A call was issued for EV drivers to attend, and I couldn’t pass up this opportunity! With the support of my employer, Peak Internet (which gives time off for community service activities), I drove my Leaf down to the event. Knowing that Ashland is so close to California, that was also a boundary I couldn’t pass up: I looked up the first interchange inside CA, which turned out to be Hilt, CA, about 15 miles from the Ashland fast charge station - quite doable even with the Siskiyous in the way. To the Hilt and back, here I come!

Ashley Horvat, ODOT Transportation Electrification Project Manager, got me an access fob for the charging stations and we both planned to drive our Leafs down Thursday afternoon, as the event started in Central Point Oregon at 11am on Friday.

For those who are interested, I have a more detailed photojournal of the trip…

These stations are the first 8 (soon to be 9) of dozens being scattered around western Oregon. North to south, these first ones are located on I5 at:

• Exit 216 (Brownsville/Halsey) - Pioneer Villa (coming soon!)
• Exit 174 (Cottage Grove) - Vintage Inn
• Exit 148 (Rice Hill) - Motel 6
  (the Aerovironment website says “Oakland”, not “Rice Hill”, which is probably technically correct, but the signs say “Rice Hill” - Oakland proper is somewhat south)
• Exit 125 (Roseburg) - Brutke’s Wagon Wheel
• Exit 99 (Canyonville) - 7 Feathers Truck Stop
  Be careful! Use the cross walk where the traffic area is narrowed with concrete barriers to safely cross over to the sidewalk…
• Exit 76 (Wolf Creek) - Wolf Creek Inn
• Exit 58 (Grants Pass) - Chamber of Commerce
• Exit 33 (Central Point) - Chevron
• Exit 14 (Ashland) - Texaco

The Aerovironment charging stations are really nice - their whole top is lit up a bright green with a set of lights rotating around the edge - but it’s not just flash! They’re actually used to provide useful information:

• When you activate the station with your fob (which you can get from their web site or you can activate the station by calling the 800 number shown on the station over the display panel), the lights start circling quickly.
• When you plug into the car and charging starts, the lights turn into a gauge, showing the state of charge. When the circle completes, the car is at 80% (though it’ll keep charging past that, to 89-98%, depending on where you started).
• The bright green light makes them really easy to find at night

The LCD panel gives you both a graph showing state of charge with a numerical percentage, as well as the actual kWh that have been sent to the car.

So, summary for the trip down:

• Leav Corvallis: 2pm
• Arrive Eugene: 3pm, leave 5:20pm - 47.8 miles, 13.1kWh
• Cottage Grove: 6pm, leave 7pm - 25.2 miles, 7.8kWh
• Rice Hill: 7:26pm, leave 7:45pm - 26.7 miles, 9.2kWh
• Roseburg: 8:17pm, leave 8:35pm - 23.9 miles, 7.5kWh
• Canyonville: 9:10pm, leave 9:34 - 25.6 miles, 8.7kWh
• Wolf Creek: 10:05pm, leave 10:26pm - 23.0 miles, 8.7kWh
• Grants Pass: 10:51pm, leave 11:28pm - 18.2 miles, 5.8kWh
• Ashland: 12:24am - 45.0 miles, 14.5kWh

Total: 75kWh

…and the trip back:

• Leave Ashland for Hilt: 8:32am
• Ashland: 9:10am, leave 10:08am - 30 miles, 8.6kWh
• Central Point: 10:30am?, leave 12:30pm? - 18.4 miles, 4.3kWh
• Grants Pass: 12:49pm, leave 3:42pm - 25.4 miles, 6.4kWh (10.7 total from Ashland, vs 14.5 to go the other way)
• Wolf Creek: 4:03pm, leave 5:06pm - 18.4 miles, 6.0kWh (vs 5.8kWh)
• Canyonville: 5:32pm, leave 5:49pm - 23.2 miles, 6.5kWh (vs 8.7kWh)
• Roseburg: 6:16pm, leave 6:42pm - 25.3 miles, 7.1kWh (vs 8.7kWh)
• Rice Hill: 7:09pm, leave 7:29pm - 23.2 miles, 7.1kWh (vs 7.5kWh)
• Cottage Grove: 8:01pm, leave 8:57pm - 26.3 miles, 7.2kWh (vs 9.2kWh)
• Corvallis: 10:16pm - 64.4 miles, 14.3kWh (vs total of 20.9kWh and 73 miles for the trip down - the charging stop on the way down was a 10 mile detour that I was able to avoid on the way back)

Total: 67.5kWh
Grand total: 142.5kWh

It’s interesting to note that aside from generally using quite a bit less energy to go north, it also tends to be a bit shorter. That’s because of the different freeway exits used and where you have to go to get to/from the stations, but I think the energy has to do with the fact that you’re generally climbing going south and dropping going north…

For comparison, on this 500 mile trip, my RAV4 would have used 20 gallons of gas, a Prius about 10. At $4/gal, that’s $80 and $40. I’m paying $0.12/kWh (with the renewable and salmon features added in), or about $17. Rounded to the nearest 15 minutes, I spent 8 hours charging on the trip (at the fast chargers, 1/2hr at each, each way, though actually, I think that’s high - some of them were more like 15 minutes). If they charge $10/hr, it will cost the same as my RAV4, if only $5/hr, then same as a Prius.

NOTE: this is only for cross country driving - the vast majority of EV driving will be local where you’re charging up at home and only paying your electric rate, which puts it at about 1/3rd the cost of a Prius for fuel… And whatever you’re paying for it, your money is staying relatively local and not going to the middle east, you’re not consuming an increasingly limited resource, you’re vastly reducing your pollution, as well as all the other benefits that come with driving an EV.

So…505 miles in two days. The return trip only used 67.5kWh vs 75kWh just for the trip to Ashland, whereas the return trip includes the excursion to California - 255 miles at 3.8miles/kWh. Aside from better weather, I realized that overall, it’s downhill from the top of the hill out of Grants Pass to Corvallis, which obviously makes a difference.

It was a fantastic adventure, and I plan to repeat it sometime this summer, finding a weekend with some plays I want to see at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival and making my way back down. I’ll take a day to go each way instead of an evening, but it’ll be worth it to avoid sending my money to unstable regimes in the middle east to consume the last bits of a dying resource just to spew it into the air…

While this is a big step forward, the real step will be after the rest of the stations are completed. For me personally, I’ve been waiting for one between Corvallis and Portland since I got my Leaf, as I go there at least a couple times a month.

Right now, a multi-car family that buys mid-range new cars doesn’t really have an excuse for one of their cars not to be electric with their next car - for daily driving, 50-70 miles is more than enough for most people, and all the L2 charging infrastructure being put in place for opportunity charging while running errands just extends that indefinitely.

The fast charge stations greatly extend that utility: many people will be able to make an EV their sole car.

We are still not to full gas equivalence - you do have to be patient and realize that your trip length will be nearly doubled if it’s a long one, but they are now practical, where they weren’t before. Right now, we’re at 20-25kWh battery packs with 50kW charging systems. In less than a decade, we’ll have 100kWh packs with 250kW charging stations, resulting in 200 mile worst case ranges and 1/2hr charging - 15 minutes for half pack charging: very comparable to the way gas is handled now.

We are at the leading edge of an exciting shift in transportation technology, and I can’t wait for the next phase to be rolled out!

Something like the Nissan Leaf has, however, been on his wishlist for decades, and Wednesday, April 13, 2011, that wish came true when he took delivery of Leaf #887. He lucked out, and it shipped out from Japan the very day before the recent earthquake that devastated the country.

While even modern, longer range, EVs, like the Leaf, are still primarily metro area, second car, vehicles, with a little planning, patience, and the charging infrastructure currently being put into place, they can satisfy the vast majority of most people’s driving needs. Alan expects to use the Leaf as his primary car, and rent a gas car the half dozen times a year he needs to go outside the Leaf’s range.

Indeed, the first weekend after picking up the Leaf, even before the fast charge infrastructure has been built out, he drove to Battle Ground, WA in the new car as a “proof of concept” to see what it could do. Up 99W to Chuck Colvin Nissan in McMinnville, which has a Level 2 charging station (240V, 3kw), where he had lunch while picking up an extra 15 miles to bridge the gap to the only current DC Fast Charge station (at the PGE headquarters in downtown Portland: 400V, 50kw), where he picked up 15kwh to bring the car up to 90% in 1/2hr while doing a little shopping at Pioneer Place.

With a fresh charge, it was up to Battle Ground for dinner with a friend and then back to PGE for another 15kwh, and McMinnville, where the only snag in the trip happened: the Nissan dealership accidentally turned off power to the charging station when they closed up for the night.

Currently, EV’s are rather like being out in far SW Oregon, where the only gas station is in Fields. If it’s closed, you’re camping for the night. After spending the night in a hotel, he got the car charged up while visiting another friend in McMinnville and completed the 234 mile round trip, using 65kwh of electricity, averaging 3.6miles/kwh (about $8 worth of local, renewable, electricity, vs 14 gallons of foreign gas in his old Explorer or even 5 gallons in a Prius).

Being on the bleeding edge isn’t without its risks, but by the end of this year charging stations will run the length of I-5 from the Canadian border to the California border, making long distance excursions, if not quite as convenient as using gas, at least practical. The technology is changing rapidly right now (one reason he’s leasing rather than buying the Leaf): in a few years the whole driving landscape will be vastly changed by electric vehicles, and not a moment too soon.

In the meantime, even now, EVs are perfect second cars for virtually everyone. For metro area driving, you don’t *need* any charging infrastructure but in your garage. For most people, even a standard 110V outlet (albeit a dedicated circuit) will work, though given the low 3 mph charging rate, a Level 2 charging station that works at about 12-15 mph is what most EV owners are installing. To see what range *you* need, simply reset your trip meter every morning when you leave, noting what it read for the previous day’s travels. Add 50% for peace of mind and that’s all you need to smile and wave at $4-6 gas as you whirrr quietly past the old fossils along the highway.

Then he turns around and suggests that we need a bunch of answers to questions about EVs.

You can’t have it both ways.

Perhaps I can help him, however, having been driving an EV here in Corvallis for nearly 4 years, and in Portland for a year or two previous to that:

Q: Suppose I get an electric vehicle for quick trips around town, but if that’s the only vehicle I can afford, how do I make trips of more than 100 miles or so?

A: If that’s the only vehicle you can afford, you can get a plugable hybrid (e.g. the Chevy Volt coming out late this year), you rent an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car, or you will just have to wait for technology to improve, which it is doing at a phenomenal rate at the moment. Low end and/or used EVs suitable for low speed city driving can be had relatively inexpensively however.

Q: If ODOT puts in charging stations at all the rest areas on the freeway, how long do I have to wait around there for a charge to be complete so I can continue on my way?

A: That is one of the areas where technology is improving and a key factor for pure EV technology to become viable as an exclusive transportation means. Because we’re not there yet doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be planning for it and taking the first steps, particularly as it’s useful for hybrid technology in the interim. Even so, the Nissan Leaf, coming out in a couple of years (and in limited rollouts sooner) is supposed to do an 80% charge in half an hour. Not ideal, but not unmanageable either.

Q: How would they handle congestion at public charging stations if even 10 percent of the traffic runs on battery power and each charging session takes, say, an hour or two?

A: That is indeed something that is going to have to be addressed, but doesn’t seem like a gating factor when you consider that, unlike liquid fueled cars, you don’t *have* to gas up at a public station. Most EVs will be “fueled” at the destination and only cross country trips will require “gas stations”. I would expect that in cities, parking meters will become charging stations where you pay for a charge and your parking space at the same time. The amount of electricity needed is so low that the cost of the charging station is likely dominate the parking charge, and I would expect build-out to ramp up to meet demand. People will likely often choose to wait until they get home to charge, reducing the problem.

Q: What happens to electric vehicles that get caught in tie-ups on the freeway, the kind where you can’t turn off the engine but have to spend an hour or so moving ahead a few feet at a time?

A: Electric motors don’t work like ICE: if you’re not moving, they’re not consuming power, and they don’t consume very much at all when moving slowly. Stop and go traffic is very EV friendly, however unfriendly it is to the passengers.

Q: If these kinds of considerations make it impractical or unlikely that households could rely on electric vehicles alone, how could most people afford an additional rig for just short errands around town?

A: How many families have two (or more) cars already? A large percentage I’d wager. And I’d also wager that it’s a rare thing where all need to be long range vehicles. Reset your trip meter first thing in the morning, just after noting the value for the previous day’s ventures. That’s your worst case, not counting “opportunity charging” options, range requirement. Particularly in Corvallis, it’s just not going to be an issue. My EV is particularly short ranged, and I’ve had to switch to my ICE maybe twice in the 4 years I’ve been here (and at least once was more for comfort than need), and the only time I drive my ICE otherwise is when I’m leaving town.

Q: If they can afford them, where would the extra vehicles be parked, since the garages are already full with the cars they have and can’t do without?

A: How many people actually put cars in their garages as it is? Really, if that were the biggest problem we had to worry about, gas would already be history. Countering misinformation is a far bigger problem.

After thinking about it for a while, I think the author is taking too simplistic an approach to the question. In the long term, he’s right: the money the government is taking comes from somewhere, but when you look at how stocks and bonds work, the effect of government stimulus is not to take money from Paul to pay Peter, but in the devaluation of the stocks and bonds sold to buy into treasuries. Stocks and bonds are kind of like a financial “potential energy” storage pool: aside from the initial sale by an entity to fund some endeavor, the buying and selling of them does nothing for the economy, just shuffling assets around, until an investor cashes some out to spend. That is not without value, but in terms of short term economic stimulus a minor devaluation has little impact relative to actually getting cash into people’s hands to keep fueling a stalling economy, which would certainly devalue stocks and bonds dramatically, as was recently demonstrated.

Repaying the bonds will be a future drag on the economy, but if the stimulus is successful, there will be enough headroom to cover it. To some extent, it even should act to counter an exuberant rebound, smoothing things out.

Day 9 Pix

Day 8 Pix

Day 7 Pix

Day 6 Pix

Day 5 Pix

Day 4 Pix

Day 3 Pix

After that, we headed on up Haleakala, climbing a small cone near the top for a good view into the crater, then finished off at the summit. There, I played with my trail gps (which has a compass) to check the pull of “Magnetic Peak” — a cinder cone with a high iron content, throwing off compasses. When we got back, I compared pictures with google earth and determined it had pulled the compass off about 20 degrees, though we were pretty close to it.

Day 2 Pix

So…up before o-dark-thirty so I can get to PDX by 8am for the 10:15am flight. Grabbed a light drive-thru breakfast on the way out of Corvallis, but there was a Rose’s at PDX, and I’d breezed through security quickly, so had time for a real breakfast there.

I continued reading Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword
by Tee Morris on the flight, a pretty good book about a dwarf sucked through a portal into Capone’s Chicago. He ends up setting up a detective agency, which leads to a case involving a magical artifact that came through with him. It’s rather powerful, and many people want it, including Capone. Quite a good read, and I look forward to there being some follow-ons…

I’m using the 2nd edition Kindle to read, and it is great. They still need to work on library management and ease of use of the more advanced features, but for “just reading”, anything more is just icing.

By mid-afternoon, here we are! Landing in Kahalui! Chris was just leaving Kula (where he lives, he took the day off) when I got to baggage claim, which showed no signs of moving, but shortly after that the bags appeared. I read a little more (some short stories, at this point, I think), then he showed up with his son, ‘Ohi‘a. Since I hadn’t wanted to pay $10 for an airline caesar salad, we swung into Burger King and I had a burger while ‘Ohi‘a had a shake.

Up to Kula, chaufferred by “Chris Andretti”. It seems about a year ago, he upgraded to a BMW M5, and well, he really enjoys the narrow, winding, Hawaiian back roads ;-)

The place he’s renting from his in-laws is nice, with a separate office over the garage that makes a nice guest bedroom. The rest of the day is basically spent visiting and settling in.

Day 1 Pix

However, a few years later, after I’d moved on to Oregon State, possibly even graduated by then, he got religion and a little while after that, a wife (that part’s ok ;-) ). Being that he joined the Quakers (or Friends, as I believe they call themselves), it seemed relatively innocuous as such things go. But…

Some years after that, 10-15 years ago? I forget now, but I went to visit Tim. I’d never explicitly come out to him, but he probably had a clue. Anyhow, the subject of homosexuality came up, and he said he wouldn’t even want a gay neighbor, and I’m pretty sure he said he wouldn’t want any gay friends. I confess, I don’t explictly remember that part. I took the non-confrontational out and merely disagreed with his position without coming out directly. I never heard from him again, and I’m of the attitude “don’t go where you’re not wanted”, so didn’t try on my part either.

Until last week. I got a voicemail from Tim’s wife. Apparently Tim’s 50th birthday party is next weekend, and she’s arranging a “pseudo surprise party” (he knows something’s happening, but apparently she’s bringing in more than expected guests).

A complex dance of text messages, including Sprint doing text-to-speech to their answering machine, ensued, but the crux was that I finally called back last night, and trying to put a veneer of not-spoiling-the-party (though it seems obvious why I would be getting in touch now, of all times), explained it as “someone suggested I get back in touch with you this summer, and I wanted to find out if that’s something you actually want”. The short of it was that yes, he was willing to stay in contact, even if he “disagreed with me” and we chatted for a while catching up a bit.

Having thought about it over night though, I’m not sure I am. Friends do disagree over viewpoints, and disapprove of some things their friends do, but this goes well beyond that: people with Tim’s attitude are voting in laws that not only go against the grain of everything America is supposed to stand for, but they are having negative impacts on people. Fortunately those impacts aren’t often serious, but sometimes they are. I have good friends who’ve had to go to Canada to have their rights legally recognized. Some of my best gay friends have been together for 20 years, and people like Tim are condemning them all for the sin of loving the wrong person.

It is tough to decide where to draw the line: I know I have relatives, and suspect some co-workers, that fall into Tim’s camp, and at least one of those co-workers I otherwise rather like. Exposure to us will often help people realize how wrong they are, but I wasn’t in touch with Tim that much after college, and that wouldn’t change even if I did reconnect: he’s in the Seattle area, which, while I visit other friends there once in a while, that’s just not enough to make it worth the pain.

Tim does like to debate, and at some point we may actually take up the subject again, but this just isn’t a relationship I’m willing to invest any energy in — it just makes me too angry.

Just before I left, the word was about 1900 attendees. There was so much happening, that they took the beds and furniture out of a wing of rooms to turn into mini conference rooms. So much, that even with all those people, each panel was smallish, maybe a dozen audience, up to a half dozen panel members. It made it very intimate and casual, and if you did have specific questions, easy to get answers. Everyone was very accessible, and that was very nice.

I was disappointed that no one noticed the “%20 the Final Frontier” t-shirt on Saturday, but to be fair, it was rather obscured with bag and badge straps. On Sunday, however, 2 people noticed the Ferrous wheel t-shirt, which was gratifying ;-) Though apparently it’s an older joke than thinkgeek… (not surprising in retrospect).

Great costumes! As someone put it, “an excuse to use your Halloween costume again” ;-)

I don’t actually remember much about the character building session, though there were a couple key things as I recall, aside from stuff I kinda knew already. Some good, but basic, stuff like “don’t make your character your ideal”, they need to be flawed to be interesting. They got into a bit of a discussion of giving each character a “voice” style; I asked where you could study such things, and the answer was netflix ;-)

The next panel, on exploitation films, was nearly next door. At first it was just me and the two panelists. We talked a bit, and among other things, trying to define “exploitation”. I kinda got the impression that they considered “exploitation” anything based on something previously done and/or done just because they knew it would sell to a particular audience, and particularly, sex and gore. My definition was rather more limited, in that I consider it exploitive if it’s clearly done just to cash in on a particular fad or interest, but not if it’s filling a niche market need that isn’t otherwise being filled. Blaxploitation films were brought up a number of times, and while many of them were surely exploitive, I’m sure not all were. In fact, it wasn’t until I got home that I realized a perfect example, albeit tv, not film, but Noah’s Arc is essentially “Black Queer as Folk”. But it’s not a rip off, it’s it’s own, well done, work that stands on its own, and certainly meets a niche need (unless it somehow does a disservice to black culture, but it doesn’t feel like it). Shortly after we got going, Rob came in and joined in, and a couple others, and later, a several of the other HF people as well.

After it was over, I’d intended to go next door to the Self Promotion panel, but it was packed. On my way over, I’d overheard the HF people talking about going to the lobby to hang for a bit, and decided that if I actually wanted a chance to have a conversation with them, that would be the best opportunity, and, as I think about it, effectively do self promotion instead of listen to people talk about it ;-) I nearly lost my nerve on the way — I really don’t like to butt in, but as Jayne put it well, “seems like every hero is some kinda sumbitch” (and I think it’s true of just about anyone who actually accomplishes much — sometimes you just have to bull through to get it done), and one of the reasons to come was to get involved with them.

So gather up a question and walk over…and Rob just starts chatting with me. I’d figured they were headed out (in fact surprised they were there at all, but now I realize I’d forgotten Monday was holiday for a lot of people). Anyway, they were looking for something touristy to do, as they weren’t leaving until Monday and invited me to join them. Cool! Not just because they were the HF crew, but I do like to get to know new people, even if I’m too chicken to do anything about it most of the time. I think it helped that I had a car ;-) They had one car, and didn’t quite fit in it, showing me pictures of one of them getting out of the trunk ;-) Anyway, it took a while to try to find something — the Tri Cities on a short notice Sunday aren’t exactly a tourist mecca, but finally, we decided to go to the Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science and Technology. One of the group was actually local, and thought he knew where it was, but near the end, got lost. Fortunately, I’d put my nav unit on it, and we followed it there, though Andrew and Sharon had gotten into a discussion of accents that was interesting, and I was listening to that and missed the turn. The “CREHST” was small and off to the side, and since we kinda came from the backside, couldn’t see the sign. We went past it, a couple blocks, stopped and got the address, realized where it must be and went back. This time we came in as intended and there was the sign.

The museum turned out to be essentially a small “history of hanford” museum, though it was interesting and we had fun playing with a “waldo” (remote control arm/pincer), as well as setting off the geiger counter over a Fiestaware cup, and we got talked into watching a short video on Japanese balloon bombs from WWII (mostly because we sat down a moment and the tour guide put it on). Beo picked up a geiger counter (ok, an “ion counter”, which is actually something different apparently) at the gift shop, more on that later…

At this point, Cameron was feeling in dire need of some food, so we went in search of a convenience store for something quick, as they were planning on dinner later. They noticed “Dax’s Bar & Grill”, and being trekkies, had to pull in. It turned out to be more bar than grill however, so we left. Somehow, the decision got made to go to Olive Garden(?), which was puzzling, because they intended to go wine tasting after the museum, and it was too late to do both. Away we went though… While waiting for a table (? Rob said 15 minutes, which implied to-go, I’m confused!), Andrew gave Beo a ballet lesson. Now Beo, small and slender, seems like a ballet natural, whereas Andrew, well, fits the “bear” category. Not what you expect for ballet… The result was amusingly counterintuitive ;-)

Cameron’s mom joined us for dinner; she’d actually worked for a guy that there was a bust of in the museum. He’d worked until he was 101 years old, only stopping about 6 weeks before he died. The dinner was an enjoyable chance to chat and the highlight of the day. Interestingly, as I had the chance, I was asking how people had come to be involved with HF, and several of them were pretty much the way I’m trying to do it: fans who just got involved.

Afterwards, we did go to a nearby winery, again falling back on the nav system when the phonebook didn’t cut it ;-) but as expected, they were long closed, so we headed back to the hotel. It was getting late, and I was heading back to Corvallis that evening, but still had a little time, so went in for a bit. They had some business to conduct to finish up the con, and while doing that, one of the con leaders (I think) came over for some labor recruitment. Saved by the fact they were Guest of Honors, and exempt ;-) I didn’t have time, nor am I shape for pallet loading, but did stick around long enough for him to notice Beo’s ion counter. Like many people in the area (for some reason ;-) ), he knew a lot about them, and pointed out that if it could detect the radiation, you wanted to leave the area, and if it hit the middle of the scale, you had hours to wrap things up!

They finished their business, and much as I would have liked to hang out and get to know them better, it had been interesting chatting with Sharon and Andrew in the car, and it was time to head home, so we bid our farewells and off I went, ending a weekend that exceeded all my expectations…

As the afternoon was going to be busy, even though it was only 11am, I stopped to have lunch, then off to the first of the Main Event: “So you want to make a fan film?” Although, I actually want to do my own things, rather than a fan film, I figured it would be applicable. As it turned out, most of it was pretty basic, aimed at complete newbies, but it was a chance to see several of the Hidden Frontier people and get a feel for them. At the end was the first time I got a chance to introduce myself to Rob, whom I’d emailed but never met. He was rather distracted though, trying to find the next panel. As it turned out, it was the one I was heading to also and got him steered in the right direction. As mentioned, directions were one of the be glaring omissions in the con organization, though by today, they had started to put up some basic sign pointers in the lobby…

The next panel, “Professional looking makeup”, was as it turned out, right next to the previous room, and also led mainly by Hidden Frontier people (they were the main filmmaking reps at the con). This was the opposite experience: I haven’t the faintest clue about basic makeup, so while I understood what they were talking about conceptually, it was here it really sunk in “you can’t do it all”, though I did actually sort of intellectually realize that already. That begs the question of how do you get people though, and they had actually answered that question before: do something and they’ll come. Heck, that was why I was there, and as I found out later, true of several of the HF people that were there too. Beo made an interesting comment though: he’s pushed back heavily on HD because the makeup would be far more demanding. I’d always thought of HD as “bringing film home”, but in fact, video has higher contrast than film, and in fact, deeper depth of field as well (something they also mentioned previously — I guess I got more out of it than I thought!), so HD is more difficult to work with. Still, I’m a visual guy and I want the best quality I can get. The movie room was driving me crazy because they, as virtually everywhere it seems (even on tv stations, where they should know better!), couldn’t get the aspect ratio right, resulting in a stretched and compressed image. Argghhh! Anyway, that is going to be something to consider in any of my own filmmaking plans…

After this, I’d intended to go to the Government Agencies panel, but just couldn’t get motivated, so I wandered a bit and was reminded there was a raptor display going on. There were several really cool birds perched, some looked stuffed until minutes later, they would move. Very pretty too. I think I’m getting partial to Kestrels, but no way would I actually want one ;-) After taking some pix and video, I went to have a milkshake and check email, then left a bit early for the main reason I’d come to the con: to see the premiere of the new HF Helena Chronicles episode, “The Minstrel Boy”.

For all that it was the main reason, it turned out to not be the highlight of the trip. It was good, and in particular, started to resolve the plot in a way that I might believe, but the rest turned out to be so much better than I was expecting that it kind of overshadowed the viewing. It releases for real later this week, so I can watch the whole thread again and let it sink in better too, but the main impression I came away with was “OK, where’s the next part?” I suppose that’s not a bad outcome, but as I think on it, it would have been frustrating to watch the entire run over the 10 years it took to make it, instead of the week I actually watched it in.

Afterwards, there was supposed to be a writing presentation that looked really informative, but apparently got cancelled; in any case, it didn’t happen. I hung around a bit, along with some of the HF people, deciding what to do. They went off somewhere and I decided to see if I could find some of the pizza I’d seen wandering the halls, but with no sign of where it came from. Eventually, someone pointed me at the “Hostility Suite”, which I’d thought was something for guest of honors, etc, but in fact turned out to be a snack bar serving Round Table Pizza. Perfect! I went to the movie room for a bit to watch what was on until it was time for the next panel…

I’d intended the next panel to be the one on ebooks, as I have definite opinions on the matter ;-), but there was also a session on building props, with Dragon and the HF people. I figured that would be a much more productive use of time, and in fact ended up being a fascinating discussion of where to go to get stuff, and particular, anecdotes from Dragon of real world stuff. Things like the blinking light that was used in several different series and roles, how to score drywall to make a breakaway, insulation foam that carves nicely, then you vacuform over, etc. I really wish I could have gone to the ebook panel, but I made the right choice!

Next was a discussion of “revolution in a transparent society”, which ended up not being too interesting, and I left after a while. I headed to the Alexander Adams concert that was supposed to be going on, but it was towards the end of the 2 hour slot, and it appeared to be long over.

Next on my list was a presentation of “autorealm”, something that gamers could use for world building, and I thought it could be useful for mapping out stuff for stories. Unfortunately, it turned out to just be a basic vector drawing program with an object library oriented towards gaming. Since there was an other panel on makeup, I headed back over there. Unfortunately, I’d missed the part where she showed how to put on spock ears, and the turnout was very light. There was some chatting, then we gave up and since this also was composed of HF people, we headed to the viewing room to watch some of the HF. The episode finished just in time to head to the 8pm panel; Rob was outside talking to someone and asked me if I’d seen the episode as I left, and I said yes, but wanted to catch a panel and would be back.

As it turned out, I should have stayed and chatted, and watched the blooper I think they were about to show. Though most blooper reels are just lame, it was one thing I hadn’t seen, and the Constitution Building panel wasn’t what I thought it would be. Instead of a discussion of what a Constitution should be, it was basically, “brainstorm your own constitution and i’ll facilitate”. Since there were only 2 of us, it wasn’t much. Then a group of teens came in, and while they did join in, weren’t taking it too seriously, though one was actually in a class where he had to come up with one himself, and planned to use what we did for part of it. Anyway, when the hour was up , I beat feet and went back to the viewing room. I’d hoped to talk to Rob a bit more, but after the episode was over, that was the last of them and they rushed out to something or other.

Dragon was going to show something undisclosed later, but while something else was supposed to happen at 10, I didn’t know what for sure, and the showing was at midnight, and I didn’t want to stay up that late, so made an early night of it. I’d planned to read the rest of the Judas Kiss script when I got home, but it was still in my inbox, and my dsl connection apparently went down about the time I left Pasco. Argghh! I fiddled a bit, and then went to bed. Kind of an anticlimatic end to a day with some pretty good parts to it…

I’ve got some filk, most notably, Of Shoes and Ships by Cecilia Eng, which is quite good, and had hopes for the filk session, but didn’t really know what to expect. It was fun, kind of a group singalong led by the filk singers. Unfortunately the best voice had to leave early, and the best song (Never Set the Cat on Fire) was the first one, and the one I didn’t capture. Most were a lot of fun, like Fuzzy Animals and 307 Ale and I would like to get recordings of real performances. The main annoyance here was most of the other “audience”, like me, hadn’t done this before, but unlike me, seemed to think that it was a bar where go to talk while listening to music, even when they were singing along. Seemed just plain rude to me…

I left that early to go to the Vampire panel, which was an interesting discussion of why vampires are so popular and what makes a good vampire story. I tend to agree with the panelist that it’s the ambiguity in that we’d like to be a vampire, except for the parts we wouldn’t. There was also some discussion of the history and mutation (like going up in flames being introduced by Nosferatu).