But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation

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.