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Furcationland 2025 Report, Day One (Fri. April 11)
6 months ago
Friday morning, I “slept in” until 5:45am! I’m normally awake before 5. Being a practicing Catholic, not a “good one” mind you, or you’d be calling me “Father Aldin”, and this being a Friday of lent, no pizza (which had meat on it) for breakfast. So, oatmeal instead. I look out the window and it’s overcast and drizzly. Go down, check-in at the help desk as there is no one at the volunteer table/station, head-up to Registration at 8:30 and, yes, there’s a line, but not like the previous evening. After we open up at 9am, we start getting one-day walk-ins. And the website isn’t quite right. It reads you can register onsite for a day pass. Yes, that’s true provided you’ve set up your account on the registration website first. And the website isn’t intuitive. To set-up an account, you must click “Register Now” and then select the weekend pass, even if you just want a day pass. Fortunately, we have QR codes on the walls for furs to scan with their smart devices to do so and I am able to walk furs through the process assuring them they won’t get charged for the weekend rate unless they choose that AFTER setting up their account. I foresee this will become an issue later in the weekend.
Come noon, I check out with the volunteer desk and it’s starting to rain outside. I duck down to the dealers den which opens to sponsors and above at noon (12:30 for others) to claim my supersonsor goodies. Normally, you’d get all but the shirt at registration, but those who got their badges mailed in advance have to go to the con store in dealers den. I then go up to my room and have a premade salad for lunch from among the supplies I picked up on the drive south. I peaked into social media as I finish my meal and a fur I only know online posts he’s here. I head down, and buy happenstance catch Skunkbomb briefly in the dealers den and hand him a squirrel sticker. We each go on our way.
At some point that afternoon, I don’t recall when, I took the long way down the hotel, crossing the entire eleventh floor, drop one level, cross back the other way on the tenth, down one level and so on. Why? I want to see the room signs. I was disappointed. Either many hadn’t put them up yet, or there weren’t as many as last year. I saw maybe 7 or 8 others besides my own. And none of the photos I shot came out. It was looking at these pics that I discovered the camera issue mentioned earlier.
I then walk around a bit and peak into Rick Fox’s panel on video games, but not your normal stuff. Things the programmers either didn’t finish or backend access points they forgot to remove. Very interesting. But I needed to leave early for another hour in Registration late afternoon and an hour of badge checks. Staff member who asked for the favor texts me. She’s in the room and her chair has chipped the door. The army cot I brought is a little too wiggly for her. Could we get a roll-a-bed and I’ll (she) pay for it? Sure, and I’ll let the front desk know about the damage.
Much to my surprise they indicated they won’t penalize me for the chipping damage. They’re aware of the powerchair and its beyond the staffer’s control that she’s in a non-ADA compliant room. A bed is wheeled up and barely fits in the room next to the bed in there (my bed, no sharesies!). I have to do other rearrangements to fit her chair in there too. And much to my surprise when I check-out on Sunday they waived the bed fee.
Anyway, once she’s settled in, she insists she will buy me dinner as thanks since I pass on her covering part of the room. We go to a local Thai restaurant and alas, it’s got a six-inch granite lip. GRRRR. No way to get her chair up over that. So, we do take-out. I run her card in, run the receipt out for her to sign and then that back in. I encourage her to head back to the hotel and I’ll bring the food up to our room when it’s ready. I didn’t want her sitting out there in the drizzle and wind. Small place and very, very busy with only one person handling the front end of 20 seats and two phone lines ringing near off-the-hook. It was very good Thai. By the time we were done with that, there wasn’t much else I wanted to see/do. Another brief walk-around and we both call it a night at 9pm.
Come noon, I check out with the volunteer desk and it’s starting to rain outside. I duck down to the dealers den which opens to sponsors and above at noon (12:30 for others) to claim my supersonsor goodies. Normally, you’d get all but the shirt at registration, but those who got their badges mailed in advance have to go to the con store in dealers den. I then go up to my room and have a premade salad for lunch from among the supplies I picked up on the drive south. I peaked into social media as I finish my meal and a fur I only know online posts he’s here. I head down, and buy happenstance catch Skunkbomb briefly in the dealers den and hand him a squirrel sticker. We each go on our way.
At some point that afternoon, I don’t recall when, I took the long way down the hotel, crossing the entire eleventh floor, drop one level, cross back the other way on the tenth, down one level and so on. Why? I want to see the room signs. I was disappointed. Either many hadn’t put them up yet, or there weren’t as many as last year. I saw maybe 7 or 8 others besides my own. And none of the photos I shot came out. It was looking at these pics that I discovered the camera issue mentioned earlier.
I then walk around a bit and peak into Rick Fox’s panel on video games, but not your normal stuff. Things the programmers either didn’t finish or backend access points they forgot to remove. Very interesting. But I needed to leave early for another hour in Registration late afternoon and an hour of badge checks. Staff member who asked for the favor texts me. She’s in the room and her chair has chipped the door. The army cot I brought is a little too wiggly for her. Could we get a roll-a-bed and I’ll (she) pay for it? Sure, and I’ll let the front desk know about the damage.
Much to my surprise they indicated they won’t penalize me for the chipping damage. They’re aware of the powerchair and its beyond the staffer’s control that she’s in a non-ADA compliant room. A bed is wheeled up and barely fits in the room next to the bed in there (my bed, no sharesies!). I have to do other rearrangements to fit her chair in there too. And much to my surprise when I check-out on Sunday they waived the bed fee.
Anyway, once she’s settled in, she insists she will buy me dinner as thanks since I pass on her covering part of the room. We go to a local Thai restaurant and alas, it’s got a six-inch granite lip. GRRRR. No way to get her chair up over that. So, we do take-out. I run her card in, run the receipt out for her to sign and then that back in. I encourage her to head back to the hotel and I’ll bring the food up to our room when it’s ready. I didn’t want her sitting out there in the drizzle and wind. Small place and very, very busy with only one person handling the front end of 20 seats and two phone lines ringing near off-the-hook. It was very good Thai. By the time we were done with that, there wasn’t much else I wanted to see/do. Another brief walk-around and we both call it a night at 9pm.
Vix