Tag: furry

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Been Awhile Since I’ve Posted Here

I’ve been busy with a lot of things, just not all of them on the blog. There are two new things that I wanted to share here, though.

First, I created a “Now Page” that I updated periodically, and I also put that into the menu bar for this website. You can see my Now Page here.

And the second thing, is that after a multiple decades of involvement in the furry community, I never got around to creating a webpage that talks about it. Just took care of that, and you can read more about what I do on the weekends and at furry conventions here: Inside the Furry Fandom. I also included some links to furry telegram groups that I recommend.

That’s all I got for now, but watch this space for more updates!

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Inside the Furry Fandom

Me, in fursuit as Asriel Dreemurr from Undertale.

Hey there! I first stumbled into the furry fandom in the late 90s–attending my first furry convention in 1999 and staffing my first furry convention in 2000.

I did not realize just how much of a long-term role it would play in my life.

In nearly 3 decades, I’ve since attended more than 130 conventions and have staffed over 90 of them across a wide range of roles. I’ve done everything from volunteering and staffing to taking on leadership roles such as Department Head and Division Lead, and have spent a total of 17 years serving on the Boards of Directors of two separate furry conventions.

In addition to staffing conventions, I also moderate a number of furry Telegram groups and help run the Anthrocon and Pennsylvania Furries Discord servers, and am the webmaster of the Pennsylvania Furries website.

In 2021, I felt the time was right to get a fursuit, and began fursuiting as Asriel Dreemurr (pictured on this page).

Here are some additional web pages that highlight my involvement in the furry community:

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do you do it?

Because it’s fun. I get to chat and hang out with people who have similar interests.

Does your family know?

Yep. My parents even staffed Anthrocon in the 2010s–here a picture of us at the staff dinner from that year..

What is your day job?

I am a cybersecurity engineer. Please consider reading my cybersecurity guide.

Does your employer know?

Yep.

In Closing

Feel free to look around the content above, and if you have any questions or wanna chat, do reach out!

Fursuit Group Photo at Furry Migration 2022, held in downtown Minneapolis, MN.

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Furry Telegram Groups I Recommend

I’m on a few furry Telegram groups, and I figured I would put the list here as a resource for other furries who are looking for Telegram groups to join.

For disclosure, I mod/admin a few of these groups. That said, I can endorse joining any of them if they are relevant to your interests.

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Furry Artwork and Commissions of Giza as a Goat

I have all artwork of my fursona over here.

However, since I got a fursuit, I also have been getting art of me drawn as a goat, heavily influenced by Asriel Dreemurr from Undertale.

This page is for that art.

Giza Kidd holding coffee, by Jackaloo
Giza Kidd Barbie YCH, drawn by PineTreeLionCat
Giza Kidd Barbie YCH, drawn by PineTreeLionCat
Giza Kidd drawn by Willow The Wolf
Giza Kidd drawn by Willow The Wolf
Giza Kidd drawn by Rezzy Saber
Me as a goat, drawn by Rezzy Saber.
Giza Kidd drawn by NightlineZ
Me as a goat drawn by NightlineZ.

I will certainly be getting more art of me as a goat in the future. 🙂

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How To Start A Furry Convention

So, you want to start a furry convention! Great! We’ll never say no to a new event. And this is a topic I happen to know a little about, as I’ve been staffing/running conventions for nearly 30 years now. (I’m old)

Let’s start with a few questions I’d like to throw out, the sort of questions every new convention organizer should ask themselves…

A Furry Convention Building Checklist:

  • Have you staffed a con before?
  • Are you incorporated? If so, as a 501(c)3 or 501(c)7?
  • Do you have a separate bank account for the organization?
  • Do you have a budget?
  • Do you have a hotel or other venue?
  • Do you have a signed contract with the venue?
  • Did you read the contract in its entirety?
  • Do you have liability insurance?
  • Do you have legal counsel?
  • Have you lined up people who can be senior staff/department heads for major portions of the convention, such as Programming, A/V, Dealers Room, etc.?
  • Have you vetted your staff?
  • Do you have a website?
  • How about social media?
  • Is there another con already serving the same general area?
  • If so, will potential attendees feel that they are forced to choose between the two cons?
Continue reading “How To Start A Furry Convention”
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Hotel Opening: Anthrocon 2019 Report

One of my activities outside of the office consists of staffing furry conventions. One of those conventions is Anthrocon, a furry convention held in downtown Pittsburgh every June/July. At that particular convention, I manage the website and their social media properties.

Yesterday, we opened general hotel reservations, and that resulted in a huge rush of members booking hotel rooms. 1,000 rooms were booked in the first 15 minutes! This was completely expected, and we kept track of how things played out on social media, and also took a survey of members who booked hotel rooms to see how things went. In this post, we’re going to share what we learned based on those survey results and Twitter activity.

HOTEL BOOKINGS

First, did people who booked a hotel room get the hotel that they wanted?

Did you get the hotel you wanted?

For nearly 70% of you, the answer is yes. This makes us happy, but we would like to see the number higher—ideally 100% of our attendees would get a room in the hotel of their choice. This is something we continue to work on each year by adding new hotels and getting bigger room blocks in existing hotels.

Continue reading “Hotel Opening: Anthrocon 2019 Report”
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Running Dorsai Thing 2013: Lessons Learned

The Liberty Bell

Each year, The Dorsai Irregulars have their own annual convention known as “Dorsai Thing”. It is a weekend long event, held in a different city each year, where we all gather, socialize, and hold our semi-annual business meeting. This year, it was held in Phildelphia, and it fell on my shoulders to run the event, dubbed “Liberty Thing” While I’ve worked at plenty of conventions before, this was the first one where I was effectively the Con Chair. This was an entirely new thing for me, and I wanted to write a blog post about some of the things I learned during the experience.

Continue reading “Running Dorsai Thing 2013: Lessons Learned”
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Scaling Anthrocon’s Website to Handle 1,400 Simultaneous Connections

The Challenge

When hotel reservations open, that is the single busiest time of the year for Anthrocon’s webserver. In fact, it even caused us performance problems last year. That was not so good.

So this year, I decided to try something different. Instead of leaving the regular website up and running, which involves using Drupal, I instead decided to replace the entire page with a relatively static “countdown” page, which displayed a countdown timer and automatically started displaying the hotel link at 11 AM on the opening day.

First, some stats for the Anthrocon website:

  • Peak bandwidth: 1.6 Megabits/sec
  • Peak connections: 1,400 concurrent connections

And now some status for Passkey, who handled most of the traffic:

  • Peak bandwidth: 190 Megabits/sec
  • Peak connections: 4,000 concurrent connections
Continue reading “Scaling Anthrocon’s Website to Handle 1,400 Simultaneous Connections”
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Conventions I’ve Staffed

Here is a list of conventions I’ve staffed over the years, and positions held (the full spreadsheet is over here).

Active Cons

Conventions I actively attend and staff.

  • Anthrocon
    • Department Head of Community Team (Discord Server Admin): 2024-present
    • Registration: 2022-2023
    • Communications: 2018-2020
    • Board of Directors: 2003-2018
      • Technology Director: 2016-2018
      • Operations Director: 2004-2016
    • Sysadmin and Webmaster: 2007-2019
    • Operations Staff: 2002 and 2003
    • Internet Room Staff: 2000 and 2001
  • Anthro New England
    • Registration: 2026
    • Guest of Honor Liaison: 2018 to 2025
    • Commerce Operations: 2017
  • Midwest FurFest
    • VIP Relations: 2016 to present
    • Operations staff from 2011 through 2014
    • Artshow staff in 2008, 2009, and 2010
    • Artshow staff in 2003
  • Furry Migration
    • Guest of Honor Liaison: 2020-present
    • Division Lead: 2023-present
    • MNFurs Board of Directors: 2023-2025
      • Elected to a two-year term starting in April, 2023 and ending April, 2025
    • Registration in 2018 and 2019
    • Operations in 2017
  • New Years Furry Ball
    • Registration: 2023, 2024, 2025
  • Western PA Furry Weekend
    • Registration: 2024, 2025
  • Zenkaikon

Inactive Coins

Conventions which I no longer staff because the convention no longer exists or I no longer attend for some reason or another.

  • Anime Central
    • Security in 2009
  • BronyCon
    • VIP Relations (VIPR): 2019 (Dispatch)
    • VIP Relations (VIPR): 2013 and 2014 (VIP Handler)
  • Camp Feral
    • Staff member and workshop instructor in 2001
    • Past webmaster (2001 or so)
  • Confluence
    • Security in 2011 and 2012
      Security in 2007, 2008, and 2009
  • Dorsai Thing
  • Eurofurence
  • FurFright
    • Security in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013
    • Assistant Operations Director in 2006
  • Furry Connection North
    • Webmaster and sysadmin in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013
    • Security in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013
    • Security in 2008
  • MagFest
    • Security in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2015
  • MarCon
    • Art Show Security in 2007 and 2008

How I Decide What Cons to Work

Often this is done on the basis of referrals–if I think a con is interesting/cool, there’s a chance I’ll know someone who is on staff and inquire through them what the staff experience is like. If I receive positive answers, I’ll inquire about joining staff.

If it’s a convention where I don’t know any staff, I’ll volunteer first and see how I like it. If I have a positive experience, I’ll inquire about being on staff in a future year.

Why Do I Work So Many Cons?

Many reasons. First, it gives me a chance to make positive contributions to the community. Second, it provides me with a bit of structure to the convention–having to be in certain places at certain times helps me better organize how I spend my time at the con. And finally, it gives me an opportunity to meet people–I’ve made many many friends over the years just by staffing cons… and getting to see these people again at future cons makes the experience just so much more fun.

Have I Ever Found Myself Unwelcome To Staff A Con?

Yep, it’s happened once or twice. Sometimes people don’t get along, and sometimes conventions are just poorly run. The latter isn’t rare, but it does happen and it never fails to surprise and shock me when it does. Staff and volunteers are the lifeblood of conventions, treat them well.

The web page of cons I’ve attended is over here.

The full spreadsheet of conventions I’ve attended and staffed can be found here.