Worldcon 2015 - Davenport Historical and Parties...I Mean Meetups

As most conventions of any size do, the Worldcon 2015 room parties...I mean meetups...were held in the Davenport Historic. They had to change the name of room parties to meet-ups because the hotel management did not like the connotations.

The Davenport historic is a beautiful place filled with early 1900's charm without the class and racial barriers.

Even the coffee stall looks classy!

There were meetups for book publishers, clubs, and Worldcon bid parties in the rooms. It was fun to climb or descend floor by floor to sample the conversation, food and drink that each meet-up had to offer. They generally started at 8pm and continued till the am.

The convention rate was reasonable for the rooms here as well, only $10 more than our hotel! It was a 15 minute walk away though from the majority of the panels although some panels were here. Above is the Girl Genius ball where earlier there was a two hour class of dances from 1700-1910's.

Steam Plant Restauraunt

The Stacks pub at the Steam Plant in Spokane is a very cool refurbished establishment. restaurant

The outside was left the way it was, sans grime and soot.

The interior was awesomely done up. Could be used for a movie shoot.

Myself and my wife started with the Caprese salad (Heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella drizzled with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and presented on a bed of arugula. Garnished with a basil chiffonade).

I had for a main the butternut gnoccii (Oven-roasted tomatoes, crimini mushrooms and squash sautéed with garlic, basil and shallots. Finished in a butternut squash sauce and presented with gnocchi. Garnished with a basil pesto and complemented with a slice of grilled garlic bread) with a vanilla bourbon double stack stout.

I preferred my wife's smoked salmon pasta (Wild Alaskan salmon brined in Highland Scottish Ale, smoked over alder wood then sautéed with crimini mushrooms and roasted red and yellow peppers. Finished in a light garlic white wine cream sauce, served over pappardelle noodles and garnished with feta crumbles, tomatoes and green onions. Complemented with a slice of grilled garlic bread) but my meal was average. The beer and salad were great. I'd eat here again.

Worldcon 2015 - Thursday

Thursday in Spokane at Worldcon 2015 the sky began to darken, due to smoke from nearby fires.

Steampunk, Colonialism and Imperialism; Chales Stross, Arthur Chu, Beth Cato, Warren Frey, Leigh Ann Hildebrand. An excellent deconstruction of the genre. It was also a deeper look at how people can gloss over or ignore the unpleasant things of history and fact to get to the story and the fun (ie; ignoring the huge gaps in wealth and privilege in a Victorian industrial age). Also learned new terms like Biopunk (Flintstones), Hedgepunk (Wall Street), and Silverpunk (Asian).

Anatomy of a Pandemic; Sam Scheiner, Dominick D'Aunno, Gregory Gadow, Perrian Lurie. Step by step guide on making your disease/virus/sickness believable. They all agreed that the film Contagion was the best example of doing it right and that many, many forms of entertainment get it wrong.

Vesta and the Chaotic Formation of Planets; Brother Guy Consolmagno. A detailed presentation of the asteroid Vesta, what it is made of and how it and the asteroid belt was formed. Another excellent presentation by this fellow. Noted that Vesta is important in that it is the only know asteroid made up of mostly basalts and that it is five million years older than other asteroids and meteorites.

Medieval Science and Engineering; Bradford Lyau, Brother Guy Consolmagno, Ada Palmer, Jo Walton, Eric Swedin. Described how throughout the middle ages there were societies that did not understand the technology that came before and how some thought they were created by people who were more advanced (better organized, learned and better off). Also discussed was the drive to more religious things during troubled times, and how when we see historical art in museums it is the best 1% of 1%. Also how people in the middle ages did not think of time as we do and some things that were created in the era of the middle ages were thought of as being created by the ancients only a few generations afterwards.

Art and Science of Spaceships; Brooks Peck, Alan Boyle, Joe Haldeman, Edward M Lerner, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro. Much of the discussion was on how difficult realistic starships (those that travel from one star system to another) take to get built and get to where they are going. It also went into the social problems of a generational starship and how the people might not want to get off once they get to their destination.

Madelene's

Madelene's is a great place for breakfast and lunches. You do have to order first and then you are served later, which makes it problematic if there are lots of people in line for their morning coffee and pastry!

I had the Country Scramble (Red potatoes, ham, bell peppers,red onion, mushrooms, zucchini, and scrambled eggs, topped with sausage gravy and cheddar cheese) and chai. It was delicious and filling. Not too filling because after trying my wife's pastry I ordered their pain de chocolate to go and it was the best I’ve ever had (and I’ve had a few). I also ordered a Turkey Apple sandwich to go (Turkey, Apple, Basil Pesto, Greens on Wheat Bread) and it too was very filling.

We went here again the next day for the pain de chocolat so we'd eat here again.

Sarnac Public House

The Sarnac Public House is a neighbourhood pub that has great brews and food, and was also near the convention center.

I had the Thai stirfry with tofu with vegetables. The tofu was grilled and looked like chicken. Delicious. The beer was a River City Vanilla Burbon Stout, also delicious.

Worldcon 2015 - Wednesday

Wednesday at Worldcon started out slow, as the panels I was interested in did not begin till noon. Until then I wandered around the main area, pictured above. I was glad I registered the evening before but the lineups did move along quickly.

Best Writing Advice I Was Ever Given; David Gerrold (GoH), Bobbie Benton Hall, P.C. Hodgell, David D Levigne. A great panel on writing and it could have been applied to starting anything. The main takeaways were to write often, write lots, and if someone tells you you should not be a writer and stop then you were never meant to be a writer. If you get angry and focus that anger into your work then you are a writer.

Being Creative: How do you get an idea?; Daniel Spector, Brad Foster, Theresa Halbert, Jeff Sturgeon, Alan F Beck. Geared to artists it was equally applied to any creative activity. It was an interesting look at the way artists developed ideas to fruition.

Hard SF Movies: Are they still making them?; Connie Willis, Fonda Lee, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro. Takeaways were how to create a hard SF world without making it too bogged down in science (handwave very limitedly and be consistent) and that Connie Willis is not only a popular writer but she's funny too. Have to try to see some of their movie favorites made in recent years, like Predestination, Primer, Ex Machina, Her and Time Crimes.

Girl Genius Radio Theater; Phil and Kaja Foglio. As always, the hastily written radio play used members of the audience and the hour and a half show was entertaining and hilarious. Head to the link for free comics and great times.

Discarded Worlds: Astronomical Ideas that were almost correct; Brother Guy Consolmagno. This presenter recently won the Carl Sagan Medal for his public speaking on science and he gave a 90 minute lecture on the above topic. He went over the various theories and "facts" throughout history that almost were correct until new data came around. His main takaway is that the science community is like a family; it listens, it makes mistakes, it criticizes, and it corrects but above all it learns from its mistakes and corrects itself with the help of the whole.

That was my first day at my first Worldcon. Great fun and learning with laughs thrown in.

Common Crumb Bakery

The Common Crumb is a great little bakery in Spokane. Its open very early so its good for when you and your spouse are exited about their first Worldcon.

I had the Sante ham and cheese croissant and it was wonderfully flaky and buttery. I also had the pasta salad with apricot, zucchini and carrots. I generally do not have apricots but this salad was fantastic with them.
 

They also have lots of great little treats.

Worldcon 2015 - Tuesday

A view of the river outside the convention center

I was planning to go to Worldcon 2015 (Sasquan) in Spokane on my own, but my wife was also able to get time off work. Yay!

We flew by plane and got there on Tuesday, a day earlier than the convention started. This was to unpack and get familiar with the surrounding area so we would be ready to start off when the panels began at 10am on Wednesday. Except for the difficulty and time spent at customs, security and getting to our gate it was not a bad flight.

We stayed at the Doubletree nestled right in the midle of the convention hall. We also lucked out and got a room on the 3rd floor, the same floor as the passageway to the convention center! Yay! The room also had a fridge so were were able to put delecate items requiring cold to keep them safe.

We were able to register and get our swag this evening so we would not have to worry about long lines. The Spokane convention center is massive!

We ate at Borracho's Tacos and Tequila (see link for details). Then went to Merlyn's Gamestore (see link) and finally the Main Market, a great small scale co-op grocery store with many local items. There is a lot of great shops and resteraunts in downtown Spokane.

Borracho Tacos and Tequila

We arrived in Spokane for Worldcon and thought that the nearby Borracho Tacos and Teqila would be a good place to start.

The atmosphere is nouveau-trendy with people looking fabulous and eating before they do fabulous things. Why I didn't mind was the great service, food and cheap prices on the Tuesday night that I was here.

They had six different street style tacos and I had one of each (for a dollar each), a tortilla soup and some vegetables. They were all tasty and filling.

Postcard of the Interwebs - 14 Aug 2015

Step by Step in Case of a Car Accident: Even though the contact information is gear to residents of the USA, it is good advice applicable all over the world.

Space Suits throughout History: Uber cool!

Cheeses: For those who want to try the different types of cheeses, a handy wheel for you.

Fermi Paradox: Are we the only life in the universe? This excellent series of images and commentary help to explain the theory and possibilities.

How to be more Productive: Lots of helpful hints with creepy drawings of people.

Pig Organ Transplants: Could be a great breakthrough once people get over the modified pigs.

Rat Park: Comic strip on Bruce Alexander's research into what drug addiction is and what are its causes.

A Frog in my Garden

When I was watering my garden plants, this little guy jumped out of my potted cilantro. Anyone know what it is?