Don’t spill the Chemical X!

Texas’ only furcon, Furry Fiesta, took place last weekend from Feb 20-22 and I had a ball.  So, without fur-ther ado:

1. PRE-TRIP/THURSDAY: Never been on a 4-day trip that didn’t involve a tent before, time to upgrade my luggage.
2. Nothing like that ‘did I forget to pack anything’ feeling, luckily there’s a Wally Martinez (Wal-Mart) near the hotel.
3. Weight on Thursday morning: 267 Hope I don’t spend half the event pulling up my pants like at PAX South.
4. Then again, that wouldn’t be so terrible 😉
5. Thing I almost forgot #1-Nintendo 3DS, Thanks, Oscar!
6. Thing I almost forgot #2-Cologne. Insert joke about ‘no female furries’ here
7. Thing I almost forgot #3- Apparently my insurance card expired last October.  Oops!
8. Thing I did forget #1: Ballcap for my Soos cosplay. Doh!
9. Didn’t drink caffeine in purpose on the way up, finally had to succumb and stop at the Czech Stop for a soda.
10. And some kolaches.  Mmm, good!
11. New duffel bag has wheels…I feel so WHITE rolling it around.
12. I was recognized by someone in the reg line and couldn’t figure out who it was until I heard his furry name.
13. Felt honored to call Nuka “Doctor” for the first time.  Congrats!
14. Room is on the 9th floor. Well, I did say I needed exercise XP
15. Full-color conbook!  Is niiiice!
16. A friend said the conbook was in color last year but I didn’t care because I didn’t have a story in it
17. Yay, a fridge in the room…already stocked with overpriced items…BOO
18. Karma FTL: Joked about the first guy in reg line being their guinea pig, then I ended up being the guinea pig when I upgraded to Super Sponsor.
19. Prediction: Lots of angel dragons this year.
20. Private joke: Wolfboy was denied chocolate chip waffles at Waffle House, dude just has bad luck with chocolate.
21. Waffle House was great!  Now I have another place to stop at when I’m in Austin.
22. Bad timing though, we bought a total of 15 people there and there were only 2 workers.
23. They did an admirable job, though!
24. FRIDAY: Had to get the genuine Waffle House experience the next morning after we swamped them on Thursday night.
25. Bought a clip-on tie for a cosplay thinking it would be quicker, but it’s more trouble than a real one >.<
26. Cap or ears with cosplay? Ears, of course.  Ignore #8
27. It says something when Wally Martinez runs out of bags!
28. Dafuzz is up with no trash cans on the first floor of the hotel?
29. The magic is routinely being broken here. I has a sad.
30. Feel funny hanging my ears on my rear view mirror like they’re fuzzy dice or something.
31. Semi-retired my ears until I figure out a better way to wear them.
32. “I’m sleepy” “Drink some coffee” “I don’t drink coffee” “There’s no better time to start!”
33. Took a quick peek in the adult section of the art auction, funny how the quality of the art dropped a little.
34. The Corral sends to be much improved this year.
35. I gave away paper copies of one of my books to a few folks and it felt good, I hope the recipients enjoy them.
36. Had to abandon my lanyard because my badge was blocking my shirt…oh no, I’ve become one of THOSE cosplayers
37. Two researchers at the con means two surveys to do. I haven’t had this much homework to do since college!
38. Obligatory work-related item: Saw a tech-sounding name on a building and the first thought that popped in my head was “Are they hiring?”
39. Got bumped in the head by a fursuiter at the Bucktown Tiger performance but it was okay, he was padded.
40. I kinda want to knee people that carry speakers playing music in the nards.
41. Learned some photography stuff from a ‘fur-tographer’ 😀
    

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42. Heard someone use the phrase “home grown country boy.”  Is there any other kind?
43. What is a fursuiter without a fursuit at a furry con? Very very sad.  Dude got better, though.
44. Thing I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing: Tingle-styled zentai suit.  MY EYES
45. Elevator-con didn’t happen for me, there were a few waits, but they were reasonable.  Kudos!
46. SATURDAY: “I’m gonna dress as Professor Utonium” “Will you have three girls?” “No, but this is a con, they’ll be around” “Yeah but they won’t be girls” /facepaw
47. When doing a panel, make it more about the topic, and less about you.
48. Hell, at least have an outline.  The last time I went to a panel that was that bad it was held by teenagers.
49. Heard a bird cawing outside, not sure if actual bird or attendee
50. It says something when I sneeze in the hotel room and someone walking in the hall says “Bless you”
51. New thing I’m not sure about: Someone had a friend do a badge of their ‘fruitsona.’
52. Two people have referred to me as Uncle Kage. Not sure it’s complimentary
53. After my camera battery conked out last year, I used my iPad mini to record the fursuit parade.
54. …in landscape.  I didn’t want to be THAT guy again.
55. Got to portray a not-very-nice executive during the voice over panel. That was easy.
56. Nothing like that NOOOO moment when you realize your 3DS wifi has been off for the last few hours >.<
57. Next time I think I’ll try a room at the hotel next door because reasons.
58. Parking Idea: Paint one side of the parking barriers red so people know not to park next to them.
59. Parking Idea #2: Take the back way through the overflow parking onto Quorum, much faster to get to Belt Line Road or the shopping center across the freeway
60. Got fur-tobombed while getting my picture taken with a friend, lol
61. Thing I forgot #2: Small ice chest to store/chill drinks
62. Wore a lab coat for a costume on Saturday (see above) and kinda liked it, especially the pockets!
63. SUNDAY:  Still no bags at Wal-Mart? Get it together, people!
64. Awesome idea: Use cardboard priority mail envelopes from USPS for prints to keep them fresh and un-bent
65. Boston Market’s 3-person meal could have easily fed 4 but SO GOOOD
66. Whispered “I don’t read Gold Digger” to the Antarctic Press guy because Fred Perry was right there.
67. I did buy (and enjoyed) two of his other comics and Furry Tales, though!
68. Eyeball con: Some wag went around sticking googly eyes onto random things and apparently having pupils on fursuits is not cool anymore.
69. I was right about the angel dragons, but the ‘no pupils for fursuits’ thing is a mite weird.
70. Van Morrison’s “Moondance” got stuck in my head after hearing it during the jazz performance Saturday night
71. That’s not a bad thing, BUT I DON’T KNOW THE WORDS >.<
72. Whenever I see musicians play live, it makes me miss being in a band *sigh*
73. Had an impromptu “Be Prepared” singing session in the car and realized I’d forgotten most of the words
74. From Sunday afternoon afterwards the con was pretty cool, seemed like most of the hyperactive kids had left.
75. MONDAY / POST-TRIP: Woke up Monday to see a layer of snow outside…CRAP
76. Okay, ice. I’ve spent 99.999% of my life south of San Antonio and know not of such things 😛
77. Got some neat “furries in the ice” pictures though!
78. You don’t know which shoes are good for ice until you actualy have ICE
79. Well at least I wasn’t wearing sandals.
    

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80. For being a small con, I didn’t see some folks on some days. Odd.
81. Found a phone, how do we find the owner? Fursuit picture on the home screen of course!
82. Drive home had a few harrowing moments at the start, but once we left Dallas things were fine.
83. Still fuzzing cold, though; the Excelsior (my CR-V) still had ice on it when I got home.
84. Took over 200 pictures during the con, holy cats!
85. Bye bye, backpack, hello super-sponsor messenger bag.
86. Not looking forward to seeing how many FA notifications I have pending.
87. Or work emails for that matter.
88. Aww #1: No calendar this year.
89. Aww #2: Didn’t get to wear my “Do not feed the bears” shirt.
90. Realization upon cleaning out backpack: I have way too many chargers and cables
91. Weight on Tuesday morning: 268…so why are my pants so bleeping baggy?
92. Saw a Krystal cosplayer and thought: “Hey, a place where Krystal CAN enjoy her sandwich!“