mikekn

I'm thinking about going to Ubercon this November 2nd-4th. Anyone interested in going along?
I go mostly for the board games, but they've got RPGs, PC and console games as well.

No clue who the guests will be this year, but in the past Rich Burlew, Pete Abrams and Erica Henderson usually are there.

Last Saturday I went to the Small Press Expo (SPX) in Bethesda. I like to go when ever I can to try and find new and interesting books that are outside the mainstream. My last visit was two years ago, so I was hoping to find a good bit of new stuff as well as catch up on some books I picked up last time. I did well on the new stuff front, but not so good on the old stuff - most of the folks I was hoping to see were not there this year. Still, good time was had :)

( The Swag (images - 315k) )

ETA: Not shown are the four t-shirts I also got there. I would have only gotten three but the one was $5 and came with a free t-shirt...

I had a nice relaxing weekend down at Balticon. Didn't do as much as I thought I might, but didn't really miss out on anything I was looking forward to. I've deleted most of my emails and skimmed through all of LJ (poke me if I missed something important)

( More con details then you probably were looking for... )

( Da Loot )

I spent the weekend with a couple hundred gamers at Ubercon VI. I had a great time, so I shall have to do it again in the future (but the next Ubercon is the same weekend as the Mead Fest).

I was on my own for the weekend, which has it's pros and cons. Leading the list of the cons is simply not having friends to hang out and play games with. As it turns out I did know a few people at the convention, but they were mostly doing their own thing. Playing with strangers is ok, and after a game or two they aren't quite strangers, but playing with friends is far better. Being on my own also meant that I had to foot the entire bill for the weekend. I can afford to do that from time to time, but there would be more money to buy games with if I was splitting it with two or three (or six) people. On the plus side, I wasn't tied to anyone else's schedule, nor did I have anyone suggesting/requesting we leave the con to go get food or something silly like that (I had a total of two "meals" all weekend, with lots of snacks in between).

( What I did and saw... [part 1 - games] )

November snuck out the back door without paying, leaving me only a month to figure out how this year will end. 

( November )

( December and beyond )

jducoeur just posted this to the EK list (along with a whole bunch of other info about SCA at WorldCon):
"Thursday evening at Worldcon is "First Night": essentially a giant carnival, with games and activities largely organized by local clubs. We've [the SCA] got a decent-sized space (about 15' x 30') on the ConCourse there, and are signed up to do "Period Games and Activities" from 7-11pm."

Now I wish I was going to be there again.  I had convinced myself that I didn't need to go, and would probably just spend lots of money in the dealers room on books that I could probably get cheaper on-line, etc.  Sure, I just spent last week doing Period Games from 9 to 6 almost every day, but it's fun!

Anyone still need a Worldcon membership?  An acquaintance in Delaware is selling hers on eBay ($80 bid or $120 buy it now):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2261754643

Yes!  Steve Jackson is releasing "Get Nifty!" a card game based on the Sluggy Freelance comic.  This is cool, not only because I like the comic and I like Steve's games (although this one is not designed by him), but I've actually played the game already.  Pete and the designer, Rob Balder, first introduced it at Ubercon I, back in Feb '03.  At the time they had no publisher, just a design and a few sets they'd made.  Well, it turns out that Steve Jackson was also a guest of the con, and attended their game session.  After hearing them present the game (and asking some good questions) he joined a bunch of us in trying it out.  My friend Neale and I got into the same game with Steve, which was cool to begin with, but then I went and beat him :)  (but it did take some help from Neale)  I'm glad he went on to publish the game.

This was also the same con where Neale got to play Pictionary with Phil Foglio (very cool) and where we first saw the Gamers movie.  The rest of the con was pretty small, the dealer's room was tiny, and we only day tripped, so we missed getting snowed in by the blizzard, but its highlights more then made up for it.

I think I'll have to go back there this year.

Amy and I went down to Balticon this weekend.  We hung out with kathy_the_geek and Bryan, plus our friends John, Linda and Nicki.  Chatted with msmemory and met her friend  tpau.

We barely made it to the hotel in time to catch the Ookla the Mok concert, due to needing a different room from the one they first gave us (it hadn't been cleaned, and had food lying around).  We did get to hear most of the concert though.  The sound wasn't the greatest - the instruments kept drowning out the lyrics.  I picked up their latest album, "Oh Okay LA", after the show.

Lois McMaster Bujold was the writer guest of honor, and I got to hear her read from her next book (which sounds really good!) and speak on a few panels.  I forgot to bring anything to get signed, but I did that the last time I saw her, so I wasn't too put out.  My only complaint were all the fans asking variants on: "Do you have any plans to write about character X?" forcing her to respond over and over again that she only works on one book at a time and doesn't plan out or think about the next book until the current one is finished.

The musically guest was Heather Alexander - a favorite of mine.  She had a concert on Saturday afternoon - thankfully without any sound problems.  Great show - but no new CDs for me.  *sigh*

Sunday evening was their film festival.  They had eight short independent films to show us and then had us rank them.  They were going to announce the winner on Monday, but I forgot to check.  My personal favorite was "Fall of a Saga" one man's take on exactly what happened to cause George Lucas to make episode one the way he did.

The rest of the con was spent either running around the dealer's room, checking out the art show or sitting in panels.  I didn't get around to playing any games (*gasp*!), but still had a good time.

I got away with only getting nine new books:
  Manna From Heaven - Roger Zelazny  - previously uncollected short stories by one of my favorite authors
  The Complete Paratime - H. Beam Piper - because Bryan was talking about it and I liked Piper's other stuff
  Nightside the Long Sun - Gene Wolfe - I've got other books in the series and want them all before starting them
  The Last Hawk - Catherine Asaro - Got to meet the author and hear her speak a few times
  Janissaries - Jerry Pournelle - I've got book 2, wanted to start with book 1
  No Phule Like and Old Phule - Robert Asprin - Fun stuff from Asprin
  Myth-ion Improbable - Robert Asprin - More fun stuff from Asprin
  Red Thunder - John Varley - I've loved everything of John Varley's I've read
  The Dawn of Amber - John Betancourt - based on Zelazny's Amber series so it could be interesting.

I didn't get any this time, but everyone should have a link to Nancy Button's :)

Reading annathepiper's Norwestcon reports have gotten me thinking about Worldcon again.  It's up in Boston this year.  After several failed attempts they finally got it back.  The first Worldcon I attended was Noreascon 3 in 1989 in Boston.  When I was more actively attending cons, I supported each of the Boston bids - of course it's the one that I didn't support (because I'd stopped attending) that actually gets the bid :/ (supporting a bid and voting can get you a reduced membership - current membership price for Noreascon 4 is $180)

After Boston, I didn't attend for another three years - something about having to go to college and work and stuff.  A bunch of my college friends and I went down to the 50th Worldcon in Orlando (1992).  After that we attended everyone for a few years, ending finally with the one in Glasgow Scotland (1995).  That one was fun for a few reasons.  We had all graduated at that point and were moving out of Philadelphia.  We packed our stuff, put everything in storage, and went to the con.  When we got back, we pull everything out of storage and moved into our new place in Norristown.  After the convention, we spent a few days in London, then took the Chunnel over to Paris and spent a few days there.  I still hope to go back to England at some point, but I could do without a return visit to France.

After that I only made it to three more Worldcons, and those mostly because I had already bought the memberships for them or they were extremely local.  1997 San Antonio, 1998 Baltimore and 2001 Philadelphia.

I started attending Pennsic in 1996 and have only missed one since then - that's where my summers have gone.  Still Boston's not too far away, maybe I could hit Worldcon every three years.  Of course it's going back to Glasgow next year...