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RF 2014
11 years ago
The one word I'd use to describe my first furry con experience would be...interesting.
I used to be the sort of guy who'd say 'I'd never be caught dead at a furry convention,' for a variety of reasons. For one, I'm not really the sort of person whose identity is really tied up in furry. Another would be how my interest in it has remained pretty much exclusively online, and I've never really had any real urge to have it cross over into my offline life. Lastly, and probably most importantly, I suffer from something I've coined 'Secondhand Embarrassment.' What that means is that I feel shame for people who should be feeling shame, but for whatever reason, they aren't. I can't even watch documentaries about furries without cringing like crazy. Despite all that, as time has passed I've found myself thinking that I might just want to go to one someday.
Anyway, after
ryskhyrsal attended last year and had a good time, I decided that I'd join him... hence this journal. I should note that this was not only my first furry con, but it was also my first con, period, so I imagine a lot of my observations apply to nerd conventions in general. Also, I hope I don't come off as overly negative, because I really did have a good time overall.
- I realize this is probably a problem that's not really exclusive to furry cons, but it needs to be said anyway. Is it really that hard for people to bathe and use deodorant? Evidently yes, considering how often I'd be walking around and suddenly find myself in a cloud of stink. The worst, by far, was walking into the Art Jam room on the last day and feeling the humidity change from the horrible fug. Yes, I get that when you get a lot of people in one place it gets kind of warm, and people are going to get sweaty, but typically when people get sweaty, they take a shower, or they put on a fresh change of clothes. Is that really too much to ask? If it is, can we get people on staff to carry around cans of Febreze?
- Oh my God SO MANY BABYFURS. So many grown men in overalls and onesies. So many *crinkle* tags. So many badges with diapers in them. Is that a normal furry con thing, or is Seattle some sort of babyfur Mecca?
- I think that if I do decide to go to RF again, I need to spend some time getting to know more local people, because there's really only so much people-watching you can do before you start to get really bored and lonely. Thankfully Rys and I did manage to meet someone who essentially saved the whole experience for us. If we hadn't, we would have probably both gone home pretty disappointed with the whole thing. Also, I'd need to put a bit more thought into scheduling things. The few panels and events I did want to get to, I missed. It wasn't a dealbreaker or anything, but it would have been nice.
- One of the high points of the trip was completely unrelated to the con. Seattle has this amazing Asian market with a bookstore and food court attached I love to visit whenever I go down there. Taking a little field trip to Normal Person World was a breath of fresh air, both metaphorically and literally.
Now, for a few shoutouts.
First and foremost, ryskhyrsal, thank you for protecting me from all the furries. In all seriousness, none of this would have been possible without you. <3
yasano, dude, you are amazingly cool and fucking hilarious. Thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us.
spuz, I just wish I'd been able to say goodbye in person. Your fursuit is adorable!
daitenshi, it was awesome getting to meet you! I just wish we could have hung out a bit more.
Thanks to
cooner and 
gideon for the awesome badge and sketch!
I used to be the sort of guy who'd say 'I'd never be caught dead at a furry convention,' for a variety of reasons. For one, I'm not really the sort of person whose identity is really tied up in furry. Another would be how my interest in it has remained pretty much exclusively online, and I've never really had any real urge to have it cross over into my offline life. Lastly, and probably most importantly, I suffer from something I've coined 'Secondhand Embarrassment.' What that means is that I feel shame for people who should be feeling shame, but for whatever reason, they aren't. I can't even watch documentaries about furries without cringing like crazy. Despite all that, as time has passed I've found myself thinking that I might just want to go to one someday.
Anyway, after
ryskhyrsal attended last year and had a good time, I decided that I'd join him... hence this journal. I should note that this was not only my first furry con, but it was also my first con, period, so I imagine a lot of my observations apply to nerd conventions in general. Also, I hope I don't come off as overly negative, because I really did have a good time overall.- I realize this is probably a problem that's not really exclusive to furry cons, but it needs to be said anyway. Is it really that hard for people to bathe and use deodorant? Evidently yes, considering how often I'd be walking around and suddenly find myself in a cloud of stink. The worst, by far, was walking into the Art Jam room on the last day and feeling the humidity change from the horrible fug. Yes, I get that when you get a lot of people in one place it gets kind of warm, and people are going to get sweaty, but typically when people get sweaty, they take a shower, or they put on a fresh change of clothes. Is that really too much to ask? If it is, can we get people on staff to carry around cans of Febreze?
- Oh my God SO MANY BABYFURS. So many grown men in overalls and onesies. So many *crinkle* tags. So many badges with diapers in them. Is that a normal furry con thing, or is Seattle some sort of babyfur Mecca?
- I think that if I do decide to go to RF again, I need to spend some time getting to know more local people, because there's really only so much people-watching you can do before you start to get really bored and lonely. Thankfully Rys and I did manage to meet someone who essentially saved the whole experience for us. If we hadn't, we would have probably both gone home pretty disappointed with the whole thing. Also, I'd need to put a bit more thought into scheduling things. The few panels and events I did want to get to, I missed. It wasn't a dealbreaker or anything, but it would have been nice.
- One of the high points of the trip was completely unrelated to the con. Seattle has this amazing Asian market with a bookstore and food court attached I love to visit whenever I go down there. Taking a little field trip to Normal Person World was a breath of fresh air, both metaphorically and literally.
Now, for a few shoutouts.
First and foremost,
ryskhyrsal, thank you for protecting me from all the furries. In all seriousness, none of this would have been possible without you. <3
yasano, dude, you are amazingly cool and fucking hilarious. Thank you so much for taking the time to hang out with us.
spuz, I just wish I'd been able to say goodbye in person. Your fursuit is adorable!
daitenshi, it was awesome getting to meet you! I just wish we could have hung out a bit more.Thanks to
cooner and 
gideon for the awesome badge and sketch!
It's a general con problem, not exclusive to furry cons but still very present during them. I haven't been able to figure out what it is that keeps people from basic hygiene while at a con. A lot of people roomshare small spaces with like 8 people so I guess that perhaps the fact that their room is so chaotic /might/ have something to do with it but I honestly wouldn't know. It's always sort of astounded me that people would go to a social gathering and neglect the sort of things that make social interactions work. No one is going to want to be in your immediate area if you haven't bathed or put on deodorant in 3 days.
-Babyfurs are everywhere but I honestly don't think I can recall ever noticing a large amount of them. It's not like I'm searching for them or anything but I can't recall a time I was taken aback by the amount of babyfurs I'd seen at any of the cons I've attended in the midwest/east so it very well could just be that you have a larger population of them in the Seattle area.
-The first con I went to was MFF like 6 or so years ago when they were at a much smaller space. Despite going with friends I still found the whole exercise off-putting as I ended up just kind of walking back and forth down the hallways looking for a way to socialize that didn't seem overly weird as the panels were all jam packed and there was no common area whatsoever. I left that con even less interested in cons than before I was dragged to it but gave them another shot a few years later. Once I had the experience to know what to expect I had a much, /much/ better time. The first con you go to is normally pretty bad unless you have someone around who is willing to let you spend the entire time with them and can show you the ropes but once you know what to expect things get much better.