On a side note...

Today, along with others in my class, I first observed then participated in neutering goats. (I got to do the biggest one - Got a challenge for ya Anna, my teacher said.) My first surgical procedure of any kind. A little bit nerve-wracking, but cool and surprisingly easy. Experience: Worth a lot.

Being able to yell at some neanderthal sports monkeys of the male variety who were teasing the program dogs in their outside yard - "Hey! I just castrated a goat and if you assholes don't knock that off, you're next!" - Priceless.

So much needing to be caught up on. This'll take a two-parter. Today, I'm going to focus on the con report and other suchlike. Tomorrow - or hopefully soon after - I'll put up the rest.

Back in January, I went to Further Confusion 2006.

FC was wonderful. Though I sorely missed seeing Kishma, Tanamin, Ed, and Ben, as they were unable to make it this year due to the horribly fast filling up of the hotel, *grrr*, I still had an excellent time, and this, in no small part due to surprising things. While I wound up with some more solo free time than I generally do, because normally if I have it, I go bug those folks, I got a lot more drawing in, though perhaps less in sheer number as just a lot of work into those ones I did complete, or finally finished up from languishing in my sketchbook. I will toss examples of such things at you later in this post.

I was wandering around the first day, waiting for registration to open, and a rather random, slightly hyper, but perfectly nice person named Gobby, I think... see, this is why I should have done this long ago. I start losing details... pretty sure it was Gobby, chatted with me for a bit. I saw her later in the pre-registration line, where I got to talk to other folks as well, friends of the person I'd given a ride to the con. It made waiting – and there was a lot of that – a bit more bearable, even if my ankle was starting to ache. Well, I got my stuff, which included a nifty certificate since I was a panelist, and proceeded to wander around a bit more.

That's when I ran into an arriving Graveyard Greg, who said “There she is!”, grabbed me by the shoulders, bumped his forehead against my hat brim, and continued with “Do you know what I've been through to get here?” Well, of course I didn't, so I'm rather sure I blinked at him like a deer in headlights, and let him tell me. And oh, brother, it was quite the story. A flat tire, and snow, and an additional breaking down of the car, and a day extra of travel, and no way to phone the friends expecting them, and then having to leave the car, rent another, and drive some more... he and his did not have a good time. And it wasn't even truly over yet, nor would it be until after the con. I can only hope they have a dull, boring, perfectly normal trip to the con next year. I told Graveyard to find me later and I'd buy dinner, to try and make it up to him a bit. Well, they went off in search of registration, and I took a seat by the door for a bit, whereupon Gobby reappeared and said something along the lines of "Hi! I can't find anyone, and you seemed nice, so I'm going to pester you for a while, okay?" To which I again blinked, (I did a lot of that this con) and said "Sure". And so it was.

Some time later, Greg and co. came back that way, and I got to meet DJ, his boyfriend, who was so worn out, all he wanted to do was take a nap. Poor guy was dead on his feet, and didn't say much. He opted to go snooze in the car while I took Graveyard Greg to eat. Gobby decided she'd come along. So we got in my car and I drove to a McDonald's.

One would think this would be a great opportunity to talk to Greg about the panel, since we hadn't discussed a thing about it other than "Will ya do it? Yes? Yay!" on my part. And he did make a few tries to do just that. It is, however, an unfortunate aspect of my nature to be a bit on the quiet/shy side in person, especially with people I rather admire or don't know well. And Gobby was extremely talkative and outgoing. I am reluctant to interrupt people or hijack conversations where people seem to be enjoying the topic. Must work on that backbone, I suppose. I resolved to start talking to Graveyard much earlier about the panel, if he was willing to do it again the next con. Not that it was an unpleasant meal – quite the opposite – but I missed my chance, and that it was my own fault irked me later.

In general.

In the following days I bounced around, attending panels and popping into the Creator's Lounge. I wore my fursuit briefly, but unfortunately, because of the standing I'd done that first day in the pre-reg line, I pretty much killed it, and limped the rest of the con. I knew without doubt that I'd never be able to keep up the pace required to be in the fursuit parade. Add to that, whenever I actually was in suit, I seemed to be the only one around. Whenever I finally gave up, and put the suit away, then the others descended en masse and I couldn't turn around without seeing one. So I just watched the parade, kicked myself for forgetting to bring a camera again, and drifted through the art show and the dealer's room, trying to narrow down the things I wanted versus what I was actually going to buy, and checking out some of the newer artists who blew me away. I wanted to buy a sketch from one artist so badly, but I only had the one sketchbook and I wanted to be in the Creator's Lounge a lot... Another thing I'm going to have to do. Buy a second sketchbook and stuff it with references so I can leave it with the artists and still have something of my own to doodle in.

Now when it came to the panel I'd dubbed Minotaurs-N-More, I had run flyers and posted them up all around the hotel. That's another thing that helped kill my ankle – I had to go back and forth to Con Ops to get the answer to the question of where I could and couldn't post the flyers, and then back again to get the special tape needed to stick them to the walls with. Then I was a postin' fool, sticking them everywhere I thought they might get seen. I was also pleasantly surprised by the fact that my panel actually did end up printed in the pocket guide. Yay for publicity! When Saturday morning came, I arrived and set up, nervous as hell, and blinked at seeing people turning the table and chairs panelists were to sit at into a stage – the PawPet show had to rig it then, because there was no other time to do it. The table and chairs were still there, just... in front of a stage. I'd brought all my minotaur figures – the Hurloon one, the Tauren Shaman and Narnia minotaur I'd gotten for Solstice, a few smaller ones, and propped up my mask on the table end. I put out the handouts of minotaur sources, fiddled with the outline I'd done for subjects... and got nervous. Very nervous.

But then Graveyard arrived, and people began trickling in. A total of 8 – which is not bad for something so specialized. I was quite pleased. There was even a couple who played minotaurs (another female, yay!) as well as WOW enthusiasts, and a few other minotaur fans. I think there were several times when Greg had to carry the conversation, but I finally started relaxing about halfway through, and began piping up. So overall, I think it went well. I already have a few ideas for the next one. We used up the whole time, and then it was done, almost abruptly. Now I'm worried about the next one – while I have some ideas, it's not nearly as many as I did this time, and I don't want to repeat... yet don't see how some repetition is avoidable. Also, I may be getting a little too ambitious – what I really want to do for the next one is have drawings of all the different methods one can put together a minotaur. By that, I mean, show all the variations. Have one drawing of your basic mythological, with only the bull head and tail. Then others showing all the different body types. Hand types. Even teeth and feet. But I want to make the drawings humorous too, so it's a little entertaining. Like when it comes to the different... urrr, endowments, having different sized black spots over the crotch with the minotaur's expression going from surprised to 'Hmm' to 'Oh yeah' with a thumb's up when the one with the biggest black spot is shown. That way it's still public-safe but funny too. Nevermind that I'm not nearly a good enough artist to pull this kind of thing off, nor do I have anything like a computer or the knowhow to put together a projection of any kind. But, that's all for next year anyways. Back to the convention, now.

After the panel, I got some food, dished out nachos for DJ and Greg, since I hadn't been able to feed DJ the first time round, through no fault of his own. While Graveyard zoomed off as he's wont to do, I had a nice chat with DJ, and there'll be more about that in another post. It was probably one of the best things about the con.

Loot!

I also got a few nifty art prints from artists I'm going to have to hunt down online, a sketch, and one graphite drawing from Kyoht that... well... even though I haven't played WOW yet *mutters about computers* I had to have as a minotaur fan. I picked up a couple odds and ends as gifts, ogled many new artists and made resolutions to have money next time for them, and talked to a few folks.

Now for the art-bits.

Many of the drawings I did or finished in the Creator's Lounge are too big for me to scan at school, and I'm unable to use the limited program there to scan slices then paste them together. This makes me go grrrr. So unfortunately, the ones I'd really like to show, I can't yet. I don't even have all the ones I can show here, because I haven't finished cleaning them up yet – no free time. However, I do have some, since DJ was kind enough to scan and email me some of the ones I wound up sending home with him. Thanks DJ!

Here, is a pic of a character of a person I met in the Creator's Lounge, Ty. I met a few really cool people and chatted for a long time with them, and Ty was one. He does text – very cool looking fonts and such, and he sketched out my name in beautiful lettering, which I of course, need to get scanned so I can show you.

Here and here are two fanpics I did for Graveyard Greg's webcomic Carpe Diem. I'm fairly happy with the picture of Rodney, the cheetah, but I did the one of Ken, the rhino, without references, and he looks too much like a horse. *grumbles* Ah well. I'll get it right next time.
This one I did for Graveyard Greg just as a thank you for bailing me out of the jam I was in and being on the panel with me. The scan cut off the end of Kaz's muzzle, which was poking out of the end of the table. But, as with the above two, I'm just pleased I got a scan at all, and it's better than I can get done myself. Thanks again, DJ!
This is a gift for Kishma, started and only finished at FC, but still, at least it got finished. I need to study female anatomy more. *grimaces*
Here's Surrk, my female gnoll thief. I'd been trying to get a hyena face right forever, and finally, I managed. Yay! Finished at FC, started earlier.

All of the rest are pics I managed to get scanned – though not very well – of earlier works.
Musk-ox minotaurs… and yeah. Just realized that spear is awful short. *facepalms*
Conundrum
I rule you! and Rarf suffers indignities are pics for the excellent Steve who gave me the renditions of Sehran and Hart (scan coming presently) that make me want to cut off his hands and graft them onto my arms so I can steal his talent.

Site Update:

Made the guestbook entries moderated, so I have to approve one before it posts, thus pulling the teeth of those damn spammers.

Oh yeah. Happy Easter, all. ;)