get/together

Right, so, hopefully at least some of you still have notifications turned on. Trying to get all these posts up and coded in between lj crashing, and firefox crashing, and my laptop crashing... The devil's work.

Anyway, if you missed any of these posts when they first went up, or sensibly ignored my placeholders while simultaneously sighing at the fact that I'd missed the very point of notifications... Check them out now.

Registration Form 2014

Three of you haven't registered! Go do that now! jocondite, deepbluemermaid, sethra2000 I'm looking at you.

Subscriptions

Go pay me! I did half the shopping this morning and will do the rest Thursday night.

Venue

Most of you know where to go. If you don't, google maps on your phone is probably better than this, but addresses and some aged maps are here.

Food and Related

Some thoughts about lunch options especially. Check it out so you know what to expect in advance.

Presentations, Primers, and Performances

It's not too late to add yourself. In fact, if you have something to contribute, you should really go do that. I'm going to start working on the timetable tonight/tomorrow.

Timetable Link Goes Here (but has not been pre-coded, so you'll get a new notification!)

Registration Form 2014

1) The Fannish Basics

Who are you and where can we find you (preferred name/user names across your preferred platforms/where you’re most active): Victoria, arysteia everywhere, definitely twitter

Are you a reader, a writer, an artist, a vidder, a lurker, all of the above, or something else entirely: reader and writer

Wax lyrical about your current fandoms and OTPs: Up until a month ago this entire section would have been about Marvel still, and The Winter Soldier most especially, but I am afraid I was enticed into a fast car by strangers with candy and right now, this minute, my number one fandom is The Fast and the Furious. I can’t even help it. It is so terrible to leave a megafandom for a tiny one, and yes, I am well aware that I am about 5 years late to this party at the very least, but the heart wants what it wants. I blame Lyn for not actually beating me around the head that time she told us how Dom and Brian got back together at g/t 2009 and making sure I paid attention. I also blame everyone else who failed to remind me that this fit my victim profile perfectly of rifts and ex-friends and reunions and ambiguous villains with sob stories and the good guys who love them. Oh, and hot bald guys too. You all let me down.

Okay, plus also that whole Winter Soldier thing. This whole section was meant to be me repenting and confessing shamefacedly that I’d jumped ship from Tony to Bucky as Steve’s perfect partner. I was gonna blame Talitha for that, and I do, because it’s a time honoured tradition to blame other people for your own failings, and also I have to blame Seb Stan’s trembling lip, because I’ve always been a sucker for that, plus also that whole thing about BFFs and rifts and “villains” and, y’know. I am so predictable when I look at my life and my choices. *cries into my tiny glass of milk*

Reminisce with one perfect crystal emo tear for the ship that sank or the fandom that finally faded away: Steve/Tony (let us not speak of this). Supernatural (I laugh at their terrible manpain now). Plus, also, DC has finally ruined Superman for me. Maybe not forever, but certainly for the foreseeable future.

Any squicks or kinks (be clear which is which, *g*): hate infidelity, hate unacknowledged non-con (own your goddamn kinks!), hate the Hydra trash party with the fire of a hundred thousand supernovas, love mpreg, love A/B/O, love foe!yay, love rifts and reconciliations, still love bro!yay can’t lie, have a newfound love for the perfect sedoretu and want to try my hand at writing it

Fannish highlight of your year: Fat August. Talitha coming to visit. That moment the one person in the whole of Sydney IMAX who didn’t know who the Winter Soldier really was gasped in horror when the mask came off. Oh, and the ball pit.

Favourite new show/movie/comic/source text since last year: The Fast and the Furious. Shoot me now, please.

Favourite AO3/tumblr/twitter tag: #fataugust #lawschoolruinslives #dcstilldeadtome #tinyglassofmilk #themanonthebridgeiknewhim

Where do you do the bulk of your fannish interaction? Is there a hotbed of awesome out there that someone might be missing out on? Any specific comms or tumblrs or rec sites or tags we should be following? twitter by God, so much twitter, and AO3, praise all that is holy for it

Are you taking part in Yuletide or Festivids this year? Are there any other fantastic exchanges we should all know about? Yuletide

2) The G/T Advanced Section

How many g/t’s have you been to? All of them! (10 + sinpoz 05, the progenitor)

How did you hear about your very first one/from whom/whose lj flist were you on? lol

Have you ever done a presentation at g/t? What was it? (Especially if it was in Year 1, 2, or 3, for which records are slightly murky.) Yeah, ok, remember that time I accidentally talked about classic Doctor Who for two hours?

Best g/t memory ever (or that you can remember right this minute): That time Lyn was reading Astolat fic out loud from her palm pilot (remember palm pilots?) and fic by fic and person by person we all sat up in horror at the realisation it was dubba-dubba-dub con? That time She Who Shall Not Be Named failed at daylight saving and made her SG team two hours late? That time I invited 20 axe murderers I knew only from the internet (okay, 15 axe murderers and 5 people I’d met once on a lost weekend in Sydney) to stay in my house and it was the single best thing that I ever did. Yeah, no question mark on that one.

Thoughts on how Fandom (capital F deliberate) has changed over the last decade: Somewhere along the way it shattered, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put it together again. It’s not that I miss the old megafandoms per se, or even lj really, though I do miss the conversations we used to have and the everlasting friendships I made, but even while I think AO3 is the best thing that ever happened to me as a reader, as a writer I still miss those days when total strangers sent you long feedback emails out of the blue, and as a fandom participant generally I just miss consistent interaction with people of like mind. (I don’t want to say tumblr is the worst thing that ever happened to fandom… but for me and the duration of my experience, and for the things that I’ve loved most about fandom… it is actually the worst thing that ever happened to fandom. ;-p Sorry, guys.)

Thoughts on how fandom (your more personal experience of it) has changed over the last decade: The biggest change for me has actually wound up being the amount of time taken up by work-work and how comparatively little that leaves for active fanning. Death of lj aside, I don’t know that I could possibly have posted the way I used to in the early years these last few years. I didn’t realise how lucky I was early on (g/t 1 was my first year in my current job and busy as I was I had no idea how much worse it could get). On the other hand, I feel a very real suspicion that I wouldn’t have gotten a First Class if I’d had fandom full on when I was at varsity, so, y’know, I guess I’m grateful for that.

If you’re one of our Venerated Foremothers (ie have stories to tell that pre-date the ark, or at least the internet) please share: I do pre-date the internet, but only by a very little. I’ll leave this one to the masters.

Any other comments worthy of being preserved for posterity in this banner year: Only that I really, truly, madly, deeply, love you all, and I am so incredibly glad for you, for your existence, for having met you, for having you in my daily life, for the food we’ve eaten, the cocktails we’ve drunk, the songs we’ve sung, the lies we’ve told, the support we’ve managed to be to each other, the good times, the bad times, the parsley, the cheese, the winter cider, the seafood yum char, the REGRET button, and for every single other thing.

You all managed with reasonable ease last year, but to the small few who rejoin us this year after an absence we have a new main venue. It's a short bus ride from Kilbirnie, so while Brentwoodians will no longer be right next door, you're still at the best available accommodation, and will have no difficulties finding your way.

The main venue itself:

Saint Christopher's Hall, Seatoun
Corner of Ventnor and Forres Streets

There's a beautiful old church to the right, sadly yellow stickered, and a hall to the left. You want the hall! There's a fair amount of parking in the street outside for drivers.

( Assuming the absence of epic fail, this is how to get to the venue. )

Restaurants:

( Elements Cafe is at 144 Onepu Rd, Kilbirnie/Lyall Bay. )

Friday: Brunch almost certainly at Elements, Dinner TBC
Saturday: Tandoori Heritage in Coutts Street, Kilbirnie
Sunday: Siam Thai on Kilbirnie Crescent