i_hope_that
For many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.

Tags: i_hope_that, support, wishes

diygifts
Feeling crafty? If you've got a few last folks on your holiday gift list, this is a great place to seed your creativity and generosity. You'll also discover wonderful DIY tips to decorate your home and entertain guests. Offering a no-frills-no-skills attitude that welcomes the cash-challenged and arts-phobic, you're sure to get ideas and make friends in the process.

Tags: crafts, diygifts, do it yourself

cooking_club
A fun and friendly community dedicated to those who love to cook, whether you're a meat-and-potatoes type, an aspiring gourmand, and/or a vegan. In search of a brilliant dish to use up those weekly leftovers? Post your ingredients and you'll be whipping up a feast by dinner. You can also share favorite recipes. For Type A chefs, you can spice up your culinary repertoire with exciting cooking challenges.

Tags: cooking_club

I had a thought for how to make a particular kind of panel run more smoothly.

I have attended a lot of panels, most of which I really enjoyed, on the general topic of "how come we never see $noun_phrase in SFF?" ("fat protagonists", "protagonists who are mothers", "old protagonists", hard SF written by women" etc.) A common way for these panels to fail is that for any noun phrase, there are a handful of obscure books/shows/movies that really do address that issue and a couple dozen more that sort of skirt it, and the panel gets bogged down with people listing off these books and media.

Since we are all at the panel because we're interested in the topic, this is pretty useful, because presumably we would like to experience these rare outliers that are addressing the topic. But it takes a long time for people to list these off (and to pause the action while everyone who wants to writes them down), and then we run out of time to discuss the phenomenon of why this issue isn't addressed more often, which is the ostensible panel topic.

So I wanted to suggest that the rooms have poster paper on an easel with a marker, and at any time during a panel that an audience member (or a panel member!) thinks of something they would recommend that's germane to the topic, they can just stand up an write it on the paper and sit down again. The conversation doesn't have to get interrupted, other people in the room can take notes or not as they fit, people who blog the panel can take down the list for later republishing, etc. If you're worried it won't be obvious why you're making the recommendation, you could put a few keywords in parens after it. (For example, "all Le Guin (gender issues)" or "Xenogenesis saga, Octavia Butler (book cover whitewashing)".)

This could really be generalized to lots of other panels too- this was just the panel style that I noticed was most derailed by recommendations.

Thoughts?

stepstomarrow
When granddaughter, Jada, was born with leukemia, a donor-match was located and Jada made a miraculous recovery. In honor of her grandaughter's health, Jeanna has decided to walk across the country (in the dead of winter) to raise awareness and build support for the bone marrow registry (all that's required is a cheek swab). Follow Jeanna's remarkable journey as she travels the United States by foot.

Our next meeting will be January 18th.

We will watch the movie Revolutionary Girl Utena the Movie: Adolescence of Utena. When obtaining a copy, be sure that it's the movie, and not one of the DVDs from the series (look around on Amazon to know the difference!).

Available on Netflix, probably at Four-Star, used on the internets, and two copies at the public library.

I also have a copy of the movie, although my apartment is too small for a viewing.


Also, I personally believe that the English dub of Utena is HORRIBLE, so do yourself a favor and be a snob and watch it in Japanese with English subtitles.

taste_buds
Holidays provide a built-in excuse for indulgent entertaining. This all-purpose foodie community covers everything from homemade hangover cures to dinner party menus. Need quick advice? Get five-minute snack suggestions, low-fat ingredient substitutes, and even measurement conversions. Delicious recipes garnished with humorous advice. Yum.

Tags: taste_buds

naturesbeauty
Always on the lookout for compelling images, we were delighted to discover this flourishing community of artists who share a love of nature. Honoring the subject with photographs, paintings, sketches, prose, poetry, and other creative works, you'll be simultaneously riveted to your monitor and inspired to run helter skelter towards the nearest wooded dale.

Tags: naturesbeauty

Hi all,

does anyone know whether the automatic booking system for the Madison Concourse is working properly? I've tried to book for WisCon using it and it says that no rooms are available at that time, which seems unlikely (but not impossible) six months before the con!

(I dropped a note earlier in the week to the hotel contact but haven't had a reply yet)

ETA: I've phoned the hotel and succesfully booked rooms. Obviously the online reservation system is not quite working (again!)

Do you have a great idea that would make an amazing panel, roundtable discussion, or solo presentation at WisCon 34? Don’t forget to submit your ideas before midnight on January 8, 2010! And if your ideas work best with a different kind of format, make sure to let us know on the form. Just go to http://wiscon.info/programming.php and click on the link to the program suggestion form.