Norwescon Friday

Feels like Saturday. I think I have Vacation Brain.

I also think con crud may be settling in a bit early. I feel…off, ear, nose, and throat-wise. Of course, I’d been breathing pristine Oregon mountain air for the past 6 days, and am now in a hotel on the outskirts of a busy airport. Hmmm….

Norwescon started yesterday. I arrived at the hotel 3ish, checked in, then got ready for the 5pm panel on “Building a Balanced Mythos.”

When building a religion for your world, how do you make it balanced and plausible without riffing off of existing religions? How will myth and religion impact your plot and motivate your characters? Why should there be several types of belief systems on a world?

James L. Sutter (M), Benjamin Tate, Clinton J. Boomer, Kevin Radthorne

I wasn’t originally slated for programming, but Joshua Palmatier (aka Ben Tate) was hit with a flight change that prevented him from making it to the con in time, and asked me to sub for him. I didn’t expect many people at a late afternoon/first day of con panel, but the room was packed and the discussion went very well. SF vs Fantasy religion-building. Are your gods actual beings that interfere in the lives of men (the Greek gods, frex), or the personifications of forces and ideas? What do your gods want, and why would anyone believe in them? The hour went fast.

I am now waiting for Joshua to finish his morning programming. We are probably going to head into the city to check out a couple bookstores and grab lunch. Weather looks decent–chilly, but partly sunny. Packing my brollie just in case.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Friday

The thing is, I have suffered from cat allergies for much of my life. Asthma attacks. Red, itchy welts where the dander touched my skin.  But my allergies overall seem to have settled down a bit over the last few years, so I was hoping that I wouldn’t have much of a problem when I visited my friends D&D and their 2 pups and 6 cats.

I guess you could say I didn’t have a problem:

Singer is an Empathy Cat. I had a few rough moments related to some phone calls from back at the homestead, and was feeling a little tense. Worried. This was about the time that Singer decided that my lap was the place upon which to spend extended stretches of the evening and even parts of the afternoon. Stroking him made it all better.

My throat didn’t even itch. Didn’t sneeze. Sort of amazing, actually.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.