Dreamer Easy

Having a moment of premenstrual social phobia panic about Gally. After cocking up at Chicago TARDIS year before last I'll be on rather better behaviour, but I'll still need to do the Chicks Dig Time Lords panel, and there and elsewhere I'm going to be surrounded by people I've clashed with online. My perception, in fact, is that wherever I go at the con, the crowd will be thinking "Oh noes, it's that overentitled racist misogynist wank magnet."

No, OK, Kate, think this through. IRL people almost never act the way they do in cyberspace, including you. It's very rare for someone to make a personal attack during a panel. For that matter, you've changed your online style, partly due to the hard lesson of that bad panel in Chicago - bit more relaxed, bit more gentle. Surely that's going to translate to the real world. Plus, like everyone online, you overestimate the number of people who hold a given opinion - whether about the show or about you. And that bad panel didn't stop you from having a blast at other panels.

So. One corner of online politics is not the whole of fandom. I'm not likely to end up in an actual confrontation. If a discussion becomes heated, I know to step back and chill out and shut up :). It'll all be good anxiety therapy. It'll be fine, like it almost always is.

I'm still never going to WisCon, though.

(You know, I really really ought to flock this posting, but fandom's full of people with social phobia, some of whom are probably thinking similar aaaaargh thoughts about the con. We ought to form a club. Hermits United. And wear a badge, a smiley or something, which indicates "I'm shy too.")

James Baldwin. The Fire Next Time.
Frances E. Kendall. Understanding White Privilege.
Brian Thacker. Rule No. 5: No Sex On The Bus.

( Books bought and borrowed )

In Canberra. Net access unpredictable. Apologies for any delayed replies to stuff.

Miss the cats. Happily husband is also warm and furry.

A sign in New Zealand:

HUKAFALLS JET-PRAWN FARM

We're home, safe, and in a mental fog of exhaustion. Tim has become a FAT BARSTID in only two weeks. It's not hard to work out why: I've just watched him "sharing" a bowl of kibble with Frank. (Who is in good health, if hilariously shaved.) We're gonna need two bowls.

We're well, trip going well. Bay of Islands right now. Saw a god today who holds up the sky.

Bring everyone's address and phone number (and a backup). Derp.

BRING LESS BOOKS. The plane is not a workspace; it is a place of drugged unconsciousness punctuated by occasional bursts of oxygen-starved awareness. Bring a magazine or some crosswords. On the ground you will be spending lots of time in company (kind of the entire point of the trip, you idiot) so you won't need to bring ten thousand things to keep you busy.

jvowles was right about overhydration on the plane. edorm suggests lozenges containing marshmallow - forgot this time but must try next time. Sugar-free sweets essential in any case. Keep a bottle of water handy to sip and to splash on face and arms.

On arrival, do not eat nothing at all for a couple of days and then devour a vast American meal (Smothered In Cheese™). Japanese food and salads are your friend. US bread is horrible so try to get some rye bread with caraway seeds. BRING VEGEMITE.

BGM does not work without test strips.

Rent mobile phones?

ETA: Give Xanax three hours to work rather than just two to avoid ghastliness at the gate.

Sick as a bloody parrot. Shall be living on tea and cough lollies for the foreseeable, ie tonight's intergalactic flight back to Sydney. Thank the gods for my sister and her beau's hospitality.

Kenneth the hamster has been found safe and well in Jon's shirt pocket.

Snow: incredibly, mind-shatteringly beautiful, but surprisingly painful when it goes in your eyes.

Fell on my face after family dinner out last night and slept from 7 pm to 9.30 am. It becomes clear today that both Jon and I have colds.

Recounting the plots of Top Gear episodes turns out to be an excellent way of keeping a three- and two-year old out of trouble.