[DD] Worldcon Report, Censorship in the News, and more!

Yes, I was the Toastmaster, so I spent a lot of time rehearsing.

Okay, let me rephrase that.

I should have spent a lot of time rehearsing.

I went to the various rehearsals for opening ceremonies and the Hugos, and... we really should have done a full, if not dress rehearsal, at least a full run through, but we didn't, uh, because time and, uh, literally time they have to read the arena and it costs by the hour, uh, and a lot by the hour.

So it, uh, uh, There were some technical difficulties.

Didn't the ceremony run long and so they were paying for extra hours anyway?

It did, although I thought that the ceremony would only take two hours was adorable to begin with.

That's true.

Very adorable.

But I...

At the live Ditch Diggers we did, we talked a lot about being the Toastmaster and what you do as the Toastmaster.

And the answer is you toast.

You get excited about other people's stuff.

You vamp.

Yes, your vamp skills were tested.

Speaking of vamping, can you take like 10 seconds while I close the door because the dog has a new favorite squeak toy and she is running all over the house squeaking.

And while that is adorable, it's not really something I want in the background.

Yes, so hello, audience.

I am vamping right now.

I would tell you an interesting animal fact, because that was what I was doing on stage at the Hugos, because we started much earlier than we should have, by which I mean we started on time.

Because apparently, the stage manager asked if anyone had a reason we shouldn't start.

And there was a crisis going on, so all the tech people were off headset.

And they did not say no because they did not hear it.

So we abruptly started.

I went out and had to just stand there.