I haven't written here lately because I've been very busy at work, and taking care of some real life stuff that came up. As they say, "stuff happens".

I did however get to travel out to Pittsburgh last weekend to work Confluence with the Dorsai Irregulars. It was a smallish science fiction con, with about 300 people in attendance. The shifts I work consisted of an occasional rove through the hotel and badge checking at the door to the Dealers Room.

The DI working the contract were Rene, Steve Simmons, Mark Bernstein, and a few other folks whose names I can't remember right now. Also in attendance from the furry community were T'Chall, Swift Fox, Mrianti, Xander, and Uncle Kage. At any rate, it was great to see all of those folks again!

I didn't take many pictures at this convention, since I spent most of the time either working of socializing with folks. The full archive is at http://flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157606428079650/ for those who are interested. What follows are a few choice shots.

I had to work a shift with these guys.

One of these things is not like the others... anyone who got caught drinking the "odd one out" was cut off from drinking the rest of the evening.

The highlight of the con was a play that is put on no Saturday evening. A different script is written every year, usually involving parody of current events. This year's play was called "The Doctor's Sarcophagus". I did not get to watch it, as I had roving duty at the time.

After finishing off the scotch that was in this glass, I pretty much called it a night. My room was right next door to the Dorsai Room, so I could hear them singing through the wall. It didn't keep me awake, but it was kinda funny drifting off to sleep hearing filk music being sung.

Oh, and thanks for singing The Dorsai Cadet Song, guys. Can we just induct somebody newer already?

Wow. What a blast.

3,390 members. And 453 fursuits in our fursuit parade.

Simply astonishing.

I'd like to thank my hard working Operations Staff for helping make it happen, as well as the Dorsai Irregulars for doing their thing. I'd also like to thank our hard working volunteers who came by to help us set up and tear down. You guys rock, and are one of the reasons why Anthrocon Operations went so well this year.

I'll post a full report later, but for now I'm going to read through the post-con surveys.

Oh, you didn't fill one out?

http://www.anthrocon.org/survey

Please tell us what you liked, and what we can do to improve. Thanks!

I got mail sent to me the other day, c/o the Anthrocon mailing address:

The enclosed letter reads:

Dear Giza,

Please do not open the enclosed package until Anthrocon.

Thank you,

Dr. Sodic non Grok

"Dr. Sodic non Grok" is an anagram of "Gordon R. Dickson", the original author of the books that featured the Dorsai.

I've no idea who this person is, but they've been making Dorsai Trading Cards for some years now. First there was Series A, then Series 1, and now Series 2.

If you want to see the trading cards, find a Dorsai Irregular at Anthrocon.

I can't believe I forgot to write more details about my trip to Furry Connection North!

For the impatient, my full archive of pictures can be found on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157604580955859/

I flew in on Wednesday night, so I could help out with setup on Thursday. For those of you reading this who have never been to a furry convention before, people tend to arrive early and stay late. So we did setup on Thursday morning to prepare for folks arriving as early as Thursday evening:

As the con started to fill up on Thursday and into Friday, we got the con suite and the "Pimp Suite" up and running. There were plenty of things to munch on, with beer for those over the age of 21:

The layout of the hotel consisted of an atrium with a large central area where attendees could congregate, similar to The Zoo at Anthrocon:

Registration was at the set of long tables that were off to the side of the area. And for those of you were who in that area and saw a wireless network with the SSID of Cheetahs Are Chewtoys? That was my doing. You're welcome.

Let's talk about the dances for a minute. The dances absolutely rocked. With laser lights and fog, they were lots of fun:

I was working on security at this convention, so I didn't get to drop in on as many panels or performances as I would have liked, but I made a few, including Branwyn's performance, and the "Science and Pseudoscience" panel. I didn't get to make all of Uncle Kage's Story Hour, but I did get to "buzz" the Story Hour halfway through with some of the other Dorsai Irregulars. 5 of us just walked in the back, single file, and stood there. This was enough to derail his train of thought and cause him to blurt out, "OMG it's the Dorsai Irregulars!"

On Sunday afternoon, there were fursuit games, held in the open area in the atrium. There was a turnout of 20 or so fursuiters:

One of the things that I liked about working this convention was that the folks running it had the attitude of, "Get the hard work done, THEN party". So when Sunday evening came around, partying was something we did:

Overall, the con went great! The hotel staff were awesome, as were the convention staff. Everyone had a job to do, and they went about doing it. No attitudes, no infighting, just hard work all around. And that's how a successful con happens.

The final attendance of the convention was 372 attendees. This is a record for a first year furry convention held in a new city, and is something that we can all be proud of.

If there's one thing that could be improved on, it would be the temperature of some of the hotel rooms. That was pretty much the only significant complaint we had. And it will be addressed for next year's Furry Connection North.

Our Guest of Honor (Latin Vixen) seemed to enjoy the convention too:

Got my days off for Anthrocon. All 5 of them. From the Wednesday before the con until the Tuesday afterward. The Tuesday is my day of recovery.

In other news, my mom "found" a $50 savings bond from when I was born. That should be worth quite a bit by now. However, she is holding it hostage until I buy her and my father Anthrocon memberships. Wait, what?!

Public service announcement time, folks.

If you keep shouting about negative stereotypes of furry fandom and "that's not what we're all about", well... all you're doing is bringing attention to those stereotypes. They'll still be associated with furry, regardless of what you as an individual do. Right now, we are doing a better job at promoting negative stereotypes about ourselves than any troll could ever hope to do.

Wanna do something productive? Try talking about positive aspects of the furry fandom. Mention how nearly every convention is a non-profit, how furry conventions have raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity, talk about some of the cool fursuits, or some other positive way that furry has impacted your life.

We can't control the trolls. But we can control ourselves, and what we say. Let's make the most of it.

I had a blast at FurFright 2007 last weekend. As far as cons go, it was a little different for me, because it was the first furry con where I worked security. So I didn't have the opportunity to visit much programming at the convention. I did however, have plenty of time to hang out with folks that I knew, as well as meeting a few new people.

One fun thing about working security is that this guy had to work for me:

I made sure to remind him of this often.

Uncle Kage's parents were also in attendance:

Both Grandma Kage and Grandpa Kage got to work security, and it was great to see them again.

Freddy Krueger made an appearance. Sort of:

We also had our usual amount of prey animals present. The fact that their upper hooves were bound made it much easier to get a meal:

We also had at least one warrior fox present:

This was the first con that I used PhillyCarShare to drive to and back. That worked out rather nicely. Since PCS does rentals by the hour (with a daily rate), I was able to get a car from 6 PM on Thursday to 9 PM on Monday, and not have to pay the ridiculous hourly charges that AVIS would have hit me with. The total cost of renting the car was about $250, which included mileage. That was comparable to what I would have paid for a rental from AVIS. [1] For GPS, instead of renting one from AVIS for $9.95/day, I instead used the GPS on my new phone. That worked out just as well. So I'd say that using PhillyCarShare to get to the con and back was a success!

Finally, if anyone wants to see my entire archive of pictures, they can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157602708286153/

Enjoy!

[1] Keeping in mind that I would have had to purchase ALI (Additional Liability Insurance) from AVIS, since I discontinued my car insurance after selling my car. That is $12.95 a day. With PhillyCarShare, they provide insurance -- a $1 Million policy, for all drivers.

In the beginning, I attended only furry cons. But I had so much fun that I decided to "branch out" a little and start attending other conventions, such as science fiction and gaming conventions.

Here is a list of conventions I've attended, with pictures where appropriate:

MagFest 5

Video game convention in Vienna, Virginia from January 4th to the 7th, 2007. I did not attend this con as a member, but instead helped provide security with the Dorsai Irregulars.

FurFright 2006

This is the part of my site where you'll find furry stories which I have placed on this site, as well as other related documents. If you have NO idea what the words "furry" or "anthropomorphics" mean, then the first thing you'll want to do is read this FAQ. If you're still having trouble understanding what furry is all about, or have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Furry Stories