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FurTheMore 2016 Summary
9 years ago
Wow! What a contrast this convention was in comparison to Anthrocon 2015! If you're curious about that experience, see the summary from last year here:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6886796/
Around noon on Thursday, I began my short journey from Pennsylvania to Virginia. I was very fortunate to be able to carpool with a local friend, Leostarr. He was good conversation, and a good driver. If I had to be stuck in a car for two and a half hours with anyone, it'd be this lion. We took a route that greatly upset our GPS, but it was far preferred to taking busier, less scenic roads. We only got a little bit lost, and made great time! Now that I've played the passenger-seat position of navigator, I can confidently say that I could drive the route to Virginia without much GPS assistance. This is going to be handy in the future, because I'd love to attend more conventions and furmeets in that area!
We arrived at our good friend tigris and cheesebeagle 's home in the mid afternoon, and enjoyed homemade tacos for dinner. I stayed together with the two of them, and Spiffyfox for the weekend. As for Thursday evening, we were able to pop by the convention center so that those of us who pre-registered could pick up badges. There were plenty of suiters milling about already. I even had the opportunity to meet Snap of bycats4cats , who built my mom's suit, wyspurr just a short while back, as well as leostarr 's head. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to make it to this convention to meet him herself. Anthrocon, though... Anthrocon! The mood was fouled for a little bit in the evening when a suiter spilled some sort of alcohol on the marble floor of the lobby, which wasn't cleaned up for over an hour. Our group had to be a little bit creative in trying to steer away poor-sighted fursuiters from walking through the puddle, and ended up placing a stack of chairs over the mess. We were a little disappointed about how low a priority that this safety hazard took, despite multiple reports to hotel and convention staff. Otherwise, this was mainly the only gripe I had during the entire convention. I'd consider that pretty impressive.
On Friday, the real fun began! I did attend Opening Ceremonies, but I ended up leaving early in order to shuttle my belongings to our hotel room once we had access to it. After unloading the cars, spiffyfox and I made our way to the 'I Made it Myself' photoshoot and panel. I think the highlight of that panel was a sheep suit named Bing, created by bouncybatworks. It was a truly unique and gorgeous fursuit! Not to mention, I'm weak to the draw of cute hoofers. She, and several others were kind enough to share their methods and processes for creating their own personal fursuits. I learned a couple of handy things, should I ever take up another fursuit project again.
On Friday evening, cheesebeagle and I decided to mess with some people, and swapped suits for an hour or so. I didn't think it was possible for another person to fit in my head, but lo' and behold, the beagle managed it. This was a really fun experience for me, because I'd never been in a fullsuit before. Given, I looked like a shar-pei x beagle mix, and the head was huge on me, but it was fantastic. We fooled sharky , at least briefly into thinking that I was Cheese. I guess it was a dead giveaway that I wasn't talking, or interrupting his panel entirely. I am also sure that Cheese Beagle and I will forever cherish the look on IndigoAngelCat 's face when she hugged me, and then realized that Cheese was a bit too short. Nonetheless, I took a lot out of the experience. Seeing my character interact with people in front of me in ways that I had never considered really opened up my mind to furthering Cricket's character development. I borrowed some of Cheese's ideas later. I hope he didn't mind :p
The fursuit photoshoot and parade took place on Saturday, and was far less of an ordeal than at the New Years Furry Ball (oops, I never did a writeup on that one!). We didn't have to stand still for too terribly long, and some kind people allowed a smol deer to move to the front to be more easily seen. Still, the angle of the photograph doesn't seem to have captured the sheer amount of suiters that were there! A lot of people were cut out from standing behind taller folks. I think that the count was something like 220 fursuiters, but the fursuit parade was remarkably short for that amount. cheesebeagle mentioned that it would have been a better idea to have spread out the pairs, and when I look at the videos, I can definitely see that we were all too close together. However, this was my first fursuit parade, and I'd like to think of it as a practice run for the much longer Anthrocon parade in a few months! Other Saturday events included eating at Smashburger (yum!) and finally commissioning ailuranthropy --who later got sick and had to go home. I hope that you're doing better now, Sean!
The top highlight of my weekend came on Saturday night, with the Chimaera Challenge. Paired up with cheesebeagle , tigris , spiffyfox , tehalbi , and kesthewolf , we formed the team known as the Sticker Collective! I was surprised by how well everyone worked together, despite the stressful time constraints. Using yours truly as a model, the creation known as Snu-Snu the Angel Dragon was born! We managed to build some semblance of a fullsuit, which was a huge challenge. It ended up being several fabric pieces draped onto me, and then tied together with little yarn bows. The head looked like... a head. It could have been a lot worse. My friends fawnlace and ailuranthropy loved Snu-Snu so much that they made him gorgeous badges--now added to my badge collection that hangs on my window curtains. On Sunday, Snu-Snu was announced to be the first place winner of the Chimaera Challenge, much to the surprise of my team! We had very stiff competition! As a victory lap, Snu-Snu played one fursuit game and miraculously did not fall to pieces. Snu-Snu also visited velantian in order to have a tintype photo taken, so that he could be forever preserved in history. I almost feel bad for making the poor photographer take the time to photograph this beautiful monstrosity. Almost.
A lot of Sunday was spent wrapping up, packing, settling down, and saying goodbyes. Over the entirety of the convention, I had collected what deer-related goodies that I could find, which had amounted to 7 buttons and a keychain (Thanks cheesebeagle and tigris <3). I decided at the last minute to bid on a deer-related painting in the art show by indigoangelcat. It was too cute and too unique to let go, so I ended up taking it home with me. After closing ceremonies, several of us headed back to cheesebeagle and tigris 's house for a lovely pasta dinner and some party games. This was honestly a very nice way to end the convention-- surrounded by friends in a calm, personal setting. I was able to get to know sharky and furio a little better, and they seem like super cool folks! I'm hoping to get to know them better in the future. I'm sure sharky would love to get to know my parents, so I can definitely see myself setting them up to meet each other during Anthrocon. Finally, at the end of the night, leostarr and I said our last goodbyes to our friends and headed back to Pennsylvania. I was very sad to go, but I just can't wait to do another convention with these people again. I consider myself to be very lucky to have such close, wonderful friends. They made such a huge difference between my experience this convention and my experience at Anthrocon last year. I can't wait to come to FurTheMore again!
Some other honorable mentions that got lost in my mental timeline!
` I met potatogriff finally! I've been hearing about her from all of my friends, and it was about time! She is so sweet!
` I met a cool blue tiger dude named Nova/Maverick! He gives good hugs!
` The worst Subway service I've ever had! Almost comically so!
` I got a piggyback ride in suit from fawnlace. Yeehaw!
` I dropped a cat on tigris to wake her up. Er.. sorry Tig! D':
` I got to meet and chat with crazdude and birdfox , who I have been told to commission by tehalbi
` I watched Cheese drown his pasta in cheese!
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6886796/
Around noon on Thursday, I began my short journey from Pennsylvania to Virginia. I was very fortunate to be able to carpool with a local friend, Leostarr. He was good conversation, and a good driver. If I had to be stuck in a car for two and a half hours with anyone, it'd be this lion. We took a route that greatly upset our GPS, but it was far preferred to taking busier, less scenic roads. We only got a little bit lost, and made great time! Now that I've played the passenger-seat position of navigator, I can confidently say that I could drive the route to Virginia without much GPS assistance. This is going to be handy in the future, because I'd love to attend more conventions and furmeets in that area!
We arrived at our good friend tigris and cheesebeagle 's home in the mid afternoon, and enjoyed homemade tacos for dinner. I stayed together with the two of them, and Spiffyfox for the weekend. As for Thursday evening, we were able to pop by the convention center so that those of us who pre-registered could pick up badges. There were plenty of suiters milling about already. I even had the opportunity to meet Snap of bycats4cats , who built my mom's suit, wyspurr just a short while back, as well as leostarr 's head. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to make it to this convention to meet him herself. Anthrocon, though... Anthrocon! The mood was fouled for a little bit in the evening when a suiter spilled some sort of alcohol on the marble floor of the lobby, which wasn't cleaned up for over an hour. Our group had to be a little bit creative in trying to steer away poor-sighted fursuiters from walking through the puddle, and ended up placing a stack of chairs over the mess. We were a little disappointed about how low a priority that this safety hazard took, despite multiple reports to hotel and convention staff. Otherwise, this was mainly the only gripe I had during the entire convention. I'd consider that pretty impressive.
On Friday, the real fun began! I did attend Opening Ceremonies, but I ended up leaving early in order to shuttle my belongings to our hotel room once we had access to it. After unloading the cars, spiffyfox and I made our way to the 'I Made it Myself' photoshoot and panel. I think the highlight of that panel was a sheep suit named Bing, created by bouncybatworks. It was a truly unique and gorgeous fursuit! Not to mention, I'm weak to the draw of cute hoofers. She, and several others were kind enough to share their methods and processes for creating their own personal fursuits. I learned a couple of handy things, should I ever take up another fursuit project again.
On Friday evening, cheesebeagle and I decided to mess with some people, and swapped suits for an hour or so. I didn't think it was possible for another person to fit in my head, but lo' and behold, the beagle managed it. This was a really fun experience for me, because I'd never been in a fullsuit before. Given, I looked like a shar-pei x beagle mix, and the head was huge on me, but it was fantastic. We fooled sharky , at least briefly into thinking that I was Cheese. I guess it was a dead giveaway that I wasn't talking, or interrupting his panel entirely. I am also sure that Cheese Beagle and I will forever cherish the look on IndigoAngelCat 's face when she hugged me, and then realized that Cheese was a bit too short. Nonetheless, I took a lot out of the experience. Seeing my character interact with people in front of me in ways that I had never considered really opened up my mind to furthering Cricket's character development. I borrowed some of Cheese's ideas later. I hope he didn't mind :p
The fursuit photoshoot and parade took place on Saturday, and was far less of an ordeal than at the New Years Furry Ball (oops, I never did a writeup on that one!). We didn't have to stand still for too terribly long, and some kind people allowed a smol deer to move to the front to be more easily seen. Still, the angle of the photograph doesn't seem to have captured the sheer amount of suiters that were there! A lot of people were cut out from standing behind taller folks. I think that the count was something like 220 fursuiters, but the fursuit parade was remarkably short for that amount. cheesebeagle mentioned that it would have been a better idea to have spread out the pairs, and when I look at the videos, I can definitely see that we were all too close together. However, this was my first fursuit parade, and I'd like to think of it as a practice run for the much longer Anthrocon parade in a few months! Other Saturday events included eating at Smashburger (yum!) and finally commissioning ailuranthropy --who later got sick and had to go home. I hope that you're doing better now, Sean!
The top highlight of my weekend came on Saturday night, with the Chimaera Challenge. Paired up with cheesebeagle , tigris , spiffyfox , tehalbi , and kesthewolf , we formed the team known as the Sticker Collective! I was surprised by how well everyone worked together, despite the stressful time constraints. Using yours truly as a model, the creation known as Snu-Snu the Angel Dragon was born! We managed to build some semblance of a fullsuit, which was a huge challenge. It ended up being several fabric pieces draped onto me, and then tied together with little yarn bows. The head looked like... a head. It could have been a lot worse. My friends fawnlace and ailuranthropy loved Snu-Snu so much that they made him gorgeous badges--now added to my badge collection that hangs on my window curtains. On Sunday, Snu-Snu was announced to be the first place winner of the Chimaera Challenge, much to the surprise of my team! We had very stiff competition! As a victory lap, Snu-Snu played one fursuit game and miraculously did not fall to pieces. Snu-Snu also visited velantian in order to have a tintype photo taken, so that he could be forever preserved in history. I almost feel bad for making the poor photographer take the time to photograph this beautiful monstrosity. Almost.
A lot of Sunday was spent wrapping up, packing, settling down, and saying goodbyes. Over the entirety of the convention, I had collected what deer-related goodies that I could find, which had amounted to 7 buttons and a keychain (Thanks cheesebeagle and tigris <3). I decided at the last minute to bid on a deer-related painting in the art show by indigoangelcat. It was too cute and too unique to let go, so I ended up taking it home with me. After closing ceremonies, several of us headed back to cheesebeagle and tigris 's house for a lovely pasta dinner and some party games. This was honestly a very nice way to end the convention-- surrounded by friends in a calm, personal setting. I was able to get to know sharky and furio a little better, and they seem like super cool folks! I'm hoping to get to know them better in the future. I'm sure sharky would love to get to know my parents, so I can definitely see myself setting them up to meet each other during Anthrocon. Finally, at the end of the night, leostarr and I said our last goodbyes to our friends and headed back to Pennsylvania. I was very sad to go, but I just can't wait to do another convention with these people again. I consider myself to be very lucky to have such close, wonderful friends. They made such a huge difference between my experience this convention and my experience at Anthrocon last year. I can't wait to come to FurTheMore again!
Some other honorable mentions that got lost in my mental timeline!
` I met potatogriff finally! I've been hearing about her from all of my friends, and it was about time! She is so sweet!
` I met a cool blue tiger dude named Nova/Maverick! He gives good hugs!
` The worst Subway service I've ever had! Almost comically so!
` I got a piggyback ride in suit from fawnlace. Yeehaw!
` I dropped a cat on tigris to wake her up. Er.. sorry Tig! D':
` I got to meet and chat with crazdude and birdfox , who I have been told to commission by tehalbi
` I watched Cheese drown his pasta in cheese!
Wyspurr
~wyspurr
Events are soooo much better with friends, eh?! Really glad you had a blast! Enjoyed hearing the suit-swap story - Mama Wyspurr was initially worried that you had forgotten a change of clothes when she saw *you* wearing Cheese's t-shirt!
