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The Scent and the Sound
May. 9th, 2005 09:04 pmMy report on Morphicon - Part One: Thursday and Friday
Thursday
In which I am proven a miscreant
So, finally Con Thursday has arrived. I spent much of the morning driving around town, picking up last minute supplies for the Macro Rampage event. The Damnation Navy yielded a $5 bag full of Barbies and clothes - I got like five adult Barbies, four little kids, and one Ken. Not at all bad for the price. The Dollar Store had 10-packs of 11x14 poster board for $1, and I found some 8-packs of coloured markers at Kroger on clearance for $1. That's most of what I needed right there. The only thing that was balking me was plastic soldiers, which I'd expected to be as common as dirt. No-one had them. I finally got a bag at Meijer's for rather more than they were worth.
I had a leisurely afternoon lunch with some Knorr chicken soup that I'd picked up at the Dollar Store. Dollar sells the hispanic-market Knorr products, which are a bit different than the ones sold in the regular stores (slightly saltier, different spice blends, and about half the cost). It seemed an appropriate choice, since it was Cinco de Mayo.
Trickster posted that we'd all meet at the hotel at 4:30, so off I went. I was sitting in the lobby waiting when I got blindsided with an attack-hug by the Wampus. Subservient Chervil had evidently just brought her from the airport. We schmoozed for a long time (rather ignoring poor Chervil, I fear) until I finally noticed that Trickster was overdue. A call to her revealed that she'd be there at 5:30, since she needed to go to the bank first. We sat around waiting and chatting as more people showed up, until finally she arrived, and we began carrying in.
Click to Enlarge The Tiny Little Macro Wampus!
Click to Enlarge It's not bad enough that Zombie Stitch is eating my brain, but now this Tentacle Monster is getting fresh...
The Wampus Woman related how all of her art supplies had been stolen at FWA, and she'd been unable to get any more since then. I had to pop home anyway to get some more stuff, so I brought her back some of my surplus: a 24 pack of cheap coloured pencils plus a sketch pad and the remains of a pad of smooth Bristol.
On the way back, I was stopped as I pulled into the hotel lot by a police officer who pointed out that my plates had expired. This was news to me. The stupid thing was that I'd renewed my driver's license on time, but completely forgotten about the plates.
He had me dead to rights, and pretty much had to ticket me (he was apologetic about it), since I was three months overdue for renewal. So, a $75 loss there, not to mention the shame of having been caught breaking the law, even if inadvertently. Not a good way to start the con. I resolved to put it out of mind, and have a good time anyway.
After much moving of equipment and consumables, a group of us wandered across the way to the Chinese restaurant that was supposed to be in the Worthington Mall. The Mall seemed closed, and the restaurant wasn't where it was alleged to be anyway. Since it was after 9pm by then, we started to fear that we'd have to hit the McDonald's up the road. The threat of McD's fired the Wampus with initiative, and she went scouting and found the restaurant, running back to tell the rest of us. It was still open.
Trickster, Babs and Squirelly opted to eat elsewhere, none of them being great fans of Chinese food. The rest of us quite enjoyed ourselves. I had a strangely spiced Szechuan Beef, which was delicious, but definitely not what I'd expected.
After dinner I ended up in the Sig Room, which was also the Gophers' Den, prepping my Barbies, and making buildings out of brown paper bags in preparation for the next day's Macro Rampage. I got the Wampus to draw a series of signs humorously depicting the types of violence that rampaging macros might do (smash!, eat!, burninate!, etc).
Click to Embiggen
Click to Embiggen
Click to Embiggen
Trickster was slowly, slowly printing out con badges and sponsor prints with her printer on the floor of the hotel room, constantly fretting that someone would step on or kick it, ruining a print. She needed her stack done by the next morning to open Reg on time, and with the printer that we had (good quality but uber-slow) there was no room for error.
A bit after midnight Trickster decided that we needed to have another television set, and the one from her apartment would fill the bill. I got deputized to run and get it. I insisted on a navigator who'd actually been there before, and got Keeshah, who was ill with some sort of sinus infection. We drove Trickster's car, as mine was parked for the weekend due to the situation with the plates. After we got Trickster's place, about a half hour from the hotel, it occurred to me that we could have easily availed ourselves of my TV set, about a five minute drive away. It was a bit too late then, though.
On my return to the hotel, my roommates were all in bed. I unrolled my blanket on the floor, and laid down to sleep as well. After a while, KittFoxx got up, rummaged around in his luggage, and announced that he'd forgotten to pack his medication. He made a trip on foot to the local Kroger's, but they'd already closed. I got up and wandered about the hotel with him for a while, trying to bum a ride to an all-night drugstore from the various furs we met, but all of them either hadn't driven, or else hadn't unpacked their cars, hence having no room. Trickster was in bed and asleep by this time. I finally decided to borrow her car (I still had the keys) and explain things tomorrow. We got KittFoxx his stuff without incident from an all-night place a few miles up the road, and returned to the hotel. It's 3am now, and I have to be up and ready to oversee setup at 7am. This hasn't been a promising beginning to the con. I go to bed to get what sleep I can.
Friday
In which things take a turn for the better
Up at 6:30, and to the Gopher Room by 6:50. As I suspected would be the case, they're showing no signs of life in there. Trickster's awake and showering, and I arouse the staff as best I can. The hotel already has our function space open. I wait until straight up 7am, and begin carrying stuff. The gophers join in, and pretty soon setup is properly underway. It goes more rapidly and smoothly than I'd expected. By 8:30 we're pretty much ready to roll in the programming and operations spaces. Hospitality is slower, but that's expected given their logistics.
Registration begins at 9am. There's a nice initial rush, but then it falls off. By noon we've registered only a hundred or so, which is below my expectations. I'm mildly worried, but not too badly.
I've planned an event called Divers and Sundry Amusements to take place before the con opens. The idea is that people can go to the Gaming area and play with toys and games until the con starts. It ideally should keep them pre-occupied, in the conspace, and away from the front end of the hotel. It isn't the draw that I'd expected, though. A couple people do play a little Scrabble, and someone makes a clock from the spinner of Twister and the counters from Risk. The most popular thing in there by far is the slot machine. You can win tickets for the raffle by paying it. All con long you could hear that peculiar sort of music that it played.
Click to Enlarge See Max Gamble? Gamble Max, gamble!
The Exordium went smoothly. I missed last year's as I was busy running about. It's rather sobering to sit there, looking out over the crowd, and think that they've all come to be entertained by you.
The Macro Rampage comes off smoothly. This was one of my key events, intended to set a silly, relaxed tone for the weekend. It involved a contest among fursuiters to stomp on the Japanese army, mangle victims, and finally crush Tokyo. The toy soldiers that I'd bought to portray the Japanese army turn out to be made of brittle plastic, so after the first couple suiters have rampaged, they're toast anyway. The corwd doesn't really seem to care. The fact that the soldiers more or less blend into the carpet and the monsters have to hunt on hands and knees to find them seems to be entertaining as well. For the Barbie section, I got people to run around playing the role of the victims, waving their Barbie and scream like a girl (or in the case of Manly Ken in his glittering pink pants and halter top, like a boy) while the monsters chased them and eventually caught them and mangled the Barbie. Only one doll's head actually came off, but it was funny anyway. I'd been worried going in that this was going to be one of those things that I thought was stupid and funny, but everyone else just thought stupid. I got positive feedback from the fursuiters all day long, though. People seem to be in a proper mood for meaningless fun.
Click to Enlarge Giant monsters on the rampage. You can't even see the army men - they blend right in.
The main failing in this event (and subsequent ones) was the lack of a headless lounge and blower fans. Mrianti the Okapi brought some fans from his room for us to use, and that helped. In retrospect it was a mistake to opt out of a full-time fursuit lounge. I didn't wish to appear to be favouring the fursuiters at the expense of other events, and that came back to bite me. I should have done what I thought was best, regardless of the opinions of others. I'm usually fairly reliable about that. It's chief among both my virtues and my vices.
In the mid-afternoon Potoroo finally arrived. I'd been beginning to worry, as he'd been expected the night before. Fortunately there was still an opportunity for Ramseys to do a soundcheck before his show. I ate my fill of pizza, dropped in briefly on the karaoke events (just in time to see Max Goof sing), and watched the Pet Auction.
I check in with Registration as they close to see how our attendance is doing. It's Friday, and we've already exceeded last year's attendance. I'd hoped to break it by more, but still, that's not bad. Things are looking up.
After that I suddenly realized just how exhausted I was. I staggered up to the room, where a room party was going full tilt, and collapsed on the floor between the bed and the wall, where I presumably wouldn't get stepped on. The partiers all moved off to another room, but really it didn't make any difference to me. So long as I had a place to lie down I was happy for the moment.
Eventually I was awakened by Babs coming to get into suit for the dance. I got up, feeling much better, and suited up myself, along with KittFoxx and Tiresta who joined us. I still wasn't really up for it, and had to keep taking breaks in the Robespierre Room, so that I missed about half of the dance. Still, I had fun anyway.
I stayed up afterward to make sure that all of the function space was locked and secured, then played with some Beyblades that Bushycat had brought along. If you've not seen 'em before, Beyblades are similar to the old Battle Tops that used to be fashionable when I was little. You spin your top, and put it into the arena (a smooth polyethylene dish) with the other tops and try to knock them flying. Bushy seemed remarkably skilled, and could make her top jump out and hit people.
Click to Enlarge BushyCat has blown one of her Beyblades to fragments in a collision. Here she points out the wreckage.
And so off to bed, at a decent hour this time. Thus endeth Friday.
Thursday
In which I am proven a miscreant
So, finally Con Thursday has arrived. I spent much of the morning driving around town, picking up last minute supplies for the Macro Rampage event. The Damnation Navy yielded a $5 bag full of Barbies and clothes - I got like five adult Barbies, four little kids, and one Ken. Not at all bad for the price. The Dollar Store had 10-packs of 11x14 poster board for $1, and I found some 8-packs of coloured markers at Kroger on clearance for $1. That's most of what I needed right there. The only thing that was balking me was plastic soldiers, which I'd expected to be as common as dirt. No-one had them. I finally got a bag at Meijer's for rather more than they were worth.
I had a leisurely afternoon lunch with some Knorr chicken soup that I'd picked up at the Dollar Store. Dollar sells the hispanic-market Knorr products, which are a bit different than the ones sold in the regular stores (slightly saltier, different spice blends, and about half the cost). It seemed an appropriate choice, since it was Cinco de Mayo.
Trickster posted that we'd all meet at the hotel at 4:30, so off I went. I was sitting in the lobby waiting when I got blindsided with an attack-hug by the Wampus. Subservient Chervil had evidently just brought her from the airport. We schmoozed for a long time (rather ignoring poor Chervil, I fear) until I finally noticed that Trickster was overdue. A call to her revealed that she'd be there at 5:30, since she needed to go to the bank first. We sat around waiting and chatting as more people showed up, until finally she arrived, and we began carrying in.
Click to Enlarge The Tiny Little Macro Wampus!
Click to Enlarge It's not bad enough that Zombie Stitch is eating my brain, but now this Tentacle Monster is getting fresh...The Wampus Woman related how all of her art supplies had been stolen at FWA, and she'd been unable to get any more since then. I had to pop home anyway to get some more stuff, so I brought her back some of my surplus: a 24 pack of cheap coloured pencils plus a sketch pad and the remains of a pad of smooth Bristol.
On the way back, I was stopped as I pulled into the hotel lot by a police officer who pointed out that my plates had expired. This was news to me. The stupid thing was that I'd renewed my driver's license on time, but completely forgotten about the plates.
He had me dead to rights, and pretty much had to ticket me (he was apologetic about it), since I was three months overdue for renewal. So, a $75 loss there, not to mention the shame of having been caught breaking the law, even if inadvertently. Not a good way to start the con. I resolved to put it out of mind, and have a good time anyway.
After much moving of equipment and consumables, a group of us wandered across the way to the Chinese restaurant that was supposed to be in the Worthington Mall. The Mall seemed closed, and the restaurant wasn't where it was alleged to be anyway. Since it was after 9pm by then, we started to fear that we'd have to hit the McDonald's up the road. The threat of McD's fired the Wampus with initiative, and she went scouting and found the restaurant, running back to tell the rest of us. It was still open.
Trickster, Babs and Squirelly opted to eat elsewhere, none of them being great fans of Chinese food. The rest of us quite enjoyed ourselves. I had a strangely spiced Szechuan Beef, which was delicious, but definitely not what I'd expected.
After dinner I ended up in the Sig Room, which was also the Gophers' Den, prepping my Barbies, and making buildings out of brown paper bags in preparation for the next day's Macro Rampage. I got the Wampus to draw a series of signs humorously depicting the types of violence that rampaging macros might do (smash!, eat!, burninate!, etc).
Click to Embiggen
Click to Embiggen
Click to EmbiggenTrickster was slowly, slowly printing out con badges and sponsor prints with her printer on the floor of the hotel room, constantly fretting that someone would step on or kick it, ruining a print. She needed her stack done by the next morning to open Reg on time, and with the printer that we had (good quality but uber-slow) there was no room for error.
A bit after midnight Trickster decided that we needed to have another television set, and the one from her apartment would fill the bill. I got deputized to run and get it. I insisted on a navigator who'd actually been there before, and got Keeshah, who was ill with some sort of sinus infection. We drove Trickster's car, as mine was parked for the weekend due to the situation with the plates. After we got Trickster's place, about a half hour from the hotel, it occurred to me that we could have easily availed ourselves of my TV set, about a five minute drive away. It was a bit too late then, though.
On my return to the hotel, my roommates were all in bed. I unrolled my blanket on the floor, and laid down to sleep as well. After a while, KittFoxx got up, rummaged around in his luggage, and announced that he'd forgotten to pack his medication. He made a trip on foot to the local Kroger's, but they'd already closed. I got up and wandered about the hotel with him for a while, trying to bum a ride to an all-night drugstore from the various furs we met, but all of them either hadn't driven, or else hadn't unpacked their cars, hence having no room. Trickster was in bed and asleep by this time. I finally decided to borrow her car (I still had the keys) and explain things tomorrow. We got KittFoxx his stuff without incident from an all-night place a few miles up the road, and returned to the hotel. It's 3am now, and I have to be up and ready to oversee setup at 7am. This hasn't been a promising beginning to the con. I go to bed to get what sleep I can.
Friday
In which things take a turn for the better
Up at 6:30, and to the Gopher Room by 6:50. As I suspected would be the case, they're showing no signs of life in there. Trickster's awake and showering, and I arouse the staff as best I can. The hotel already has our function space open. I wait until straight up 7am, and begin carrying stuff. The gophers join in, and pretty soon setup is properly underway. It goes more rapidly and smoothly than I'd expected. By 8:30 we're pretty much ready to roll in the programming and operations spaces. Hospitality is slower, but that's expected given their logistics.
Registration begins at 9am. There's a nice initial rush, but then it falls off. By noon we've registered only a hundred or so, which is below my expectations. I'm mildly worried, but not too badly.
I've planned an event called Divers and Sundry Amusements to take place before the con opens. The idea is that people can go to the Gaming area and play with toys and games until the con starts. It ideally should keep them pre-occupied, in the conspace, and away from the front end of the hotel. It isn't the draw that I'd expected, though. A couple people do play a little Scrabble, and someone makes a clock from the spinner of Twister and the counters from Risk. The most popular thing in there by far is the slot machine. You can win tickets for the raffle by paying it. All con long you could hear that peculiar sort of music that it played.
Click to Enlarge See Max Gamble? Gamble Max, gamble!The Exordium went smoothly. I missed last year's as I was busy running about. It's rather sobering to sit there, looking out over the crowd, and think that they've all come to be entertained by you.
The Macro Rampage comes off smoothly. This was one of my key events, intended to set a silly, relaxed tone for the weekend. It involved a contest among fursuiters to stomp on the Japanese army, mangle victims, and finally crush Tokyo. The toy soldiers that I'd bought to portray the Japanese army turn out to be made of brittle plastic, so after the first couple suiters have rampaged, they're toast anyway. The corwd doesn't really seem to care. The fact that the soldiers more or less blend into the carpet and the monsters have to hunt on hands and knees to find them seems to be entertaining as well. For the Barbie section, I got people to run around playing the role of the victims, waving their Barbie and scream like a girl (or in the case of Manly Ken in his glittering pink pants and halter top, like a boy) while the monsters chased them and eventually caught them and mangled the Barbie. Only one doll's head actually came off, but it was funny anyway. I'd been worried going in that this was going to be one of those things that I thought was stupid and funny, but everyone else just thought stupid. I got positive feedback from the fursuiters all day long, though. People seem to be in a proper mood for meaningless fun.
Click to Enlarge Giant monsters on the rampage. You can't even see the army men - they blend right in.The main failing in this event (and subsequent ones) was the lack of a headless lounge and blower fans. Mrianti the Okapi brought some fans from his room for us to use, and that helped. In retrospect it was a mistake to opt out of a full-time fursuit lounge. I didn't wish to appear to be favouring the fursuiters at the expense of other events, and that came back to bite me. I should have done what I thought was best, regardless of the opinions of others. I'm usually fairly reliable about that. It's chief among both my virtues and my vices.
In the mid-afternoon Potoroo finally arrived. I'd been beginning to worry, as he'd been expected the night before. Fortunately there was still an opportunity for Ramseys to do a soundcheck before his show. I ate my fill of pizza, dropped in briefly on the karaoke events (just in time to see Max Goof sing), and watched the Pet Auction.
I check in with Registration as they close to see how our attendance is doing. It's Friday, and we've already exceeded last year's attendance. I'd hoped to break it by more, but still, that's not bad. Things are looking up.
After that I suddenly realized just how exhausted I was. I staggered up to the room, where a room party was going full tilt, and collapsed on the floor between the bed and the wall, where I presumably wouldn't get stepped on. The partiers all moved off to another room, but really it didn't make any difference to me. So long as I had a place to lie down I was happy for the moment.
Eventually I was awakened by Babs coming to get into suit for the dance. I got up, feeling much better, and suited up myself, along with KittFoxx and Tiresta who joined us. I still wasn't really up for it, and had to keep taking breaks in the Robespierre Room, so that I missed about half of the dance. Still, I had fun anyway.
I stayed up afterward to make sure that all of the function space was locked and secured, then played with some Beyblades that Bushycat had brought along. If you've not seen 'em before, Beyblades are similar to the old Battle Tops that used to be fashionable when I was little. You spin your top, and put it into the arena (a smooth polyethylene dish) with the other tops and try to knock them flying. Bushy seemed remarkably skilled, and could make her top jump out and hit people.
Click to Enlarge BushyCat has blown one of her Beyblades to fragments in a collision. Here she points out the wreckage. And so off to bed, at a decent hour this time. Thus endeth Friday.
