Just Imagine...

Fri 12 Dec 2003, 07:00 GMT

Tripreport: 2003-10-25 - 2003-10-27: We are walking, we are walking...

--[ I originally wrote the entire N'awlins report in one entry, but when pre-posting it discovered a nasty bug causing things to overflow (prolly in IIS, which would mean that the live version of my site wouldn't suffer from it, but I can't take that chance), so now this will take multiple entries; This is part 3, read part 1 here and part 2 here ]--



Waking an hour earlier than I had to, the following morning I started by setting out for the Kinko's to properly read email (the day before I didn't get to really take the time for things, and there were a number of emails that did require my attention - plus I was hoping for some word from Tad on a possible conference call that he'd said he wanted to make [which unfortunately didn't happen, as he had a wedding to attend and timing generally didn't work]), on the way to which I took some pictures of the really famous tower since I hadn't thought of doing so when we first beheld it. :)
When I got to Dart & RoseKnight's hotel there wasn't yet anyone there, and so by 09:40 I went up to their room to see if they were still there at all, and if so if they had maybe gotten a call about a change in plans. Of course, as it turned out they had fallen right back asleep after turning off the alarm and were only awake again for a few seconds when I came knocking on their door. Oversleeping also was the cause of everyone else being late, but eventually the entire group did once more gather together in the lobby of that hotel (and such a nice lobby it was too, with smoothly polished wood and luxurious chairs and overall a very rich feeling about it), where we started signing Sahi's t-shirt (as she would have to leave us again already on the afternoon of that day, due to having to be back at work on Monday and flights from the USA to Europe not leaving at well-planned times).
Breakfast was once more at Café Beignet (we knew a good thing when we found it), though all the tables in the garden were occupied this time around, so we had to sit inside. :/

And once more the group split, with Dart and RoseKnight heading out to a wooden boat show, first bringing Sahi to the airport on their way there, and accompanied by Renfield and ettelewen. Auros, Angelus, Mwyaren and dd set out for some museums, while the rest of us (now being Jaime, Miiru, Seirayu, Shadows and Ice, Susan and me) went off in search of the apparently famous French Market, following which we wanted to head out to the Garden District.

Oh my... *grins in remembrance* The walk to the French Market was an adventure in itself, as the girls were now in full shiiiiiiny mode, and although we spotted what would be the French Market after only an hour of walking, it then took an additional hour before we actually arrived there, as there was an interesting side street with various shops holding all kinds of shiny stuff. Seriously... *shudders* Seirayu and me were completely unable to hold the tide of four girls shopping and doing girly stuff (and being given balloon animals and balloon rings and spotting interesting paintings; and of course there was the cathedral to take pictures of [I like the one above], and Miiru had to go and get the pigeons so peeved that they took revenge on her and...). *grins broadly* Though I don't know if I would've wished to hold the tide even if I could, for it was quite an experience, and a very good one at that, particularly as it then turned out that the vaunted French Market was nothing at all like expected, but just roofed little crowded stores in a few big buildings, rather than a real market, and so not worth visiting at all. Once more proving that it's the journey that is important, not the destination.
Disappointed by the French Market we went on to the Mississippi to sit on some stairs alongside it and hang out and admire the shiny things that had been bought - amongst which were some very groovy masks Susan had acquired - and in this way idle away an hour or more in a very pleasant fashion.
As getting to the Garden District would require a long walk just to get to the the streetcar stop which would then require money to get to the eventual destination, we decided to skip this altogether and instead set out on a quest for real icecream. Real icecream however seemed to be quite absent in N'awlins (*gasp* for shame!), so instead we ended up at Pierre Maspero's for a very nice lunch. I was good and had a salad, and then I was bad and had a delicious new york style cheesecake to go along with it, and that was so incredibly goooooood (I'd never eaten cheesecake before, nor was I even more than vaguely aware of its existence) that I became an instant fan of cheesecake (but only New York style, for the more liquid kind isn't all that special really when compared to that most delicious of delicacies). *wipes away a bit of drool that appeared just by remembering the cheesecake*
Hmmmmmm cheeeeeeesecake.....! ^_^

Auros, Angelus, Mwyaren and dragondawn rejoined us here for a bit, after which the original six of us together with Auros set out for the hotel, only slightly delayed by Shads and Miiru looking for something that they couldn't describe but would recognize when they found it, which after a few blocks we left them to do on their own (as they insisted we'd do - and I still have no idea what really was going on there, but whatever).
After freshening up in the hotel I went looking to see if anyone of the others had started doing the rest of the t-shirt signing, but apparently people had collapsed to sleep and/or were showering, so all the other rooms were locked and I thus spent the time together with Seirayu hanging out in the corridors, talking a bit and then playing some nethack. At this point Shads and Miiru rejoined us; they hadn't found what they were looking for, but they had found an awesome used bookstore on Dauphine, from which they brought a gift for Seirayu and much goodness for themselves (I remember the nice Tor hardcover of Legends). We continued to play some nethack (and I think I had him listen to some Vienna and Terami and other good music), and then it was time to start the track back into the French Quarter again, where we had to be at a certain point at a certain time (or so we had been told) or lose our reserved places in one of the ghost tours that we'd resolved to go on. Some people, however, were doing girly things and plying dress-up, and so we couldn't yet start walking. By the time everyone was ready (except for Renfield and ettelewen who had gone ahead to pick up Dart and RoseKnight from their hotel), we had barely 40 minutes left to get to practically the other side of the French Quarter, which meant that... *grins broadly* I got to set the pace at which we walked. And for once we really walked, with not a single shiny-stop in between, due to which we arrived at the bar where we should go in a little over 30 minutes. I'm so proud! *smiles broadly*
And then of course the "ghost tour" was delayed with setting out, so it had practically all been for naught. The tour itself consisted of two parts, during the first one of which we were led around from semi-old N'awlins building to semi-old N'awlins building, at each of which we were told some kind of horror-story. The brochure for this tour had advertised there being no fake effects or tricks - which seemed to be a very good thing and was the main reason why it was chosen - but this meant that they didn't have much left to work with, and so we were told what I consider to be more horror stories than ghost stories - something I really do not enjoy at all. I must give it to the tour guy that he put a lot of effort in presenting the tales, but the tales themselves were completely unconvincing and quite boring, nor did they ever really connect to the houses in which they had supposedly taken place.
For the second part of the tour we were led to a big building where another guy would tell us some more stories. This one, William Alexander - affectionately known as "ghost boy" - had some time to spend while waiting for other tour groups to arrive, and so was suddenly faced with a horde of smarchers, amongst which the smut-sisters and associated horrors. The poor guy, he never really stood a chance (watch Susan's outfit in that picture - seen from in front (or worse, from the corner of your eye!) the effect was a lot greater, but you should be able to imagine something of that from this pic).
After the stories by ghost boy (which worked a bit better and were not quite as gruesome), we had dinner at Coop's - a local pub recommended to us by the tour guides, which made great burgers. (And when I say great, I mean great. RK even went so far as to place them in the top ten of burgers he'd ever had eaten.) Unfortunately this place did not have room for all of us to sit together at the same table, but it was still all good. Fun to see RoseKnight play mother-hen. :) (Not that many people beyond him and dd will know what I mean by that, but still...) ^_^ After dinner I wandered back to the hotel with Renfield, ettelewen and Angelus, while Dart and RoseKnight set off on their own, and everyone else went for another night of revelry and meeting up with ghost boy. After saying goodbye to ettelewen (who would be leaving very early the following morning), I tried to get myself some sleep, but Angelus drifted off before I did, and so it took a few more hours before I finally did.

The following morning I woke up early, wished Angelus and Renfield farewell (as they were the next to set off), and then lingered in the lobby to see if anyone else had forgotten about daylight savings and would thus be down early to finally go and do the t-shirt signing, which we'd determined to do at that point (as it would be a shame not to do them at all). Apparently everyone else had remembered though, so I went back up to my room to do some reading. An hour later we finally did go and do some hasty t-shirt signing, while me, Mwyaren and Auros also bundled our things together in one room which we would share amongst the three of us that night so as to not have to hold the various other rooms that the larger group had been staying in, following which Shads, Jaime, Miiru and Seirayu set off.
Having said goodbye to all of them, the rest of us went to have a Jazz Brunch at Mister B's, something that Dart and RoseKnight were really looking forward to. The food here was decent, but the live jazz fun and the service was excellent (as in five people hovering around you all the time, rather than the regular kind of excellent in really expensive restaurants that I'm used to, which I think I prefer but has the same effect of your every need being catered for). Excellent that was... right up to the point where they forgot completely about us and we sat waiting around 20 minutes just to order desserts, and then another 20 minutes till it arrived (shortly before which RK had finally gotten up and said in his most menacingly calm tone to one of the waiters, I'd like to speak to a manager, please.
*grins* Fear!

After brunch, Auros, Mwyaren and dd set off to pick up glasses at ghost boy (I never got the story behind that - I assume there is one? *looks around*) and then see dd off (so it was goodbye to her), while me and Dart and RK set off to find the used bookstore that Shads and Miiru had found the day before which was apparently something special. And it was! It was the best kind of bookstore, with stacks of books stacked on top of other stacks of books and exceedingly narrow passages in between the shelves, where even the owner every so often managed to get himself locked in, and a for the size very decent collection of science fiction and fantasy books. I made Dart buy a few "here, you have to try this, ooooh, and do you know this one, and you just can't leave without..." If I remember correctly she ended up with Stapledon's "First and Last Men" (which during my time in the USA I've been pushing to quite a few people, as far too many people have never heard of, which for a book with the influence that it had (you could call Stapledon the Tolkien of science fiction) just won't do at all)) and Robin and Steve's "The Gypsy" (I knew Dart was quite fond of McKillip, so that was one she should love). And for myself I picked up a very thin (thin books are good, as I can convince myself that I'll be able to fit them into my luggage no matter what) short story collection by Asimov, containing one of the two or three of his short stories that I've forever been wanting to possess for myself, namely "Jokester." (One of the Multivac stories.) A good moment as the bookstore guy thanked me for playing salesperson, and then we wandered off to Dart and RoseKnight's hotel to wait for Auros and Mwyaren to be done with doing laundry so we could all be going to the Garden District. This was however not to be, as first there were problems with the washer which delayed them, and then RK wasn't feeling too well so we decided not to go at all, and instead just hung around reading (which was good). :)
Late that afternoon all of us who were now left (me, Dart, RoseKnight, Auros and Mwyaren) took a streetcar to a restaurant called Copeland's (which was beyond the Garden District, so theoretically we can be said to still have seen something of that) for dinner with a distant cousin of Dart's. The food here was absolutely fantastic (but then that went for pretty much any place in N'awlins; I'm really not someone to rave too much bout food usually, but Light! stuff was gooooood here). I had a "Cajun chicken cordon bleu" (another local dish), which also became the first meal in N'awlins to challenge me to finish it (but eventually I did, merely because it was to good to stop eating before it was all gone). Back at Dart and RK's hotel we engaged in an hour or two of extreme silliness, which was major fun (even though I once again - as at Tad's - had to conclude that American popular culture was really weird and that I really had no idea what a lot of stuff was about).
After this we planned to set out into the French Quarter, but the nice (though humid) weather of the previous days had abandoned us, so we first headed back to the other hotel for Chilly-ness protection. Lack of sleep that night caught up with me during the walk to the hotel, which together with neither Bourbon Street not ghost boy (who Mwyaren wanted to go and hang out with again) holding much attraction to me made me stay behind in the hotel. At five that night Auros came in to pack his things, tell me not to expect Mwyaren back and leave for his flight, so that was another goodbye, after which I got some more much needed sleep.
After waking up I once more walked to Dart and RoseKnight's hotel, where after some fifteen minutes of waiting beyond the previously agreed upon time I once more knocked on their door - I knew it would be you - and then gave then some more time to properly wake up. We then had a wonderful breakfast at a tiny place called "le petit paris" (again heartily recommended; try their quiches), following which they packed, drove to my hotel where we picked up Mwyaren (I'd packed the day before already) who we then drove to the airport, thus bringing the N'awlins meet to a final end.

*heaves a deep sigh*

I'm done! I did it! Mwuahahahaaa! I wrote N'awlins!

Oh My B... That was loooong. Urgh, and now I should go and edit it. And then see about dinner and posting this online...
...and probably read it myself as well... (hmm, or maybe better not; cause I so am not going to do major rewriting if it turns out to have been bad... *winces* Did I really do that stuff with the fingers early on? *yikes* Uhm... that wasn't my fault, okay? Those were my fingers... I'm innocent, innocent I tell you!)



--[ I originally wrote the entire N'awlins report in one entry, but when pre-posting it discovered a nasty bug causing things to overflow (prolly in IIS, which would mean that the live version of my site wouldn't suffer from it, but I can't take that chance), so now this will take multiple entries; This was part 3, read part 1 here and part 2 here ]--

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Fri 12 Dec 2003, 06:59 GMT

Tripreport: 2003-10-24: We are walking, we are walking...

--[ I originally wrote the entire N'awlins report in one entry, but when pre-posting it discovered a nasty bug causing things to overflow (prolly in IIS, which would mean that the live version of my site wouldn't suffer from it, but I can't take that chance), so now this will take multiple entries; This is part 2, read part 1 here and part 3 here ]--



After breakfast we once more set out into the French Quarter, this time with shiny shops that were not on Bourbon Street also being open. The Pointy Object Store was our first stop, but we are unable to put all blame on it for time that morning flying by quickly, as there were also an art gallery and a soap/oily substances shop on our route towards a... used bookstore. *grins* Just before we arrived there, Renfield, Susan and ettelewen (iirc) rejoined us together with Auros who they had gone to pick up from the airport. As Auros was starving for some lunch we didn't linger too long at the used bookstore, though Shads proved to be impossible to drag away from there (and who can blame her?) :) so she and one or two others lingered there for a while before rejoining us.
Lunch was at some nameless place which was the one foodstuffles-place in all of New Orleans that did not in one way or another impress our entity, but it served as a good place to hang out at for a while (which while by the end turned out to have lasted a grand total of two hours).

People who have been looking at the pictures that we, the Aanimal's fingers, have been taking for this event (because we do more for him than just facilitating communication!) will have noticed that where the subject of people is concerned, we like to get just one person per picture into focus and to really portray these people as you might see them bouncing around through life. Posing perhaps (in the way of "oh no, there's that annoying person [with his wonderful fingers] and his annoying camera again, let's look weird and hope he goes away"), but still real. The above two are two of which we are quite proud with how well we succeeded (undoubtedly others will feel different about this, but we like them all the same for indefinable and artistic reasons, so nyeh! - also, we succeeded almost as well with other pictures, but some choices had to be made if we didn't want to cause too much grief for the few of you using slower internet connections). These two pictures display first Auros ("The Human Jesus"), completely unaware of being photographed (yay for sneaky tripods and zoom!) and undoubtedly oracling on one subject or another, and second Shads, quite very much aware of being photographed (there wasn't much that escaped her attention, ever) and doing one of her many freaky grins (she is so goooood at those). :)

Following lunch we walked to the magical Mississippi, which turned out to be a river, and a very boring one at that. Things might have been more interesting if the killer-crocodile that was promised to us by the model of the city in Dart & RoseKnight's hotel had been really there on the other side of the river, but unfortunately it wasn't. :/ Having all of us beheld the river, the group split, with most people setting out for the hotel (to do laundry and/or pick up a car with which to go and pick up Mwyaren from the airport), while our entity, Sahi, Seirayu, Shadows and Ice and Angelus went on our quest to find Kinko's. (Our entity had downloaded a map plus address several days before, but we still had to go and actually find it.) During this walk we came across the whale-wall (but none of us at the time knew it for being something particularly special), as well as the really famous tower of walking to Kinko's, which was known by people from four different countries and thus not just world-famous, but really famous. *nods resolutely*
At Kinko's we reported in at smarch, to tell everyone of doing laundry and playing telephone games, and then checked email and weblogs and other such stuffles that addicted geeks as we are we can but sorely do without. On the way back we spotted a Sahi (just find the pic, it explains all) and had tea and other drinks at la boulangerie, following which we engaged in hanging out activities with the other people at the hotel. Here I was witness to one side of one of the best phone calls ever made, containing (quoted from memory, so not exact) the following phrases, Are you having kinky sex without me? - Why not? - You can talk and have sex at the same time! - the result of which was all of us who were at that time present in one of the big rooms migrating to one of the smaller rooms to join the people there, who were indeed talking (and playing with "toys"). ^_^ [Oh yes, and lest I forget, Jaime, consider this my revenge for you making me look evil (3.2MB XviD-encoded video)] (People might have noticed already by this point, but I've abandoned the fiction of my fingers for now, as I grew weary of it and am firmly back in the writing mood, and even though this account is once more quite bound to linear time, that will just have to do for now.)
After a while everyone went to their separate rooms to get ready for dinner, following which, within five minutes of the designated time, everyone had managed to assemble, a feat that still leaves me stunned. Unfortunately when I'm writing the word "everyone", I mean everyone except for Renfield and ettelewen (whom we knew to have gone out on their own) and for Dart and RoseKnight, who through a communication breakdown we never contacted with plans for the evening, as we finally discovered for ourselves when we arrived at their hotel. Oops. :) Luckily they had gone out on their own for dinner already (I seem to recall, although they also and definitely went to some really famous jazz place [prentice hall or something similar?] at this time), and so we proceeded to ask advice at their hotel for a place to eat (looking for some kind of barbecue place), following which we once more walked into the French Quarter to locate this place, which was apparently famous. Having arrived roughly near the designated location, we were unable to find it, but the mere mention of "famous barbecue place" at another hotel was enough to have it pointed out to us ("famous" is a really stretchable concept in the USA, but this one at least was famous all through N'awlins). Entering the place, Silky O'Sullivans, we still did not believe it to be a barbecue place, famous or otherwise, as it looked completely and exactly like a sports bar, but upon tasting the food all doubt was taken from us, for it was gooooood! Another definite recommendation for anyone spending time in N'awlins; I don't recall exact directions, except that it was near the middle of the river-side of the French Quarter, but anyone over there should be able to direct you towards it if you ask for the famous barbecue place. :) Halfway through dinner here we were joined by Renfield, ettelewen, Dart and RoseKnight, and for a short time that evening, the entire population of the smarchmeet was gathered together in one location. Unfortunately the lighting in this locale was muchos bad, so although I took pictures of everyone, most didn't really come out well.

(Though the above one of Miiru is a definite exception; and of course a few of the others show potential as well; it's just that they are too grainy and too dark by far for me to really be proud of them.)
Still, with everyone now gathered in one place I'd like to spend a few minutes doing little portraits of everyone, giving all of you who don't know these people that I've been writing about a bit of an idea of who and what they were like, as far as I myself know. (And maaaan, talk about making things difficult for myself, for saying something about each of fifteen different people, many of which I only really know through these few days in New Orleans, and keeping this interesting and varied might very well be one of the most difficult things I've ever attempted to do.)

Susan - Susan was weird. *ponders* Okay, I admit, in this company that was not a distinguishing trait (and of course needless to say, "weird" is a positive attribute). But still, I could never really figure her out. On the one hand she seemed to be ready to bounce off crazier than kiki any moment now, but on the other hand she continuously was completely serene, gliding through life with a quiet majestic air (must be why she's called "da queen") completely in control of herself and her environment; yet still and always capable of doing majorly quirky things at a moment's notice.
Shadows and Ice - Shads was weird. *grins* As I mentioned before, there was very little that seemed to escape her. At times she seemed to be a bit withdrawn and tired (I think she only had two or three days to adjust to the shift in time from Australia) hovering on the edges of whatever group was the main center of attention at any point, but mostly she was bouncy, continuously grinning, trying to shake her hand off of her arm in strange communication rituals with Dart, enjoying life to the max and being puzzled by those silly Americans and their weird habits. Catching her with a neutral look was perfectly impossible, for even when she was just smiling regularly after being asked to do so, it was still a smile that spoke volumes beyond appreciation, most of which probably went along with lines of "oh you silly boy, you so have no clue as to the deeper thoughts I'm thinking." At Shadowmarch I knew her, but never really *knew* her, as she never really seemed to be active when I was, so I'm glad to have gotten to *know* her at N'awlins, for she was without a doubt one of the most interesting people there (and that's saying a lot!)
Seirayu - He wasn't online at smarch before the meet, but came along with Miiru (I think); it took a while to figure him out (hjälp!, a complete stranger I know nothing about!), but I liked him. We suffered in silence together the following day while a couple of the girls with whom we were walking around we doing girly-things. Not a complete geek, but with possibilities to become one anyway. :) I wish I was in a position to use icq every so often here in kiwiland so I could get to talk to him a bit more.
Sahi - A fellow dutchie; I've known her irl for over a year now and spent time hanging out with her at a number of meets, which makes it harder to write down some kind of character-sketch, as... well y'know, she's just Sahi, you know? I think the best way to describe her would be, "me, if I was female and cared about scouting," though she is more of a presence than I think I'll ever be. As the porcupine lady she'd got quirky sides and might surprise you, but mostly she's just this mellow geek-girl (almost), floating along with the tides and being happy with life.
RoseKnight - Now he was weird. Okay, okay... *throws hands up defensively* ...but still! I first met him last year when in was in Dallas, but he was mostly almost asleep back then so I didn't really get to know him. This time around however I got to mock-fence against him (he's pretty good at that - I was impressed, though I want to see how he does when actually holding a weapon), watch him play mother-hen (as with Shads, there was little that escaped him, but he added the extra step of taking preventive actions if he deemed this necessary), try to ward off his barrage of verbal pokes and watch him being geeky. (The car ride to N'awlins was fun - with four geeks in a car there was little we could not have accomplished, though we never did anything more impressive than hooking up my laptop to the sound-system.) A very mellow guy, though you'd be wise to hide if he got annoyed. :)
Renfield - Not quite who I expected him to be based on his online behavior. As one of the semi-locals with family in N'awlins, he'd taken it upon himself to do a lot of organizing and planning - yet he never seemed to be either really getting into this, nor completely willing to just let things happen as they would. With a family member in hospital and painful feet for most of the meet he didn't enjoy everything as much as I'd wish he had, nor were these circumstances very suitable for getting to see the real him. Every now and then what I think is the real him did peek through though, which was a guy capable of complete relaxation and enjoying life fully and completely, full of boundless energy to go and see and do things.
Mwyaren - Mwyaren wasn't weird. She was strange. :) (Which is like weird - and just as good - except that it's a kind I have more trouble figuring out.) It was scary how much she looked and acted like deedee at times, though she was very much herself. She arrived late, and although she then stayed longer than most people as well, I did never really manage to figure her out. (Actually I doubt I "figured out" anyone, but she was definitely more enigmatic than others.) Still, the impression I did get of her was of a gal having a lot of fun and somehow coming into her own over the course of the meet, thoroughly enjoying breathing in the atmosphere and the freedom and weirdness of all of us. That doesn't do her justice, but I don't know how to describe her any better.
Miiru - The dragon lady has a face more expressive than that of anyone save Shads. One of the smutsisters, though I think the amount of smut at the meet was quite limited (then again, I might've missed most of it). I'm still surprised the world survived the meeting of the three of them. Looking dainty at times (eating beignets for example) and great at giving me the evil eye when she noticed the camera pointed her way. And the next moment she would charge a bunch of pigeons at full speed, and beam happily as she admitted the pigeons had won the round by all escaping her and then taking appropriate revenge.
Jaime - Another of the smutsisters, I'd previously met Jaime at the Fantasy Fair half a year ago, which again makes my impressions muddled as, y'know, she's just Jaime, you know? Except that there's no "just" when speaking about Jaime. A natural leader, she was always where the action was, though never at the real center of it. Seemingly quiet, most of the time (seemingly, I say, as she wasn't really, but just gave off such an impression), she was at any moment ready to switch to full-out partying or giggling. Is very susceptible to tickling. Will probably find a way to take revenge on me for the video-evidence of this, but at least has good taste in music to balance things out and make her more than okay in my book. :)
ettelewen - I didn't get to spend too much time getting to know ettelewen (dinner and the walk back to the hotel the following evening was mostly it), and never really witnessed her interacting with other people (which interactions I think give the best impressions of what people are like, in as much as any outward behavior can really give any impression of what someone is like), but I am glad for at least that small bit of getting to know her, as having a face and presence to go together with online behavior is a great goodness. Quiet without being withdrawn, observing all and drawing satisfaction from the goodness that was around her.
dragondawn - The third and final smutsister, I'd previously met dd at Tad's when I was there last year, and in many ways she was quite as I remembered - "oooh, shiny!" *bounce* - Yet I also saw other sides of her, looking out for friends and taking a deeper interest in any and everything, knitting people together as effortlessly as anything in the midst of having pure fun. Not someone to stand around hours talking things through, she was often the one to simply go out and do things, and although she didn't look like it, she seemed to be far more aware of things going on around her than suspected.
Dart - *bouncy* *bouncy* *bouncy* squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.... *splat!* - *grins* That's the dart-girl alright, at least the dart-girl on a sugar-high. She has the annoying habit of ruffling my hair and is up for any- and every kind of fun, yet behind that fun-loving personality hides the deeper truth of the true book-geek (with some computer-geekiness thrown in for good measure). To complete the seeming incongruity that she melds so effortlessly together within herself, where RK went crazy for wooden boats, horseys are her passion (and I think the Light that she wasn't together with the girls in Philly, for then we'd never have left those horseys behind). *grins* Basically, Dart is fun! :)
Auros - Father Auros. He has a real name, which eventually I even learned, but doesn't really use it - "Auros" really is him. He is quite possibly the first person I've ever met who really is almost completely as you see him online. Online he misses some charisma, and can rant on for slightly longer, but that's pretty much all the difference. Taking an interest in - and knowing things about - seemingly everything there is to take an interest in on this planet, he hides a great passion for most of these things behind a very mellow behavior. But get him started on any subject that he cares about, and he'll talk about it for as long as you let him. :)
Angelus - On the boards Angelus is not the most well-liked person, and has been the center of many a controversy. Having a habit of not getting involved at all in threads with a political bend I've never really had a problem with him; as far as I'm concerned he's a familiar face just like everyone. In real life he lacks some social sensibilities (more than is usually common for people I know from online, offset even more because most of the smarch-crowd did seem to have them), yet faced with a not-quite friendly welcome from the crowd he managed very well indeed, and seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit. Despite the snoring ;) I'm glad to have gotten to know him.
Aanimal - Quite possibly the freakiest guy in the entire crowd, he has the habit of hanging back and observing until he gets a feel for different people, but never really got the chance for that as he was dragged headfirst along in the rush of the fun. Still a quiet guy who could use some more experience in hanging out with people for who he hasn't yet gotten a feel before he'd feel completely comfortable doing so, he yet seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself on his ventures away from the fringes of the crowd. Not as innocent as he looks like, though he'll try his utmost to have you believe otherwise. Masterfully blending the souls of a book-geek and computer-geek into one, when away from both he likes to just breathe in life and observe. Is suspected to have a hollow leg.

(These above thoughts barely scratch the surface of the complex personalities possessed by the various smarchers, but I hope that for all of you who don't know these wonderful people that I have been and will yet be writing so much about, they have at least given some idea of what they are like - or more accurately, what they appeared to be like to me.)

After dinner (did I yet mention how absolutely delicious it was? For it was! Might just have been the best barbecue-food I've ever eaten anywhere) we wandered on into the city, arriving once more at the Mississippi - which was much prettier at night due to lots of shiny lights. :) Here I clambered down to the river's edge and touched the magical river itself. *holds up hand* And really, not only did my hand not yet dissolve into a puddle of goo, but a softly glowing hand can be a very useful thing at night!

At the Mississippi the group once more split up, with some people heading off to Bourbon Street, some people going to some Goth club, and the ret of us (being dragondawn, Dart, Miiru, RoseKnight, Seirayu, Shadows and Ice, Sahi and me) walking towards Café du Monde, the apparently famous beignet cafe that was open 24-hours a day. First however we passed Jackson Square at the cathedral standing beyond it, which was very nicely lighted at night, which called for pictures (which unfortunately did not turn out as nice as I'd hoped, as my camera really needs lots of light to be as awesome as it is most of the time).
The atmosphere at Café du Monde was nice enough, but as previously mentioned, the beignets were far less good than those at Café Beignet. Luckily the hot chocolate made up for a lot of that. And more importantly, it was more time hanging out and having fun with friends (which by this time they really began to feel like), so it was all good.

On the way back that night we bought a bunch of cheap t-shirts for everyone to sign and so have a physical memento to everyone else, and then arranged to meet up again the following morning at 09:30 at Dart & RoseKnight's hotel, which the various people would tell to those who weren't there. As Angelus was still out when I got back to the hotel, I resolved to be asleep before he could keep me awake, and although he arrived back just as I was really getting ready to sleep, I did manage this and thus had a solid night's rest.



--[ I originally wrote the entire N'awlins report in one entry, but when pre-posting it discovered a nasty bug causing things to overflow (prolly in IIS, which would mean that the live version of my site wouldn't suffer from it, but I can't take that chance), so now this will take multiple entries; This was part 2, read part 1 here and part 3 here ]--

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Fri 12 Dec 2003, 06:59 GMT

Tripreport: 2003-10-23 - 2003-10-24: We are walking, we are walking...

--[ I originally wrote the entire N'awlins report in one entry, but when pre-posting it discovered a nasty bug causing things to overflow (prolly in IIS, which would mean that the live version of my site wouldn't suffer from it, but I can't take that chance), so now this will take multiple entries; This is part 1, read part 2 here ]--



A well-run waffle house is quite something to behold. I did not, as it was the first day on the job for the girl who helped us - but still, I can envision something of what it would be like. And with breakfast there just before finishing our run to N'awlins, I could finally - finally, I say, as there was a Waffle House next to the motel in Dallas where I stayed last year, and I never got around to entering it, though I pondered doing so for quite a while - check off that icon from the list.

*sits around for a few days pondering how to continue writing this*

*sighs and throws up his hands, his fingers spread wide*


It's all your fault! *glares around*
All you people who were there in N'awlins with us, and all you smarchers who know about N'awlins having happened and wanting to see our pictures from it (and possibly read our tales about it). And most of all it's the fault of that perfectly horrid person to which we, the Aanimal's fingers, are attached, for caring too much. We remember when he didn't. We remember when we were let loose to frollick as we wanted, when we could ramble and run over the keys any which way we pleased. But now... Now we are so constrained. So linear. We haven't been able to write "blwaerp!" in ages, nor have we howled at the moon, danced in the rain, reminisced about the beings that began to be the kind of beings that talked about being beings, looped around in infinite trees or did any of the other crazy things that we used to do in ages past. While it is this, we know, this freedom of expression, this "the devil might care, but we can always offer up a few fresh hamster souls to make him look the other way, so what the hell"-attitude, this, exactly this, that, we repeat once more, we *know* to have been the strength of our arT (with the capital T!) from which the founT of pure inspiraTion flowed.
But now... (and once more we shake out collective fingertips) ...now we no longer can. Time is constraining us. One thing happening after the thing that happened before it, exactly in its proper time and place, which is a perfectly boring time and place for it to have happened, as it already did so once before, and wouldn't it be much more fun to have it happen next year instead, somewhere in Antarctica?

Grey sky,
Grey waves.

And all because the aforementioned aanimalistic humanoid cares too much. He wants to... (and it costs us a lot to get such horrid words to flow from the essence of our very beings, but communicate them we shall, as a lesson and warning to future generations of organs used for the expression of time-delayed forms of communication of the non-aural form) ...to do things "justice." But that is WRONG. There is no justice in life. Only beauty. And revelry. And cackling bitches who answer questions about their wizards, who undoubtedly live in really famous wizard-towers somewhere near the Kinko's. (And that is another problem facing us - how could we ever find it within ourselves to express things in such ways that would still be worthwhile to read after having beheld at the now toasted place the original freeform floating thoughts that sprung pure and whole from the manifold of minds of some of those we got to know, again or for the first time, at the place where we have been, which is the place that we want to properly capture - nay properly frame, for it is a whole and complete thing in itself that can ne'er be captured or partitioned - but somehow in a non-linear and thus (consequently? do cause and effect really work in the thoughtspace we now occupy? is there still order to be found in the chaos? How, as the kiwipeople would say, wickedly wicked!) also non-boring way. But find it within ourselves we must, and of course it is not competition, but rather cooperation - two sides of the same coin, the other clock to make the ticking of time uncertain, questioning the very foundation of the universe and thereby making our puny little minds soar as we also seem to once more be doing in the non-metaphysical realm of the keys on the laptop-ish keyboard - that is the true relation here to the now sadly lost (or was this still caught in the fiend's last crawl through the realm of perfectly unspeakably burning places?) vision of what it was like that came before us.
We would like to apologize to all those who recognized less than one of out twenty of the we-do-not-care-how-many of the above references; though we share these pixelated wordsies (as our long lost almost-friends, the fingers of the entity known as Maia, might have expressed) with all of you here, the style of them is directed and more suited to those who have followed our twisting and turning ways before - over the course of many shared sleepless nights of the purportedly first day of the time-designation-partition generally known as the week.

And so, having shared amongst the ten of us this rush of struggling free of constraints into the bliss of pure insanity, we might now have entered into a proper frame of mind to give you a true and accurate account of the unspeakable horrors that we have been subjected to in that cesspool of a city known affectionately as N'awlins; a city that has sung to us ever since we had the pleasure to play the original "Gabriel Knight" game (which had pixels; pixels good!), and called out to us even more after the pages of some of Kathleen Ann Goonan's books passed between us.

It purportedly all started, as many things do, in the mud...dy past. We were not witness to the discussions that kicked things off, nor did we at first think these things to apply to us when they moved online. Dim memories belonging to the entity whose will we have for the moment overruled seem to suggest that plans started shortly after ConJose. For one reason or another, however, it was decided that this would happen, and that happening as it would, it would happen in New Orleans, and that that which would happen would be a smarchmeet such as the world had not yet seen.
We, the ten of us, first became interested back in the time when we thought that we would already have been in the place where we are now half a year earlier than we eventually arrived here, which here we clarify (merely for clarity's sake, we assure you) to sometimes be called New Zealand. At this time our brother and sister organs used for the expression of time-delayed forms of communication of the non-aural form which were (as, we assume, they still are at present) attached to the entity known by various names, one of the most commonly used being "Shadows and Ice", which in itself is reportedly an entity made up of at least three separate life-forms, which would nicely explain both her name and the voluminous output of the aforementioned organs for which in former days she was renowned... Err, yes, in any case, these brother and sister beings informed the world, or at least the part of the world that was wise enough to know to pay attention, that she was definitely going to attend the aforementioned event. What made this announcement special was that the entity to which the aforementioned beings of expression were attached was physically located on the biggest island on the planet, the long-lost western island of New Zealand, Australia. And, so we informed our entity (and don't let this entity's brain tell you otherwise; for it really was us that told him; we are the real power here), if she could fly all the way to N'awlins from the western island of kiwiland, then surely we should be capable of a similar feat, no matter if at the designated time we would be located on the southern or the northern island of the same country of kiwis! To lure our entity, as well as the fates we know to exist somewhere up there (which we also know to take a special form of delight in upsetting the best laid plans), into a false sense of security, we immediately added that this entire idea was sheer lunacy, and that it would never happen, but still, but still... Mightn't we? And wasn't it also so, we added, that the location of N'awlins was just a good day's driving away from Dallas, where some of our best friends' entities (of which we have already told in a previous missive, and to which we shall at some point in the not-too-distant future still return) were living, and wouldn't it just be awesome to see those again as well, and couldn't all that just work out perfectly, especially as in that very same city of Dallas we knew other entities to exist which would also venture to N'awlins for this very same smarchmeet?
As things turned out, life proved to be obnoxious, and so we didn't get to set out for Kiwiland until far later than we'd originally hoped or planned, but this did make things a lot easier (and certainly cheaper!) with regards to attending the N'awlins meet, and so through the travels and tribulations we have had the pleasure to communicate about in previous days we now in the present of our communication find ourselves a mere hour away from N'awlins, in the company of the fingers attached to the entities known as Dart, RoseKnight and Sahi.

Driving into New Orleans was an adventure in itself, as the highway went straight through swamp-land, bringing back all sorts of memories of readings about where N'awlins was built and why this was possibly one of the worst places to locate a city (with only places such as LA being located in even unlikelier locales). First views of N'awlins proper included graveyards, horse-drawn carriages, our hotel, lack of parking spaces and a wrong turn that brought us back to the highway upon which we had driven but minutes before, and then once more we beheld graveyards and horse-drawn carriages.
Eventually, mentioning Renfield's name at the hotel, Sahi and our entity managed to check in, and then we accompanied Dart and RoseKnight to their hotel (they hadn't been able to reserve rooms in the same Days Inn hotel, and so instead had to settle for something about twenty times nicer, way closer to the French Quarter (where all the action happened), and costing roughly the same), from where we called the smarchers already in N'awlins to find out where they were and where we all should meet up. At this point everyone was back in the first hotel, so we made them come to walk to us (for we were lazy, and held the better position closer to the French Quarter of which we have had the honor to make mention before). After another call (which, we should add, was quite problematic, as the one cellphone we held amongst us was nearly out of juice), we managed to explain where exactly this better position was located, after which the two groups of smarchers were finally united. The people who we were meeting, those brave pioneers who had arrived in N'awlins first to scout ahead and lead us to much goodness to come were Jaime, Miiru, Renfield, Shadows and Ice and the entity colloquially known as manu-manu, which after the meet took upon himself the nick Seirayu, by which we shall further on refer to him, as the rest of smarch will be more familiar with him by that name, and large as the meet was, the rest of smarch is still larger than the part of smarch that was there.
As during all of this the Earth had not deigned to stop revolving, that time of day was now upon us where the entities to which we are attached are accustomed to take onto themselves sustenance of various forms, which happening they call lunch. For this event the brave scouts led the way (once they had been made to start moving; it is quite difficult to get a group like ours to start moving once it's stopped, and stopping is far too easy due to all the shiny distractions (*poing*), but luckily our entity discovered a skill at playing museum-tour-guide, which gave him an "overcome entropy +5" check for distances up to 200 feet) deep into the corrupting place to a haven of sugar and quiet solitude amidst the bustle of the small streets, Café Beignet.
A beignet was explained to be a square donut without a hole. Our entity simply calls it a beignet, but then, he comes from a different culture, so should not be expected to be too aware about the deeper food-related sensibilities. The reason that this establishment had taken upon itself the name of this, what we might with some creativity call "food", soon became apparent, as a load of these items was ordered for everyone (next to other food more regularly associated with lunch), and much huffing and puffing and spreading around of the powder-sugar that was located on top of the beignets commenced. (The beignets were good, though we were not properly capable of assessing how good until we at a later date ordered some at the much-more famous but far-less deservedly so Café du Monde.)
Good as the beignets were however, the main charm for us in Café Beignet was the relative quiet and secludedness of the establishment. The place looked extremely small (and to be fair, wasn't really all that big), but there was a door in one of the walls (which makes sense, as doors generally speaking are not usually located in either ceilings or floors) leading to a fenced off garden with more tables and chairs, and it was here that all of us retreated to with our food to spend some pleasant time in the company of each other, our food and our sugar. It was also here that we finally managed to remind our entity of the goodness that there is in taking pictures of other entities, to be used at later dates as either blackmail material or as illustrations and mementos of the fun that we had, following which we promptly proceeded to engage in this activity. We managed to snap several pictures before the other entities were clued in by their fingers and began directing looks promising revenge and other unsavory activities our way, which perturbed us not at all, as we had been strengthened in the fire of many a previous camera duel.
Having taken upon us the sustenance and the great goodness of sitting around doing very little at all in the company of friends, we walked back to the hotel ("the" hotel always being the hotel in which all of us except for Dart and RoseKnight were staying, the one that was some 15 minutes of walking away from the French Quarter, the Days Inn place that could use some cleaning up, but wasn't really that bad when compared with for example the place we stayed in in Berkeley, but in which the other entities had quite some problems with roofs falling down and wake-up calls not being made and which because of all that can be placed on the list of places to avoid), from where Renfield took off to go and pick up dragondawn from the airport (the act of driving to the airport being one that he performed quite a few more times on this day, an act we thought was mightily nice of him, except that after the fact we learned that it was one of the things that made his experience less good than that of most others, which makes us wonder why he performed it at all (but then we might have more experience with making our way into unfamiliar cities utilizing various forms of public transport than most people might have, so not see this final bit of traveling before reaching a destination as quite as much of a barrier as other people might)). The rest of us hung around in our rooms, where we played silly telephone games (actually we seem to recall it being Renfield before he left who engaged in most of that) and read books. That is right; here we were, in New Orleans, jewel (or at least "shiny object") of the Mississippi, and we played telephone games and read books. People were also doing a lot of laundry. Yup, we definitely had our priorities straight. ^_^ (Which priorities were of course to have fun, which we were capable of having pretty much anywhere, and the city itself was just a likely setting for the real fun of getting to know all these wonderful people a bit better.)
Around this time we also made a reservation for dinner, for which we chose some fishy place for which there was a card in the brochure place in the hotel's lobby - except that we didn't, as we called the number on the flip side of the card, which was for some kind of italian place called Bacco's, which was good as fish was bad for Jaime. Having previously called around to everyone that we were supposed to meet up at the fishy place, we now called around to explain that we were going to Bacco's. Around this time Angelus called that he had arrived at the airport, and so Renfield set off to pick him up. Then much dressing up by the usual suspects ensued, following which we made our way to Bacco's - only to find a très fancy place with prices way out of our budget and a clientèle that would most likely be scared away by even a single smarcher, let alone such a flock of us as was gathered there. So some entities set off to go and find some other place to eat, which turned out to be Pierre Maspero's (a place that is heartily recommended to any- and everyone who ever makes it to N'awlins; you can find it a few blocks down from Canal on the corner of Chartres and some other unnamed street [if anyone is particularly interested, I can look it up on my n'awlins map when I get back to Auckland]), and the fingers of the entity known as dragondawn went in to Bacco's (dragging their entity with them) to be brave and save them from having to face us, while the rest of the entities gathered there waited for Dart and RoseKnight to show up (as they hadn't yet, and being cellphone-less for the moment due to recharging being necessary they didn't yet know that our plans had once again changed). When the choice for Pierr's had been made, everyone save our entity and Sahi walked over there, while we went on waiting for Dart and RoseKnight to appear. Once they did it was immediately apparent why they were late, for Dart was dressed in a way that would have let her blend in at Bacco's - which is not a way that promotes fast walking.
At Pierre's we proceeded to have a wonderful dinner consisting mostly of local dishes (our entity had a small muffulletta, as it was recommended that a large one would be too much for it; hah! once more they underestimate the hunger of the Aanimal!), during which many skullable comments were penned down (we wonder, have those appeared anywhere online yet?). Somewhere during dinner Renfield and Angelus arrived, though Renfield had barely finished eating or his cellphone rang again (y'know, those things really are evil) this time to let him know that Susan and ettelewen had arrived (Renfield knew their arrival time, which was not till nine; except that it was nine their time, not ours), and so he trundled off again. The rest of us then commenced wandering through the French Quarter, where we noticed such shiny places as the pointy object store before we found ourselves on Bourbon Street. Now, Bourbon Street... How shall we describe it? We have witnessed much rowdier places, much more decadent places, and cities which had much more revelry or peep-shows going on than Bourbon Street had. But Bourbon Street had them all together within itself, one endless stretch of the kind of "fun" that we ourselves can do very well without but which still is quite something to behold. And behold it we did, as we wandered from one end to the other and looked into the many shiny shop places that were still open (amongst which was Madame Laveau's, which was far less magical than its name).
By this time Angelus was looking as if he would fall asleep right there in the street (he'd just flown over from the UK after all), and so Sahi and our entity accompanied him back to the hotel (New Orleans at night when you're not familiar with it is not a city you want to walk through by yourself, especially not the stretch towards the hotel where we stayed) while the rest of the group went on to party. As Angelus did not have a room to stay in (original plans for a room for him had unraveled a few weeks before and nothing else had been worked out yet), Sahi moved in with Susan (who together with ettelewen and Renfield we met up with at the hotel) while Angelus moved in with our entity, and so we moved all of Sahi's stuff out of our room, and Angelus' stuff in. Our entity was somewhat sad about this, as Sahi would have been a great roomie just by being the same kind of "boring" :) no-nonsense dutchie possessing the same patented sobriety as he was, but this grew to him being quite very miffled as it then turned out that Angelus snored. Snored really, really, really loudly. Snoring is of course rarely something that can be controlled by the people who engage in it, and Angelus was not even aware that he did so, so this isn't something we can really blame him for, but...
To illustrate that we are not merely whining, we like to state that we are experienced with dealing with people snoring. Just the night before we had spent the night in the same room as RoseKnight, who also snored. In the days when we were younger and less fluid with bouncing over the keys of keyboards, our entity used to go on camps where invariably there were people who snored. Right now, in the nownow of the realreal, both the person in the bed above that of our entity, and the person in the bed next to him snore. These are the hazards of cheap sleeping places, and though annoying are usually not that bad. But usually these snores are also of a, in-as-much as this can be said of snoring, more decent volume. Angelus' snoring wasn't. It was quite literally a hell - made only worse by the muggy weather of N'awlins - and when the following morning our entity woke up with less than three hours of sleep behind him, he was not a happy camper. (Again we would like to reiterate that seemingly negative remarks are not at all meant to say things about other people; this is an account of our entity's thoughts and impressions, and that is the sole focus and purpose of these words.)
Luckily however happiness soon returned to our entity, as after meeting up at Dart and RoseKnight's hotel we walked into the French Quarter for breakfast at ...Café Beignet. :) As we had but recently re-discovered, sugar for breakfast is a great goodness. :D



--[ I originally wrote the entire N'awlins report in one entry, but when pre-posting it discovered a nasty bug causing things to overflow (prolly in IIS, which would mean that the live version of my site wouldn't suffer from it, but I can't take that chance), so now this will take multiple entries; This was part 1, read part 2 here ]--

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Fri 12 Dec 2003, 06:56 GMT

Re: What's everybody reading at the moment?

I'm still and again reading David Zindell's Neverness. ^_^

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Tue 9 Dec 2003, 07:48 GMT

Tripreport: Not quite Sax-moments

When hiking on tracks through the wilderness - whether in Yosemite, Lassen or the Waitangi Reserve - it is customary to greet fellow walkers coming your way. Why this is so, Aan-San did not know - he theorized it builds a sort of ephemeral community-feeling between walkers, like the one existing between truckers and bus-drivers (ever notice how they always greet everyone driving anything with more than four wheels?) - not knowing why, however, has not prevented him from picking up on it quickly, nor from liking it. But the liking became hard when, one day during the high season, being out of breath climbing back uphill after a few hours on the road already, he realized his track was one of the really popular ones.


One day in Santa Monica, at the end of two weeks in California, feeling fully integrated into its culture and being amazed at how much of a tan he had picked up, a fellow browser at a bookstore spoke to Aan-San, and before he had ever said a word asked him how he was liking his stay there and where he was from.
Very much, and I'm from the Netherlands.
Now you're wondering, how did he know that, eh?
After Aan-San had nodded his assent, the man continued, it's your skin; you haven't quite picked up the Californian tan yet.
Well, so much for blending in like a local.


One early morning Aan-San tumbled out of bed much earlier than usual. After observing the bare necessities required to be recognized as human, he made his way down to the water's edge to behold a sunrise. He had however not counted upon finding himself thrust into a world of clammy greys.
There at the water's edge with him was a fellow crazy, not only looking human, but even carrying a steaming mug containing some hot liquid. She was obviously much better prepared than he was, yet beheld the same lack of sunrise.
Aan-San took comfort in this.


On the day following a perfect moment, Aan-San pondered the joy in describing it. The images were crystal clear, as were the accompanying sounds - a blending of waves and the songs of leaving of seagulls, remembered and actual, recognized again as for the first time - but the words were not yet ready to be born. Swirling like so many possibilities, driving the internal pressure to create to almost unbearable heights. Perfection was possible. Perhaps.
Aan-San recalled the rain beginning the fall.
A seagull glides past in the hazy morninglight, sharp against the mirrorlike sea surrounding the atol.


One evening Aan-San thought of a young grasshopper reading about him, and smiled.

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Fri 5 Dec 2003, 08:13 GMT

Tripreport: 2003-10-13 - 2003-10-22: Rushing and relaxing

It's amazing how tired you can get just from sitting in the car all day, but tired I got, and as a result I slept a lot longer than intended. This had the unfortunate side effect of causing the next day to be kinda rushed, but it was still good. (Luckily Lassen Volcanic National Park, my destination for the day, wasn't all that big, and most of the interesting areas that were not directly accessible from the main road were so far away from any other place I could get to that I couldn't have visited them anyway.)
Lassen Park is dominated by Lassen Peak, but this is not what it's famous for, nor is the absolutely wonderful scenery of the park reason enough for a visit. (Though it should be; the nature there was so absolutely gorgeous; extremely rough rocks with twisted trees growing up against them interspersed with gentle rolling fields covered in wild flowers.)
What Lassen is famous for is the volcanic activity. The mudpools and boiling water and near neon-like colors. And so upon entering the park I made a few short stops for breathing in the scenery, but the one time I really got out of the car was for an afternoon stroll (because it really was a leisurely stroll, not at all a real walk) to Bumpass Hell, the largest geothermic active area in the region.
The colors were so vibrant, and so unreal. The near white of the hills, the absolutely stunning cobalt blue of a few of the lakes. And then there was the steam rising up from everywhere, and the smell (which really wasn't that bad, but still very much present), and the fact that everywhere around you water was boiling. So completely unreal. After having taken pictures from any and every angle possible (almost all of which I tossed away again upon having seen them and judging them unworthy), I got back in the car and drove on through Lassen. A lot of my travels through California consisted of little more than driving, but this is not a bad thing. Even though you keep your eyes on the road while driving, you still manage to take in a lot of the views, and because you cover large distances in relatively short times, you are much more aware of the progression of the landscape. For example, driving north through Lassen I began seeing the first hints that it actually was autumn here, in the form of actual reddish and yellowish leaves on some trees interspersed between all the eternally green pines. (This, I should mention, was my main disappointment back when I was in Yosemite; I was expecting the most beautiful fall colors there, not realizing that none of the trees growing in Yosemite would actually get such colors, and that beholding autumn the way I knew it would be an impossibility.)
And so driving north I marveled at what almost had to be snow on the north-eastern side of Lassen Peak, and drank in the colors of autumn whenever and wherever they presented themselves, and then drove out of Lassen Park again and started making my way westwards to the coast. In that area of Califnornia it really doesn't matter if you were within a National Park or not, the scenery remains just as stunning, and the roads just as winding. This last proved to be quite annoying whenever I was caught in yet another train of cars behind one of the numerous campervans crawling up or down yet another mountain, but mostly it meant roads that were a pleasure to drive upon.
The motel I stopped at when that day was over was a marvel in itself, for it had - and this is the honest truth, no matter how unbelievable it might sound to any frequent traveler - it had a showerhead that was actually above my head (rather than somewhere at shoulderheight). In all my travels, this must have been the strangest and unlikeliest thing I have ever witnessed, but it really was thus. *nods resolutely*

Having reached the coast the day before, I was now making my south down the coast again, driving over scenic highway 101 through the wondrous redwood forests. The Avenue of the Giants passed me by, as did touristy Bigfoot places, and the worldfamous house in a log. (I actually saw this last thing sitting next to the road; it basically was a big hollow log with walls put in at both sides and a sign next to it saying that it was worldfamous - not that anyone I have since asked about it had ever heard of it, but still, somewhere in a different place on this world there are surely people who had driven past it just as I did, and so knew it, and so it had to be worldfamous, hadn't it?)
At the end of the day I made a big curve around SF to avoid the traffic there, and ended up at another motel 6 along I-5.

I-5. I'd driven on it before on my way to and fro' Yosemite, before getting off it onto the 99, but now I was able to experience its unending stretches in all their glory. Every 20-30 miles, regular as clockwork, there was another "services" stop with another random selection of the same two or three dozen american icons (selected from places to eat, places to sleep and places to feed your car), a few palm trees and some green grass - and then the unending stuffy, dusty countryside would continue again with ne'er a change in sight and everybody carefully hovering just below 90 miles an hour (the speed limit, if I remember correctly, was 80).

After a few hours of this I turned southwestwards and made my way over backcountry roads through Los Padres National "Forest." Anyone driving over I-5 to LA with a few hours to spare is heartily recommended to do the same, for the colors in this semi-barren landscape were absolutely amazing - full of reds and yellows and browns, with unexpected splashes of fresh green along the sides where a few trees had managed to survive - and the roads more winding than anywhere else save for Sequoia National Park.

The reason I'd been hurtling south as fast as I did for the past few days was that the time to take the plane away from California had almost come. However, I had made such good time that I now had a day to spare. First I continied on through Los Padres National Forest to Santa Barbara, as I'd never really gotten the chance to look at that place (all I'd seen was the nearby Isla Vista), and I was still hoping there might be a belated reaction from Nym to try and make a meet happen. (As I learned just a few days ago, the reason why I never heard from him was that at the time his email account was being bombarded by those 500-kb big microsoft-virus emails and had overflowed so he couldn't receive any more email; *sighs* And then people wonder why I recommend against using microsoft products. (Mono-cultures are bad!))
Santa Barbara started out as something of a disappointment, as the tourist information center was already closed at 16:55 - definitely not a place staffed by people who actually cared about promoting their city. Luckily the main shopping street was easy enough to find. It also seemed to have no end whatsoever, and had a very fake feel to it due to the not-quite spanish-style architecture. (It might look more natural with the sun shining, but the afternoon had turned completely cloudy, and so it didn't.)
After some general browsing and sightseeing in Santa Barbara I quickly located a Kinko's (Kinko's good!) where I checked my email and then fired off an email to nevy to see if she was up for hanging out the following day in LA.
Once again at a motel 6 (which so far had offered consistently "decent" quality for semi-low prices, which it continued to do) I was quickly liberated from any notions that I could pass for an American by having the lady behind the counter recognize me as a furriner after having said just one sentence, and then was asked to help her show this chinese guy who was there how she had known that he wasn't American by having him listen to the differences between how I said things and how she said things.

Driving my way into LA I decided to head to Santa Monica, as there I knew how to find free parking. Not yet having seen a reply from nevy (she had email problems) when I checked my email that morning at a local bagel shop (downloading putty is good), I called her (it's weird, but over the course of five weeks in the USA I collected more phone numbers from people living there than I know phone numbers of people living in the Netherlands). Unfortunately she had a way busy schedule for the day, so hanging out wouldn't work out. Instead I spent an hour hanging out in the B&N in Santa Monica where I read a good bit of Steven Brust's "The Sun, the Moon & the Stars" (which I continued reading in various libraries and bookstores in other places in the USA, and which I can say to be an absolutely wonderful book, even though I haven't yet managed to finish it). After this I drove on to El Monte, where I knew a 'cheap' motel 6 to exist. One there I realized I was very weary, and so I spent the rest of the afternoon just doing nothing in my room, editing pictures (I'd taken almost a thousand by this point) and listening to music. *hugs his laptop*

Yet another morning of waking up in a motel. (The one thing really missing in most of these places is a coffee maker to make myself a cup of tea. And highspeed internet access of course.) :)
I drove to LAX, taking one hour and fifteen minutes just to get from one part of the city to another - and I suspect that I was experiencing really good traffic for the time of day. When I returned the car, the total mileage I'd driven through California was 3075 miles, which I think was easily three times as much driving as in the rest of my life up to that point combined.
The check-in and security measures at LAX were crawlingly slow. Yay for the big bad terrorists! *grumbles* The food prices in the airport were insane - in the previous weeks I'd occasionally eaten at... *whispers* McDonald's */whispers* (looks around shiftily - but I didn't say that, okay?) - which for the past x years of my life I'd been avoiding like the plague, but was the only option available for food one day while driving, and then suddenly offered new salads which actually made for very decent food *gasp* - and these salads which everywhere else in the country cost $3.99, cost $6.99 at the airport. Completely insane.
The one good thing about LAX was that it offered a few electricity outlets, which all laptoppers (including me) flocked around. (Isn't modern technology wonderful?) :)

Flying hadn't gotten any less boring in the past two weeks, but luckily the flight was short-ish. Arriving in Dallas, Jenny was there to pick me up; as I was arriving at such a time that she'd have had to brave rush hour traffic (which is completely impossible in Dallas), she'd arrived by public transport, and so we took a bus and two trains to get back into town. (Getting a very nifty view on one of the skyscrapers (lined by green lights) reflecting into another one between trains in downtown Dallas - I took a pic that showed a bit of it, but doesn't really do it justice [and it's nearly invisible in the thumbnail].) We dropped by the place where Guy worked, bought food and then it was back to home. (And the wonderful thing is, Guy and Jenny made it seemingly effortlessly feel completely like a home; a place where I was unquestioningly welcome. This is such a precious gift they have, and I am so blessed to have them for friends.)

The next two days were spent just lounging around. Guy had set up things so I could just plug in my laptop and be online, which was a great goodness (even though it was dial-up). I finally caught up to all the email that had been gathering, and spent time working on the pictures I'd been taking. A few moments of rest amidst the manic always being on the move of the previous weeks. There was also much hanging out, watching movies (Coyote Ugly, Kung Pow, ...) and some doing laundry which was long overdue.
On the 20th me and Jenny drove to the big HPB (Halfprice Books) on northwest highway, where we teamed up with Sahi (who was there in preparation of going to the big smarchmeet in New Orleans, and needed to be entertained as Dart was working and Dallas is not a city capable of offering entertainment by itself) and spent quite a while drooling over all the science fiction and fantasy books. I found a "Lord of Light", a "To Reign in Hell", a "Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille", as well as short story collections by de Lint and Greg Bear - and made sure either Sahi or Jenny bought every single one of those. (*grins* I can be dangerous like that; allow me to rave about books, and rave I will.) :)
For myself I picked up Greg Bear's "Psychlone" (one of the few books by him that I hadn't read yet; it was good, though definitely an early work), as well as Peter S. Beagle's "The Last Unicorn" (which is one of the ultimate classics and had been on my reading list for years with me somehow never being able to get to it; this was a good book very a very McKillip-ish feel to it).
After the HPB we picked up Guy and then made our way to the CD Source, which is to regular used cd stores as the HPB is to regular used book stores (that is, infinitely better). With the exception of Terami Hirsch and Within Temptation, every single artist I looked up was present here - though not always with the specific album I was looking for. I stocked up on quite a few albums (a listing of all cd's I bought will follow in one of the future tripreports if I don't judge it to be too boring). Driving back from the CD Source we called Dart to figure out plans for the evening (Sahi was staying at Dart's, since staying with Sher as had originally been planned didn't work out due to the house she'd just moved into not yet being habitable). It was quickly decided that Dart would join us for an evening of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and thus things happened. The episode we watched, "Space Mutiny," was great (because the underlying movie was really, really bad). Memorable quotes dealt with thinking really loudly and all two horsepowers!, which were phrases that were uttered quite a few more times in days to come.

A visit to another HPB kicked off the following day, where I didn't find any books for myself, but did manage to dig up a volume containing both "Startise Rising" and "The Uplift War" (by David Brin) for Sahi. Making our way from there back to the appartment we did some grocery shopping (which really was only block of walking away - though the block-size was somewhat larger than I'd remembered), so that we could then go on and make dinner for when Jenny got home. After dinner we watched "Chicago", which Jenny had been raving about for ages. Even though there was a bit too much dancing and musical numbers, I did like the movie a lot, and particularly the "Cell Block Tango" song ("he walked into my knife, he walked into my knife ten times") was great.

The following morning Dart called early that they (Dart, RoseKnight and Sahi [who would be traveling along with us as well, as Sher wouldn't be able to make it to N'awlins :/ due to being too busy with the new house]) were already done packing and heading my way; I quickly finished packing as well, ate a quick breakfast and was thus finished before they arrived with a whole two minutes to spare.
Rather than heading straight to N'awlins, the plan for the day involved a visit with RoseKnight's grandmother. Before that however, we dropped by a place called Zwolle to see if RoseKnight could retrieve any useful equipment from an old house belonging to the family that had been abandoned some 30 years ago. (It was so weird to be in that place Zwolle - as that is the exact name of a dutch city; and here people were pronouncing it like zee-wollee [rather than the proper zwolluh].)
The dinner with RoseKnight's grandmother was great (I had a delicious sirloin steak), and afterwards we drove until about an hour away from New Orleans, where we stopped for the night in yet another in the endless chain of motels I was subjecting myself to.

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