Bill Roper's Journal

This is best characterized as being Debbie Gates' fault.

First, she *also* has a new puppy. Second, she put "Find Your People" into her FilkONtario concert set, a song that Gretchen was already familiar with and likes a lot.

The combination gave Gretchen the idea for this song. And now we have all the parts for it.

I hope you like it!
( Lyrics inside... )

Let's start by disclosing something: I've been working on a Filk Hall of Fame nomination for Amy McNally for several years now. I keep sending in more data to add to the pile, including a copy of the article she wrote about letting kids touch the fiddle (one of them was my kid), and a full discography which I got from Amy by shyly asking "How many albums *have* you played on?" I'd been considering going to FKO this year for a while, because it just felt like that nomination ought to be ripe.

And then I got an email from Amy asking if I was planning on going to FKO this year and if she could catch a ride with me. Sounded good to me!

Debbie Gates had asked me earlier if I might be going and if I could play some rhythm guitar for her Interfilk Guest concert. This also sounded good to me and now I was committed to going, so...

And then I got laid off, which gave me more time to study rhythm guitar parts. :)

Anyway, I had made plans and booked hotel rooms based on "I'm working on part of Thursday before heading out", so that was what we did, ending up in Jackson, Michigan on Thursday night and driving the rest of the way in on Friday. This meant that we only made it to one of the two rehearsals for Debbie's concert, but that worked out ok.

I wasn't up for the theme filks on Friday, so I ended up in the small end of the big room upstairs and sang a few songs. Then there were the concerts on Saturday and the Filk Hall of Fame induction speeches, which I was greatly looking forward to. :) And then the Interfilk auction, where I suggested drafting Interfilk Guest Debbie as an Interfilk auctioneer. Despite her being worried about it, she did just fine, which was *exactly* what I had expected.

I did not have the right sort of spoons available to go to the memorial filking on Saturday night -- I got a chance to briefly say hi to Sue Jeffers and I wish I'd had a chance to chat with her more, but time was failing at its basic mission of preventing everything from happening at the same moment. I ended up in a tiny filk back upstairs that including John McDaid and we swapped some songwriting stuff back and forth which was fun.

Sunday, there was the Filk Hall of Fame concert which was absolutely lovely. And Gretchen was very thankful for the streaming that let her watch all of the concerts from home so that she could see what we were up to.

The Dead Penguin filk was unsurprisingly large, so it took a long time for our organized chaos to make its way around the room. I sang three songs: "Zeta", because Rand was there and he would actually get all of the references :); "Third Planet From the Sun", because I'd chatted with Tim Griffin about the song earlier as one that could be classified as educational; and then "Shining", because that was the first song that I wrote after COVID and I had wanted to write something positive. And I got a big hug from Judith afterwards, which was a fine thing.

Amy and I got up and managed to get on the road by 7 AM local time, which was really good. We made great time (and found Coffee Crisp on sale at the Onroute, because K wanted Coffee Crisp) right up until we got to Sarnia. There was only one booth open to handle cars at American customs, so we were backed up for an hour. They managed to find someone to open a second booth as we got close to the front of the line and we were the second vehicle through that booth. This was shortly followed (as shortly as possible!) by a trip to the nearby Speedway, because it had become *very* necessary for reasons not at all related to gasoline consumption.

The rest of the trip was simple and included the same good conversation that we'd had on the way to the con. Amy realized that we were going to get in early enough to catch a bus back to Madison and the option of sleeping in her own bed sounded really good, so I dropped her off to catch the bus and headed home.

Then I turned around and went back to the airport when Amy texted me to let me know that I had forgotten to ask for Gretchen's key to my car. Oops...

But I made it home, unloaded the car, and then Gretchen joined me for a happy trip over to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, because a nice little sirloin was in order. :)

This was the first time I'd been to FKO since (I think) 2018. Something went wrong in 2019 to prevent us from going, although I don't remember what at this remove. Then COVID hit, our passports expired, and things were very, very busy.

But things were less busy this year, so that was good. I had a good time.

I'm having a great time here at FKO. I really enjoyed the Hall of Fame inductions last night. Of course, everyone did. :)

And now I'm looking forward to the afternoon concerts. Which will be live streamed...

Apparently, sleep was in order. We will be off to Canada soon, but drive time is a projected five hours, so we'll see you when we get there.

I used to bowl. I could probably bowl again, but my knees would comment on it. So for the moment, we'll content ourselves with knocking down metaphorical pins.

My previously scheduled -- and now vital -- meeting with my financial advisor was this morning at 10 AM. I had planned to get up at 8 AM, giving me plenty of time to get ready and get out the door, but my body had other ideas and I finally gave up trying to get back to sleep around 6:45.

The meeting went well. We sorted out a number of items. He shared with me the contact info for a guy that they use to help sort out Medicare issues who *may* be able to give some advice on how to get the kids insured. Or maybe who will know someone *else* who can give that advice. In any case, the steps are in the right direction.

I grabbed lunch, got home, and decided it was time to take a nap, which I needed pretty badly.

This afternoon, I got hold of my life insurance company and have modified the policy so that it will not increase in value as much, but also so that I stop having to pay for it for the next 20 years. That change won't take effect until the anniversary date in August, but that's fine. It is a done item.

I looked over some stuff for FKO, but recording scratch tracks for that needed to wait until tomorrow, because time was running out. I also checked out Xfinity, where I need to get some statements to submit to work for reimbursement and determined that I am paying *way* too much for my current plan. I just need to sort out what plan I need to be on. That will be a mission for tomorrow.

I took Gretchen out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse so we could use the free appetizer coupon that I'd received via email. This meant Gretchen got a nice steak which is a welcome change from the usual dinner courses at home. (There is nothing *wrong* with dinner at home, but it is not a nice steak.)

When we got home, K pinged me, as she's having difficulty sequencing some audio files in the Java program that she's writing for school. I checked some references and gave her some ideas to try. This sort of thing is easier when you're looking at the source code. :)

And then Gretchen and I watched tonight's episode of "Will Trent", which was a wonderful thing. We have preserved it on the DVR and will be going back to watch the sequence that begins with the ceremonial firing of the cannon that was put on the mantel in Act II through the end of the fight scene.

Seriously, unless you do not like police procedurals *at all*, you should be watching this show. It took about four episodes in the first season to get us hooked, because the beginning is a bit of a slow burn, but the writers and actors here are doing a great job.

I spent a lot of time over the weekend working on getting bugs fixed for our upcoming release. More time than I really should have, but -- on the other hand -- I am taking Thursday off to go to Cubs Opening Day, so I suppose these things average out.

I need to pick up the guitar. I have two song prompts sitting waiting to be used, but they require a bit of time and nurturing. Work is sucking up the creativity right now.

But that will change. :)

I have finished filling out the Dodeka tax forms, which means that I just need to print out the packets for the Federal and Illinois tax filings, assemble them, put them in envelopes, and mail them. I still need to get all of *our* information to the accountant, but that is tomorrow's project.

In other news, my passport has arrived, which means that I am officially good for the trip to FilkOntario. :)

And I'm back from Capricon.

This is a slight exaggeration, because I commuted to Capricon this year, living about 15 minutes from the hotel and having discovered that there were no rooms with two beds available in the block when I was looking to reserve a room. (The hotel would rent me a king room in the block or a double/double outside of the block. Neither of those would have been particularly helpful.) Anyway, the result was that I was commuting to the con with a whole passel of kids.

The good news is that sales at this year's Capricon were better than the sales at my last pre-COVID Capricon back in 2020. That is largely because the sales at that previous Capricon were abjectly terrible. (Pulls up old tax paperwork to check. Yes, terrible.)

Looking at the tax paperwork causes me to realize that what I paid for two tables and a membership this year was the same as I paid for three tables and multiple memberships back in 2020. This is not a complaint that's unique to Capricon. *All* of the general-interest SF cons that I go to have boosted their table prices substantially post-COVID at the same time that their membership has gone down noticeably. This is why I no longer attempt to deal at Confusion -- there's just no prospect of making enough sales there for it to make any sort of economic sense.

Now, I understand that conventions are trying to get enough income to survive. I have worked enough cons over the years for that to be clear. But it doesn't *appear*, for instance, that the rates that are being charged to artists are a lot higher than before. (I can't speak exactly to the amounts that the artists are paying for hanging space, but that 10% commission is the same before and after COVID, to the best of my recollection.)

When I questioned the rate increase for the tables at Windycon, I was told that this is what other nearby cons charge and I *think* that referred to anime and possibly furry conventions in the area that have more members than Windycon or Capricon. I could be wrong about which cons they were referring to, as I didn't feel like it was even worth trying to make an argument (and I am *on* the Windycon concom).

All that said, my sales at Capricon were definitely ok. They were a bit less than at Windycon and I have no idea what the actual attendance at the con was like, because you couldn't divine it from the badge numbers. Maybe it was announced at Closing Ceremonies, but I was busy knocking down the table. :)

I just feel like the cons are going to price too many dealers out of the market. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe other dealers are doing a lot more volume of sales than I am, but that's not the impression that I get. I will make money on Capricon this year, but only because I commuted to the con and am only charging one membership against the table. (Which is fair, because I was really the only person who worked the table, which meant I was pretty tied to it.)

This is not a complaint about Capricon. The folks who ran the Dealers' Room were nice and competent and good to me and I *appreciate* that. This is a complaint about general-interest SF cons in general. It would be good if they were not trying to balance their budgets on the backs of the dealers, because having a large and diverse selection of dealers is an asset for a convention, IMO. And if I am going to spend all of my daytime during a convention sitting behind a dealer table, I need to be making my nut or the IRS is going to wonder what I am doing -- and so am I. Witness that I don't try to deal at Confusion any more. :)

Ok, all of that rant out of the way, I had a good time at Capricon. I had some nice conversations. I enjoyed the two panels that I was on. It would have been nice to have a concert, but that didn't work out for whatever reason. Maybe next year. The art auction was a lot of fun and it is great to have K there auctioning beside me and Dr. Bob and Mike. And K's friend from school and Julie ran art along with Lisa and did a fine job. I had fun at the open filking on Saturday -- I was too tired on Friday and had to get back early to open the dealer table (there is a recurring theme here :) ).

The new hotel seems workable, although the restriction on taking things out of the con suite was a bit of a problem when you're a dealer. It is, in any case, in the suburbs, which means that it is much easier for me to deal with. And being able to do move in on Friday made a *big* difference for me.

So I am happy to be back at Capricon for the first time since the remote con in 2021 which was the last time where I ran filking for the con. :) My perfect attendance run is well and truly blown by 2022-2025 and that's ok.

We'll try it again. :)

I am asymptotically close to being packed up to go to Confusion. Since Sam and Bonnie are running a bit late, I should manage to be ready when they get here. :)

See you later!

I had a wonderful time at GAFilk. The van, maybe not so much, as it became somewhat insane about starting in random ways while on the trip. This made the 14 hour and 45 minute drive home more exciting than it would have been otherwise, but happily, I managed to get the van to start on all occasions and -- actually! -- after leaving the hotel parking lot, it started correctly every time.

The van has an appointment at the dealership on Wednesday. I suspect that there is a computer issue underlying all this, but -- then again -- I would. :)

Anyway, I had a wonderful time at the con, got to talk to a lot of people, sold some CDs, got to make some music. All good.

Even if I didn't get enough sleep last night because there were unknown melodies running through my head...