Archive for June, 2012»
Convention Plans: Midwest Furfest
I have taken a leap of faith and registered for Midwest Furfest 2012, November 16-18 in Chicago. The leap of faith is that I’ll have vacation time again by then– various unanticipated personal crises have conspired to put me in the red on that score recently, but with 4-5 months to catch up and save up, hopefully I’ll be all right. I also went ahead and booked a hotel room.
The dealer room is full, which means I’ll have to try for the artist alley. The last time I was at MFF (two? three? venues ago), the dealer room always sucked and the artist alley was the place to be, anyhow. I’m told by various reputable sources that it’s much better these days, but that the artist alley is also just fine, so we’ll see how it goes.
Besides the fact that I haven’t been there in several years (which is itself reason enough to go), MFF will be filling in for both Dragon*Con and Further Confusion for me. With both of those officially not happening, I imagine that I’ll be kinda jonesing for a con by that point.
That also means there will be a biiiiig empty space between MFF and AC 2013 that will want filling. I’m not sure what will go there, yet.
-The Gneech
Well I imagine he would know if anyone would!
-The Gneech
Please direct your attention to the following edicts:
- To more accurately reflect the truth, items formerly referred to as “Adult-Rated” will now be referred to as “Raging Hormonal Teenager-Rated.”
- All funds being spent on stupid, plotless, explodey movies will be diverted to world hunger, which should resolve the problem in about 20 minutes.
- All funds being spent on Twilight movies will be diverted to space exploration and colonization, which should have us permanently settled on Mars by 2016 (including travel time).
- J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek did not happen. Please remove all evidence to the contrary. (See also Edict #2.)
- Someone get us a sandwich.
As always, your cooperation in these matters is appreciated. Please continue to enjoy your pleasant lives under our benevolent rule.
-The Gneech
So a gal was approached by a creepy guy at AnthroCon; gal chose to be polite and mostly non-confrontational, guy chose to be creepy. Yesterday, gal wrote a blog post about the event, detailing the creepy guy as a warning to other gals who may have been similarly creeped at.
Since then, gal’s post got linked to on 4chan and lulz.net, which apparently mobilized hordes of knuckle-dragging scumsuckers to mock and harass her, effectively bullying her into removing the post and generally creating a “you better keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you, girlie” environment. As a result, she’s now gone quiet about it, and creepy guy is still out there, creeping.
This must not stand.
Creepy guy does not appear to have been an AC attendee, but gal was, and we should be protecting our own. Not only in the case of the incident (’cause even the Dorsai, love ’em, can’t be everywhere at once), but also when she tries to tell everyone what happened and spread the word.
I’m not posting gal’s name here, because if she feels threatened she’s entitled to her anonymity. But we need to create an environment where gal is the one who is safe and protected by the social fabric, and creepy guys are the ones who get shamed and harassed.
More On the Topic…
Victim shaming & blaming (sexual harassment at Anthrocon)
Dragon*Con’s Back Up Project FAQ
Video Blog on a Different (But Sadly the Same) Event
-The Gneech
(Crossposted to the AnthroCon LJ community and my LiveJournal)
And Then My Coffee Exploded
It’s been a rough day, and it’s only just started.
Admittedly, the roughness started last night; I was already cruising toward a fatigue crash last night when I discovered a non-me person getting a paid gig with work annoyingly close to mine, but that just sealed the deal. Unfortunately, I made what appears to have been a critical error last night by switching back to Zyrtec, hoping it would help clear up the nastiness in my throat and lungs.
Not much luck there, but it has left me feeling like a doped-up yak stumbling around in a stupor this morning, as I return back to the office after a two-week absence. I thought having the moose-like stagger was bad… it’s nothing like the doped-up yak stupor-stumble. On the way in to the office (oh, hey, I get kitchen duty today!) I stopped at Starbucks for breakfast, figuring a white mocha and coffee cake would at least take some of the sting out of it all.
And then my coffee exploded. All over my left hand.
They apparently got in a shipment of defective cups which, in the presence of hot liquid and pressure from the outside (in the form of a hand holding them) collapse suddenly in upon themselves. This causes the lid to go “POP!” and fly off, as well as the top half of the drink to come bursting out in a fountain of delicious scalding near-steam. All over, as I say, my left hand.
Ouch?
So now as well as stumbling around like a doped-up yak in a stupor, my left hand has melted off and I have no more breakfast. At least I’m getting a blog post out of it.
-The Gneech
Home From Another AnthroCon!
Another AnthroCon is in the can! Today went much better than yesterday, I’m happy to say, even if it did involve a lot of running around trying to get stuff done on schedules and dealing with that one really annoying member of the Dorsai who refused to take yes for an answer when I was trying to clear out of the Dealer Room at the end of the day. (Normally I love, love, love the Dorsai, but for this gal, I’ll make an exception.)
I’ll do a detailed postmortem later, but sales-wise, this con was solid. Still a couple hundred down from my Best Con Ever, but way, way better than my last few have been. It was also a big success art-wise. I did some really elaborate original-media pieces for Spiritwolf and T’Chall that I was quite pleased with (and so were they, even better!), as well as a lot of stuff that was just plain fun. I also met a big ol’ pile of #TwitterPonies, found a bunch of new artists to follow on DA/FA, got some very cool pieces of art in my sketchbooks, and even won a piece of art by M.C.A. Hogarth from the art show.
I also introduced a few new readers to Suburban Jungle and got several comments along the lines of “OMG, you’re The Gneech! I love Suburban Jungle and/or NeverNever! It’s so great to meet you!” This, as you might guess, was a tremendous ego boost, something I can always use. ^.^ I also got some interesting ideas for theoretical “next projects,” none of which are beyond the “few doodles in the sketchbook” phase yet, but which I’m at least having fun thinking about.
The “Ponies vs. Daleks” portfolio was a nice success; I was also very surprised at how well my other prints were selling. If the #*%@!! printer hadn’t derped on me, both Sirfox and I could have made at least a few more sales along those lines. Granted, the profit point on prints is not real high for me, but the fact that someone wants a print of my work still jazzes me up something fierce.
Anyhow! It’s been a long drive home and I’m pretty dang tired, as you might guess, so I’ll call it a night here for now. I’ll post con art to my DA/FA accounts over the next few days as I get them scanned. All in all, I’d call AC 2012 a success. :)
-The Gneech