Review: Balticon

As ever, on Memorial Day weekend, readers, writers, fans, podcasters, gamers, costumers, and fans of all stripes make the trek to Hunt Valley for Balticon, and as ever, is was a blast!

The Good:
Dr. Holtz gave the annual dinosaur update where the big topic of conversation was the evidence that T-Rex had feathers!
Rich Sternback's panel about designing for Star Trek
Compton Crook winners T.C. McCarthy (last year) and Myke Cole (this year). Both guys are fun to listen to, talk to, and watch (especially as they interact with each other on twitter).
Winning a copy of Interstellar Travel and Multi-Generational Space Ships by Yoji Kondo just by walking into the Con Suite!

Finally getting to meet John G Hemry/Jack Campbell, the author of one of my favorite military sci-fi series.
The Masquerade had some great costumes.
The Short Film Fest
Maria V. Snyder's writing workshops. I always find these so inspirational.
Getting to play San Juan, a city building card game, and the guy from the game room who showed us how to play.
The multicreatives panel:

Getting to see so many friends!
People in costume:

The Bad:
All of the stuff that conflicted with other stuff I wanted to go to
I'm always disappointed by the lack of RPGs that get played in the game room.
The XenoArchiology panel was disappointing. The basic idea was that the panelists were shown modern items, and asked to explain them as if they were archeologists from the future. The results were less than inspiring.
In spite of the pics above, it seemed like there were fewer people in costume in the halls this year.
Missing friends who couldn't make it this year.

If it seems like I'm nit-picking with The Bad, it's because there was really little to complain about!

The Ugly
There were a few instances of misogynistic behavior that were disappointing.

All in all I had a wonderful time, and I'm really looking forward to next year. The Guest of Honor is someone you might know - Brandon Sanderson, with Robert Jordan as the Ghost of Honor!