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Fur The 'More 2024 report
a year ago
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And doth the Drygerskunk posteth: It's the weekend after Fur The 'More in DC... and the Post-Con Depression is still hitting.
Lets start at the beginning. Shall we?
Beforehand, a fellow fur
Sabrina-taur was due for a FCC radio license test, as it's needed for her to pilot boats in Boston's harbor (she does commuter boat runs for MBTA). She was going to wait a bit, since she has an aversion to driving... but while discussing this on Telegram I check on the site and notice one of the testing groups is located near me in Maryland. So I said "Sabrina, fuck that, get your ass down here to me early, get off at BWI, I'll pick you up and the next day I'm driving you to the test, and THEN to the con."
Sabrina said "Okay..."
Wednesday, I pick her up, get her fed and we chat a bit at my house before retiring for the night. She couch-surfs overnight.
Thursday, we go down to Severna Park where the group is located, and wait for her to pass the test (she passes in 25 minutes). We then go down to go full-on tourist in Annapolis, having lunch there and picking up a few things, before heading into DC proper. I take an easier route this time (US 50 to I-495 to US-1 to hotel). We get things settled at the hotel (with Sabrina rooming with Fergus off the Modular Furs Telegram group), I hit up with roomie
Ebonyrubberwolf and we're all good.
Friday, we do the regular hotel buffet routine, attend opening ceremonies, and make our rounds in the dealers den. I put in for some fresh new badges and some artwork, before getting lunch, hanging around the zoo to crank on the commission queue (got 'em flat colors in, so soon!), and then an IT Meet & Greet panel where I score myself an older Linksys router with the "Fresh Tomoto" firmware on it.
Saturday, I decided, why not, throw $50 at the charity raffle for 10 tickets. The iPad Pro + pencil was too tempting. I also pick up some art and write up a short story relating to the convention in a story realm I'm playing in.
The real fun came at 5pm when the "Who is Hatsune Miku? An Intro to VOCALOID" panel came up. I already know what those two are (VOCALOID being a program that lets you have a "voice bank" sing a song you write, and Hatsune Miku is a popular "voice bank"), but not how the program works. So I roll in about 12 minutes ahead of time. Two mad lads come in afterwards, get immediately bored, and decide to set up the projector. They get a laptop connected to the internet using a cell phone on a chair that barely gets a signal, and it's janky as fuck... but it works and they get 240p video playing of Youtube. Videos of Hatsune Miku, of course.
Another 20 minutes later, though, no presenter, and Fur The 'More staff go to find them. Turns out the main presenter, roflfox, decided not to come and didn't tell the staff. So the two mad lads were made unofficial presenters and it turned into another meet-up. I had to laugh.
Sunday, I didn't have anything but closing ceremonies and just hung out in the zoo, with an occasional trip up to pick up artwork. I did pick up a NFC band and programmed it for my main website. It also came with a button which got programmed to the Throng site.
Closing ceremonies came, and I won the iPad Pro/Apple Pencil combo. I went up and claimed the prize. After closing ceremonies, we hit up Bozzelli's Pizza one last time and met with a Maryland state employee (I'm a former employee). We trade a bit of shop talk over dinner, and then ERW and I went up and crashed.
Monday, after breakfast, checking out, and hugging ERW bye, I head back out on the roads (reverse the way I came) and stop off at my sister's house. Turns out the iPad Pro I have, while two generations behind, also has the cell radio in it yet be the same size, so it would of been a side-grade rather than an up-grade. So I chat with sis and drop the setup off for her kids to use, while her dogs barked, then looked at me and then demanded pets.
All in all, rather good con. Unfortunately, it will be moved -- a set of unfortunate events occurred and the hotel contract was reportedly canceled, so another hotel was set up in haste. Hopefully a new hotel will be signed on early... and maybe in Baltimore proper?
Lets start at the beginning. Shall we?
Beforehand, a fellow fur
Sabrina-taur was due for a FCC radio license test, as it's needed for her to pilot boats in Boston's harbor (she does commuter boat runs for MBTA). She was going to wait a bit, since she has an aversion to driving... but while discussing this on Telegram I check on the site and notice one of the testing groups is located near me in Maryland. So I said "Sabrina, fuck that, get your ass down here to me early, get off at BWI, I'll pick you up and the next day I'm driving you to the test, and THEN to the con."Sabrina said "Okay..."
Wednesday, I pick her up, get her fed and we chat a bit at my house before retiring for the night. She couch-surfs overnight.
Thursday, we go down to Severna Park where the group is located, and wait for her to pass the test (she passes in 25 minutes). We then go down to go full-on tourist in Annapolis, having lunch there and picking up a few things, before heading into DC proper. I take an easier route this time (US 50 to I-495 to US-1 to hotel). We get things settled at the hotel (with Sabrina rooming with Fergus off the Modular Furs Telegram group), I hit up with roomie
Ebonyrubberwolf and we're all good.Friday, we do the regular hotel buffet routine, attend opening ceremonies, and make our rounds in the dealers den. I put in for some fresh new badges and some artwork, before getting lunch, hanging around the zoo to crank on the commission queue (got 'em flat colors in, so soon!), and then an IT Meet & Greet panel where I score myself an older Linksys router with the "Fresh Tomoto" firmware on it.
Saturday, I decided, why not, throw $50 at the charity raffle for 10 tickets. The iPad Pro + pencil was too tempting. I also pick up some art and write up a short story relating to the convention in a story realm I'm playing in.
The real fun came at 5pm when the "Who is Hatsune Miku? An Intro to VOCALOID" panel came up. I already know what those two are (VOCALOID being a program that lets you have a "voice bank" sing a song you write, and Hatsune Miku is a popular "voice bank"), but not how the program works. So I roll in about 12 minutes ahead of time. Two mad lads come in afterwards, get immediately bored, and decide to set up the projector. They get a laptop connected to the internet using a cell phone on a chair that barely gets a signal, and it's janky as fuck... but it works and they get 240p video playing of Youtube. Videos of Hatsune Miku, of course.
Another 20 minutes later, though, no presenter, and Fur The 'More staff go to find them. Turns out the main presenter, roflfox, decided not to come and didn't tell the staff. So the two mad lads were made unofficial presenters and it turned into another meet-up. I had to laugh.
Sunday, I didn't have anything but closing ceremonies and just hung out in the zoo, with an occasional trip up to pick up artwork. I did pick up a NFC band and programmed it for my main website. It also came with a button which got programmed to the Throng site.
Closing ceremonies came, and I won the iPad Pro/Apple Pencil combo. I went up and claimed the prize. After closing ceremonies, we hit up Bozzelli's Pizza one last time and met with a Maryland state employee (I'm a former employee). We trade a bit of shop talk over dinner, and then ERW and I went up and crashed.
Monday, after breakfast, checking out, and hugging ERW bye, I head back out on the roads (reverse the way I came) and stop off at my sister's house. Turns out the iPad Pro I have, while two generations behind, also has the cell radio in it yet be the same size, so it would of been a side-grade rather than an up-grade. So I chat with sis and drop the setup off for her kids to use, while her dogs barked, then looked at me and then demanded pets.
All in all, rather good con. Unfortunately, it will be moved -- a set of unfortunate events occurred and the hotel contract was reportedly canceled, so another hotel was set up in haste. Hopefully a new hotel will be signed on early... and maybe in Baltimore proper?
Well worth it though!
And definitely agree with you about the panel head, and I didn’t even go to that panel!