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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded inFarthing Party's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013
_5:24 pm_[beable] A matter of a pinion I have inflicted the crow/raven pinion pun from Saturday's panel onto another friend of mine (known from Wiscon rather than Farthing Party) whom loves all things corvid, and also likes to inflict things like "Iron Bulwer-Lytton" contests on the world.My day is now complete. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 1st, 2013
_12:15 am_[davidgoldfarb] The necklace conspiracy Many of you will have heard of this already, but I think it bears recording.Not quite a month ago, I was in a hotel room in San Antonio thinking about the Worldcon just ended, and looking forward to the Farthing Party still to come. I thought about all the work that Jo has put into Farthing Parties over the years -- dealing with hotels, worrying about room blocks, organizing programming, opening her home to us and sharing with us food and drink. And it seemed to me that it would be a good thing to give her some kind of reward.It didn't take much further thought about what Jo would like, to come up with commissioning a necklace from elisem. So I sent out emails, and people pledged money towards the project. I got to present it at the Saturday night party, and many people as well contributed money there.Here is a list of all the people who contributed (in an order contributed by random.org):Emily Frawley & Tucker McKinnonSeth BreidbartVicki Rosenzweig & Andy HickmottJonathan Crowe & Jennifer SeelyTheresa Mecklenborg & Brooks MosesBeth FriedmanDebra Doyle & Jim MacdonaldJessica CohenFrances K R & Chelle ParkerJoel PolowinAlison SinclairCenk GokceCath Jackel & Bill HatelyShana RosenfeldMatthew SurridgeAlter ReissChristopher K. DavisMarissa Lingen & Tim CooperAdrienne Seel, Eugene Heller, & Alison WallPatrick & Teresa Nielsen HaydenDuncan MacGregorRené WallingCaroline-Isabelle CaronETA: And Don Fitch was inspired by this post to contribute, as well.On the necklace itself, Elise outdid herself. She said that the project attracted to itself a number of beads that she had thought were going to be pendants -- it has agatized dinosaur bone, and fossil coral, and boulder opal, and lava from Iceland, "and and and...."I was stunned. For myself, I could not be happier with how it turned out.Its name is "ibidem", which is Latin for "in the same place". Elise said further:_And that's what Farthing Party has always felt like to me: somehow, no matter which hotel we happen to use that year, and which combination of people we happen to get, we're all together again in the same place, that glorious place where we talk and think and laugh and learn and share and embrace. Also, it's a bit of a joke, because so many of the beads are landscapes or places, and while they aren't all of the "same place" by any means, they're all of the realm of story. And that's our place, too. And even though I don't happen to be coming to Farthing Party in person this year, I'll still be in that place with all of you, in my heart, sharing stories and seeing the look on Jo's face and greeting everybody who's made it back to The Same Place, as it were._Here's one of the pictures Elise took when it was done:the necklace And you can see the full gallery at Elise's site. (Well worth checking out!) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 27th, 2013
_11:36 am_[webbob] A Good Time will be Had by All My best wishes to all of you at the final Farthing Party. I was at the first and had planned to be at the last, but it has not worked out. In fact, I filled out the paperwork for a vacation this weekend back in March, but my employer appears to have misplaced it (or else I did before submitting it) and that was a problem.Also, a cold which had been waiting in the wings took its cue from a week of deliberate extraversion in job interviews and has been in center stage since Wednesday night. I don't think it's likely that I'd pass it along, but I sure am tired.I'm finding all of this particularly unfortunate because I am feeling more communicative and less anxious about traveling to a convention than I have in years. I had prepared a couple of conversation-starting ideas for the weekend:I thought that perhaps building a foldable mini-spectrometer for smartphones might be of interesting to my friends (known and those yet strangers) interested in seeing new dimensions in minerals (in natural forms, glazes, and even frits (though not frites)). Of course, you can follow that link to the Public Lab site and have fun with electron energy levels without me. The inexpensive desktop spectrometer might also be of interest.I have been repurposing the membership badge from the Open Hardware Summit to run a slide show of fanzine illos. I would have liked to share it with you and perhaps have triggered some new ideas for projects. Well, some other time and place, I guess, and perhaps in a more complete state, e.g. with built-in lighting and perhaps even additional controls and better processing to prepare images for display.Anyway, I hope that you are all having fun up there, and I look forward to seeing (and meeting) more of you on some other occasion.Jo, the first Farthing Party was great fun for me, and I'm sure the FPs from then until now have been wonderful also. Thank you for your hospitality and generosity, and may your work continue to bring you the readership and accolades you so truly deserve. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
_10:14 pm_[hittite] Memberships I am finally back from the US and am fully caught up with the physical checks, cash at San Antonio, and PayPal memberships, so if you have sent in your membership and have not got a receipt from me, please let me know asap, at the farthingparty e-mail address and I'll look into it. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
_10:12 pm_[hittite] Anyone who has a room booked and need a room-mate? In between booking hotels for ReaderCon, WorldCon and NASA Houston visit, I totally blanked out on booking accomodations for FarthingParty, so if anyone needs/wants a roommate, let me know at my e-mail cenk dot gokce at gmail dot com. Worst case I'll get something at the youth hostel or something but it would be much more convenient to be at the con hotel, for obvious reasons. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 5th, 2013
_10:56 pm_[dlacey] Aaargh! After purchasing a membership at LoneStarCon 3 last week, I have discovered that I have another commitment for that weekend, that I must attend.Am I able to transfer my membership? And, if so, is anybody interested in purchasing it? (Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 20th, 2013
_10:37 am_[jenett] Room reminder This is your 'week from end of room block' reminder that our room block deadline is August 27th. If you have not booked yet, please do so this week. (And as always, please let me know if they appear to be out of the kind of room you want or have any other problems.)In slightly related news, my hoped-for roommate isn't going to be able to make it: if you want to split a double with me, I would be glad to discuss (It's currently booked to arrive Thursday, leave Monday, though I'm still trying to figure out if I'm coming up on Thursday or on Friday. I come with references.) (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 12th, 2013
_9:52 am_[davidlevine] Unable to attend With great regret, we find that we are unable to attend Farthing Party as we had hoped. kateyule is going to have surgery on her knee and will be unable to travel at that time.Is there any possibility we can get a refund of our membership payment? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 5th, 2013
_5:26 pm_[jenett] Additional hotel block Sorry it took a few days, but they have now added rooms of all kinds to the room block (particularly classic for Thursday-Monday), and I've just tested that it works. If you have other problems, or aren't sure about your reservations, please do let me know! (I'm going to be travelling Aug 10-18, but will still see email/posts here, just a bit less frequently than usual maybe.) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 30th, 2013
_3:18 pm_[ext_932718] Books to give away I'm paring down my collection of books (to make room for more books :D) and am offering some of them here in the hopes that they find good homes.A bit torn between the opposing desires of 1) making sure they all get passed along and 2) giving everyone a chance at them, so for now it will be first come first served and the first 3 books on your want list are yours. The rest of your list will also be yours unless someone else lists them in their first 3 books. Does that make sense? Just post a reply with the books that you want. I'm driving in from GTA, so will only be bringing the books that are requested.edited to add 21 Sept. 2013: Not nearly as much interest as I had hoped. Besides the books requested by grimmwire, I guess I'll be donating the rest to a community library.( Book list after the cutCollapse ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 29th, 2013
_7:01 pm_[davidgoldfarb] Looking for a roommate I'm looking for someone who wants to split hotel room costs with me. I can produce references if needed that I'm a good person to share a room with! (It just happens that the people I've roomed with before are either not coming this year or else have already made arrangements with someone else.) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 17th, 2013
_2:31 pm_[jenett] Hotel reminder This is your "Oh, right, it's mid-July" reminder about hotel reservations. All the relevant info is in the original post about the hotel. Our deadline for the room block is August 27, so please book before then. (I'll put up a reminder about 10 days out too.)As always, please let me know if the hotel tells you something unexpected. (You can reach me by comment here, by PM, or by email - jenettsilver at gmail works. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 11th, 2013
_10:22 am_[davidgoldfarb] Looking for a roommate I'm looking for someone to split room costs with me. I can provide references as to my suitability, if needed. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 19th, 2013
_10:57 am_[jenett] Hotel booking weblinks English over at this link, and French over at this link. (I haven't actually put a booking through yet, but loading it and selecting nights seems to work correctly.) Current Mood: happy (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 14th, 2013
_11:11 am_[jenett] Hotel information The basics: We're in the same hotel as last year, in the same function space. (And when we get closer, I will do a round-up post of useful info and location stuff from last year.) ( DetailsCollapse ) Current Mood: accomplished (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
_5:50 pm_[mcwetboy] Endnotes So we talked about a lot of things over the course of the weekend, and some of those things were books or articles or web pages or other things that could be looked up afterward. I thought it might be useful to collect some of those references here, in case we didn't all write everything down (I certainly didn't). If you remember something I missed, please add it in the comments.( Read more ...Collapse ) (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 2nd, 2012
_11:54 pm_[moiread] Underground Metro to the Hotel In getting from Station Centrale to the hotel on Tuesday, I discovered that much of the signage sucks. Mostly in that it doesn't exist. Here is how the route goes:The tunnel leading out of the main square of the station towards Bonaventure Metro is clearly marked, but once you're in the tunnel, it gets wacky. You go on and on past little shops, wondering if you are secretly on your way to Wonderland. You will reach a point where if you continue forward, you will spill out onto a street. There are unmarked escalators to your right, heading further down the rabbit hole. Take them and continue.After that you will eventually reach another fork in the path, divided by a Booster Juice. To your left is a short tunnel labeled "Stationnement" and to your right is a longer tunnel labeled with a street address in the thousands. If your French is not great, you may think that "Stationnement" means "Station" and therefore the Metro, but this is false -- it means "Parking". Take the right hand tunnel with the mystery street address instead.What you will actuually find down this tunnel is more escalators and the metro. Don't ask me what the deal is there; I have no idea.Once you get to the Berri-UQAM stop on the Metro, as per Jo's instructions on getting to the hotel, how to get from there to Place Dupuis is not cearly marked. Head up following the red exit signs ("Sortie") and then, once you have actually exited the turnstiles, stop. Walk around the whole square until you find a large yellow bank. It looks like this. Look up -- you will see a very small, fairly useless sign that says that this exit tunnel is the way to Place Dupuis. (This is the only place where it says anything.)Take that tunnel. There will be one more sign eventually, so you know you have gone the right way!Eventually you will come to another fork, with unmarked escalators on your left and revolving doors leading to "shops and restaurants" (in French) to your right. Take the revolving doors, and go up the stairs/escalator beyond them to a food court.There are four exits tunnels leading out of the food court -- two behind you, right and left, and two in front of you, right and left. None of the signs here will tell you where to hotel is, so don't bother. Just take the forward-left one. Signs in this tunnel WILL tell you that you are on the right track to the hotel, though it's kind of useless because you had to know already to get into it.After that, you're fine. Just before the tunnel spits you out onto the street again, there are double doors on your right with the hotel name on them. You have finished the maze! Congratulations.(Amusing: When you do this route the other way around, from the hotel to the metro, it is competely obvious, even the first time. They really only seemed to have planned for one-way traffic! This is the only reason why Jo, bless her, was not in a position to realize.)IF YOU ARE COMING IN THROUGH THE FOOD COURT AFTER 9PM, IT WILL BE CLOSED. Or after 6pm on Sundays. We discovered this tonight. It's still faster to go through the food court than go around above-ground, but you have to go on another minor adventure: When you get up the stairs/escalators to the food court, you will be met with locked grating and cannot continue through directly as earlier in the day. (Gandalf sez: "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!") If you follow the grating to your right, though, it will herd you into a pub. Just inside the pub on your left is another exit into another bunch of locked grating. Take it and allow the grating to herd you to an exit out onto the street. You are now like thirty feet away from the hotel front entrance on your left. So you still have to go above-ground but not much, and it's still faster.If you have magic balls of yarn handy -- and knowing some of you, you probably do -- then pass them around, hey? (7 Comments |Comment on this)
_6:11 pm_[jenett] A few more hotel notes 1) We're going to be in the 6th floor rooms (I believe it's both the Sherbrooke rooms, but they'll be labelled when we get there.) There are various chairs and such around there, and also in the lobby, for convenient congregating.2) There is a bank (with ATMs) just around the corner from the hotel, for people who, like me, might wish to acquire local currency. (Go left out of the hotel door, turn left, and it's that first set of doors.) They also appear to exchange currency if you'd rather do that. 3) The wifi does in fact work. (I am here, so if you have hotel related questions, feel free to email (jenettsilver @ gmail) I do not have data enabled when away from the hotel wifi however, so when out for meals/tomorrow, may not see stuff for a while.) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
_11:09 am_[pnh] Just in time for Farthing Party, the cover of the forthcoming trade paperback:FarthingTPfrontThe zeppelin is so you can tell it's alternate history, of course.My favorite part, however, is "Bestselling Author Of". (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 1st, 2012
_8:14 pm_[mrissa] Carré Rouge in the square We (me, timprov, moiread, and alecaustin) have just watched from the window on the 23rd floor as a Carré Rouge march and protest happened in the square outside the hotel, complete with police presence in riot gear off on one of the side streets. It's rather tense.Please remember that the hotel is connected to the Metro. If the protests continue and the square outside the hotel is a gathering place, Farthing Party guests may well want to be careful about using the Metro to get somewhere farther from the square rather than going out into the middle of it. moiread notes that tear gas is in common use for these protests, does not disperse quickly--can linger an hour or more--and will not be any more fun to deal with than you think it will. Let's all be careful so that this is a safe, fun weekend for everybody. (13 Comments |Comment on this)

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