Capclave went rather well. I ended up doing more of my usual routine of settling into the con suite/game room and less panels than I'd originally intended, but I had a good time introducing a few people to Kingsburg (I ended up playing three games over the weekend, making it about the only game from the traveling collection that saw any real use, if you don't count bringing the Revolution box to protect a couple prints and a sketch from the Erfworld party).

Saturday night was a bit abbreviated because starmalachite hadn't been sleeping well, so we left as soon as I acquired the aforementioned sketch (a two-part sketch, actually, part by outgoing artist Jamie Noguchi and part by incoming artist Xin Ye). On the other hand, we returned Sunday (originally, we'd been planning to make one last visit to the Maryland Ren Faire for the season, but between the mud and starmalachite not really feeling up to that long a drive, we decided to catch the rest of the con instead). That gave us a chance to see a panel on the significance of the Civil War (featuring author GoH Harry Turtledove, of course) and get in one more Kingsburg game.

The con also gave me a chance to experiment with the video camera we got last week. So far, the results look good; now I need to figure out how to do format-conversion and turn the pictures sideways. (I held the camera sideways, figuring that that would better frame a single standing person; this may have been a mistake.)

Now to get ready for OVFF (first step, review this example of How Not To Deal With Airport Security).

Ganked from batyatoon:

( Icon Meme.... )

Saturday I got up in time for the hotel buffet (standard breakfast fare, with a better-than-usual fruit selection to offset the high-calorie greasy stuff) and then caught a webcomics panel. I managed to trigger two "yeah, that's another comic that's interesting because..." moments, one with my Erfworld PLOT shirt and once by mentioning Breakfast of the Gods during the "audience recommendation" section toward the end.

After that, I went over to the gaming area for a while and got in a game of Alhambra and one of Settlers of Catan. The latter went particularly well (2-for-1 rock port, rock on 5, rock on 8 -- rock on!). A group of us (me, starmalachite, gorgeousgary, the_sheryl , and madfilkentist) went out to Pei Wei for dinner, and after that I mostly settled down in the filk area until I finally crashed out.

Sunday I got up early enough to pack my stuff and take it out to the car before breakfast. By the time I was finished, starmalachite was up and about, and we finished getting out of the room in time for her to get to her noon panel while I finished loading the car. We did some last wanderings and dealer-room checks, and then settled down for a game of Cities and Knights with Marc Drexler, Eric Raymond, and somebody whose name I'm blanking on. This game, I never could get any traction, and more or less marked time until Eric won.

We headed out to a local Japanese place with Michael Feldman and Marli Kennedy, then headed home to three clingy cats.

Despite getting off to a somewhat late start, we got to the con hotel with about an hour to check in and find our way around before starmalachite's first panel ("Will The Real Sci-Fi Channel Please Stand Up?") After that, we went to dinner at Friendly's -- adequate but not particularly great; we're planning to try the local Asian place tonight.

After dinner, I alternated between random wandering and listening in the filk room until we crashed at around 2:00. I picked Monty Python Fluxx and a few other miscellaneous gaming items. I also picked up the first volume of Evil, Inc., and after getting about a third of the way through it went back for the other two. (I got all three autographed, and Captain Heroic on the sketch page of Vol. 3). That covers most of what looks interesting in the dealer's room that I don't already have.

Heading off for a 1:00 panel; more later.

starmalachite and I caught our flight (the timing was a bit close for comfort, but we didn't run into any snags and got to the gate just as boarding was beginning). I was a bit worried that we'd have to wait for our luggage, but it showed up normally.

We got to the hotel and met some of the other early arrivals. Then, we went back to the room for a while; starmalachite took a nap while I worked up a LOLpic from an idea I'd gotten on the flight. (The image is from the latest page of the webcomic Erfworld, and the humor of the pic, such as it is, probably doesn't work all that well if you aren't familiar with that context.). I then returned to the function space and picked up my badge, There was still a bit of time before opening ceremonies, so I played a game of Thurn and Taxis with mnemex and mrgoodwraith.

I met starmalachite at opening ceremonies. Con attendance this year looks pretty heavy, judging from the crowd there (and the fact that some people I knew were coming hadn't arrived yet). After the ceremony was the traditional GAFilk quiz show and instafilk writing entertainment, followed by filkertom's concert (which was excellent even by the standard I expect from him).

The con then broke into open filk mode over several rooms. I wandered a while, but was starting to fade out and crashed around 1 AM.

I'm back from Philcon -- the con organization left a few things to be desired, but in general I had a good time. I spent less time gaming and more at panels than usual (including a particularly interesting webcomics panel that was the start of partiallyclips' marathon of six panels in eight hours -- I mentioned something about the con organization, right?)

I might comment more later, for now I'll just throw out a few random items:

New custom button: Terrorists can attack freedom. Only governments can destroy it.

Notable dealer's room acquisitions: Caylus: Magna Carta; a batch of Erfworld postcards; Dr. SETI's latest CDs and the two I needed to fill in my FuMP set.

Now to give Satin her subcutaneous fluids and crash out for the night.

Went to see Stardust with starmalachite last night. I'll concur with what seems to be the general consensus -- not quite up there with The Princess Bride (the obvious point of comparison) but definitely worth seeing.

Also finished up an Erfworld filk (somewhat spoilery, as it describes a subplot about halfway through the projected length of the the current storyline).

The Friday night gaming session went particularly well; I handily won games of Puerto Rico (for the first time -- much as I like it, I never seemed to get the hang of its strategy, but this time everything just seemed to click into place) and the new "Power and Glory" version of Thurn and Taxis. (The name struck me as a bit odd; "Power and Glory" seems like it ought to be the name of an old-fashioned combat wargame instead of a classic resource-management German boardgame. It may have something to do with the historical background of the game(s).) That degree of success surprised me a bit; my brain had been dragging a bit all week for some reason.

We finished the evening with the Alhambra dice game; I didn't do as well in that but I think I've got a feel for the strategy for next time.

I also hit upon a graphics-tweaking trick for the Erfworld cartoon image I most often use as a userpic to make the "kritch skritch" sound effect come out clearly at userpic size.

(As credited in my userpic notes, Erfworld is copyright 2006 by Rob Balder and Jamie Noguchi. I adapted and used the art under the Creative Commons License (attribution, noncommercial, share-alike, as indicated by the icons to the lower left of the giant Elvises creating the world) and the specific policy statement re this image.)

Now, I need to go mow the lawn. I've been looking for a lawn service (my Puritan streak was trumped by the fact that I come out ahead both financially and aggrivationally by spending the same hours putting in overtime at the office), but most of them seem to be oriented toward people who want a parade-ground perfect lawn rather than people who are satisfied if the neighbors don't show up with pitchforks and torches. (The most lawn-obsessed person I've ever met was the same one with the most pronounced "get a life" attitude toward fandom. Go figure.)