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I was down in Orlando for Dorsai Thing last weekend. It was a nice break from my rather busy day job, and gave me the chance to visit and socialize with friends. It was also my first time to Florida!

It was fun, but short, for I arrived with Uncle Kage late Friday evening, and left on Sunday morning. The highlight was dinner on Saturday evening. Aside from socializing with folks and shooting Nerf guns at Colin to see who would go first, I am pleased to announce that two new members of the Dorsai Irregulars were inducted, one of whom was our own ToraCub:

The setup for the "beanieing" was fairly straightforward. At dinner, Uncle Kage called Tora up front to present him with a bottle of fine tequila that he had purchased earlier in the day, as a gift for all of Tora's hard work at Anthrocon and other conventions. I approached both of them, under the pretense of taking a picture. When that was done, I moved to the side, out of Tora's field of vision, and behind him. After Kage distracted him for a few more seconds, I snuck up from behind him and dropped my own beret on his head, as the rest of the room erupted in cheers and applause. It's fun to be sneaky like that. :-)

As the youngest DI, we get to call him the "baby DI", at least until the next sucker person is inducted. :-)

After that, it was back to the consuite for more socializing and fine beverages!

On the way back home the following morning, I took a few pictures from the shuttle at Orlando Airport:

If anyone wants the full archive of my Dorsai Thing 36 photos, they can be found here.

Thanks for reading, and my next convention will be Furry Connection North, just next weekend! I hope to see everyone there!

Just uploaded my pictures from MagFest, which I worked on the first weekend of January. It was a contract with the Dorsai Irregulars, so we were working security and badge check for the con.

One of the more memorable things about this year's MagFest was that we had a staff suite, complete with an actual chef, who cooked breakfast and dinner. Getting real cooked food without having to go offsite or order out was a really nice perk at this year's MagFest. I hope they continue it next year.

There was also a contest of the game Nibbler, which was held at MagFest during the weekend:

Unfortunately, according to Retro Thing, Dwayne Richard's machine froze just shy of half a billion points, forcing him to abort his attempt.

Also, the Chairman of MagFest dressed up as a Wiimote:

The Dorsai Irregulars also won an award at the MagFest awards ceremony. It was for "Best Hats". No, really!

If anyone is interested, my full set of pictures can be found here:

http://flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157612942430913/

Enjoy!

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. :-P 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? :-P

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 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.