August 28, 2012: Steampunk Chaos at Worldcon

It's been entirely too long since I took the Chaos Machine to a convention. That string is about to be snapped. I'm in Chicago, where the World Science Fiction Convention will be starting up in a few days. The Chaos Machine will be starting up, too. It shipped last week from Austin, on a pallet 40 inches wide, six feet long, stacked about four feet high. Of course, it gets bigger when it's assembled.

And now it's dressed up a bit. Monica and I have spent the last week-plus in repainting a lot of components. Did you know that after using up enough cans of spray paint, your spray-can-button-pushing finger goes numb? Well, I have two numb index fingers and one numb thumb. But the Machine is now resplendent in copper, brass, and wrought-iron black: it has become the Steampunk Chaos Machine. And yes, it has gears on it. I know: they carry chains, so technically, they are sprockets. Hush now.

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, our fellow Chaos Wrangler, Malcolm Kudra, has built . . . Well, wait for the pics. It is very, very big, and has REAL gears on it.

The whole point of the Chaos Machine is that we get it started and then YOU build it, so if you're at Worldcon, look us up. We are in the Exhibit Area.

-- Steve Jackson