To ‘whump’ a character is to write a fic where awful things happen to him, often at the hands of other characters from the book/show/movie, after which everyone realizes they’ve done him wrong and make amends. Daniel from Stargate SG-1 is the canonical whump!fic target since he’s always dying, getting kidnapped by aliens, or dropped into stray singularities.

It’s amusing to learn this, and explains the odd reaction I get when introduced to fan writers.

I’ve asked how long the term has been in use, and guesses range from a decade to the past 20 years.

Wrist computer (non-functional) from Got Steam?

In a recent piece for Fantasy Magazine, Stephen H. Segal wrote on why Steampunk is popular:

1. It’s equal opportunity geekery for women and men.
2. An aesthetic response to the glossy surfaces and clean lines of contemporary SF media
3. It’s like being goth, without scaring your parents.

Someone asked me what the Steampunk Convention was, and they got it when I said, “it’s like the Dickens’ Fair.” That’s easier than explaining Steampunk as a subgenre of Science Fiction that became an aesthetic movement.

I’ll remember those books for Kelley Freas’ covers, which were as full of visual gags, as the books were full of puns.

ETA:, I’m thinking of the earlier editions with the Freas covers.

kate_nepveu

As read, the panel description sounds rather wank-tastic, however, given the background of my co-panelists, I'm sure we can discuss more interesting things:

1. The development of 'BitterCon' and other meta-convention activities.
2. The role of LJ in programming (thinking of ktempest and coffeeandink's sprints to develop program proposals from a PoC perspective.)
3. LJ as ad-hoc programming space for continued discussion of items (such as "But the Master has a Black and Decker drill.")
4. LJ as immune system (responding to the OSBP, and organizing people on the ground to handle harassing situations.)
5. LJ as pre-convention coordination (are you going, I need a room, I can share a ride, what panels are you on, what panels are you going to, and what the hell is with that panel?)
6. LJ as permanent floating WisCon.

I didn't write the program item description (if you did, please clarify your intent in the comments.)

A couple of days ago, he gave the UK’s Alzheimer’s charity a half a million UKP donation. When Pat Cadigan, an expat American science fiction writer living in the UK, heard about that she kicked in a few pounds in honor of Pratchett’s donation, mentioned it on her Live Journal, and asked other fans and writers to follow suit.

If you know science fiction fandom, these things snowball quickly, and now there’s a Match it for Pratchett! campaign.

In the US, you can give to the Alzheimer’s Association.

In the UK, give to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

When you make your donation, let them know it’s in honor of Terry Pratchett, or a friend or relative with Alzheimer’s.

If you make your living off your brain, Alzheimer’s is damn scary, and like Mr. Pratchett said, I’d eat the neither regions of a dead rodent if it would keep that particular Death from tapping my shoulder.

Anita Roland at NorthernVoice in Vancouver, BC.

Originally uploaded by roland.

Back in 1999 and 2000, Anita Rowland helped bridge the online journaling and weblog communities, with her weblog and her journal, Anita’s Book of Days, she also helped run the Seattle Blogger Meetups. I met Anita through Science Fiction Fandom, especially Potlatch where she ran the hospitality suite whenever it was held in Seattle.

For the past few years, she fought off cancer, but today, she died.

Cynthia and I are grateful that she was well enough to travel this summer and go to Japan for the World Science Fiction convention where we last saw her.

My condolences to her husband, Jack William Bell, and to all of my friends in Seattle Fandom’s Vanguard crew who helped them with looking after grandchildren, rides to the doctor, cooking and cleaning.

Dammit, Anita, you are well-loved and will be missed.

ETA: Jack has opened a memorial post on LJ for our memories of Anita.

Shelley Powers points back at Frank Paynter’s interview with Anita from a few years ago.

You wouldn’t be surprised to meet Ruby enthusiasts at a Japanese science fiction convention.

Shimura’s got embedded Ruby running in Illustrator. Press a button, and that evals to ’7′.

The back story: Shimura’s part of Cafe Scifi+tique, a performance event put together by Japanese science fiction fans to invert and parody the creepy ‘maid cafe’ scene.

Cyn and I paid 500 JPY each to sit down with an actual scientist while we were served tea and juice for a half hour.

The annoying thing is that the mad scientist cafe’s set up in the far part of the convention hall, while another group’s running a maid cafe in the main exhibit hall.

Dai means big, as in the Daibutsu. Con is short for “convention,” as in science fiction conventions.

That’s why the gentleman in the photo has a giant radish on the back of his tunic.

In 1983, at Daicon 4, a group of animators premiered a fan video. The over the top sequence introduced several visual tropes identified with the team who’d later become Studio Gainax (Evangelion, Kare Kano, FLCL.)