pocket guide v. full guide dates/times
I'm sure that someone's already aware of it, but there were several things I went to that were scheduled for like 11am, that were really at 1pm, or things like that... At the hoofers panel we figured out that there were misprinted times and locations in the full con guide. Apparently there were some things that were left out, too, IDK.
So far as everything else is concerned....would it be possible to make DI a little less uptight??
We were waiting for the fursuit games on sat. morning to start and one of the suiters got yelled at because he was playing with a balloon. O.o
We were waiting for the fursuit games on sat. morning to start and one of the suiters got yelled at because he was playing with a balloon. O.o
Was this the beach ball that was being volleyed around in the area outside the SoP Ballroom? The one that kept flying into the halogen lamps hanging from the skylights?
(I walked by at one point as said beach ball was being tossed around, with several of the halogens overhead swinging back and forth from earlier tosses that had gone a bit too high, and thought Yeah, that's not gonna last very long...)
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iSKUNK!
Oh, you of all people would know about every ding and dent the DLCC gets. (When one of the Fursuit Parade flagpoles SMACKED into an overhead signboard, I'm betting wherever you were, you went "Ow!" 
)
Anyway, that would be my guess as to what happened, the DI seeing what was going on and taking the initiative to prevent possible damage to the lamps. (The DLCC dude sitting at the podium near the elevators certainly wasn't doing anything about it...)
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iSKUNK!
On Thursday late afternoon, I was waiting outside Hall "B" for an Artist friend (XianJaguar); as she had already set up her table and was no longer in the hall, I waited a long time, behind where the Artists and Dealers were getting their badges.
A sharp-eyed Dorsai spotted folks in the on-site registration line bandying and batting about a beach ball. He pointed this out to one of the beret-less red-shirted security staff, and mentioned it as proscribed behaviour needing immediate intervention. She asked why, and he explained the danger of the ball hitting the lights. She comprehended the nature of the problem at once, and went off to squelch the volleyball-like activity.
As I recall, it was not your traditionally colored, multi-gored ball, but something which had a very muted, earth-colors design on it. Could it have been the same ball, with the same parties trying the same game at the other location?
It's quite possible. I don't recall what the ball looked like, only that it seemed to be a beach-ball-type ball :-]
(But then, neither can I recall that the registration area had similarly vulnerable ceiling lamps. Outside the SoP Ballroom, it was only the two/three large skylight areas that had them.)
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iSKUNK!
Err...the issue is that we're not allowed to have any type of projectile or bouncing object in the DLCC. It's not just the pendant lights, but the overhead signs, the artwork on the walls, the glass uprights, and many other surfaces and objects that can be damaged by "projectiles".
I had a meeting with the DLCC rep and assured her that we had not scheduled any activities that included projectlies...and cleared all of our events with her prior to the convention. Beach balls and bouncing balls were definitely NOT included in our event list. Also we were told of the rather exorbitant cost of getting a balloon removed from the ceiling....so balloons are also not allowed in the building.
Needless to say...the thought of bouncing balls in the DLCC scares me in a thousand different ways.
...the thought of bouncing balls in the DLCC scares me in a thousand different ways.
Ahh.
...Then you are probably not going to want to hear about the miniature R/C Helicopters, happily hovering and then swooping down the foyer and overhead corridor which crosses over the exibition halls...
...And I most likely shouldn't even bring up the wheeled R/C Pringles Can, whose owner cleverly mounted a ducted-fan electric aircraft engine inside, and whose top speed was only limited by the friction of the wheels on the carpet, and whose acceleration was only slightly hampered by the mass of the batteries, which he was clever enough to sling under the chassis for a low center of gravity...y'know, if the carpet hadn't been damp from a recent shampooing, I bet he could have got a good 40 mph actual speed out of the thing - maybe higher, the concourse/corridor was certainly long enough...
If and when Firehopper puts together a Pringles-jet-engine-powered R/C fighter plane, then he might hear from K.P. about his DLCC-projectile-phobia 
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iSKUNK!
Or be charged directly by the DLCC for damages incurred.
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Tom Brady/Duncan da Husky
Artists Alley and Con Store Manager
For fastest replies to questions about Artists Alley, e-mail me at
I was in suit; I'm 90% sure that it was a balloon and not a beach ball. IDK anything about beachballs...this was like 10-ish saturday morning.
I haven't really had any problems with DI in the past; I like them because they give me shiny things to wear with my suit. I just noticed that at AC it was like they were all looking for a reason to justify being there. IDK.
We're definitely aware of some of the discrepencies with the programming guide and pocket program. Things we can definitely work on for next year. We just had such a dynamic schedule and so many changes up to the last minute..that some things just were accurately updated. But we'll try much harder for next year.
KP