Octothorpe

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.

23: A Lot of Foreshadowing

John thinks that arguments should be more nuanced, Alison disagrees in every conceivable way, and Liz summarises.

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.

A graph of Hugo finalists with more than four names:

• Letters of comment:
  • Ang Rosin
  • Claire Brialey
  • Mark Plummer
  • Chris Garcia
• Upcoming events:
  • FANAC are hosting an Interview of Ted White by John D. Berry
    • 23 January 2021, 4pm (Eastern Standard Time)
  • Critical Mass are hosting a single-day mini convention!
    • 31 January 2021, Noon to 8pm (Adelaide time)
    • John will be appearing on a panel about podcasting at 7:30pm (Adelaide time, 9am UTC)
  • Capricon: 4–7 February 2021
  • Boskone: 12–14 February 2021
• All of Fandom is Plunged Into War
  • DisCon III posted a Tweet about the numbers of people allowed to be Hugo finalists
  • Chris Garcia discusses the effect on JP in previous years
  • Colette H. Fozard posted a statement on File 770 about her resignation from DisCon III
  • Jared Dashoff statement on his resignation
• Are the Hugos a massive cankerous boil on the Worldcon that just needs to be completely purged?
  • Steve Cooper posts to JOF on how much the Hugos cost a Worldcon and some of the considerations therein
• 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.

22: I Occasionally Bum Anger Off People

John edited a podcast, Alison ran all the parties, and Liz programmed a convention.

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:
  • Mark Plummer
  • Roman Orszanski
  • Andrew Hogg
    • The Upgradies
  • Dave Mansfield
  • Maggie
  • Claire Brialey
• What was 2020 like?
  • Alison ran some Zoom parties
    • First Thursday meetings
    • Went on a three-week virtual GUFF trip
    • Made a lot of tissue paper art which was very good
  • John did some fanac
    • Wrote his TAFF report
    • Interviewed Anna Raftery for her TAFF report
    • Edited Journey Planet #56 by James Bacon, Christopher J. Garcia, and Alissa McKersie
    • Edited Lulzine #5–6 with España Sheriff (feel free to subscribe!)
    • Did a small podcast with some mates
  • Liz lived in a country which might have dealt slightly more effectively with COVID–19
    • Liz did more work for Punctuation than anyone else
• Eastercon
  • You can become a member for £50
• Boskone is now selling memberships for $25
  • Why isn’t Boskone 58 free?
• Our theme music is Fanfare for Space by Kevin MacLeod, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.

21: A Visit from St. Octothorpe

John was on time because he’s stuck at home, Alison was on time because she’s stuck at home, and Liz was late because she was having her toes done.

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:
  • Peter Sullivan wrote to us about virtual conventions
  • Claire Brialey (of Croydon)
• Less hot takes on the Hugo Award for Best Video Game:
  • What we reckon
  • The Games Hugo website
  • DisCon III’s announcement of the Best Video Game Special Hugo Award
  • MJ Newman’s discussion of ludonarrative in games
  • F. Murray Abraham Totally Looks Like Tony Amendola
  • The Best Game Writing category at the Nebula Awards
• The music is It’s Christmas Time by Frank Schröter, used under the filmmusic.io standard license