Furpocalypse 2018 day 1

Day 0 in a nutshell: Spent all day flying from Anchorage to Hartford, CT, before catching a Lyft to Cromwell. Got to the hotel and collapsed, unsurprising given 33 hours without sleep.

Day 1: Got in line to register. The lack of familiar faces was a bit disheartening, but being back at a furry convention felt wonderful. After I got my badge I went to grab a drink back at the end of the line, where I ran into Budgiebin and Motodrachen! I can't really put into words how awesome it felt to meet another online friend IRL for the first time.

The opening ceremonies were awesome. The 80s theme was well done, especially Jib's remake of the A-Ha! "Take On Me" video! While I was in line for that, though, a fursuiter named Maku asked me to take their photo without speaking. They were being 150% adorable so how could I say no?

We chilled at The Zoo, a cooldown spot, later on with David, a Scottish friend of theirs differentiated from OUR Scottish David by a full head of hair. I prided myself on being able to understand roughly 85% of what he was saying that day. :D

While we were there, Celine arrived! Yaaaaaay!!

It would have been great to spend the whole day with all of them; I came here for the chance to be friends first and the convention second, to be honest.

Went to a Wheel of Fortune game later. Got to watch, didn't get to play, still enjoyed. Especially given how Cirrus, the host, went broke; he had a charity challenge where he'd donate 5 bucks every time someone hit Lose A Turn or Bankrupt. The Wheel was ruthless. Maku was adorable, waving their paws in a panic before double-facepalming at a Bankrupt. D'aww.

Went to Improv with Celine later, and we both had a blast. I got into a "questions only" barbershop skit where I made it a few lines before cornering myself with a question on hair color, diving out with a Monty Python reference. I later got into a "use these 2 lines" discussion about Daredevil, and when my two lines failed to fit in at all, I once again took a dive saying I was more of a DC fan anyway. I may not be able to do improv well, but boy can I make an exit!

Celine was hilarious during her skits, from a "Furcon's Witness" bit to turning a bee attack in "Freeze" into a Suave shampoo ad and then into an artist posing session gone wrong. She is a natural at this stuff. XD

Oh yeah, the con swag. Got an Eeveelution tote bag and a Glaceon pic that set up a bit of a theme, followed by an Anatomy of a Fox tee that kinda ruined it.

We'll see how today goes, but so far it's been well worth the zombification the flight left me with. It is good to be home again.


I just hope Furpoc's still around next year, given my track record with furcons. X_x;;

Furpocalypse day 2

Today started off a bit rough, due to some sleep deprivation. It was well worth it, though, seeing as the reason for it was getting to take part in a late-night (for here at least) commission auction...which I won, netting me a personalized piece of artwork from one of my absolute favorite artists, Kadath! (Not linking it here because it's NSFW)

Compared to yesterday, today was a bit less active, though. Around noon, a few of us went to the "Defining What Is A Furry" panel hosted by Frederik Knudsen, host of the YT series "Down the Rabbit Hole." I unexpectedly got to be super-helpful with it, as one person in particular was having trouble finding the room the panel was being held in...that person being Knudsen himself, as I found out moments later. Also chimed in with some help on fixing the projector (I have similar problems quite often with the display monitors at the comic book shop I volunteer at). Yay, I'm being useful! :D :D

After that was one of the best moments of a furry convention, the Fursuit Parade! ...Which quickly turned into a bit of a clusterfumble because they failed to get the Zoo cleared out sufficiently for the participants to end at until about 28 seconds prior to the first wave coming in. It was still awesome, though, and I got a boatload of photos to show my mom later. She loves seeing how inventive people get with their costumes...plus I think she likes driving dad nuts with it as much as I do. He cannot wrap his head around the concept of the furry fandom, at all. ^_^;;

I'd considered going to the Exploding Cats tournament later, but that game and I have kind of a bad history, mostly due to the people who first introduced it to me being complete assholes, i.e. stacking the deck so that I drew a bomb-cat turn 1 and negating ever attempt I made to disarm it. Nothing against the game, just...I have a very hard time enjoying something when I get shafted on it that badly, especially early on.

Instead I went to a panel called Mass Debation. ...Yes, you read that right. The panel was supposed to be Boozy Badger and OH SHOOT I FORGOT HE'S DOING ANOTHER ONE IN 5 MINUTES BYE

Okay I'm back, sorry.

So anyway, the panel was supposed to be Boozy Badger and Pepper Coyote debating about whatever topics the audience could come up with, and the audience determining who won the debate. Only problem was, Pepper's sound check for his concert immediately afterwards was delayed and ran a bit long, so it wound up being Boozy on his own...which then turned into Boozy vs. the audience, which was an absolute riot. XD

After that, Celine and I hit the artist's alley, where I got a con badge commissioned. Haven't gotten it back yet, will be sure to post a photo of it when I do. :D From there my next stop was another game show, Furry Jeopardy. This time I actually got to get on, thus fulfilling (at least in part) a dream of mine to play on my favorite gameshow of all time.

I wound up coming in 2nd in the end, which wasn't say much when the final scores were 600 to ...I want so their name was Zimu? Zumi? ... 200 to me, and -1800 to poor Maku. Ouch, bro. X_x

I also feel like a complete dumbass because I somehow got a sphinx and a gryphon mixed up, partially because gryphons are my absolute favorite mythical creature. *facedesks*

Afterwards, the phone and I both needed a recharge, the former's case mostly from the parade. I swear, the camera is the biggest battery-drain on this thing; I went from 78% to 16 in the span of about half an hour.

About 8 I went to get in line for the other biggest segment, the Masquerade, where people show off their musical, comedic, or other talents. For example, TH!David's comedy skit from FurFright 2013, the predecessor to Furpocalypse. While waiting in line for it, I scored a free shirt from a previous Furpoc, the perfect means of clearing out old stock. ...It gave me a bad vibe due to the "at the movies" theme they went with that year, as it was the same theme Rocky Mountain Fur Con had gone with when I went there, and...well, that con is kaput now. (This is an honest-to-God concern I had about coming to this convention. Both of the other conventions I've ever gone to folded after that year, and part of me is convinced I may be con-cursed.)

Anyway, as much as I wanted to stick around for this, after about 4-5 skits I had to bail. Either someone left a door open or somehow turned on the A/C IN OCTOBER, but either way the room was just too cold for me to stand anymore. Even with 2 shirts.

I had nothing else planned that I could recall, so I came up here to write this report. That was about the time I realized I was almost going to miss Boozy Badger's comedy panel, Monkey Knife Fight. This time Pepper did show up, and the two of them had a wonderful time with all of us just doing freeform storytelling about some major cases of human idiocy. It was awesome talking to Pepper afterwards, even if it was mainly to thank him for missing Mass Debation due to how much of a hoot it wound up being. 15/10 improvisation skills, Boozy.

As for now, though? I'm pretty well done for the day con-wise. Probably won't be going to bed for a few hours, though, so...guess I'll just veg out with Youtube for a while and let my phone get back to a full charge.

Tomorrow will be a mixed bag of emotions for sure, as the final day of any convention always is. But, we'll roast some marshmallows on that bridge when we burn it while halfway across.