Baycon blast.

[katster]

At Baycon, ribbons are currency. It's one of the first things I figured out, actually, as I wandered around the con watching people dragging these huge strings of ribbons that people had given them for various reasons. And over the course of the con, as you can see from the picture on the right, I managed to acquire ten, and surprisingly, they were all in a color scheme of greens and grays, other than the burgundy ribbon at the top, and the blue-green (and it still sorta counts) one midway down. That was completely accidental. Completely. Really.

Anyway, the badge and the first two ribbons were given to me at registration. (The first ribbon, which is unreadable in the photo, reads "25th Anniversary Celebrant", and the one underneath it reads "Without You We're Nothing". I pinned the button to the first ribbon on a lark, and actually got a couple comments on it. (It reads "I'd rather be interacting with abstract presences online.")

The rest of them were either given to me by friends or they were earned at various panels. Down the line, the first is Minion of Doug, because I pushed gridlore around. He needed to be pushed around; he found himself stuck in a wheelchair temporarily for the course of the con. Doug's a friend, so I don't mind helping him out, but it was cool to get a ribbon out of it too.

Tea Snob was given to me by flower_cat. She also let me look at her tea catalog, and I should find out what it was so I can go look online, 'cause there were some neat tea flavors in there.

"Iron Poet" and "101 Exactly" were earned on panels. The #spork folks who saw me moaning about how the hell did frown and stone rhyme? Apparently, they do in Shelley's accent, as the words were taken from Ozymandias. (The challenge? To compose a sonnet in 24 hours given the end words. I did it, but it wasn't that great.) "101 Exactly" was another writing challenge. Tell a story in a hundred and one words. Exactly. It's a *lot* harder than it looks.

I bid on a couple things in the art auction (and actually won them, whoa), so I earned a Patron of the Arts ribbon. That's the blue-green ribbon.



"Shot Rang Out" is one of those panels that you simply have to experience. It's *hilarious*. The panelists start with "A shot rang out..." to begin their story, and they have to end on a quote pulled out of a basket. You can submit items for the panel at the info desk up to the point of the panel. The story gets all crazy and strange, and at one point, they had walking, talking trees. And one of the panelists said "And we have running trees," trying to remember what had gone on before in the story. And before I knew it, I'd simply shouted out "RUN, FOREST, RUN!" and the whole room went up. (Luckily, this panel encourages audience participation.) I was pretty proud of that; it was one of the highlights of Baycon for me.

The last two were acquired from zyxwvut, who remembered me from one of the shindigs at deyo and mactavish's place. He does a talk show-esque thing in the elevators of Baycon (although this year, there wasn't room for him to do his thing where he rightfully belonged), and that's what the dark green ribbon at the bottom is about. (It's hard to read, but it reads "Eric in the Elevator". You can find out more by reading eric_in_elevatr, if you're curious.) The bottom one says "6+2+1=42". It's a general rule for sleeping, eating, and hygiene practices at a con. Sleep six hours, eat two good meals, and take a shower. Sounds good to me!

The red sticker on my badge reads "Anticipation" and it's for the 2009 Montreal Worldcon bid. That reminds me that I need to figure out just what I need to save and start assembling the pieces so I can go to Denver in 2008. Sadly, I think I may be the only member of the #spork denizens to go (well, other than mrfnord, who's local to the con). Le sigh. Anyway, I decided that it would be kinda neat to be a pre-supporter of a bid, and the folks running the Montreal '09 table were nice to me, so I went ahead and did it. Now, hopefully, Montreal will get it. (They've got stiff competition in KC, I hear.)

Anyway, I had a blast. I finally got to meet chaoswolf's fiance, selkit, I got to chat with gridlore about baseball, have long chats in the hallways with folks I barely knew, caught up with old friends and some friends of friends, figured out how to negotiate the twists and turns of the Escher Marriott in San Mateo, and generally just had a good time. Enough of a good time that I've bought my membership for 2008.

And that's about all there really is to say. :) Tune in next time when our intrepid hero attempts to figure out what to do now.

Comments

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

And before I knew it, I'd simply shouted out "RUN, FOREST, RUN!" and the whole room went up.

*hysterical giggles*

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

I may be up for Denver in '08; depends on if I get an offer for this real job here. Having money makes travel possible, woot woot!

Sorry I couldn't make it to Baycon this year; I'm glad you went and had fun. I'm just doing so much traveling and negotiating so much right now that it would have been really hard.

Actually...

[zyxwvut.livejournal.com]

...where I remember you from: helping rosefox move out of gridlore and kshandra's apartment in was-it-2003?

Z

P.S.: Thanks for the plug for the show!

Re: Actually...

[katster.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, yeah, I was there helping (and I'm pretty sure it was '03) but my strongest memory of you seems to be at the 2005 Callahan's party. I seem to recall you trying to figure out the fastest way back to BART.

No matter. It was nice catching up with you. And I figured, the least I could do is give you a plug. :)

-kat

[madforry.livejournal.com]

Coo. Sounds like something I might be interested in, if I can afford to fly to Denver.