Penguicon 5.0: Day 2, Post Nadir
For me, the Convention Nadir really splits Day Two into two pieces. Around 8:00pm I DID set my table up again, and sat there for about 15 minutes at the bottom of Convention Nadir. "Why am I here? Am I going to be able to pay the bills doing this? Where is everybody?" And then, suddenly, people descended upon me, business boomed, conversations erupted, the caffeine finally kicked in, and I was back on my 'A' game (and up almost $300 from before dinner.) 
I can't list everybody I talked to, but two conversations in particular are worthy of reporting here: first, I had a great discussion with Yanni Kuznia, a local actress and model, and Connie Mangilin from the production team of InZer0, a local SF series in which the lovely (read: hawt, talented, and married) Ms. Kuznia (right) appears. At some point they're sending me a DVD, which I shall cheerfully view and review for Schlockers worldwide. Indie-film SF makes me happy just by virtue of its existence. Imagine my joy if I find I LIKE it. 
The second was Dave Klecha, with whom I discussed the recent dust-up in the SFWA, an organization in which I may someday qualify to hold membership. Said dust-up centers around two things: first, the current leadership is on the ballot uncontested, which is a stupid way to run any election-based system, and second, one of said leaders (Howard Hendricks, a neo-luddite with whom I'm increasingly uncomfortable sharing a given name) thinks that people who publish their work for free on the Internet are, and I quote, "Webscabs." I shall write more on this later, outside my convention report. For now, have a look at David Klecha's commentary. He accuses me of being both a webscab AND polite. Far be it from me to disabuse him of either notion. Back to the event... around 11:00pm I packed my stuff back into my room and began roaming the halls. I could write 1,000 words or more on the next four hours of my life, but I'll just say that the conversations were wonderful, and I've friended a number of LJ users as a direct result. Randy, Gina, Kat, Nathan, Famous Randy, Erin, Dave, Ferrett, Mike, Steve, Hope... thanks! I had a great time, and I'll be mining those experiences for humorous anecdotes for years to come. Kat especially. I liked the part where, during the course of a group discussion with Kat, Ferrett, Gina, Randy, and others I let slip that I'll be 40 next year, and Kat gasped and announced with dread-though-tipsy seriousness "you're OLD!" I wandered back to my room at around 3:30, and was asleep by about 4:00am. Sleep deprivation would be settling in for a long stay with me on Day 3...