April 26, 2005

Tuesday April 26, 2005 • Howard Tayler

Sometimes I start into a discussion with somebody, and then say "uhh... I forgot what I was going to say." Usually it happens when I'm too tired, or sick, or (more often) thinking about something so tangential and worthless that I've done the world a favor by forgetting it before I could give it utterance.

There was SOMETHING I wanted to write here, but I forgot what it was.

I'm tired, I'm sick, and I'm sure my head is full of tangents. I'm gonna write stuff and see what comes out.

At some point you folks need a convention report from Penguicon. I owe Steve Jackson a similar report, detailing how the Chaos Machine fared at the event. Right now, though, I'm too frazzled to try to capture it all. I caught cold just before the 'Con, and then compensated for it with assorted medications, including caffeinated Penguin Mints. Those were nice. It's a pity they were also within reach of some of the children attending the 'Con. Hyperactive seven-year-olds should not have entire packages of caffeinated candy in their pockets (unless they're also wrapped in magnetsand surrounded by wire wrap so that their frenetic whirling can be used to light cities).

The Chaos Machine will be in Columbus, Ohio in a month. You won't find ME there -- I'll be in Salt Lake City at CONduit (see below), but Evil Stevie will, and so will other big names like Larry Niven, Mike Resnick, John Kovalic, Tom Smith, and the Ghost of Roger Zelazny. MarCon is the event. If you're in the area, it's worth checking out.

Before I sign off and hunt down some decongestants, I want to shout out a special "Thank You" to my friends in Michigan. Sal and Aegis were awesome hosts, and really bent over backwards to make me happy. Rachel saved Friday night with a small kindness that made for big help. Alex, Drew, Ben, Bill, and others all made the Penguicon thing wonderful for me and for Sandra. We met friends from outside Michigan too... Jay, Peter, Eric... man, I know I'm forgetting names at this point. You folks made the Sheraton into a home for us.

Granted, the home was a noisy one, what with the carousing band of pirates.

--Howard

Are you interested in having me come to your city? Your convention? Your HOUSE? Pay my way and pay my stay, and we can make it happen. The BEST way is to convince the convention organizers that I'm worthy of "GoH" status, but there are alternatives. Email me if you've got an event in mind.