FC 2004 Con Report: Wednesday (#1 of 5)
Jan. 27th, 2004 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_gneech10:00 est, on the plane over Illinois somewhere. Jet Blue's not bad! Free cable tv at every seat, so I spent the past hour and a half watching Columbo. :) Now I've got "VH1 Classic" playing Police tunes at me while I type. I like their tagline: "Absolutely none of today's hottest tunes."
Vince (a.k.a.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meowzaroonie) mentioned that JetBlue doesn't have any connections near him ... I'll have to ask him if Long Beach counts. They're also starting a new one in six months in another town in CA, but for the life of me I can't remember which one.
Random comment: Sting looks pretty silly in the "Wrapped Around Your Finger" video, bouncing around like a George Michael wannabe. Oh, cool, Spinal Tap! Oh, no, it's Aerosmith. Oh well, chalk it up to verisimilitude!
10:25 pm (CA time) - Well, I spent most of the rest of the day standing in line. I got in line for the dealer ops table, where I was s'posed to get my badge, and they said, "Gneech who?" Fortunately, they had the info so Kerry (a.k.a.mammallamadevil) could sign in and start getting the table put together, but I had to go register again for the con. (I need to check my credit card records to see if they charged me the first time. If not, the online registration had a glitch, and it's my own fault for not getting a confirmation. If they did charge me twice, I'm going to have to bug somebody about a refund for having to register twice.
So anyway, at 4:30 I got into the line for onsite registration -- which didn't open until 5:00 but already had a line down the hall. At 5:30, I reached the registration desk and got into the "credit" line, where I was informed that I was supposed to have waited in the "data entry" line first -- a line which I hadn't even seen. One of the credit people took pity on me, however, and put in my data there before running my credit card. Finally, I waited in the "badge fulfillment" line for a few minutes and was done -- with the basic registration.
Back to the dealer ops line[1], where I was informed that to get my dealer badge, I had to have my tax info and other paperwork. So I went into the dealer room (getting special permission from the nice woman guarding the door) and found Kerry, brought her out, and waited in the dealer ops line a THIRD time, this time getting my dealer badge and finally all registered.
At this point, Kerry and I hooked up with Vince andkevinjdog, and the four of us went out to an Italian restaurant called "Florentine's" for dinner. Thomas wanted to stop at a record/CD/DVD flea-markety sort of place called "Rasputin's" while we were out, so we followed a rather circuitous route caused by missing roads to get there. After much meandering and looking at $5.99 used copies of several CDs that I wouldn't mind having but wouldn't want to pay for, we headed back to the hotel, where we encountered cooner and a bit further on genecatlow. Kerry needed to head out and I was getting pretty tired at this point, so we left Vince and Thomas there. We encountered Uncle Kage a bit further on, but didn't stop to chat -- he was being assaulted from all sides by people who wanted his attention, as usual.
Saw lots of furs I know today ...tchall, jadedfox (who's sharing the room with me), some of the local fellas whose names escape me at the moment (I met them brieftly over at pholph's place one evening), sk_1, Kinkyturtle, Babs Bunny, Jim Groat (who I can hardly be said to know, but I know who he is), wesha, Galen, Tasho, a bunch of others who I'm too groggy to remember now. I was also introduced to Mach and Yappy Fox, as well as Vince and Thomas' friend jonasbagel. I also stood in line with (but didn't meet or converse with) Terrie Smith and her hubby, and Marci McAdam and her hubby.
Bedtime, finally ... Vince said he might come and hang a bit, but he hasn't showed and it's 11:00, so I don't think he's going to.
-The Gneech
[1] I don't want to be harsh about the dealer ops people, but they had a real problem with focus. Mostly they sat and chatted with the would-be dealers, rather than processing the paperwork -- which was nice and chummy, but quite hard on everybody who was waiting in line -- especially after having already waited in it once and then waited in the other line for an hour!
Vince (a.k.a.
meowzaroonie) mentioned that JetBlue doesn't have any connections near him ... I'll have to ask him if Long Beach counts. They're also starting a new one in six months in another town in CA, but for the life of me I can't remember which one.Random comment: Sting looks pretty silly in the "Wrapped Around Your Finger" video, bouncing around like a George Michael wannabe. Oh, cool, Spinal Tap! Oh, no, it's Aerosmith. Oh well, chalk it up to verisimilitude!
10:25 pm (CA time) - Well, I spent most of the rest of the day standing in line. I got in line for the dealer ops table, where I was s'posed to get my badge, and they said, "Gneech who?" Fortunately, they had the info so Kerry (a.k.a.
mammallamadevil) could sign in and start getting the table put together, but I had to go register again for the con. (I need to check my credit card records to see if they charged me the first time. If not, the online registration had a glitch, and it's my own fault for not getting a confirmation. If they did charge me twice, I'm going to have to bug somebody about a refund for having to register twice.So anyway, at 4:30 I got into the line for onsite registration -- which didn't open until 5:00 but already had a line down the hall. At 5:30, I reached the registration desk and got into the "credit" line, where I was informed that I was supposed to have waited in the "data entry" line first -- a line which I hadn't even seen. One of the credit people took pity on me, however, and put in my data there before running my credit card. Finally, I waited in the "badge fulfillment" line for a few minutes and was done -- with the basic registration.
Back to the dealer ops line[1], where I was informed that to get my dealer badge, I had to have my tax info and other paperwork. So I went into the dealer room (getting special permission from the nice woman guarding the door) and found Kerry, brought her out, and waited in the dealer ops line a THIRD time, this time getting my dealer badge and finally all registered.
At this point, Kerry and I hooked up with Vince and
kevinjdog, and the four of us went out to an Italian restaurant called "Florentine's" for dinner. Thomas wanted to stop at a record/CD/DVD flea-markety sort of place called "Rasputin's" while we were out, so we followed a rather circuitous route caused by missing roads to get there. After much meandering and looking at $5.99 used copies of several CDs that I wouldn't mind having but wouldn't want to pay for, we headed back to the hotel, where we encountered cooner and a bit further on genecatlow. Kerry needed to head out and I was getting pretty tired at this point, so we left Vince and Thomas there. We encountered Uncle Kage a bit further on, but didn't stop to chat -- he was being assaulted from all sides by people who wanted his attention, as usual.Saw lots of furs I know today ...
tchall, jadedfox (who's sharing the room with me), some of the local fellas whose names escape me at the moment (I met them brieftly over at pholph's place one evening), sk_1, Kinkyturtle, Babs Bunny, Jim Groat (who I can hardly be said to know, but I know who he is), wesha, Galen, Tasho, a bunch of others who I'm too groggy to remember now. I was also introduced to Mach and Yappy Fox, as well as Vince and Thomas' friend jonasbagel. I also stood in line with (but didn't meet or converse with) Terrie Smith and her hubby, and Marci McAdam and her hubby.Bedtime, finally ... Vince said he might come and hang a bit, but he hasn't showed and it's 11:00, so I don't think he's going to.
-The Gneech
[1] I don't want to be harsh about the dealer ops people, but they had a real problem with focus. Mostly they sat and chatted with the would-be dealers, rather than processing the paperwork -- which was nice and chummy, but quite hard on everybody who was waiting in line -- especially after having already waited in it once and then waited in the other line for an hour!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Lines
Date: 2004-01-27 12:46 pm (UTC)You're entitled to be a bit harsh. Write a polite but firm letter to the Chairman (mailto:chairman@furtherconfusion.org) of Further Confusion that details your concerns. Keep it brief and professional.
It's in FC's best interests to minimize dealer and patron delays for sign-ins. Negative experiences discourage future attendance.
Re: Lines
-TG
no subject
Date: 2004-01-27 04:46 pm (UTC)It can be a PIA to drive there, I think I messed up the last time we went and I lived in SJC...
Great Part 1/5 :-)
CYa!
Mako
it wasn't THAT bad...
Date: 2004-01-27 08:25 pm (UTC)MLD
Re: it wasn't THAT bad...
Date: 2004-01-27 11:39 pm (UTC)CYa!
Allen
Re: it wasn't THAT bad...
Date: 2004-01-28 12:03 am (UTC)It was great meetin' ya!
Date: 2004-01-28 01:35 am (UTC):D
Thanks fur addin' me to yer LJ also.... :>
...and I'm so glad ya enjoyed the big to-do!!