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BLFC 2018
7 years ago
General
As I sit here in my hotel room on Monday morning, avoiding the chore of packing up, I have time to reflect on the weekend gone by.
To be honest I had been feeling a bit down on the con scene since FC, and in the week leading up to BLFC I had seriously been weighing the value of just staying home and playing Skyrim instead. But I still came. (phrasing!)
To say I'm glad I did would be an understatement. I feel fully revitalized after this con experience and ready to take on the world. More than anything I feel like this weekend has been a turning point in my furry life, where I finally feel like I'm emerging out of the shadows of 20 years of fandom obscurity and I'm finally able to make a positive, memorable impact in people's lives (or at least in their con experience).
Some highlights:
My panel went amazingly well. There was actually a decent turnout and I feel like people really got some value out of sitting through me nerding out for 3 hours about 3D printing.
Almost everyone loved my severed Nico head. I still don't get people asking for photos like they would for normal suits, but it still gets an amused reaction when I explain "I got it off a real fursuit".
On a whim I dropped in to watch the dance competition and I was really blown away. There is some top notch talent in this fandom, and no reason for qualifiers like "they're good, for furries". They're just plain good. The experience of watching them perform even helped inspire me to design a new character, and hopefully you'll be seeing the first signs of them in the coming months.
The opening ceremonies, musical and closing ceremonies were a blast, and I was really thrilled to take part in the charity bidding on the album and push it up into real money territory, even if I didn't walk away with it in the end. I've never before had multiple people come up to me afterwards and thank me for my bidding performance, so I guess I made quite an impression! (I really hope that FC steps things up a bit in this regard. A little bit of theatrics and stage presence would go a long way towards reinjecting that con with fun)
Some lowlights, because nothing is perfect:
Sales were apparently down in the den this year, and combined with CaliFur imploding it's left a lot of artists and vendors in a tough place. Now is the time to pick up the slack by buying commissions and merch online, so get to it!
Hearing that a young girl got bullied for wearing a cheap walmart tiger costume is just the pinnacle of disappointment, but I'm really glad that folks all across the con got together to make it up to her and give the story a happy ending.
As always, I didn't get to hug everyone I hoped to hug. There's only so many hours in the day and with people running back and forth between meals/parties/events/etc so it's to be expected, but is none the less tragic. If I didn't see you enough this con, then I'll make it up at the next one. If I saw you way too much and you really wished I'd just move on and bother someone else, for goodness sakes just shoo me away, don't be shy! "Hey I need a breather right now" won't hut my feelings.
I don't have any other cons on my menu until FC next year, so I'll see you fuzzy-butts then!
To be honest I had been feeling a bit down on the con scene since FC, and in the week leading up to BLFC I had seriously been weighing the value of just staying home and playing Skyrim instead. But I still came. (phrasing!)
To say I'm glad I did would be an understatement. I feel fully revitalized after this con experience and ready to take on the world. More than anything I feel like this weekend has been a turning point in my furry life, where I finally feel like I'm emerging out of the shadows of 20 years of fandom obscurity and I'm finally able to make a positive, memorable impact in people's lives (or at least in their con experience).
Some highlights:
My panel went amazingly well. There was actually a decent turnout and I feel like people really got some value out of sitting through me nerding out for 3 hours about 3D printing.
Almost everyone loved my severed Nico head. I still don't get people asking for photos like they would for normal suits, but it still gets an amused reaction when I explain "I got it off a real fursuit".
On a whim I dropped in to watch the dance competition and I was really blown away. There is some top notch talent in this fandom, and no reason for qualifiers like "they're good, for furries". They're just plain good. The experience of watching them perform even helped inspire me to design a new character, and hopefully you'll be seeing the first signs of them in the coming months.
The opening ceremonies, musical and closing ceremonies were a blast, and I was really thrilled to take part in the charity bidding on the album and push it up into real money territory, even if I didn't walk away with it in the end. I've never before had multiple people come up to me afterwards and thank me for my bidding performance, so I guess I made quite an impression! (I really hope that FC steps things up a bit in this regard. A little bit of theatrics and stage presence would go a long way towards reinjecting that con with fun)
Some lowlights, because nothing is perfect:
Sales were apparently down in the den this year, and combined with CaliFur imploding it's left a lot of artists and vendors in a tough place. Now is the time to pick up the slack by buying commissions and merch online, so get to it!
Hearing that a young girl got bullied for wearing a cheap walmart tiger costume is just the pinnacle of disappointment, but I'm really glad that folks all across the con got together to make it up to her and give the story a happy ending.
As always, I didn't get to hug everyone I hoped to hug. There's only so many hours in the day and with people running back and forth between meals/parties/events/etc so it's to be expected, but is none the less tragic. If I didn't see you enough this con, then I'll make it up at the next one. If I saw you way too much and you really wished I'd just move on and bother someone else, for goodness sakes just shoo me away, don't be shy! "Hey I need a breather right now" won't hut my feelings.
I don't have any other cons on my menu until FC next year, so I'll see you fuzzy-butts then!
VikenWelopl
~vikenwelopl
I'm glad you had a great time Nico. It was great to see you again
nicoya
~nicoya
OP
It was great seeing you too!
