The story about Mr. H
As I was driving home, I told the guy I was driving with about Mr. H. He was up on the roof with him and his friends. What happened, the idiot was trying to taking a picture and didn't want the railing or anything else in the way, so he decided to hang over the edge. He forgot his name, but he ask the other people who were up there what it was. Now I would give you his name, but I don't want the guys on the Board to get angry, but his name does start with an H and ends with a T and is 7 letters long. My friend told me that next year he is going to have a con badge that says Mr H. I would give the name, but I think I am going to keep my big mouth shut.
Update:
I would like to say that this forum post was not to make matters worse, it was to tell everyone that Mr. H was just trying to take a picture and was not thinking. We all have times when we dont think, myself especially, and this was one of those times for him. Even though this was my first ever convention, and I was very sad I wasnt able to go up on the roof, I forgive him for his moment of not thinking. I have never met him, I dont know him, but I still forgive him, and I hope all of you do too. Dont worry about whats happened, just hope it will be better next time.
Yeah, your right, I wont say the name, but I hope her wont do anything stupid again next year.
My friend told me that next year he is going to have a con badge that says Mr H.
No, he isn't. At least, not a Membership Badge to Anthrocon 2011.
--Chi
Haha I was wondering where he got the impression he'd have a badge.
Yeah, I realize that now, only giving a name would only make the matters worse. I did think would be good to tell everyone that the idiot was only taking a picture and not thinking, instead of not knowing what he was doing. We all have times when we aren't thinking, and even though this was my first convention and I was sad I wasn't able to go up onto the roof, I forgive the guy for his mistake. That was my intention with this post, not to make matters worse.
In my (admittedly very limited) experience, incidents of this sort are rarely anything malicious or intentionally dangerous. Most often, someone just says, "I want that" and doesn't stop to think about the consequences to themselves or anyone else. That's how we get people ghosting cons, people getting sick from dehydration and sleep loss, people breaking escalators, people keeping everyone up until 4am with loud drunken parties, people forging their parents signatures on the permission form and running away to the con without telling anyone, people trying to go through airport security in fursuit, people balancing precariously over dangerous drops to snap pictures...
The point is, yes, lots of people make stupid decisions without thinking about the consequences. But there are consequences, in this case a tremendous extra expenditure for the con. Forgiveness for mistakes is important. What's also important is keeping everyone safe, as well as helping these misguided souls to see the effects of their actions. Think things through first, not afterwards. And if you know you're someone who has a hard time assessing reasonable behavior, find someone you trust and try vetting your ideas through them first, so they can tell you when you're about to do something dangerous or inappropriate. I'm sure we'd all rather the five minutes of arguing to a major incident.
Hmmm...
I and at least two other Furry Fans happened to be taking the extended, 2&1/2-hour Riverboat cruise, which began at 7 O'Clock and ended at 9:30. The cruise took us past the DLCC at approximately 7:20 or so, and we made an effort to wave up at the Convention Center, and saw 3 or 4 people out on the terrace, who waved back. This was before sunset.
After cruising up the Allegheny about oh, 12 miles or so, to the first dam and lock structure, the boat turned around, and proceeded back down the river. As we passed the DLCC again, twilight had set in - the city office towers were nicely illuminated, even the DLCC could be seen to be lit inside, though we didn't see any part of the mass of people waiting to process through registration at that point - and we once more waved up at the DLCC.
...Andt there WAS at least ONE person outside, who waved back, and even took a couple pictures - we saw the flash of his camera - but I don't honestly recall whether the individual was on the terrace, or up on the top (roof) level. My impression was of seeing a silhouette of the man, including a broad-brimmed hat - and I don't know if that was from the dim back-lighting from the inside of the convention center - or whether he was backlit against and by the mid-twilight sky, which would mean the roof. That would have been at approximately 9 O'Clock to 9:10 or so.
I HOPE that the person to whom we were waving was NOT Mr. H...standing on the railing of the roof just to get a dim picture of a few people on a riverboat - and doing it with low light conditions impairing one's own visibility, to boot - was a damn risky thing to do.
********
EDIT: At that distance - I couldn't even be sure if the figure we saw was a man or a woman, to be fair.
Sounds like a murder mystery or some shit. Im curious to know what happen but this is as far as i go with it, just a comment.
By now a lot of us are familiar with the story but didn't know exactly what was going through his mind. Still not the smartest thing to do. As for giving out his name I don't see what purpose it would serve other than to add to the drama. Probably best not to name him and just let it slide into obscurity.