Because of these several impediments, as well as other technical difficulties, you will find typos and occasional replication of text. In our humble opinion, typos show that the logs are of *live* chats, not canned interviews, and minimal editing of these logs has taken place.

[Cybling] Okay folks...please greet Jordin Kare...Filker!
[Cybling] Jordin...you've been a confan for 25 years...
[Cybling] what exactly is the difference between a confan and a fan?
[Kare] It would help if I found my keys....
[Cybling] 8^D
[Kare] There's not a fundamental difference, just whether congoing
[Kare] happens to be one of your activities, as far as I'm concerned
[Kare] I like cons; I've met lots of nice people at cons, including my wife
[Cybling] When was your first con, and how many have you attended over the years?
[Kare] First: Philcon in 1973, but only for a day
[Kare] First real con, Boskone in 1975..\
[Kare] How many, probably 200
[Cybling] Astrophysicist is also something in your bio, as well as Mercenary Scientist, lolololol....will you really build secret weapons for food?
[Kare] Oh, absolutely, But it takes a lot of food to get a good one
[Cybling] lolol
[Kare] Incidentaly Boskone recently had me as a filk Guest of Honor,
[Kare] and by accident they picked the 25th anniversary of my first Boskone!
[Cybling] Jordin, your a filker. I believe some of the folks online don't know what a filker is...basically a folk musician who does fantasy/sf/horror lyrics, or am I wrong?
[Kare] Close enough for filk.
[Cybling] cool. I'd heard that the name Filk originally came from a typo in a program.
[Kare] Actually, a typo in a con review in a fanzine. I think Lee Gold even has a copy of the fanzine. It was a review that mentioned some people singing folksongs in the hall, and misspelled folksongs...
[Kare] Anyone have any astrophysics questions?
* MoonScale shakes head
[Kare] So it goes...
[Cybling] You're also known as a viscious punner, at least that's what they're saying here in the green room.
[Cybling] Do you deny that accusation?
[Kare] A vicous punner? I make sticky puns??
[Cybling] Sorry about the typo. LOLOL. Nearly spit coffee on the keyboard there Jordin.
[Cybling] you just released your second album...
[Ryan] What kinds of things do you enjoy doing the most as an astrophysicist?
[Kare] Oh, don't do that, I'm sitting too close to you. I've had coffee spilled in my lap before...
[TheThe2] bbl
[Kare] Well, these days I actually design spacecraft more than doing astrophysics proper.
[Cybling] Design spacecraft? Shuttles? Others?
[Kare] I have fun designing ones that aren't likely to get built, like interstellar light sail systems, but the ones that pay the bills are things like a remote sensing satellite that will provide crop data to farmers. I'm doing that for Boeing right now
* Ryan grins.
[Kare] The ones in between
*might
* get built-- I have designs for laser launch systems that I'm trying to get money to do research on
[Ryan] Futuristic stuff?
[Kare] Depends. I could probably build a laser propulsion launch system in a few years, but some of the more exotic ones are 50 years out. But all the ones I do are physically possible-- no warp drives
[Cybling] Wonderful!
[Kare] Well, it keeps me off the street
[Cybling] LOL.
[Cybling] Okay...you've just released your second filking album...I
*believe
* the title is Parody Violation...or am I wrong there?
[Kare] That's right. Took 5 years to get it done, but it's out now
[Cybling] Excellent...how does one get a copy of your albums?
[Kare] CD is available from me for $15 (plus shiping) and will be available from most filk dealers (like Random Factors, www.random-factors.com)
[Cybling] So the only way a person could
*get
* a...
[Cybling] filk album, usually, would be to attend a convention?
[Kare] No, there are several dealers who carry them mail order. Random factors is the one I know best; they're in LA. But there's Dodeka records (Bill Roper) and several others. Search "filk" on the net..
[Cybling] Jordin...one more filk question then I'll go on to astrophysics....
[Cybling] You're on a panel tomorrow named The History of Filk. How long has Filking been going on?
[Kare] I can answer any question. Frequently the answer is "I don't know"
[Cybling] lol
[Kare] Filking has been going on since the earliest conventions, but it has grown al
[Kare] a lot since around 1980, when the first tapes started coming out. Before that it was all circulated "by hand" and only a few people knew about it.
[Cybling] One of your panels on Saturday is Famous Crashlandings in Science and Science Fiction...is that something you build into your spaceships...crash tolerance?
[Kare] ...Takes a Reely Big airbag...
[Kare] Actually, I don't think anyone will ever build a really crashable spaceship unless someone invents force fields. (I would, but my wife wants me to invent teleportation first)
[RandySmith] Hi, Jordin!
[Cybling] Say a young person was interested in getting into spaceship design...what would be their first step?
[Cybling] (And I agree with your wife on the teleportation)
[Kare] OOh, tough question. I started as a physicist, which is good background for almost anything technical, but reading SF, tinkering, and eventually studying any of the hard sciences or engineeringfields can be good
[Kare] Randy.. hi!
[Cybling] We're rolling into that part of the day when programming ends and the parties begin... might I ask....
[Cybling] do you find yourself hanging out with the filkers or the scientists?
[Kare] Yes.
[Cybling] lol
[Kare] Actually, I used to spend almost all evenings filking, but I've tapered off the last fwe years and now spend about as much time at parties, sometimes with scientists, if they're mad enough
[Cybling] Folks, speaking of coming to the end of things...we're coming close to the end of Jordin's chat.
[Kare] Last chance..
[Cybling] Unless there are some emergency questions about spaceship drives...
[Cybling] or rhyming orange...
[Kare] Inc ase of emergency, break glass
[Ryan] Do you see yourself working for NASA or something some day? :P
[Kare] Well, I know a lot of NASA folks, but NASA as an organization has real problems. I work as a consultant, and that giives me a lot more freedom (and pays beter!)
[Cybling] Folks, if you want to get you hands on fuller bios of any of today's guests, do check out their online bios and websites...
[Cybling] which you can find linnked from onsite.chicon.org.
[Cybling] Okay...let's give Jordin a big hand for joining us today...
* Cybling applause
[Cybling] thank you very much Jordin...look forward to hearing you filk later in the convention.