STOMP

NEWSLETTER OF THE CASCADIAN MECHA MILITIA DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION DEMONSTRATION TEAM
ALSO NORWESCON 31 | THURSDAY | 2K8.03.20 | DIFFICULTY LEVEL HIGH | DESTRUCTION LEVEL MASSIVE

Welcome to Norwescon 31

After a year of planning, we are finally here. I do hope everyone has a safe and wonderful weekend. We have worked very hard all year to provide you with a great panel of Guests of Honor; if you see them wondering around the hotel, don't be afraid to say hello!

If you have any questions regarding Norwescon, please stop by the convention office, located in room 7106. If they cannot answer your question, ask them to page the chair, and I will see what I can do for you. Until then, have a great time!

Tracy Knoedler
Norwescon Chair

Programme Changes

:::Guests Unable to Attend

Dennis Bergum, Carol Duby, Wolf Lahti, David Shoemaker, Dave Williams, and Vixy & Tony are unable to attend, and will not be appearing in any panels. Irene Radford is unavailable on Sunday. Alisoun Lamb will mis Thursday, and is no longer on today's "Genre Busting." Mario Acevedo is now moderator for this panel.

:::Pilot Transfers for Thursday

Patrick Rothfuss has been added to "Forging Fiction" (4PM, Cascade 9), "Genre Busting" (5PM, Cascade 5), and "Words of Magic, Words of Science" (8PM, Cascade 4)

Sean Prather has been removed from "The Most Dangerous Game" (8PM, Olympic 1) and added to "What are the Great Sci-Fi Video Games?" (8PM, Evergreen 4)

Dealer Room Hours Reboot

:::I blame metric time. Also, DST.

Please note that the dealer hours listed in the pocket program book for Thursday are incorrect. The correct dealer hours are as follows:

Thursday 5PM-9PM
Friday 11AM-8PM
Saturday 10AM-6PM
Sunday 11AM-4PM

Movie Previews Extended

:::These are the films that never end

Back FOR the Future! The Friday Movie Preview panel in Evergreen 4 has so much info we can't squeeze it into one measly hour. So we're starting early, at 2:30PM instead of 3PM. Get your seats at this always-capacity panel early, and see the future before it arrives!

For the young, we have a special hour of children and family-friendly previews at Noon Friday in Olympic 1 (Family Track Programming). First priority seats will go to the kids, second priority for their parents, others can fill the remaining space. Come find out which film-based toys your children will be clamoring for this Christmas!

Where's All This Then?

:::Frankly, your guess is as good as mine

Surprise! Several things have been moved this year! Volunteer Sign Up Table is not in the lobby; it's in Olympic 2, which is also the Volunteer Lounge. Quiet Hospitality was accidentally destroyed by the Mecha Militia and is gone. Oops. Here's a broad overview of the surviving locations:

What's All This Then?

:::Frankly, your guess is as good as mine

Welcome to the newsletter of the Republic of Cascadia's Mecha Milita Dance Dance Revolution Demonstration Team. Also, the daily 'zine of Norwescon 31. You're in the RoCas (that's pronounced raucous) and normally I wouldn't even think about explaining this out front, but, this time? I admit it, this year's concept may as well be from Mars.

So welcome back to Cascadia, a Republic that isn't in a world that hasn't been but probably would be kinda neat if it actually was. It's a world of global, but not super, powers, most with native or imported dragon-assisted air forces, which we proud Cascadians — citizens of the RoCas — call "the varmints." We and Japan are not quite so lucky as to have quantities of these particular assets, so, like Aesop's fox, complain about what we cannot have. But lo, we are not pushovers, for we have the Mecha Militia, who is IN UR MOUNTAINS SMASHING UR KAIJU. Along with everything else.

This weekend the Mecha Militia's Dance Dance Revolution Demonstration Team is in town! (Think our alternative version of the Blue Angels. Kinda.) An awesome sight, you might be able to see them practicing — yes, from here — at Boeing Field, and possibly across I-5, and possibly on the Museum of Flight if they don't have their act more together than they did for last year's disastrous performance in the former town of Woodinville, which, well, frankly, needed a bit of an fdisk-and-reinstall anyway.

Confused? That's okay, we are too. just think "alternate history what has dragons and mecha" and go with it.

But to get back on topic: this is also your daily convention newsletter. This is where you go for awards notices, programme changes, party lists, advance performance warnings, and anything else we get that we think might be fun. We have a digital camera so can print artwork and photos, too!

So submit thing! Funny things you overhear — in or out of context — commentary, bad poetry, whatever. Appearances aside, we didn't write this in advance — it's all live! And that's all part of the game. We need you to make it work.

The deadline of each day's issue is 10PM the evening before, or later if you find us in person, so if you need something in Friday's issue, get it into a box by 10 tonight! Submissions boxes are at Information, Registration, Office, and Hospitality. Look for us because we'll be looking for you.

STOMP

is the daily newsletter of NORWESCON 31, published as a morning edition. Articles from the membership are pleaded for; the deadline for each day's edition is 10PM the previous evening, or later if you can find the editors in person. (Try the Volunteer Lounge.) Submissions boxes are marked and placed throughout the convention, most notably in the Office and at the Information Table.

Your CAG is Maj. R'ykandar (Dara) Korra'ti, CMMDDRDT. Conceptual assistance has been provided by inexplicable in-jokes, a lack of ideas that make any damn sense, and Chim-Chim.