The Oxford English Dictionary is Really Interesting

Yes, with a blog title like that, I am an English major! Or as one of my Pinterest boards is titled an "English Major Geek". Isn't that punny? :)

Anyway, in the next two weeks from today I have two papers due, and two finals. Also, exactly one month from today is the conference I'm co-chairing. So I'm only blogging because it's Tuesday, I said I would, and I want to cross it off my to do list! So I'm going to share with you my favourite school project I've done so far.

My English class last semester was really, really interesting, and we did a lot of neat stuff at the library. We also did a bunch of work related to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), including reading this surprisingly fascinating book:

The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
By Simon Winchester

I had no idea that creating the first comprehensive British English dictionary had been so much work, or had involved so much drama! I highly recommend it.

The corresponding project was to take two words I use in regular conversation, but that aren't in the dictionary, and write them up, with proper citations, as if they were being added to the dictionary. It was so much fun! I had a really hard time narrowing it down to just two, but I eventually decided on Harry Potter fandom words. I got one of the highest marks in the class, and I was quite pleased, because really, the Harry Potter character I identify with the most is Hermione. :)

(I apologize that my nice tidy formatting didn't survive copy and paste! But if you have a subscription to the OED, clicking on the links should still work! Now...to work on my history paper. Too bad I can't get an 'A' for blogging...)

Quidditch, n.

Pronunciation: /kwɪdɪtʃ/

Etymology: Invented by J. K. (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling (b. 1965), British author of children's fantasy fiction (see quot. 1997)

A magical sport, played while seated on flying broomsticks. A combination of basketball, rugby, and a scavenger hunt, it involves two teams of seven players per side, as well as three balls; a Quaffle (the goal-scoring ball, handled by the three Chasers), two Bludgers (which are bewitched attack the players, and must be fended off by two Beaters), and the Golden Snitch (bewitched to hide and must be found by the Seeker). The Keeper guards his or her team’s three goal hoops. Recently the game has been adapted for use at Muggleschools. The Muggle version is played on foot, and often the role of Golden Snitch is filled by a Muggle also, due to the lack of enchanted flying balls and brooms available in Muggle sport shops.

1997    Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 1997 “Play Quidditch at all?” “No”, Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.

2003    Physical & Health Education JournalSummer 2003 The event, held on Rowling’s birthday, was not only successful at increasing English grades, but let to the creation of the newly popular school sport called “Quidditch”.

2009    Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice 2009 Vol. 4, No. 1 Judge Robert B.  Patterson found that the unofficial Harry Potter Lexicon written by Steve Vander Ark and published by RDR Books infringed the copyright in the seven Harry Potter novels and two companion works (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages) and that the defence of fair use did not apply.

shipping, v.

Pronunciation: /ˈʃɪpɪŋ/

Etymology: The suffix ‘ship’ abbreviated from the noun ‘relationship’ and used as a verb. Developed in the late 20^th century, on the Internet.

The psychological connection of a fanof a work of fiction (i.e. a book, movie, or television series) to a certain relational paring of the fictional characters. A dedicated fan will ship their ‘one true pair’, and perhaps have other minor ships, and the act of shipping may involve writing fan fiction, creating fan art, discussing or advocating the relationship in fan forums or on blogs, or simply by being emotionally invested in the outcome of the characters’ situation. The more passionate the fan, the more intense the involvement in shipping culture, usually online. Trendy shipping slogans include “I ship them so hard it hurts” and “I will go down with this ship”.

2005    The San Francisco Chronicle August 2005 In the Harry Potter fandom, 'shipping (short for "relationshipping") simply means championing a romantic relationship between certain series characters, either within canon or in works of fan fiction (fan-penned fiction that spins off an original narrative).

2009    University Of Pittsburgh Law Review 70.3 2009 Related concepts include het (romantic and/or erotic stories involving characters of different genders, such as Harry/Hermione), femmeslash and femslash (slash with female rather than male characters, e.g. Buffy/Faith from the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer), transgender slash, friendship fiction (indicated by an ampersand, such as Harry & Draco, to denote a story in which the two characters are friends, in contrast to their canonical relationship), and shipping (devotion to a particular non-canonical romantic relationship, or ship). Ships are often given names, such as HMS Harmony (for Harry/Hermione)…

2010    Tor.comJanuary 2010 For those who’ve never heard of the phrase “shipping war”: this is fandom lingo for flamewars disagreements amongst fans about intimate relationships between fictional characters. Various opinions on character pairings—canon or not, bizarre or not, straight or not—are also referred to as “ships.” You may have heard of references to the Hermione/Harry ship and the Hermione/Ron ship in Harry Potter fandom; this is what that means.

Works Cited

Chonin, Neva. “If you’re An Obsessed Harry Potter fan, Voldemort Isn't the Problem. It's Hermione Versus Ginny”. The San Francisco Chronicle. 3 Aug. 2005. Factiva. Web. 2 March 2012.

Hall, Susan. “Rowling and Warner Win Lexicon Battle, Fair Use Proponents Gain Strategic Advantage”. Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice. 4.1 (2009). Web. 29 Feb. 2012.

Jericho, Arachne. The Sherlock Holmes Fandom: Dawn of the Shipping Wars. Tor.com. Macmillan, 4 Jan. 2010. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.

Rowling, J.K. . Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2000. 60. Print.

Schwabach, Aaron. "The Harry Potter Lexicon and the World of Fandom: Fan Fiction, Outsider Works, and Copyright". University Of Pittsburgh Law Review 70.3 (2009): 387-434. OmniFile Full Text Select. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.

Smith, Kara. “Harry Potter Inspires a New Classroom and Competitive Sport: Muggle Quidditch”. Physical & Health Education Journal 69.2 (2003). ProQuest. Web. 29 Feb. 2012.

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Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo 2012 - Sunday

I've been a bit slow with getting Sunday's recap up - after going five days with only cursory checks of emails, Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and Pinterest, I had a thing or two to catch up on. :)

Sunday morning I had been planning to go to the early service at church, which would have put us down at the Stampede grounds around 10:30, but since the first panel I wanted to catch was Amanda Tapping at 11:00, and in light of the chaos on Saturday, I figured the earlier we got down there the better. I got up before 7, and saw on Twitter that people were already talking about lining up, and the Expo twitter account was recommending that people be down there by 8:30, so I was a little concerned when we weren't there till 9 and the line was ENORMOUS. However, the line was actually moving as they ushered people along - I'm actually not really sure where they put all the people, because when we got into the autograph area, it was only about 9:30 and the vendor area wasn't open yet - they opened it as we were arriving. Trevor headed off to do his own thing and I went to track down Amanda Tapping...

The doors to the cushy conference rooms wasn't open yet, so I tagged onto a loose bunch of people standing around outside them. One of them commented on my Princess Bride t-shirt, and we got to talking a bit. The one girl was saying that she had come all the way from BC to see the Sanctuary panel the day before, but had been one of the unlucky who didn't get in, so I told her about my YouTube video of the panel. The security guard finally got permission from the higher ups to open the doors around 10, and by shortly after I had snagged a nice seat for the panel. I had some time to read, and listen to the people around me discuss fun things like Stargate, fanning, and Tumblr. The girl from BC I had talked to mentioned that she had a Tumblr, and that she was posting daily updates, so I tracked her down. I'm a wee bit jealous that she's also a student with a family, but managed to come all this way for the con, and do photo ops AND autographs with BOTH Chris AND Amanda. :)

This is her blog about Saturday: http://teaandscifi.tumblr.com/post/22026855229/okay-today-today-was-i-cant-even-describe
And here's her blog about Sunday: http://teaandscifi.tumblr.com/post/22093197876/calgary-expo-day-3

I find 'meeting' other fangirls through the magic of the internet to be incredibly fascinating. But that's probably a whole blog post in itself, so on with Sunday.

Amanda Tapping and a couple of other people started a charitable foundation called Sanctuary for Kids, and the panel was about the work they do. I mostly went because Amanda could make reading the phone book sound interesting - I already support a bunch of charities and can't really take on any more. But I was very interested to find out that one of the charities they work with is one that I sort of know - Next Generation Nepal. Last summer, the university had what they call 'the common reading program' where all of the first-years read the same book. The book was Little Princes, and it was about how Next Generation Nepal was founded. I highly recommend the book, and they do a lot of good work with children in crisis. Nepal is rife with human trafficking, and Sanctuary for Kids also supports a Nepalese charity that works with women who have been trafficked. They also work with a charity in Haiti that helps abandoned disabled children, and one in Vancouver that works with mothers and children who live on the streets. Amanda and Damien Kindler fund the administration costs for Sanctuary for Kids out of their own pockets, and choose charities with low administration costs, so that a dollar donated to the foundation is still a dollar going to the children in need. Pretty cool, hey?

Amanda Tapping

After that, I headed over to the Corral to meet Trevor. He'd sat in on the Futurama panel (he's a fan, I'm not!) and gotten us good seats for the next Star Trek panel. Troi, Riker and Worf were very entertaining, and had somehow managed to avoid having a Space channel 'moderator', which was great. Sirtis calls Michael Dorn "Dorny", Frakes kept singing the first line of O Canada, and they teased each other (and the not-present cast members) a LOT. I didn't know that Sirtis had been in an episode of Stargate, so I need to look that up now. (She needs to be told that tights aren't pants though! :P) One of my favourite bits was when they started heckling a group of people in Starfleet uniforms who were trying to sneak out early - turns out the people that were leaving were going to get in line for their TNG photo op. lol... Here's a link to the whole session: http://youtu.be/dceWdTS6wUg I love that I can re-watch so much of the stuff - it all seems to happen so fast at the time.

Marina Sirtis, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn

After all of that laughing, I was ready for lunch. Trevor got in line for Wil Wheaton, and I battled the crowds for chicken fingers, a burger and fries. Lots of work, let me tell you! When I joined him in line I was pretty concerned that we might not get in, since it was in the same theatre as Saturday's Sanctuary panel fiasco, but they were much more organized, and we ended up with pretty decent seats.

Wil is a fun guy - I never had any particular opinion on Wesley Crusher, but I really enjoy the Big Bang Theory, and I follow him on twitter. The nice thing about about him is that he's a geek too, and he's really great to interact with as a fan. One guy asked Wil to say hi to the guy's wife who couldn't be there, and Wil was really nice about it (http://youtu.be/YFbC0oOlZSM). It was a great panel, although some of the gaming stuff he referred to went over my head. He mentioned that he's working on the second installment of a book reviewing all of the TNG episodes from the first season, so I tweeted him about my copyediting business. I'll probably never hear from him, but one of the nice things about fangirling is that sense of limitless possibility - who knows what might happen when you're only limited by your imagination? Agam Darshi from Sanctuary just accepted my Linkedin request, so you never know... :)

Wil Wheaton

After that, we had an hour before the final panel, and I REALLY wanted a fresh-squeezed Stampede lemonade, so we slogged against the crowds to the far side of the venue for snacks. We were talking to our friend Courtney who works for Stampede catering, when there was a loudspeaker announcement about the Phelps brothers, and that the Harry Potter panel had just started in the theater we had JUST left! Oh my, was I ever CROSS. After I had tried to sort it out on Saturday, here it was, and we were too far away and disorganized to get there. Hopefully they'll have a better organized Harry Potter panel next year! Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) had been supposed to come this year, but then ended up not being able to, so hopefully in 2013...

And then the panel I've been waiting for since they announced that the ENTIRE cast of TNG was coming to Calgary - Sir Patrick Stewart himself. Not only am I a fan of Captain Picard and Professor Xavier, I'm a fan of Sir Patrick's work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and most recently, the version of Hamlet he was in with David Tennant (Doctor Who). The panel was wonderful - he told the story of how he found out about his knighthood, and in a moment that made me squee with glee, he FACEPALMED. I don't even remember what the topic was, just that an internet meme came to life right before my eyes. Over on YouTube 'YoungJim409' has video of the entire panel if you want to check it out. It was a great way to end a fantastic con!

Sir Patrick Stewart

I was really happy that the Expo quit the procedure of giving every star to cross the stage a white Calgary cowboy hat, and the cheezy 'oath' that goes with it. It was SO annoying last year, and when you only have 45 minutes for a panel, I don't want to hear about white cowboy hats, I want the guest star to be speaking about interesting stuff! So that was a good change. As someone who does quite a bit of conference planning (although on a much smaller scale, of course...) I appreciate and am overwhelmed by the effort that goes into running this thing - it's amazing, and I'm tired just thinking about it.

One thing I need to stay on top of for next year is being a bit more situationally aware - this year Gates McFadden and Denise Crosby cut across a line right in front of me and Christopher Heyerdahl walked right next to me, and I didn't even notice until it was too late to say something witty. :) I don't remember if I had any close calls like that last year, but in 2010, my first con, I literally nearly ran over Paul McGillion (from Stargate Atlantis) as I was coming out of the washroom and he was going into the one next door. Trevor was watching and laughing at me...but I really need to get more on the ball about paying attention to what's going on around me. How does one train for something like that? If you have any ideas, please let me know. :)

May the 4th be with you!

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