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2018-08-18 WorldCon 76 - San Jose, CA


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Hi everyone,

Minato Uzumaki and I will be meeting up together to see Brandon Sanderson at Worldcon 76 in San Jose this coming Saturday on August 18, 2018. If anyone else is going alone and would like some company (we are con virgins ourselves, are friendly and won't bite, we promise! =P), you are more than welcome to join us. I will be bringing snacks to share with everyone! =D

Edited by Thousandarms97
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Hope you both have fun! @Thousandarms97, were you planning on recording any of Brandon's events? Not sure what the con policy is, but at the very least Brandon always lets people leave a recorder or a phone on his signing table, to catch questions. Brandon's portion of the Reading panel could be a good one to catch, as well. It may be the Skyward excerpt he's read before, but you never know.

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Hi Pagerunner,

I have heard of this Arcanists that exists within the fandom and no, I was not planning to record any of his events, as I am unfortunately kind of rubbish at technology.

That being said, if you or someone else could be kind enough to give me some concrete step-by-step instructions on how I can go about doing so on my Android Huawei Mate SE (how to do a voice recording; yes I'm that technology dumb =P), I will be more than happy to try and have a Shardblade stab at it. You can send me the link to a YouTube video on how to do it too, if you know of one. =D

I am at least adept enough with a smartphone to do a video recording, but to be honest I don't know how long my phone battery is going to last if I try to video record for three hours or more (as he will be doing two panels, a reading and a signing for a total of 4 hours from between 1pm to 5pm.)

If my technology fails on me, or if I fail to master said technology on the day itself (I'll have to shamefully admit upfront that the latter is more than likely), I will be happy to try and take whatever notes I can and then transcribe it (it will not be word-for-word since I have never taken any transcribing lessons in my life), but I used to be a journalism student a lifetime ago, so hopefully I'll still be able to remember how to take notes somewhat quickly, which I can then try to crib together to do an imperfect write-up of what he said.

Edited by Thousandarms97
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Hi Pagerunner,

So here is Brandon Sanderson's full schedule for Worldcon 76 this coming Saturday:

1pm to 2pm: Wound Patterns and Survivability in Preindustrial Warfare - Implications for Classic Fantasye medicine fantasy Medieval renaissance

3pm to 4pm: Autographing

4pm to 5pm: In For the Long Haul: The Ups and Downs of Writing a Long Series

As this will be my first ever Sanderson meet, I have no idea how he usually goes about choosing what to read to you guys, but I believe he might just be reading a short excerpt from whatever already has been published in The Stormlight Archives (maybe a short excerpt from Oathbringer?), as the reading session is entitled "Hugo Finalists - Best Series. As you know, The Stormlight Archives have been nominated for that award (keeping my fingers crossed that he wins! =D).

Just tell me what the usual set of etiquette the Archivers (still don't know if this is the correct name) follow when asking/getting his permission to record his sessions, and I'll do my best to follow it. =D

Incidentally, if you or anyone else knows if he is not particularly fond of ginger, can you please let me know? Thanks!

Edited by Thousandarms97
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Hi Pagerunner, 

I have just spoken with Minato Uzumaki; both of us will try to record the reading, so that we will have a higher chance of a successful recording. We anticipate him to be speaking no more than 20 minutes since he will be sharing the hour with two other speakers, so that is totally doable.

For the two panels, Wound Patterns and Survivability in Preindustrial Warfare - Implications for Classic Fantasy and In For the Long Haul: The Ups and Downs of Writing a Long Series, the logistics of recording those might be too overwhelming for us (having to ask the other speakers for permission to record etc would most likely to be disruptive to the panels and potentially also annoy everyone else in attendance), unless blanket permission is given by all the speakers at the start of the panel of their own volition.

And starting and stopping a recording every time Sanderson opens and closes his mouth would be an absolute nightmare to do, not to mention the fact that it would make for a very disjointed recording, if I am only allowed to record what he is saying and have not been given permission to record what he is responding to from another speaker etc (it is a panel after all). I will be willing to take notes on paper instead and type them all up to be uploaded here or wherever they are supposed to be uploaded to afterwards, although again as mentioned in a previous post, I am no expert transcriber and it will NOT be verbatim.

Lastly, we can both leave our phones on his signing table to record the autograph session if that is how it is usually done. Do we just quickly ask his permission, press record, leave our phones on the signing table, get to where we were in the signing line and and then collect our phones from the signing table at the end of the session? Is that how it works? If not, please enlighten us LOL so we can try and get it right the first time round instead of fumbling around with our phones looking like amateurish idiots and making kolossal fools of ourselves. =P

Once again, if anyone who is reading this happens to know if he is not particularly fond of ginger, can you please let me know? Thanks!

Edited by Thousandarms97
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Yeah, that's exactly it for the reading and the signing line. The reading, don't worry about putting anything on the table Brandon's at; recording from your seat in the audience will be just fine. And for the signing line, Brandon has never objected to someone leaving a phone, he has always said yes. Sometimes at conventions, the employees may not be accustomed to that sort of thing and could ask you what you're doing, but you can just tell them Brandon is used to this and that people do it for every one of his signings. And the advantage of staying to the end is that you can sometimes get in some extra time and extra questions, as long as nobody's trying to close up the room.

For the panels, you don't have to worry about recording them if you're feeling overwhelmed or if you're unsure on recording policies. Conventions can have rules about recording their panels, and without knowing exactly what they are (the convention rules for recording address only video and photography, not audio-only), I would not encourage you to do anything you're uncomfortable with. And in terms of saving battery life for the good stuff, while panels can be interesting, the readings and the signing lines are the best stuff, so they're top priority!

As far as actually getting the recording... I have an Android, myself, and the Tools folder came with a Voice Recorder app. If you can't find one pre-installed, just search for Voice Recorder in the app store. (Not a Call Recorder.) I'd recommend testing it out real quick before you head out; just set it on a table near you and make sure the software connects to your microphone properly. After that, just have your phone good and charged on the big day.

Once you've gotten the recordings, you can upload them into Arcanum, and the community will help transcribe them. You don't have to worry about that part just yet, but all you'll need to do is go to this page (https://wob.coppermind.net/events/356-worldcon-76/), create an account, and use the "Upload sources" button. It's a pretty simple process.

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Hi Pagerunner, 

Thank you so much for your very detailed and clear response! We will definitely go ahead and move forward with prioritizing our battery life just for the reading and the signing. =D

And I'll definitely play around with my smartphone in a bit to try and find that app you mentioned and also test it out, maybe by singing very badly and off-key from another room to test the audio quality if recording from a distance, and then deleting said audio from phone forevermore. =P

Now, I know this is a long shot, but you don't happen to know if he is not particularly fond of ginger, do you? =D

Edited by Thousandarms97
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Hi Pagerunner,

It's official. I am a total moron. There's a Recorder app already pre-installed on my phone. The sound recording quality doesn't seem to be all that great alas (or maybe my singing is just that bad =P), but between my phone and Minato Uzumaki's phone, we should be able to cobble together recordings that can be uploaded and transcribed by the community. =D

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Hello everyone, just an update. We will have a third person, Dopetruffles, join us, so we are now a trio. If anyone else is interested to join so we become a quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet (you get the message =P) you are absolutely very welcome to do so! This will the first for all us (we are all con virgins and Brandon Sanderson signings virgins =P), so please don't be shy about joining us if it is your first time as well. It will be our first time too! We can all muddle through our first convention/Brandon Sanderson signing together. Misery loves company and all that =P, although I doubt we will be miserable with 4 hours of Brandon Sanderson-related events to look forward to. =D

Edited by Thousandarms97
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Hey guys!!!  Can I join your trio to make a quartet? I brought a recorder to record all the events but I'd love some back up since I'm a new to recording things.  This is my second Worldcon and second Brandon signing so I'd love to join ya'll for your first time.  Just let me know.  I'm also on the Discord server under the same name.  See ya soon!!!

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@Pagerunner I have gone ahead and uploaded the audio of both signings onto the link you provided: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/356-worldcon-76/. @Sparkle Hearts also recorded both signings, the reading, which was an excerpt of Skyward which I think he has read before, and the Wound Patterns and Survivability in Preindustrial Warfare - Implications for Classic Fantasy panel. @Sparkle Hearts wasn't able to enter the In For the Long Haul: The Ups and Downs of Writing a Long Series panel because of limited capacity due to really atrociously planning on the part of Worldcon 76, but Brandon Sanderson was moderating, so he didn't speak all that much. In the interest of conserving my phone battery, I didn't record any audio but took some notes I can type up if needed. I'm sure @Sparkle Hearts will upload the audio as soon as she is able. She was really badass in following him around to make sure she caught nearly everything he said, so her audio files will most likely be superior to mine in both quality and material. =D

Please let me know if there is anything else I can do on my end. Thanks!

Edited by Thousandarms97
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Signing lines have both been transcribed, and can be found here: https://wob.coppermind.net/events/356-worldcon-76/. If you want to claim your questions, you can make an Arcanum account and edit it in yourself as the Questioner. Or you can just post about it here, and someone will take care of it for you.

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@Thousandarms97 Thanks for adding in some clarification to the transcription of your question. However, we typically don't include reflections or follow-up thoughts in Arcanum; that discussion should be happening somewhere else, and saving the Arcanum entry for the actual words of Brandon. I'll copy your footnote here for posterity, and then trim it down in Arcanum:

Quote
[suggestion]

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

I know Allomancy is, like, "alloy" and "mancy." Were you inspired by "alomancy", which is the divination of salt?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

I wanted to use "mancy" because in part I was working in a seeing-the-future with atium. And I thought: number one, it's resonant; and number two, it works because we are looking at the future. So that's where the name came from.

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

No future salt-based magic system, though?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

No. I've toyed with it for a while, but I just have never come up with anything that I'm satisfied with.

Footnote: I asked this question and I believe Brandon mistook my question because I worded it very badly. What I meant to ask was; was he inspired by his own love of fancy salt and hence named his magic system Allomancy after the word "alomancy", an ancient method of divination using salt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alomancy, or if that was just a happy accident. He thought I was asking why he used "mancy" in Allomancy (he clearly didn't hear me say "salt" the first time) and so he went on to talk about atium instead. Still, it was such a lovely thoughtful answer that I couldn't even bring myself to correct him. So now I guess I will never know?
source

But it looks like Brandon's answer wasn't as far off as you thought it was - the phrase "mancy" comes from the greek word μαντεία (manteia), which means "divination." In alomancy (or halomancy), the other root of the word comes from ἅλς (hals), which means "salt." In Allomancy (or at least one part of Allomancy), you see the future with metal instead, so Brandon combined a metallic-sounding word (alloy) with the divination root. There are a lot of other -mancy words, which are all variations on seeing the future: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-mancy#English. The alloy/alo similarity looks purely accidental; but the "mancy" commonality is very much intended, and is based on how atium is a form of divination. So, a good catch there!

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@Pagerunner Yes, it was not far off, but what I really wanted to know was if it just purely accidental or intentional and thus sort of like an easter egg bonus for him that allomancy is so close to the word alomancy, since he is personally fond of salty foodstuffs. 

Of course if you type in alomancy these days, Google will ask you if you actually mean allomancy, since the ancient method of divination using salt is no longer well-known, although some superstitions such as throwing salt over your left shoulder for good luck do persist to this day.

I know it's not related, but for some reason this reminded me of when he initially named Elantris Adonis and was initially confused when his writing group asked what his story had to do with the Greeks.

Edited by Thousandarms97
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