But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation

[austin_dern]

Motor City Furry Con's opening ceremonies were at a late-it-seems 2 pm, so we were able to get up a bit later than average and go looking for the registration lines. I'd been hoping there'd be an efficient and well-managed registration line because I missed the online preregistration deadline, and ran headfirst into a fiasco.

There were two lines in front of the converted coatroom serving as registration, an enormously long one and a tolerably short one. Investigation revealed the tolerably short one was for people registering at the con, while the long was pre-registration, which defied all reason. I waited through the at-con registration line to learn that what I actually had to do was go to one of the computer kiosks around the corner, register online, then come back through the line. bunny_hugger gave up her spot in the pre-registration line to wait with me, as her information-gathering indicated that after waiting in the at-con line I'd have to go back through the enormous pre-registration line before finally getting everything.

I did not. After going to the kiosk, and waiting in the at-con registration line, they handed me the gifts to sponsors (T-shirt and mug) and worked on preparing my badge, which they said would be printed in a few minutes and they'd call for me.

bunny_hugger was, reasonably, aghast that registering at the con was a short line of a half-dozen people while the pre-registration line stretched down the hall, and she went outside to kick the building in protest of this organizational disaster. I held her place in line and when she came back, well, she was fuming --- what sense does it make for the pre-registration line to be many times the at-con line? --- until the pet Italian greyhound held by the person in front of us hopped up and grabbed bunny_hugger's leg. And as if a light had been switched, she went form fuming to delighted, because here was a cheery and excited dog, and an adorable dog, a small one with a proper greyhound shape that just made it all the more adorable. And the line didn't move too badly, at that.

We were late for Opening Ceremonies, but they also explained loosely the problem with the lines. It transpired that while they were setting up in the coat room, the swinging door fell down, smashing the laptop that held pre-registered information and so they were not at their best, even though it was ``only a MacBook'', a joke which was repeated at the closing ceremonies in case someone didn't find it hilarious enough first time through.

Anyway, with some information about why things were screwed up it was easier to forgive the catastrophe. But they desperately needed signs for the pre-registration and at-con registration lines, and a sign to explain about going to the kiosk before getting in the at-con registration line. It got the con off to a lousy start for us.

We poked into the dealer's den, finding the artist whose badge of bunny_hugger driving a bumper car was finally done, two years after it was commissioned. We got to our hotel (across the street and considerably cheaper than the con hotel, since bunny_hugger finally earned a weekend stay on her loyalty card) and had dinner at a coney island. Then we left the con.

Trivia: The earliest English-language account of a clearly baseball-like game (including diamond-shaped infield, bat, and ball) appears to date to 1828's London second edition of The Boy's Own Book, which describes the game as being named ``rounders'', with the alternate name ``feeder''. Source: Baseball Before We Knew It, David Block.

Currently Reading: Russian Planetary Exploration: History, Development, Legacy, and Prospects, Brian Harvey.

PS: But How Interesting Is A Basketball Score? my third piece since the last roundup, and another entry in explaining information theory by way of college basketball.

Comments

[moxie_man]

So, it didn't occur to the organizers to keep a copy of the pre-reg info on a flash drive? Or even dead trees? Maybe it's different at a fandom convention, but when my employer is called upon to organize a "professional" conference (one that issues "contact hours"/continuing education credits good towards maintaining a professional social work license for example), we have a back-up or two on flash drive and a set on dead trees in case something goes wrong with the laptop. Actually, we tend to use the dead tree version more, several copies actually. This way, we can have multiple check-in stations for the folks who preregistered. Laptop and printer are usually designated to the walk-in station.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

It wasn't anything to do with losing data. Supposedly they had two computers capable of printing badges and that was one of them, so being able to print badges only from one computer caused a bottleneck. This is no way has anything to do with the fact that the pre-reg line was MUCH LONGER than the on-site reg line, punishing people for pre-registering. That would have been so regardless of the badge printing situation (and in fact I believe the pre-registered people already had badges pre-printed when I got to the front of the line; when I did finally get there, they just handed me my stuff after checking my ID). That was what made me so mad I had to go outside and kick something before I melted down in the lobby. The apology was apparently for something we missed -- earlier in the day, before we arrived, the registration line had been at a standstill and gone on for hours.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't say exactly what went on since nobody was terribly clear about it. But the laptop getting smashed was certainly blamed for delays that day, (https://twitter.com/MotorCityFurCon/status/581488224855572480) though I notice it does say only 'registration' and not 'pre-registration' (although that might just be that the tweet was written in normal English and tried to be clear rather than exacting) and it isn't like there's any operational plan that can't be brought to a grinding halt by an unforeseen calamity.

Ultimately I don't understand why the pre-registration line was long, except that it seems to have been a side-effect of a critical laptop getting destroyed, and I don't know how that effect followed from the cause.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I still don't buy it, since the on-site registration line should have been as affected if not more affected, yet it was ~5 people long versus ~30 people long.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Dogs have achieved enlightenment. ^_^ (Well, maybe not the small, yappy kinds)

Only a MacBook.. *cough* Ah well.

Was the sponsor shirt good? I'd like to obtain more furry shirts, but they seem quite difficult to locate - even Rabbit Valley only offer a couple designs, unfortunately on shirts that seem a bit prone to sprouting armpit holes with plenty of wearing, in my experience. (Compare against the ASB ones, which are still all intact! Both the quality of the shirts themselves and the printing on those were outstanding)

And we must see that bunny badge!

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I was rather disappointed with the shirt. Printing black on a dark turquoise background doesn't really work, and turquoise is a strange color to use for a "Down on the Farm" themed con anyway.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I can certainly see that working much better on an LCD than on fabric, if one were aiming for a 1950s design aesthetic.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

It's black line art on a dark background, so there just really isn't enough contrast. It's a shame because the shirt that I got one year for being a sponsor at the predecessor convention was much, much nicer... two vibrant colors plus (I think) white on a black background.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

And for the record the line art is of what I suppose the con's icon is, that of a silhouette of ... uh ... whoever the slightly horned rabbit in the logos here is, (https://twitter.com/MotorCityFurCon) with a mug in his hand.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I think you're confusing the T-shirt with the mug. The T-shirt line art is of the rabbit and fox holding the bushel of apples, as shown in the picture at that same link. (I think you might not actually have had a good look at at the shirts yet, is the thing.)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It is a nice-looking shirt, by the way, although I don't know how it wears. I tend to be very judicious with con shirts, to the point of absurdity, as I am with so many things.