We gotta get out of this place

[austin_dern]

We went just across the street, to Panera, for lunch. This avoided the highway traffic jam --- we'd manage to do that at least on Sunday --- and let us get over to Kroger right after. I was slated to run the Procyonids SIG, and for that would be getting some trash bins for the ceremonial Tipping Over Of The Trash Bins, to reveal candy within. For this I needed candy to put in the bins. We got a couple fun-size packs of things, some Andes mints which would prove very popular, that sort of thing. We couldn't find any party-favor type toys, though. A plastic ring from last year's bin became an armband for my guinea pig puppet, quite successfully. Nothing like that this year.

We got to the Bunnies SIG, and went up and down the hall calling for people who liked rabbits or talking about rabbits to come on in and talk about that, but ... there wasn't much. A couple of people stopped in for a few moments but it was mostly the two of us, plus that friend mentioned from Saturday, hanging out a while. Morphicon was the last convention with a strong species SIG track that we still go to, and it wasn't very strong this year. We realized later there wasn't even a dragons or reptiles SIG, and neither the bunny or procyonid SIG would be well-attended. We missed the Rodents SIG because that ran against my mucking panel, too, but that was just bad luck. I'm curious what happened at the Felines SIG.

The Procyonids SIG was a little better-attended but mostly by virtue of the people who had been there for Bunnies sticking around, plus picking up the guy giving me the trash bins from previous cons. I seem to have become the official holder of the Procyonids SIG trash bins and I hope I'll do honor to them. I was disappointed there wasn't more turnout for this, especially given the movies to talk about --- Guardians of the Galaxy, Jungle Shuffle, Quatsch Ind Die Nasenbaerbande, that sort of thing. When the panel was over I took the uneaten candy and distributed some at Con Suite, some in the gaming room by people working hard upon their beads, and some to the Ice Cream Social.

And the Ice Cream Social was one more thing. I had come as a Sponsor rather than mere attendee because I thought bunny_hugger was too; but, really, the Ice Cream Social was the only thing that I did that she wasn't able to do. They'd had a couple of ice creams including a lactose-free version that I gave a try. It seemed to fit somewhere in the conceptual universe between ice cream and Italian ices. I tossed out the rest of the Procyonids SIG candy here, to people who had no idea why there were Andes Mints or whatnot around but who were glad to have them. I tried advertising them as being from the Procyonids SIG; never too soon to uselessly advertise for next year.

And after that, in the same room, was supposed to be a ``So You Want To Be A Better Programmer'' panel. Computer programmer, convention events programmer? I wasn't sure and the full-sized con booklet was in a whole other room. It didn't matter anyway; apparently the thing was to be run by Draggor, who was still sick. His Furry Puppetry panel --- scheduled opposite the Procyonids SIG --- had also been cancelled. (Also opposite the Procyonids SIG: a Retro Gaming SIG we probably would've gone to if that were possible; and an Amateur Power Lifting event that got cancelled.) It ended up being a bunch of hanging around and people talking over the dregs of ice cream and candy.

Trivia: The sixth month of the Babylonian calendar, Kinninni, was dubbed Ululu in the Semitic calendar and Hyperberetaios in the Seleucid calendar. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, EG Richards.

Currently Reading: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2015. Editor C C Finlay.