Alex Wilson

(just the) "Lego" Entries

WisCon 2008: Best Mistake Evar!
May 31, 2008

So WisCon was probably a mistake, healthwise. I was beat even before my reading Friday night, and compromised my immune system so quickly and thoroughly that I caught a bug probably from the first hands I ~~licked~~ shook upon my arrival that afternoon. Saturday I was exhausted, even with naps and caffeine. By Sunday night, I got the tickle in my throat and couldn't leave the hotel room, was barely able to sit up and take advantage of the HBO*. And I'd finally almost gathered up the courage to introduce myself to Ted Chiang, too.

The Clarion 2006 partial reunion. Photo
courtesy of Vince, who has a larger version
(and his own blog about WisCon) here

Somehow managed to avoid the stomach bug/food poisoning that hit 50+ members of the convention, but I'm presently in day six of what l hope isn't more than a seven-day cold, worst that I can remember. My body's usually pretty stubborn--these last few bad-health-years notwithstanding--so it's a pretty big deal when I say this thing wiped me out. (and thus, we didn't think it possible but Alex gets further behind in his work and emails!)

Alex does his, um, reading?
as JoSelle looks on in horror.

But! I'm glad I went. Yes, WisCon is kinda big for my taste. The few cons I've been to have been small and local, and I actually never got to run into a few people I wanted to see (not for lack of trying). But it was great fun, with a great mix of old friends, new friends, potential friends. Clarion buds Vince, Will, and Brad were there. First time I think I've seen anybody from that group in almost two years now. And quite a few people I've met online, but never in person.

Is Will testing the camera?
Or is the camera testing Will?

It was also a good fit for Jen. Though she doesn't read as much SF, she's into the sociology stuff, and I think she even went to more panels than I did, since concentration is the first to go when my brain bucks are spent these days. We just might make a regular thing of this, maybe take a week off, visit friends in Chicago afterwards or some such thing.

This made me sad.

The midnight reading seemed to go well. Not the best judge, I was so overcaffeinated and overextended. Excellent crowd, and a great group of co-readers. You hope for fine stories at these things, but here we had excellent, interesting performances as well (I knew Will and I had acting backgrounds, but what luck that JoSelle and Ben had such presence as well). And the audience responded so well! I have some video of it, too. Not sure what I'll do with it. At the very least, it'll be some bonus content for newsletter readers or something, at least until I sell the piece I read.

And I don't think I made a fool of myself too often throughout the rest of the con, though I don't think I've ever felt so self-conscious as I debated with each interaction: do I bring up the brain injury and risk looking like a sympathy whore or do I let this person walk away assuming I'm just a flaky dumbass? Tried both. Felt like a tool either way.

Gonna sign me up for next year and see what WisCon's like coherent. And it'd be nice to actually go to more panels, readings, and parties than I reluctantly miss out on.

*Watched Recount. Brilliant performances, except for the cringeworthy Gore and Bush impersonators. Overall, allowed me to relive that unique visceral disheartenment of 2000. So... thanks, HBO!

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Filed Under: Acting, Brain Injury, Clarion, Con Reports, Journal, Lego, Peers & Peerless, Pretty Pictures, Prose and Poetry, Vanity Smurf

LEGO: Waterslide
May 12, 2008

This MOC came about because I had frustratingly few of these 1x4 offset bricks for a previous project, so I placed an order on Bricklink for more than I could ever need. Stacked them all together for storage, and found I could give them an interesting bend.

I've never seen this used as a building technique, so I thought I'd give it a shot with a Lego Waterslide.

Click on any of 'em for larger view.

And the individual 1x4 offset bricks (I got the name from Peeron, but there's gotta be another way to identify them) look like this:

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Filed Under: Journal, Lego

LEGO: Steam Dart
April 21, 2008

Reasonably Clever hosted a Lego challenge last month: create a Steampunk "impulse buy" set, 50 pieces or fewer, just like they used to have in hobby shops and toy stores near the chashier. I made myself a Steam Dart (click for larger):

Loose homage to my favorite impulse set of all time (says a lot coming from a classic castle gentleman like myself), set 6824 : Space Dart (1984).

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Filed Under: Journal, Lego, Pretty Pictures

Alex Wilson writes fiction and comics in Carrboro, NC. His work has appeared/will appear in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Rambler, Weird Tales, The Florida Review, Futurismic, Shimmer, ChiZine, FutureQuake, Pif, and Dragon. Locus Magazine has called him a "promising new writer," and Publishers Weekly also has nice things to say.

Alex runs the audiobook project/podcast Telltale Weekly and the writer wiki Guidevines. He publishes the minicomic/zine Inconsequential Art. He is a 2006 Clarion graduate.

Blog Archives
2008 - Clever Label TBA
2007 - BadYearNoCookie
2006 - Clarion! 1st Pro Sale!
2005 - Peers and Peerless
2004 - Telltale Launch
2003 - Dog bites, acting out
2002 - In my mind, I'm going...
2001 - Marriage, Macs, 1st Cons
2000 - Setback, Milestones
1999 - Engaged, Graduated
1998 - Creative Independence

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