Last Day for online registration for SteamCon!

From Diana Vick (SteamCon Vice Chair)

Subject: Steamcon online registration ends tonight!
Steamcon is almost upon us. We hope you have made all your plans and purchases but just in case, here are a few gentle reminders:
Online registration for Steamcon ends tonight at midnight (PST). Full weekend and one day memberships will be sold at the door while available.
Tea & Couture tickets will continue to be sold on the website until they are gone. They will not be available at the door, so we may notify the chef of our exact numbers in advance.
Airship Invasion tickets will be on sale on the website until October 19th and at the door if available.
If you were going to join the Virtual Steamlands Salon on Friday night at 10pm, and want to have a tradable signature card made up for you, contact Tehanu Marenwolf inworld ASAP.
Thanks to everyone who will be making our get together fantastic!

*returns to her post at the sewing machine*

Abney Park Tickets at SteamCon

The tickets are now on sale for the two shows at SteamCon!
There is a Tea Party on Saturday afternoon and the main concert on Saturday night. Tickets are $16.00 per person per event, so a great deal as well.
If you are already registered for the convention, then this is the link to order tickets:
http://registration.steam-con.com/tickets/

And we will be having the Virtual Steamlands Salon on Friday night, be sure to stop by and say hello!

Victorian Steampunk

Victorian - from Answers.com's online thesaurus:

adjective

Marked by excessive concern for propriety and good form: bluenosed, genteel, old-maidish, precise, priggish, prim, prissy, proper, prudish, puritanical, strait-laced, stuffy. Idioms: prim and proper. Seeplain/fancy.

noun

A person who is too much concerned with being proper, modest, or righteous: bluenose, Mrs. Grundy, prude, puritan. Informal old maid. See sex/asexual

Victorian Era - from Wikipedia:

The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 to January 1901.^[1] This is the longest reign in British history, and is foreseeably likely to be exceeded only if the present monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) remains on the throne to 2017. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements at home, allowed a large, educated middle class to develop. Some scholars would extend the beginning of the period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political games that have come to be associated with the Victorians—back five years to the passage of the Reform Act 1832.

The first definition was certainly my perception of Victorianism when I was introduced to Caledon. But then the realization set in that most of the things that I loved were part of that era! It was an era that was all about exploration, optimism, excitement about the world and the future. Science was expanding our horizons, the earth was being mapped and explored, new technologies were being developed that created a new middle class, and new wonders were being exhibited every day.
Writers and artists speculated on what sort of future this would all lead to, both the positive and the potential horrors - Welles, Verne, Shelley, Lovecraft and many others.
To me, modern Steampunk really embraces the optimism of the era, the workmanship that went into the fantastical creations that were being patented daily, and the spirit of exploration. It is positive and excited and even a bit naive at times. And there is the opportunity to have some fun with the darker aspects as well, a wink that "yes, we are fully aware where some of this leads".
It is a counterpoint to the dark, negative cynicism of much of the Gothic culture that preceded Steampunk, and provides some balance.
This is why I do not get into an uproar as things in my Victorian community change and grow. This era was not about dusty, musty fussy parlors full of disapproving old biddies tut-tutting everything fun! Certainly there was some of that, but those were Georgian relics :)
The spirit of Victorian Steampunk is exploring both the social and physical world and finding new places and ways of being. All that gorgeous patina of age we value so much was actually very shiny and blingy and new when it was made :)

I am still awestruck by the improbability of finding "True Love" at this point in my life. And unspeakably thankful for it...

Virtual Steamlands Salon

I am very excited about SteamCon. It will be my first Steampunk convention, and my Debut as Mrs. .........well that would be tellin' now wouldn't it?
You will just have to come and see for yourselves, October 23-25th, 2009.
The link to the website is in my links on the right.
I have requested a room where we can meet up and mingle at the Con and they offered a small room (40 people capacity) after 10pm on Friday night. So it should appear in the Official Program listing as the Virtual Steamlands Salon.
I have not done anything like this before, so I hope all goes well. Everything has been falling into place in a most lovely but disconcerting way for all the arrangements being made for wedding and honeymoon. I do not ask too many questions, just whisper "thank you" and keep going.

A Dream and some Steam...

It should come as no surprise to those who know and love us that Mr. Volare and I are unapologetic geeks. Our geekery spans a number of genres and decades. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that we are planning our offline wedding around the Seattle SteamCon. Much to the annoyance of several friends and relations, we will be marrying on a Thursday evening. This is because the Con starts on Friday and we will be spending our first three days of married life at the Convention.
We would be most pleased to see our friends and acquaintances who wish to join us there and perhaps wish us luck!

OK....so I was a bit busy

Having successfully escaped....er completed my treatments, I am back to work. Lots of things happening of course, but to summarize the most current events going on:

Relay For Life hospital and teaching facility has been completed in Caer Firnas. Come and explore Our Lady of Hope. You might learn something, or at worst can state you have been inside a virtual lung, a virtual colon, a virtual esophagus and stomach and several other virtual body parts you can walk through.

Caledon Oxbridge University continues to provide a place for those new to our world to orient, learn, and create. Newcomers activities will be ramping up this summer with some fun things planned.

The East Avarian Company has officially opened Caledon to trade with Avaria, resulting in an opportunity to finally use all those mushrooms and minerals I have collected......and who would have thought I would EVER run out of coal? The secret entrance the game is located at Oxbridge University (come explore). And could someone let me know what ingredient substitutes for saltpeter to make the gunpowder? I am at a complete loss for any nitrates in all my exploring.

Finally for today: the return of the Duchess Sandwich! Perusal of past blog entries will reveal a hint to those who do not remember the infamous and scandalous dance. We offer an auction for a chance once again to Ride the Blue Ball and be the "meat" in our Sandwich. Two naughty Duchesses will bring back the good old days for one memorable night, when the auction winner will be treated to a "Duchess Sandwich". June 20th after 8pm, during the Circuits and Relays Ball in Steam SkyCity. The auction bidding box is located at Loch Avie's Relay for Life Boardwalk.

Much fun and activity in Caledon! And few rants of late, I fear. Blame spring and love and too busy DOING to spend time complaining :)