Penguicon 6.0 Con Report

Mmmm, Penguicon.

Sadly this year I had to go without my wife again, on account of budgetary difficulties and a lack of hotel rooms. Next year I’m not going to be so lackadaisical on reserving a room, especially since it looks like the hotel for next year is a very, very nice one. Not quite the Roman amphitheater style of the Troy Hilton, but very, very nice.

So, Friday I drove over to my folks’ house near Port Huron and dropped off the kids so that the wife and I could both enjoy a weekend to ourselves. On the way down, I called my hostess for the weekend, the most excellent Yanni Kuznia, who told me she was on her way to the airport to pick up Cherie Priest. So I went on to the hotel and, just in the parking lot, ran into Sal Safrantello of Aegis Consulting (who wanted to show me the mods he made to his Jeep Wrangler), Mer Haskell, Julie W., and Michael Andalusz (a/k/a) FREON.

Once inside I got into the registration line and located the extremely fabulous Punk Rock Hockey Mom (a/k/a Kimberly), who was gracious enough to keep me company while I waited. Oh, yeah, did I mentioned also that I did not pre-register, either? Total. Loser.

What was fun was helping out a con newbie around the first couple hours of the con. We filled out nametags and went to hang out at the space opera panel, and then ran into Mer and Julie again, and had a nice time just hanging out and chatting. Mer and Julie and I did a turn through the dealer’s room, then I went to grab a turkey sandwich from the con suite since I hadn’t eaten anything since some Taco Bell after dropping off the kids and, with an 8pm panel, I couldn’t really get away to get anything to eat. Loose lunchmeat on a table usually isn’t my preference, but it served.

At 8pm, Mer and I sat down in a nearly empty room to read our adolescent writings, which was seriously hilarious. Freon joined us later, and helped with the reading, though didn’t have anything of his own to read on account of being informed late about the panel or something. But Julie was there, along with Kimberly and Jeff Beeler, and two whole people we didn’t know!

After that I wandered around for a bit, then ended up in the bar with Yanni and John and Krissy Scalzi. We watched the end of the Red Wings game (win, woo!), which John proved to be surprisingly knowledgeable about, and talked sports and school and whatnot. Then it was off to sharing some Bumpy Cake in John & Krissy’s room to celebrate Krissy’s birthday, where I also met Cherie Priest for the first time and saw Elizabeth Bear and Sarah and Alan Monette.

The next morning I saw all of them again at the Subterranean Press breakfast, and got to sit next to Cherie, who is absolutely wonderful and charming. After that, I wandered around for a bit, then called my sister, Mary Lou, who had gotten in the night before. She and Julie L., who is almost my sister, were in town to see My Chemical Romance and stayed with Mer and Julie W. Friday and Saturday nights so we could all socialize and whatnot in the meantime. So I went in there once I knew they were awake, then we all, including Mer and Julie W. headed out to Red Robin for lunch, which lasted until about 3.

Then I ran into Kimberly again and we wandered around to check stuff out, then wandered into the War in SF panel (which Scalzi kept asking me, “Why aren’t you on this one again?”) Before that was a panel with Randall Munroe of XKCD, of whom Kimberly is the Worst. Stalker. Evar.

While in that panel, Yanni texted me to ask where I was and if I wanted dinner, etc. So once out of there, I went down to the bar and ran into Tobias Buckell, who surprised me by being there at all, and apparently causing the best double-take ever. From there we went to dinner with Toby, Yanni, her hubs Brian, Jim Hines, Krissy Scalzi, and Cherie Priest, who rocks beyond all reckoning.

I drove myself to dinner, thinking I would bail early to go back and take part in the Black Sweater Party as I’ve done for years now, but the conversation turned out to be far too interesting to leave early. So I got back to the hotel an hour late, but Sal and I have been doing this long enough I was able to jump right in. We had a few more players this year, 22 I think, which made it tough to split up into teams of four, but otherwise worked okay. At 10 we called “End Ex” and wrapped things up.

Wandering into the bar, I found the usual suspects hanging out there, and sat to chat with Mer, Julie, Toby and Yanni for a bit. We wound up closing down the bar (at 11!?!), then headed out toward the parties and dance and whatnot. We stalled a bit short as the group came upon Elizabeth Bear hiding behind a potted plant with a couple others, sitting on the floor chatting.

Eventually, that group broke up and it was just me and Toby and Jeff Beeler standing around talking, until SOMEone dragged me away from there and to the dance. The dancing was actually quite awesome, and it’s been FOREVER since I did any, and seemed to last much longer than it did, because we were heading out again by just after 1. I actually didn’t get to sleep until 3, so wired was I after the dance and whatnot, and then woke up promptly the next morning at 7.

In the morning, I had breakfast with Mer and Julie W. My sisters were supposed to join us, but they were too slow. Too slow! And since the restaurant inexplicably closed at 10am, they could only sit with us after we paid our bill. After that was much wandering around, meeting up with Kimberly again, and settling into an unoccupied corner. Elizabeth Bear dropped in, and then just about everyone I saw all weekend showed up. Got to introduce my sister to Bear–they know each other on-line, apparently, but hadn’t met in person, so I fixed that.

Silly me, because then the conversation, which had already been on fanfic and slash and whatnot, took truly disturbing turns. I think the discussion of graphing the eligibility of sexual partners not in one’s own age cohort was actually the high point of the whole exercise. Though watching Randall Munroe attempt to game the internet was fun, too. Can’t wait to see those pictures.

Then it was lunch, and time to say goodbye to all the awesome people, and travel back to Marysville to pick up the kids. The drive home was actually the most trying part of the whole weekend, especially since I only got four hours of sleep and my son was loathe to leave his grandparents.

Overall, the con was fantastic. Another year of far more hanging out with friends and having awesome conversations than participating in much of the con programming, but for all that it was quite awesome. I hate to feel like I’m name dropping, but it’s hard not to talk about the cool people I met and hung out with, like Cherie Priest and Elizabeth Bear, because they are just so damn cool.

I happened to miss out on the Open Source Boob Project, and I’m glad I did. Whether or not it was awesomely sweet, I’ve always had a more idealized and personal notion of touch that doesn’t mesh well with the “Project.”

Anyway, that aside, it was a fantastic time, and I’m looking forward to it again next year, in a bigger hotel with closer cheap food, and the promised appearance of Wil Wheaton! And Spider Robinson! Wow!

ETA: Knew I’d forget someone! CKD, who I was introduced to at some point during the weekend, and then had lunch with on Sunday! Silly me.

Crossposted with klech.net

Con Badges

One of the coolest parts of going to cons is the various con badges, and the ribbons that are associated with them. I’m sure the ribbons started out as just a way of identifying guests and speakers, but since those humble beginnings they’ve grown to be a significant part of the con experience, with some people collecting as many as they can. The con vest and a trail of ribbons that reaches the floor in three ranks is not uncommon. Just about anyone can get and distribute the ribbons.

On the left is my badge from Penguicon 5.0 in 2007, in the middle this year’s Penguicon, on the right from ConJose, which was the 2002 WorldCon, and on the bottom MoonBase Confusion in 2007. I think the WorldCon was the first con badge that earned any ribbons at all, and that’s because my friend Bart Kemper roped us into helping out on with the press relations portion of the con, which he was running. My first ribbon otherwise came at 2005’s Penguicon when Sal Safrantello gave me a “Weapon” ribbon.

On the left here is my badge from this year’s Penguicon. Sadly, I can’t seem to find my ConFusion 2008 badge, which had the “I met John Scalvi” ribbon on it. The ribbons are arranged in the order I got them, starting with The Ferrett’s “Bear or Shark?” allegiance ribbon. I picked Bear, as you can see. Below that is the “Acme [REDACTED]” ribbon Jay Maynard (a/k/a “Tron Guy“) gave to me. Below the redacted bit it says Customer. Why it’s redacted, I have no idea. No explanation given and none requested.

ETA: Orvan Ox popped up in comments to offer an explanation on the Acme ribbons, not all that different from what happened to Scalzi back in January.

Below that is the Panelist ribbon which I got by virtue of being on a panel. Simple, eh? In past years it would have been the first (in fact, was, on the Penguicon 5.0 badge), as they usually had panelist’s stuff set aside and separate from the regular registration. But, not this year, apparently. Anyway, below that is “Who Killed Anna Decker?” given to me by Yanni Kuznia, as was the one that says “Mine.” The former she gave to everyone, the latter only to those lucky enough to know her well enough. Finally at the bottom is “Weapon,” given again by Sal at the end of the Black Sweater Party.

While I didn’t really get into the ribbons when I first started going to cons, I think they’ve grown on me lately. Not to the point of wanting to collect all of them available at a given con, but I think they’re a neat memento. And I’ve been kicking around the idea of ordering some of my own made just for grins; not sure what I’d put on them just yet. I’m thinking I’d have to wait to have something on it that more than five people would get.

Then again, that didn’t stop dear Ms Kuznia.

Crossposted with klech.net