And made a swooshing sound as it went... I don't know how I'm ever going to catch up with time, because lately it has felt more like I'm just a twig in a rapid - and not enjoying the ride that much at all. Too much to do, too little time to do it in.
This naturally means that I currently live under the shadow of a huge mountain of dishes, among a well-doing population of dustbunnies. Annoys the heck out of me, too, but after having graded essays for 8 hours straight on a beautiful Sunday, I'm darned if I'm going to touch the vacuum cleaner at 9 p.m. after I've gulped down a whole pizza, because I didn't have time to eat before that. No wonder I'm feeling a bit dull at the moment... My brainwave must be nearing a flatline about now.
Just to get some waves into that brainwave, I do have to mention a couple of things from this past weekend.
First of all, this was the weekend of the Turku Book Fair. Marvellous! I sat behind the desk in our small booth a couple of hours, was interviewed by the local TV-channel (I didn't see the program I probably was in, though) and met a very nice author, Jeff Long. Perhaps most amazingly of all, I managed to spend only 3,50 euros during my stay at the fair. Yay me for sticking to a strict budget!
Jeff Long was invited to the Fair by Like and he was kind enough to come and attend a program item organised by the SF-society. There weren't that many people present, but nevertheless he gave a nice little "GoH speech" and then we had a very interesting q&a, which was actually a lot more like a coffee klatsch than a q&a-session (because of the small number of people there). It was definitely refreshing to listen to his opinions and stories behind his works. He had some very hard words to say about his own government at the moment, about the wars in Vietnam and Iraq and about the American corporate publishing business. And also a few words about Dan Brown. He seemed to be a person who is very widely read and aware of the world around him. It would've most certainly been fun to chat with him a bit longer, that'll have to wait till he comes back to Finland some day. (I did suggest he could maybe plan his schedule around the time when we might be having Finncon in Turku in 2008... He seemed to think it was a good idea, heh.)
So yet again, a book fair weekend during which I met a famous author. :) I wonder who's going to be on the list next year? Hmm. I'm hoping for an author whose books I would've already read before the fair...
One more thing before I go. Clothing. It's pretty funny how people seem to have a certain idea of how other people should look in certain situations. Apparently I didn't look like I was supposed to yesterday. I guess I didn't look like an editor of an sf-fanzine, but instead more like a senior high school teacher. Or something. I just have to wonder why the two have to be different since in my case the two roles are quite effectively merged into one package. However, it was kind of fun to notice that one of my friends didn't even seem to recognise me at first and when I greeted him, he just sort of stared at me and gasped something like "What the hell are you wearing?" Umm, say what? Thanks. I think it looks good, too...
So in case this means that I can't wear nice clothes and look like an sf-fan, I'm going to wear nice clothes and be happy about looking like a teacher. ;)
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4 comments:
So what did he say about Dan Brown? I am interested.
(if you don't have time to write, remind me to ask you about it when we meet. There's plenty of time to discuss private things at the tsfs meeting next tuesday. Isn't there? ; )
Sarin
People tend to categorize others to one and only one type of clothing very easily, and are rarely dissuaded from their preconceptions - even when faced with evidence on several occasions. I got a "You're wearing a white shirt - are you sick or something?" just this weekend. It seems a difficult concept to grasp that you might wear a certain type of clothing often without wearing it always.
So, I don't know about your theory of "looking like a sf fan," especially with the comment coming from a friend. More likely just, "What the hell? you're not wearing what you usually wear when I see you, and I thought people are supposed to wear the same every day".
Well I know I am one of the (many?) people who commented or complimented you on your clothing on the book fair. Let me just clarify that my comment was meant as a just that: a compliment.
I for my part didn't mean that you didn't look like an sf-fan (what does an sf-fan look like in general anyway?), but that you were extra sharply dressed. And having for once noticed such a thing (as you might know the male part of the species usually isn't too good at noticing anything) I thought I'd make a good impression by complimenting you (there's never too many compliments floating around in the world :) ).
I think I'm old enough to compliment anyone I want, but not so old that complimenting young women on their clothing would get me labled as a pervert. :)
Cheers!
-Ben-
First of all, about Dan Brown. Jeff was just wondering why his two best-seller books are best-sellers, because they are basically the same story. He also told us they used to have the same literary agent, and that was about it. So nothing scandalous or gossipy. :)
Ben, I know that you complimented me and it was very nice of you. Thank you, I totally and completely appreciated it. It is as you said, there are never enough compliments going around in this world. :)
On the other hand that other comment, although in a certain way also a compliment, was more a statement of "you don't look like you're supposed to", whether it's an sf-fan or whatever I'm supposed to look like in this person's eyes. But since this other person isn't exactly a perfect example of sharp dressing himself, I understand where his comment came from. And when he also told me "Vade retro!", I couldn't help but laugh.
So don't get me wrong, I wasn't offended by this "whattahell" comment either, I just found it mildly amusing. Partly because that's what I do wear nowadays, to work and such. And about looking like an sf-fan - it was just an amused pondering, not a serious theory. ;)
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