Balticon 42, Hunt Valley, Maryland — Monday, May 26, 2008
Got up early today, packed, got breakfast, and checked out before going to a panel called “Where’s HAL?” From the title, we figured it would be about AI and hopefully, where we stand now and where it’s going. Well, it was about AI but more about what it is and why we’re not where we expected to be. One interesting fact, iRobot says that based on customer calls, 3/4 of people who own a roomba or scooba name them. I know we named ours but it’s interesting that so many people do.
We then checked out the dealers room. We usually end up buying a few books from Larry Smith and this convention saw us picking up several books that hadn’t, for some reason, come across the SFRevu desk for review. Larry seems to always have some interesting books that don’t seem to show up anywhere else — and thus if you don’t see them at his table, you can’t be expected to know about them to ask about them from another seller. There were lots of nifty things in the dealers room but we mostly concentrated on books. Michael Walsh had some interesting titles — as he usually does. He’s another bookseller worth checking out (Old Earth Books).
Then we looked over the program book and figured we’d just head home. Perhaps we missed some really exciting program items this month but since the pocket program was very light on program descriptions, it was really hard to tell what they were about. When there were program descriptions, they didn’t do much more than elaborate on the title with no real detail. So, if I missed some great panels, let me know.
All in all, we had a great time. We got to connect with a lot of friends we don’t see that often outside of conventions. We did get to a few program items that were very interesting and informative. Connie Willis is always a treat. The art show was fabulous and I got a poppet with a cat mask by Lisa Snellings-Clark. We actually bid on two pieces but only got one. I’m so pleased she has the poppets available. I love her work but can’t afford any of her larger pieces so I enjoy them at each art show where they are displayed.
Then it was home again, home again, jiggity jig. And I’m ready to be home. Somehow, I injured my shoulder and caught a flu-ish bug. One of the side effects of working at home seems to be that you don’t get a daily dose of germs from being around people who swap germs just by breathing in the same air, shaking hands, and doing normal people greeting people stuff. So, every time I go to a convention, it seems I come home with some sort of bug that has to party in my system for a while.
Luckily, my next convention isn’t until July (ReaderCon). I should be raring to go by then.