Hey there Little Red Riding Hood, you sure are looking good

[austin_dern]

And now, finally, I can get to reporting on Morphicon! Our trip started on Thursday, because happily they moved the convention to what's a long weekend for bunny_hugger, and we could start out at a reasonable hour around noon to drive to her parents' place. This let us drop off our pet rabbit, who'd stay with them. It also let us see just how their pet dogs are declining; they are legitimately getting into worse shape. We had lunch, and talked about what we expected the con to be, and then were on our way to pass Ann Arbor and head to Ohio.

Morphicon's hotel, a Holiday Inn that's properly in Worthington rather than Columbus, had something new when we arrived. They handed a Code of Conduct that we were to read and sign, and the people at check-in assured us that Mr Wright (?) had approved it. The code specified against things like excessively loud parties or harassing non-con-goers at the hotel. We had no idea there'd been any harassment of non-con-goers. Part of the fun of the convention is that it doesn't fill the hotel so we always have some meeting-of-alternate-worlds with people who have no idea why there's all these people in mascot outfits at their hotel room. We never would get an explanation of what the code was about, either. It just ... prohibited stuff.

Among the banned things were ``the kinds of behavior called 'horseplay','' or something to that effect. It wasn't just a banning of horseplay, nor of ``horseplay'' in scare quotes, but of behavior called ``horseplay''. It all suggests some kind of incident and we couldn't think of what might have happened last year. bunny_hugger had the recollection that last year some particularly uptight social group shared the convention --- she remembered some stern glares given to mystee's dancing last year --- and perhaps that group complained a lot. We'd share the hotel with a different group this year.

But the important thing to do was eat, which we decided to do when we found out registration wasn't open yet. We went back to the burrito place we visited last year. We'd thought it was a shaky new burrito spot last year and learned it had actually been open nearly a whole year. It just had that chaotic air about it suggesting a state of perpetual emergency and maybe short life. But it's still there, and it was much calmer and more orderly this time around. The burritos are good, though, very customizable and with sauces hot enough that even I can't quite take them. Also I realized I could look at just a few seconds of whatever sitcom was on Nick at Nite with the TV volumes turned way down and want to slug everybody in the show. bunny_hugger believes the show was Full House. I didn't recognize it.

Trivia: In his 1873 patent application Thomas Edison named his telegraph duplexer a ``diplex''. An undated diagram from his 1873 notebooks also lists a ``Fourplex, No. 14'' and the note ``Why not?'' Source: Edison: A Biography, Matthew Josephson.

Currently Reading: The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, Deborah Blum.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I just remembered last year's other group as being particularly uptight and humorless, so thought they might have complained a lot. I've generally had good experiences interacting with the non-Morphicon groups at the hotel, but last year was an exception. And I know Austin doesn't really mean to blame you, but it IS true that I saw one of the teenaged girls from last year look in as you were practicing your variety show dance and get a stupidly appalled look on her face.

[mystee.livejournal.com]

yes I recall that incident as well. Though I'd like to think they weren't appalled/disgusted by me because that truly hurts my feelings.

I know Austin wasn't necessarily blaming me I just wanted him to know the facts. More because the incident while I was practicing upset me a lot and I don't want people to think I was the cause of further animosity from the hotel on the morphicon convention

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, goodness, I don't intend blaming you or thinking you were to blame at all. I just remembered that moment last year as one that concisely showed the other-group not liking sharing the hotel with Morphicon. And that was on making the assumption that last year's other-group had anything particular to do with the code-of-conduct which apparently they didn't.

The code-of-conduct thing is a mystery, though.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, I would not have brought it up if I knew it had actually upset you. I thought it was funny if eye-rolling that they were so uptight. They gave me funny looks a few times and all I did was walk around with a pair of ears on!

[mystee.livejournal.com]

No worries. I just don't like people looking at me with disgust especially when I can't comment on it. I'd rather rude comments or something that I can respond to.

I just have a hard time grasping intolerance of people.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about the original incident, and also sorry for the way I'd framed incidents in the telling of it.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I absolutely don't mean to blame Mystee. Or anyone, honestly. I can imagine the group last year being particularly hostile and the hotel's promising to Do Something about it, is all.

I'm really surprised that I didn't hear any good rumors about the reasons behind the code-of-conduct, but then there's a lot of rumors about Morphicon I'm surprised I didn't hear anything about.