Par-tay, and other followup

[jducoeur]

We were a bit worried going into the Memorial Day party: we had enough RSVPs to run the party, but not quite enough to get the sort of boisterous dynamic we prefer. In the end, though, we got more like 30-35 people there, which was enough to have a good, loud party of people meeting each other, hanging out, and generally having fun. The weather was about as good as we could possibly hope for: the worst I can say is that it was cool enough to eventually drive us inside, but that just meant that it was cool enough that we *could* hang out inside -- as a result, the party continued until 11ish, and we didn't kick the last folks out until almost 1am. We didn't wind up filking (at some point, I think I need to convene a party whose sole purpose is singing and storytelling), but a good time was had.

(Parties continued to be the theme of the weekend; we spent much of Monday at something that I think was actually admitting it was a Labor Day party. That was also fun, and gave us an opportunity to use up the remaining meat that we had bought in a panic, once we realized how many people had actually shown up at ours.)

We did manage to give away the Harvard Classics, to ladymacgregor, who I gather is planning to actually follow the a-bit-a-day reading plan outlined with the set.

Dance practice was last night; since it was Rosh Hashana, I ran it. It was a big, boisterous, fun practice. We were all slightly disappointed not to succeed in dragging any freshmen to it, but we had enough relatively-new folks that the Guild Fair seemed to be worthwhile, and folks had a good time.

Tonight, we pause and catch our breath -- make dinner, watch some TV, and begin to merge comic books. I've spent much of the past few months climbing back on the wagon there: I got my comic book database updated to Rails 2.something so it would run again, and finished sorting the last bits. Now, I have nine runs in the Spare Oom, consisting of an average of about 7 boxes each. I figure that I can do two merge passes, bringing that down into two Really Big Runs, and at *that* point I will be ready to bring the Ancient and Original Comic Book Sort (from 1991) home, merge the whole damned thing, and finally have all 90+ boxes in order. (And at that point, I can figure out which bits I actually want to keep, and what I'm getting rid of.) Progress continues to be slow, but at least it's back to measurable again.

Looking forward to a non-crazy weekend: the main highlight will be Cooks Guild, which will have a panel discussion consisting of msmemory and new_man talking about feast preparation. That lets us catch our breath for the *next* two weekends, which *will* be a little crazy -- 7 hours north to Quebec for Investiture, and then 7 hours south for Coronation...

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

"We didn't wind up filking (at some point, I think I need to convene a party whose sole purpose is singing and storytelling)"

I have long observed that, in our crowd, these things rarely Just Happen. They need either officially dedicated space-time, or people who are sufficiently ego-driven to both want to, and accomplish, overcoming conversational inertia.

"(And at that point, I can figure out which bits I actually want to keep, and what I'm getting rid of.)"

Why wait? For the last few years, whenever I do any comic-book sorting, no matter how partial, I've culled 25-50% of the material I've touched. I haven't managed a full sort in one pass for ages, but culling-while-sorting has resulted in having a few boxes to turn into Steve for trade credit every few months. At the very least, I'm shrinking the growth rate, and I hope to actually get to the point of shrinkage before long.

More detail: Whenever I touch a comic book, it goes into one of three places - to be kept/sorted, the going-away pile, or the reread pile. Of the stuff that gets reread, at least half *then* goes in the go-away pile, which helps calibrate future decisions. The fundamental criterion being "Am I ever going to want to read this *again*?"

[jducoeur]

I have long observed that, in our crowd, these things rarely Just Happen.

Yaas. The problem, of course, is that I am loathe to interrupt a good conversation in order to Make Singing Happen. Hence, I probably need to be a bit more direct about it at some point.

Why wait?

Perspective, mostly. I am much better at figuring out what I actually give a damn about with a couple years' distance. (And partly, I'm just being anal in order to force myself to get the whole mess in order and inventoried, so that it stops bugging me so much. I'm orderly enough that sorting once every 20 years just seems necessary for my mental well-being.)

The plan is to wind up with three piles, similar to yours, which I think of as simply "Yes", "No" and "Maybe". Everything in "Yes" gets kept; everything in "No" gets disposed of as efficiently as I decide to do; and everything in "Maybe" will get re-reviewed later with an eye towards getting rid of more of it. Initial target proportions are 25/25/50; I'll be interested to see what the reality comes out like.

(Note that there is deliberate mental judo going on here -- by separating the obvious no-hopers from the stuff that's Okay, I make forward progress and raise the average level of the collection. That way, when I review the Maybes again later, more of it will be "below average" and subject to disposal...)

[ladymacgregor.livejournal.com]

Welllllllll . . . SOMEday I hope to get onto the bit-a-day reading plan. However, right now, I got out the "candy", and am started on reading ALL the way through Fables & Fairy Tales, and Modern English Plays ("The School for Scandal" - from our [RevWar] period!), and The Thousand And One Nights.

(Although maybe not *all* of the HC Anderson. I read the last story in that book, which was his story "The Bell." It had a lovely beginning, a very wandering middle, no clear characters, no end, and no plot or point that I could discern. Not everything is "The Little Mermaid.")

I do plan to use the bit-a-day for the harder books - I dipped into On The Origin of the Species by Darwin, and have decided I will probably never read that all the way through. Or a bunch of the philosophical treatises. Or all the Greek plays.

They are *lovely* books though, in good condition, and with nice type and nice pages. A pleasure to read. Thank you!