Vacation (FWA 2011)
It just wouldn't be a vacation without something going wrong, right?
So I thought I'd go to Furry Weekend Atlanta again this year. I had gone last year and got an invite from an friend of mine who I had been acquainted with for several years to go to the con with him, so I figured, why not? This year I had both a car and vacation time I could utilize toward it, so I thought I'd have an easier time of things. Boy was I wrong.
First off was the timing. The con happened to take place at a very poor moment for me, seeing as I had just switched departments to save my job, having been failing in my previous department. My hours hadn't shifted much, but they did by one hour, and since I started the night shift, I have grown sensitive to such things. Also, my hearing aids had been failing to keep up with me, as those who read this journal should know; I've been trying to get some new ones for quite some time now. This also happened to pan out so that I'd be getting my new pair just before the convention. This was complicated by my alarm clock failing to wake me on the day I was to get my new pair. It sometimes does that. It began acting finnicky about two years into my ownership of the thing, and it has caused me problems both in my professional and recreational life, but as the alarm clock was $70, I couldn't just replace it. I about blew a gasket when it did this to me though; it was the final straw, and I nearly went and destroyed it over this. As it was I was able to salvage the situation by arranging to pick up my new hearing aids the day I was to leave for the con, which meant my adjustment period would be nil. No matter how much I begged, offered money, or threatened to go somewhere else, I couldn't have the hearing aids given to me any earlier than that because the audiologist needed to adjust them.
While I'm on the subject, I suppose I should mention that this was more than just an incident of needing new hearing aids. The audiologist told me that it wasn't so much that my hearing aids had broken as it was that my hearing had declined to the point where the ones I had borrowed from the schools audiologist weren't enough any more. This is a pretty dramatic decline for a span of less than a year, considering that before last winter I was getting by with them adequately. So I am now having to adjust to new more powerful hearing aids, and it's hard to do. Just about everything causes tinitis, and many sounds hurt my ears. Nothing sounds quite natural, and I still can't understand spoken words. Actually, I'm beginning to believe I may have lost my grip on understanding the English language altogether. It may be that my level of understanding the spoken word has slipped to a rough equality of my understanding of sign language. It's ok though. By this point I don't really care. I'll just try to squeeze as much as I can out of life and when I finally get to the point where nothing helps, go quietly into the night.
Anyway, back on subject. After work that last day I basically came home and packed. Went to bed but was afraid to sleep because of my alarm clock, decided to just fuck it and stay up, making sure I was packed before heading to the audiologists. Ate brunch at Sonics of items that I should not have ordered, then left for Atlanta. Surprisingly, this was the easy part. I had no problem finding the correct roads or getting on the interstate. It was a beautiful day and I was testing out my ability to understand my music again. It was my first time on the Interstate and I was going with the traffic. I got a speeding ticket at about the half-way point. It turned out to be $200, meaning that my owning a car wouldn't actually save me any money over last year, when I spent the same amount taking a taxi from Atlanta back to Anderson because the MARTA was off schedule.
But I made it to the con all right. Parked and entered the convention with my shiny new netbook I had got in the absence of a phone. Called up my roomate with it and met up with him; he and his girlfriend were very nice and made excellent room hosts; I needn't have worried. He was also playing host to three other guys, all of whom were respectful roommates, so it was crowded, but pleasant. Kind of an interesting contrast compared to how it usually is for me. Called up my mom and found out that I had left all my clothes and my alarm clock to boot. I was so sure I had brought it that my mind remembered me unpacking it from my car when I got to the hotel and taking it out in my room; but no. The only thing I had brought with me was the bed shaker my alarm clock used to wake me. Luckily, I also had the spare "emergency clothes" that I had packed, so I could stretch out my outfits without having to wear too much of the same garments over the weekend. It helped that some cool shirts were for sale too. That first day of the con they were having problems setting up the registration system, so the first day was open. It turned off a few people I guess, because they needed to register for other days of the con and couldn't. I hear some people lost money on it pre-ordering, but whatev; I'm not complaining. Went to play the Magic: The Gathering Draft tournament I had signed up for and then broke for the opening ceremonies. We made decks out of nothing but the new Mirrodin supplement, which was new to me; at my local comics shop we usually went with a mixture. Made what I thought to be an adequate deck but just barely stocked it with enough mana. Still, I did fairly well that first day. Broke for the Opening Ceremonies and then reconvened before breaking for the night, vowing to finish the game the next day. I went to bum around the Artist's Alley, met a few folks, formulated some ideas for commissions and then went off to the Metro Cafe with my roommates; the eatery that I remembered from last year. Really great stuff, though none of us could hear each other over the karaoke. Went back to he hotel but before we could sleep, the host kicked myself and a roomie (none of the others had showed up yet) out of the hotel room. We bummed around the hall for a few hours, wondering what was going on and whether or not we'd be allowed back in before just giving up and sleeping in the hallway. I was awoken an indeterminate amount of time later by a highly apologetic host who told me the reason was because of his girlfriend's health problems. This is pretty common in the fandom, so I just shrugged it off, glad we could get back to sleep.
Second day we all woke up at a reasonable hour; none of that oversleeping shit from last year. We went to the mall for Breakfast after helping the host's girlfriend produce some prints; not as good as the metro cafe, but it was passable. Then I went back to participate in the next round of Magic, beat my opponent and was told to wait on the other. We had another game which I lost and then was told that I would have a free day before meeting again for the final tournament. No problem. By then I felt a free day was needed, and I had signed up for Furoticon on the following day anyways. Experienced the Dealer's Den and purchased a few things, met some interesting people this year; probably spent too much money. Then I was grabbed by my host and we went to the lobby where we were gathering people for a special dinner at the Hard Rock cafe that he had arranged. There were like, 20 of us all told and we went down to wait outside the restaurant for an hour. The atmosphere was great though, and I thought the food was good, but some of the others who went with us apparently found the experience to be significantly less enjoyable. I lagged behind the group a bit because I wanted to browse for souveneirs, but after that I went right back to the convention to make my host's panel, which he had also invited me to. Was shocked to see just how many people came to it; I had expected significantly less. Of course, I couldn't understand a word that was being said, so I just kind of used my netbook during the panel. I hope I didn't come off as disrespectful, but the others seemed to be having a good time.
After that it was time for sleep. No problems this night, though by now I was having a difficult time of getting my body to readjust to new hours. Third day of the convention saw me getting up before the others, so I went down to the hotel bar to have some breakfast before returning to the convention to see about commissions and make a few more purchases. Came out of the Dealer's Den in just enough time to see the fursuit parade, which was astounding this year; There were so many of them, in such massively diverse suits! Some of them were real works of craftsmanship too. I took some pictures and kind of mingled with the crowd. Poked my head into the Charity Auction but was disappointed with the fare there, so went back to walking around the Artist's Alley. I don't recall what happened after that; either I lost track of time in the convention or did something for lunch...I think I had lunch again at the hotel cafe...in any case, I checked back in for the Rock Band live finale, and while I was impressed with the playing, the band on display didn't have much of a stage presence. After that was Matthew Ebel's Concert, and this year he brought his new live drummer; their first performance together. There were we few technical hiccups, but they still sounded absolutely fantastic. His new drummer, Runtt, was just what he needed for his live performances. Skipped out on 2's Rant because of my poor hearing for the Furoticon tournament. By then I was definitely feeling the effects of having spent two days awake during hours I should have been asleep. I came to the tournament just baked with exhaustion, but I had paid to be there so there was no ways around it. It was the least fun I had ever had with a tournament, though I still somehow managed to do better than I did with Magic: The Gathering, and won some cards and a magnet. During the tournament I was supposed to be on my netbook for the Weekly Star Fox RPG (one of the reasons why I purchased the damn thing) but two things happened simultaneously that cut my time their short. The first was that the wifi in the hotel was extremely spotty. One could only get a good signal directly on the convention floor; it did not extend up into the panel rooms. Second was that my battery was dying and barely left me with enough time to give warning before it collapsed on me. The outlet was simply too far away from where we were conducting the card game. Anyway, went back to the hotel room to rest and order a pizza only to find out that the keycard my host had given me earlier that day wasn't working. Went back to the desk several times to get my card flashed, but each time I couldn't get in. Eventually I gave up and wandered the hotel in a half-dazed sleep deprived stupor. Stopped by a room party where I was offered a shot of Jaegermiester, which really did not help my condition. By the time I got around to ordering that pizza, it was 3 in the morning and amazingly, they still delivered! Ate a few slices, traded someone a piece for a best buy gift card, was about to sleep on the couch before I decided I felt better enough to try the room one last time. This time I got in; went right to bed.
Again got up slightly earlier than the others; went to the Drawing for Furries panel and saw some interesting new techniques. Ran into Unkle Kage before his story hour but sadly couldn't make it. Had the rest of my pizza for brunch, trading another slice for an art card; made a few purchases from folks who had discounted items since it was the last day of the con; more impulse buys. Wanted to watch the Marvel VS Capcom tournament but my heart wasn't really in it so I went back to bumming around the art room. Missed a panel I wanted to attend, but did manage to catch the Furries Got Talent?! after talking with one of the roomates and subsequently making a new friend. The talent show was nothing if not entertaining. I went just to watch Drumming Raccoon perform ( I owed it to him since I couldn't see his show last year) but the other folks had nice skits too. The closing ceremonies were kind of bittersweet, but I had an extra day so went back to the room to crash with the others. Was waiting on them to decide what to do for dinner but my biology caught up with me and I fell asleep. By the time I woke up again, everyone else had already completed their evening and gone to bed themselves, so I spent a few frustrated hours trying to get back to sleep when I was actually feeling refreshed. Eventually the "time" came to wake up, so I took a shower and got dressed; playing some of my new Pokemon game while waiting for the others to wake. (white version, yo!) Once everyone was up I broached the subject of breakfast, but they all had to pack in a hurry. I decided to pack too, managing to say goodbye to two of the roommates before they left, but I missed my hosts. After waiting on them to return to the hotel for an hour (some of their things had been left there) I gave up and went to breakfast and then checkout. Driving out of Atlanta was not as easy as it was to drive into the place. Apparently, the directions I had been given had me driving through some place called Fremont or something; a suburb of Atlanta. Nice place, but I started to get paranoid that none of the roads were interstate routes. Eventually had to stop for directions twice, but after speaking to a guy in a ritzy apartment complex I knew I was on the right course. I just had to follow the road and take one that forked, heading towards Greenville. Once I found the Interstate, it was clear sailing; only had to stop for gas once (my first time the entire trip). By the time I got home though, my body hurt all over. Took an inadequate nap before work and struggled through my job feeling like an 80 year old man. Discovered I had left my alarm clock's bedshaker up at the hotel, making the thing completely useless to me now. This caused me to miss the Star Fox game again this week. Not fun.
I got a new bedshaker for $40. The alarm clocks, as I mentioned before, run about $70, so I'm going to wait for a few paychecks to pass before I get one. But when I do, I'm fucking taking a sledgehammer to my old one. One little appliance shouldn't cause so much grief.
But anyhow, that's how my vacation went. In spite of the tone this journal probably comes across with, I really did enjoy myself and had a great time. I don't think that feeling of personal accomplishment of going out and doing things like this all on my own will ever fade. It was a good experience; met some interesting people, had some good times, got some souvenirs. That's my idea of a vacation.
Now if only I could relax. Photos forthcoming in a future post. Watch this space. Oh yeah, I totally met explorer_fam at the convention. He's a cool dude, hope to see you again sometime! Hopefully next time we can hang out more.
----------------
Now playing: Peter Cetera - Glory of Love
via FoxyTunes
GE stops making lightbulbs in America.
Rare images of the world that's too small to see.
An experiment is underway to build a clock that can measure plank time. For those not in the know, this is the smallest possible unit of time, which would make this clock the most accurate in the cosmos. The clock is being created to measure some discrepancies in universal background noise that could prove the Universe is holographic in nature and operates on a limited bandwidth of data.
So I thought I'd go to Furry Weekend Atlanta again this year. I had gone last year and got an invite from an friend of mine who I had been acquainted with for several years to go to the con with him, so I figured, why not? This year I had both a car and vacation time I could utilize toward it, so I thought I'd have an easier time of things. Boy was I wrong.
First off was the timing. The con happened to take place at a very poor moment for me, seeing as I had just switched departments to save my job, having been failing in my previous department. My hours hadn't shifted much, but they did by one hour, and since I started the night shift, I have grown sensitive to such things. Also, my hearing aids had been failing to keep up with me, as those who read this journal should know; I've been trying to get some new ones for quite some time now. This also happened to pan out so that I'd be getting my new pair just before the convention. This was complicated by my alarm clock failing to wake me on the day I was to get my new pair. It sometimes does that. It began acting finnicky about two years into my ownership of the thing, and it has caused me problems both in my professional and recreational life, but as the alarm clock was $70, I couldn't just replace it. I about blew a gasket when it did this to me though; it was the final straw, and I nearly went and destroyed it over this. As it was I was able to salvage the situation by arranging to pick up my new hearing aids the day I was to leave for the con, which meant my adjustment period would be nil. No matter how much I begged, offered money, or threatened to go somewhere else, I couldn't have the hearing aids given to me any earlier than that because the audiologist needed to adjust them.
While I'm on the subject, I suppose I should mention that this was more than just an incident of needing new hearing aids. The audiologist told me that it wasn't so much that my hearing aids had broken as it was that my hearing had declined to the point where the ones I had borrowed from the schools audiologist weren't enough any more. This is a pretty dramatic decline for a span of less than a year, considering that before last winter I was getting by with them adequately. So I am now having to adjust to new more powerful hearing aids, and it's hard to do. Just about everything causes tinitis, and many sounds hurt my ears. Nothing sounds quite natural, and I still can't understand spoken words. Actually, I'm beginning to believe I may have lost my grip on understanding the English language altogether. It may be that my level of understanding the spoken word has slipped to a rough equality of my understanding of sign language. It's ok though. By this point I don't really care. I'll just try to squeeze as much as I can out of life and when I finally get to the point where nothing helps, go quietly into the night.
Anyway, back on subject. After work that last day I basically came home and packed. Went to bed but was afraid to sleep because of my alarm clock, decided to just fuck it and stay up, making sure I was packed before heading to the audiologists. Ate brunch at Sonics of items that I should not have ordered, then left for Atlanta. Surprisingly, this was the easy part. I had no problem finding the correct roads or getting on the interstate. It was a beautiful day and I was testing out my ability to understand my music again. It was my first time on the Interstate and I was going with the traffic. I got a speeding ticket at about the half-way point. It turned out to be $200, meaning that my owning a car wouldn't actually save me any money over last year, when I spent the same amount taking a taxi from Atlanta back to Anderson because the MARTA was off schedule.
But I made it to the con all right. Parked and entered the convention with my shiny new netbook I had got in the absence of a phone. Called up my roomate with it and met up with him; he and his girlfriend were very nice and made excellent room hosts; I needn't have worried. He was also playing host to three other guys, all of whom were respectful roommates, so it was crowded, but pleasant. Kind of an interesting contrast compared to how it usually is for me. Called up my mom and found out that I had left all my clothes and my alarm clock to boot. I was so sure I had brought it that my mind remembered me unpacking it from my car when I got to the hotel and taking it out in my room; but no. The only thing I had brought with me was the bed shaker my alarm clock used to wake me. Luckily, I also had the spare "emergency clothes" that I had packed, so I could stretch out my outfits without having to wear too much of the same garments over the weekend. It helped that some cool shirts were for sale too. That first day of the con they were having problems setting up the registration system, so the first day was open. It turned off a few people I guess, because they needed to register for other days of the con and couldn't. I hear some people lost money on it pre-ordering, but whatev; I'm not complaining. Went to play the Magic: The Gathering Draft tournament I had signed up for and then broke for the opening ceremonies. We made decks out of nothing but the new Mirrodin supplement, which was new to me; at my local comics shop we usually went with a mixture. Made what I thought to be an adequate deck but just barely stocked it with enough mana. Still, I did fairly well that first day. Broke for the Opening Ceremonies and then reconvened before breaking for the night, vowing to finish the game the next day. I went to bum around the Artist's Alley, met a few folks, formulated some ideas for commissions and then went off to the Metro Cafe with my roommates; the eatery that I remembered from last year. Really great stuff, though none of us could hear each other over the karaoke. Went back to he hotel but before we could sleep, the host kicked myself and a roomie (none of the others had showed up yet) out of the hotel room. We bummed around the hall for a few hours, wondering what was going on and whether or not we'd be allowed back in before just giving up and sleeping in the hallway. I was awoken an indeterminate amount of time later by a highly apologetic host who told me the reason was because of his girlfriend's health problems. This is pretty common in the fandom, so I just shrugged it off, glad we could get back to sleep.
Second day we all woke up at a reasonable hour; none of that oversleeping shit from last year. We went to the mall for Breakfast after helping the host's girlfriend produce some prints; not as good as the metro cafe, but it was passable. Then I went back to participate in the next round of Magic, beat my opponent and was told to wait on the other. We had another game which I lost and then was told that I would have a free day before meeting again for the final tournament. No problem. By then I felt a free day was needed, and I had signed up for Furoticon on the following day anyways. Experienced the Dealer's Den and purchased a few things, met some interesting people this year; probably spent too much money. Then I was grabbed by my host and we went to the lobby where we were gathering people for a special dinner at the Hard Rock cafe that he had arranged. There were like, 20 of us all told and we went down to wait outside the restaurant for an hour. The atmosphere was great though, and I thought the food was good, but some of the others who went with us apparently found the experience to be significantly less enjoyable. I lagged behind the group a bit because I wanted to browse for souveneirs, but after that I went right back to the convention to make my host's panel, which he had also invited me to. Was shocked to see just how many people came to it; I had expected significantly less. Of course, I couldn't understand a word that was being said, so I just kind of used my netbook during the panel. I hope I didn't come off as disrespectful, but the others seemed to be having a good time.
After that it was time for sleep. No problems this night, though by now I was having a difficult time of getting my body to readjust to new hours. Third day of the convention saw me getting up before the others, so I went down to the hotel bar to have some breakfast before returning to the convention to see about commissions and make a few more purchases. Came out of the Dealer's Den in just enough time to see the fursuit parade, which was astounding this year; There were so many of them, in such massively diverse suits! Some of them were real works of craftsmanship too. I took some pictures and kind of mingled with the crowd. Poked my head into the Charity Auction but was disappointed with the fare there, so went back to walking around the Artist's Alley. I don't recall what happened after that; either I lost track of time in the convention or did something for lunch...I think I had lunch again at the hotel cafe...in any case, I checked back in for the Rock Band live finale, and while I was impressed with the playing, the band on display didn't have much of a stage presence. After that was Matthew Ebel's Concert, and this year he brought his new live drummer; their first performance together. There were we few technical hiccups, but they still sounded absolutely fantastic. His new drummer, Runtt, was just what he needed for his live performances. Skipped out on 2's Rant because of my poor hearing for the Furoticon tournament. By then I was definitely feeling the effects of having spent two days awake during hours I should have been asleep. I came to the tournament just baked with exhaustion, but I had paid to be there so there was no ways around it. It was the least fun I had ever had with a tournament, though I still somehow managed to do better than I did with Magic: The Gathering, and won some cards and a magnet. During the tournament I was supposed to be on my netbook for the Weekly Star Fox RPG (one of the reasons why I purchased the damn thing) but two things happened simultaneously that cut my time their short. The first was that the wifi in the hotel was extremely spotty. One could only get a good signal directly on the convention floor; it did not extend up into the panel rooms. Second was that my battery was dying and barely left me with enough time to give warning before it collapsed on me. The outlet was simply too far away from where we were conducting the card game. Anyway, went back to the hotel room to rest and order a pizza only to find out that the keycard my host had given me earlier that day wasn't working. Went back to the desk several times to get my card flashed, but each time I couldn't get in. Eventually I gave up and wandered the hotel in a half-dazed sleep deprived stupor. Stopped by a room party where I was offered a shot of Jaegermiester, which really did not help my condition. By the time I got around to ordering that pizza, it was 3 in the morning and amazingly, they still delivered! Ate a few slices, traded someone a piece for a best buy gift card, was about to sleep on the couch before I decided I felt better enough to try the room one last time. This time I got in; went right to bed.
Again got up slightly earlier than the others; went to the Drawing for Furries panel and saw some interesting new techniques. Ran into Unkle Kage before his story hour but sadly couldn't make it. Had the rest of my pizza for brunch, trading another slice for an art card; made a few purchases from folks who had discounted items since it was the last day of the con; more impulse buys. Wanted to watch the Marvel VS Capcom tournament but my heart wasn't really in it so I went back to bumming around the art room. Missed a panel I wanted to attend, but did manage to catch the Furries Got Talent?! after talking with one of the roomates and subsequently making a new friend. The talent show was nothing if not entertaining. I went just to watch Drumming Raccoon perform ( I owed it to him since I couldn't see his show last year) but the other folks had nice skits too. The closing ceremonies were kind of bittersweet, but I had an extra day so went back to the room to crash with the others. Was waiting on them to decide what to do for dinner but my biology caught up with me and I fell asleep. By the time I woke up again, everyone else had already completed their evening and gone to bed themselves, so I spent a few frustrated hours trying to get back to sleep when I was actually feeling refreshed. Eventually the "time" came to wake up, so I took a shower and got dressed; playing some of my new Pokemon game while waiting for the others to wake. (white version, yo!) Once everyone was up I broached the subject of breakfast, but they all had to pack in a hurry. I decided to pack too, managing to say goodbye to two of the roommates before they left, but I missed my hosts. After waiting on them to return to the hotel for an hour (some of their things had been left there) I gave up and went to breakfast and then checkout. Driving out of Atlanta was not as easy as it was to drive into the place. Apparently, the directions I had been given had me driving through some place called Fremont or something; a suburb of Atlanta. Nice place, but I started to get paranoid that none of the roads were interstate routes. Eventually had to stop for directions twice, but after speaking to a guy in a ritzy apartment complex I knew I was on the right course. I just had to follow the road and take one that forked, heading towards Greenville. Once I found the Interstate, it was clear sailing; only had to stop for gas once (my first time the entire trip). By the time I got home though, my body hurt all over. Took an inadequate nap before work and struggled through my job feeling like an 80 year old man. Discovered I had left my alarm clock's bedshaker up at the hotel, making the thing completely useless to me now. This caused me to miss the Star Fox game again this week. Not fun.
I got a new bedshaker for $40. The alarm clocks, as I mentioned before, run about $70, so I'm going to wait for a few paychecks to pass before I get one. But when I do, I'm fucking taking a sledgehammer to my old one. One little appliance shouldn't cause so much grief.
But anyhow, that's how my vacation went. In spite of the tone this journal probably comes across with, I really did enjoy myself and had a great time. I don't think that feeling of personal accomplishment of going out and doing things like this all on my own will ever fade. It was a good experience; met some interesting people, had some good times, got some souvenirs. That's my idea of a vacation.
Now if only I could relax. Photos forthcoming in a future post. Watch this space. Oh yeah, I totally met explorer_fam at the convention. He's a cool dude, hope to see you again sometime! Hopefully next time we can hang out more.
----------------
Now playing: Peter Cetera - Glory of Love
via FoxyTunes
GE stops making lightbulbs in America.
Rare images of the world that's too small to see.
An experiment is underway to build a clock that can measure plank time. For those not in the know, this is the smallest possible unit of time, which would make this clock the most accurate in the cosmos. The clock is being created to measure some discrepancies in universal background noise that could prove the Universe is holographic in nature and operates on a limited bandwidth of data.