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CaliFur 13th and the week preceeding.
9 years ago
General
Well one week ago I attended CaliFur. As expected it was physically harder than the previous year. While after last year I pondered whether I would do it this year; I truly doubt, any medical miracle pending, that I will be able to physically attend CaliFur in 2018. For the first and probably the last time I attended from start to finish. I was glad I made the effort. Due to the year's rescheduling it was a much smaller con then last year. Better for me getting around with smaller crowds, but made things less exciting overall. I wish I had the free time to volunteer, but until very recently I worked two jobs. So that on top of my decreasing physical condition has really limited my life. So the best I could to help the convention was spend some time and money by making some decorations for the con to use as this years convention and for years into the future.
Unfortunately, due to poor coordination, those items I donated did not get utilzed properly or not at all :( That was such a disappointment. I feel bad for asking some of the artists to do rush jobs on artwork for the con. They never had their hard work seen or appreciated. I was hoping to at least post some photos of them in use. But I don't even have those. I don't know if its worth trying to do that again. I really wish I knew if the attempt was appreciated or CaliFur was simply stringing me along with no intention to use those items. If they had simply declined my offer I simply would have accepted that fact and moved on. But I felt bad after complaints that 2016's con didn't have enough decorations, so I thought I could help this year. Well, I tried, I know that I tried. I don't know whether I'll do anything like that again. I'll have to think on it.
There were many other small but forgiveable problems with a small fan con like CaliFur. There more this year than previous years. But those were largely due to the loss of one of the heads of the con just 4 months befor the conventions as well as the date change. So I trust those are not permanent problems.
One a very hopeful note. I had invited BlackLight-Tiger to her first furry con. She is a closet furry I met through work. She is a young woman with many years of convention going ahead of her. She was a long time anime otaku attending AX many years. Even doing taicho drumming at conventions. Despite that, she had never been to any furry convention. In fact she had never really considered herself a furry fan. Or rather was afraid to consider herself on. But she has numerous sketch books filled with furry characters, not manga characters. She has spent the last few years also making fursuits for friends. Yet she never embraced it, because she was afraid she wouldn't be accepted. She was bit of a velcro roomie on day 1 but despite that fact her experience was so positive that by the late afternoon she was doing things on her own without a hitch. What really made her con was meeting Raven. Raven having quite the bit of fan fame at AX she was totally blown away to find that he was a regular with CaliFur. She had her picture taken with him. I think that helped put her totally over the top about fitting into the furry fandom. Asking her at the end of con what she thought. She was not hesitant to state that she was going to attend CaliFur every year, especially after she moves down to Pomoma to attend veterinary school. And so a new hardcore furry fan is born! :D It worked out as I had wished. I saw her as a protoge and specifically as my replacement in the fandom (since due to decling health I don't see myself doing furry things for very much longer). To help keep it all going. In that I have been very successful. I hope she sticks with the fandom for decades to come.
Overall I had a carefree time though. which is good because the Tuesday prior to con I was rather unceremoniously fired from my part time job via e-mail. If it seems I am not too upset its because I have seen this coming for quite some time. VCA had demanded that I be fired immediately after they aquired my part time job last year. Much to their credit my night job resisted for as long as they could, slowyly cutting my hours, then cutting my days as well. A week ago Tuesday the final shoe dropped on that one. So I hold no antipathy toward my former night job. They did the best they could by me. In truth I made a mistake, I should have quit the day job and stuck with the night job. The day job while the grudingly increased my pay rate, never gave me the full time employment I asked for. The night job would have employed me fully and was a closer drive to my house on top of that. But I stupidly felt sorry for the day job; and for my loyalty I've never got what was promissed and in fact may soon find myself fired from there as well. My day job is now workinig hard under pressure from VCA corporate to fire me for cause due to my decreasing physical condition. My loyalty, working off the clock, taking no breaks, sacrificing my lunches, working ALL holidays, not taking monetary benefits that I am supposed to get, buying supplies on my own dime; all that abject loyalty is worthless nowadays it seems. They would rather have inexperienced kids who work for minimum wage and have no personal loyalty. To the casual reader, don't get into the Veterinary technician field, but if you do, don't work for VCA.
Unfortunately, due to poor coordination, those items I donated did not get utilzed properly or not at all :( That was such a disappointment. I feel bad for asking some of the artists to do rush jobs on artwork for the con. They never had their hard work seen or appreciated. I was hoping to at least post some photos of them in use. But I don't even have those. I don't know if its worth trying to do that again. I really wish I knew if the attempt was appreciated or CaliFur was simply stringing me along with no intention to use those items. If they had simply declined my offer I simply would have accepted that fact and moved on. But I felt bad after complaints that 2016's con didn't have enough decorations, so I thought I could help this year. Well, I tried, I know that I tried. I don't know whether I'll do anything like that again. I'll have to think on it.
There were many other small but forgiveable problems with a small fan con like CaliFur. There more this year than previous years. But those were largely due to the loss of one of the heads of the con just 4 months befor the conventions as well as the date change. So I trust those are not permanent problems.
One a very hopeful note. I had invited BlackLight-Tiger to her first furry con. She is a closet furry I met through work. She is a young woman with many years of convention going ahead of her. She was a long time anime otaku attending AX many years. Even doing taicho drumming at conventions. Despite that, she had never been to any furry convention. In fact she had never really considered herself a furry fan. Or rather was afraid to consider herself on. But she has numerous sketch books filled with furry characters, not manga characters. She has spent the last few years also making fursuits for friends. Yet she never embraced it, because she was afraid she wouldn't be accepted. She was bit of a velcro roomie on day 1 but despite that fact her experience was so positive that by the late afternoon she was doing things on her own without a hitch. What really made her con was meeting Raven. Raven having quite the bit of fan fame at AX she was totally blown away to find that he was a regular with CaliFur. She had her picture taken with him. I think that helped put her totally over the top about fitting into the furry fandom. Asking her at the end of con what she thought. She was not hesitant to state that she was going to attend CaliFur every year, especially after she moves down to Pomoma to attend veterinary school. And so a new hardcore furry fan is born! :D It worked out as I had wished. I saw her as a protoge and specifically as my replacement in the fandom (since due to decling health I don't see myself doing furry things for very much longer). To help keep it all going. In that I have been very successful. I hope she sticks with the fandom for decades to come.
Overall I had a carefree time though. which is good because the Tuesday prior to con I was rather unceremoniously fired from my part time job via e-mail. If it seems I am not too upset its because I have seen this coming for quite some time. VCA had demanded that I be fired immediately after they aquired my part time job last year. Much to their credit my night job resisted for as long as they could, slowyly cutting my hours, then cutting my days as well. A week ago Tuesday the final shoe dropped on that one. So I hold no antipathy toward my former night job. They did the best they could by me. In truth I made a mistake, I should have quit the day job and stuck with the night job. The day job while the grudingly increased my pay rate, never gave me the full time employment I asked for. The night job would have employed me fully and was a closer drive to my house on top of that. But I stupidly felt sorry for the day job; and for my loyalty I've never got what was promissed and in fact may soon find myself fired from there as well. My day job is now workinig hard under pressure from VCA corporate to fire me for cause due to my decreasing physical condition. My loyalty, working off the clock, taking no breaks, sacrificing my lunches, working ALL holidays, not taking monetary benefits that I am supposed to get, buying supplies on my own dime; all that abject loyalty is worthless nowadays it seems. They would rather have inexperienced kids who work for minimum wage and have no personal loyalty. To the casual reader, don't get into the Veterinary technician field, but if you do, don't work for VCA.
