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Well, this year's MFF came and went. And man, did it ever go well. This was one of those conventions for me where everything seemed to go right and fall into place. It was a rare moment at the con when I didn't have something to do or someone to chat with.

As is my tradition with attending conventions, I tend to work them too. This year, I worked in Operations for Puma and his staff. It was a different experience, and overall I enjoyed being in more of an attendee-facing role at this year's MFF.

As I mentioned in a previous comment, Raptor Red was there, in a new version of his fursuit. He was rather expressive, which is normal for him:

The fursuit parade had 574 fursuiters this year:

Here are the hours I'll be on duty at FurFright this weekend:

Friday: 4 PM to 8 PM
Saturday: 8 AM to Noon, 2:30 PM to 4 PM
Sunday: 12 AM to 4 AM, 4 PM to 8 PM

My position is "sergeant", which means I'll be based at the security desk, but walking around a fair bit, checking with people who are working at the various badge checkpoints in case they need to take a bathroom break, doing an occasional rove through the guest floors, etc.

Essentially, if I'm wearing my beret, it means I'm working.

This year's Anthrocon went pretty well for me, at least from a staff/Operations standpoint! This being our 6th year in Pittsburgh, things went pretty well. Equipment arrived when it was supposed to, nothing went horribly wrong or got broken, and set up and teardown went fairly well. In that aspect, the con was somewhat "boring" for me, which is actually fantastic.

During my slow days (Friday and Saturday), I actually got to spend some time out enjoying the con, dropped in on a couple of panels, and got some facetime with some folks. My socializing was to such an extent that I didn't even drink all that much, which my wallet had no issues with.

Total stats for this year's Anthrocon were 4,400 furries from 39 countries, 854 fursuits in the fursuit parade, and $11,522 raised for The Toonseum.

Here's a picture of the Toonseum folks (except for the chef, which was Chiaroscuro):

There's not much else for me to add, because the con was more of the same awesomeness that I'm used to experiencing.

Naturally, I have many more photos than are show on in this post The full collection can be found here, with my "main" pictures found here.

Enjoy!

Since folks keep asking me what conventions I work and whether I'm a staff member at such and such convention, I figured it was about time I made a list.

• Anime Central
  • IRT (Security) in 2009
• Anthrocon
  • Operations Director and Board of Directors from 2004 to present
  • Sysadmin and webmaster from 2006 to present
  • Operations staff in 2002 and 2003
  • Internet Room staff in 2000 and 2001
• Camp Feral
  • Staff member and workshop instructor in 2001
  • Past webmaster (2001 or so)
• Confluence
  • Security in 2011
  • Security from 2007 to 2009
• FurFright
  • Security from 2007 to present
  • Assistant Operations Director in 2006
• Furry Connection North
  • Webmaster and sysadmin from 2009 to present
  • Security in 2011
  • Security from 2008 to 2009
• MagFest
  • Security from 2007 to 2009
• MarCon
  • Art Show Security in 2007 and 2008
• MidWest FurFest
  • Operations staff in 2011
  • Artshow staff from 2008 to 2010
  • Artshow staff in 2003

Wow, this took a long time to write. :-) It was something I had been procrastinating on for awhile, mostly on account of me not uploading my pictures. Now that all of my pictures are up on Flickr, I can get down to writing about the con.

Anthrocon 2009 started for me on the Tuesday evening before the con. I met up with Whitefeet, Ethan Staghorne, and Pinky in Philadelphia. I picked up a rental car, and we headed out to Pittsburgh. Ethan brought along an iTrip and we took turns listening to each others' iPods.

Wednesday was a pretty calm day for me. I got Ops set up and running, and then got the Registration computers set up later in the evening. This year was a change, as I was tasked with writing the convention's registration software. So I made sure I had extra time to get everything set up and tested well in advance.

Come Thursday, I was starting to get the pre-launch jitters. People were lining up for onsite registrations, and I wanted to be sure that my software would work properly. Nik Vulper even remarked to me once that I had my "game face" on. When Registration did finally open around 3, I was please to see that my code did actually run properly. Other than making periodic backups and checking that the slave database server was staying in sync, I didn't have any serious work to do in Registration the rest of the weekend.

On Friday, I danced a bit in DJ Protocollie's dance that night, then swung by my room. I found waiting for me a 10-pack of small bottles of different Swedish liquors, courtesy of Ethan, and a printing out drinking songs to sing with them. Ethan explained that you were supposed to sing between shots. I just stared at incomprehensible Swedish between shots. (Swedish is almost as difficult to understand as Danish is, I might add :-)

Saturday was the quietst day for Con Ops. I spent a fair amount of time out and about the con that day. It was also the day we held the fursuiter parade, where a total of 640 fursuiters marched in it. I remember when the number was announced over the radio, I had to ask that it be repeated, because I wasn't sure I heard it right the first time.

Sunday was the "let's wrap things up day". Registration and Ops were winding down. All I had to do in reg was run final stats, make a final backup of the data, and pack up the computers. The total number of attendees at Anthrocon 2009? 3,776 attendees

Looking back after the con, there were a number of things that made it really fun:

Okay, I uploaded all of my pictures form Midwest FurFest. Okay, let's get the link to all of the pics out of the way: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157622889526042/. And now, pictures that I found especially interesting!

First picture is from the Method 1 Live show. Since the hosts couldn't have beer in con space, they instead reviewed Drank Beverage. Along the way, they also decided it would be a good idea to drink Brawndo, and even mix them in the same glass and drink the olive oil-colored concoction. That didn't end so well, as this picture tries to illustrate:

One Standard Issue Furpile that happened Sunday night outside of the dance:

And some actual huskies, who were part of last year's charity, came by to be trained for working with large crowds:

The first Steampunk fursuit that I recall seeing at a furry convention:

This Beast fursuit--or combination of fursuit and face paint, rather, was pretty cool. The first time I've seen someone do something like that, too:

Poor Raptor Red!

Want the rest of my pictures? They're at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157622889526042/. Have fun!

A picture of November and myself at Midwest FurFest.

Yes, I often wear a shirt and tie to furry conventions. The picture was his idea. :-)

Had a pleasant experience at FurFright the other weekend. While there were 979 attendees in total, the con didn't feel like there was nearly a thousand people present. This was probably due to the overflow hotel being some distance away and people heading off site for food, as well as furs going to the attached water park.

Once again, I worked security with the Dorsai Irregulars. Things were pretty quiet there, too. The attendees were well behaved, and the room parties were quiet. As for that crazy GM at the hotel, we did the best that we could under the circumstance. The rest of the hotel staff (especially the bartenders) seemed pretty cool and seemed to enjoy us.

I got to direct fursuiters during the first fursuit parade, and was in a location where I could take a bunch of pictures:

Yeah, that's a furry Pinhead. That is a very nice box he's holding. I need to find one like it.

Of course, we also had our share of weird and silly this year:

The whole archive of pictures is in the usual spot on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157622567912403/

Other than that, I spent most of the con relaxing, chatting with friends, and generally having a good time. I think I'll return next year.

This year's Furry Connection North was another heck of a convention! With 727 attendees, the convention's attendance nearly doubled over last year! Clearly, the current state of the economy did not hurt this year's event.

I did something a little different this convention. A few months back, I made it a point to start saving all of my $5 bills when getting change. By the time FCN rolled around, I have a few hundred dollars in $5s. Aside from the strange looks I got from my bank teller when turning all of those $5s into larger bills, this provided me with a convenient way to set aside some spending money for the convention. Even though my total amount of money did not change, being able to set aside cash meant that I actually spent more on artwork and books at this convention. That's a win-win for everybody!

The one downside about this convention for me was that I didn't get to see as much of the convention as I would have liked to, due to some of the shifts I worked on security (provided by the Dorsai Irregulars this time around). I worked 2 shifts that were from midnight to 6 AM, and 1 shift from 6 AM to Noon. This left me sleeping during the mornings and early afternoons so I didn't get to see as much of the con or my friends as I would have liked (sorry Cliff Husky!). I did get to make up for this on Sunday though, by attending closing ceremonies, the live Method 1 show, and Gir's dance, which totally rocked.

This new hotel was also full of win. The staff loved us. One of the bartenders decided on Saturday afternoon that she just had to have a tail to wear, so I ended up loaning her one of mine. I am told that this boosted the amount she received in tips. :-)

Other things that made FCN cool:

- All the food places within walking distance.

- The "I'm on a boat" song.

- Everytime someone said the word "asshole" and Chillymouse was in hearing distance, she would pipe up with "100% asshole?"

- The few noise complaints I handled, the occupants of the rooms were very nice and very apologetic. That made the con that much more enjoyable to work.

- The bar having $8 Long Island Iced Teas.

- A reasonably priced lunch/dinner menu at the hotel's restaurant.

- Cardboard cutouts of Obama and George Bush. They made for nice party items.

- Getting to chat with Duncan The Dog, who swung by Con Ops in the middle of an otherwise boring late night security shift.

Oh, you wanted to see some pictures? Sure!

The full set, as always, can be found on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157617572706694/

My next non-furry con will be Anime Central, which I will be working security at. And I leave for that, uh... tomorrow morning! My next actual furry con after that will be Anthrocon.

Anime Central: 2009
Anthrocon: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
Camp Feral: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
ConClave: 2005, 2006, 2007
Confluence: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011
DexCon: 2006
Eurofurence: 2004
FurFright: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
Furry Connection North: 2008, 2009, 2011
MagFest: 2007, 2008, 2009
MarCon: 2007, 2008
Midwest FurFest: 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010
Otakon: 2003
Western PA Furry Weekend: 2010

Years with links are where I have photos online. Italicized years are where I worked staff.

So that's 49 conventions in all (33 furry, 16 non-furry). And that isn't even counting some of the smaller gatherings such as KainCon, Wuffmeet, and Dorsai Thing...

For the whole list of staffing I've done at those conventions, there's now a separate blog post for that.

Despite the number of conventions I attended, there are still more I'd like to attend! Megaplex, Confusion, and Penguincon, for starters. And FurCoNZ, too. (I've never been to New Zealand before!)