger than I am used to, of course, but not terribly exciting.

And all the same. Stall after stall offering Neil Gaiman books and not much else. I had planned to spend a lot more money there than I did, and pretty much everything I bought while I was there was from the NESFA stall and a few independent publishers. (I was corrected when I called them small publishers).

I know it was because of difficulties in crossing the border, but it was nonetheless a disappointment.

And Pearl - She has learned to do so much while I was away! Yesterday pulled herself up to her feet. (Though I notice that she doesn't really bare any weight on her left foot, it turns under in a floppy way, which I will point out to the physio tomorrow).

She also is very excited by her new found ability to shuffle across the room to get to things and people. She enjoys coming when called.

OK, here's a very brief, edited set of highlights.

Best thing about the trip - The Hugo awards! I really loved the whole pomp and circumstance!

Along with the TAFF (Steve) and CUFF (LeAmber) delegates, I got to hand out the Hugo for best fannish artist.

This was great on lots of levels. One, a HUGO! How fabulous.

And then, the guy who won, Frank Wu, was so excited that he literally grabbed hold of the Hugo and ran back and forth across the stage making rocket noises.

And also, it was so interesting to basically be on a professional stage. It was lit, there were big screens blowing up what was happening, it was properly filmed. We did a run through that actually involved blocking it out for the camera. I had to step up to the podium, then step right while Steve spoke, then left as LeAmber spoke, then off to the side while the Hugo was awarded. (Note: during the run through there was no usher, so it was totally not my fault that I stepped sideways into the usher in the actual presentation).

Worst thing - My feet swelled up in New York. It was humid and I walked for miles and miles. And, alas, they did not really go down in Montreal.

The convention centre was enormous so I was hobbling up and down the corridors with blisters on my feet from them swelling up so they did not fit my shoes anymore.

And best thing about coming home - The whole milk thing worked out so well. Pearl took to the bottles of expressed breast milk while I was away. There were two packages of frozen milk left when I returned. And then she just leapt back into breastfeeding.

I had actually assumed she wouldn't want to. She is fifteen months old now and I thought she would pooh-pooh the breast. I only kept my milk up by pumping while I was away because I thought I would offer her the option. She should wean at her own time.

BTW: People in North America were *individually* very supportive of breastfeeding. Comments I got included 'that's lovely', 'you are taking good care of your baby' and 'that's beautiful'.*

But it was *architecturally* really hard. There was nowhere, nowhere to feed. I asked at the information centres at several airports and they did not seem to have even the concept of a mothers' room. I had to use the toilets, really gross, hard to pump, impossible to keep clean (luckily I was only pumping to dump, not to use). It is so much harder to express while standing, as a queue of people walk by, in a hot, humid room, to the noise of flushing toilets.

The design of public spaces does not seem to be in line with what I experienced as a cultural acceptance of breastfeeding.




* And, OK, 'that reminds me of a movie where they are pumping bile out of a rat'. Thanks lady. Also, remind me never to watch that movie.

Fire bad, con pretty.

Got to WorldCon and realised I absolutely have to have a phone. Got one with great effort. New number 514 996 1626.

Instructions in it now in English but using it still problematic.

Con v big.

Enjoying every part of this trip except the constant struggle with the phone. Now cannot text Americans either.

Phone will not work at all in Canada - and I give up. I am not spending any more time on trying to get what should be easy technology to work.

Other than this, all good.

New York has many bookshops.

It's at the Palais des Congrès, Room 518BC, at 5:00pm (Heure Avancée de l'Est) on Saturday for the Fan Funds Auction at Anticipation.

I can bring bids from Oz, if you are interested... note that you could bid on a Tuckerisation (getting your name in a written work in the guise of a character) by Neil Gaiman. (Note too that this is an as yet unspecified work to be produced in the next five years).

But how cool would that be?

That's what I get from typing when exhausted.

My phone number is 562 331 6714.

Checks, yes, it is.

Got free upgrade in St Pauls from room to palace. Amazingly nice.

Travel looks so cool and exciting in sf. Space ships are always so shiny and new.* No one gets space sick or bored while traveling.**



* With the exception of the Millenium Falcon and Serenity.

** Except possibly Leonard McCoy.

The Australian phone does not work. Alas. The number on my new, cheap mobile is 562 331 6714.

Cheers

Edited to add the vital extra digit.

Off to Worldcon...

I'm nearly ready to go. I've bought some American and Canadian money. The Canadian looks a bit like ours, but made of paper not plastic.

I had thought American notes were all identical (which I have always thought was an invitation to a law suit from the visually impaired) but the tens are yellow. I assume it is real tender, not the monopoly money it appears to be.