FA+
Shop
The Saga of Furnal Equinox 2013: Complete, Long and Uncut!
12 years ago
Yes, finally. A proper writeup of my foray into the wilds of Canada this past weekend of March 8-11, 2013! Beware, it is most comprehensive!
Friday, March 8:
*I woke up at 8:30am after two hours of sleep. This was the latest of several sleep deprived days as I was racing like mad to complete Mattie the Rattie, my first fursuit head and mascot costume. After coffee and breakfast I glued down all of his hairpieces which the previous early morning (3 hours prior) I had cut and pinned down. Between this and finding last minute items to pack I was finished by 2pm, packed by 2:30, gassed and moneyed by 2:45. And I was off!
*Google had this trip pinned down to 7.5 hours, which is fine. Traffic was actually rather good, and aside from some stops for gas and food I was making ok time, despite falling asleep at the wheel and slapping myself awake often. I arrived at the border around 10:20pm, and spent a good half an hour going through Immigration.
They asked, "Why are you coming into Canada?",
and I told them with a straight face, "I am attending a furry convention."
"What is a furry convention?"
"It is a place where people dress as animals, trade artwork, have silly fun, and attend or participate in panels."
"Ah. You have another name there?"
"Yes, Dusky Sam."
"We shall see about that."
*And they actually checked the website, found me under the Transformation Panel (see below), and waved me through, satisfied I was not a criminal or some sort of American troublemaker.
*After another solid hour I arrived at the hotel, checked in, and found my last minute roommate
evilcrash, aka Tiler, in the lobby. After a brief Hi-Hello,
*I went to pay a post-midnight visit to cathryn and toberkitty. Both of these lovely ladies had shared copious correspondence with me over the past few months regarding transformation and other fascinating topics, and it is for their sake that I attended a convention so far away from where I lived. We talked a bit, then they kicked me out as it was rather late.
*I slept the Sleep of the Dead.
Saturday, March 9:
*I awoke early at 9am to register. That took about a minute. Then I attended the Characters in Historical Context panel, in which I learned that the secret to success is to visit the library often and pay attention to detail. Yes. Then I went to sleep again til 2pm.
*I awoke a second time to ready myself for the TF panel. After a hotel smoothie, I swung by the Zoo and met up with the TF crew, who would include:
angrboda,
tharakaos,
blackshirtboy,
toberkitty, and 
cathryn, along with 
therian and 
ripperelite
We talked, inspected the room, checked the equipment and watched odd Marykate and Ashley Olsen youtube videos. Then the clock struck 5.
TF PANEL (dun dun dun)
*The basic ground rules were no TF 101 Intro talk, no self-censoring, no bullshit.
*Just straight talk on Transformation: the concepts, the realities, the inspirations, the ups and downs, the community, the fetish/sex aspect.
*Tober and I covered the costume/makeup aspect while Ang, Tharakaos and BSB covered the art aspect.
*We took lots of questions after a brief intro and discussion, and a lot of interesting things came up.
In all, I feel it was pretty revealing, was a good step in the right direction, and certainly opens the doors to more in-depth discussion on the matters at hand.
It certainly covered all the bases of the fantasy leanings of TF. I would love to explore TF in reality for future discussions, that really gets complicated!
There will be a Test Chamber podcast released in the future, so that should make for some innaresting listening to those who missed it!
*We went upstairs for an after-party, where I met
swatcher and his friend 
pierrezaius. Some drinks, then off to dress up as...
MATTIE THE RATTIE (dun dun dun, dun dun)
http://sammycatnipnik.tumblr.com/po.....uted-my-latest (cross promotion, ahem)
*The afore-mentioned mascot costume and mask I was toiling on, I debuted him properly at the dance where cathryn was DJing. I danced and waved glowsticks around with Tober for an hour, the set finished and I went off to play pinball and board games for the rest of the evening. The mask fit was excellent, the vision and comfort factors were very good, and it was wonderful to finally appear at a convention as a proper furry sort of thing.
*Sleep of the Dead, again.
Sunday, March 10:
*Woke up, went to a panel that was cancelled (ah well), then went to lunch at Harvey's where I sampled poutine for the first time ever. Rather tasty, certainly better than the burger.
*Brief run through the Dealer's Den (yawn), then back to my room to suit up as Mattie for photos (see tumblr above).
*Back to room, down to boardgame area again.
Board games. Wow. I had no idea these would be a rather integral part of my con visit!
*
insane_foxx, who ran the Game Room for the con, was in attendance at the TF panel and asked some costuming questions afterwards. I re-met him later on that evening while dressed as Mattie, and learned how to play Tsuro (very fun). I promised to return the next day to see some more gaming, and I witnessed a hilarious session of Aye, Dark Overlord!.
*I asked a lot of questions, and we talked games nonstop. We went out to dinner at Montana's with his friend Space Butler, and talked about our travels and other weird adventures at conventions. He runs games at What the Fur, and brought up some neat times at Feral, both Canadian cons that look worth pursuing!
*More games. The biggie was King of Tokyo, I played that a bunch with various people. Then it was Bang!, an Italian Spaghetti Western card game where I wound up being the Sheriff running after outlaws and renegades. I got cocky and wound up dying at the end, my Roy Rogers white cowboy act got snuffed with dynamite!
*I helped to pack up the room and take the games upstairs. Then Insane_Foxx and I talked in the lobby until around 7am about life, games, costumes, stuff, you name it! Then bed.
Monday, March 13th:
Woke up. Checked out. Ate at Quesada. Slept in my car for two hours. Drove to Niagara Falls, ON, took some snaps and entered NY. Lost $10 gambling. Drove. Gas. More naps. Ate. Home by 4am. Got up for work at 9am.
Back to life. Back to reality. The drive home was dreamlike, I had a lot to process. It was a great time, and I won't forget it anytime soon.
THE SHORT VERSION
Toronto, Canada. Transformation. Mattie the Rattie. Boardgames. Niagara Falls. It was good. Would do it again.
Friday, March 8:
*I woke up at 8:30am after two hours of sleep. This was the latest of several sleep deprived days as I was racing like mad to complete Mattie the Rattie, my first fursuit head and mascot costume. After coffee and breakfast I glued down all of his hairpieces which the previous early morning (3 hours prior) I had cut and pinned down. Between this and finding last minute items to pack I was finished by 2pm, packed by 2:30, gassed and moneyed by 2:45. And I was off!
*Google had this trip pinned down to 7.5 hours, which is fine. Traffic was actually rather good, and aside from some stops for gas and food I was making ok time, despite falling asleep at the wheel and slapping myself awake often. I arrived at the border around 10:20pm, and spent a good half an hour going through Immigration.
They asked, "Why are you coming into Canada?",
and I told them with a straight face, "I am attending a furry convention."
"What is a furry convention?"
"It is a place where people dress as animals, trade artwork, have silly fun, and attend or participate in panels."
"Ah. You have another name there?"
"Yes, Dusky Sam."
"We shall see about that."
*And they actually checked the website, found me under the Transformation Panel (see below), and waved me through, satisfied I was not a criminal or some sort of American troublemaker.
*After another solid hour I arrived at the hotel, checked in, and found my last minute roommate
evilcrash, aka Tiler, in the lobby. After a brief Hi-Hello, *I went to pay a post-midnight visit to cathryn and toberkitty. Both of these lovely ladies had shared copious correspondence with me over the past few months regarding transformation and other fascinating topics, and it is for their sake that I attended a convention so far away from where I lived. We talked a bit, then they kicked me out as it was rather late.
*I slept the Sleep of the Dead.
Saturday, March 9:
*I awoke early at 9am to register. That took about a minute. Then I attended the Characters in Historical Context panel, in which I learned that the secret to success is to visit the library often and pay attention to detail. Yes. Then I went to sleep again til 2pm.
*I awoke a second time to ready myself for the TF panel. After a hotel smoothie, I swung by the Zoo and met up with the TF crew, who would include:
angrboda,
tharakaos,
blackshirtboy,
toberkitty, and 
cathryn, along with 
therian and 
rippereliteWe talked, inspected the room, checked the equipment and watched odd Marykate and Ashley Olsen youtube videos. Then the clock struck 5.
TF PANEL (dun dun dun)
*The basic ground rules were no TF 101 Intro talk, no self-censoring, no bullshit.
*Just straight talk on Transformation: the concepts, the realities, the inspirations, the ups and downs, the community, the fetish/sex aspect.
*Tober and I covered the costume/makeup aspect while Ang, Tharakaos and BSB covered the art aspect.
*We took lots of questions after a brief intro and discussion, and a lot of interesting things came up.
In all, I feel it was pretty revealing, was a good step in the right direction, and certainly opens the doors to more in-depth discussion on the matters at hand.
It certainly covered all the bases of the fantasy leanings of TF. I would love to explore TF in reality for future discussions, that really gets complicated!
There will be a Test Chamber podcast released in the future, so that should make for some innaresting listening to those who missed it!
*We went upstairs for an after-party, where I met
swatcher and his friend 
pierrezaius. Some drinks, then off to dress up as...MATTIE THE RATTIE (dun dun dun, dun dun)
http://sammycatnipnik.tumblr.com/po.....uted-my-latest (cross promotion, ahem)
*The afore-mentioned mascot costume and mask I was toiling on, I debuted him properly at the dance where cathryn was DJing. I danced and waved glowsticks around with Tober for an hour, the set finished and I went off to play pinball and board games for the rest of the evening. The mask fit was excellent, the vision and comfort factors were very good, and it was wonderful to finally appear at a convention as a proper furry sort of thing.
*Sleep of the Dead, again.
Sunday, March 10:
*Woke up, went to a panel that was cancelled (ah well), then went to lunch at Harvey's where I sampled poutine for the first time ever. Rather tasty, certainly better than the burger.
*Brief run through the Dealer's Den (yawn), then back to my room to suit up as Mattie for photos (see tumblr above).
*Back to room, down to boardgame area again.
Board games. Wow. I had no idea these would be a rather integral part of my con visit!
*
insane_foxx, who ran the Game Room for the con, was in attendance at the TF panel and asked some costuming questions afterwards. I re-met him later on that evening while dressed as Mattie, and learned how to play Tsuro (very fun). I promised to return the next day to see some more gaming, and I witnessed a hilarious session of Aye, Dark Overlord!. *I asked a lot of questions, and we talked games nonstop. We went out to dinner at Montana's with his friend Space Butler, and talked about our travels and other weird adventures at conventions. He runs games at What the Fur, and brought up some neat times at Feral, both Canadian cons that look worth pursuing!
*More games. The biggie was King of Tokyo, I played that a bunch with various people. Then it was Bang!, an Italian Spaghetti Western card game where I wound up being the Sheriff running after outlaws and renegades. I got cocky and wound up dying at the end, my Roy Rogers white cowboy act got snuffed with dynamite!
*I helped to pack up the room and take the games upstairs. Then Insane_Foxx and I talked in the lobby until around 7am about life, games, costumes, stuff, you name it! Then bed.
Monday, March 13th:
Woke up. Checked out. Ate at Quesada. Slept in my car for two hours. Drove to Niagara Falls, ON, took some snaps and entered NY. Lost $10 gambling. Drove. Gas. More naps. Ate. Home by 4am. Got up for work at 9am.
Back to life. Back to reality. The drive home was dreamlike, I had a lot to process. It was a great time, and I won't forget it anytime soon.
THE SHORT VERSION
Toronto, Canada. Transformation. Mattie the Rattie. Boardgames. Niagara Falls. It was good. Would do it again.
Regarding the panel, yeah as I said I think we opened the door and there's definitely so much more we can talk about. Maybe we can con Ang into having us on the podcast (again) to talk about bringing TF into RL, where I promise I will speak more.
Oh and of course it was wonderful seeing you again and hanging out. Mattie is a cutie! =3
Next time I will eschew pinball for more dancing! That BSB drawing has me rather jealous, hurrhurr.
And yes, certainly a pleasure to see you again. Next time I shall have a proper cat visage!
Yeah, you should have stuck around for the dance, at least for a little longer. The dance circle was really fun, and I'm sure the others would have loved to have seen Mattie.
(wipes away tears before Maxie Scum-Rabbit Bastard can see)
Ahem... we shall see about the panel, as I would love to contribute more of my candid self in the future. Time shall tell! Skype shall unite us all!
And yes, to Skype!
You missed out on the dance
(cackles like a rabbit, a spiteful rabbit, hoohoohoo)
When is Confuzzled? I am actually interested in foreign furcons, for their particular flavor and to see the sights.