Last weekend, I attended MileHiCon – a Science Fiction literature convention in Denver, CO. Jess and I have been going to MileHiCon pretty regularly for a while, but this is the first time that she has attended as a participant. Now that she’s a published author (and because she volunteered), she participated on and moderated some panels and fan forums which was pretty neat. For my part, I went to somewhat fewer panels this year, caught the 20 pound Critter Crunch tournament, and sought out some of the lower-key con activities to avoid burning out early. In this, I think I was mostly successful; on Sunday, I was tired, but not dead tired as has happened in previous years.

The Highlights

For me, the biggest highlight was watching and discussing Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a classic movie of my childhood, and one that I still very much enjoy as an adult. Getting the chance to talk about it with other adults was a real treat, especially as we drifted into other moves of the same era and the things they had in common.

I also had an unexpectedly good time at the Stargate Fan Forum (this one was moderated by Jess). While I don’t consider myself a gushing fan of Stargate, I have seen all the movies and TV series, so I was at least reasonably versed on the lore of the show. The fun part however, was talking about Stargate in the larger sci-fi/TV context – namely its presentation (thing-a-week vs extended lore), tone (SG1’s light, exploration tone, Universe’s dark and gritty), and tropes (body-swap episode, groundhog’s day episode – everyone had their favorite trope).

Lastly, as I mentioned above, I didn’t have a completely full schedule this year. Typically, I look at the schedule and simply block away all my con time in panels. While I do have the most fun in the panels, this year I took a lighter touch and only hit a few panels that I really wanted to see, and left the rest of my time free. This gave me a lot more space to wander around the con, get lunch, and recharge by not having 100% of my time focused and engaged on something. This made for a more laid-back con experience, and was pretty enjoyable overall.

Regrets

There were a couple of things I missed out on this year, even if the larger part is the highlights. I had planned ahead of time to 3D print Jess a sign for her name. Unfortunately, I did get this sorted out in time to actually make it happen, which was kind of a bummer. The other thing that I missed was playing Artemis. I never actually got around to making a reservation to play with friends, and didn’t really feel like dropping in with a bunch of strangers. Still, I probably should have at least done the latter – I do enjoy playing when I get the chance (which doesn’t come up that often).

Well, that’s my con experience in a nutshell – overall, I had a grand time, and I look forward to next year!