Fiction, fantasy, and fandom on Broad Street Words

I am reading an article on RavenCon 2008, Fiction, fantasy, and fandom on Broad Street Words by Christopher Howard, on Urge's website http://www.urgeonline.com/.
I enjoy RavenCon every year.
I went for one day in 2006, and attended a few panel discussions.
I went for two days in 2007, and attended more panel discussions.
This year, I went for two days, and attended two panel discussions.
I spent a lot of time in the Con Suit, meeting and chatting with people.
I spent a lot of time in the Games Room, watching BattleTech, Dungeons and Dragons, and Zombie games in progress.
I was getting familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons Core Rules version 3.5 to use with the Black Company Campaign Setting, before this convention.
The first time I played D&D I used the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook.*
And I have not played in years.
So I was not ready to get into the D&D game using 4.0 rules.
I spent some time in the Dealers Room looking at art and books.
The guest writer this year, Celia S. Friedman, was very interesting.
I enjoyed the comedy of Luna-C.
The costume Masquerade, had a few people in it, however their costumes were good if not great.
There was a couple(who were elves), a southern belle, a Runner from the movie Logan's Run, a faire or two, and a young Jedi Knight.
I saw Jim between panel discussions.
I saw Al, Nick and Andrew between turns at the BattleTech game.

*In memory of Gary Gygax