(no subject)

Six hours of fieldwork for Essex Ramble V today. The start/end locations I have in mind will work OK, and there are lots and lots of backup locations nearby. Found some really good roads I hadn't used before, and pulled some folks in an SUV out of a snowbank. They seemed grateful, and I was happy to have an excuse to use the tow strap that wasn't me being stuck in a snowbank. No new unpaved, but the Cutler Road bridge is done so I can (and will) use that.

All these years, Essex was just screaming to be a Monte and I never noticed. It will be so much better this way.

I've also put in several hours of what might be computer work for Essex, except that I'd have done it anyway. Version 3.4 of the Topo! browser is so much nicer than version 2.7 that it's not even funny. Too bad the data sets are incompatible.

Arisia presence at Boskone

Got some mail today from Geri Sullivan, on the Boskone committee:

Hi!

Gay Ellen Dennett and I are running "Saturday Night Dead" at Boskone. It's a "when weirds collide" kind of thing, with the weirds in this case being Mardi Gras, Vampires, and a taste of N4's First Night. There's a games area open from 8:30-10pm Saturday, and we'd love for Arisia folks to help by running one of the tables/activities.

The possibilities still open are:

• Graveyard ring toss (toss glow-stick rings over crosses stuck into graves) -- plan is to make an ensmalled graveyard by puting down tarps, fake grass, and mounds of dirt for the graves.
  
• Ducks'n'devils -- duck pond game with duckies and devil duckies
  
• Pin the tail on the werewolf

Or, you'd be welcome to suggest/bring a game of your own. The other
activities we expect to have are:

• Cheeblemancy (Esther Friesner's twist on fortune-telling, IIUC)
  
• Blackjack
  
• Kabinki (dice game)
  
• Costuming (kid-oriented w/voodoo wands, crowns, and more)
  
• Face painting
  
• King of the Dead contest
  
• Fannish Tarot readings, using the fan tarot deck

We have generic Mardi Gras beads to give to everyone, and special strands to use as prizes. We also have a few other prizes, most notably a bunch of glass beakers.

What sounds good to you?

Now I'm also very interested in running an Arisia party on Saturday night, immediately following this event, and I don't want to burn people up. But it's an interesting thought. Anyone have any ideas?

redundancy

I wish I had a USGS map browser which was also aware of Census Bureau map data. I can usually tell the intended road on a rally course, but not always. As it is, when I run into an ambiguity, I have to split my time between the (wonderful) topo browser I've dedicated five gigs of hard disk space to, and an online browser (Census Bureau being the data that Mapquest et al use). I have the data on CD, but without an integrated browser it's not much use.