Penguicon 2013

After a co-worker recommended it I decided to go to Penguicon 2013 yesterday. It was awesome! By far the coolest part was getting to meet legendary filk (sci-fi / fantasy folk) musician Tom Smith who, as you might expect from a folk musician, is even better live than recorded. I only had $10 in cash on me but it was exactly enough to buy his #1 live CD (Homecoming: MarCon 2005). His often comedic music ranges from ballads about beer, sci-fi, Babylon 5, Dune, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter to amazing songs about wanting to grow up to be Peter Lorre, Winnie the Pooh being possessed by Cthulu, and even the official theme song of Talk Like a Pirate Day (yeah, he's that guy).

But it didn't stop there. I learned a wee bit more than I knew about heavy duty javascript programming and the latest in parallel programming in C#. A guy who has worked for a major telecom was there with some amazing anecdotes about the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A western martial arts school from Farmington Hills did a demo of long sword, sword + shield, quarterstaff, and pole-arm combat. And to top it all off - an amazing panel of Norse mythology and Thor / The Avengers fans. If the schedule for next year looks anywhere near this good I will definitely be attending again.



View | POSTED BY Robert Otlowski ON April 28, 2013 @ 9:54 am EST