It’s Official, I’ll Be There Unofficially

head.jpgI just signed up for the Penguicon 6 convention in April. It will be my first science fiction con. It will also be my first Linux con. It will basically be my first con. I’m rather excited, and hope it will be fun. At the very least, I guess every room at the Hilton has WiFi, so I’ll be able to surf the internets if nothing else.

Oh, I’m not going as the official Linux Journal “Gadget Guy” — but I will probably be wearing a Linux Journal hat or something. I kinda like those guys. 😉

If you’ll be there, look me up. You know what I look like. My blog is chock full of narcissistic photos of myself… If you’re not there, feel free to look me up, but I’ll be at the Penguicon, so you’ll have a much harder time finding me.

18 thoughts on “It’s Official, I’ll Be There Unofficially”

  1. I have never been to a con. Ok, that’s not true, I wandered through a very poorly attended one in Anchorage one year with my professional polo shirt on (ISP manager).

    I’ve never been to a con for fun. I’ve heard lots of folks have a total blast at them, and some of Bryan’s colleagues are heavily involved in organizing Norwescon (Seattle, late March).

    I find the whole thing intimidating, hanging out at a convention center with a few thousand eccentric folks, none of whom I know. I adore weird friends – but find weird strangers to be a challenge.

    And, upon review, I realize I’ve missed the writers’ workshop deadline for Norwescon too… it was Thanksgiving. I’m always more comfortable at such events when I have a focus and an agenda. LOL

    What do you like about conventions?

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  2. I’d like to pimp the idea that all the Whateverites come to Denver for Denvention III, August 6-10th, http://www.denvention3.org/. Lois McMaster Bujold is the Guest of Honor, and our man Heinlein is the Ghost of Honor. Then we can all be weird together!

    I know Anne and I are both in (since we both live here). How about the rest of you?

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  3. Personally, I have never been. It seemed like I *had* to go to this one though, I mean, Linux and Science Fiction? It’s like the ShawnCon. 🙂

    I’ll have to report back as to whether I enjoy myself or not…

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  4. Janiece: Oh yeah, well SCALVI will be at the Penguicon… Which gives me the trifecta required to go to such a public event…

    We’ll see how it goes in April, I might hate cons, you never know. 🙂

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  5. I am debating Denvention.

    I have a free air ticket, but the 200.00 registration is a killer, compared with smaller cons at 30-50.00. If I can get a whole bunch of money, I might show up.

    Cons are great if they’re well-managed. I mostly go for the expert panels, because if you have a great moderator, it tends to be a blast.

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  6. I’ve never been to a Con, and the idea of being surrounded by strangers is intimidating to say the least.

    If I knew people were going to be there, it might not be as bad. However, this fall we’re going to be flying to Colorodo in September for a wedding, so I think thats our major travel expense for the year.

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  7. Yeah, I’m stuck going to a wedding in Hawaii in May, which will probably be more than my travel quota for the year – both financially and sanity-wise.

    I’ve never been to a con either. If I ever did, it would probably be one of the roleplaying ones (Dragoncon in Atlanta, Gencon in Indianapolis/Chicago). I used to think about going to a Star Trek con but that was before I had money.

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  8. Michelle K, let Anne and I know if you have some time to meet for a cocktail when you’re here. We’ll choose a public, well-lit area, won’t we Anne?

    Bwahahaha!

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  9. Damn, Scalzi and Vernor Vinge? and Randall Munroe. That’s going to be a blast. Wish to hell I could be there, but alas, it’s not to be. Have fun, take a lot of pictures. Shake Vernor Vinge’s hand for me, and lick Scalzi bald head.

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  10. I’m currently planning on gong to Denvention. I plan on getting my act together for registration and hotel stuff next week. I like meeting new people with similar interests, and well run panels are a blast. I’ve never been to a con, but I used to work at a comic shop. I figure scale up one of our events by about 100,000 and it’ll be close. heh.

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  11. I’m considering applying to go to Viable Paradise – which will more that shoot my discretionary travel budget for the year. If I decide not to, I’ll consider Denvention. We have a couple of vendors there, maybe I could expense it. 😉

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  12. Mmmm…. Mexican food. Yum!

    Well, actually, it’s more like… Food! Yum! 😉

    I’m not sure we’ll be in big city areas. My friends are getting married at one the the National Parks, and we’ll be staying on one of the places around there.

    Of course we still have to get our airline tickets, so who *knows* where we’ll be flying into.

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  13. I’ve been to several mostly small, local cons. Cons can be a either (and sometimes both) a real blast or a real pain. They tend to be better when you know people at the con. My travel/con budget is already earmarked for this year (CONvergence anybody?). I will be looking forward to reading Shawn’s writeup about Penguicon, as it sounds uber cool. Now if you’ll pardon me I’ve got to get back to blowing my brains out into a tissue as I fight a sinus cold. *blech*

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  14. We are going to go to Norwescon at the end of March, the whole fam damily. I am going to volunteer at the registration table, since having a focus helps me be more comfortable in crowds.

    In looking through the Norwescon site, I found photos. This is why I am somewhat nervous about cons.

    Whatever happened to a classy Princess Leia white dress?

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