Balticon, or Nerds Taking Over a Hotel and Having Lots of Fun

Tom came up and Fran came down and the four of us went to Balticon, a little north of the actual city of Baltimore.

Things we did:

Wore appropriate T-shirts dealing with Star Trek, Babylon 5 (I'm delighted my "Ivanova quotation" shirt still elicits happy recognition from many fellow B5 fans.

Bought books (duh).

Chatted with up-and-coming webcomic artists including the creators of Snow By Night.

Met a small boy in a crayon-red Dalek costume his parents had made.

Attended lectures on current medical research on depression and on how to analyze a medical-journal article.

Ate homemade pasta at an excellent local Italian restaurant.

Saw gorgeous, grotesque and humorous artwork from paintings of cats (always a beloved subject) to a Rube-Goldberg-like steampunk-style contraption.


Sang along with a professional classical pianist as she played "Desperado," "Piano Man," and "Your Song." We also sang the closing song from Portal (it's a computer game.)


Stuff I did on my own:

Danced Victorian-era dances at the Steampunk ball, older traditional dances as the Medieval Dance, and to contemporary music at the Time Travelers' Ball.

Went to a workshop called "Cthulu in a Hat" where the moderator pulled three random items out of a hat and three authors had to write a story incorporating all three items. For example: a Goth-style bracelet, a bumper sticker, and a stingray (the animal, not the car). Audience members could write too, and later that day we read our stories for the group. Great fun and an excellent creative writing exercise!

Met two highly excitable teenage Hetalia fans, costumed as Hungary and Russia. We had a delightful five minutes talking about the anime together.

Sat in on a live podcast.

Attended a "Needleworkers' Tea" where I saw all kinds of knitting projects in the making, drank tea, ate scones and cucumber sandwiches, admired medieval-style embroidery, and worked on a small quilting project I've been neglecting for about 4 years.

Chatted about cats (and bragged about Ivan, of course) at a late-night party.