Reading: random Ranma manga
Music: President of the United States of America
TV/Movie: JRR Tolkein: Master of the Rings
Link o' the Day: current Torcon programming schedule

Who's going to Torcon? Speak up. (See below for link of the day)

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Wow, it's been something well over twenty years since I've been to the Washington County Festival, but so much of it hasn't changed a blink. Sure, there were a few new things, but for the most part, it was like going back in time. Even the food was the same (and the food was always one of the best things about it).

Did a little bit of shopping while there. There are some things you _only_ find at county fairs. Aside from the usual t-shirt fare, I got myself a nice black leather fedora with a wide brim, and a leather vest, which I've been wanting for a while, but usually find too expensive to indulge in. We checked out the livestock, and I got all nostalgiac over the pet goat we had as a kid when we saw all the show goats in their stalls. Cute little buggers. Pretty Maggie and I took lots of pictures on her new digital camera, but something got messed up twixt there and here and we couldn't download any of them. (argh) And of course there were rides and the usual over-priced, rigged carny games. We had fun, but lordie... we were _exhausted_ by the end of the day (which finished with an open-air concert by Pam Tillis. I was limping by the time we made it to the car, and my feet were throbbing most of the night. It's good prep for Worldcon where I'm going to be on my feet an awful lot.

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Speaking of worldcon, the Torcon webpage has _finally_ posted a schedule of sorts. It looks like it was cobbled together with some sort of routine that took data off a spreadsheet. Some of the panel descriptions don't match the panels, some repeat, and some are cut off, but it's a starting place. I've already culled out of it the panels/readings/ kaffeeklatches I'm most interested in. I don't expect to hit everything, but I like making my own version of the Pocket Guide. The schedule appears to be pretty heavy in the Costume and Filk Fandom tracks, neither of which I'm all that interested in, although there are a few good fanzine panels and some good writing panels. There's a surprisingly strong presence of an Anime track. I'm not collecting like I was years ago, but I may check out a couple of panels here or there. There were no autograph sessions listed, but I've always been pretty lucky just hitting up an author on sight to sign a book. Beats waiting in lines.

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Freelance is busy busy. I'm wading into the Fall issue of the SFWA Bulletin and still have a number of book layout projects going. Doing some writing, but need to do more. SoH is progressing. It's going to be a _busy_ couple of weeks.

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And the link of the day goes to the current HTML version of the Torcon programming schedule. Check it out. If you're not registered, it's not too late!

Cheers!