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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.

In the few minutes I have before Eric's hot sauce panel, I should comment about the rest of Friday at Penguicon.

I had two panels on Friday, and both went very well. One was the how to throw room parties panel. tlatoani was the hit of this one, with his hilarious descriptions of how the traveling Pirates! party came to be, but I managed to stick my oar in the water often enough to get out some practical suggestions about the logistics of party throwing (i.e., trash bags and waste disposal are key to maintaining good ambiance) and to give mirell a chance to get in a few words about the Linucon LN2 ice cream party experience. We dragged in thatguychuck, which enhanced the general experience as well. The panel finished with our official moderator, Rachel, handing out party lists and party ballots and urging us to rate the parties and hand our ballots to con ops when we were done (since the winning party organizer gets a free membership to Penguicon 5.0, and Penguicon 5.0 will benefit from encouraging fun room parties).

After a hasty dinner consisting of half a Jimmy John's tuna sub, I was off to my second panel, which featured me and GOH Chris DiBona on the status of Linux. This turned into a barely monitored (mostly by me) discussion of where Linux on the Desktop stands, and on whether we OpenSource/Linux lovers really have reason to care if Linux ever makes it big on the desktop at all. Audience participation was lively, and despite the general agreement that Linux apps still leave something to be desired for Joe Average User, the number of related tangents to discuss kept the discussion lively and fun.

Free for the rest of the evening, I cruised the party circuit (including an hour-or-so long sojourn in the Serenity party watching a good documentary feature about the Serenity ship set and a favorite Firefly episode). Finally. I ended up in the gaming area and learned how to play "10 Days in Europe", a fun game about playing travel agent and building a coherent itinerary before your opponents do (I swear, I'm not making this up).

Having spent most of Saturday AM getting brunch and helping Eric complete the hot sauce procurement for his hot sauce panel and tasting session, I prepare to rejoin the con....

I'm here in Livonia, Michigan, at the Holiday Inn which is the site of Penguicon 4.0, that infamous combination of SF convention and Linux show which was co-founded by my friends landley and treebones.

Officially, the con doesn't begin for another 2 hours or so, but we've already had plenty of fun. Last night, we attended the GOH dinner at a local Ground Round restaurant. Many of the attendees (including GOH Chris diBona and Frank Hayes) are also our friends, and other friends showed up as well.

After the dinner we headed back to the hotel for fruit and cake, and talked and folded pocket programs till nearly midnight. (Well, I left at midnight, anyway.)

Today, Eric and I had a leisurely breakfast with a large subset of friends, including landley, mirell, vakkotaur, jmaynard, and others. After breakfast, I took a walk with mirell to a local drugstore, and spent a stint working on the Chaos Machine. landley came by, and remarked that he has more fun at a Penguicon before the con starts than he does at other cons throughout the entire length of the convention. He's right.

The convention, once it officially starts, will be fun. I can just tell. If you're reading this and can get to Livonia for the weekend, do come! It's not too late!