I would love to tell you that Ubercon X was great, but I would be lying, and although I will obfuscate and conceal, I do attempt not to lie.
It was not without its highlights. I very much enjoyed meeting Timothy Zahn and his wife Anna, and hope they will find the time to drop me a note eventually. He and I sat on one panel on early influences, along with Josepha Sherman, and the Zahns came to our otherwise sparsely attended Sunday morning Christian Gamers Guild-sponsored worship service.
That panel was recorded (were I to say “taped” I would be showing my age) by a group that produces a broad and podcast program under the name Non-productive, and it will be airing on the Rutgers radio station and another local station fairly soon. They also tapped me to do a promo for the show, which they let me write:
This is Multiverser author M. J. Young encouraging you to listen to the most Non-productive broadcast in any universe.
The tech says I have no idea how accurate that is, and that it will go over well with their fanbase. Now I wonder whether anyone in their fanbase would have any clue as to who I am.
I was on two other panels, one entitled How to Write a Game Anyone Can Play, but I’m not sure that the panelists all agreed that was a suitable goal. Chris O’Neil, Peter Schweighofer, Tony DiGeralamo, Dave Simpson, and someone who did not make any of the program listings were part of that. Much the same group also talked about how to attend cons and buy books without going broke, although we all joked that if anyone had any ideas on that we’d love to hear them.
However, it was a very slow con. Tony DiGeralamo agreed with me that there were fewer people here than at previous cons, and most of them the same people. Even so, many of the expected people were absent. One fan purchased copies of the two new books, Faith and Gaming and Game Ideas Unlimited Volume 1, but when it comes to it my mother bought more books (one of each of those plus copies of About the Fruit and What Does God Expect–and yes, my mother bought those books, as gifts for her pastors, but I charged her the convention discounts for all books). If my count is accurate, we had three new players at the table; no one had any money to spend on books, although several expressed sincere-sounding regret on that point.
Of course, conventions are always tiring for me. I get booked rather solid, with just enough time to sleep overnight before returning in the morning. I also lost most of an hour of time to a late Friday night phone call which burned up my cell minutes and my sleep. I should have cut that shorter, but I do enjoy talking to friends even when I should know better.
Further complicating life, I realized sometime on Friday that my resistance was struggling against something, but I had forgotten to bring the Cold-Eze Tropical Fruit drops that are so good against this. The next morning I found no drug store open, and the next morning although the drug store was open I was late for the first session (a meet and greet Kaffeeklatsch that was mostly guests and staff chatting about games and conventions). I finally obtained this important medication on my way home after dinner with my parents, but it was too late as I was already plunging into a serious case of bronchitis.
Since I am already a respiratory patient (the asthma), it was insisted that I be seen by the doctor today, and that I obtain an antibiotic for the malady. I must thank one of my sons for assisting me with the obligatory trip to take my mother-in-law shopping, especially as it seems to have gotten him in dutch with his girlfriend.
All of this means I am collapsing, with little to show for my efforts, and posting this only because I did not want phone calls or e-mails asking where I am.
Thanks for your understanding. It is to be hoped that tomorrow I will be able to begin catching up on everything that has backed up since Friday.
–M. J. Young
