The first of our open hours sessions was today. I'd say it went pretty well, considering that nobody who doesn't already live here showed up besides Tommy Jarvis, and he didn't even come all of the way through the front door.
This wasn't a huge surprise, since we haven't advertised heavily, and we're just getting started. If you don't know already, the open hours at the Cyberpunk Apocalypse is when our living room and kitchen get converted into a kind of speakeasy-coffee shop for writers to spend time in the company of other writers. For now they are on Fridays from noon to 7pm, and we have coffee and snacks and pencils.
Despite the low attendance it was a profitable experience. Since my electrical engineer acquaintances have been slow to get back to me I've been doing research on DIY electrical generation. The back house is a little damp, so I thought I could probably build a little windmill generator and hook it up to a computer fan that could help ventilate the basement. I had originally been fantasizing about the possibility of making hundreds of little windmills on my roof generate electricity for the entire house. It turns out that there is a very practical reason that most electrical generation systems are not made of hundreds of little generators: the less the wattage being transferred the less efficiently the electricity travels across a cord.
So while high voltage lines can go hundreds of miles without loosing much power, little generators can loose a significant amount of power over the distance of a 10 feet. That doesn't mean my little generator-to-ventilation fan idea won't work. It doesn't even mean that you cant put a dent in your electricity usage with a lot of little generators; it's just another obstacle is all--I'll keep you updated.I also spent this time working on more illustrations for the upcoming publication. Unfortunately the robots that Bill works for wouldn't let him leave the invention factory today, but hopefully we'll get work done tomorrow, and will get the book printed soon.
Ross came home unexpectedly from work with a cold. It was too bad that he was sick, but it was great he got to come home. Ever since he's been working on writing his opera in the basement with his accordion, Sara's keyboard and a borrowed four-track tape recorder (seriously he came home at 2pm and he's down there now at 10:42).As for me, I think I'll spend my evening in my room working on my novel with a glass of water and pound on that rock for a bit.
2 comments:
I think the open hours aspect of the house is a really interesting one and have been hyping it to almost everyone I talk to. I think that slowly more people will start hanging out--- first our friends, and then their friends, and then...
i'm not sure that i can follow your blogs; they make too much sense. you should lose focus and forget where your momentum is taking you.
and maybe you should come outside next friday.
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