Anthrocon 2009 Dance posters
If you were at Anthrocon this year, you no doubt saw the two large, full color dance posters hanging over the stage with beautiful artwork donated by Mary Mouse.

These posters are created every year, and every year people express interest to me in aquiring them. That is actually our desire! We _want_ you to go home with them. However, we also want you to donate money to charity for the privilage (we had to pay to have them printed, afterall). This year there were some rather insistent people who seemed to think we would just be throwing them out, and so I should just let them take one. That is not the case, I'm sorry.

That said, it gets a bit worse for 2009. It turns out that during teardown, our posters vanished. That's right, as far as I can tell, somebody just took them. This constitutes theft, and I have a request for the guilty party. I am not going to ask for the return of the posters, but instead, I ask that you please make a donation of at least $50 to our charity:

The Animal Rescue League of Western PA Wildlife Center
6000 Verona Road
Verona, PA 15147

I am not angry, but I am dissapointed that someone would be so selfish, so please, man up and pay for what you received like anybody else would have. In every year prior these posters have raised over $100 for the charity. Please consider that before assuming that I am being too demanding.

 

So wuf and I went to AT&T last night......$640 later a new iPhone was ordered (this time in white; maybe white will be less attractive to asshats). After more or less yelling, pleading, begging with the clerk, we were fed the line: AT&T has to recover the costs of offering the phone at $200. If replaced within 6 months of the original contract date, your only option is paying for the phone in full. However, the salesman did suggest that I go over to State Farm and put out a policy on the new phone since they are unable to insure the phone itself. I will be doing so. So after all was said and done, basically whomever took the phone won. There's no bricking. There's no self destruct button. There's no ninja that comes out and cuts off your wang for being a bad person. That is relatively disheartening, but if I didn't have you guys I'd really be up $hit's Creek. So again please know that without all of you I would be in far worse shape than I am now.

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Besides the infamous iPhone, I had a pretty fun time at Anthrocon. I guess I was never all that motivated to go (mostly due to work stress and interpersonal issues), but all in all I survived. Kudos to the staff for putting on an amazingly professional operation. Your swag made me envious beyond belief. But between timely and diverse programming, to how visually stunning everything was, monstrous respect should be given.

I suited on occasion and had a decent amount of fun while fuzzy. Even got to "judge" the fursuit dance competition, which ended up being a blast. All of you did tremendously well! Otherwise, my enjoyable aspects of the con were based off meals and parties. Twice we ended up at Olive or Twist; twice we enjoyed ourselves (drunkenly) beyond belief. Our annual dinner at Sonoma Grille was significantly smaller attended, but FAR better than in previous years. Poomie's party was epic (no more needs to be said) and honestly the Deaddog! was surprisingly manageable and fun (until iFail of course).

Otherwise we hung out with friends a lot this con and just shot the $hit. When things get so large that it's difficult to manage your time allotment, getting down to the basics and just hanging with those you care for really hits the spot. Thanks for all those that tracked me down, offered me private brew coffee, called me out to breakfast, shared beers in a room, tackled me in secret suits or posted offensive stickies on my ass while I'm passed out from exhaustion. You all made this a very enjoyable con and I am very appreciative.
 

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So the last week has been an up and down roller coaster of emotions. Some tremendously awesome; others heart wrenching sad; some that led me to tears. In the end the reason we go to these damn things was reinforced by the love my friends made abundantly clear to me yesterday.

The general themes are idiotic and ridiculous at best: we dress up in fake fur and pretend to be animals; we draw anthro critters with ginormous members making babies while being attacked by tentacles; we stick our fists in puppets and try to make that entertaining. All of these things, individually, are mind boggling weird. But somehow we have organized an amazing community based off these ludicrous interests. We have formed ties which I would be hard pressed to find stronger in any other interest group. Despite the distance factors which plague all of us, unquestionable and unyielding friendships. Yes there's tons and tons of stupid. There's tons and tons of fail. But that is ALL trumped by the love and compassion held within these walls. For every "I am unemployed, don't wash my crotch and moving in with my online m8", there are many many more "I care about you and I've got your back".

:)

Despite me being a horse's ass and requesting that folks not pool money together to cover Sunday night's mistake, a few friends (that would rather remain anonymous) apparently went ahead and did so behind my back.

When I found out about this I broke down and cried at work.

I am still shocked and choked for words, and I will never be able to convey how much this means to me. I don't feel that I deserve this at all and am still very hesitant about taking people's hard earned money to cover my own fuck up. However, I spent all of yesterday questioning why I was "wasting" years upon years of my life on a community that would so easily try and profit on one's generosity. That mind set obviously went away this morning when I heard the news.

I know it's just a phone. The situation, however, was much more than the mere financial cost of the theft. Myself, and many like me, go out of our way to make others happy. I stress myself to exhaustion to make sure others can have a fun time. I know that does not make me immune to life, but the fact the only reason I went to the con was to make sure these parties occurred and still had this happen just killed me.

The outpouring of support yesterday, combined with this amazing gift, has recharged my spirits and heart. Whether it was a donation, or a message on LiveJournal, FA or Twitter, thank you. That's severely short changing how much I appreciate it all, but I can not muster much more without balling right now.

Wolphy and I will be going to AT&T tonight after work to figure out what the damage is. I've filed a police report with the hopes of maybe recovering some of the costs with Visa (my homeowners deductible is unfortunately about the cost of the phone). However, whatever donations that are not used will be given to Midwest Furfest's charity this year.

Again thank you for looking out for me. You are all amazing.

Sincerely,

Toby

See Drinky Crow? I'm going to emulate him ALLLLLLL weekend! It's been a week so I'm treating my liver to a nice pounding.

It's also Pride so we will be doing gay stuff......well more so.


Also found out it's my 4th year anniversary here at the firm. Further proof that I'm an old bastard :)


I'm just a drinking, old, gay SOB. Go me! I also hate children, puppies, old people, flowers and freedom!

You know what's f'in hilarious?

When someone goes balls out on a post, gets criticized for what they posted and then erases all of the critical replies and puts it on lock.


Grow up or man up.

Altering replies to aid one's argument is kindergarten playground bullshit.

• Friday night we went out to The Bank with the felines. We had a disturbing amount of beer. Good times were had by all until we got home to find out our power was knocked out by the rapestorms.
• Saturday woke up to no power. Instead of rotting inside our hot ass house, we went out for a morning ride on the vroomvrooms. Got home, got packed and then headed out to hit the LAFF/MFF Softball Games in WI. Traffic and construction were horrid. Temps in the high 80s also added to the suckfest. It was a less than stellar ride.
• I played like absolute crap. The tear in my back probably added to it, but all in all I have never hit that poorly. But, none the less, I had a really fun time and appreciated everyone's work towards making this happen. Was great seeing everyone!
• Came home Saturday night to no power.
• Woke Sunday morning to no power.
• Finally got power around 11 AM.
• When out to ride with hypersnazz  in the afternoon. Took in about 20 miles of pedal rape. Someone kindly tipped him off to an area with actual contours in the earth, so the ride was full of climbs. Being both out of shape and full of climbing failure meant this was a rough outing. However, the area was super pretty, roads clean with sparse traffic. This made for some really fantastic riding.
• Today I'm VERY sore EVERYWHERE.
• After work it looks like wuf and I are biting the bullet and going to the dark side: iPhones. Maybe there is an iPhone ap that makes my body less broken.

jesper_f just reminded me that I did not post to tell everyone that he visited two weekends ago. He did. He smells. Chaos disapproved of said smell.

There. You got your post. Happy? :D

• Friday night did The Bank with the felines. jet_der_hund  also made the long drive from the Cheese Block to hang out for the weekend. Finished the night with beverages back at the doghouse.
• Saturday Jet and I took the day relatively easy. I spent most of it on the couch watching TV. Had not done that in ages so it was very appreciated.
• That night we met up in invncble , woodychitwn , wolfybrenn , tozier_wah , zooberpossum , reddywhp  and allhailkush for Andersonville's Streetfest. Many mojitos were had. Many many mojitos. We ended the night at T's where I came across $7 steins of cider. That's a problem. But it was a really festive event and I had a blast. I took an extremely drunk Jet home and put him to bed with lots of water.
• Sunday fozzie_da_fops , zooberpossum, street22 did our group ride. We could have not picked a better day. Everyone did well and I look forward to future group rides with these guys. 
• Got back just in time for our June online MFF meeting.
• darkwolph finally came home from Michigan. Chaos and I were ecstatic to have him back. He even brought us (ok Chaos might not partake) many, many bottles of MI wine that he had sampled during his trip. Chaos, however, did get a really boss collar from the Andersonville Streetfest. He looks like a fierce GSD now! (yes Dire I used GSD).

• Friday
  • Friday night we headed up to see Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, Pride Edition, with some folks. We were in the front row. I got frenched by one of the crew. Absolutely fantastic show; pee in your pants funny as always.
  • We finished the night with Big Jones, a classy Southern joint in Andersonville. I can't start to describe how amazing this place was: from the unique drinks (which we had WAY too many of), to the fantastic meals to our absolutely on the ball waiter - please try this place out if you are on the Northside.
  • On the 12:40 A.M. train home, Wolphy got digits from a (drunk) girl that was hitting on him the whole time. He was so proud. I just giggled.
     
• Saturday
  • Running off 4 hours of sleep (and hung over), we trekked up to the Naperville DMV (at 7:15 a.m. - fuk me) to try my hand at the M-class test. I SOMEHOW passed. Happiness and joy! So despite no sleep, a wicked headache and tooling on a 600, we came home one "M" heavier.
  • After about a hour of packing, we got on the bikes and headed out to Detroit to attend a family get together with wuf's parents. Ironically, it was held in Novi and our hotel was literally .5 miles from the FCN hotel! We were intimately familiar with the route and the trip up was smooth with great temps and weather.
  • The party was fantastic! The house that it was held had both enormous flat grills and a full sized drum smoker. Meatgasm! I was introduced as "Andrew's partner" to a number of family friends without incident. Also watched the Wings kick much ass on a projection screen outside. Good time all around.
• Sunday
  • Wuf's folks drove us into downtown in the morning so that I could finally say, "I have been to Detroit, and didn't get shot!" I, in fact, did not get shot. They have obviously done a good amount of work to the downtown area in recent years. However, seeing the GM building, this shining pillar of progress and hope, was somewhat surreal at this point in time. I hope the city can recover from this fiasco.
  • After downtown, we joined up with girtygrin  and nikvulper  for brunch at Zingerman's Roadhouse. You just can't pass up Zingermans. It's a sin in most organized religions.
  • After brunch, we parted ways and eventually I geared up and headed back to Chicago short one Wolphy. Wolphy is spending the week up with his family so this marked the first time I've ridden a significant road trip solo. The entire Midwest was covered in green, but Mother Nature showed mercy on my soul and somehow I didn't catch a drop of rain. The ride back was totally uneventful and I rocked out to the new Green Day and Pink albums while following packs of cars doing 100 mph on I-94.
  • 600 miles total in two days. I'm a tad sore :)

If I fly in on Thursday night (late), does anyone have crash space for a (paying) mongrel? Doesn't need to be Trump Plaza; I'm content with the floor.

My room opens up on Friday (Wolphy may or may not be going to AC so this request is just for myself).

(comments are screened)

Thanks for the offers, but after checking on additional flights I'm going to go with a Friday AM flight. Appreciate it!

Experience Chicago like never before – biking on a car-free Lake Shore Drive, May 24, 2009.

darkwolph fixed it!!!! (details here)

Despite his Ponch hair, he really is the best boyfriend ever.

So this weekend was a VERY long motorcycle ride.....with a ton of fun in between. Due to a hectic work schedule, I was unable to take time off to attend. As a result, we didn't get on the road until after work Friday. darkwolph and I, after studying the weather forecasts religiously all week, hesitantly decided it was a go for the bikes on Thursday night. But coming into this trip we knew it was going to be a crap shoot. Though temperatures were going to be perfect (70-80F), a front was moving into the area bringing with it severe thundershowers and 15-30 mph gusts. Being the idiot I am, I begged Wolphy to go along as planned. And Wolphy, being the idiot he is, agreed. So I rode downtown for work and rode out after to meet up with him near the IL/IN border.

The ride to Michigan was windy, very very windy. But despite warnings from many friends that the roads were crap, we actually were pleasantly surprised to find far less potholes in Michigan than in Illinois. Temperatures were optimal, and besides some fuse issues with Wolphy's bike, we made it in around 11:30 Est surprisingly not all that tired. After settling in our room, Wolphy immediately got into Boris (because he is retarded like that) and I opted to go to the bar and drink amazingly delicious martinis.

Saturday was pretty lazy; we suited up for the parade and otherwise just chatted it up with friends. Later on we headed to Zingerman's Roadhouse for another mind blowing meal. Two wine flights, the hands-down BEST PEI mussles I have ever had, seafood mac'n'cheese and a donut sunday later....stick a fork in me! Words can't describe how spectacular Zingerman's is and I highly recommend any of the chain's establishments to everyone. After stuffing ourselves retarded, we came back to the hotel for a series of room parties that included lots of "purple drank" and some of the most festive games of Kings I have ever participated in. I had my fill of spirits and eventually crawled to my room to pass out.

Sunday we woke up pretty early and made the best out of the break in the rain to do a short photoshoot on the bikes in suit. First and foremost, this was not sponsored by the con and we would never condone riding without proper gear. But it was a good opportunity to get some festive shots in a relatively controlled environment, and we had fun doing so until we were kindly asked to stop. We appreciate and respect how the Dorsai handled the situation. But special thanks go out to reddywhp and to jet_der_hund for taking some amazing photos! Much <3.

We hung around for a few more hours before deciding it was best to try and make use of the daylight. Unfortunately, AS we left the parking lot the sky immediately opened up and we were forced to duck under an overpass to quickly change into our rain gear. However, we only had to tolerate the downpour for 20 minutes or so before the clouds broke and we miraculously had sun the remaining ride home. Winds were rapetastic and we were significantly more sore, but the ride was uneventful and we made it home around 9 pm.

So another 560ish miles under my belt. Being my first major road trip I learned a lot about how to reduce my drag, body and luggage position. All in all I don't regret taking the bikes at all and am glad we were dumb enough to go for it.

So congrats to FCN on their impressive growth and for putting on a great show. It was great seeing all our friends and thanks so much for the fantastic time!


 

PIKS'R'HERE