Just got back from the festivities at this year's BayCon. I had a great time, and I think everyone else did, too.

The convention had moved this year from its longtime location at the Doubletree Hotel in San Jose to the Marriott in San Mateo. The hotel was small, had a weird internal layout that made it hard to find panel rooms, and was a bit lacking in places to just hang out, but was otherwise very pleasant. The hotel staff were particularly friendly and seemed to be delighted to have all of us there. (Something that I don't particularly remember of the Doubletree staff.) Some of the waitresses in the hotel restaurant even started collecting badge ribbons.

I spent an awful lot of time sitting either on the pool deck or in the hotel restaurant, drinking coffee and conversing with assorted interesting people. I did make it to two panels. The first was "The Evolution of Doctor Who", which was a somewhat rambling but interesting set of musings on the differences between old and new Doctor Who, and what future directions the show might take. (Much fun as everyone tries to talk at once. Also, much mayhem when the guy with the remote controlled K-9 showed up. I love remote controlled K-9, but don't bring him to a panel, ok?) The second was "CSI: Dark Ages" - a discussion of how you would solve crimes with Dark Ages technology. A wide-ranging subject - it sort of felt like we just skimmed over various ideas without really exploring them in depth.

I went to a couple of "Birds of a Feather" events - where like-minded fans gather for discussion. One for "Life on Mars", where I was one of two people present. (And I haven't even seen the show. Talking with the other fan there convinced me that I need to seek it out, though.) The other was for Doctor Who, where we got a whopping four people, and swapped recommendations for audio books and audio plays. (Considering that the Doctor Who panel was filled to capacity, I'd expected more people, but we had fun.)

I'm not sure why the Birds of a Feather events aren't more popular - you're guaranteed a group of fans with whom you have at least one thing in common, and you're given a sure-fire topic of conversation. Admittedly, this was the first year I'd ever attended a BOF event, because they're usually oriented around TV shows or specific fannish subcultures, and until I rediscovered the joys of the recent British SF television revival, there weren't many that appealed to me.

I learned to make chain mail! I spent 2 hours at a chain-mail making workshop, learning a very basic 4-in-1 pattern. It was lots of fun - I think I could get into it.

As usual, the costume-watching was interesting. Pirates made a strong showing this year, though not as overwhelming as I might have expected with the new movie coming out. For women, corsetry is big - everyone seemed to be wearing a corset. Classic Star Trek made an unexpected comeback, with lots of redshirts in evidence. There were fewer Klingons than I've seen some years. There was one very fetching Doctor Who-themed pair (the Tenth Doctor and Madame de Pompadour).

And I shopped in the dealer's room, acquiring a new Jon Courtenay Grimwood novel, a toy Dalek, and a fetching plaid newsboy's cap.

And I drank too much coffee, and got too little sleep. So I'm going to sign off now. Hope everyone else had a fantastic holiday weekend!