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Anthrocon 2012 / First Journal
13 years ago
Wow, been on this site for ages, and never bothered to use this journal feature. I figure it's probably better than LiveJournal, since that's all but dead these days. Anyway..
Went to AC again this year. All things considered it was an alright time, mostly spent drinking with good friends, eating tons of food like a slob, and then promptly burning all the calories off by walking 10 miles trying to find people.
The Good:
* Roomed with some great friends, slept fairly well, and ate some great food at both Sharp Edge and the local Korean BBQ place. Had SURGE soda again for the first time since the late 90's. Fantastic stuff, really.
* Drank way too much beer, spent like $300+ on booze, hung out with friends I don't get to see too often. Still nearly impossible to find anybody at this con, and trying to organize dinner plans / drinking plans can be an outright disaster, but that's always been an issue. Still fun times at the bars, etc.
* Despite eating like a cow and drinking like an Irishman, I somehow didn't manage to blow my diet, and was still 1lb down come Monday night. Not sure how I managed that, but I'll take what I can get.
* Nothing blew up at work while I was gone, so I didn't have a disaster to come home to.
* Got to take a few photos with my camera and new lens. Need to really train myself on how to use the manual lens better, since most of the shots came out kinda blurry when the subject moved out of focus. Probably should start actually posting the pics too. Hmm.
The Meh:
* Con security (Dorsai) are as bossy and rude as ever, and really need to knock off the whole fake-cop atitude. At least I didn't have to deal with them this year, but just watching them is enough to make your head spin. Really wish local cons would stop using these clowns.
* The con itself felt REALLY dead this year, and I don't get why. For a gathering of 5000+ furries, most of the time it felt like there were only 1k at most, with the front lobby and smoking area being fairly desolate. Found myself often grabbing 1-2 friends and just going to the bar to drink, since I was bored out of my mind. This wasn't the case in previous years, so I don't really get what happened. I guess people were in room parties or went out to eat, but 9:30AM on a Saturday felt like I was wandering the streets of a ghost town.
* Tourists. Okay, there's always at least a handful of lookie-loos every year who come to see the furries. I've always found it funny from the reactions, etc.. but this year the con has become a goddamned tourist trap. There were several times that I was hanging out in either the lobby or walking by Tonic, where there were more random tourists than there were people with the convention. This was made worse by the fact that these people were taking up seats, which kind of put a damper on the whole "furry night at Tonic" tradition. Not much that can be done about this, sadly.. but still annoying.
* Furry infatuation with Fernando's. More of a personal gripe than a con gripe, but seriously, people act like this guy was the second coming of the prophet Furhammed, and that the crappy sandwich shop was the best place to eat in all the land. Guess people need to justify the $20k spent on a failed business, instead of living with the guilt that it could have gone to an actual charity instead. =P
* Attack of the freaks. I have no idea where they came from, but on more than one night, I was hanging out having a beer / talking to friends, when a bunch of drag queens from god-knows-where showed up to, uh, be drag queens, I guess. Really out of place, creepy, and with all the tourists and kids around, a little offensive. A few local drug addicts came out of the woodwork this year as well, complete with absolute vacant expressions and other creepy behavior. Nothing that can be done about this either, but it's not a good thing.
So yeah, despite the "meh" list being bigger than the "good" list, I still managed to have a decent time. Will I go back next year? I have no idea. Leaning towards no, and I'm hoping there's some other event going on close to home, so I can save the drive and the money, and just drink with local friends. Time will tell, I guess.
Went to AC again this year. All things considered it was an alright time, mostly spent drinking with good friends, eating tons of food like a slob, and then promptly burning all the calories off by walking 10 miles trying to find people.
The Good:
* Roomed with some great friends, slept fairly well, and ate some great food at both Sharp Edge and the local Korean BBQ place. Had SURGE soda again for the first time since the late 90's. Fantastic stuff, really.
* Drank way too much beer, spent like $300+ on booze, hung out with friends I don't get to see too often. Still nearly impossible to find anybody at this con, and trying to organize dinner plans / drinking plans can be an outright disaster, but that's always been an issue. Still fun times at the bars, etc.
* Despite eating like a cow and drinking like an Irishman, I somehow didn't manage to blow my diet, and was still 1lb down come Monday night. Not sure how I managed that, but I'll take what I can get.
* Nothing blew up at work while I was gone, so I didn't have a disaster to come home to.
* Got to take a few photos with my camera and new lens. Need to really train myself on how to use the manual lens better, since most of the shots came out kinda blurry when the subject moved out of focus. Probably should start actually posting the pics too. Hmm.
The Meh:
* Con security (Dorsai) are as bossy and rude as ever, and really need to knock off the whole fake-cop atitude. At least I didn't have to deal with them this year, but just watching them is enough to make your head spin. Really wish local cons would stop using these clowns.
* The con itself felt REALLY dead this year, and I don't get why. For a gathering of 5000+ furries, most of the time it felt like there were only 1k at most, with the front lobby and smoking area being fairly desolate. Found myself often grabbing 1-2 friends and just going to the bar to drink, since I was bored out of my mind. This wasn't the case in previous years, so I don't really get what happened. I guess people were in room parties or went out to eat, but 9:30AM on a Saturday felt like I was wandering the streets of a ghost town.
* Tourists. Okay, there's always at least a handful of lookie-loos every year who come to see the furries. I've always found it funny from the reactions, etc.. but this year the con has become a goddamned tourist trap. There were several times that I was hanging out in either the lobby or walking by Tonic, where there were more random tourists than there were people with the convention. This was made worse by the fact that these people were taking up seats, which kind of put a damper on the whole "furry night at Tonic" tradition. Not much that can be done about this, sadly.. but still annoying.
* Furry infatuation with Fernando's. More of a personal gripe than a con gripe, but seriously, people act like this guy was the second coming of the prophet Furhammed, and that the crappy sandwich shop was the best place to eat in all the land. Guess people need to justify the $20k spent on a failed business, instead of living with the guilt that it could have gone to an actual charity instead. =P
* Attack of the freaks. I have no idea where they came from, but on more than one night, I was hanging out having a beer / talking to friends, when a bunch of drag queens from god-knows-where showed up to, uh, be drag queens, I guess. Really out of place, creepy, and with all the tourists and kids around, a little offensive. A few local drug addicts came out of the woodwork this year as well, complete with absolute vacant expressions and other creepy behavior. Nothing that can be done about this either, but it's not a good thing.
So yeah, despite the "meh" list being bigger than the "good" list, I still managed to have a decent time. Will I go back next year? I have no idea. Leaning towards no, and I'm hoping there's some other event going on close to home, so I can save the drive and the money, and just drink with local friends. Time will tell, I guess.
Totally agree on Fernando's. WTF 20k to keep him open? He will just fail before next year. What a damn waste. Considering the prices for the furries who SAVED HIM... jacked up to high hell for a sammitch!