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Belated post FurFright report
Oct. 20th, 2011 09:42 pmThis past weekend was FurFright. (www.furfright.org) Overall it was not that great a weekend for me, but that was not the fault of the convention. Monday before the con was columbus day holiday, so work was closed, and I was taking a vacation day friday so I could be at the con on friday. And I had a full weeks worth of work to acomplish tuesday through thursday. So I was working 9 hour days those three days, and nearly had to come in friday morning for a couple hours to finish things. So I started the weekend pre-exhausted.
Picked up Mykul at Riverside MBTA station as planned, and we drove down to scenic Cromwell, CT. Checked into the super8, and as warned, I got a smoking room. Hotel didn't have an ionizer either, and the tiny ionizer I'd brought with me was unable to cope with the stench. So I had to take lots extra antihistamine to cope with that, further screwing with my body over the weekend. Saturday night, I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, and saw big bugs crawling on the walls of the hotel room. Bugs creep the heck out of me, so this was profoundly distrubing. I almost got dressed to go sleep in my car the rest of the night, but realized that since sunrise was only two hours away at the time, was not worth it. I really didn't get any more sleep that night. Checking out, I got some plastic bags to bag up my luggage and everything else I was taking out of the hotel room, and when I got home, flooded all of the above with stuff that was toxic to bugs. Unfortunately, when I was checking my luggage today to dump everything into the wash, I couldn't find my dealers room purchases. I fear I left them in the hotel room. If I did, I don't want them now.
Got to the game room at the con Friday, met up with DaveC and Littlewolf and we dealt blackjack for the blackjack tournament friday evening. There was about 20 entrants, and folks seemed to have fun. Unfortunately, the tables were a little to low for me to deal comfortably, and I ended up with a sore back by the end of the evening. Saturday morning, the sore back was rather a torment, and I spent time looking for naprosyn at the local drug store. My back remained very sore for the remainder of the weekend, further cutting into my enjoyment of the weekend.
Saturday I did the con. toured the dealers room and spent money there. less than I had budgeted, as not much really appealed to me. The fursuit parade in the afternoon was the usual assortment of greats, near greats, and also-rans. Saturday evening, I split my time between observing the poker tournament and visiting room parties. Room parties were less than stellar. All of them had one or more of the things I regard as party killers. (specifically, video games, loud music, and/or excess alcohol consumption)
There were also things that the folks running the con were doing that I regarded as a waste of resources and or annoyances. In no particular order they were: Not preprinting the badges for pre-reg. So the pre-reg line was for me about 45 minutes, but the at the door line was only about ten minutes at the same time. Making all attendees sign a 'code of conduct'. Which is a complete waste of member's time and a waste of paper. The convention doesn't need the signature of a member on some code of conduct agreement to yank their convention membership for valid reasons. The overly obtrusive presence of the Dorsai Irregulars doing convention security. Yes, they are effective, but it is my belief that their style of active management of convention activities and members produces more people who are looking for ways to violate the spirit of the rules of the convention while complying with the letter of the rules. ( see: malicious compliance) The convention has a large percentage of underage members, and they were identifying members badges who were underage, as well as requiring parental permission slips for them to attend. There were no adults-only art show or dealers room, or any other adults-only convention events that I knew of. So I don't understand why the convention was going to all that effort for the underage folks.
I did finally get to meet Tabbiewolf, who was as nice in person as I hoped. Beerhorse was not there, so the microbrew beers that I had brought for her to enjoy were left ungiftable. So I traded them to Tabbiewolf for artwork to be drawn for me at a later date. She also drew my up a nice badge with I need to get a photo of to post to my furaffinity account.
Overall, kind of a crappy weekend for me, but most of the bad stuff was nothing the convention had anything to do with. I'm planning to go back next year. This time I am gonna get a room in the main hotel though. I'm considering running a room party saturday evening, one that doesn't have loud music, video games, or alcohol. Just folks socializing and having fun. Since there is already a vore party and a cake party. I'm thinking maybe a theme of "Nom, Nom, Nom, COOKIES!", what do you think?
Picked up Mykul at Riverside MBTA station as planned, and we drove down to scenic Cromwell, CT. Checked into the super8, and as warned, I got a smoking room. Hotel didn't have an ionizer either, and the tiny ionizer I'd brought with me was unable to cope with the stench. So I had to take lots extra antihistamine to cope with that, further screwing with my body over the weekend. Saturday night, I woke up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, and saw big bugs crawling on the walls of the hotel room. Bugs creep the heck out of me, so this was profoundly distrubing. I almost got dressed to go sleep in my car the rest of the night, but realized that since sunrise was only two hours away at the time, was not worth it. I really didn't get any more sleep that night. Checking out, I got some plastic bags to bag up my luggage and everything else I was taking out of the hotel room, and when I got home, flooded all of the above with stuff that was toxic to bugs. Unfortunately, when I was checking my luggage today to dump everything into the wash, I couldn't find my dealers room purchases. I fear I left them in the hotel room. If I did, I don't want them now.
Got to the game room at the con Friday, met up with DaveC and Littlewolf and we dealt blackjack for the blackjack tournament friday evening. There was about 20 entrants, and folks seemed to have fun. Unfortunately, the tables were a little to low for me to deal comfortably, and I ended up with a sore back by the end of the evening. Saturday morning, the sore back was rather a torment, and I spent time looking for naprosyn at the local drug store. My back remained very sore for the remainder of the weekend, further cutting into my enjoyment of the weekend.
Saturday I did the con. toured the dealers room and spent money there. less than I had budgeted, as not much really appealed to me. The fursuit parade in the afternoon was the usual assortment of greats, near greats, and also-rans. Saturday evening, I split my time between observing the poker tournament and visiting room parties. Room parties were less than stellar. All of them had one or more of the things I regard as party killers. (specifically, video games, loud music, and/or excess alcohol consumption)
There were also things that the folks running the con were doing that I regarded as a waste of resources and or annoyances. In no particular order they were: Not preprinting the badges for pre-reg. So the pre-reg line was for me about 45 minutes, but the at the door line was only about ten minutes at the same time. Making all attendees sign a 'code of conduct'. Which is a complete waste of member's time and a waste of paper. The convention doesn't need the signature of a member on some code of conduct agreement to yank their convention membership for valid reasons. The overly obtrusive presence of the Dorsai Irregulars doing convention security. Yes, they are effective, but it is my belief that their style of active management of convention activities and members produces more people who are looking for ways to violate the spirit of the rules of the convention while complying with the letter of the rules. ( see: malicious compliance) The convention has a large percentage of underage members, and they were identifying members badges who were underage, as well as requiring parental permission slips for them to attend. There were no adults-only art show or dealers room, or any other adults-only convention events that I knew of. So I don't understand why the convention was going to all that effort for the underage folks.
I did finally get to meet Tabbiewolf, who was as nice in person as I hoped. Beerhorse was not there, so the microbrew beers that I had brought for her to enjoy were left ungiftable. So I traded them to Tabbiewolf for artwork to be drawn for me at a later date. She also drew my up a nice badge with I need to get a photo of to post to my furaffinity account.
Overall, kind of a crappy weekend for me, but most of the bad stuff was nothing the convention had anything to do with. I'm planning to go back next year. This time I am gonna get a room in the main hotel though. I'm considering running a room party saturday evening, one that doesn't have loud music, video games, or alcohol. Just folks socializing and having fun. Since there is already a vore party and a cake party. I'm thinking maybe a theme of "Nom, Nom, Nom, COOKIES!", what do you think?
