Octothorpe

33: Jigsaw Psychoanalysis

John can’t cope with any, Alison can cope with one, and Liz has excellent mental health.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

• Letters of comment
  • Ang Rosin
  • Chris Garcia
  • DC
  • Duncan MacGregor
    • Podcasts with adjacent communities you can join and interact with:
      • Drawn to the Flame
      • Mythos Busters
      • The Rebound
      • Relay.fm
      • Six Colors
  • Karen Schaffer
  • Maggie
  • Mark Plummer
  • Peter Sullivan
  • Phil Dyson
    • A YouTube link on which Alison insisted
• Fanzines
  • The MT VOID
  • Evelyn C. Leeper
  • The Shield of Umor
  • Fanzines by email:
    • Feedbin
    • Astrolabe
    • Transfer Orbit
• TorCon 2021
• SFSFC settlement
  • SFSFC
  • ~~Con Jose 2~~ Worldcon 76
  • File 770’s report
• CONvergence 2021 is going ahead
• Worldcon site selection is open, and the fee is $50
  • Chengdu in 2023
  • Memphis in 2023
  • Winnipeg in 2023
• Punctuation 2 is imminent!
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.

32: Maybe This Conversation Can Go Down a Vortex

John is insidious, Alison is simmering, and Liz was on committees.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

• Letters of comment
  • Ang Rosin
  • cDave
  • Chris Garcia
    • The Rolling Donut
    • Dollard and Co. (2am pizza)
  • España Sheriff
  • Farah Mendlesohn
  • Peter Sullivan
  • Spike
    • Garcia Turner Overdrive
• Alison is a guest of honour!
  • ConSpire 2021
  • Science Fiction Foundation
  • British Science Fiction Association
• Fanzines
  • This year’s Hugo Award finalists for Best Fanzine
  • Banana Wings
  • Dante’s Cardigan
  • File 770
  • Lulzine
  • Procrastinations
• Solid shapes definitely have sides and John will die on this hill
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license

31: If I Set Fire to Alison

John has bad Internet, Alison is monologuing, and Liz is the long-suffering one.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

(We know Alison sounds a bit unusual during the first eight minutes or so, but she was very happy in her cave and we felt like it would be mean to make her come out before she was ready.)

• Letters of comment
  • Jonathan Cowie
  • Phil Dyson
  • Chris Garcia
  • Farah Mendlesohn
  • Roman Orzanski
    • Ditmar for Best Cat
  • Mark Plummer
• Worldcons
  • Winnipeg in 2023
    • Kevin Standlee’s blog post about this coming to be
  • Memphis in 2023
  • Chengdu in 2023
• Punctuation 2 is go!
  • You can join here today
  • Non-binding consultative referendum
  • Volunteer and programme survey
• We spent longer than we intended talking about the WSFS Business Meeting!
  • Curious about binge watching? WSFS has you covered
• Octopicks
  • John: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
    • Which is actually nominated for a Lodestar Award and not a Hugo Award
  • Alison: The Mitchells vs the Machines
  • Liz: Detransistion, Baby by Torrey Peters
• Aftershow
  • Glasgow in 2024 did an excellent riff on their logo for Star Wars day
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license

30: Try to Always Use Chaps in a Gender-Neutral Way

John can’t make a poll, Alison knows the religious forms, and Liz has one more games thing (sorry).

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

• Letters of comment
  • Ang Rosin
  • Chris Garcia
  • Claire Brialey
  • DC
  • Farah Mendlesohn
  • Ian Snell
  • Mark Plummer
  • Pat McMurray
  • Peter Sullivan
• Swancon had to cancel the day before the con due to three-day lockdown (ouch)
• DisCon III
  • They’re changing dates to December!
  • This has raised questions about the deadline for site selection
    • These questions were not as academic as they initially seemed
  • Baen’s bar is back
    • Toni Weisskopf (former DisCon III Guest of Honour) thinks all the disputed posts are okay (including the ones that are advocating armed insurrection)
    • Mike Glyer makes a stand
• Hugo Awards
  • Best Video Game
    • What is a Let’s Play?
    • Minesweeper: The Movie
    • Pokémon Detective Pikachu
• FIYAHCON
  • A FIYAHCON retrospective
  • FIYAHCON published details about their platforms and costs
  • FIYAHCON 2021 registration is open, including options to donate memberships
    • You can donate to the General Fund for running costs, but they have hit their membership donation target
    • Reclamation 2022 have also implemented donations to allow less able fans to attend, with a recommended amount of £10 (if you can afford it)
    • DisCon III and Chicon 8 have similar funds; so did Dublin 2019
  • FIYAHCON also announced Ignyte Award nominees
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.

29: Ode to Badger

John is not Chris Garcia, Alison is full of beans, and Liz is T. S. Eliot.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

• Congratulations to Reclamation 2022!
• Letters of comment
  • Claire Brialey
  • DC
  • Gwen
  • Peter Sullivan
  • Jersey Gryphon
  • Duncan MacGregor
• An Ode to Badger:
  • Oh Badger cat, you are so large,
  • and fond of sunbeams, to recharge
  • your energy, so when it’s late
  • and Esther’s jigsaws lie in state
  • you sit on them with mighty weight,
  • because you are the best room-mate.
• We talked a lot about ConFusion…
  • Read the newsletters!
  • Alison’s speech at the bid session
• Other people’s reports:
  • Ang Rosin
  • Farah Mendlesohn
  • Ian Moore
  • Jo Van Ekeren
• Doc Weir
  • eFanzines’ page about Doc Weir
  • Alison’s acceptance speech
  • Alison's certificate
• We are doing Octothorpe live in two weeks (25 April 2021)!
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license

28: Literally the Best Thing You've Ever Said About Me

John is communicating, Alison’s head is spinning, and Liz is a programme operator.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

• Letters of comment
  • Claire Brialey
  • Chris Garcia
  • Mark Plummer
• Confusion 2021
  • Fan Fund Auction (7pm-9pm Sunday)
    • There will be some cool things like unique dice and one of Esther’s shawls, and there is probably just time to donate something if you would like to (get in touch with Alison).
    • One of the items will be “Make the Octothorpe cast say whatever you want as long as it’s under a minute long (we get a veto on grounds of taste, offensiveness and legality)” – thanks to Crazy Dave for the idea!
  • Octothorpe Live! (10am on Monday)
    • We will read your minute-long thing LIVE AT EASTERCON.
  • Volunteering
    • Alison and John are volunteering on newsletter. Watch out for the newsletter (Happy Daze) being published daily and distributed around the con and on the smeeds.
    • Liz is on programme ops.
  • Programme items
    • Beer/cider
    • Baking
    • The Dark Room
    • Alison is on panels about bad technology where she’s going to tell you that the solution is to stop buying non-Apple products; and on pandemic pastimes
    • John on panels about games and Star Wars, and moderating a panel about AI
  • Liz is in the bar
  • Alex Storer is providing “design and music” for Confusion’s Gather.town environment
• Eastercon 2022
  • Phil Dyson will be telling all at Confusion
• Eastercon 2023
  • There have been some whispers since we recorded but we don’t know anything
• Eastercon 2024
  • John is heading up their communications
• First Thursday Facebook group
• Alison went to Gillian’s Passover Seder
• The seven words you can’t say on television (of which I bleeped five and hope we don’t get arrested)
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license

27: Eeyore of Eastercon

John is excited, Alison is oh boy oh boy oh boy, and Liz… isn’t.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

• Letters of comment
  • Pat McMurray
  • DC
  • Chris Garcia
  • Mark Plummer
  • Karen Schaffer
  • Geri Sullivan
  • Claire Brialey
• Poetry Corner
  • Chris Garcia
• Octothorpoetry #1 and Loctothorpe #1 will be coming to eFanzines!
• Eastercon
  • ConFusion 2021 announced they are using Gather.town
  • ConFusion 2021 gave some details about programme, which can be accessed through TV/phones/tablets as well as through Gather
  • Gather has come under fire for some accessibility issues
• Alison is UK Fanzine liason for Glasgow in 2024
• NEW DOUGLAS ADAMS BOOK
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license

26: I’m Not Even a Single-Tasker

John is an annoying prick, Alison is not sure she’s staying sane, and Liz is going to a beach.

Please email us poems for our first anniversary Octothorpoetry Anthology!

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

• Letters of comment
  • Roman Orszanski
  • Chris Garcia
  • Claire Brialey
  • Ang Rosin
    • Follow-up Tweet
• Eastercon
  • Star Crossed
    • Buy an electronic copy
    • Buy a physical copy (UK supplier)
  • Dread
  • Fog of Love
• DisCon III
  • Scalzi’s take
  • Alison’s take
• Picocon 38: Automata
  • Excellent transfer of Picocon traditions into a virtual arena
  • It really felt like a virtual Picocon
• Punctuation
  • The financial report
  • The feedback report
• Staying sane in the apocalypse: A retrospective
  • John has been using:
    • 100 Days of SwiftUI
    • Anki
    • Streaks
  • John cried the day before the episode came out because he listened to this song
  • Alison
    • Spaceship You
    • Mousie Mousie
    • A review of Mousie Mousie
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license

25: Some of the Rocks Are Going to Be More Interesting Than Others

John has cats, Alison has a milkman, and Liz has a gecko.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

• Picocon is on 20 February 2021
  • Programme on Crowdcast
  • Social space (with games and pub quiz) on Discord
  • “Picocon 38 celebrates all things robot in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. This year the guests of honour are Jeff Somers, Dan Moren, SJ Kincaid and David Brian Johnson. Games will be starting at 11:00, with the first guest talk scheduled for 2pm.”
• Letters of comment
  • Letters: Bridget Bradshaw; Chris Garcia; Mark Plummer; Claire Brialey; Christina Lake
  • Tweets: Ang Rosin; DC; Duncan MacGregor
  • No Gecko Spray
  • The Weetabix and Beans Tweet
• Boskone
  • Jane Yolen’s Skylark story
• Eastercon have announced they’re using a platform which is neither Discord nor Zoom
  • The YouTube video/podcast episode in which this was announced
  • The discussion on JOF about online convention platforms
• Music credits
  • Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license
  • Dun Dun Dun Brass is by Orange Free Sounds, used under a CC BY NC 4.0 license

HI CLAIRE

24: You May Not Really Be the Target Audience for Television

John wants Palm Springs to win a Hugo, Alison is lonely, and Liz is not going to buy a Nintendo Switch.

Please email your letters of comment to octothorpecast@gmail.com and use #OctothorpeCast or tag @OctothorpeCast when you post about the show on social media.

• Letters of comment:
  • Duncan MacGregor
    • Anonymous Claire
    • Sheffield SF and Fantasy Society
    • First Thursday Fandom Drinks
    • A party in a Google Sheet
  • Claire Brialey
  • Chris Garcia
  • Mark Plummer
• DisCon III
  • They announced that they were going to make an announcement, but not what it was
  • Then it turned out that the announcement they had announced was an announcement regarding the lack of anything to announce
  • Their hotel is going bust
    • This is not particularly recent news though
• Capricon
  • The 2021 UK filk convention Long (Distance) Play
• Boskone
• Mass Con ’21
• Hugo reading/nominations
  • John’s reading list:
    • The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
    • The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
    • Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
    • Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
    • Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
    • Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu)
    • Network Effect by Martha Wells
    • A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
    • The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
    • The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
  • Movies
    • Palm Springs (coming soon to Amazon Prime)
    • The Vast of Night
    • Ice Cold in Alex **(buy or rent)
  • The big Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom
• Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.
• Dun Dun Dun Brass is by Orange Free Sounds, used under a CC BY NC 4.0 license.