Another Anthrocon is over, leaving behind the usual feeling of deflation mixed with relief. As it happened, despite my earlier worries, I enjoyed myself for the most part, but I did have some bad passages. Worries about money and employment, troubling news from home, and a strong desire to resume my chemical hobbies--I spent many hours this AC struggling to read Chem Abstracts and Google Scholar using the hotel's semi-functional wireless portal--all coalesced on Sunday afternoon into an overpowering desire to get Anthrocon over as quickly as possible.
On the plus side, I got to meet
sporty_fox again after a long hiatus for a little pleasant conversation. I also met for the first time one of my longest-running online furry friends,
dixieland_doe, and her mate
redneckfur. Our dinner together was a lot of fun and I'm sorry we couldn't spend more time together. Dixie, you're a real sweetie, I just want to say that, and a great friend. I also saw (albeit for a few moments) a couple furs I haven't seen in years.
On the other hand I managed once again
not to run into a bunch of online acquaintances, including a good many on my LJ list and some folks I used to know from F*rtopia. I'm not sure what I should think about this. I like to think I'm amiable enough in person in
small gatherings. However, in large parties, I often become the guy who sits in the corner with the book and only gets up to grab more food. Nothing makes me feel so isolated and desolate as a room crowded with strangers. I would have got nothing, therefore, out of going to some random room party in the hotel. Hence one avenue for meeting up with other furs is closed to me.
But there's something else that gets in the way, whenever I think of seeking folks out. I perceive, rightly or wrongly, that some of the furs I'm slightly familiar with online, and whom I sometimes think I ought to visit given the chance at AC, really...well...aren't exactly in the market for new friends. Cliques, once assembled, do not often leave space for more pieces. Also I sometimes get the feeling that strutting, rather than socializing, is the goal of some furs. It's an unpleasant reminder that fursuiting is sometimes less about the suit and more about the elaborate, excessively polished shtick that goes along with it; this has done a lot of damage to my modest interest in suiting. I'm not sure I ever will tackle a suit again. I have other hobbies, at least as time-consuming and more intellectually appealing, that I don't want to rob of time in order to work on a fursuit. And no one who knows me at all will expect me to be content with commissioning one.
But that's enough sour grapes from me. Er, for a few sentences anyway. I did the right thing this Anthrocon and did research on artists first, going through the list of Dealers' Den entries. I didn't get all the way through the list--I didn't get halfway through the list--but my incomplete research was nevertheless sufficient to get at least some of the commissions I wanted right off the bat, knowing ahead of time who could draw good horsies. Next time, though, I should pay more attention to the Artists' Alley. One of the best badges I got this year was from an artist there. I'll scan everything in when I get a chance, of course. I also got my first ever sketchbook commission; I was hoping for a second but didn't make it in time.
I bought no prints and bid on no artwork. That was the downside of aggressively seeking out badge and sketch commissions this year. I felt like I was making up for past indecision, but it also ran through the money I'd withdrawn and a little more besides. I also didn't buy the convention shirt. Last year I bought the shirt the Steel City Diner was selling, but this year their shirt was this weird shade of chartreuse with basically the same design. The sub sandwich shop next door,
Fernando's, was selling a better, blue T-shirt and both Misha and I bought that as our quasi-con shirt.
We spent way too much money on food and drink. By accident we discovered a restaurant called
Kaya selling "Island" cuisine. Misha, net-cat, and I ate there once then took Procyon, Dixie, and RedneckFur with us the second. Everything we ate was good but between the meals and the free-flowing alcohol the total expenditure ran into the hundreds. We also spent a fair amount at Buca di Beppo in Station Square and at the hotel bar. I learned that I should probably discard any mistaken notion that I can drink alcohol "safely", and I say that even though I had fewer drinks overall than Misha, who otherwise never drinks. We enjoyed sandwiches a couple of times at Fernando's and also ate a few meals at the Steel City Diner, as we usually do, but they disappointed us this year. The food just seemed blander and the service worse. Misha tells me he was served cold food, too. We also tried a place that sold acceptable, but uninspired, corned beef sandwiches; also I got into this strange argument with another conventioneer about Edsger Djikstra and how software engineering ought to be taught. He hated Djikstra's emphasis on the mathematical side of programming, which I told him was the only aspect of computer science that was worth teaching. The man who wants to jump straight to practicalities and has no patience for all that theoretical stuff is a third-rate intellect at best. The second-rate intellect, like mine (I hope), is weak on theory but knows he is weak. I concede that not everyone can master theory or can afford to take the time necessary to master it--I'll never be a proper electrical engineer, for example, even though I've learned a few commonsense tricks of circuit design--but one should recognize and accept that ignorance of theory is nothing but a flaw and a disability, albeit a disability that can usually be lived with. You shouldn't be proud of not knowing something, ever.
I was talking about Anthrocon, eh? I attended no panels this year and, for once, didn't feel too bad about that. I already know from previous years that the writing panels are skippable, and I've had some real instruction in creative writing since then, enough to get it out of my system, you could say. I know I'm not working on a fursuit any time soon, so I didn't worry about missing those. And since I don't play
any of the games played at Anthrocon with the exception of "Rock Band", I lost nothing by missing those events. I screwed up taking pictures of the fursuit parade but I think I got in a few halfway decent ones. I went to see Uncle Kage, of course, although there was something half-finished about his stories this year (with one exception) and, I must confess, my mind was elsewhere anyway. I once again managed to miss 2's Rant. Part of me wants to give him a chance, but the other part says that the guy is a one-dimensional poseur and essentially a bore. I'll bet he likes Dan Savage. But I've only ever endured him for about a half-hour maybe.
I missed the 4th of July fireworks but you already know that. The four of us rode up the
Monongahela Incline after our last meal together, and wandered about and admired the view. I stepped into a little Catholic parish church that was up there; I forget the name. Only the foyer was open so I signed my name in the book and left. We forgot to take a group picture after all that time.
Overall I probably got more out of this year's AC than in any previous visit, but as I said, I was really wanting it to be over by the end. It would be nice to be able to visit a convention one of these days in
peace, without a thousand worries intervening and spoiling my enjoyment. All the same, I'm glad I went.