Balticon 44, Saturday
I was supposed to get up early and watch the Bear while my wife went to a panel, but she apparently let me sleep in. I got up in time to see part of the "Did We Win?" panel.
Basically it was a discussion about the popularity of the genre and if the fans have benefited from that popularity. Overall, it was pretty positive, but there were some grumblings about not being able to find common ground since not everyone might not have read the same books (or any books at all). Course then we get the English teacher who says the same thing, saying that some HS students haven't even read The Scarlet Letter (Lady, I didn't read The Scarlet Letter in HS). Course there were some Luddite grumbling about how things have changed from the old days, which I find ironic coming from SF authors.
After I got out I met up with the family and headed over to see the Chromatics. Well, Bear wasn't taking to it so I headed out with him to keep him occupied. Well, I eventually found out that my wife was looking for me to relieve me. Here I thought I was leaving her to enjoy the Chromatics when she wasn't really enjoying them all that much. So, I grabbed some lunch for him and me and headed back into the room to see them.
Once we got to 1PM, it was time to take over for her so that she could go to a panel. So, I spent the next couple of hours entertaining my son. I tried going to quadrivium's concert, but the Bear could only sit still for 10 minutes before getting bored.
After that I ran into the wife and she took over. I used that time to get a run in before I had to get back and relieve her for Dinosaurs.
When I got there, Bear wanted to sit in, so I had to crowd into the room for a while. As we kinda figured, Bear got cranky and was a bit tired. So, I took him back to the room to work it out. Unfortunately, nap didn't seem to be an option he wanted to take.
After the wife got back I had a little bit of time, which I used to go to the "Why are we bound to the elliptical plane in SF?" panel. Unfortunately I missed half of it and didn't get the full effect, but there was a lot of "why can't Hollywood get the simple stuff right?" in the panel.
Next up was dinner. As we were heading out, we ran into vvalkyri and convinced her and her friends to come with us to the pizza place and gelato place. The food was good, but unfortunately they were getting cleaned out of gelato when we got there.
We hurried back to make sure I was back in time for the Masquerade. So I hurried back to get my camera and get in line. Soon, gorgeousgary and thesheryl joined me in line.
Overall, it was a pretty good Masquerade. The highlights were the Dr Horrible and the 1880 Masquerade. Afterwards, I went out and joined starmalachite to get the pictures of the 1880 masquerade as well as some of the straggling contestants. We then sat down and compared pictures. We then hurried back in for the awards ceremony. The highlight of that was one of the jelico cats chasing after Lestat's rat.
We then adjourned to the filk room where there was much activity. gorgeousgary initiated a new filker with "Madeira M'Dear". quadrivium held her own and often accompanied others, including maugorn's Cthulhu song.
After that I took my leave and went to look for a game to play and ended up getting a game of Vegas Showdown in. After that, it was time to pack it in for the evening.
Links to pictures follow:
Masquerade Part 1
Masquerade Part 2
Filking
Basically it was a discussion about the popularity of the genre and if the fans have benefited from that popularity. Overall, it was pretty positive, but there were some grumblings about not being able to find common ground since not everyone might not have read the same books (or any books at all). Course then we get the English teacher who says the same thing, saying that some HS students haven't even read The Scarlet Letter (Lady, I didn't read The Scarlet Letter in HS). Course there were some Luddite grumbling about how things have changed from the old days, which I find ironic coming from SF authors.
After I got out I met up with the family and headed over to see the Chromatics. Well, Bear wasn't taking to it so I headed out with him to keep him occupied. Well, I eventually found out that my wife was looking for me to relieve me. Here I thought I was leaving her to enjoy the Chromatics when she wasn't really enjoying them all that much. So, I grabbed some lunch for him and me and headed back into the room to see them.
Once we got to 1PM, it was time to take over for her so that she could go to a panel. So, I spent the next couple of hours entertaining my son. I tried going to quadrivium's concert, but the Bear could only sit still for 10 minutes before getting bored.
After that I ran into the wife and she took over. I used that time to get a run in before I had to get back and relieve her for Dinosaurs.
When I got there, Bear wanted to sit in, so I had to crowd into the room for a while. As we kinda figured, Bear got cranky and was a bit tired. So, I took him back to the room to work it out. Unfortunately, nap didn't seem to be an option he wanted to take.
After the wife got back I had a little bit of time, which I used to go to the "Why are we bound to the elliptical plane in SF?" panel. Unfortunately I missed half of it and didn't get the full effect, but there was a lot of "why can't Hollywood get the simple stuff right?" in the panel.
Next up was dinner. As we were heading out, we ran into vvalkyri and convinced her and her friends to come with us to the pizza place and gelato place. The food was good, but unfortunately they were getting cleaned out of gelato when we got there.
We hurried back to make sure I was back in time for the Masquerade. So I hurried back to get my camera and get in line. Soon, gorgeousgary and thesheryl joined me in line.
Overall, it was a pretty good Masquerade. The highlights were the Dr Horrible and the 1880 Masquerade. Afterwards, I went out and joined starmalachite to get the pictures of the 1880 masquerade as well as some of the straggling contestants. We then sat down and compared pictures. We then hurried back in for the awards ceremony. The highlight of that was one of the jelico cats chasing after Lestat's rat.
We then adjourned to the filk room where there was much activity. gorgeousgary initiated a new filker with "Madeira M'Dear". quadrivium held her own and often accompanied others, including maugorn's Cthulhu song.
After that I took my leave and went to look for a game to play and ended up getting a game of Vegas Showdown in. After that, it was time to pack it in for the evening.
Links to pictures follow:
Masquerade Part 1
Masquerade Part 2
Filking