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I was looking at the programing list and I'm wondering if meeting on Friday @ 4pm would be best? The only panels going on then are animal life drawing, fursuit figure drawing, How to constructively analyze work, and fursuit photos (with more than one time slot). Those didn't sound like something anyone here would attend. Sunday was actually more active than I thought, with some popular panels. I would personally be ok with any time on Friday until the end of 2's Rant because I'll likely be needing to setup afterward. Heck, it even looks like meeting up before 4pm would be ok with Allie and me. If 4 o'clock works for everyone else, I say we go for that and we can do an early supper/late lunch to miss the biggest crowds. If not, chime in so we can start looking at other times.

Where to go/what to do? In the past meet and greets, we've always went for food somewhere and sounds like that is acceptable this time too. I've tried to look over their site for a decent restaurant guide for places like a Subway, Mc D's, etc that's fast and cheap, but didn't find much. It did mention a good Mexican Restaurant if people are interested (I don't always like them, but once in a while I get in the mood). The walking guide didn't really help much. On the flip side, Tramonto's Steak & Seafood was announced as offering a 20% discount on non-alcoholic purchases for MFF attendies. I'm sure it would be fairly expensive normally, but at 20% off, perhaps it's worth looking in to too. Suggestions?

As for a meeting location, I don't know the layout of the place so I don't know where would be the best location. I guess if all else fails, meet outside registration?

Another option if we don't mind a crowd would be for the breakfast buffet. $11, tax and tips included. Tramonto's is also doing this, but it's likely gauranteed to be crowded. The buffet is also only open till 11am, so we'd have to be morning people for once.

Sorry all, I won't be at the meet and greet. I have had to change my wedding date and time from Saturday 5pm to Friday at 3:30 because of the fursuit parade and the fact that it will be dark at 5pm and not good for pictures since we have to have it outside. This change just came about a couple mins ago. Sorry all

We can look in to changing the meet and greet time. My time was just an initial offer to see how it fit with everyone. Worse comes to worse, we can hold it at the wedding.

[I have earned Three Carrots of Awesomeness]

I'll try to be at teh meet n greet, but time is not my friend at this MFF. I'm going to be pretty solidly booked with panels and entertainment stuff that i want to catch. The way my schedule is looking is the following:
Saturday:
Furry from 12p to 4p
Human from 5p to 10p
Furry 11p+

Saturday:
Human 9a to 11a
Furry 2p to 3p
human 3p to 7p
furry 8p+

Sunday:
Haven't decided yet how its going to work. Its based on how my legs/feet hold up from being Furry.

I'll make my availability easy: I'm open save for Sage's wedding, the dances (plus initial setup/teardown and a minor day to day setting up just before going on). Allie's schedule will likely be the same or close to it.

I'm going to be in the Dealer's Room for the majority of the con, but I can always make time for fun.  Right now, the breakfast option is sounding best for me, though I'm willing to move things around.

Who all is staying through Sunday and heading out monday? Since there isn't anything until the Dead Dog dance after closing cerimonies, would having it Sunday evening work?

If not that, how about Saturday at 6, between the Too Much Light show and Furry Variaty Show? There's some other panels going on, so take a look to see.

*snuffles*

Woof is going. See woof working in the Internet room with Tigerwolf as usual )
Woof has more wierd brit sweets - Flying Saucers. Fizzy cola bottles and Fuit Salads

Hug a woof today!

Darkclaw

Who all is staying through Sunday and heading out monday? Since there isn't anything until the Dead Dog dance after closing cerimonies, would having it Sunday evening work?

If not that, how about Saturday at 6, between the Too Much Light show and Furry Variaty Show? There's some other panels going on, so take a look to see.

I'm staying until Monday afternoon, so Sunday evening would be just fine for me.

FYI, meet and greet or not, you can spot me either at the dances working the visuals, or elsewhere at the con wearing my big truckin' fox con badge. It's so big, it has smaller con badges orbiting around it, so you can't miss it. XD

Sunday would work or so would Sat lol

Random change of plans! I'll be there Saturday!

Oh cool Onai. Your fursuit looks cool in your avatar and I'd love to see it up close. \

And it looks like the current general agreement is for the meet and greet on Sunday after closing cerimonies. Anyone against that? Still need to decide what to do...unless we just get together and go "I dunno, wattayouwannado?" lol

I'll be going to this.  I talked to my Physics instructor about getting a crash course in Friday's material, and I'm taking one of my freebies for the quiz that's bound to be given that period, so I'll be able to be there for almost the entire thing.

My apologies for not posting about this sooner.  Did I mention that I'm a procrastinator?

Ok, just because it's getting crunch time and I know some of you may not be checking in much, if at all while at the con, I say we hold the meet and greet one hour after closing cerimonies dismiss to give any suiters a chance to get decent again in regular clothes and meet back down by the info desk/Ravinia ABC/Dealers den entrance. LAYOUT PIC HERE

Sounds good.  Also, feel free to PM me and I'll give you my cell # if anyone wants/needs to contact me.  Hope to see you all soon!

Now, back to running around getting last minute things finished!!  AAAAHHHHHGGGGG!!!

[I have earned Three Carrots of Awesomeness]

FAA Computer Glitch on the east-coast today 11-19-09

For those of you going to MFF by air and leaving today, it is highly recommended that you contact your airline to see if you are effected by this FAA Computer problem. Seems something broke with the FAA database on the east coast, so all flight information is being entered manually. Which means flights will be delayed and other bad stuff with scheduling today.

So far, this glitch is not effecting either O'Hare or Midway Airports (the two major Airports for Chicago) but when these late leaving East Coast flights start to come it, it will jack everything up, especially at O'Hare. So, plan ahead by contacting your airline before you leave and leave early to give you time to check in with the waves of other people that are there waiting for their flights.

Then, I'll see you all at the MFF. I'll be leaving early tomorrow as I needed to still go to work today. Could only afford a 1-day vacation this month.

-pants and plops- home! wow...spent about 45 hours suiting this con! whoohoo! :3 Was awesome seeing who i did!

I didn't meet any Furtopians,  that I know of.  Shame on you!  (hehe)

Did get a few good videos for my montage, whatever it's going to be.

Peace.

Allie and I were so busy doing setup/tear down/dances, that we didn't really do much but relax in our room. Sunday we ventured out to watch the fursuit games and try the small meet and greet. I saw several of you folks either at the dances or the dealers den though. Heading back home today, will write more later.

[I have earned Three Carrots of Awesomeness]

I got home last night and crashed. 

Had an absolutely wonderful time at the con though. Had over 2k attendees there, probably close to 3k and while suiting its kinda hard to read everyone's badges for their names, so I'm not sure I ran into during the day. I did get to meet Narei running his dance screen thingie on saturday night, that was great to see him. But I was way too tired from suiting to actually get up and do some of his motion thing. It was great to see others doing it though. He even had a decent line of people waiting to dance that night.

Perhaps we should find someone that can make a button for us to help identify Furtopians. Something simple like the picture of the fursuiters we have on the top margain banner. Anyone out there have a button machine?

It's 1:58 pm and I just woke up.

Crashed really hard, slept harder, and I'm still tired.  But it was worth it 'cuz I had a freakin' blast. 

I'll write more when I'm not drained and seeing double vision. 

Got back from the airport a few hours ago, still busy with stuff here. Can't wait to plop down and take a 12 hour nap

Was an awesome con, I miss it already. I'll have more to say when I'm not so outrageously tired.

[I have earned Three Carrots of Awesomeness]

Here is my official after-the-con review, copied from the MFF official forums:
*****

In a word, it was "Unglaublich" or in the words of Zaphod Beeblebrox, "Its not going to be great, its not going to be amazing, its going to be Amazingly Amazing!".

I arrived on site at the con on Friday morning, registered and moved all my Suiter gear to the headless lounge, then by 1pm-ish I was able to do something that I was looking forward to for the majority of the year; I was able to debut Liedt the Okapi. After that, I went to a couple panels and was entertained by Uncle Kage and 2 during their comedy routines. Finished the evening off with a great meal at the Claimjumper and sat with a few new friends I just met. Only bad thing was the bill, hehe. $15 for two pints of Guinness seemed very excessive.

Saturday was a blur of activities. Switching between Fursuit and Neko mode throughout the day depending on what activity I was doing at the time. I will say the PVC constructed fursuit head drier thingie (Does that have an actual name?) in the headless lounge was an amazing piece of engineering. I definitely give kudos to whoever developed it and a big thank you to the Con staff for allowing its operation during the day. I was fearing how I would be able to keep the head dry but in the end those worries were unfounded. So again, thank you staff and builders of the contraption. I got to meet two of my favorite furry artists that I will remember for the rest of my life; Margaret and Robert Carspecken, the artists behind "Faux Pas" and "R&M Endeavors". I've been a fan of theirs for over 3 years and it was a great experience to meet and actually have a nice conversation with them. The day finished with watching both the Neo-futurists show and the infamous FVS. Both were great performances. I then did a cameo appearance at the Furry Dance, but being a greymuzzle, i didn't stay long. Mostly I just wanted to see Mooncat's dance video thingie in action. That was a pretty neat thing.

Sunday was a fast paced day, had to finish up a few panels I needed to attend, did my Con Close-out shopping, picked up some artwork, did my last fursuited walk-around, and packed up all my gear for the day.

My only regrets for the weekend are mostly time/management and logistical things. I need to find a furry friendly Camera as my phone just doesn't cut it, If I have the slightest shake in my hand (hoof) the pic is horrendous. I also need to design inner pockets to the fursuit so I don't need to change out when I want to go and buy something. no pockets means no wallets. Also, I'd definitely need to find some more friends prior to the event. I was a solo runner (as most Okapi are) for most of the event, but it would be funner (is funner a word?) if I had a nice sized group to hang with for most of the time too.

So that’s my little review of the weekend. In short (like my height, hehe) I had a great time, busy schedule, and over all very positive experience. Can't wait for online registrations to open for MFF 11 next year.

Here's my report, made short because we didn't do as much as had hoped:

We got there Thursday afternoon and was lucky enough to snag one of the luggage carts. luggage and gear for 2 adults and a baby all in a focus with no roof rack is a wonder to see and was able to get it all up in one trip. Well, all but the projection screen pipe. No sense in running it up only to bring right back down. The only major down side was trying to get in touch with the AV staff to see where I was to setup. But sense it was Thursday, not like we missed a ton and got things up and ready for the mixer. We hung out at the mixer for a while until reg opened, then set one of my visuals to auto so Allie and I could go do that. Cake. Was. Awesome. Made it back to the dance/mixer and finished up the night.

We found out the main dances were gonna be held with the main ballroom opened up completely, so the screen had to be tore down. We spent more time trying to figure out the new set up on Friday, missing out on a lot of the con. Either by trying to plan, or actually setting up. In our spare time we checked out Dealers Den and Artist Alley, where we commissioned a badge for Kira. Also met Sheeta there and she offered us another con badge as a gift for Kira (THANK YOU!!!!!!!! So cute!), and Las, who used to be active here, also gifted her one of his tails (And major thanks to him if he reads this!).  Also met up with Sage and her new hubby on Friday, including attending her wedding. Was even able to film it fer her. Cnagrats, hun! We then headed out with Sage and company to Denny's for supper and got back just in time for the mad dash to setup for the dance. The new program worked like a charm and glad to see people enjoyed watching and even dancing on it. The EQ light bars behind the DJ's were freakin' killer! Worked the dance until 2am, then a quick teardown to head up to bed. The funny thing was Kira would move around for a bit to the music, but then go hard asleep until the end of the dances. Once the music stopped, THAT'S when she would wake up. She's gonna be a little raver baby I think.

Saturday Kira woke us up way early for food, and then we decided to grab the buffet ourselves and then went back to snuggle and ended up sleeping until about 3pm. So we missed most of the day's events again, but went out to dinner with Sage and Zipzap again for pizza. We went the Edwardo's (the one in the restaurant guide) and Allie and I tried the stuffed pizza with pinapple, canadian bacon, and mushrooms. It was taking forever for it to get out, and then they came to let us know that the special ordered wheat crust we got soaked up the pineapple juice more than the regular crust and they tried to make another. That too failed, so they offered to change the order or just take it. We decided to take it and use forks, and it was really pretty good. I can't say what we talked about that lead to this, but Sage's hubby now has a badge of his fursona being chaced by killer gummy bears. After that, we went to set up for the dances again, and again the new Visikord program was a hit. Even more so this night. Sheeta showed up and busted a good move, was good to meet Liedt (if only briefly), and a couple other friends I know that checked it out. Again, Kira slept right through, and woke up when the music stopped. We found out that someone reported us to con ops about having Kira there, saying it was no place for a kid and worried about the loud music. Con ops basically told the person it's none of their business. Now if Kira had been upset about the music or something, we would have of course not brought her. She actually seemed to have a great time while she was awake. The worst part for her was deciding on which shiney light to look at. LOL

Sunday we woke up to try and get my screen down and packed into the car. Had wanted to run it during the dead dog dance, but the frame takes a fair amount of work to put together and wasn't feeling up to doing a tear down-setup-teardown in one day. Also checked out the KARE animals and picked up the badge from Sheeta and Las's tail, which he stitched onto the back of Kira's kitty costume. It looked really cute on her. I also picked up an order of badges from Cicero. One of Kira (3 total for her), and 2 identical ones for me and Allie of our fursona's together. We loved them all. We checked out the last half of the fursuit games and then closing cerimonies. 2040 registered attendees, plus Kira since they wouldn't let us register her unless we paid the $40 fee because we wanted an attendee badge too. About $7000 raised for KARE with attendee donations and charity auction, and another $5000 from the con itself. Can't remember how many fursuits were in the parade. We didn't see it, but debated putting Kira in it with her kitty costume.

Sunday is also when all the excitement happened. I lost my camera for a while and none of the con staff had had it turned in to them, so I checked with front desk of the hotel just in case and they had it. Don't know where it was lost, but had thought it was in one of the convention rooms. We noticed it gone while in our room, at the same time that we noticed a bag of Kira's dirty clothes had been taken by housekeeping. While I was down looking for the camera, housekeeping had been able to find and return the clothes. We had them in a black trash bag, but it was tied to her crib and open so you could easily see the clothes inside. Why housekeeping thought it was trash, I don't know. We later noticed a 6 yard length of fabric was missing that Allie used to tie Kira into a sling type device. We don't know for sure if housekeeping took that too or it was lost elsewhere. We had been keeping it in the stroller, so may have fallen out. *shrugs*

The meet and greet on Sunday was kind of a non-event. Several people showed up, but I'm guessing the last minute decision on when to hold it was the issue. About 8 people showed up, but several of them had other things to do. It was cool to meet those I did see, and then Redyoshi went with Allie and I to dinner and then took him back to his hotel. We went to hunt down either Walmart or Target to get some swimer pants for Kira, since we planned to swim in the Westin pool Sunday night.  GPS put us at an industrial complex, so we called Target. The guy giving directions seemed to know where the Westin was, and said to first go north on E. Lake Cook....an east/west road. I pointed that out to the guy and then asked if we should head towards, or away from the interstate. He said towards it, and we even went a couple miles past it (on the east side). Still no sign of either store. I called Walmart this time, and she said to go west of the Westin and gave us the right directions. Not the only time something like that happened this weekend. Will have to let the MFF staff know that it would be very helpful to either put directions to the places in the restaurant guide, or put them on the map. Seemed kinda pointless to put a map in the guide, but not mark where anything was on it.

All in all, it was an ok convention. Would have been better if we weren't left waiting around so much to get my VJ stuff set up, but if we go again, I'll know what to be doing. I would be ok with attending again, but Oklacon is always the one Allie and I will want to hit first, and my home times are a lot more limited now to let me go to as many as I used to.