July Update on the Discworld Themed Programing & Events at Sasquan / Worldcon 2015

Discworld Themed Programing at Sasquan / Worldcon 2015 - Spokene, WA, Aug 19 - 23rd, 2015 

The Discworld themed programing will include (but is not limited to):


Discworld Games 

* The new CLACKS game from BackSpindle Games will be shown in the game room and available for play. 

* THE WITCHES game will be on exhibit



Discworld Events: 

* Discworld Discussion Group: How Discworld Changed My Life

* Discworld Pub Quiz & Pictionary Game 


* Discworld Rendezvous- A Meet and Greet for Discworld fans

* Nanny Ogg Knees Up - Spirited Country Dancing sans Hedgehogs  

* Public Reading of Where's My Cow Wherein We Make All the Noises 


Discworld Exhibit

An introduction to the Discworld novels for the uninitiated, with extra special fun planned for the fans.

The exhibit will include docent tours by Discworld characters and the change to take your photo with some very special items.  

Discworld Movies 

We also hope to show some Discworld movies in the convention's movie room (permission pending)

Discworld Themed Panels: (These include but are not limited to)


* Discworld on the Roundworld - A Q&A with Anne Hoppe (Terry's American YA Editor since 2001) and others.

* Headology & Boffo: Character and Cunning on the Discworld

* A Night in Ankh Morpork, City of 1,000 Surprises 

* Terry Pratchett's Books for Young People

* Terry Pratchett Memorial Panel- Join us to hear and share stories about STP

* Unseen University: A World Within the Discworld, 

* Women of Discworld

Add to this all the fun of a Worldcon—meet fellow Discworld and science fiction/fantasy fans from all over the globe, attend program sessions and workshops with authors, see the Hugo Awards ceremony, participate in the Masquerade, and more, all in the setting of the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

See sasquan.org for Sasquan convention membership and registration details. 
 
Follow our Discworld at Sasquan updates in

* The North American Discworld Connection Facebook page. 

* Our NADWCon Twitter page 

* The North American Discworld Connection Website  

* the Discworld Monthly 

and on this blog.  

Discworld Fan Volunteers Welcome !—We need your help to make this the best event for Discworld fans that we can. Email us at volunteer@sasquan.org and let us know you’d like to help with Discworld at Sasquan!
 
5,000 people are coming to one heck of a party; we hope to see you there. 

Dj 

Art: Granny Weatherwax and the Unicorn by YonYonYon on Deviant Art.

The Victorian Internet and The Technology of the Discworld OR Geek Out!

If you are one of my Twitter pals, you know that I love tech.  I follow the latest tech news, not as a someone in the field,* but as a lover of history who happens to be the daughter of a Skunk Works engineer (look it up) and a science teacher. These days I do a great deal of my work online so I love tech now as someone who uses lot of it, both to make a living and in my volunteer work. As far as I'm concerned, women invented networking, we just called it something else, and I love what tech allows us all to do on this score.

My husband is a software engineer who works in robotics. Both his parents worked in the space program and he, too, is big reader and a  history buff. We both spent many happy years in the Salt Mines of Silicon Valley, so it was with great glee that we came up with this one:

The Victorian Internet & The Technology of the Discworld

 +++Out Of Cheese Error ???????+++ Redo from Start

“Imagine an almost instantaneous communication system that would allow people and governments all over the world to send and receive messages about politics, war, illness, and family events. The government has tried and failed to control it, and its revolutionary nature is trumpeted loudly by its backers. The Internet? Nope, the humble telegraph fit this bill way back in the 1800s.“ (from The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage.)

Our panelists will discuss clacks and other technology of the Discworld.

Recommended Reading For Fun and Profit: 

 The Technology of the Discworld - webpage

The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage  

 

Victorian Technology: Invention, Innovation, and the Rise of the Machine by Herbert L. Sussman 

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Victoriana: A Comprehensive Guilde To the Design,Customers, and Inventions of the Victorian Era by Nancy Ruhling & John Crosby Freeman

Victorians and the Machine: A Literary Response to Technology by Herbert L. Sussman

Geeks Rule. 

See you there,

Dj

Art: Leggo Hex  Some of my very favorite things are the Discworld Leggo creations of Captain Smogg on Flickr. 

*  I did spend some very happy years working in the field of technology for people with disabilities.  I was privileged to be involved with the US premier of the first laptop for people with visual disabilities. We sold this device to people who worked in the Navy, the IRS and at the NSA back in the day. One of these is now on display in the Smithsonian. If you rent a Robert Redford movie from the 80's called Sneakers, you'll see it.

Geek note: the character uses it wrong - nobody reads an electric piezo braille display that fast and in the way he's doing it.  I blame the tech advisor, not David Strathairn **

** Just between us, I've always had a thing for David Strathairn. He is partly Scottish, so...you know.***

*** Speaking of sexy Scottish people, Mary McDonnell is in this movie, too, as is James Earl Jones (quite the man, ye ken? but not Scottish, as far as I know). You may remember Ms. McDonnell from Dances with Wolves and Battlestar Glactica. (Oh, dear, my geek is really showing now...)

Welcome to Holy Wood - Movies at NADWCon

"Did I hear things, or can that little dog speak?" said Dibbler. "He says he can't," said Victor. Dibbler hesitated. "Well," he said, "I suppose he should know."

-- Dibbler meets Gaspode the Wonder Dog in Moving Pictures

Moving Pictures? We got 'em!

We will offer a special selection of Discworld movies in our Holy Wood movie room during the convention. These will include: The Colour of Magic, Hogfather, Going Postal, Johnny and the Bomb, Johnny and the Dead, Living with Alzheimers (a BBC documentary which includes interviews with Terry Pratchett), Wyrd Sisters, and Soul Music.  We will show these films in rotation during all four days of NADWCon.  Look for the schedule posted in front of Holy Wood:

This Just In: 

The North American Discworld Convention 2011 is pleased to announce that it will be hosting the North American premiere of Sir Terry Pratchett's newly finished BBC documentary, "Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die."

The program will be aired, with permission from the BBC, during The North American Discworld Convention 2011 (taking place at the Concourse Hotel in Madison, Wisconsin from July 8-11, 2011), and will feature an in-person introduction by Sir Terry Pratchett and his assistant Rob Wilkins, as well as a post-airing question and answer session by the same. (1)

According to the BBC press release:

In “Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die,” world-renowned author Sir Terry Pratchett explores the realities of medically assisted death. Diagnosed with a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's disease in 2008, Terry considers how he might choose to end his life as his condition progresses. Terry meets men suffering from degenerative conditions and is with a British motor neurone sufferer as he carries out an assisted death at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.

Sir Terry says: "I am a firm believer in assisted death. I believe everybody possessed of a debilitating and incurable disease should be allowed to pick the hour of their death. And I wanted to know more about Dignitas in case I ever wanted to go there myself."

Sir Terry has said that he would like to choose to end his own life rather than succumb to his degenerative condition. However, he acknowledges that there are a number of people who are against assisted dying for religious, moral or practical reasons and at present, assisted death is both an ethically contentious and illegal act in the UK.

In a moving BBC Two documentary, Sir Terry meets those who, like him, would like to control the way they die.

From across Europe he compares other countries' legal positions with that of the UK and asks what the future is for assisted death in the UK.

Charlotte Moore, Commissioning Editor for Documentaries, says: "Assisted death is an important topic of debate in the UK, and this is a chance for the BBC Two audience to follow Sir Terry as he wrestles with the difficult issues that many across Britain are also faced with. I hope this sparks a constructive debate that people across the spectrum of opinion can engage in."

Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die is an exploration of one of society's most sensitive issues and reunites the best-selling author with the award-winning team that made Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer's.

Craig Hunter, Executive Producer for KEO North: "This intensely personal film, by one Britain's best loved authors, tackles a deeply taboo subject with sensitivity and with Pratchett's idiosyncratic humour. It's a valuable contribution to the increasingly urgent debate as to who determines when and how we die."

Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die (1x60-minutes) was commissioned by Charlotte Moore and executive produced by Craig Hunter for Keo North and Sam Anthony for the BBC.

A Note from The North American Discworld Convention 2011:

Please be aware that this film covers a controversial topic, and that it features the assisted death of a man on screen. The North American Discworld Convention neither endorses nor disagrees with any occurrences or opinions contained within this documentary. The purpose of this convention is to provide a weekend of programs and events which focus on the life and works of Sir Terry Pratchett, and as such, we are honored to have been given permission to include this documentary in our program schedule.

See you there,

Dj

(1) This documentary will premiere first in the UK at Sheffield Doc/fest on June 11, 2011, and follows on the success of the Scottish BAFTA Award-winning “Terry Pratchett: Living With Alzheimer’s.”

Art: Death with Kitten by Paul Kidby

Extra! Extra! Behind the scenes on the Discworld movie sets

New panel confirmed:

Extra! Extra!
Come chat with the lucky folks who were involved in the filming of The Colour of Magic and Going Postal as extras and assistants and those who held other positions both before or behind-the-camera. You’ll hear what it was really like to put Pratchett on film, including how “False Wizards Must Die” became “All Lizards Must Fly,” how no given crowd can ever successfully count to three on camera, and other strange and amazing anecdotes. If we're lucky, Pat Harkin will also show photos taken on the set.

Dr. Pat Harkin, our hilarious Charity Auctioneer and one of our esteemed Maskerade judges, is well known to those of us lucky enough to  attend Discworld conventions in the UK as well as those who attended the first NADWCon in 2009  We are delighted that he has chosen to fly all the way out from Britain and party with us again. Dr. Harkin has an amazing mind and a dry English wit to go with it. It is no wonder, then, that he is friends with that guy in the black hat. Here is he on BBC television. 

Trust me on this, you won't want to miss his events.

See you there,

Dj