Something important that changed since 1997

It used to be that there'd be this intense process in January in which 80-130 strangers and old friends would get together to put on FASS for that year. Then the final show would come along and strike and the strike party and then on Sunday the usual post-show depression would kick in. People would fight this with coffeehouses and such and of course there was the AGM to look forward to in April (and if one was very lucky, committee meetings).

(and once a mass March birthday party the year a lot of us happened to have birthdays in March)

But with things like Facebook, there's no sudden end to it all! This is so much better (for me, maybe not regular readers of this LJ) than cold turkey.

I've often said I thought it was odd that my connections to Canadian fandom are so poor but in fact I have great connections when I use them but the connections I have are to a specific fannish-style organization that's theatre-based rather than SF-prose based.

One of the more touching moments happened at the reunion cocktail party on Saturday:
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A poll inspired by a passing comment

[Poll #1817200]

A poll inspired by a passing comment

[Poll #1817200]

And now for a non-FASS post

From the Planetary Society Blog:

Back when the U.S. suffered several Mars mission failures, we indulged in some dark humor at JPL, blaming the "great galactic ghoul" for gobbling up our spacecraft. For a while, after the failure of Phobos-Grunt, it appeared that some in Russia were taking the blame-game seriously and grasping at improbable external causes for the loss of the spacecraft.

But it appears that Phobos-Grunt was doomed before it launched on November 9, 2011. Cheap parts, design shortcomings, and lack of pre-flight testing ensured that the spacecraft would never fulfill its goals.

Con Or Bust: Fans of Color Assistance Project

Item Name & Description: Blog post on a topic of the winner's choosing by james_nicoll, nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2010 and 2011.

Starting Bid: $5.

E-mail: knepveu at steelypips dot org (on behalf of donor)

Bidding starts Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 12:01 a.m. EST (GMT -5) and ends Sunday, February 25, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. EST.

Nicked from Yendi

Alan Turing Pardon Denied of the Day: The British House of Lords has decided not to pardon World War II codebreaker and computing pioneer Alan Turing, who committed suicide in 1954 after being convicted of homosexuality, chemically castrated, and stripped of his security clearance.

“A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence. He would have known that his offence was against the law and that he would be prosecuted,” said Lord McNally last week.

Sometimes

Hannelore's backstory is sad.