Already linked the femme shoot pictures over but...

Kinda forgot to upload pictures. Anyway, here's the non photoshoot pictures from Midwest Furfest 2023!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63529.....77720315060185

And for the few who haven't seen them, femme photoshoot pictures I helped with are here, https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/m3g763z558kks9uc6gry4/h?rlkey=aly59degvg0909qqwdmbj0wwn&e=1&dl=0

Yay the moment folks have been waiting for 🙂 Pictures from the Femme Photoshoot at #MFF2023 have now been posted! Before I give the link, thank you to  Angelmacleod, Samantha Kemple , Afrodyte and Archerwolf in particular! Afrodyte in particular helps me with taking pictures and especially with posing subjects!
Now for the pictures, This is a Dropbox page so you might need to make a log-in. With that, on to the pictures! https://share.archerwolf.com/MFF23femme and let me know any thoughts on the ones I took (helpfully labeled in the Mac folder)!

Hi.

So Furry Weekend Atlanta is in a few weeks.

It's an hour away from the house.

Anyone else going? I'm trying to decide if I want to attend my first year and for how long.

In less than 2 weeks I will be going to Vegas with  angelmacleod ,  Rydell382 and  Maggiekig.

Not sure who else I know near that area but anyone want to drop by the suite during the trip and hang out?

Took forever to finally do a writeup, anyway here’s stuff that happened during my week long trip to Orlando as the first part of my mid-life crisis birthday upcoming in April! This was overall a fun trip and my first group trip to the Disney parks in about, 20 years or so!

Day 1 – Saturday, did the drive with my roommates Cira and Krystal. Linking my Sirius xm to the radio made the trip go by much easier. Dinner at Giordano’s which I missed doing at MFF last year!

Day 2 – Sunday @ Epcot – Lots of walking, and yay we got the famous Figment Popcorn buckets! Got to ride the new (for me) version of Test Track which was amusing as well as Cosmic Rewind which I loved but poor Maggie realized early on, nope, too intense! Cira got to talk to folks at the Norway pavilion and Krystal got an owl themed walking stick. Great start to trip!

Day 3 – Monday Hollywood Studios – Yay Star Wars stuff! We loved Batuu! Got to try some of the boozy blue milk, Krystal and Maggie built lightsabers and Krystal even made her own droid! Was great fun! Loved Smuggler’s Run and Rise of the Resistance but maybe it was the long, dull queue but Runaway Railway was a miss for me.

Day 4 – Tuesday @ Disney Springs – Maggie ran out of physical and mental energy so we had to cancel our trip to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. The day ended up being a rest day, but we spent the night at Disney Springs, including dinner at Morimoto Asia! Amazing food I can not do very often but this was the perfect occasion!

Day 5 – Wednesday Rest Day – Said goodbyes to Krystal and Cira as they headed home due to work obligations. Maggie was still out of energy, so this was just another day of rest. Did get to go to Friendly’s, a family style ice cream and burger place on I-Drive which was fun!

Day 6 – Thursday @ Magic Kingdom – Mostly a relaxing day. Was nice getting to see rides I haven’t been on in a long time and also got to see the exteriors of the new Tron ride. Oh and after accidentally skipping it for all my life, finally got to see Carousel of Progress, which was fun 😊

Day 7 – Friday Rest Day – Maggie was completely out of gas which meant Animal Kingdom was now a no-go. Will have to see how to get credit (since no refunds) for the 4th day of the 4 day pass I pre-bought.
Day 8 – Back home. Quiet flight back with no issues. Overall, the trip was good, and I very much enjoyed Epcot and Hollywood Studios. Magic Kingdom, I think I can skip going forward. Was a great time with Ciracecilie Strom, Krystal Lander and Maggie Holt!

Got the ok to post. Here is the link to the femme photoshoot from Midwest Furfest 2022. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ya51ok34r9y10jt3bevth/h?dl=0&rlkey=6hfektt7tx5zez41oblb7d9tl

Archer did the individual shots, I did (mostly) group shots, but helped out with individual near the end.

Enjoy!

Hi. Most of the pictures were already shared by  azamimacleod but here are the costuming pictures from my visit to the UK. Enjoy! https://www.flickr.com/photos/63529.....77720298337339

Two weeks ago, I did my first trip to Europe in about 30 years. Overall was a good trip! Morrigan has been uploading a few costume pictures, but I will try to get the rest of the pictures posted soon!

First step was two nights, three days in France. Unfortunately, I had lots of problems with planning on this leg so a much longer trip was shortened to the two nights, three days. Trouble started quick when I panicked at the airport and couldn’t get a good signal to get directions to my hotel. Rather than taking the underground system which would have been much cheaper, I ended up taking a taxi… during as I was later told a taxi strike. Nearly $200 US dollars later, I made it to the hotel and napped for a bit after a nice shower in the French tubs which have like a three-foot-high climb to get in! After that, it was time to do a little sightseeing, peeked at Eiffel Tower at night, had a nice dinner at a Italian restaurant, all was good.

Next day was Disneyland Paris. After lots of walking the night before I figured ok, how bad can a taxi ride be to go half a mile? $20 US dollars later I got to the train. The Disney Park was nice, but definitely built for a smaller (i.e. non-American) body on several of the rides! Was a good time and I tapped out at a decent time, headed to the hotel and had to rush to catch dinner because I did not reserve ahead of time!

Day Three was the trains to England. This started off roughly because the first train ended up being delayed almost 90 minutes, and I was having to look up what happens if I miss my Eurostar train that I prepaid! Was able to make it and after a very relaxing high speed rail trip, I was now in Jolly Old London ™. Met up with my main companion,  azamimacleod who I had known online for about a decade and we went back to the hotel for our next 5 days. Had a nice dinner at the hotel, got to see Bunny in her Azami MacLeod character which was great!

Day Four involved meeting up with Lomax and Weretiger, both I was used to meeting up with at Midwest Furfest for years! That leg involved a trip to a Retro Computer Museum which was lots of fun! I am old so I loved the heck out of this little place! If you’re near Leicestershire, come take a look here sometime and give them money so they can grow! https://retrocomputermuseum.co.uk/ . After a nice meal at a little Italian place, me and bunny headed back and this time after dinner at the hotel, I got to see Bunny in her Jenny O’Hare costume which was very cool to see in real life!

Day Five got to meet Kalina, who I have also had known for over a decade and was great to finally get to meet her IRL! Got some pictures with her with Bunny (in Jenny), had a nice lunch at the little mini mall near Kalina, then back to to hotel for another hotel dinner and got to see one of Azami’s female mask looking characters which was great! Even made a comment that she looked like an airline stewardess!

Day Six, now was time for  hazelferret, aka True Kitsune, Toonycoon and various other names over almost two decades! Got to do more pictures, and lunch at a proper English pub! Dinner again at the hotel and then sleep.
Day Seven, my final full day in London was now devoted to getting to actually see a bit of Downtown London. First a trip on the famous London Underground, which was very fast and enjoyable! After that, a walk to Saville Road and seeing the famous Huntsman and Sons shop, aka the RL inspiration for the Kingsman shop! Got to see Buckingham Palace and get some pictures of the London Eye and then it was time to head back for the last dinner of the trip. After some stressing over my pre-flight covid test which determined if I got to head home tomorrow, I got the clean bill of health and time to head home!
Day Eight was a trip to the airport, said lots of good byes to Bunny and lots of hugging. After that a nice relaxing flight on a very long (10 hour) flight, and I was back home!

Lots of good on this trip! Seeing Weretiger and Lomax in their home town after knowing both for a very long time was great! Meeting Kalina and Hazel who I’ve known for a long time but never met in real life until now was also great! And of course, meeting Bunny Azami, who I’ve known for a little over a decade, for all the good and bad was so nice. Hoping to drag her to Midwest Furfest sometime so she can meet all the other friends over here that want to meet her!

All in all, other than the solo France leg being a mess, this was a nice early birthday present for me!

First the moment all (some? A few?) have been waiting for. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lfr0yo7guu28kp4/AABUWJJ8S6ebqtMs6iTOIJOLa?dl=0&utm_campaign=MFF2021
That has the pictures from the Femme Photoshoot at MFF2021. Usually organized by Archer and assisted by a friend of his named Cirrus. I would usually be helping out with water and making sure folks like Maggie and Angel are alright. Cirrus was unable to attend this year, so I was asked to help out. After picking my jaw off the floor, I assisted with taking the group shots this year! Was very nervous and hopefully my pictures on the link will be alright!

As usual, the good, bad, and ugly of the con in keeping with a long tradition of TL:DR posts from me!
The good, have to start at the femme photoshoot. Was extremely nervous to be have the spotlight on me as the assistant photographer. I had lots of help from Archer, as well as Afrodyte who helped with the poses for the group folk. Thank you to both for the help and the opportunity!
Maggie was probably the most mobile she’s been at cons, getting to go to multiple panels with the help of a mobility scooter. Even got some cool pictures with her lightsaber that were taken by Afrodyte, with help from Natalie Kig, running around and spraying aerosol atmosphere! Was really happy that Mags got to have a good time with minimal health issues this con!
And finally rooming with close friend Angel MacLeod and her husband Northpaw was nice. I’ve known Angel for a long time and known of Northpaw in furry even longer. Just low maintenance roommates!

The bad were really just nitpicks this year. Body being really fat means that my feet and ankles were hating life early on doing lots of walking. This is my own fault and will try to work on that in 2022.
Baggage on Delta. This was my own stupid fault. I have three suitcases I got as a employment award at my prior job. A small carry-on sized one, a medium bag and a large bag. Usually I remember to take the small and the large. I did not, nearly got charged on flight up, was charged on flight back for the medium bag being too large for a carry-on.
Last on the bad, a long time tradition of mine was to go to a local sports bar called RAM on Sunday at the con and watch some football with a longtime friend named Ricochet. He decided not to attend, and even went so far as to say “It seemed like really far and a lot of money to just attend a Browns game with a good friend I only see when they have such con events.”. I still have horrid self-esteem and to hear that someone was going specifically for me did make me tear up!
The ugly really was a stretch but here goes. A racist and vaccine denier popufur decided he was going to ghost the con. This could have gone much worse, kinda like the year the alt right femme bunny tried to get M*lo Y. to attend MFF (and his Peanut Butter bullies). From what little I have read, that raccoon mostly got cold shouldered by furs during the con as he lurked in the lobby all weekend. Was amusing to see him create a new character on twitter, only to be called out immediately and have to go lock both the new character and his usual twitter!

Overall, MFF2021 was a good year. Was happy to attend cons again and happy to do so with friends!

Hi Fur Affinity folk.

I am planning a UK/France trip for 2022. I would like the French leg to hit both of the Disney Parks.

Other than a certain tall tiger (who finds me disgusting), anyone else on the travel business I might be able to poke?

Flight has been set up and convention reservation has been registered.

Yay returning to Midwest Furfest in just under 3 months!

Hi rarely used FA account!

It is an understatement to say 2020 did not go as planned! I had originally hoped 2020 would be a year of starting over. Roughly this time last year, I had made the decision to give up my steady job of over twelve years, albeit with minimal social life to start over in a new city.

Things started fine in Austin at first. Me and Rylie got along, and I enjoyed having a pet cat around. I even began the year with a six month, with option to extend, temporary assignment at the same pay rate I was at when I left my Houston job.

Then Covid hit. Rylie was noticeably freaked out working in the food industry and seeing how badly the company they were working was taking the pandemic seriously. This combined with my temporary job becoming a mess had me stressing my move.

As the year went on, my social life plummeted to near zero, my satisfaction with the assignment was also near zero, and I was in a panic. That’s when a friend I helped obtain a house in 2019 told me they could take me in at a reduced rent, mostly just to have another person in the house. This led to my hardest decision to move from Texas to Georgia.

I’m hoping to get work soon and trying to keep mentally above water so to speak. But 2020 had one more surprise for me.

My hate filled mother called a few weeks ago to let me know my father died. Even worse, she mentioned needing help to get home. I called back and mentioned I’m no longer in Texas, which I could tell annoyed her. To this day, I do not know what happened to my father who I had a good relationship with over the last 22 years since I moved out. I’m hesitant to contact my mother to get more information.

Now we come to 2021. A reality show presenter will no longer be in charge of the nuclear launch codes. Covid hopefully will take the first steps to being reduced. And with luck I will find work near my previous Houston-based job income level. I’m hoping 2021 goes much better.

Thank you to my friends, old and new that are still around. Happy Holidays and a happy new year to all.

Some years, stuff doesn't work. Not major things, but just moments I say to myself “well, that didn't work”. This is how I felt through most of it, until something happened that blew me away.

My immediate roommate group this year was Astrid Sunnybunny, who I had met previously, but had basically a minor mental breakdown and left the con I met her at early. Also in my room was my new non-con roommate Rylie and her mate Maggie, the latter of which has spent most of 2019 in the hospital.

After waking up at stupid o'clock because I still can't do originating flights well, our group made it to Chicago. Checked in with no problem, went across the street to Embassy Suites to help the other group I booked a room for check in as well. The group there was first time MFF goers Jasmine (who I met at Anime North a year prior) and her girlfriend. Also included was Sundae who I met last year briefly at dinner. Finally we had Flora, who I have seen many pictures and such throughout my Facebook and Twitter feeds. Got all that done, met up with our next door neighbors for the con, Angel and her mate Northpaw, Lauren and her mate Shrag, had dinner and called it a night early. Before we did, we saw the group collaboration of Rage Berry, Afrodyte, Samantha, Neko and Cici as a performer of a 5 person sheep girl crew wander about. Afrodyte even let Maggie try on a mask, which Maggie loves trying on stuff!

Friday began the trend of things not working well. I realized that Maggie was still weak from almost a year in hospital care and would need a wheelchair. This was something in the back of my mind but something I had not game-planned. I contacted con staff about renting/borrowing a wheelchair for the weekend but had no success. Asked the front desk the night before similar questions and was directed to a company about 15 miles away, which having no transportation, I couldn't use as an option. I ended up having to get a taxi-cab to a Walgreen's, picking up a transport chair (and learning the difference throughout the weekend between wheelchair and transport chairs), and the day resumed. Picked up Giordanos for Maggie and me as the group chat was indecisive on food stuff. Ended up spending most of the day in bed keeping Maggie company as the prior day walking had taken a lot out of her. Was able to get her con registration later that day as well as go to the femme shoot which was great and led to Angel getting several pictures of me smiling like a loon. Also got to see Flora debut her new squirrel Sprocket which also went over well.

Saturday marked a blur of activity, again with things not working well for me. Maggie was absolutely drained from her time at the photo-shoot and ended up spending most of the day in bed. Not wanting to have her alone most of the day, I ended up resting most of the day as well. Tried seeing what the group wanted to do for lunch plans, but nothing worked there. It was a quiet day mostly in and out of the room and seeing the con briefly. Dinner we did a small group and went to Murray Brothers Caddyshack and enjoyed it.

Sunday, helped the Embassy Suite group check out a day early, and thankfully was actually able to get the extra night removed from the room since no one would be there. Said my goodbyes to Jasmine, her girlfriend Jessica, Flora and Sundae, all of whom I did not get to spend much time at all with but wished I did spend more time with all. Had another things just aren't working moment. For over a decade, with a one year break, me and my long time friend Ricochet, famous for the Radiolawn Podcast, would go to a local sports-bar during MFF and watch his Cleveland Browns play and usually lose. This year he couldn't go, which was rough, and left me with an empty schedule all throughout the day. Took a few more pictures, and finally prepared for our yearly end of con dinner at Portillo's.

This year was a slightly larger than usual group, as it included first time folks like Cici, and a few other friends of Angel, as well as the usual group of me and Angel's group. Early on, while reading Twitter, I began to sense all eyes were on me, which was weird. I looked up to notice Angel directly in front of me, as well as Maggie and Rylie to the sides of me, much closer than usual at a dinner setting. Then I noticed the T-shirts.

Before I knew it, several of the group had taken off jackets to reveal Mac's Angels t-shirts, (think Charlie's Angels except with silhouettes of Angel, Maggie and Lauren). Angel then proceeded to tell the group how she has known me for over 15 years now, and how she would not have been able to go into furry or meet all these people if not for me. She let me know how several in the group did love me and said how wonderful I was. Anyone that knows me deeply knows that due to past dating issues as well as my mother issues, I am not used to out of the blue complements, especially like this! Needless to say I was crying up a storm! Was such an unexpected moment especially seeing who all bought said shirts! Finished dinner, did one final look at the con and headed to bed, and said my goodbyes to most of the group that night and in the morning when we headed back home uneventfully.

Thank you to all of you that made things unexpectedly end memorably! Folks like my roommates Maggie, Rylie, Astrid, and the other folks I saw this weekend like the previously named Angel, Lauren, Shrag, Northpaw, Sundae, Flora, Jasmine and her girlfriend. Then folks I saw briefly like Weretiger and Lomax, Samantha Kemple and her wife, Miezekatze, Kira, Jovina, Afrodyte, Rage, Ezra, Cici, Neko, Wildfox, Yuri, Natalie and probably a few others I am forgetting!

Only other post con thing to note was an unusual situation. During the con we had someone not in our group show up to a few events and ended up wandering with Neko and Cici throughout the days. I even met said person and was happy to meet up with them as their posts were present on my timelines a few times!

After the con however, the other shoe dropped with this person. While waiting for an interview Wednesday, which turned into a job offer the following day, I was reading Twitter. It turned out this same person, that had wandered our group, been in our shoots, was also someone that was actively trying to get M*lo Y. invited to the convention (name truncated to avoid bot bull-crap). Even worse it turned out this person was also very involved with the Alt-Right fur group I will not name here. This was a bit of a gut-punch. It was disappointing to learn someone that made a good impression turned out to be a truly horrible person.

Overall, the con was alright! With a couple minor things that didn't work, combined with the totally memorable end of the con, overall, the con wasn't bad, and I hope Maggie gets better for 2020!

Convention writeup - https://www.flickr.com/photos/63529.....57677577306237 if you haven't already seen my convention pictures.

This was a very up and down weekend. No Maggie no Craw, so that made things a bit tougher this year. For better or worse, I have to compare it to Mephit Furmeet 2000, aka the event where I had a on con-floor shouting match with a major popufur (and nearly came to throwing fists).

The weekend begun with me doing my drive up, uneventful, and getting to my room. Communication mixups occurred so I couldn't even unload my stuff to get delivered to the room. This made it a bit tough dragging several boxes, my camera bag, my C-pap bag, and water since I didn't want to do a second trip to the car which was at the far end of the parking lot.

Got to my room and for the first convention for me since, really the Project A-kons in 98, 99, I was alone in the room. Great some of you may think, well, we'll come back to that.

Met up with my main group for the weekend, Zigzag, Rylie, Doitsu, Meiou, Lola, Lauren, Shrag and Renard. Ended up separated from the group and spent most of the first day of the con alone. Ended the night by running Mansions of Madness for only my third time ever and played with Rylie and Doitsu.

Saturday definitely improved as Luccoa arrived, who I had spent many years talking to before our first meeting. Was very happy to finally meet them and found them very friendly, in and out of costume! Most of the rest of the day I spent extremely busy trying to keep track on Luccoa and Rylie, now in her brand new Rouge the Bat mask. Met up with Aoi-Kitsune, in her Lisa fursuit and took lots of pictures. Even got to meet up with Bridget the mouse, aka Rabbit in the Moon, in I think her first furry con in years! Brought both Luccoa and Rylie/Rouge to the femme photoshoot, and got lots more pictures taken. Night ended with Luccoa heading home that night, and overall a great time.

Sunday was mostly farewells starting up as Lola and Meiou left that day, to go along with Bridget who left on Saturday night. Took a few more pictures of Rylie as Rouge, did our end of convention dinner, finished the Mansions of Madness game and called it a night and began my trip home early in the morning after saying goodbyes.

The good, again this was such a weird bi-polar weekend! Meeting up with Luccoa finally was great. Seeing and interacting lots more with Lisa/Aoi was good too and I think I'm getting a good impression. And spending a full weekend with Doitsu, who is another fur I had known for a while online but only just recently met briefly IRL was great. Even briefly met Ciel, a new (or at least new character) fur, and got lots of pictures of her!

The bad, as mentioned earlier, no Maggie was a big one for me as Maggie has kinda poked and prodded me to do stuff at cons. With no Maggie, unfortunately I didn't have as much of a push to help out folks, other than Luccoa in her one day appearance. Also, did I mention Cloppy, who I met at MFF briefly was there? I didn't? That's because due to personal issues, I maybe saw her in the total time it took me to do this writeup. Was not happy about not getting to see more of the pretty pony. And oh yeah, a certain homophobic, transphobic bi-polar psychopath decided to drop by the con Saturday and Sunday. Ignored her calling to me and had to avoid her a bit the rest of the weekend.

That leads to the ugly. Hey folks, did you know that most of my last 20+ years in furry I've only had a few IRL roommates? Other than brief periods in Florida, and half a year in Houston, for the most part, I come home at night to an empty, quiet apartment. This doesn't help my mood generally. So when shenanigans happened, and a last minute roommate switch needed to be done, this left me alone in my room all weekend. Even attempting to get folks to keep me company at night failed. Not going to lie, this one hurt. I understood the reasons for Saturday but otherwise, holy crap that hurt. To the extent that if I have a future convention coming up where it looks like I'll end up with no roommates, I will end up skipping that con.

So overall, the highs were high, the lows were brutally low. TFF 2019 got a solid C in my book.

Four billion years later! (or a month roughly)

I finally uploaded my edited and cropped Midwest Furfest 2018 pictures!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/63529.....57675739211077

Now to relax for a few minutes before going back to work mode!

Everyone knows how  maggiekig came at a time in my life when I was at my lowest. Maggie has been quick with a smile and I'm so happy when she has a great time doing stuff.

Hopefully helping out a little bit will help her out with the bills due to trying to deal with this horrible issue.

Would be great if everyone on my list threw in a couple bucks and told their friends to throw in a couple as well! Let's make this happen!

https://www.gofundme.com/maggie-needs-help-and-hope?sharetype=teams&member=1413120&rcid=r01-154646949065-b14a5b67cc26443e&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w

2018 Year in review, otherwise known as TL:DR, damn Mac talks alot!

The good - For two years straight I was able to pull off funding plans to get some friends to Midwest Furfest. Was able to get Maggie Holt to her second MFF and Neko-Nico to her first. The trip went mostly without a hitch, with the main bit of crap happening after the con. Was great meeting up with the usual suspects like Kitsune Eunuch, Angel Macleod Roberts, Samantha Kemple, Kala Silverheart, KC WereTiger, and others I am blanking on as usual. And oh yeah, Ricochet is awesome many many years later and I enjoy our Sunday meetups. Hopefully congrats on your Browns getting just above 500 for the first time in a millenia!

Furry Fiesta went off without a hitch and Maggie, Lauren and Jeff Wertman got to hang out which was great. Also on the non-con meetup with the nickname Maggie Goes West, we got to meet up with Anna Kurauchi, Kara Starr, Douglas Floyd, Lola Fenric, and Rylie Wulfe which was great!

Also, this was my first trip to Canada in over a decade as I went with the kigurumi group to Anime North, with subsequent Canada sight seeing. Other than being way to shy and skittish around many new people, the trip was mostly good. And oh yeah, I got to witness some love blossom between Rias Kala Gremory and Ciracecilie Strom which seems to be working out great! Thanks to Neko again and Cici Jean Winn for helping put that thing together.

The Bad - Mostly a mellow year. Work continues to be crazy, to the extent I fully intend to change jobs and locales in 2019. Outside of the three big conventions and the non-con trip, things were very quiet in between.

Then we come to the Ugly - As mentioned, work has now gotten to a phase, post third party implementation that there now is no longer a down time so to speak as near every month, every week is potentially an overtime situation. Work/Life balance has been thrown right the heck out the window in 2018 with little hope on the horizon as far as 2019. And oh yeah, it doesn't help my social life outside of those cons and meetups is non existent.

And to end the year, the friend I half-jokingly refer to as my emotional support skunk has been in the hospital since a week after Midwest Furfest. I hope she can get out soon as things online are just so much quieter without her around.

Thanks to the many folks that have stuck around all this time!

Here's to 2019 and things hopefully being different!

It's late 2018 so it's time for another writeup from my time in Chicago during one of them Fur thingies! Midwest Furfest that is!

Back to a familiar format (and lazy I know) which is the good, bad and ugly. Will start by saying this year I was once again with Maggie Holt and first timer Neko Nico, all the way from Canada , Eh? Both were great as usual!

The good
The con officially became the first fur con to break the 10K mark in terms of attendance! As someone who has been involved in the fandom since Confurence 9 in 1998, back when the biggest con was about 800 people, I think it's cool to see the fandom continue to grow! Besides, it's fun when certain alt-right apologist numerical avians comment how the fandom is dying because one con doesn't give them free tickets and such anymore!

Also good was spending time with Neko, as I didn't get to interact with her much during the week long trip to Canada as she was partly in charge of the group! Even better, Neko seemed to fit in very nicely during the con and got many good remarks and pictures from folks!

Also, it's not a MFF trip without a Sunday trip to the Ram to see Doggy Radio star Ricochet and watch his Cleveland Browns play and yup, lose again! Such a great tradition, although had I known we were betting food on the game, I would've bought less!!

Finally, after last year being confined to her room, Maggie was healthy the entire con! Even got to run her first ever panel on femme costuming and kigurumi to a near full room! Very happy my emotional support skunk continues to do well!

The Bad
Very minor stuff this year! With MFF slowly moving to the convention center, my hope is that I could not get the main hotel, one hotel a block and a half from the Hyatt would cut it. That might have worked had it not been raining with actually a little snow on Thursday and Monday!I will game plan the overflow situation better in 2019 I swear!

Related to that, due to being at the overflow, I didn't get to see some of my usual group, i.e. folks like Police Dog, Kamadan, Wolfus, ZenWolf to name a few!

The other bad thing, MFF, guys... you're now the biggest furry convention. Now is the time to act like it and get this registration thing figured out. At this point, there is little benefit to pre-registration and in fact I heard some of the folks registering at the door got their stuff quicker!

One more minor thing. Kings has been part of our food rotation since I discovered it a few years back. Last year the food area apparently changed themes or management or both. Since then it's been downhill. This year my group officially had another fail there. Have to take it out of my rotation now.

The Ugly
In a rare moment, really nothing during the con, so I'll come back to this!

Was great seeing frequent folks like Maggie, Angel MacLeod, Lauren Rivers, Shrag, Samantha Skunk, Candace, Yuri, Takeshi, Kira Frost, Miezekatze, Joe Panther, Jovina, Weretiger, Lomax and Kala Silverheart!

Also was great seeing first time folks like Neko, Afrodyte and Rage Berry as well as talking to new (to me) folk like Cloppy, Rhea Algarin and Astaria Naira!!

Overall the con was great! Some minor issues with the size, but guess what furs, you're still tiny compared to anime cons!

…

Now... for the ugly, which actually has happened post convention.

One of my friends, which until it has gone public I will keep the name private, is in the hospital for an extended amount of time. I'm very scared and hoping they will be alright and for now at least, they seem to be just relaxing uncomfortably in the bed. I am sending all my well wishes to them every night.

See you in 2019 at future events!!

Have not even finished editing my Canada pictures and post yet.

That means it's time for me to already plan ahead! Midwest Furfest registration complete! See you in Chicago in late November!

Pounced.org went down today due to recent regulatory changes.

Not happy about pounced going away.

Had hoped for years that maybe a date would come from it.

Never worked for me but sad to see it go.

I know when I was more active on my regional fur group, the board was very adamant that no dating or personal ads on there as "that's what Pounced is for".

In addition, sites like Furfling I've heard too much about being bot infested, full priced scams to ever bother making a profile there.

Well. guess that's about it then.

#foreveralone

Last weekend I did a trip to Texas Furry Fiesta in Dallas Texas. This was an interesting situation going in as I originally had a handful of friends not close by that were going.

This was leading me to have second thoughts about attending, but then a certain skunkette was told by her work that she could go. Thus things started moving into motion and went very well.

Roommates this cycle were split between two linked rooms and was myself, Lauren Rivers and Shrag who live only an hour away normally, Sylandra (aka Jeff), and Maggie Holt. Maggie was a near last minute decision and after the sick fest that was MFF, I was hoping she would have a better time this time.

And overall, things were fine! The new hotel is good, although I did not get a chance to go up into the fancy pants tower at the Hotel. Parking was a mess but hey, after 20 years, what mid sized/large sized con doesn't have parking issues?

And something very cool happened as well as Craw Dawnfeather and Sapphire actually were able to do the drive down to visit on Sunday unexpectedly! Was nice seeing Craw moving about after a rough time in 2017 with health issues!

Again, solid con, really happy Maggie got to enjoy this con after MFF went so badly for her. Only complaint is I wish more of my out of state friends attended!

Pictures to go up soon, after I go through all the duplicates.

Hi folks, it's another episode of Mac has a weird head space thingie.

So Furry Fiesta is coming up in a few weeks, but right now it's running into an issue with cons for me (Anime North excepted).

Generally, if I go to a con, it's because there's a good number of folks that will attend that I can't just drive up to visit. Using MFF as a recent example, there were several dozen folks that went that fall into that camp.

In contrast right now, Furry Fiesta I currently have a grand total of TWO non-local friends going. This is causing me to think about declaring it a pass this year. I kinda/sorta don't have roommates at all, as the only commitments are Rabbit and Peter for one night.

So, just throwing it out there. Any other folks going that I forgot about?

Thanks!

It's time for another round of TL:DR, or Mac fancies himself a Dave Barry-esque writer with 1/1000th the talent.

The Good - This was a year where I did a plan that lasted most of the year to get a couple friends to Midwest Furfest with me. That budgetary plan worked most of the way. Was able to get Maggie and Kala to their first MFF, but Maggie got sick, spent most of the con sick in bed. Kala however clicked well with multiple groups, so with luck if she goes again in 2018, she won't be lacking groups to spend time with.

Also, this year marked I guess the most peaceful things have been with my family. Usually my folks throw mountains of passive aggressive hate towards me, my friends, the hobby I've been involved with for now 20 years, the city I work, the place I live, and my car for good measure. This was minimal which helped my sanity.

The Bad – Anyone that knows me, knows roughly my politics. A certain orange skinned, senile, overly-sensitive toddler is now the leader of this country. Much activity on my friends lists and newsfeeds have been devoted to that thing. Have quietly ended some friendships because of comments made and quietly noted disquieting things on others.

Also, the aforementioned save up for almost a year to drag someone to spend time with me and they contract the black plague. Not happy with fate in this case.

Since October 2016, my work has quietly announced major changes. That led me to set up plans, which I have dropped vague hints to my parents. I have been just waiting for the quiet announcements to turn to public announcements and action plans. At the end of this year, there still is no movement on that front, but I'm hoping for news by 2nd quarter 2018 so I can move forward with plans.

The Ugly – Well... this was unexpected, and it's not a post about furry stuff without mentioning one of the surprising (in not a good way) developments. What I am talking about is the rise of the alt-furry or far right wing furries. I do not get the entire concept, within this fandom, at all. I think because of the rise of a certain orange skinned toddler, many feel enabled to now open up about their views. I do not get it.

I don't see how folks go “Hey I love anthropomorphic art and costuming but you know what I really hate? Gays and colored folk!!” I do not like that a few friends and now ex-friends have embraced that side. My hope is in 2018 that the major conventions and groups decide that yes, these children can no longer play well with others and need to go away. It's fine to have disagreements about costuming and art stuff, but when it involves groups that align themselves with those that killed several million people in the guise of nationalism and racial purity, nope, sorry, go away.

Looking ahead to 2018, with luck early on I will finally get clarity on the work situation and subsequent improvement of my social conditions and new living locale.

Thank you to all that helped keep me (mostly) sane in 2017. Thank you to those that produce the videos I watch either at work or at home that give me a chuckle (and in some instances, I contribute to their Patreon). Here's hoping for a great 2018 and Nazis go home!

In between packing up for my latest in-town move, I guess it's time for another TL:DR fest... i.e. time to talk about Midwest Furfest 2017!

First things first. This was the first con I near exclusively used my phone for pictures and the quality.... is mixed. Long term, after the changes next year, I want a new camera. Will post pictures after I look through and toss the ones that are duplicates or potato quality.

This year was a little different for me. I was wanting more reinforcements I guess since usually I am the odd man out at cons at times. After saving my pennies for almost a year, I was able to drag Maggie Holt and Kala Silverheart to their first MFF. Since she was needing a room, we ended up taking in Rylie as our 4th roommate.

With that intro out of the way...

The Good

This was Kala's first MFF. Her fursuit did not get finished in time, so she decided to go as one of those ummm not sure what the style is called, type of ponies. She got along with folks very quickly. Even sounds like if she goes to MFF next year, she'll have all kinds of groups to meet up with!

Also, Maggie introduced her new skunk character, Michelle Scarlett, made by Angel Macleod and Northpaw. I liked how she came out!

And yes, it was another MFF, had another nice meetup with longtime fur friend Ricochet at a sportsbar as we watched his Cleveland Browns do what they did best. Good times. And oh yeah, Ric, Pretzel Buns. Don't forget prezel buns from now on!!

The Bad

Other than the aforementioned camera angst, which is a recurring theme with me, one of the other recurring issues is once again feeling like the square peg trying to force myself down a round hole. Several times I felt I just was getting nowhere talking to folks. Post-con, I ended up doing my quarterly or so friends list adjusting on Facebook because of it.

And oh yeah, a certain Crux I had a huge crush on, I am now aware that he was actively trying to push me away when I was melting in his arms. Meh another crush over and gone.

Also... it's Chicago in December and I was hoping for a little snow flurry taste of winter again! Sadly I had to wait until I was home to get a little bit of that.

The Ugly

Couple things jumped out this year, none were weekend breakers, i.e. “the Incident” with a certain former Disney animator from 2000, but still a couple moments.

First, dinner mixup on one of the days led to a comment “Why don't you just call Dominos yourself”, which got to me a bit. Taking a couple newbies to Chicago and telling them to go to Dominos is... bad. Was not happy with that, and had a long talk later.

Then hearing about a certain ex-friend's shenanigans with apparently anti-Semitic remarks while wearing a world war I outfit was a thing.

And because it's me, and I'm allergic to pretty girls seemingly, met a pretty new costumer at the con. Seemed friendly and all. Then I open my mouth and that bridge is blown up and the ground salted. Oh well.

And finally the plague-sized elephant in the room. Early in the con, Maggie got wiped out with an upper respiratory issue that incapacitated her most of the weekend. I ended up spending a good amount of time in the room keeping her company since she couldn't enjoy the con. Took Saturday night before she was able to wander around a bit. She's doing better now, which is good, but hated that her first time to the con was mostly in the room.



And that was Midwest Furfest 2017 in the books. 2018 looks to have a couple major changes if all work as planned. First time to Toronto, possible new home city and new job too. Hoping to do MFF in 2018 as usual!

Now just have to get an in-town move finished over the next couple days!

By the way, just curious.

Are there any PC Destiny 2 players around? Me, Maggie, Rylie and Sylandra are wanting more folks for our groups. We want to do the Leviathan raid at some point, and maybe trials of the nine!

Let me know!