I smell Ba(y)con

[torquill]

The con went, as cons go. Baycon hasn't been vivacious for ages, and this year was no exception; I tend to go because it gathers a bunch of people I like to see in one place at the same time. I surfed, mostly, and wasn't particularly disappointed, but that's because I didn't have much in the way of expectations. The one panel I made a point of attending was Pat McEwen's "Alien Sex" panel, which was focused on "Battle of the Sexes" this year... as always, she had a lot of interesting trivia about terran animals' sex habits, and some speculation about how that might reflect the sexuality of extraterrestrial races. (She also had a Grey Alien blow-up doll, which was worth seeing just for the sheer wrongness value.)

The hotel was built for seminars, not conventions. The difference was strongly highlighted by the size (or lack thereof) of the function rooms, the noted absence of bathrooms in most places, and the bad traffic patterns (like cul-de-sacs in odd corners). It was nicknamed the "Escher Marriott" with good reason; the third floor turned almost seamlessly into the second floor, which didn't connect with the rest of the second floor except via the third. You had to go up to go down, unless you went down and across and up. There was an astonishing number of hidden elevators. Even some staff were still getting lost as late as Sunday afternoon... I bought a t-shirt that made light of the situation, and thanked my lucky stars that we won't be in such a small or convoluted venue next year.

On the upside, the people staffing the place were quite friendly, ran twelve hour shifts without apparent complaint, and many of them got into the spirit by collecting ribbons and attaching them to their official name badges. Nice people.

Dinner with the_ogre was a great pleasure. I also had a couple of meals with shadowwalkyr and semy_of_pearls, hung out with Jackals (current and legacy), ran into hopeforyou, pure_agnostic, and company, and stopped to chat with all sorts of people I see about once a year.

I bought a B.P.R.D. patch, which I've wanted for over a year now. Woo!

At any rate, I'm home now, and I'll use tomorrow as a breather before school on Tuesday.

Comments

[johno.livejournal.com]

Many of the staff were imports. The hotel brought in lots of folks from Sacto, with others from Modesto, LA and even Tuson.

It was good seeing you, however briefly