madbaker | Fanboy memories

My top five fanboy moments, that I can think of right now:

#5. Sitting at game 4 of the 2002 World Series, right below Kruk & Kuip, with the Giants winning the game in the bottom of the eighth.

#4. Having Ken Albala recognize me as "the historic sausage guy."

#3. Proposing, organizing, and going to a meet-up in San Francisco with Tim Powers and his wife Serena, who graciously agreed to spend an evening hanging out with SF-area fans. And getting my huge pile my unsigned books signed, which I did not expect that he would agree to do.

#2. Sitting at a dinner table with Ray Bradbury for an hour in 1991. We had a prominent, pointless politician foisted on our undergrad class as a graduation speaker, so to make it up to us they paid for Bradbury to come speak over dinner a couple days previously. He was funny, inspiring, witty, and all those things you hope your speaker will be. Sadly, I didn't have any books to get signed, but conversing for an hour with a guy who helped form my early childhood reading? Awesome.

#1. Driving up from said undergrad college in 1989ish, missing a couple days of classes, to attend a Roger Zelazny signing in Palo Alto. With about twenty books for him to sign. I showed up early - and so did he, and there was no one else there, so we chatted for half an hour. His favorite work at the time turned out to be mine - Lord of Light.