Weekend report - San Francisco edition!

[oyceter]

I got to go to an industry conference in the city for work, so it felt a lot like getting Friday off. I mean, it could have been tedious, but the conference was incredibly fun and reminded me of why I love my job in the first place and want to keep doing what I'm doing. Sadly, that feeling has been lacking a little in the past couple of weeks, so this was perfectly timed.

And since I was in the city already, as was rilina, we extended the dinner+night of hanging out to two nights!

I spent most of the day sitting in Borders (cream cheese and herb pretzels are very tasty) reading manga (Furuba 13, Godchild 1), and got so flustered by Godchild that I couldn't read any more manga and had to head up to the knitting section.

On the other hand, I found out that Debbie Stoller of Stitch 'N Bitch fame has written a crochet book called Happy Hookers! Must get! And I keep being tempted by knitting magazines, even though I only like three patterns out of the forty featured. When on earth is Knitty coming out with a new issue anyway?

(ETA: of course I post this and find that Knitty has in fact come out with a new issue just now, even though it was still the old one a few days ago!)

That night, we went to the lovely SF/fantasy/horror bookstore with the hairless cat, though sadly the cat was not there.

I also just found out that saying "sci-fi" is apparently Not Done and Rude and Derogative, which I was completely unaware of before, and will now try to switch to "SF" but will probably forget ten times over.

Anyhow! I got Scott Westerfeld's The Killing of Worlds, which I've already read, but seems to be rather hard to find. rachelmanija, let me know if you've already found a copy, or if you want to borrow this one as well; it's the second half of the book I lent you. I was only going to get that, but then I succumbed and got His Majesty's Dragon as well, because... fantasy set in non-medieval Europe with dragons and war and Regency EEEEEEE!!! I continue to love that bookstore beyond words.

The newest featured grotesque stuffie was a plushie cockroach that was disturbingly cute. Past stuffies have been a centaur teddy bear and, of course, plushie Cthulu!

Then we had kitfo and some eggplant thing, which was extremely tasty, except I discovered that the thing that looked remarkably like a bell pepper was in fact not when I nearly burned the roof of my mouth off eating it.

The night was going to be topped off with a visit to Kinokuniya, except we got there way after it closed. However, we got crepes, so all was not lost!

And then we proceeded back to watch Samurai Champloo and laugh like maniacs.

The next day, I wandered over to Borders again (truly, I am predictable) and did the whole tachiyomi thing and read Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden 1-3, briefly toyed with the thought of reading Death Note but decided my brain was too dead, and very briefly contemplated reading Angel Sanctuary 12 and 13 before realizing that the prior dosage of Yuki Kaori brand Special Crack was still in my system.

I also bought Saiyuki 5 because a) I sadly do not have it and really need it, no really! b) I felt bad for reading so much at Borders and c) do I really need an excuse to buy Saiyuki?

I am so sad. I went back to the hotel and promptly sat down to reread Saiyuki 5 and noticed even more things! I adore Minekura. I love that she's got the ongoing thing with Goku and hair -- wee!Goku pulling Konzen's hair and comparing it to the sun, and of course Sanzo's very brief hairpat of Goku in vol. 6. But there's also Kenren yanking wee!Goku's hair to stop him the first time they bump into each other, and when Goku first meets Gojyo, he pulls Gojyo's hair as well and comments that it doesn't burn though it looks like fire. That remark actually reminds me of Goku's off-hand, completely casual remark on Hakkai's lifeline and the subsequent magic markered new lifeline. It's random and casual and seemingly thoughtless, but perfectly encapsulates the idea that things don't always have to be what they are, that things change, that nothing is permanent, because even if your hair is red, it doesn't need to embody sin.

I love Goku.

Anyway, after that, we headed over to Kinokuniya! Oh, the dangers of going there with a fellow fan!

rilina got Salty Dog 3 and 4 and the absolute cutest chibi FMA phone strap thing ever! It's got little grumpy Ed and extremely embarrassed Al, and OMG SO CUTE! Words cannot express the cuteness. Even all-caps internet speak cannot express the cuteness.

And I, uh, totally blew my budget for the next few weeks and succumbed to the lure of pretty pictures. In other words, I got Salty Dog 1, 3 AND 4, along with Yazawa Ai's Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai artbook. Lalala.

I would feel horribly guilty about spending so much money, except every time I do, I think about having all three Yazawa Ai artbooks and how lovely her art is and having Minekura artwork in hardcover and how even though I have all the scans, they're just so much prettier on paper and then I squee and my brain stops dead at the pretty!

I pet my new artbooks.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

The artbooks are so much better on paper! And you notice all this detail!

[oyceter]

They are so incredibly beautiful!

I mean, the scans themselves were already gorgeous, but the artbooks are wonderful!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

I also just found out that saying "sci-fi" is apparently Not Done and Rude and Derogative, which I was completely unaware of before, and will now try to switch to "SF" but will probably forget ten times over.

Oh, pfui. Who says that? I've been a "sci-fi" fan since I could read, and it doesn't offend me. Should I write a "sci-fi" novel someday, I won't be offended if anyone calls it "sci-fi." It's a genre! It's shorter than saying "science fiction"! It's easier to understand than "SF", which you're pretty much only going to get if you read "SF", in which case you might as well just call it "sci-fi" because why are people who like reading about space aliens and rocketships and dystopic futures ashamed of it?

Pfuui. sf/f, fine; it's shorter than "sci-fi/fantasy." But SF is just silly.

PS: I just amused my friend Jeff with your Taiwan photos for the last hour, and also made him absolutely starving; he says thank you especially for the pictures of pork buns, and we're going to have to swing by your house the next time he visits his parents in the south bay. :)

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I like SF = speculative fiction as an umbrella term that covers science fiction, fantasy, horror, and maybe magic realism and alternate history. Especially since the boundary between science fiction and fantasy can be blurry.

For a while, I did try to subscribe to the idea that sci-fi is derogatory, since that was the prevailing opinion of SF fans on RASFW/RASFF, but I was persuaded against this silliness. The main thing I've hung onto is that the crap "sci-fi movies" out there should be more properly identified as spectacle movies, that use sci-fi as an excuse for flashy special effects.

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I like "speculative fiction" and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I think "isn't ALL fiction speculative??", and sometimes I like that you don't have to separate things by genre (esp. when someone like LeGuin blends sf/f). The problem for me is that the categories you state are, to me, very separate (there's fantasy horror, but then there's horror horror, so why not make the distinction?), and also I don't necessarily read in all of them.

And bah to anyone who uses "sci-fi" as shorthand for "full of schlocky effects and an out-there plotline," but I don't think changing it to "SF" is going to stop those people.

[oyceter]

I actually read it several places the last few weeks! I had no idea.

I think it may be somewhat confusing to categorize "sci-fi" as the schlocky stuff and "SF" as the serious stuff, but then... no clue.

And hee!! The pork buns were so tasty! And you should totally come by, especially after the move!

[sophia-helix.livejournal.com]

But what's schlocky?? And doesn't it make it more offensive if you start telling some people their work is sci-fi and other people their stuff is SF?

(Forgive me; I've just been so confused by the world of literary sf/f ever since I stumbled into it a few years back. I grew up being turned off by the serious unicorns n' swords stuff but rereading my Tolkien, Bradbury and Le Guin without any real awareness of it being "sf/f" at all.)

And yes, I really want to. Like I say, Jeff's parents' is like fifteen or twenty minutes away from you, and we want to come down and go to the Winchester Mystery House and have real Chinese food (he's from Taichung). :)

[kate_nepveu]

It's some complicated historical thing and most people will really not care, honestly, but it's just super-polite to say "science fiction" or "SF" rather than "sci-fi."

Also _His Majesty's Dragon_ is spiff. \

[oyceter]

Oh really? What is it? I feel sort of ignorant because I came to the sf/f scene sideways without having read a lot of the golden age stuff.

I just worry b/c I've said "sci-fi" my whole life and, knowing my luck, will probably forget to say "SF" in front of the one person who would get offended by it.

I am so looking forward to the Novik.

[kate_nepveu]

Heck if I know. It was way before my time too. And really, if they get offended when you clearly don't mean anything derogatory, they're probably not worth your time anyway.