Foolscap Ends

It's interesting to leave a place, interesting even to think about it. Leaving reminds us of what we can part with and what we can't, then offers us something new to look forward to, to dream about.
-- Richard Ford

Sunday, September 30, 2001

I felt better today, no more headache. Jack and I got up in time to drive down to the hotel; he was moderating the first panel, on nanotech. I was impressed with Thomas Hopp's contributions. I didn't know that he'd worked in biotech since the eighties! The company he worked for, Immunotech, has the patent on one of the first actual working nanotech tools -- a "handle" for flagging proteins, and the enzyme that detaches the handle after you are done. I think I'll actually have to go out and buy Hopp's book! His main concern was to add reality to folks' ideas about the scope of current nano acheivements. There hasn't been too much progress, really. I think we need a toolkit of basic biotech that can do various simple "things", that could combine to make things happen.

One of the best features of Foolscap is the banquet brunch. I especially liked the salmon, and the shrimp was good, too -- not mushy. We sat at a table with Jerry Kaufman and Suzle Tompkins. We talked with another woman about book collecting (she's a dealer), and how the value of older books can really vary by genre.

I bid on several items at the auction, which benefitted Foolscap itself. Fortunately for my bank balance, I didn't win any stuff. I'd have liked the necklace made by Margaret Organ-Kean, since she doesn't create too many these days. But on the other hand, I don't wear necklaces often at all, because they aren't good for dancing in.

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After the auction, we attended Robin Hobb's GoH program item. I liked her gentle manner, and hadn't realized she's spent a lot of time in the Seattle area. Wizard of the Pigeons is set here, apparently, and sounds quite appealing. She talked a lot about how and why she changed the name she writes under, from Meghan Lindholm to Robin Hobb. I think we did well at asking good questions, given that not all of us had read her stuff. But I don't think she understood my question, which was why she uses the term "byline" and not the word "pseudonym."

Jack, Paul Carpentier, Julie, and I all went down the hall to the restuarant/bar for a beverage. We were the only folks there! It was totally empty. We talked about Vikingcon, and talked over Foolscap also. A very relaxing hour.

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Our last Foolscap program item was the "onions and roses" discussion, where con members talk about what went well or badly, and the committee members are supposed to sit there and take it. One idea that popped up was to have a headdress or hat making workshop on the Friday night of the convention. I spoke a bit about what the Fremont Arts Center does for the Solstice feast, collecting sparkly or funny things all year and putting them together into headbands or hats as a big group project. I don't think this is something I want to take on as my own project, though! But maybe I'll feel more like it after Potlatch is done.

Jack and I both felt that the hour-and-a-half time slots for program items were too long; several discussions just ran out of gas (or I ran out of patience). But maybe it's just that the moderators need "permission" to call a halt shortly after the hour mark. Certainly some folks felt that the timing was just fine.

It must be almost impossible for concom members to refrain from responding to people's issues with "yes, but...." but that's what they are supposed to do at a meeting like this. Unfortunately there was a bit of answering back. At times the committee members got so involved in talking among themselves that it almost devolved into a meeting!

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We spent a quiet evening at home.