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I used to say that I was still holding out hope that esrblog would get an invitation to do his open source evangelism thing at one of the science missions on Antarctica, so he could legitimately say that he'd done so on all seven continents.

Last night, though, the GT mailing list kicked up the following site by someone who lives in one of those missions, and what he has to say about it is enough to give anyone pause about ever sending anyone they love to Antarctica. I offer it for your reading pleasure, though the type of "pleasure" is not unlike the secret, guilty pleasure many of us feel at viewing a bad roadside disaster that missed us:

http://www.bigdeadplace.com/welcome.html

While you're touring the site, don't miss the movie review of "Happy Feet." (Don't worry; it has no spoilers. The author is interested in skewering Hollywood's exploitation of the human desire to admire all things cute, not in the movie.)

http://www.bigdeadplace.com/marchofthepenguins.html

The material featured in Big Dead Place" seems to have written by people who are actually living in Antarctica. Pity them.

After reading through the post-convention flood of e-mails on the penguicon-general list, I've realized that I will get no rest until I have posted my comments on Penguicon 5.0. So here it finally is.

I may as well start by talking about what I did during Penguicon, though I suspect my experiences are not only atypical of most fen but would bore most fen silly. Accordingly, I shall put that part of this post under an lj-cut.

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As the disjointed ramble above should make clear, the only significant complaint I had about Penguicon was that there wasn't time to do everything I wanted to do. That includes spending time with my friends, ridiculous numbers of whom were present (including, but by no means limited to, many readers of this LiveJournal). There were a lot of things I really, really liked, and since some of them may be things nobody else noticed (just as there were many things at the con that I never even heard about until the con reports started coming out on Monday) I'd like to share them here.

--The energy level. This year's Penguicon had about 800-850 attendees. The size of the con meant the energy level rose high, and stayed high throughout the weekend.

--The Con Suite. It was large enough to hold a lot of people before it began to feel crowded, and it held an excellent supply of beverage and a reasonable supply of food throughout, as well as being the focus for our marvelous....

--Food Track. I was fortunate enough to participate in this track by hosting (with Lady Sarah) a Dark Chocolate Tasting, but the other food items were more than enough to make a meal of, with sushi, chupaquesos (think cheese-stuffed tacos with a cheese shell), and fine Brazilian grilled steak represented.

--The Chaos Machine. Back for another appearance, and never the same twice. Next year, maybe with strobe lights?

--The wonderful Masquerade participants. I don't just mean the costumers, though there were some really good entries this year. I also mean my fellow judges, matociquala and xaina. Ladies, it was wonderful working with you.

--Orvan, The Delivery Ox. A wonderful bit of fanac courtesy of vakkotaur and jmaynard. Thank Ghu jmaynard visited Malvern today; otherwise I might still be wondering why the abacuses were different!

--The Food Art Display in the Lobby. Some of it was amazingly clever (I liked the Morton's List logo done in broken pretzel sticks the best).

--The Ribbons. You say every con does ribbons nowadays? Yes, but not nearly as many, or as original, as Penguicon does. I got 18, my record--and I wasn't even trying. People who *were* trying got dozens.

--My Fellow Panelists, and the wonderful panel audiences, who proved that I'm not lying when I say that even the Penguicon panels are interactive.

--The People. I mean everyone, from the GOH and Nifties to the congoers themselves. They were all bright and friendly, and for some reason, every single one of them knew my name--even the ones I'd never met. Wow.

Will I come back? Is the Pope Catholic? I can't imagine not coming back! Though every Penguicon has been a treat, this year's has been the biggest, boldest, most varied one yet. I want to be part of making Penguicon 6.0 even better.