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FurFright went well for me this year.

I don't have much specifically to say, because other than working security, socializing with old friends (and making a few new ones), and catching up on my sleep, I didn't do much else. But that's the kind of convention experience that I'm okay with.

Wanna see the rest of my pictures? They're over here.

Next con for me is Midwest FurFest, which is just around the corner. I'll be working in Operations there (huge surprise, I know). See ya soon!

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.

FurFright was a fun convention this year! It started off with a bang in my first security shift on Friday afternoon. I got a call for "first aid in the parking lot", which Cliff Husky and I responded to. Turned out that "first aid" was an understatement. We arrived on the scene of an (MVA) motor vehicle accident at the entrance of the parking lot, with one person injured pretty badly. We attended to him, with Cliff taking his vitals and history and me holding his neck in the c-spine position for a good 10 minutes until an ambulance arrived and EMTs relieved us.

That was the first ever auto accident that I worked. Was a little nervous afterward, but not nearly as shaken up as I thought I'd be. And what did I learn from this? Get first aid training. You never know when you'll need it.

The rest of the shift was uneventful, other than trying to figure out the hotel's weird layout. Apparently it was added onto twice, and had been rebuilt after a fire at least once, so the layout was very... unplanned. Hallways that had multiple ramps on them, stairways that only went up 1 floor or even skipped a floor, and ramps that went in circles. It was like M.C. Escher himself designed the hotel!

Saturday afternoon had me killing time with P-Kitty and other folks, and somewhere along the line it was suggested that I borrow a fur named Manik's fursuit. He was cool with this, so I put on the head, paws, and my overcoat, and walked around the con for about half an hour. I went up to several folks I knew in personal and said hi. Poor Protocollie... I think I broke his brain!

That's right: it was the first time I ever fursuited. And in a cheetah fursuit, at that. Draw your own conclusions.

On a related note, I went and registered the domain cheopard.com. Be afraid.

On Saturday night, I dropped by the Gun Furs panel, hosted by Cliff Husky. It was pretty informative, and I learned quite a bit about all the different details that surround guns, and the legal aspects of them.

On Friday and Saturday nights, I went to the dances, and played around with the ISO and shutter speed settings on my camera. I got some pretty interesting pictures:

The whole set of dance photos can be found here.

My birthday was also on Halloween, and the first time I celebrated it. Shortwave, Ferian, and others bought me drinks at the bar, an acceptable birthday present! Chiaroscuro also got me a bottle of cider called "Lucky Lion", that I hope to enjoy with some friends soon.

As the con came to a close, I realized what an awesome time I had. Between the health issues I've had the last several months, and some other personal issues I had to deal with over the summer (which I now call "the lost summer"), I'd say that FurFright was a high point over the last 6 months or so. And I hope that this uphill trend in my mood and life in general continues.

Extra special thanks to Athy for the repeated doses of coffee. The stuff I had at 2:30 on Saturday morning was a huge help. It kept me up through 8 AM when my shift ended.

For the rest of my pictures, they can be found here.

Total attendance for the con was 1,284 attendees, as announced at closing ceremonies. The count for fursuiters in the parade was 287 coming out the ballroom, though the official count of fursuiters who actually made it to the end of the parade was about 40 lower. (don't have that number handy)

Finally, there were a few folks I was hoping to get contact info for:

- P-Kitty
- The guy I did first aid on (anyone know if he was okay?)
- Manik (the gentleman who let me borrow his fursuit)
- Clementine (the fox with the super bright glow sticks)

If anyone knows of online contact info for these people, please let me know in the comments!

Next con for me will be Midwest FurFest. See you all then.

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.

Well, FurFright 2008 has come and gone, and what a blast it was!

From a socializing standpoint, this convention was a success. The hotel had an atrium in the center which made for a great gathering point, and since the security desk was also there, I got to bump into a great many people even while on duty. This made the con much more enjoyable as "work" was less like "work".

Random people I chatted with (and some I met for the first time at the con): Shortwave> (Thanks for the glowsticks!), Oryx Gazella, Gray Wolf, Vega (sorry about having a mouth full of Oreos), Petercat, Uncle Kage, Grandma Kage, Grandpa Kage, Finnishfox, Kojac, Canus Lupus, Midori, Creature, Davin Warter, Farraptor (It's not every day when I meet someone for the first time when they're in fursuit), and Tilt Longtail (it was nice meeting you OUT of fursuit!).

Keapano, Raff, and Tamen, it was a pleasure meeting you folks for the first time. I hope you'll be able to make it out to more furry cons.

Fennecus Kitsune, it was also cool meeting you for the first time.

Benji, it was good seeing you again for the first time in what, 3 years? :-)

As I was working security with the Dorsai Irregulars, I got to see some familiar faces there, both DI and non-DI. Steve Simmons, Renegade, and Carol Gobeyn were all present, as were Dave Stein, Xander, Kasi Frost, Furp, Mrianti, ToraCub, and the rest of you.

Athy and Cliff Husky, you guys completely cracked me up at Cakecon. Yes, Cakecon. It was a real life party with cake. Lots of cake.

If you made it this far, then you're probably looking for my full dump of pictures. They can be found on Flickr at http://flickr.com/photos/dmuth/sets/72157608249142588/.

For a final photo, this is Tilt Longtail and Grandma Kage, reenacting a famous picture:

My head asplode.

So anyway, I'm looking forward to next year's FurFright.

I'm also looking forward to Midwest Fur Fest next month. I hope to see everyone there!

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.