AC wrap-up, Saturday

Not going to go by Day 0,1,2, etc. since it's just as easy to refer to calendar days instead. Besides, it's early Sunday morning as I write this, so.....

Got up early to go see a panel featuring Guest of Honor Rob Paulsen. He mentioned several of the voices he had done and did several impressions, including doing "Yakko's World" twice. (Interestingly enough, he said that "Yakko's World" was done in a single take, but they actually did two takes and ended up using the first.) But interestingly enough, he mentioned that one of his favorite voices was that of TMNT Raphael (which I think most people old enough to remember the TMNT 'toon series remembers him as), though his favorite was the one that won him an Emmy, aka Pinky (Narf!).

Uncle Kage had a story about Rob that supposedly nearly landed him in jail, but I will let Kage fill in the details on that. I actually have my own story about Rob. It turns out that he was, indirectly, responsible for my getting an internet life, finding furry, and even more indirectly, becoming a SWAT Kats fan.

"Let me explain... no, there is too much. Let me sum up..." -- Indigo Montoya

Back in 1992, while I was still in Hawaii, I discovered UseNet and posted a question to rec.arts.disney. It was a simple query: who voiced Gusto Gummi on Gummi Bears. A few responses later, I came across a post by steviemaxwell (or at least I think it was him, anyway... my memory of that time is a bit fuzzy) saying that it was Rob Paulsen. Several queries and postings later, I received an invite to join the Disney TV Animation mailing list.

Keep in mind that I was due to move to Los Angeles in fall of 1992 -- yes, right after the L.A. riots, no less -- and posted a message to the list saying I was going to UCLA and would anyone like to meet up? That netted a response from a fellow list member who was also a fur and would, during our first meeting, introduce me to FurryMUCK (sort of) and a few months later, ConFurence. The rest, shall we say, is history.

Oh, I'm forgetting something? Oh yeah, what about SWAT Kats? Well, I had started watching TMNT back in 1989 or so, when my brother was going to use TMNT as the theme for my nephew's first birthday party. Raph and Don rapidly became my favorite characters, and of course upon seeing SWAT Kats I immediately recognized Barry Gordon as the voice of Razor. Next thing I knew, I ported Razor over to FurryMUCK.

So that's how Rob Paulsen got me into furrydom, sorta. :)

Oh, where was I? Oh yeah, Saturday at AC...

After the GOH panel, I did some shopping for another fur then hung out waiting for the fursuit parade. After that I was hoping to catch a round of fursuit dodgeball but I ended up waiting in the wrong place and gave up on the event entirely. It was then back to the room to get an hour of z's, then back downstairs for dinner (Steel City Diner, again).

Got to the Masquerade around the time that Rob Paulsen did his Yakko's World routine again. I don't know what I missed, but I apparently either had not realized or forgotten that Anthrocon's definition of "Masquerade" is more like FC's definition of "Furry Variety Show" and FC's Masquerade is simply exhibiting fursuits. Lesson learned for next AC (which will probably be another 5 years before I can go to it depending on time and/or cost).

After the masquerade I waited outside the door for what was supposed to be the second round of fursuit dodgeball (I missed the first round, remember?) and was rather disappointed to find out that the event had been cancelled. Unfortunately, I found this out about halfway in to Uncle Kage's story hour so I was only able to catch the last half hour of his story hour. But it was still amusing.

Checked out the Fursuit Dance by DJ Rory and hung around until he turned the DJing over to another fur.... that brings me to this entry.

(I know, wala'au kitty, eh? 'Ey, try wait, yeah? I not pau yet...)

Met animakitty outside the dealers room and got to talk to him briefly. Also saw evil_dwagon again... he wanted to know if I could get in touch with ionotter. We tried his cell #, but it went straight to voicemail so evil_dwagon left a voicemail message (STRONG hint to ionotter: check your voicemail).

Going to head upstairs and get to sleep in a bit. I've got a cough with some slight congestion, reminiscent of what I had when I landed in Dayton, so I'm probably going to take some Airborne to keep a full-blown version of con crud from developing.

A few more things to write about tomorrow... then it's back to Dayton on Monday. Aloha for now!

Furs I've met so far at this con...
animakitty, evil_dwagon, kaysho, krag_carbine, nerfcoyote, rcoony, ponyscribbles, snowwolf42, therinm

... is there anyone I missed?

AC Sunday

This entry won't be as spammy as my last one, partly because the day was not as long.

Spent part of the morning checking out the dealers room, then went to a panel on voiceovers featuring Mark Evanier and Rob Paulsen. After that, it was back to the dealers room to get an autograph from, and a pic with, Rob (there was also a conversation with ionotter somewhere in the middle as well). Then it was upstairs to go check out the Fursuit Games. This was the third fursuit event that I wanted to attend, having missed the first one (Fursuit Dodgeball) and the second one (Fursuit Dodgeball II) being cancelled. Got some great pix and videos from this one, but it will probably take me a while to get them posted online.

After the fursuit games, I went to go check out part of 2Sense Live, but ended up leaving after a while to go find food (Steel City Diner was unfortunately closed, but a sandwich shop next door was still open). I then made my way back to the hotel afterward, but have been staying in the lobby.

While AC is not a con I can regularly go to, I did enjoy it this year. I'll admit I'm more partial to FC myself, but I think that's biased partly because it's significantly less expensive for me to go to FC vice AC. And let's face it... the two cons are two different animals (no pun intended). One isn't necessarily better than the other... they're both good in their own right.

I remember something that someone (sorry, don't remember who) once told me... that cons are about meeting people. I would amend that just slightly... cons are about meeting people and having fun. Everything else is secondary.