I has a cold

Nothing major, just enough to feel vaguely ill. Coughing gloop but seem to be holding my own for now. Yay fall. Pepper is sneezing more again - think it's time for another few days of StinkyBox treatments.

I'm sort of uncomfy about the Obama Nobel win - I know that technically the award criteria are not specifically for past deeds and allow for the award to be an encouragement of present and future efforts. However, based on the strict nominating deadlines used by the Nobel Committee, he was nominated only 12 days after he was elected. While I'm in general a big Obama fan, this seems to be primarily a case of getting an award for Not Being George Bush. Which to be fair LOTS of people are good at.

Have FINALLY gotten a reply from the Special Events person at Windycon - technically my boss, except I hadn't heard boo from him since he asked me to take the job in June. With the convention a month away I finally have the names and contact info for the people I need to talk to about room size, awards, tech, computer stuff, etc. So at least I'm making headway on THAT front. Still don't have final info from Programming about what if anything is being cut - need to make sure all my people remain eligible for their refunds - but at least that info is only a week late. I am *so* not doing this again - If I take on a job I want to do it *right*, and the fact that I have to continually wait on other people is very frustrating.

Pepper and I are headed to Ohio for the weekend of the 24-25 for a CheezMeet with some of the folks from the YahooGroup that spun off of ICanHasCheezburger. We're taking the train to Michigan City IN and then riding down in the morning with some locals, who promise to return me to the train station in time for the last run back to the city at 9:20. They are very excited to meet the famous PepperBun. I'm sharing a 2-rm 3-bed suite with 2 other women, so it's not too spendy. Pepper and I have the other room and the foldy couch, so as to limit any unauthorized nibbling.

Speaking of nibbling, there are a LOT of Stronghold pics popping up on Facebook, and there are quite a few shots of me and Nibbles. Yay for snuggly bunny-muffs. (And Karen, that merchant had no idea that was the Queen in Civvies who stopped by Sunday morning until I told her)

Saturday is errand-running and I also need to do some work in/on the studio. I took the old plastic shelves down a few weeks ago and haven't really reorganized things since. I have some cool prop ideas and need to start laying in with the spraypaint - which means I need to do a bootleg run as it is illegal to sell spray paint within Chicago city limits. I also have to prep my documentation for the City Building Dept. Hearing on Tuesday afternoon, and maybe clean out my closets.

Mail Merge Masquerade

I never got any forms, paperwork, or anything from the person who usually runs the masquerade at Windycon. But actually, i think that's turning out to be a blessing. I can start from scratch, use the things I've seen work at other conventions, and use my admin skills to make it happen.

This is why we are having a Mail Merge Masquerade.

I majorly cribbed from the Marcon masquerade packet, since they are pretty much the Gold Standard as far as I'm concerned. People registering will get a 3-page handout. Page 1 is the org stuff - contact info, who is in the entry, badge numbers, etc. Page 2 is the info on the entry - what it is, who made it, what is it from, tell me a little about it, are you entering any of it for prejudging and did you bring a CD. Page 3 is for tech - how do you want the lights at first, and when do they come up, when do they start the sound, what is the cue for the lights out, etc.

Then I can pop all the data into a spreadsheet, and then merge to create the forms I need. These will include separate Lighting and Sound cue sheets, PreJudging notes, an ordered list of entries and names (so the judges know who was who) and even an MC script in nice big type so the poor bastard doesn't have to read penciled handwriting in the dark. We could even print programs if we wanted to!

I'm sure that there are other ways to do it, but this will work and I know the programs in my sleep. It was a slow day at work so I laid out the functionality of it this afternoon. I'm sure I'll tweak things a bit and pretty them up some before the con, but I have a working system now.