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It's Monday night now. If I don't write the rest of my Penguicon report, I never will. I'm not really in the mood to write, but I need to get my memories down before they fade too much, so here goes.

Eric and I spent Saturday morning and early Saturday afternoon with phecda and metalfatigue0 having lunch and buying some last-minute supplies for Eric's hot sauce tasting panel. I attended the panel (though not the tasting), and it turned out to be a great success; he was quite pleased. But then, howardtayler was on the panel, and he and Eric riff well together.

After that, I had to race to another room to run the "Eye of Argon" (or Aragon or Aragorn, depending on which convention guide you saw) reading. The reading was surprisingly well-attended--there might have been as many as 30 people there. They were good EOA readers, too; we actually got to page 6 in our allotted hour. Only the extreme noise from the event next door (still don't know what that was about) dampened the fun slightly.

Next, I ran into landley and mirell and we wandered to the Gaming area for the "Andy vs. Everybody" event. The Looney Labs people, who were running the event, sat everybody down in little groups, and gave each group a Looney Labs game to play. The idea was that Andy would play in *everybody's* game. Each group got a flag to put up and a bell to ring when it was Andy's "turn," and as fast as he could he'd come down the line and take his turn at each game, like the Russian chess masters used to do. Our little group played "Stoner Fluxx," "Family Fluxx," and "Chrononauts", and Andy didn't win a single game from us.

Back to the room to change into costume to do the Masquerade judging. Despite some scheduling problems (the original schedule didn't post a time for the contestants to muster and be judged on workmanship) and publicity (the word didn't get out that the actual Masquerade was starting later, so that we had to shoo away would-be audience members a couple of times while the judges were interviewing contestants) snafus, we got 7 reasonably strong entries and a fair audience in the circumstances.

After the Masquerade, I was free for the night. Eric had already gone to dinner, so I caught up with Ken B., who was crashing with us, and etain. The three of us walked to La Shish for lamb and hummus. Later that night, I party-hopped, danced to the beat of the floating drum circle, and ended up in the Gaming room again, where I discovered that I was barely coherent enough to explain "Hey, That's My Fish!" to mirell. So I finally went to bed.

Sunday morning was the Copyrights and Trademarks panel, which was pretty good even though it didn't end up being about copyrights or trademarks; it ended up being about how authors and artists can make a living despite the lack of real enforceability of copyright protection. One of my fellow panelists was making a documentary on the open source phenomenon, not just as it applies to software, but as it applies to medicine and other disciplines. He wanted to interview me on film, and I agreed, resulting in the lamest 2 minutes of film on record (though he seemed contented with it). Eric and I mostly wandered around or hung out in the con suite and gaming area until it was time to leave for the airport.

Maybe it was the fact that the main con area looked like a jungle, complete with secluded fountains, strange gazebo, as palm-like plants, but for whatever reason, Penguicon 4.0 had the laid-back feel of a relaxacon. Despite our Party Panel urging party throwers to develop decorations and themes, both went by the wayside as most of the open parties turned into one big floating hang-out, even down to the fact that parties other than the Firefly party adopted the showing of old Firefly episodes as default entertainment. (Not that I minded--I love the series.) Marshmallow peeps began to materialize all over the cabana area, each one carrying a little peepy sign; the signs said things like "Power to the peeps!","Peeps for President!", and "Peeps for Pope!". As Sunday wore on, a bunch of random fen in the con suite started using the leftover open bowl of LN2 for random, quasi-scientific experiments. Somebody dipped their con badge into it, hoping it would shatter. Another fan was disappointed that his dipped pencil was still intact, until somebody told him that the shattering phenomenon doesn't work on wood. At one point, several fen were pouring LN2 over the head of a stuffed penguin, who was growing ice crystals all over himself and looking oddly tranquil. Eventually, the rest of the bowl was thrown into the pool, to the cheers of the assembled multitude as a massive fog arose.

I enjoyed the con very much, but it all seemed to end too soon--even though, for me, the con started on Thursday night. I can't wait until next year.