This is how we roll! Baycon report.
May. 29th, 2007 09:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreWhen last we left our Intrepid Hero, he was bailing north from Kaiser Santa Theresa towards San Mateo and Baycon 25, guzzling Coke and so damn happy to back with Kirsten and out of the hospital. We pick up our story on..
Saturday, continued
We got to the Marriott around 1030 or so (like all con reports, my sense of time went away quickly. All times are approximate.) First order of business was to get to Program Ops so I could get my guest packet and drop a few panels so I'd have more time to rest. After that, up to our room so I could change clothes and breathe for a few minutes. Using the wheelchair was odd. I knew I needed it, and was happy to have it, but I resented the fact that it meant I needed this much help. My attitude changed over the weekend. After a bit of a lie-down, we went down to the dealer's room to pick up my "Minion of Doug" ribbons and I, of course, bought a book from Tom at The Other Change of Hobbit. It's a Baycon tradition for me - my first purchase in the dealer's room is always a book from Tom. This time it was Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds. Having blooded my wallet, we rolled for my first panel of the day The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory.
This one was fun. My co-panelist didn't contribute much, but his comments were well-timed and insightful. I covered the classic mega-conspiracy theories (Golden Bloodline, Jewish Supremacy, Freemasons/Illuminati, etc.) and discussed what makes a conspiracy truly ultimate: you need to be able to link any event to the conspiracy. Good audience participation and a hefty dose of humor meant the panel rocked along for our alloted hour. At the end, I gave out my first two Minion ribbons to a father and son who were going to the next panel with me and kindly gave me a push.
After that, I had my first experience with the non-Euclidean nature of the hotel. The room for my second panel of the day was allegedly on the second floor, but a portion of the second floor that didn't exist in the confines of normal four dimensional space. This was an endless source of amusement and frustration all weekend. The panel, once we found Collaborate 2, was amazing. The title was World Creation for Gamers and we had people from traditional paper and dice RPGs, MUDs and MOOs, and the latest WoW-style engines. Very spirited discussion, great ideas and the moderator handled us magnificently. This was probably the best panel I've done in years.
After that, I wandered around. Saw people, checked out the art show, had dinner with the two Kiris, and got ready for the Traveller 30th Anniversary Party. We actually had to open early. The limited seating at the Masquerade meant an increased number of people out on the party floor. We went doors open at about 2115, and immediately started getting good foot traffic. Our food service was well received (thanks Devon!) and our TAS gear looked great. I'll try to find some links to pictures later. Since I was still feeling woozy, I pretty much parked my chair in a corner and stayed there, passing out ribbons and accepting Cokes from people. Too many Cokes. Way too many Cokes. We finally shut down around 0100 and I went to bed, only to wake up two hours later with a terrible stomach ache. That'll learn me.
Sunday
Actually slept in a bit, watched Kirsten and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
murphymom eat breakfast (still a bit of a stomach ache), and went off in search of adventure. I really spent most of the day relaxing, not rushing to get to panels or anything. Mostly hanging out. I did have one panel: Fun Ways to Kill Your Characters at 1000. another hoot, that flipped form being serious to hysterical in moments. It helped that Ed Green, a fellow vet and friend was on the panel. We play off each other well.
After that, I did... nothing. Bought a couple more books, grabbed the most popular t-shirt at the con by far:
Surrounded by Escher's staircase.
Had dinner with my Boo, and went to our party. A lot slower than the previous night, but we accomplished our goal of getting people to eat food and drink sodas. There was one incident near the end of the evening. A worker from the party next door came in and dumped garbage from their party in our trash can. Not only did she not ask, she tried to be stealthy about it - with me staring right at her. I spoke to the party organizers the next day and they were suitably horrified.
Called it a night, and went to sleep. Kirsten got in at about 0500.
Monday
As always, Monday at Baycon was the mass of shuffling zombies trying to get enough caffeine into their systems to function. We had packed up most of the party materials the night before, so allaurictech and I had to do was load everything on our cart and move it across the hall from the party room to our room. I went to one panel about Pandemic Flu (very interesting) made one more dealers room trip to pick up some books Kiri had ordered and madelineusher's high school graduation present. Then hellloooonurse blew my mind. I had been admiring one of the vests hanging on Kristi Smart's kiosk, and he offered to buy it for me. A little searching found one in my size, and he shelled out a lot of money. Dude, you rock! The vest is black, with silver buttons and a high collar. On the back is an embroidered skull and crossbones.
At some point in there we ate, and then loaded the car. The original plan was formurphymom to catch a ride with us, but as we loaded, it became apparent that this was not going to happen. We just had too much stuff! She called the ex-for a ride. Kirsten went back to helping with tear down at registration, then we ate lunch. Which was our only bad experience at the California Grill, they took forever to get our food out. Not complaining, they did amazing work all weekend feeding the masses.
The last thing on the agenda was the Hiss and Purr. I thanked the staff for being so helpful with my medical emergency, and pointed out a problem we had Saturday night with people bringing beer from other parties into ours. We hung out until the bloody end, said our good-byes, and headed home.
Home. what a great word.
So, another great con in the books. I'll post my ribbon wang when I pull it out of the bags. We had decided not to throw a party next year, but then we learned the theme of Baycon 2008: Space Pirates.
We are so jumping all over that.
Thanks to all my Minions, especially those who helped out after I ran out of ribbons (I could have easily given away 100 of them.) As always, thank you toaurictech, ataniell93, and my beloved kshandra for their hard work on the party.
Now I have to go get a blood draw done. Ciao!
Saturday, continued
We got to the Marriott around 1030 or so (like all con reports, my sense of time went away quickly. All times are approximate.) First order of business was to get to Program Ops so I could get my guest packet and drop a few panels so I'd have more time to rest. After that, up to our room so I could change clothes and breathe for a few minutes. Using the wheelchair was odd. I knew I needed it, and was happy to have it, but I resented the fact that it meant I needed this much help. My attitude changed over the weekend. After a bit of a lie-down, we went down to the dealer's room to pick up my "Minion of Doug" ribbons and I, of course, bought a book from Tom at The Other Change of Hobbit. It's a Baycon tradition for me - my first purchase in the dealer's room is always a book from Tom. This time it was Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds. Having blooded my wallet, we rolled for my first panel of the day The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory.
This one was fun. My co-panelist didn't contribute much, but his comments were well-timed and insightful. I covered the classic mega-conspiracy theories (Golden Bloodline, Jewish Supremacy, Freemasons/Illuminati, etc.) and discussed what makes a conspiracy truly ultimate: you need to be able to link any event to the conspiracy. Good audience participation and a hefty dose of humor meant the panel rocked along for our alloted hour. At the end, I gave out my first two Minion ribbons to a father and son who were going to the next panel with me and kindly gave me a push.
After that, I had my first experience with the non-Euclidean nature of the hotel. The room for my second panel of the day was allegedly on the second floor, but a portion of the second floor that didn't exist in the confines of normal four dimensional space. This was an endless source of amusement and frustration all weekend. The panel, once we found Collaborate 2, was amazing. The title was World Creation for Gamers and we had people from traditional paper and dice RPGs, MUDs and MOOs, and the latest WoW-style engines. Very spirited discussion, great ideas and the moderator handled us magnificently. This was probably the best panel I've done in years.
After that, I wandered around. Saw people, checked out the art show, had dinner with the two Kiris, and got ready for the Traveller 30th Anniversary Party. We actually had to open early. The limited seating at the Masquerade meant an increased number of people out on the party floor. We went doors open at about 2115, and immediately started getting good foot traffic. Our food service was well received (thanks Devon!) and our TAS gear looked great. I'll try to find some links to pictures later. Since I was still feeling woozy, I pretty much parked my chair in a corner and stayed there, passing out ribbons and accepting Cokes from people. Too many Cokes. Way too many Cokes. We finally shut down around 0100 and I went to bed, only to wake up two hours later with a terrible stomach ache. That'll learn me.
Sunday
Actually slept in a bit, watched Kirsten and
murphymom eat breakfast (still a bit of a stomach ache), and went off in search of adventure. I really spent most of the day relaxing, not rushing to get to panels or anything. Mostly hanging out. I did have one panel: Fun Ways to Kill Your Characters at 1000. another hoot, that flipped form being serious to hysterical in moments. It helped that Ed Green, a fellow vet and friend was on the panel. We play off each other well.After that, I did... nothing. Bought a couple more books, grabbed the most popular t-shirt at the con by far:
I Survived Baycon 25
at the
Escher Marriott
San Mateo
(but I still don't know what floor
I got this T-shirt on!)
at the
Escher Marriott
San Mateo
(but I still don't know what floor
I got this T-shirt on!)
Surrounded by Escher's staircase.
Had dinner with my Boo, and went to our party. A lot slower than the previous night, but we accomplished our goal of getting people to eat food and drink sodas. There was one incident near the end of the evening. A worker from the party next door came in and dumped garbage from their party in our trash can. Not only did she not ask, she tried to be stealthy about it - with me staring right at her. I spoke to the party organizers the next day and they were suitably horrified.
Called it a night, and went to sleep. Kirsten got in at about 0500.
Monday
As always, Monday at Baycon was the mass of shuffling zombies trying to get enough caffeine into their systems to function. We had packed up most of the party materials the night before, so all
aurictech and I had to do was load everything on our cart and move it across the hall from the party room to our room. I went to one panel about Pandemic Flu (very interesting) made one more dealers room trip to pick up some books Kiri had ordered and madelineusher's high school graduation present. Then hellloooonurse blew my mind. I had been admiring one of the vests hanging on Kristi Smart's kiosk, and he offered to buy it for me. A little searching found one in my size, and he shelled out a lot of money. Dude, you rock! The vest is black, with silver buttons and a high collar. On the back is an embroidered skull and crossbones.At some point in there we ate, and then loaded the car. The original plan was for
murphymom to catch a ride with us, but as we loaded, it became apparent that this was not going to happen. We just had too much stuff! She called the ex-for a ride. Kirsten went back to helping with tear down at registration, then we ate lunch. Which was our only bad experience at the California Grill, they took forever to get our food out. Not complaining, they did amazing work all weekend feeding the masses.The last thing on the agenda was the Hiss and Purr. I thanked the staff for being so helpful with my medical emergency, and pointed out a problem we had Saturday night with people bringing beer from other parties into ours. We hung out until the bloody end, said our good-byes, and headed home.
Home. what a great word.
So, another great con in the books. I'll post my ribbon wang when I pull it out of the bags. We had decided not to throw a party next year, but then we learned the theme of Baycon 2008: Space Pirates.
We are so jumping all over that.
Thanks to all my Minions, especially those who helped out after I ran out of ribbons (I could have easily given away 100 of them.) As always, thank you to
aurictech, ataniell93, and my beloved kshandra for their hard work on the party.Now I have to go get a blood draw done. Ciao!
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no subject
Date: 29 May 2007 18:44 (UTC)*blam!*
*thud*
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Date: 30 May 2007 03:41 (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 May 2007 21:17 (UTC)