I just returned from Balticon, the annual Baltimore-area regional science-fiction convention, less than an hour ago. Since I never managed to write about Penguicon, which I attended at the beginning of the month, it seems as good a time as any to talk about both of them. For those of my LJ friends who don't know or care about science-fiction fandom, I'll put the rest of this under an lj-cut.

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Okay, it's been a month now. Time to finish my Penguicon report.


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It is ironic, though, that despite all the wonderful activities Penguicon has, I usually spend my time there socializing, instead of going to panels, or buying from dealers, or even gaming. Since the con attracts the people I like, it's still a good time.

At 3:45 exactly, I returned to the Beef Deployment Zone, to learn about salting Brazilian beef and provide other help with the next stage--the grilling.

Unfortunately, at 3:45 the grill was still heating up to the correct temperature--as it would be doing for the next hour-and-a-half or so. Grilling had been scheduled to start at 4 o'clock (and the fen had been told to expect meat soon after.)

We started out short of person-power to do everything other than the salting of the beef itself. The idea is to place the beef in trays, with a layer of rock salt above and below, for about 15 minutes before actually grilling it. This way, the salt softens the meat, and the excess salt either falls off or can be knocked off right before grilling.

But even after putting out successful emergency calls for volunteers, we still found ourselves way behind. Why? Well, unlike last year, we had only one grill available. Last year, we'd had two. Big, big difference. Everyone thought that the meat cutting, which took place while the grilling was going on, had been the bottleneck and reason for the delays.

Maybe it was then, but this year, we had the meat cut in advance. The problem we had was the grilling. Even as I type, people are still waiting for beef--and esrblog is still grilling.

I, sadly, had to leave at 6:30 to help judge the Masquerade. That seems to have been a roaring success. We got 18 entries (and 5 entries in the "Conjure up a costume" speed round)--possibly a Penguicon record. The room was packed with spectators, and the Dr. Horrible sing-along was quite entertaining and much enjoyed (verdict: acting, good; singing, inconsistent, but fun nonetheless).

So I've spent about 7 hours of my day on beef alone. esrblog will have spent more by the time he's done. There may have been panels, but I can't swear to it--the only program item I've made other than the Masquerade was Opening Ceremonies.

Still, it's been a good con so far--even if serving fen is more difficult than I'd realized.

and I am tired.

There was an awful lot to do at Penguicon (like seeing the Giant Tesla Coils, or not getting trampled by the Morton's List Ark of the Raven), but I still have stuff to do tonight, so I'll write about it later this week.

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.

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.

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!