Having never been to a con before, I jumped at the chance when Furry Spring Break was held near my home.  After hopping for about 45 minutes, I arrived at the hotel.  The first thing I noticed was the paint chips on the ground around the pool.  Apparently the hotel decided to do renovations just around the same time as the con, which was the only negative aspect I can recall of my entire day.

         I went to the registration desk and met Argon, Vassily, and Morticon (of all furs).  Apparently the SED had ran out of funds that week, and Argon, being the nice centaur that he is, paid for Morticon to get in.

         After Simba the lion gave us our badges, we all went in together.  After looking through our con booklets and gazing around the gathering area, we decided to browse the art area first.  After getting temporarily lost in the hotel, which was mostly open-air, we found the art area.  Several artists and dealers were there, such as Herbie Bearclaw, Gen, Phill Morrisey, Mitch Beiro,  and Martin ( can't remember his first name).  I browsed many pieces of artwork, but couldn't find any that interested me. Argon bought several pieces and got a commission done of Mavra.  Later on, Morticon decided he wanted Gen to do a commission of him, so she wrote down his distinguishing features and told him she would do it later in the week.  He seemed very pleased.

         Because the room wasn't too big and fairly crowded (though everyfur was well behaved and the noise was acceptable), we left the room.  At around that time Vassily had to get back to thwarting evil and doing various sloth things, so we waved good-bye and he took off.

         We walked around some more, and came across one of the conference rooms and peeked in, seeing only 3 furs in it.  They said hello and wondered if we'd be interested in joining a story circle (kind of what used to be done on SpinDizzy a year or so back).  We said yes and helped weave a tail about the 'Take Charge Vixen' Suzy and her fiancee mouse.  Everyone had lots of fun completing the story, putting in such things as Steve Erwin, dragons, alligators, dueling banjos, fanboys,  and Grooms Aren't Us.

         Afterwards, we watched the hilarious Furry Variety Show, and then Argon had to leave. I stayed for the Fursuiters and Friends dance and chatted with several of the pawpetteers and fursuiters, such as SpinDizzy residents TeddyRuxpin, Seaweed, and Tiresta.

         By this time it was getting late, so I took off for home.  I'd say fun was had by just about everyfur in this small and friendly con which can only get bigger next year.

  www.furryspringbreak.com  for pictures! 

         Morticon, leader of the SED, has announced he wishes to have a 'Peace Banquet' at a neutral party's banquet hall. "This banquet will allow us all to sort out all our differences while enjoying quality food not cooked by either side," Morticon stated.

         The date is not yet scheduled, though Morticon has made it clear all furs are welcome to attend no matter what their alignment or species.

   

This week in Ask Boki, Boki answers more questions!  Boki always has the answer!

 

Earthquake Survivors in Seattle; Skyler Plush Toy In Wake of Quake

           A recent earthquake shaking up the vicinity of Seattle, Washington saw little to no damage done to Spindizzy regulars Terry (of late a mint otter) and Skyler (of late not hanging out in Silicon Valley).  Chit, an evil squirrel reported missing for at least two years now, did not report being affected one way or another. 

         Skyler, of course, was relocated first by a temporary job placing him in the Seattle area, and then was relocated again by the tremor rated 6.8 on the Richter scale of earthquakes.  "That's what an earthquake is, after all," Austin Dern said in a frustrated attempt to amuse.  "A part of the continent got relocated."  Skyler reported that due to the suddenness of the earthquake, he was unable to take advantage of it to shake anything well before serving. 

         Effects of the earthquake would have been felt long into the night by soda cans suddenly fizzling over and spraying foam all over the room, had Skyler been drinking any cans of soda.  In the meantime, the effect of sitting through the tremors can be simulated by turning off all the lights, standing across the room from a TV set, and chomping one's teeth until the screen gets this "sort of jittery look." 

         Spindizzy's earthquake survivors, reported to be everyone from Spindizzy who was in the earthquake, have not been unchanged by their experience.  Skyler has, in the wake of the event, prepared to take an exam to earn a ham radio license, and a line of plush versions of himself in many different colors have shown up at K-mart and "Big K" stores across the country. 

         The plush toys, stocked with Easter supplies and named on the tags as '33 Inch Cute Bunny', sell for approximately 15 dollars.  There are no guarantees that the plush toys will be able to converse at any length, however, nor will they be able to assist in the troubleshooting of Linux installations.  "In fact," the original Skyler said, "most of them aren't even able to get a basic kernel dependency conflict resolved.  I don't know what their problem is." 

         He speculated some of the problem may be that not all the plush Skyler toys are yellow; some are green, some blue, some purple, and some an odd sort of neon-ish halo effect that is expected to soon be adopted as a new iMac flavor.  They all are reported to smile and be reasonably personable.

         Terry, meanwhile, has gone through another period of being a female otter, this time minty.  She is more green than usual, and reports being tasted more often than she had been in the weeks leading up to the earthquake. 

         In the end, despite all the fuss, Skyler and Terry returned to their homes, tired but unbeaten, and they reported learning a little something about friendship and civic building codes. 

The Doze Garden (Click on it for a larger, more readable image)

>> Procedure for submitting an article:

 *  The newspaper building is located at Role Play Central (rpc).  When you

enter the building you will see a bulletin board.

 *  Go ahead and 'write' your story.  If you decide you don't want to write

one, hit .abort and forget about it.  Otherwise page 'newspaper' alerting

us that you wrote one when you finish pasting it in.

 *  An alternative to this is to page #mail newspaper with your story OR

email it to newspaper@spindizzy.org

 * We will edit it and tell you where you can look at it to make sure it wasn't mangled.  You can then p #mail the editor involved saying that it is ok.  Otherwise, suggest changes that should be made. If you trust the editors feel free to put something to the effect that you pre-approve the editing in your rough draft.

 * That's it!  It'll appear in the paper!

>> Guidelines for writing articles:

When writing articles for the paper...

 * Try and do some proofreading before submission.  That means spell check!

However, if you're no good at that sort of stuff, just send it as-is and the

editors will try their best.

 * No articles whose sole purpose is to flame someone.  You can use the SpinDizzy BB for

that ;)

 * Please strive for accuracy.  If they have time, the editors may check up on some of the quotes and perhaps the basic facts of the article.  Otherwise, it is assumed you did your best to write an accurate article.  If this is abused and inaccurate things are complained about, stricter rules may be put in place.

* Submitting your article anytime on Friday evening through the normal publishing date (Saturday night) will usually waive your right to review the edited version because of time constraints.  You will be contacted and informed but if you cannot get on before the publishing deadline to check your article it will be published regardless UNLESS you specify otherwise.

 * The editors' decisions are final.  This is not a wiz ran paper so do not

complain to them.  We can be reached by paging 'newspaper'.

 * Just about anything is published, so be creative!  It can be IC views on

RL topics, RPs that occurred around the MUCK, or most other things you can

think of.  You have creative license when it comes to documenting RPs, so

feel free to expound on the action, etc.  If you aren't sure if a story is

acceptable, page 'newspaper' and find out! :)

 * The AUP applies, so keep language and content acceptable.