Bay.con

[Drunk Monk]

Odd way to spend the 4th. 
It’s at the Marriott on Great America parkway near the stadium called Levi’s again, so there’s a big fifa standee. 
So many nerds. No cosplay hawtties (yet). A few bad cross dressers.

Already interviews the light saber group & a knife maker. Waiting for the martial arts dude - a swordplay recreationist, the type the maestro & I disdain.

Came a little too early because my parking will cost a lot if I stay past 4 hours. Might leave & comeback.

[Drunk Monk]

D00M eyes only
With advanced apologies to the maestro, it seems dm has embarked on a series of articles thst might be dubbed ‘sword clowns’

[Greg]

Ruh roh.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Sigh. You gotta do whatcha gotta do.

[Drunk Monk]

I’ll give them the platform and let the readers decide. 

It’s akin to the 36 Strategies ‘kill with a borrowed knife’.

---

Bay.con was odd. Everyone was very friendly there. It was open for anyone to let their nerd banner wave. Lots of rent faire/dickens faire staff, steam punk, lots of male cross dressers, afrofuturism, a cooling hydration room for furries called the 'headless' room (some furries don't like to unmask like Disneyland characters or mascots). There were a few dozen vendors, lots of indie press, some adornment and art, tea, some kinda cool franchise Hawaiian style shirts, games. I hung out in the anime room and watched some of this crazy one from 2008, didn't get the title unfortunately. 

I talked to a vendor selling homemade knives with bone, horn and semiprecious stone. She was pleasant.

Talked to the LightSaber Team but their story didn't quite check out. one guy was new and flew in. The other guy answered questions but didn't make any eye contact at all, another asian dude with a scraggly mustache and beard - you'd think we'd connect better. He may have been intimidated by me. I have that effect on some nerds. They sense that they're outgunned. or outsabered. 

I broke for lunch at Pizza my Heart across the street to dodge hotel food prices and lack of quality. Watched the World Cup from there. 

I went back and bumped into my friend, who gave me a cute gift bag with a Improbability drive, an odd plastic figurine that I can't identify, and the commemorative towel, which has the 2026 con logo on one side and is white on the other. It's the 42 Bay.con, themed 'the answer' and the white towel & rive are nods to Hitchhikers Guide obvs. I like the towel. After I read that book series, I kept a white towel in my car for years. I still might have one in there but my main towel is black because Darth has a black interior and it's an old magician's trick using black cloth to make things disappear (Darth has no trunk so anything left in it must be hidden). 

But I digress. My friend wanted to show me off and introduce me to a bunch of people. As I said, he can be a bit much, and as he doled out my praises with every intro, I began to wonder if being associated with him might carry some stigma. But it's a warmly accepting community and I'm happy that he's found his place there. Met a lot of people, some interesting, some less so, but all friendly. He took me on a tour which was cool, got me backstage so to speak, into staff areas and the aforementioned headless room (but no necked furries there, which I think I am grateful for). It was actually very nice and fun. We made a clean break, then I went to interview the sword master, Steaphan Fick (I had to type that in several times because spelchuk denies it)

Maestro, I suspect you know Fick, yes?