Further Confusion 2009
After last Wednesday's dinner of awesome with hbruton and pals, Further Confusion 2009 properly started on Thursday morning. This marked my sixteenth furry convention since 2002. I don't know if that makes me feel old or young!
Luckily enough, furry conventions always know how to add that dash of childlike charm to make the experience a better one. I was really pleased by the con's theme this year (something that usually goes completely under my radar); the fashion trends and visuals that were all over the place--and on people--made me smile.
What did not make me smile was the Registration Line of DOOM™ that me, nauv and toob were stuck in for over two and a half hours.
That was probably one of the lower points of the con, though. The convention itself got better from there.
This was due to be the con's last year in the DoubleTree San Jose, and so of course they had to go and mix things up on us by changing the hotel restaurant into this weird, eerie thing called "Sprigs." I'm not sure why it wigged me out so much, but it did.
As you can see, the dealer's room was packed. I actually had a bit of an anxiety freakout from the throngs of people crowding me out and generally just being everywhere like a sea of warmth and funk. Incidentally, I believe the cluster of people lining up outside the Sofawolf tiki hut are mostly in line for kyellgold's new release, Out of Position.
Sofawolf wasn't the only busy table, though. Seriously, the dealer's room was insane. I heard people say that sales were down, but if that's the case, it certainly wasn't because there were fewer people, because, just... jeez!
I spent most of my Friday afternoon in the back hallway playing the Battlestar Galactica board game with kohai_tiger, tealfox, jakebe, toob, and Leo. This is a shot from later on in the game, shortly before the Cylons crushed the humans (I was one of the latter).
I had dinner at an Indian restaurant within walking distance of the hotel. The service was really kind of slow, but the food was delicious and they had a greatly entertaining Bollywood clip reel playing on the TV, so the experience was still a positive one. Also, from where I sat, I was staring at this piece of modern art on the wall for the entire meal, and something about it grabbed my attention.
That night, there was fun at the bar! All sorts of interesting characters showed up.
Friday night was definitely a more "mellow" night at the bar (compared to later in the con). I only had two drinks, myself, but I was having such a good time that several people had to ask me if I was drunk. Really, I was just experiencing some euphoria due to not having any major stress on me for the first time in a good long while.
Then rigelkitty hosted his late-night game of Lupus in Tabula. We played two games, which lasted from 11:00PM til 2:30AM, which was pretty epic. Oh, and I totally almost got xydexx lynched in one game when I was a werewolf and he was the seer, after nearly getting people to trust my word over his.
nauv spent a lot of the con doing little mini-sketches in his mini-sketchbook. And some people, apparently, were a bit too tuckered out by their Friday night.
I got to meet Vegas again. He was fabulous. And he had a really pretty badge!
See?
I spent most of Saturday afternoon playing a board game called Tomb. It was fun, but towards the end I started getting a bit resentful of the fact that I'd spent so much of my con time playing board games when other stuff was going on. Not that I don't love playing board games, and not that I don't like playing them at cons, but after Battlestar the day before, I kept seeing people I wanted to spend time with and I couldn't get away from things. In the future, I think I'm going to tone down the number of epic-length games I play.
One of the things I missed while playing Tomb was the fursuit parade. I kind of caught a bit of the post-parade gathering, though, I think.
My book signing was slated for early the following afternoon! As it turned out, this little sign got a few people's attention, but I'll come back to that a little later.
Saturday night, the lot of us who had gone out for Indian the night before (now with the addition of kohai_tiger went out to get dinner again, only for it to initially result in EPIC FAIL. Here's a picture of folks after we'd checked out THREE possible restaurants, only to be denied by each. I needed to document the moment in case it turned into true hilarity and ineptitude later on (or, possibly, in case this moment was the last that the lot of us were friends).
This may well be the greatest picture of jakebe anyone has ever taken.
We ended up getting a big table at one of my favorite local Chinese places, Shine Yun. And there was beer to help take the edge off.
By the time we did finally get to eat, we were all very hungry, as you can see here. We demolished quite a lot of deliciousness, and lo, it was good.
Speaking of eating, here's my last meal that I will, in all likelihood, ever eat at the DoubleTree. This $18 breakfast buffet was... well, it was actually decent, if too expensive, and I'm not sure why I took a picture of it other than to be able to say, "This is the last meal I'll probably ever eat at the DoubleTree."
Russ is a handsome little scamp.
Though he's not always the most obedient of puppies.
And here I am on Sunday afternoon with Kamui at our book signing for Thousand Leaves! We had a pretty decent turnout, including quite a number of people who I didn't know, and, surprisingly enough, people who I didn't know, who had already purchased the book, and who had made a special point to come back to get the two of us to sign it. That was flattering and awesome. The two of us had a great time (and I am so jealous of Kamui's vest, even if I have more adorable hair).
che_fox brought along the NEW AND IMPROVED version of the board game classic, Cosmic Encounter. I have to say, it plays pretty smoothly, retains that Cosmic Encounter charm, and (most importantly, in my case) didn't take over three hours to play! I'd definitely give it another run in an expanded, non-con setting.
xydexx busted out rigelkitty's copy of Fill or Bust! and we played a few rounds of that. I finally got to meet redstar918 and his mate, who I'd been looking forward to meeting for a while. I don't have photodocumentation that they actually exist, though, so instead, here's an attentive audience of fursuiting art aficionados.
vlad_badger was WINNAR, too, at his game over at another table. He got a fabulous lei as his victory prize. Then he came along to dinner and we gorged ourselves on Mongolian BBQ.
Sunday night, hotel bar area. I'm willing to bet that a lot of people's vision looked not too dissimilar from this.
Goodbye, DoubleTree. Thanks for hosting my local con for me, and thanks for being my late January home for the last seven years. Despite what anyone else may say, I'm going to miss you, but I'll always have the memories (and this time, I remembered to take more pictures.
Luckily enough, furry conventions always know how to add that dash of childlike charm to make the experience a better one. I was really pleased by the con's theme this year (something that usually goes completely under my radar); the fashion trends and visuals that were all over the place--and on people--made me smile.
What did not make me smile was the Registration Line of DOOM™ that me, nauv and toob were stuck in for over two and a half hours.
That was probably one of the lower points of the con, though. The convention itself got better from there.
This was due to be the con's last year in the DoubleTree San Jose, and so of course they had to go and mix things up on us by changing the hotel restaurant into this weird, eerie thing called "Sprigs." I'm not sure why it wigged me out so much, but it did.
As you can see, the dealer's room was packed. I actually had a bit of an anxiety freakout from the throngs of people crowding me out and generally just being everywhere like a sea of warmth and funk. Incidentally, I believe the cluster of people lining up outside the Sofawolf tiki hut are mostly in line for kyellgold's new release, Out of Position.
Sofawolf wasn't the only busy table, though. Seriously, the dealer's room was insane. I heard people say that sales were down, but if that's the case, it certainly wasn't because there were fewer people, because, just... jeez!
I spent most of my Friday afternoon in the back hallway playing the Battlestar Galactica board game with kohai_tiger, tealfox, jakebe, toob, and Leo. This is a shot from later on in the game, shortly before the Cylons crushed the humans (I was one of the latter).
I had dinner at an Indian restaurant within walking distance of the hotel. The service was really kind of slow, but the food was delicious and they had a greatly entertaining Bollywood clip reel playing on the TV, so the experience was still a positive one. Also, from where I sat, I was staring at this piece of modern art on the wall for the entire meal, and something about it grabbed my attention.
That night, there was fun at the bar! All sorts of interesting characters showed up.
Friday night was definitely a more "mellow" night at the bar (compared to later in the con). I only had two drinks, myself, but I was having such a good time that several people had to ask me if I was drunk. Really, I was just experiencing some euphoria due to not having any major stress on me for the first time in a good long while.
Then rigelkitty hosted his late-night game of Lupus in Tabula. We played two games, which lasted from 11:00PM til 2:30AM, which was pretty epic. Oh, and I totally almost got xydexx lynched in one game when I was a werewolf and he was the seer, after nearly getting people to trust my word over his.
nauv spent a lot of the con doing little mini-sketches in his mini-sketchbook. And some people, apparently, were a bit too tuckered out by their Friday night.
I got to meet Vegas again. He was fabulous. And he had a really pretty badge!
See?
I spent most of Saturday afternoon playing a board game called Tomb. It was fun, but towards the end I started getting a bit resentful of the fact that I'd spent so much of my con time playing board games when other stuff was going on. Not that I don't love playing board games, and not that I don't like playing them at cons, but after Battlestar the day before, I kept seeing people I wanted to spend time with and I couldn't get away from things. In the future, I think I'm going to tone down the number of epic-length games I play.
One of the things I missed while playing Tomb was the fursuit parade. I kind of caught a bit of the post-parade gathering, though, I think.
My book signing was slated for early the following afternoon! As it turned out, this little sign got a few people's attention, but I'll come back to that a little later.
Saturday night, the lot of us who had gone out for Indian the night before (now with the addition of kohai_tiger went out to get dinner again, only for it to initially result in EPIC FAIL. Here's a picture of folks after we'd checked out THREE possible restaurants, only to be denied by each. I needed to document the moment in case it turned into true hilarity and ineptitude later on (or, possibly, in case this moment was the last that the lot of us were friends).
This may well be the greatest picture of jakebe anyone has ever taken.
We ended up getting a big table at one of my favorite local Chinese places, Shine Yun. And there was beer to help take the edge off.
By the time we did finally get to eat, we were all very hungry, as you can see here. We demolished quite a lot of deliciousness, and lo, it was good.
Speaking of eating, here's my last meal that I will, in all likelihood, ever eat at the DoubleTree. This $18 breakfast buffet was... well, it was actually decent, if too expensive, and I'm not sure why I took a picture of it other than to be able to say, "This is the last meal I'll probably ever eat at the DoubleTree."
Russ is a handsome little scamp.
Though he's not always the most obedient of puppies.
And here I am on Sunday afternoon with Kamui at our book signing for Thousand Leaves! We had a pretty decent turnout, including quite a number of people who I didn't know, and, surprisingly enough, people who I didn't know, who had already purchased the book, and who had made a special point to come back to get the two of us to sign it. That was flattering and awesome. The two of us had a great time (and I am so jealous of Kamui's vest, even if I have more adorable hair).
che_fox brought along the NEW AND IMPROVED version of the board game classic, Cosmic Encounter. I have to say, it plays pretty smoothly, retains that Cosmic Encounter charm, and (most importantly, in my case) didn't take over three hours to play! I'd definitely give it another run in an expanded, non-con setting.
xydexx busted out rigelkitty's copy of Fill or Bust! and we played a few rounds of that. I finally got to meet redstar918 and his mate, who I'd been looking forward to meeting for a while. I don't have photodocumentation that they actually exist, though, so instead, here's an attentive audience of fursuiting art aficionados.
vlad_badger was WINNAR, too, at his game over at another table. He got a fabulous lei as his victory prize. Then he came along to dinner and we gorged ourselves on Mongolian BBQ.
Sunday night, hotel bar area. I'm willing to bet that a lot of people's vision looked not too dissimilar from this.
Goodbye, DoubleTree. Thanks for hosting my local con for me, and thanks for being my late January home for the last seven years. Despite what anyone else may say, I'm going to miss you, but I'll always have the memories (and this time, I remembered to take more pictures.