SoonerCon Report

This past weekend, we went to Soonercon. This is a science fiction convention held in Oklahoma City. The trip there was interesting. On the way there, I realized:

North Texas is flatter than southern Oklahoma.

I want to go up there in the fall and take some pictures.

Oklahoma City is smaller than I thought it would be.

We arrived at the con hotel and met up with a friend with Baen’s Bar. Afterwords, we went to the opening ceremonies. As I expected, John Ringo was hilarious. He complained about some tornadoes when he flew in. Until he has been in a trailer with two tornadoes going by either end, he doesn’t have much reason to complain. Also, toss him some moon pies the next time you see him. The panels he was on the next day were great. He was humorous and very supportive of the other authors. Meeting Miriam (his girlfriend) was great too. She is very intelligent and cute as a button.

There was a con withing the con called Sinnercon. The highlight of this was a ball/entertainment stage show on Saturday night. The “entertainment” was a belly dance troop and a “burlesque” troop. The belly dancers were OK, but their routines were repetitive. The best way to describe the burlesque troop is nihilistic. The dancers (except for one) all acted angry in their routines. One routine involved one of the girls stomping on stuff and breaking it. Their routines were also repetitive while their announcer insisted on insulting the audience. All-in-all, a very unenjoyable experience.

The con itself was ok, though I had one gripe. At other cans I’ve been to, they kept the gaming and the video rooms open at all times. This way, if nothing else, you could go to one of these if you were board. Soonercon shut down both of these for the ball. Since I don’t care for most room parties (to crowded and noisy for my taste), I ended up going back to my room.

I also discovered I need to get a pocket digital camera. I only took a couple of pictures. They are below the cut: