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MFf Updates
17 years ago
[When I add updates about how my time here is going, I will add them to the end of this journal in an Day [Blah] Update format.]
It's that time of year again. In the interest of clearing that really long journal off my front page, it's time for me to talk about MFF!
Yes, I am going again this year. However, I'm having a little difficulty with rooming this time around. I've got plans to room with a friend of a friend of mine, which I'll have to pick up (and a friend of his) at the greyhound in chicago. (Ew, chicago traffic...)
The room is his and we're gonna be splitting cost. Unfortunately, it isn't even in the main hotel, so I won't get to wake up every morning already in the con. xP
Either way, I've been waiting all year for these three days, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let a few setbacks kill my fun.
Day 1 Update:
So I got to the con at about 5am friday morning. When I got there, there was just a couple of guys and a husky fursuiter sitting in the lounge. Me and the husky threw a plush soccer ball of his back and forth for about an hour. Then I blew up one of his balloons at his request, and signed my name on it. A few others, including the husky, signed their names, and it became an autograph balloon. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, there were half-a-dozen names on it. He tied it to his tail with a rubber band (in addition to a helium filled one he had tied to his tail with string) and walked around with it, though the autograph balloon eventually disappeared. Maybe I'll see it again, but probably not. I wonder how many sigs it had before it was lost...
Once things started picking up (more people woke up), I started wandering around and doing what I do best around furries: chasing after, and hugging, the fursuiters. Oftentimes we'll scratch eachothers' stomachs or backs too, and a lot of them that I've done with this have kicked their legs against the ground. I love that, haha.
"What was that noise!?"
There's a sneaky person around here... moving stealthily from shadow to shadow. Solid Snake! There is a guy here dressed up as a pretty convincing Snake. He crouches down a little and stalks around. It's fun to watch. Whenever I see him, I quote Crab Battle, which only serves to infuriate and embarrass him. We had fun pressing our backs against corners and peeking around at each other, pretending to shoot at each other and take cover. There's no competing against the legendary Solid Snake, however. So it is I who fell to my knees and sprawled out on my stomach before his skill. Twice.
During my fursuiter hugging quest, I've met a few notable ones as far as hugging goes. This Raccoon who didn't just hug me, but stood there with me, us hugging and scratching each other for like, 20 minutes. It was really nice. I don't care if it was a male raccoon. Affection is affection, and I loved it. I've found that most of the other fursuiters will be willing to stand around and do that too for a minute or two if you initiate it. They must just be used to people giving them a quick hug and going on their way.
There's also this... uh, I think it's a husky named Razz. Probably the most adorable fursuiter I've seen yet. He has this semi-high-pitched voice that he'll yap, etc, in. I'll have to record it on my watch. But just because of that, and how adorable he looks, he's probably the one I've hugged most times in passing.
In the con suite (room on the 16th floor that serves free food for convention-goers), I saw this fursuiter and a girl enter. Both girls actually. So I do my usual hug and scritch thing, and she just stands there kicking her leg non stop while I scratch her for two or three minutes straight. I decided to tag along with them, taking advantage of how much she seems to like being scratched to immobilize her with leg kicking whenever I feel like it. xD It's fun.
So while tagging along with the fursuiter and girl (who are sisters actually), we wind up meeting up with
swiftkill and some of her friends. Long story short, the two girls were gonna be rooming with Swiftkill, but couldn't. She invited them to tag along, so since I was tagging along with them, I got to tag along too. Oh, and one Swiftkill's friends (why is that the only one whose name I can remember? Gah!) recognized my name, and turned out to be a former mate of... either Harpe or Konstance, I forget which. So basically I got to meet one of my former pack members at this convention. And Swiftkill recognized me as someone who used to RP in her dream. (She was delighted that I recognized her name.)
While we were stopping off at Swiftkill's room, the fire alarm went off on the first floor. We did what we needed to do, and left. We found out later it was because some pot-smokin' furries were smokin' up in their room and set off the alarm. They've been banned from the con for life and are in jail right now. Good times. xP
Me and eleven other people (including the girls and Swiftkill, and a couple of guys) (Sorry, I suck at remembering names) all got this gigantic booth (that was just big enough for all 12 of us) at this really amazing restaurant within walking distance from the con. I swear to god, all of the food that restaurant serves tastes better than anything I've ever eaten in my life. Even the bread is amazing. Hell, even the broccoli is better tasting there than half of the things I've tried in my life.
I got a 16oz rib-eye steak, with a giant onion ring (one of them got a picture of me wearing the thing on my hand), two potato/cheese pie things, and some cooked vegetables. There was not one thing I ate last night that wasn't absolutely amazing. It was a huge meal too. Took me an hour to methodically consume the whole thing.
I got to dip some bread in the sweet onion soup of the guy sitting next to me, and I swear, it tasted like someone had taken sweet onions, captured the flavor, and made the broth out of it. I could've sworn I was eating real sweet onions, though those were in his soup as well I think. The bread was sourdough, and was so good I couldn't believe it, the rib-eye steak was so tender it practically came apart as I swallowed it... The cheese/potato pie things were like a perfect melding of cheese and potato. Even though the potato part was actually chopped potatoes, I couldn't tell where potato ended and cheese began. I spent $30 on that meal (And gave them a $10 tip for how amazing it was, and for the amazing service). It was totally worth it, and I would do it again in an instant.
After that, we went back to the hotel and I shook all their hands and we parted ways for the night. I had to go pick up the guy I was rooming with, from the greyhound station in Chicago! God, that was an infuriating trip. Mainly because I kept getting lost and barely was able to find it in the end. But overall, it's been an awesome day and I look forward to today. I missed the rave last night because of how long it took me to get my roomie, but luckily, there's another dance tonight, so I look forward to that.
Day 2 Update:
Ah, where to begin.
*thinks* The fursuit parade was pretty big. But what I wasn't prepared for was a picture someone showed me of all the fursuiters gathered outside after the parade. It was the biggest crowd of fursuiters I've ever seen. There were 300+ in the parade, and if I'm not mistaken, many that weren't even in the parade but who gathered outside at the end anyway.
I've been seeing Snake every so often. But last night, there was something different about him... Someone told me, but I couldn't believe it. So I went to find him, and it turned out to be true.
He was walking around under a cardboard box! Apparently he had gotten a mission from the General to remove the heads of every fox in the con. Which probably explains why a fox was following him the whole way. The fox must have caught wind of this and was tagging along behind Snake to foil his mission.
For the most part, I did what I've been doing most of the time anyway: Wandering around and hugging fursuiters. I did check out the dealer's room, artist's alley, and the art show. There were some really neat pictures at the art show. I saw Longcat ( http://pseudo-manitou.deviantart.co.....sktop-91566574 ) there, and I might buy it if nobody else does. I might also buy a tail and maybe a trinket or two, or maybe a T-shirt as well. Just because I never buy anything at MFFs and this time I want to bring something home to remember it by.
Which reminds me, I saw Swiftkill again in the artist's alley. And it turns out, one of the two sisters I mentioned before (Her name is Latka, I remember it now), was at the table next to her. They invited me to see Bolt with them, but I had to decline in favor of going to the dance. I asked Swiftkill if she was selling her BBA comic, and she was. However, she offered me a copy for free. I asked her how much she sells it for, and she told me $8. But I only had $3 on me, so I gave her that. She and the other artist who works on the comic (Bah, I forget her name..) signed it for me too. So I've got that in my car right now. I came back in time to help them pack up in preparation to leave to see Bolt, and then bid them farewell as they left to see the movie.
The dance was really fun. Last year when I went to the dance, I took a two-hour break in the middle. But this time, I managed to go straight through, only taking a short time-out to get a drink of water. Though it also helped that the people often gathered into a ring in the center to watch breakdancers show off their stuff. There were even some really good fursuiting breakdancers too!
The husky I encountered on the first day (Duncan the Dog, I remember his name now too) still has the autograph balloon! There were 25 sigs on it last time I counted. He was at the dance too, and he gave me another balloon, a helium filled one this time. I tied it around my arm and danced most of the dance wearing it, though it was kind of annoying when it came down and hit me in the head.
During the dance, a konga line (Or I think it was a soul train...) formed, and I joined in on it. It weaved back and forth a few times and we gave the front half of the line high fives as we passed them. Then at some point, the line broke up slightly, and the guy at the front lead us out of the dance. So there's this long line of furries holdilng the shoulders of the ones in front of them, weaving all around through the hall. Then... the guy at the front of the line lead us OUTSIDE IN THE COLD! We all started screaming, but we went outside anyway. Once outside, the train finally broke apart and we all ran screaming back into the warmth of the hotel, and back into the dance.
There were a few awesome performances during the dance. At one point, the DJs played some fast paced music while we formed a circle and people swung glowsticks/glowballs/etc around skillfully. It was a sight to behold. Then there was a laser show, animated against the far wall of the dance, to Still Alive, the ending theme to Portal. The lasers drew images on the wall that fit the song. And at the end, the cake was drawn on the wall in laser, and the robotic arm came down and pinched the candle out, ending the laser show reminiscient to how the final cutscene of the game ended. This prompted the whole dance floor to roar with cheers.
Unfortunately, there was no slow dance at this dance. Apparently the dance the night before had a slow dance, and this one did not. I'm disappointed. Last year, I sat the slow dance out. This year, I was determined to dance with a fursuiter if I had to run up and claim one. Oh well, there's always next year, and I enjoyed the dance immensely.
There was also a terminator llama! I saw it earlier in the day, and after the dance, its head was just sitting on the table, talking to us. After much confusion and looking around, I saw this guy in a leather jacket hanging out near the back, talking into the palm of his hand subtly. I can only imagine how much money it costed him to build that suit.
I've probably forgotten a few things, but oh well. It's time to go back to having fun, socializing, hugging fursuiters, etc. I'll be going to the Dead Dog Dance tonight, but that's the smaller one that always happens hours after the con is over. It's never as good as the main dance (or two dances we had this year), but maybe there'll be a slow dance there. *snickers*
Toodles for now~
Day 3 Update:
I didn't get the longcat picture. Or anything. By the time I thought to look for any of it, the rooms they were sold in were closed. :( Oh well, at least I have the BBA comic.
A friend of mine, Grant the GM, got here today, just in time to host the Iron Artist! It's basically an art competition where there is only one rule: The rules are constantly changing!
In a nutshell, 12 artists, four at each of three tables, were given a piece of paper while Grant and a helper or two told them what to draw.
"You have been commissioned by a company to draw the front cover for their new comic. The title of this comic is..." Then he turned to the audience as they shouted out answers.
"...Grenade Epic!" (Someone had shouted something about a Grenade from Antioch.)
In addition to ever adding and changing what they were supposed to draw (You have a main character who is a... *turns to audience* raccoon. You have a damsel in distress who is a... gerbil. And because it worked so well last year, draw a muffin somewhere in there too...), there were also... distractions. In the form of people and fursuiters walking around the table basically just doing whatever they wanted to distract the artists. Some hit the artists/tables with balloon hammers, others made random noises or banged the tables, etc. I got up and helped.
I was probably the most disgusting distraction there.
First, I leaned over their art, my long hair draping down onto their papers as I 'innocently' admired their work. Then, I took off my shoes and put them both on one table. One of the artists, disgusted, shoved my shoe off the table. I repeated this with the other two tables of course. Then, I marched around all the tables, farting loudly with my armpit. If you know me, you know that I can do loud, longish, realistic sounding farts with my armpit. This prompted much laughter.
The rules themselves also changed, of course. Draw with your offhand with your eyes closed, find colored pencils held by a random person in the audience, give your paper to the person on the left... But the best one was when we tipped their tables over. The first one was an accident. We were just going to move the table on them. But it fell over on its side, and the artists held their papers up against the table and continued to draw while sitting on the floor. So of course we did it with the other two tables as well. One of the artists at the last table pressed his paper against it and continued to draw as the table was falling over.
The second place winner got a golden (empty) beer bottle. The first place winner got a golden mannequin statue that was poseable. While demonstrating its poseability to the winner, one of the arms fell off.
I went to that restaurant again with a couple of local furries who live in the area and who I already know: Aiden Raccoon, and Paw. The name of the restaurant (I know it now), is Claim Jumper. This time I got the Widowmaker, a really really big burger. My meal was a little smaller this time than when I got the 16oz ribeye steak (or maybe my body was more open to eating more by then, *shrugs*), but it was still nice and filling.
As if having Snake wandering around the con wasn't enough, there's a Darth Vader here as well. Not exactly a furry costume, but I hugged him as well. Yes, I hugged Darth Vader. Later, I saw him walking down the hall holding an empty Happy Meal box. Darth Vader. With a Happy Meal.
Just an hour ago, I heard the unforgettable phrase, "That guy just ran away with Darth Vader's Happy Meal." Sure enough, some furry had grabbed his happy meal and ran away with it. Darth Vader, of course, gave chase. He eventually got it back. There are very few things more epic than seeing Darth Vader pose, intimidatingly holding his arm up, palm gripped tightly and menacingly around the bottom of a McDonalds Happy Meal.
After taking my roomie back to the Chicago Grayhound (which went a lot more smoothely this time, but still a bit bumpy at first), I came back, hung out a little, and went to the Dead Dog Dance. Basically, the con is over and it's an unofficial dance held on the last night of the con. I walked in to Weird Al Yankovic - Alternative Polka, and eventually started dancing. Me and a few others wound up hitting a balloon back and forth while we were dancing. A circle of people joined arms around Darth Vader as people took turns breaking away from the circle and dancing up against Darth Vader in an attempt to impress him with their moves. After that was over, we went back to dancing and a few of us, different ones this time, hit the balloon back and forth some more.
Now, things have died down a bit. I'm sitting in the Den (computer room / free food and drinks room). There's less fursuiters about, and less furries about as well. Though this room still has a lot of people in it. Probably because it has food and internet enabled computers. I think I may have accomplished my mission well this con, as one of the fursuiters earlier in the day recognized me as the guy who has hugged him several times throughout this convention. Yay me! I'm gonna hang out for a while, see if I can get in some more hugs (though I can't compete with the fursuiter holding the counter that he increments every time he gets a hug. He's got 2,800-something at last count.), then later I'll go back home. Gotta make sure I get enough sleep for work tomorrow.
This has been a really fun experience for me. The happiest three days I've had all year. I'll be sad when I have to go home. But there's always next year!
Day After Update
Just when I thought things had died down...
I must have completed my mission better than I'd thought. Two or three other fursuiters recognized me and gave me big, long, heartfelt hugs. I know at least one or two others recognized me too, as we were friends by the end of the con. Duncan the Dog came up to me out-of-suit and wanted me to guess who he was. I couldn't, even though him gesturing back to where his tail should have been should have tipped me off, as he had a balloon tied to his tail when in suit. I had a feeling of this, but I still had to look at his badge to see. Also, Pepper (guy Pepper) told Pepper (girl, blue-haired Pepper) that "That Amaroq guy is crazy." Since he was one of the fursuiters that I hugged A LOT during the con.
Anyway, me and a couple of other guys are sitting in the Den, being tired and silly and dickin' around, when one of us gets a bright idea to test whether Pixie Stix has the same effect on Diet Coke as Mentos does.
Guess what... it does. Which we didn't even expect. It was supposed to be just playing around, but sure enough, his diet coke foamed over onto the table. We cleaned it up with a towel, and then... I grabbed a diet coke and five pixie stix, trying them out over a nearby trashcan.
We were laughing and joking all the way up until I left at 6am. There's a lot of other stuff that went down, but I can't remember most of it. Just that the pixie stix / diet coke thing was the highlight of the night, and was especially funny because of how much of a mess we made trying it out.
It was snowing when I left the con. It's as if the weather knows what I'm leaving and what I'm going to be returning to. Post-Con Depression hasn't hit me yet, because I'm remembering the fun and good times I had. But who knows, it'll probably rear its ugly head soon. It always does.
This has been the best three/four days of my year. Surely the funnest and the happiest. I can't wait to go to a con again.
Autograph Balloon Status:
Duncan still has the autograph balloon, and the last count he gave me put the number of sigs on it at 45!
It's that time of year again. In the interest of clearing that really long journal off my front page, it's time for me to talk about MFF!
Yes, I am going again this year. However, I'm having a little difficulty with rooming this time around. I've got plans to room with a friend of a friend of mine, which I'll have to pick up (and a friend of his) at the greyhound in chicago. (Ew, chicago traffic...)
The room is his and we're gonna be splitting cost. Unfortunately, it isn't even in the main hotel, so I won't get to wake up every morning already in the con. xP
Either way, I've been waiting all year for these three days, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let a few setbacks kill my fun.
Day 1 Update:
So I got to the con at about 5am friday morning. When I got there, there was just a couple of guys and a husky fursuiter sitting in the lounge. Me and the husky threw a plush soccer ball of his back and forth for about an hour. Then I blew up one of his balloons at his request, and signed my name on it. A few others, including the husky, signed their names, and it became an autograph balloon. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, there were half-a-dozen names on it. He tied it to his tail with a rubber band (in addition to a helium filled one he had tied to his tail with string) and walked around with it, though the autograph balloon eventually disappeared. Maybe I'll see it again, but probably not. I wonder how many sigs it had before it was lost...
Once things started picking up (more people woke up), I started wandering around and doing what I do best around furries: chasing after, and hugging, the fursuiters. Oftentimes we'll scratch eachothers' stomachs or backs too, and a lot of them that I've done with this have kicked their legs against the ground. I love that, haha.
"What was that noise!?"
There's a sneaky person around here... moving stealthily from shadow to shadow. Solid Snake! There is a guy here dressed up as a pretty convincing Snake. He crouches down a little and stalks around. It's fun to watch. Whenever I see him, I quote Crab Battle, which only serves to infuriate and embarrass him. We had fun pressing our backs against corners and peeking around at each other, pretending to shoot at each other and take cover. There's no competing against the legendary Solid Snake, however. So it is I who fell to my knees and sprawled out on my stomach before his skill. Twice.
During my fursuiter hugging quest, I've met a few notable ones as far as hugging goes. This Raccoon who didn't just hug me, but stood there with me, us hugging and scratching each other for like, 20 minutes. It was really nice. I don't care if it was a male raccoon. Affection is affection, and I loved it. I've found that most of the other fursuiters will be willing to stand around and do that too for a minute or two if you initiate it. They must just be used to people giving them a quick hug and going on their way.
There's also this... uh, I think it's a husky named Razz. Probably the most adorable fursuiter I've seen yet. He has this semi-high-pitched voice that he'll yap, etc, in. I'll have to record it on my watch. But just because of that, and how adorable he looks, he's probably the one I've hugged most times in passing.
In the con suite (room on the 16th floor that serves free food for convention-goers), I saw this fursuiter and a girl enter. Both girls actually. So I do my usual hug and scritch thing, and she just stands there kicking her leg non stop while I scratch her for two or three minutes straight. I decided to tag along with them, taking advantage of how much she seems to like being scratched to immobilize her with leg kicking whenever I feel like it. xD It's fun.
So while tagging along with the fursuiter and girl (who are sisters actually), we wind up meeting up with
swiftkill and some of her friends. Long story short, the two girls were gonna be rooming with Swiftkill, but couldn't. She invited them to tag along, so since I was tagging along with them, I got to tag along too. Oh, and one Swiftkill's friends (why is that the only one whose name I can remember? Gah!) recognized my name, and turned out to be a former mate of... either Harpe or Konstance, I forget which. So basically I got to meet one of my former pack members at this convention. And Swiftkill recognized me as someone who used to RP in her dream. (She was delighted that I recognized her name.)While we were stopping off at Swiftkill's room, the fire alarm went off on the first floor. We did what we needed to do, and left. We found out later it was because some pot-smokin' furries were smokin' up in their room and set off the alarm. They've been banned from the con for life and are in jail right now. Good times. xP
Me and eleven other people (including the girls and Swiftkill, and a couple of guys) (Sorry, I suck at remembering names) all got this gigantic booth (that was just big enough for all 12 of us) at this really amazing restaurant within walking distance from the con. I swear to god, all of the food that restaurant serves tastes better than anything I've ever eaten in my life. Even the bread is amazing. Hell, even the broccoli is better tasting there than half of the things I've tried in my life.
I got a 16oz rib-eye steak, with a giant onion ring (one of them got a picture of me wearing the thing on my hand), two potato/cheese pie things, and some cooked vegetables. There was not one thing I ate last night that wasn't absolutely amazing. It was a huge meal too. Took me an hour to methodically consume the whole thing.
I got to dip some bread in the sweet onion soup of the guy sitting next to me, and I swear, it tasted like someone had taken sweet onions, captured the flavor, and made the broth out of it. I could've sworn I was eating real sweet onions, though those were in his soup as well I think. The bread was sourdough, and was so good I couldn't believe it, the rib-eye steak was so tender it practically came apart as I swallowed it... The cheese/potato pie things were like a perfect melding of cheese and potato. Even though the potato part was actually chopped potatoes, I couldn't tell where potato ended and cheese began. I spent $30 on that meal (And gave them a $10 tip for how amazing it was, and for the amazing service). It was totally worth it, and I would do it again in an instant.
After that, we went back to the hotel and I shook all their hands and we parted ways for the night. I had to go pick up the guy I was rooming with, from the greyhound station in Chicago! God, that was an infuriating trip. Mainly because I kept getting lost and barely was able to find it in the end. But overall, it's been an awesome day and I look forward to today. I missed the rave last night because of how long it took me to get my roomie, but luckily, there's another dance tonight, so I look forward to that.
Day 2 Update:
Ah, where to begin.
*thinks* The fursuit parade was pretty big. But what I wasn't prepared for was a picture someone showed me of all the fursuiters gathered outside after the parade. It was the biggest crowd of fursuiters I've ever seen. There were 300+ in the parade, and if I'm not mistaken, many that weren't even in the parade but who gathered outside at the end anyway.
I've been seeing Snake every so often. But last night, there was something different about him... Someone told me, but I couldn't believe it. So I went to find him, and it turned out to be true.
He was walking around under a cardboard box! Apparently he had gotten a mission from the General to remove the heads of every fox in the con. Which probably explains why a fox was following him the whole way. The fox must have caught wind of this and was tagging along behind Snake to foil his mission.
For the most part, I did what I've been doing most of the time anyway: Wandering around and hugging fursuiters. I did check out the dealer's room, artist's alley, and the art show. There were some really neat pictures at the art show. I saw Longcat ( http://pseudo-manitou.deviantart.co.....sktop-91566574 ) there, and I might buy it if nobody else does. I might also buy a tail and maybe a trinket or two, or maybe a T-shirt as well. Just because I never buy anything at MFFs and this time I want to bring something home to remember it by.
Which reminds me, I saw Swiftkill again in the artist's alley. And it turns out, one of the two sisters I mentioned before (Her name is Latka, I remember it now), was at the table next to her. They invited me to see Bolt with them, but I had to decline in favor of going to the dance. I asked Swiftkill if she was selling her BBA comic, and she was. However, she offered me a copy for free. I asked her how much she sells it for, and she told me $8. But I only had $3 on me, so I gave her that. She and the other artist who works on the comic (Bah, I forget her name..) signed it for me too. So I've got that in my car right now. I came back in time to help them pack up in preparation to leave to see Bolt, and then bid them farewell as they left to see the movie.
The dance was really fun. Last year when I went to the dance, I took a two-hour break in the middle. But this time, I managed to go straight through, only taking a short time-out to get a drink of water. Though it also helped that the people often gathered into a ring in the center to watch breakdancers show off their stuff. There were even some really good fursuiting breakdancers too!
The husky I encountered on the first day (Duncan the Dog, I remember his name now too) still has the autograph balloon! There were 25 sigs on it last time I counted. He was at the dance too, and he gave me another balloon, a helium filled one this time. I tied it around my arm and danced most of the dance wearing it, though it was kind of annoying when it came down and hit me in the head.
During the dance, a konga line (Or I think it was a soul train...) formed, and I joined in on it. It weaved back and forth a few times and we gave the front half of the line high fives as we passed them. Then at some point, the line broke up slightly, and the guy at the front lead us out of the dance. So there's this long line of furries holdilng the shoulders of the ones in front of them, weaving all around through the hall. Then... the guy at the front of the line lead us OUTSIDE IN THE COLD! We all started screaming, but we went outside anyway. Once outside, the train finally broke apart and we all ran screaming back into the warmth of the hotel, and back into the dance.
There were a few awesome performances during the dance. At one point, the DJs played some fast paced music while we formed a circle and people swung glowsticks/glowballs/etc around skillfully. It was a sight to behold. Then there was a laser show, animated against the far wall of the dance, to Still Alive, the ending theme to Portal. The lasers drew images on the wall that fit the song. And at the end, the cake was drawn on the wall in laser, and the robotic arm came down and pinched the candle out, ending the laser show reminiscient to how the final cutscene of the game ended. This prompted the whole dance floor to roar with cheers.
Unfortunately, there was no slow dance at this dance. Apparently the dance the night before had a slow dance, and this one did not. I'm disappointed. Last year, I sat the slow dance out. This year, I was determined to dance with a fursuiter if I had to run up and claim one. Oh well, there's always next year, and I enjoyed the dance immensely.
There was also a terminator llama! I saw it earlier in the day, and after the dance, its head was just sitting on the table, talking to us. After much confusion and looking around, I saw this guy in a leather jacket hanging out near the back, talking into the palm of his hand subtly. I can only imagine how much money it costed him to build that suit.
I've probably forgotten a few things, but oh well. It's time to go back to having fun, socializing, hugging fursuiters, etc. I'll be going to the Dead Dog Dance tonight, but that's the smaller one that always happens hours after the con is over. It's never as good as the main dance (or two dances we had this year), but maybe there'll be a slow dance there. *snickers*
Toodles for now~
Day 3 Update:
I didn't get the longcat picture. Or anything. By the time I thought to look for any of it, the rooms they were sold in were closed. :( Oh well, at least I have the BBA comic.
A friend of mine, Grant the GM, got here today, just in time to host the Iron Artist! It's basically an art competition where there is only one rule: The rules are constantly changing!
In a nutshell, 12 artists, four at each of three tables, were given a piece of paper while Grant and a helper or two told them what to draw.
"You have been commissioned by a company to draw the front cover for their new comic. The title of this comic is..." Then he turned to the audience as they shouted out answers.
"...Grenade Epic!" (Someone had shouted something about a Grenade from Antioch.)
In addition to ever adding and changing what they were supposed to draw (You have a main character who is a... *turns to audience* raccoon. You have a damsel in distress who is a... gerbil. And because it worked so well last year, draw a muffin somewhere in there too...), there were also... distractions. In the form of people and fursuiters walking around the table basically just doing whatever they wanted to distract the artists. Some hit the artists/tables with balloon hammers, others made random noises or banged the tables, etc. I got up and helped.
I was probably the most disgusting distraction there.
First, I leaned over their art, my long hair draping down onto their papers as I 'innocently' admired their work. Then, I took off my shoes and put them both on one table. One of the artists, disgusted, shoved my shoe off the table. I repeated this with the other two tables of course. Then, I marched around all the tables, farting loudly with my armpit. If you know me, you know that I can do loud, longish, realistic sounding farts with my armpit. This prompted much laughter.
The rules themselves also changed, of course. Draw with your offhand with your eyes closed, find colored pencils held by a random person in the audience, give your paper to the person on the left... But the best one was when we tipped their tables over. The first one was an accident. We were just going to move the table on them. But it fell over on its side, and the artists held their papers up against the table and continued to draw while sitting on the floor. So of course we did it with the other two tables as well. One of the artists at the last table pressed his paper against it and continued to draw as the table was falling over.
The second place winner got a golden (empty) beer bottle. The first place winner got a golden mannequin statue that was poseable. While demonstrating its poseability to the winner, one of the arms fell off.
I went to that restaurant again with a couple of local furries who live in the area and who I already know: Aiden Raccoon, and Paw. The name of the restaurant (I know it now), is Claim Jumper. This time I got the Widowmaker, a really really big burger. My meal was a little smaller this time than when I got the 16oz ribeye steak (or maybe my body was more open to eating more by then, *shrugs*), but it was still nice and filling.
As if having Snake wandering around the con wasn't enough, there's a Darth Vader here as well. Not exactly a furry costume, but I hugged him as well. Yes, I hugged Darth Vader. Later, I saw him walking down the hall holding an empty Happy Meal box. Darth Vader. With a Happy Meal.
Just an hour ago, I heard the unforgettable phrase, "That guy just ran away with Darth Vader's Happy Meal." Sure enough, some furry had grabbed his happy meal and ran away with it. Darth Vader, of course, gave chase. He eventually got it back. There are very few things more epic than seeing Darth Vader pose, intimidatingly holding his arm up, palm gripped tightly and menacingly around the bottom of a McDonalds Happy Meal.
After taking my roomie back to the Chicago Grayhound (which went a lot more smoothely this time, but still a bit bumpy at first), I came back, hung out a little, and went to the Dead Dog Dance. Basically, the con is over and it's an unofficial dance held on the last night of the con. I walked in to Weird Al Yankovic - Alternative Polka, and eventually started dancing. Me and a few others wound up hitting a balloon back and forth while we were dancing. A circle of people joined arms around Darth Vader as people took turns breaking away from the circle and dancing up against Darth Vader in an attempt to impress him with their moves. After that was over, we went back to dancing and a few of us, different ones this time, hit the balloon back and forth some more.
Now, things have died down a bit. I'm sitting in the Den (computer room / free food and drinks room). There's less fursuiters about, and less furries about as well. Though this room still has a lot of people in it. Probably because it has food and internet enabled computers. I think I may have accomplished my mission well this con, as one of the fursuiters earlier in the day recognized me as the guy who has hugged him several times throughout this convention. Yay me! I'm gonna hang out for a while, see if I can get in some more hugs (though I can't compete with the fursuiter holding the counter that he increments every time he gets a hug. He's got 2,800-something at last count.), then later I'll go back home. Gotta make sure I get enough sleep for work tomorrow.
This has been a really fun experience for me. The happiest three days I've had all year. I'll be sad when I have to go home. But there's always next year!
Day After Update
Just when I thought things had died down...
I must have completed my mission better than I'd thought. Two or three other fursuiters recognized me and gave me big, long, heartfelt hugs. I know at least one or two others recognized me too, as we were friends by the end of the con. Duncan the Dog came up to me out-of-suit and wanted me to guess who he was. I couldn't, even though him gesturing back to where his tail should have been should have tipped me off, as he had a balloon tied to his tail when in suit. I had a feeling of this, but I still had to look at his badge to see. Also, Pepper (guy Pepper) told Pepper (girl, blue-haired Pepper) that "That Amaroq guy is crazy." Since he was one of the fursuiters that I hugged A LOT during the con.
Anyway, me and a couple of other guys are sitting in the Den, being tired and silly and dickin' around, when one of us gets a bright idea to test whether Pixie Stix has the same effect on Diet Coke as Mentos does.
Guess what... it does. Which we didn't even expect. It was supposed to be just playing around, but sure enough, his diet coke foamed over onto the table. We cleaned it up with a towel, and then... I grabbed a diet coke and five pixie stix, trying them out over a nearby trashcan.
We were laughing and joking all the way up until I left at 6am. There's a lot of other stuff that went down, but I can't remember most of it. Just that the pixie stix / diet coke thing was the highlight of the night, and was especially funny because of how much of a mess we made trying it out.
It was snowing when I left the con. It's as if the weather knows what I'm leaving and what I'm going to be returning to. Post-Con Depression hasn't hit me yet, because I'm remembering the fun and good times I had. But who knows, it'll probably rear its ugly head soon. It always does.
This has been the best three/four days of my year. Surely the funnest and the happiest. I can't wait to go to a con again.
Autograph Balloon Status:
Duncan still has the autograph balloon, and the last count he gave me put the number of sigs on it at 45!
If you could pass a message along to her it would be greatly appreciated.
Tell her I said it was nice seeing her again and I will see her at ACEN if she is planning on attending.
Dart