Making Light recently published some fascinating, though useless to me, advice on how to throw a room party at Worldcon. And the end of the post they link to an older, equally fascinating post on how to attend Worldcon. I've never been to an sf convention, much less a Worldcon. Though it seems to me that much of the advice for Worldcon attendees applies to art car events. Especially the advice about getting adequate food, sleep, and quiet time. Over the past couple of years I've learned that maintaining some control over my environment is essential to enjoying an art car event. If I have the ability to get back to my hotel room for an hour of a/c and quiet, I am going to enjoy the event so much more than if I'm trapped in a parking lot all day. Bringing a cooler, so I always have good food at hand, has also helped immensely.
This is the best line: "Another sign of trouble is that you suddenly realize that all your friends hate you, you’re having an awful time, you've made a fool of yourself in every conversation you’ve been in so far, and you should never have come to the convention. This is definitely a sign that you should go back to your room and take a nap. When you wake up, things will be better." So true!
The weird thing is, after reading the post on Making Light yesterday, I had a nightmare about losing my temper at an art car event last night! I dreamed that I was at a PR thing for an art car event. There was a woman doing TV interviews and we were all waiting our turn to be interviewed. (Just like Mt. Dora, except it wasn't the same woman.) I was talking with some of my friends, and then I looked over and saw another driver being interviewed in front of UMJ, pretending it was his car! It was an obnoxious guy I knew from events and didn't like at all. (I hasten to add, the person in the dream was not a real art car driver. There's no one in the art car world that I have such negative feelings about. I really like just about everyone I've met.)
Anyway when I saw this guy pretending to be me, I ran over and got between him and the TV woman. I put my hand on his face (so my palm was basically covering his face), pushed him away from UMJ and snapped at the TV woman, "This interview is over!" Then some other stuff happened that I don't remember, except an intense feeling of remorse for using violence against the obnoxious guy. I knew that I had crossed a major line. Pushing a guy by his face? I don't know where that even came from.
2 Comments
I suspect the advice about taking a nap is applicable to many different situations. One of the best pieces of mechanical advice I've ever seen came from the instruction booklet for a low-tech British knitting machine. Essentially, it said "If you're working late at night, and you find you're inexplicably getting lots of snags and dropped stitches, quit. Go to bed. You'll find it works better in the morning." They were right.
Hi Teresa! I've noticed the same thing about sewing: machine malfunctions, or what appear to be malfunctions, almost always happen late when I'm tired. The next day the machine is either fine, or I can easily see what I did to cause the malfunction.
Unrelated to Teresa's comment, I should add that in my dream, my remorse over pushing the imposter was offset by satisfaction in knowing that my outburst had worked. And that a more passive approach, i.e. asking him nicely to stop, would not have. I think there's a lesson in there, though it's probably not "violence is the solution." Probably more like "stand up for myself even if it means not being 'nice.'"