back in gear

[kinzel]

I arrived last night before midnight after one of the more annoying AMTRAK trips I've had in some time: it wasn't the train or the crew, but the close-to-stupid adults who'd paid for business class seats for themselves and some children. the adults proceeded to ignore, implore, and even encourage (on the part of one woman) the children doing things like standing on the seats to snatch stuff from the overhead (while the train was in motion and adults were a little unsteady on their feet) beating at each other with their shark toys (sharkfaces on sticks) in such a way as to endanger the people in the seats immediately behind them (the people eventually moved) and making such a general ruckus that several passengers gave up their business class comfy seats to move to an empty standard coach a number of cars forward. This was worse than coming home after a Redsox or Patriots game! The cafe car attendant managed to put a lid on them for awhile, but she had other work to do. I think the Conductor should have been more aware... but... it certainly wasn't what I'd planned for. I think Ivan must have been told he was in "quiet time" about an average of once every 5 minutes on the several hour trip...


Not so stoically I plugged Haysus The Asus in, got the wifi going and had connection essentially from North station to Portland, and in consideration of the drive home, I took about an hour nap in the middle, as best I could around the fairly consistent "Ivan, the next time you do that I'm taking it away!" I figure the kid was somewhere around -50 of the shark-heads if dad carried out his threats. Understand that I'd be around some rambunctious fan-kids during the con, but nothing where the "responsible" adults were so uncaring of their childrens' safety or uncaring of the community need for moderation.

That aside, Boskone was good for me aside from the minor gastric problem Saturday morning. The items I took part in seemed to work well, the living-room approach to the con where artshow, huckster room, and consuite were rolled into one (a format we'd seen previously at an anime con we were part of in Maine) was great... and call me energized. More as time permits...

edited to add:

http://www.stellarcon.org/pdfs/SC33flyer20090212.pdf ... if you're goingto a con or an sf club, print afew of these, or supply the link -- or use it yourself -- the newest updated StellarCon flyer is here...

meanwhile for fans of type:
http://www.museumofprinting.org/ ... which is a link i got from a conversation at Boskone ...

again ... more as time permits.

Comments

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you had to deal with that.

I've put passengers off my buses and streetcars for refusing to control their spawnkids.

Heh...we can all dream of being the airline employees who were involved in putting a rowdy asshole down in Iceland[1](on a flight from SF to Europe)...apparently sans luggage!

I know parents like these get all shocked when I turn around and inform the kids of what kind of behavior is required...but the kids often behave...and of course, I am right there to squash any further activities. I honestly think that the kids have never had proper authority displayed to them. "You can't talk to my kids like that!" "Actually, if you fail to supervise your kids, I am required to maintain a safe environment on my bus. You can talk to them, I can talk to them, or you can all get off here."

[1] I got this from a United gate agent who we gave a lift to Portland (OR) after a recent flight was diverted to Eugene due to weather.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

My kids are pretty good travellers, but they can be noisy, which is why I would never travel business class and when I see "quiet car" I walk right past.

I actually once had someone yell at me about how loud my kids were and that was before they were loud. They saved for that after she stormed off the train. Everyone else around me thought my kids were fine; I was mortified.

[hopeevey.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the mention of StellarCon!