It is not unusual that the final day of Condor is a partial day with light programming, but as this is the final year of existence, at least according to the all knowing Mayans, the committee decided to stuff in a lot of programming on Condor’s final day.

The first panel of the day was on the Ethics of First Contact. Naturally this repeated some of the same ground as the practical problems with establishing communications, but also delved deeper into the issues of what do you say and how concerned should we be about our side of the equation.

The second panel dealt with Science-Fiction as social commentary and had lots of good examples and of course treads the ground that no work or art can be created isolated from its culture.

My sweetie-wife went her own way while I went to a the Christian end times in media and literature. This was really an interesting panel if for no other reason than to hear different people, some Christians, some various flavor of the creed, discussing their interpretation of the book of Revelation and just how far and deep the symbols are in western culture.

Next was the most surprisingly presentation. My friend and fellow Mysterious Galaxy Writers’ Group scribbler J.M. Perkin gave a presentation on urban survival skills. Turns out he was raised by Christian End Times survivalist (dove tailed nicely with the previous panel) and so he’s been stepped in this knowledge from childhood. He knew his stuff and gave an effective, entertaining, and knowledgeable talk.  (It was surprising for his background; I was totally expecting J.M. to nail the talk. I could learn a lot from him about how to network.)

I moved from Urban Survival to learning about the local star systems. Whil this presentation didn’t cover as many stars as I would have like, it did give me a number of idea for setting for future stories and like many of the presentations was greatly entertaining.

We closed out the Con with a panel on the Moon landing hoax myth and discussions as to why so many seem to believe it.

All in all this was one of the best Condors and a damn fun con. Good job everyone!