mishalak

From about 1999 until 2014 I was a member of DASFA. With three years to look back on I am overall happy that I left.

Making any group work can be like pushing a rope uphill. The trouble with special interests groups (as opposed to groups like old line churches or rotary clubs with a more general membership) is that they often attract extreme personalities. A club for rose lovers is a grand idea, but the people who are going to be members are probably people who have the fewest other social outlets, want to use the club as a way to promote their rose business, have the loudest opinions, and the like. A person who has a couple roses and knows quite a bit about them is not going to show up to meetings. Even the otherwise well rounded and stable rose fancier is likely to drop out because hanging with the users and the extremists is not going to be fun.

So it is with science fiction/fantasy clubs. In the modern era due to competition from online resources, the lack of inexpensive meeting space, and lack of free time on the part of potential members they are much more in danger of dying out. New members are turned off by the old guard who are 50% people who have no other social outlet because they are such assholes that no other group will take. There are definitely some good people who I like on an individual basis in the club and who I see at other events, others who I like well enough but we do not have much to socialize over, and then a small group of people I cannot stand.

Yes, I would liked to have been a member of an ongoing club. The thing is that to make that happen I would have needed to be a bad guy who either worked with reforming behavior or threw out troublesome members. That was not what I wanted to do and I think even the members I like would not have gone along with or supported that kind of plan. I think it is healthier for me to not be a member of a somewhat more general group of secular/agnostics/atheists/humanists. There are still people I do not get along with, but there is a general enough attraction to the group that I can make plenty of friends.

( Read more... )

And now, a review. On Tumblr I posted a picture of drinking the other day. I, of course, never drink and the allegation that I was drunk when I almost turned everyone in Kansas City, Missouri into a werebear is a traitorous lie (I was aiming at Topeka). And in line with my settlement with the UN I apologize for that. So, because I am not allowed to drink anymore by international agreement, I was just taking a picture of someone else’s ale the other day. And this is… that other person’s review.

The first thing is that this is a thick beer. Marques thought I was pouring out some kind of syrup and I was reminded of that time I drank motor oil on a dare. Guinness has nothing on this. Only a modest head and the flavor is enormously strong. I thought it would be a pretty heavy stout, but it was more like something that should be consumed from a cordial glass than as a glass of quenching refreshment. It was also, really, really strongly flavored. Hardly any hops, but strong malt and coffee type roasted flavors. It was a fun to drink, but even if this were not just a one off I do not think I could drink this every day. Or even every week. There was still half a bottle left after the party and I did not just drink this while eating corn on the cob and proceeding to plot against those rational fools at the institute.

Crossposts: http://mishalak.livejournal.com/550344.html

So Richie

animazed and I am thinking of having a Yule decorating party on the 1st of December. That seems reasonable to me. Have stuff up for the month of December and no longer. Though this means that we'd need to get our (probably small) tree in the week before that. These thoughts got me to thinking about getting a tree from the forest service instead of buying a lot grown one. Why? It is fun. Though they are never as perfect as lot grown trees getting one is an adventure involving saws and hot chocolate in thermoses. And the permit is only $10 per tree. Even considering the 160 mile round trip that is a bargain.

So I'm checking out places like the South Park Ranger District, the Pike's Peak Ranger District, and the Sulpher Ranger District (yes, that's the correct spelling for the Colorado place name). Different days and rules for each. I think the last one, which has a cutting area near Winter Park/Fraser might be the best. Not too far away and pretty sure to have some spruce trees. I don't know about what dates trees can be cut there though. The South Park one is further, but has the dates we prefer (Sunday the 25th of November or Monday the 26th of November) for cutting and may have better trees. District wide cutting there. The problem with them could be distance since it is about 80 miles to Kenosha Pass from Elizabeth (where the 4-wheel drive truck lives and where we'll likely keep the tree until we want to move it in of doors). Though it is less from Denver. But we'd still have to go further to actually find a place to cut a tree on forest service land (I think). Have to get out my section maps.

So, yeah. Party on the 1st of December combined with the DASFA Alternate in December. That will probably be the extent of our parties after this month. Though we have two parties in October. This Saturday the 6th and then on the 20th, both DASFA parties. 6pm and after the DASFA meeting respectively. Books are going to be sorted and sold at the Dead Dog.

It has been a while since I posted in my own journal asking who would be coming to Denver for Worldcon in 2008. I thought I'd ask again to see how things are coming together (or not) for everyone else and to inform everyone of the shapes my own plans are taking.

( Everything Worldcon and Everything Mishalak )

Questions? Comments?

So I'm trying to get the DASFA website working a bit better. And better known. I'm currently trying to get it claimed on Technorati, a blog search engine thing. Which I plainly do not understand or else I'm doing something wrong. Or perhaps I'm just impatient.

But in good news I deleted a whole bunch of fake accounts and one that had posted hundreds (thousands?) of link spam comments. I also have an administrator bit so theoretically I can work out other problems for members. Now if we just had a few more active ones, besides myself, posting things there.

I've posted on this subject on the DASFA Yahoo group, but I only got one response from a member. I am unsure if I should start emailing everyone (already registered) to let them know that DASFA is going to have a more active administrator or not. For a while I could not figure out the website and responses from the system got sent to my spam box. I wonder if we have some evil things resident on our server. I'll have to ask our web guru if he can check it out or let another friend of mine who is a lot more technically literate poke around in the system and patch things. (Hi,

heck1701!) If anyone else wishes to review the site and let me know what you think of it and how it can/should be improved I would be forever grateful. (As in I'll plug you here and on the website and give you link love or whatever else! And I won't make bambi eyes at you or whine.)

Back to something resembling work. And I need a spring Icon since it is warm and nice here today.

I like DASFA. For the same reason that I like my friends. I get inarticulatable (is that a word?) pleasure out of being part of it and the bi-monthly parties. The question for me is how do I get other people to fall in love with the club? It is a mysterious thing, falling in love. And I'm glad I don't have to do it again for my boyfriend. But for my third love (after my boyfriend and my best friend) needs other people to love it. Unless DASFA gets new young, fresh, interested members it will slowly fade away. Obviously we need marketing and promotion of some sort. Unfortunately I'm about as clueless about that as why I was so lucky as to have a guy love me until I realized what a gem he is.

I'm going to preface what I speculate on in the following by saying I don't know how to make being a part of DASFA attractive to people of my age or younger. Heck, I not even very good at figuring out what would make

coloradogeeks attractive to people to join it. But I read an article by Jason Stoddard that got me thinking. It is about authors and editors marketing themselves on the internet. But might this not also apply to science fiction clubs? Perhaps what DASFA needs to create "a public persona" for the club. A face and attitude that people outside of the small group that reads Dasfax or shows up to meetings knows about.

From just reading that one article about marketing I can see that there is a great deal of work to be done on my part or other club members. I don't know half of what he's talking about and I'm probably one of the more hep Dasfans. I mean I have this sort of online Per'Zine that a number of people read (and I thank you). But I've barely looked at Myspace after being deeply turned off by some layouts that nearly caused me retinal detachment. And I've barely even heard of Technorati, Digg, or del.icio.us. I feel so... out of date. And while I've read a bit on Boing, Boing or Slashdot years ago, I've never been a regular reader and I don't know much of anything about them either.

And what would I do? Unlike the people the referenced article is aimed at I'm not a producer of truly great content. What, of the things I've done, would even be appropriate as part of a branding of DASFA campaign? Or what could I do that I am not doing now? I'm still using me repeatedly because I don't know of anyone else in the club that might be interested in such a scheme. Well perhaps John a little bit. And Rose might very well encourage me as long as I don't turn my snarkiness against the people I'm seeking to attract during a fit of pique.

And I'm thinking of all of this while I'm terribly ill and possibly not in the best frame of mind since I'm being kept up by a nasty cough.

Due to not having anything to do in town on Friday (except laundry and ironing) my weekend started on Saturday when I traveled into town to meeting up with

housespinner. We meet up at Chessman Park and hung out with some of his friends at the nearby Diedrick's Coffeehouse. We talked of nothing in particular, though the subject of Denver and other cities came up. I related my experiences in San Francisco, of course. As it was getting close to time to head off to DASFA I trying to reach

celtane again, I thought he might have fun with this little group or at DASFA, but I learned later he was busy with something. At about 5pm we parted ways because they were headed out to dance at Tracks and I was headed for DASFA.

The MileHiCon convention committee meeting was useful and productive, though it is mostly ideas and speculation since we are 11 months out from the next one. The DASFA meeting was more exciting, if that is the right word. It was time for nominations for officers and there were a lot of people not volunteering. Instead of the Editor job grenade I thought I would be throwing myself on I am going to be the Director of DASFA once again. Scary biscuits. I hope after nearly two years out of it that I shall be able to approach the job with renewed vigor, a bit of perspective, and the knowledge that if come November of next year I'm not happy with it I better quit rather than exploding all over a public stage. It only works to throw yourself on a grenade if won't blow you to bits or thing really will kill everyone else who could step up to doing it. The latter does not apply to DASFA.

I didn't immediately go the party afterward. The impending death of

armoire_man has some of them not feeling super social at times. So six of us went to Perkins instead and then I went with

spudicus to the Dead Dog party. It was crowded in part due to the small nature of the apartment and to having perhaps more people than usual. I did not mind it being crowded one bit, that's how parties should be. And Paul was very good to step up to have the party.

We have a backup guy for the coming year, but I cannot help but wonder out loud if we don't need a better system. People feel shy about having all the DASFAns over. I don't believe that I'm talking out to school to say that not everyone loves everyone else in DASFA. I bet there are people who don't totally like me, especially when I'm in a foul mood. That is not a troll for complements, I'm stating a fact, we're human and we don't get along like faithful angels.

Three possibilities. We go along as we are and it turns out we don't have to change. Possibility two, we should try some different techniques to make hosting a party less of a chore and/or less scary. For example making sure that people who get along will be together at the host's Dead Dog for sure so they can better put up with people who are not at their best or having a crew of people to come help clean so the host won't feel embarrassed to have his/her home seen by the public. Possibility three, we sometimes agree on a restaurant to meet in and make a reservation. For example the Perkins at Colorado Blvd. or Racine's and have that be the Dead Dog, we don't always have to have a house party. Just a place open late enough and tolerant of having us take up a largish section.

Well I had a "Stinger" beer, wheat with honey that I didn't care for. Too... mild in taste for me. I like beers with more barley in them apparently no matter their honey content, but I am happy I bought the six pack to try and share. Dropped Timmy back home and then finally crashed on

friendly_drelb's couch. That was my Electoral Third Saturday.

Spam from self-published author. Hurm actually spelled my name correctly. Well I suppose I'll respond. Here we go...

"Mr. ____

"This is our policy on unsolicited press releases. We delete them unread and unopened if we can help it. We will not consider your book for our reading list (since if you actually read our website you'd find we don't have one) and we will not promote your book for you.. Maybe you think you are different, that you should be the one exception to our policy of ignoring commercial solicitations. If so there is a way around this policy. Send a check for $10 made out to "DASFA" to our treasurer, Dave Gibbons 3225 W. 29th Ave. Denver, CO 80211. We will then read the missives you send us."

Hey, the worse that can happen is he actually sends us $10 and then we have to read his press release. More amusing would be if he gets indignant about our behavior or something.

The Alternate was quite all right, though small. I missed having Jane and Rose there among other people because they had previously said they were going to come to more. Though they both had perfectly valid excuses. I suspect I am going to have to start phoning Dasfans to get a better turn out.

So C.J. is in the middle of a kitchen reconstruction project. Fantastically competent person, our C.J. is. Just got frustrated one day and took out all the cabinets. Then set to work building new and better shelves, installing a new stove and oven and generally improving the works.

I was possibly less perky than usual because I'm recovering from a tooth problem. Either I got some sort of infection under my new crown, the never has become suddenly sensitive, or else the dentist misjudged that he had gotten rid of all the decay when drilling down in. I am quite hopeful it is one of the two former and not the later. That way eventually it will go away either due to our friend amoxicillin or just giving it a bit of time. In the meanwhile I am occasionally taking some non-localized analgesics to deal with the pain. Either just ordinary ibuprofen or a generic version of vicoden depending upon how bad the pain is.

All that is a complex way of explaining how Karen came to be at the dead dog. I didn't feel well enough to drive, well I did, I just was very reluctant to do so. So my mom was ever so kind and drove me to the dead dog. I am very glad I did so because I had a great time talking to C.J., Paul, and Erik.

Most impressive thing of the evening was C.J. opening a bottle of wine without a corkscrew. Two wood screws inserted so the cork could be carefully twisted while at the same time slowly and carefully pulled out. I applauded when the task was done, though it didn't do me any good. No alcohol for the next 9 days while I'm taking the antibiotics. Gah! How will I ever survive?

I'm rather happy with how the party came out. Though mildly annoyed with myself for forgetting a number of things. First among them is that I forgot to call my friends to see if they needed rides or directions. Or rather I did call and leave messages, but they didn't call at Rose & Dave's.

Also I forgot my camera to take pictures of the proceedings. It would have been nice to have some pictures of the wonderful crowd.

I was late in picking up Amanda, because of my looking for the camera and the time I took in the shower. But

eibii was cool about it. Big relief for me. I'm going to try to make sure that next time I pick her up on time.

So we arrived at the Christmas Open House at about ten minutes until four. There was not as much chatting at this point, more eating. Since I only meet most of Rose's Art Museum friends at the Christmas party once a year and Amanda has never met them before. I said hi to Maya and I showed off the Red Room to Amanda. I told my version of Little Red Ridding Hood to the sprout up in the room.

A while latter the candy cane cheesecake was served out. It was really excellent and so were the oriental chicken wings. I'm going to have to get the recipe from Rose. I always love adding another dish to my wide repertoire. Lots of chatting and the party gradually got really busy. I would say the peak was at about the cross over time of 7pm when the Open House guests were still lingering and the DASFA Christmas Orgy guests were starting to arrive. For a while we were dancing around each other and exchanging greetings with many old and new friends. I retreated upstairs to the red room frequently. I noticed Dave often came up to his bed to get away from the crowd as well. I’m not shy like him, but I do have to take breaks. Plus I don't want to get in the way and I like a quieter room where I can listen to and talk more easily. I'll remember this if I ever have the chance to design a house with parties in mind. Smaller nooks to have intimate conversations are a terribly good idea.

Martin showed up with Alex, a new guy interested in DASFA from the internet. He sent me an instant message about two weeks before the party out of nowhere. He seemed cool so I took a chance and invited him. I was glad I did, because though he was shy he gradually got into the party.

Sometime after 8pm I started in on the grav lox project. Washing it off and then putting it in the freezer so I could slice it up easily. Then back up to the Red Room with a tour around to talk to some people. About 20 minutes later I came back down and started slicing. It was disappearing from the cutting board as fast as I could cut for about the first half of the first piece. Then I toured around with it and basking in complements from the people who tired it.

About this time Jane sized the liquor filled chocolates for the Red Room. We all went up to relax in the decadent atmosphere. We played a sort of variation of in the sack where each person asked a question of the group and it went around the circle answering it. I think that Alex finally started to get into the party at this point since he ended up in the circle making and answering questions. I think he started to see us as similar to him, though mostly older, at that point.

After the questions had been around the whole circle I went back down to slice up the second side of grav lox. It seems that the red room somewhat broke up after that. I think it was getting to be about 10pm, maybe eleven. The party downstairs had gotten a lot quieter. DASFA has gradually become more of an early evening group.

Jane headed home and for a while the remaining fans chatted mainly in the dinning room. Somehow Alex got onto asking questions about radiation and nuclear weapons. I was answering things and getting corrections from mad scientists like Paul. The evening ended with me showing one of the extras on the Two Towers special edition, the Gollum acceptance speech on the MTV awards. Round about 1230pm I took Amanda home and then went home myself.

I have a wonderful new fwend! Amanda, known around these parts as

eibii, got a ride from me to the DASFA Alternate party on Saturday. She seems to like us and she agreed to join the Crew of Grenadine. Random tangent, there needs to be a word for when I like a person but don't know yet if he or she is a friend yet. But whatever stage that is Amanda is past it because we sat around talking for hours after the party about everything from yaoi fiction to fannish experiences. So very cool!

I also misremembered the party location as Huron instead of Grant Street so we were late. But it was all good. The subject of Charles Hansen, a late member of the Colorado Fantasy Society, came up. It seems he had a film of the masquerade at the 3rd Worldcon, Denvention in 1941. No one at the party had any idea of what might have happened to it. That's frustrating. It would be so cool to have something like that and get it transferred to disc so that it could be shown at cons and at fan parties. I mean, what a piece of history!

Speaking of which I'm thinking I'm going to renew my efforts to document DASFA history. Both as it happens and to get down memories of our past. I'll have to get some sort of portable digital recorder for those times at parties when DASFAns start reminiscing. Then I could transcribe what was said later. Must ponder this for a while.

Rhonda and Tay were there, of course, since it is their house. I saw Patrick and Sue Ann. I'm told that John and Bonnie stopped by before heading up to the Mad Scientist's party. Gail and Sourdough completed the circle of Dasfans.

I've actually had dreams where DASFA had a huge clubhouse next door to a SCA Hall. But I'm not hear to talk about that, I'm here to talk about my daydream of my vision of the perfect fannish base of operations.

I don't know what other SF clubs are like, but DAFA isn't huge. Our max attendance is about 30 people, so my idea about having a clubhouse takes that into account. It also means that we could only do this if I win the lottery. There's no way that a "congregation" of 30 people could buy a meeting hall. Even a small one.

So my idea is to buy a largish house. Something that has about 3,000 square feet on one level or could be expanded into that. In one version of the daydream I buy two or three houses and renovate them into one house or complex.

Downstairs would be a TV/small theater room with seating for ~40. That will take up a large amount of space; I'd estimate 900 square feet if we are going to be generous about the space. There would be another room with about the same to a little more square footage as a general meeting space and additional room to party in. Then there would be a smaller room with comfy chairs, and a bar that could be used by itself for smaller parties. Finally there would be a half kitchen with large refrigerator, sink, microwave, and some storage space for party equipment, and a dishwasher. Oh and two half baths, just sink and toilet.

The Basement would be additional space for storage, a possible location for a second meeting room for clubs that want to meet at the same time as DASFA, and the library. I'd make sure the drainage was excellent so there would be no flooding of the library. Another bathroom with a shower in case someone needs it after bicycling in hot weather or something.

Upstairs I'd have my own flat with a lockable door at the top of the stairs. Full kitchen that could be used if for some reason we were cooking a meal on site rather than doing a potluck. I'm thinking a very large stove and two ovens. Maybe a bit less space than my mom's kitchen since it is a little oversized. My own library room with television for when I don't want to watch what's on the big one downstairs. A computer room (hurm we'll need a terminal downstairs as well for the people who need to check email now), full bath, and moderate sized dinning room should round it out nicely.

My bedroom and my storage room would be on the top level of the house, so we're talking a serious three level (above ground) sort of place.

For guests I'd want a semi-detached space. I'm thinking a bedroom and bath above the garage and attached to the house by a bridge. This would also provide a nice second means of egress besides going down through the meeting space.

Entrance to the house would be controlled by access cards since then we could hand out access to trustworthy fans without having to worry about people sneaking in the dead of night or what we would do if a physical key got lost. Though I think I would have a physical key system for my flat above the meeting rooms.

If the money from the lottery were really good I'd buy another house next door to the clubhouse to convert into sort of an apartment/slan shack sort of place. If I had truly unreasonable amounts of money I'd try to buy the house near one of those one block commercial strips that are found in some Denver neighborhoods. Then I'd buy some of those commercial spaces and encourage the creation of a bookstore/fannish stores row.

So that's my lottery daydream.

Am ill at home. Going to sleep some more now. I don't feel like going anywhere, I thought I would earlier, but now I'm weak and hot. I fell over before the DASFA meeting last night, no one saw me do that though so it was all okay. I had to go curl up in a chair and sleep though the reading though, I couldn't handle anything. Feel a bit depressed as well.

A DASFA Alternate Party Report

DASFA's Alternate Party was last night and it was rather quiet. A person might think from how difficult it has been to get people to host these parties that they would be out of control bashes, but this one has apparently was reprehensive of the last few months with only six DASFA members attending. This was despite my last minute lobbying to get people to attend.

The subject of the lack of energy at DASFA parties was, of course, a topic of discussion. Dana Cain was mention as having been a big reason for the group being more vibrant in the past. Even if she didn't initiate all the parties herself she served as a sort of spark plug that would light off other club members doing things. The conclusion as always is a need for people who want to do things rather than willing to sit back and let things slide.

We had Paul Domes, who I gave the wrong time to, myself, Bruce Miller, and Sandy Diersing. Plus our hosts John and Tammy Fiala. I got to show off my new necklace and it was fun to socialize. John's dad showed up and talked for a long while with Bruce in the kitchen. Everyone was gone by midnight. There isn't much more to say than that.

Okay, now I need to report on the rest of the DASFA Picnic. As I said previously Rick was the first to show up followed by Sourdough and Gail who brought their dogs along to the party. Patrick and Sue-Ann arrived and told us they had invited some friends of theirs, Jan and Mike Thompson, which sounded splendid to me since it looked like the turn out would be light. John and Bonnie rounded out the rest of our guests and we had a marvelous time. Good food, I got complemented on my pie making skills (go me!), and it seemed like everyone had a fun time. It was suggested to me that we should have our picnic in town next year, and I'm amiable to that idea, provided we can a find a park that is cheep or free and where we can barbecue. It is very convenient to be able to heat foods rather than have everything be cold cuts. I'd even be willing to shlep a small gas grill to whatever park.

In other news Sourdough reacted positively to the idea of a "Cookie Crunch" (everyone bring cookies) for the DASFA sponsorship of the Consuite on Friday night at MileHiCon. It he's not going to be annoyed at my changing of the tradition I think everyone else will be happy to go along with it as well. Chocolate has been a great theme, but I think it is time to move on. And also this means I don't make the Molé Chile this year. Good not to have to do that work, maybe I'll do it at Minicon instead. So this year I'll bring ice cream to make ice cream sandwiches and some oatmeal cookies. Or maybe Peanut Butter. The lovely thing about baking cookies is that I can do them well ahead and they don't cost much.

I left the picnic along with everyone else at about 8:45, I wanted to catch the tail end of Rose & Dave's big anniversary party along with Richard & Carol and Timmy & Kaia.

Well I said I probably wouldn’t be able to post today, and I was wrong. It is four in the afternoon and no one had showed up quite yet for the DASFA picnic out at my parents’ house. Which isn’t the end of the world since that means I can sit here online reading other people’s livejournals while occasionally looking out a window at a sun drenched forest. Correction Rick just arrived, so I’m going to sign off now. Woo, friends to talk to and food to eat!

Back to the Apple - Count Basie / Frank Foster
I can report the party as a success despite my essentially lazy nature getting in the way of preparations. I finally got up at about 10 am and started cleaning my apartment again. And cleaning, and cleaning, and putting away clean clothes, and picking up dirty ones, and making the worst of the clutter disappear. By 3pm, my announced starting time for the party the three small rooms (bathroom, kitchen, and main) were reasonably tidy, though not as clean as I would like. Not to worry, I can try again in three weeks with the repeat version of this party. I still had a sink full of dirty dishes, but that was not so bad compared to what the place looked like previously.

Many of my friends showed up, first on the scene were my mum, grandma Frances, and Daniel V (of Outer Fandom fame). I love my mother dearly and she brought the main course for the party, vanilla ice cream. Plus a few other things I asked her to pick up on her way into town. After the family members left we got Pat Thompson & Sue-Ann who brought Bing Cherries from the tree in their backyard. V. cool of them. Though from Sue-Ann's comment about not wanting anything with cherries in it I suspect a bit of the zucchini effect. After a while they had to leave, but Sourdough and Gail Barton came by and my good friend Martin Heck showed up around that time as well. My mom returned for a while and the Dorans, John & Bonnie, came by. Lastly we got Paul Domes who brought even more goodies and alcohol (champagne!) and the editors of Dasfax, Tay & Rhonda.

Much ice cream was consumed along with peaches, cherries, strawberries, honey, maple syrup, chocolate, butterscotch, and caramel. So for being a total bum and not wanting to have anything to do with cooking or getting a new ice cream churn the party came off nicely. Also we spent all but the first hour outside on the porch trying to catch the few errant breezes. It was a really hot day despite a few clouds coming over in the late afternoon.

Oh and I got to show off the drawing Sue Mason did for me as well at the chap book of her work made by Minicon. V. nifty. It is now after ten and I'm going to bed shortly because I have to work tomorrow. Just one more glass of champagne and another of mineral water so I don't get a head ache.

V. good day, Cheerful sprite is back.

THE INNER CIRCLE
The news in good with DASFA, I've got a program for the month of July and since August is the big club picnic I don't have to worry about a program then. Now onto September and October. Groovy!

RETAILER REVIEW: FAHRENHEIT'S BOOKS
My favorite bookstore in all of Denver is Fahrenheit's at 38 Broadway. It's not the largest of the bookstores in Colorado, or even the largest used bookstore, but Bill has a fantastic eye for acquisitions. Going through his overflowing bookcases is a joy, especially the two sections he has for hardback science fiction and fantasy. The books are well priced, don't expect either a huge bargain or to be totally priced out. The last time I was there I picked up two first edition Walter Jon Williams books for $45, quite reasonable considering condition and so on. In addition to the two sections of hardbacks he also has two of reasonably priced paperbacks.

But the science fiction isn't the only reason to visit his store. He also has a quite good selection of metaphysical books, art books, history, and natural history. If I have any money left after perusing the many works of fantastic fiction (and Easton Press... MMM) I'll wander over to look at the books about myths and legends. Then maybe bother Bill a little bit (he's quite soft spoken, I get the feeling that he's a bit shy, but I like talking to him about books).

The other great thing about going to Fahrenheit's Books is that there are four more general used bookstores on that section of Broadway. If you park on Lincoln Street one block over from Broadway you can generally get a space easier than if you try to park on Broadway and there are no parking meters. Next month I'll review another Ed Wolf's Game Pit and another bookstore on Broadway.

One of my friends from Minneapolis,

davidschroth, suggested that I should make the famous DASFA molé chili for the consuite at Minicon. I would, but I would need the use of a kitchen, a serious one, if I were going to do this... But just for the heck of it I thought I would share. Now this is a variation on some recipe no doubt stolen from some website somewhere about five years ago and then modified. I use more cocoa and paprika. I added the honey, because I like it and I put in more hot sauce than is listed.

Now someone else can do the work for me since I’m not the only one with the knowledge. <grin>

1 medium-size onion, diced
1 pound ground turkey
2 cloves minced garlic or equivalent
1 can (about 8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 can (about 14 ½ oz.) stewed tomatoes
1 can (about 15 oz.) red kidney beans drained and rinsed
1 tablespoon molasses and almost as much honey
¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce or equivalent
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon oregano and dry basil

In a large pot (say about 5-quart) combine onion and ¼ cup water. Bring to a boil over a medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to keep the onion from sticking as the liquid evaporates and the onion begins to brown (about 5 minutes). Deglaze. This means you add another ¼ cup of water and stir to get the caramelized onion juice off the bottom of the pan and up into the water and on the onion. Continue to cook as you did before until the onion browns again. Repeat the deglazing step again. Then just cook it down or repeat the steps once more if you have the patience.

Set aside the onion. Crumble your turkey into the pan with the garlic. Cook and stir until the meat is no longer pink and most of the liquid has evaporated, but don't dry out the turkey. Add everything, including the onion and any juices to the pan, mix and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer at least 30 minutes to let the flavors blend.

Alternatively cook the onion as above and the put everything into a crockpot to cook overnight or all day (about 8 hours). Do it on high with the lid partially off at the end to get rid of excess liquid.

Serve with tortilla chips. Yields: 4 to 6 servings.
Prep time: 1 hour 15 minutes

When preparing for 100 people multiply the recipe by 10 and use a great proportion of beans and tomato. Don't skimp on the spices. Use a giant 4-5 gallon stockpot and don't worry about it getting cold. If brought to a boil it will have enough thermal mass to stay warm for the hours. Though having something to perk it up in is not a bad idea.

DASFA is working, but not really going anywhere. Summer is a quiet time for the club since so many people are off on vacation. I intend to get several anime people to come talk about Nan Desu Kan (coming up in September) and what's new and good in anime.

I have failed to get moving on the bookmarks project as of yet. I seem not to have enough time to do everything I need to do. Find a better job, design bookmarks, line up events for September, October, and meet with the outgoing Treasurer of MileHiCon. Plus my fan writing here and elsewhere. I'm also trying to get my webpage finished. I really want to get it up by this weekend, but that deadline might just go flying by.

In other news I'm thinking about changing the content of the DASFA sponsorship of the consuite at MileHiCon. There have been complaints about my molé chili. I thought I was being clever making something more food like yet still in keeping with the "Chocolate Orgy" theme. Apparently some people find odd to eat chili and then chocolate, or that the smell of the chili makes eating Chocolate taste funny (though I've never noticed a problem). Suggestions on a new food theme appreciated.

So I'm thinking about other themes or schemes to make this work better. Also last time DASFA decided to move our sponsorship to 10-midnight on the Friday of the con. And we will need at least one person for each of the three sections of the consuite for the duration of our two-hour sponsorship. We need to get the word out about how cool we are to get new members!

And I'm going to be calling up Wild Oats Market soon to see if we might renew for next year now. I want to stay if at all possible and I hope that by starting now I might be able to get as good a deal as we have now. Objections to this plan will be met with a suggestion to run for Director against me.

The Denver Area SF Association

Drinking Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout

Yuletide Thoughts (Already)

Mishalak's Worldcon

Managing DASFA

DASFA & The Future

DASFA Election Results

Amusing Myself

DASFA Alternate Party Report

2003 DASFA Christmas Partyreport

A Late Party Report

DASFA House

(no subject)

Thin on the Ground

Picnic Update

At The DASFA Picnic

The Snows of Mt. Fridaire

More Miffed Bits

The Famous "DASFA" Molé Chili

The Inner Circle

Profile

June 2020

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