Text 210, 74 rader
Skriven 2005-08-05 15:00:55 av Kay Shapero (1:102/524)
    Kommentar till text 209 av Robert Bull (2:250/501.4)
Ärende:  Hello
==============
on Jul 24 05 19:50, Robert Bull wrote to Kay Shapero:

 KS>> himself.  Sigh...)  Finally someone asked him exactly which part of
 KS>> the engine the oil belongs to and he seems to have caught on - or at

 RB> Nice way of putting it  :-)

For years I've used that as a metaphor for common courtesy, especially around
folks who don't see the use of it.  Lube oil doesn't steer the car, start the
car, stop the car, or make the engine run... but watch everything freeze up if
you leave it out.

 KS>> gaming room or the head of the Art Show forgets to eat (or sleep) for
 KS>> 24 hours I'm the one most likely to catch it first - and inform Con

 RB> Do they really do that?  Sounds very, well, teenage geek.  I can see 
 RB> why they'd employ a woman - especially a mother - to keep things in 
 RB> order...

When I first started this, I really did have an Art Show director who would try
to micromanage everything and forget to sleep, sometimes starting the con in
that condition.  She was considerably past the teenage geek stage, but not far
enough I guess.  Fortunately someone else took over that position after a
couple of years, so I had time to deal with other factors.  Oddly enough, one
big reason we started the position in the first place was a non-staff member
but close friend of most of ours who got so worked up at the con that he went
aphasic for a bit.  Sleep dispelled it, thankfully.  This scared him into
behaving himself most effectively thereafter, and got the rest of us thinking
about what would've happened if he'd been in charge of something.  I made the
suggeston, and as usually happens when you do this sort of thing wound up in
charge of it.

Be it noted that it doesn't have to be a teenager - it is very easy for anybody
actually working a convention to forget when they last ate or slept.  You get
focused on the job.

 KS>> Oh yes, and Saturday afternoon in the dealer's room, I've been known
 KS>> to pass through with a pitcher of icewater and a stack of paper cups,

 RB> Living in the UK, the American obsession with iced water rarely seems 
 RB> important.  OTOH, we're experiencing a very dry spell and I can start 
 RB> to see the point.  The speech therapist I went to even said to put a 
 RB> bowl of water in the room (at work) to try to make the air more humid.

I live in Southern California.  We get hot dry weather out here.  During which
time you drink water frequently whether you feel thirsty or not, or you get
dehydrated. And ice water will also cool you down more effectively than room
temperature.  These days most dealers I run into have the sense to bring along
their own drinkables, but I still get plenty of takers. 


CBIP (about 4/5 - it's an ebook and mobipocket does weird things with page
numbers): _Night of Power_ by Spider Robinson.  Rewritten and reissued version
of a novel he wrote in the mid '80s, about a revolution in the USA, as observed
by a family from Halifax.  Rather Heinleinian in style, not that that's unusual
for Spider.  There seem to be a couple of things the writer hasn't taken into
account, but I'm not finished with the book and they may just be things the
characters haven't thought of.  The characters are convincing.

Before this, I read _The Shiva Option_ by Steve White and David Weber (in The
Stars At War II)... and I'm not sure why I bothered to finish.  Space battles
between titanic fleets throwing mighty acronyms at each other, leaving
shattered planets in their wake... and cardboard characters with stereotypical
motivations.  Exposition excesses like stopping in the middle of a battle to
explain the weapons to be used, the tactics to be used, the weapons and tactics
that might have been used but weren't and why. It's three years old, copyright
2002; maybe nobody bothered to reread it before deciding to reissue it, even as
part of a collection.

Oh well, I just heard from the Library and the copy of Lois McMaster Bujold's
_The Hallowed Hunt_ I reserved is in, so I get to read THAT next.

--- Msged 6.0.1
 * Origin: StormGate Aerie (1:102/524)