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Post-Con Report + Moving Accounts Soon(TM)
9 years ago
General
Heyo! I just wanted to let y'all know that Bleu and I got in last night safe and sound from Califur. Overall the trip was.....great! It's been a solid 9 months since Bleu and I did anything to break out of the mundanes and it was...much needed, to say the least. I've been quiet on social sites for a good long time, and I have a reason for that. I'd like to get into that more in another journal. This journal I plan on making my first journal of my....new account. I talked a bit about moving offsite during my last story stream of May and I think I'm now comfortable staying here instead. I was gonna move to FurryNetwork but until that becomes more of a necessity I'm gonna suck it up and stay on this site. The new account is a way to clean-slate myself, start fresh, and finally nab a new username, which is something I've been wanting for a long time. I accidentally slipped my new account on my last journal, and until I get all my ducks in a row and I'm ready to fully move to that account we can leave it as an Easter egg hunt ^_^
On to the con. We left Thursday afternoon and it took us THREE HOURS to get there because we had to drive right through L.A. in the middle of rush hour. We made it to the Fairplex and it is. So. HUGE. This is the same space where they hold the L.A. County Fair each year, to give you an idea. The convention moved locations this year after outgrowing their old one. There are mixed feelings about the move itself, but I'm mostly in the positive over the endeavor. My biggest point of dislike is the nostalgia I've built up going to the Irvine Marriott to attend Califur over the years and that's simply not there for this new location yet. I'm hopeful I get a bit of that next year. Other issues I have are the long walk in the sun from the hotel space to the convention center (this was an issue I heard a lot of people talking about) and the small number of things to do. I'm confident they'll be able to fill up their schedule a bit better next year as this year was bound to be a trial run for a lot of things. To note, I have a lot of positives about the new location. The convention center is beautiful, the dealer's den is cavernous, the hotel rooms are without a doubt the best I've ever stayed at, and there is so much free parking I'm certain it will never be an issue for the convention, ever.
Friday was a mellow day. We went to the opening ceremonies, walked around the dealer den, went to this panel on Robin Hood, watched the pet auction, went to the ice cream social for our num num icey creams, and ended our day with a BDSM panel which was surprisingly not only informative but eye-opening on the reality of the community, in a good way.
Saturday is always the busiest day. Always always, lol. We got up early for the Cartoons and Cereal which....needs some work. Small room, few cereal choices, and you have to walk past the projector when you enter the room to get to the food. Rainfurrest's was immensely better. I was pretty tired so I napped while Bleu went to a Redwall panel. We of course did more den diving and then we got in suit and did the fursuit photo and parade. Unfortunately that was the only suiting we did all con cause our heads aren't super comfortable. We need to get new ones made after I buy a car. We missed the Zootopia panel cause it was right after the parade and we needed to shower but we did get to sit in on the Gummy Bears one which had one of the big people in charge of creating the show. Then Saturday evening happened. Saturday evening is always the best part of the con for me. We had our Guest of Honor dinner which consisted of braised beef, grilled chicken, veggies (grown on location on their farm) and mashed potatoes with a salad to start and a piece of cake for dessert. Yum yum! After the dinner we went to the Cabaret show. I had to duck out during intermission to change my diaper and I nearly didn't get back in because they have a closed door policy. The show this year was a bit lackluster, but that's fine. They sometimes have off years and this was one of them.
After the Cabaret show was....the panel I've been talking about endlessly for the past month. xD This year at Califur I took part in running a panel titled "BDSM 101: What is a Big/Little?" When I first heard last year that they wanted to put the topic under a BDSM label I was a bit offput until I realized that we are actually considered part of the community and BDSM in general is not all about sex. Anywho! Two of the Califur board members (Oggy and Vid) do BDSM panels each year and last year Vid talked to me about doing a cub panel. It was too close to convention time and we wouldn't have been able to do it in 2015 so he said we should aim for next year. I....forgot about it until he emailed me at the start of May, asking if I still wanted to do it. I agreed and a month later I'm dashing to get to the room it's being hosted in cause I'm 10 minutes late because the Cabaret ran late. I run into the room and...get my ID checked because it's an 18+ panel (LOL I got IDed to get into my own panel) and sit down with Oggy and Vid who are already underway. The panel was hosted in a small room cause none of us expected a bunch of people but the entire room was filled to the point where they had to say "No more people, we are at capacity" which really, REALLY took me off guard. I had a bunch of notes written up for things to say and I only used about a quarter of what I wrote. Oggy took the lead in running it as a discussion-based panel and I was there to offer experience and information from the perspective of an insider. It was a great experience, having so many people there that were interested enough to show up to the panel and potentially face teasing/hatred. I did my best to represent us. I didn't say everything I wanted to say. I barely scratched the surface. The reception was still phenomenal. I told the crowd how nervous I was to even be there, how I had no idea what kind of reception this was going to get or whether I was putting myself in mental or even physical harm, I started tearing up telling people about that and was met with an embarrassing "Awww!" from a few people. It was great. I'm so glad I did it. I'm so glad I had Oggy there with me to save me when I got tongue tied. I had one person tell me in the middle of the panel and another girl approach me after the panel, both saying that they were weirded out by cubs and they were glad they came and that the panel was informative and they were going to take that information away and try to inform people better in the future. It was everything I wanted it to be. <3
After all that gushing, I don't really have anything valuable to say about Sunday. xD The fursuit dance competition was pretty much the only fun thing on Sunday but that's always been the case. They are trying to work on getting more stuff for Sunday. We left after the talkback and next year's theme is going to be horror which I'm super stoked for. I briefly talked with Vid (and also Oggy after the panel on Saturday) about doing another cub panel next year, perhaps a meet or an activity panel. I think it'd be really fun to do. I have a whole year ahead of me to plan out, fortunately. :)
Thanks for reading! TL;DR Panel was amazing, CF has issues but still had a blast and the move was worth it
On to the con. We left Thursday afternoon and it took us THREE HOURS to get there because we had to drive right through L.A. in the middle of rush hour. We made it to the Fairplex and it is. So. HUGE. This is the same space where they hold the L.A. County Fair each year, to give you an idea. The convention moved locations this year after outgrowing their old one. There are mixed feelings about the move itself, but I'm mostly in the positive over the endeavor. My biggest point of dislike is the nostalgia I've built up going to the Irvine Marriott to attend Califur over the years and that's simply not there for this new location yet. I'm hopeful I get a bit of that next year. Other issues I have are the long walk in the sun from the hotel space to the convention center (this was an issue I heard a lot of people talking about) and the small number of things to do. I'm confident they'll be able to fill up their schedule a bit better next year as this year was bound to be a trial run for a lot of things. To note, I have a lot of positives about the new location. The convention center is beautiful, the dealer's den is cavernous, the hotel rooms are without a doubt the best I've ever stayed at, and there is so much free parking I'm certain it will never be an issue for the convention, ever.
Friday was a mellow day. We went to the opening ceremonies, walked around the dealer den, went to this panel on Robin Hood, watched the pet auction, went to the ice cream social for our num num icey creams, and ended our day with a BDSM panel which was surprisingly not only informative but eye-opening on the reality of the community, in a good way.
Saturday is always the busiest day. Always always, lol. We got up early for the Cartoons and Cereal which....needs some work. Small room, few cereal choices, and you have to walk past the projector when you enter the room to get to the food. Rainfurrest's was immensely better. I was pretty tired so I napped while Bleu went to a Redwall panel. We of course did more den diving and then we got in suit and did the fursuit photo and parade. Unfortunately that was the only suiting we did all con cause our heads aren't super comfortable. We need to get new ones made after I buy a car. We missed the Zootopia panel cause it was right after the parade and we needed to shower but we did get to sit in on the Gummy Bears one which had one of the big people in charge of creating the show. Then Saturday evening happened. Saturday evening is always the best part of the con for me. We had our Guest of Honor dinner which consisted of braised beef, grilled chicken, veggies (grown on location on their farm) and mashed potatoes with a salad to start and a piece of cake for dessert. Yum yum! After the dinner we went to the Cabaret show. I had to duck out during intermission to change my diaper and I nearly didn't get back in because they have a closed door policy. The show this year was a bit lackluster, but that's fine. They sometimes have off years and this was one of them.
After the Cabaret show was....the panel I've been talking about endlessly for the past month. xD This year at Califur I took part in running a panel titled "BDSM 101: What is a Big/Little?" When I first heard last year that they wanted to put the topic under a BDSM label I was a bit offput until I realized that we are actually considered part of the community and BDSM in general is not all about sex. Anywho! Two of the Califur board members (Oggy and Vid) do BDSM panels each year and last year Vid talked to me about doing a cub panel. It was too close to convention time and we wouldn't have been able to do it in 2015 so he said we should aim for next year. I....forgot about it until he emailed me at the start of May, asking if I still wanted to do it. I agreed and a month later I'm dashing to get to the room it's being hosted in cause I'm 10 minutes late because the Cabaret ran late. I run into the room and...get my ID checked because it's an 18+ panel (LOL I got IDed to get into my own panel) and sit down with Oggy and Vid who are already underway. The panel was hosted in a small room cause none of us expected a bunch of people but the entire room was filled to the point where they had to say "No more people, we are at capacity" which really, REALLY took me off guard. I had a bunch of notes written up for things to say and I only used about a quarter of what I wrote. Oggy took the lead in running it as a discussion-based panel and I was there to offer experience and information from the perspective of an insider. It was a great experience, having so many people there that were interested enough to show up to the panel and potentially face teasing/hatred. I did my best to represent us. I didn't say everything I wanted to say. I barely scratched the surface. The reception was still phenomenal. I told the crowd how nervous I was to even be there, how I had no idea what kind of reception this was going to get or whether I was putting myself in mental or even physical harm, I started tearing up telling people about that and was met with an embarrassing "Awww!" from a few people. It was great. I'm so glad I did it. I'm so glad I had Oggy there with me to save me when I got tongue tied. I had one person tell me in the middle of the panel and another girl approach me after the panel, both saying that they were weirded out by cubs and they were glad they came and that the panel was informative and they were going to take that information away and try to inform people better in the future. It was everything I wanted it to be. <3
After all that gushing, I don't really have anything valuable to say about Sunday. xD The fursuit dance competition was pretty much the only fun thing on Sunday but that's always been the case. They are trying to work on getting more stuff for Sunday. We left after the talkback and next year's theme is going to be horror which I'm super stoked for. I briefly talked with Vid (and also Oggy after the panel on Saturday) about doing another cub panel next year, perhaps a meet or an activity panel. I think it'd be really fun to do. I have a whole year ahead of me to plan out, fortunately. :)
Thanks for reading! TL;DR Panel was amazing, CF has issues but still had a blast and the move was worth it
I'm sure the nostalgia will come in time. Just gotta wait for it :3
Where's it hidin'?! Did you check under the beds? :3