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Thursday 12 June 2003
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Torcon 3, the 2003 World Science Fiction Convention, which is due to take place in Toronto in August, has mailed out the ballots for the 2003 Hugo Awards. Voting is open to all supporting and attending members. Nicholas Whyte has reviewed this years nominations here.He also very kindly provides links, where available, to on-line versions of the nominees. Looks like I'm in for a very intensive few weeks. Ballots must be in by July 31 2003.
2:43:06 PM  Google It!
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The one thing I didn't like about the match was the booing whenever a particular member of the Georgian team came into posession of the ball. I don't recall the player's name but he plays for Rangers and apparently this was the excuse. I felt it was in very poor taste. The Georgian's may have been rivals but they were also our guests. Some of the people in front of me took part in the booing and they seemed to regard it as a joke.
Before the match in the Landsdowne Hotel, a father brought his two young children in for a meal and Des Caren, the gentleman I couldn't place, remarked how great it was that going to an Irish international match is such a family event. But if they are going to be exposed to the concept that it's OK to abuse someone as a joke just because they play for a particular team, then I'm not so sure.
11:57:40 AM Google It!
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Before the match, IBM invited a number of journalists for pre-match refreshments and a meal at the Landsdowne Hotel. I arrived and sought out my IBM contact who introduced me to a number of other journalists and his father, Des. I immediately recognised the face but couldn't for the life of me place him. I knew his name, I recognised his face but I just didn't 'recognise' him. When I had a chance I discreetly asked another journo where I would have met him. He had no idea but he started off a chain of thought that lead to a breakthrough. My father and a friend of his from time to time organise dinners with an after-dinner speaker in the Stephen's Green Club and that was where I had met him, several times. But when I met him out of that context, he was effectively a stranger.
The funny thing is, when I commented to him that the food might not be as good as the Stephen's Green Club - it wasn't far off though - he exclaimed 'Of course. That's where I know you from." He had had the same problem placing me.
1:01:04 AM Google It!
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What a match! I don't usually go to sporting events but IBM invited me to the Ireland v Georgia game this evening (last night if you want to be pedantic) and I had a great time. It didn't hurt that Ireland won.
I found the event fascinating, not for what went on on the pitch but looking at the mob dynamics. Every so often the entire stand would burst into song. But who decided what song to sing and why did the crowd sing along? One of the most mysterious things I saw was the Mexcican Wave. As it went around the Landsdowne Road stadium I could see it progress through the opposite stand. It occurred to me that the people on the upper stand couldn't see the people on the lower stand and vice versa yet the wave moved across both stands in unison. And how did the wave get started? The wave is a 'vertical' phenomenon.What made a group of complete strangers united only by the fact they were sitting in the same 'column' stand and wave their hands at the same time? And if it was one person who started it, how did he influence the complete strangers sitting in front of and behind him - friends attending a match together tend to sit together in rows not columns - especically when you consider the people in front couldn't see him?
12:51:05 AM Google It!
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© Copyright 2003 David Stewart.
Last update: 01/07/2003; 17:50:04.
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