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Another year, another Califur that has gone and passed the world by. As mentioned in my previous post, this is my own impressions on this year's past Califur that took place just the previous weekend, May 19 - 21st to be exact.

Now what is Califur you ask? Well, simple, it's a big ol' furry convention down here in my very own SoCal area. It used to be located over in Irvine, but last year they relocated to a brand-new venue over in Pomona at the Sheraton Fairplex, and needless to say that Califur took place at this same venue this year as well. Now I know the other questions you have - first, yes, they do have a furry convention. Lots of 'em actually; in fact next weekend there's another con over in Reno called Biggest Little Furcon (BLFC) that's going to be happening, and there's various other furry cons that happen around the US and even in other countries at various points around the calendar. The other question I take is: what do you do at a furcon [Furry Convention]? Furry things, silly! There are panels to go to that cover various topics, nightly dances, a gaming room, special events, a fursuit parade, and a Dealer's Den where you can purchase all kinds of knick knacks and even get your own artwork commissioned. I won't lie, this bunny whipped out the credit card more than he should have. But was worth it. I mean look at this adorable picture I got done of my chubby rabbit, Tamagi.

Lookit him try to hide behind his ears.

I also purchased this print from the Inked Fur table. Now I know what you're thinking, and no, it's not that. I just don't think the general populace that wanders in and out of my room would appreciate the visual assault of fur-tight green undies. But c'mon, he's handsome ain't he?

He's also a literal greenhorn!

Awkward and homoerotic art aside, this year's theme was Horror, which seemed interesting as local Goth fur Raven was given the reigns (and Guest of Honor status no less!), and I suppose I let my hopes get up just a little too high. But ah, more on that later.

Those who have seen me parade around the SoCal area know that I oft parade around fishnet and booty shorts clad - though let's be fair, I often hit up the Tail! event, so that outfit is completely appropriate. Oh, you want to know about Tail! do you? Next time. But for this outing, I sought some new outfits for The Blue Bunny that were a little more...well, definitely had more skin/fur covering, that's for sure!

Lookin' stylish, eh? Also that sake was delicious.

I also had some other nice outfits, such as a red flannel jacket with a Wavves shirt, and donning the con's annual T-shirt. The fishnets _did _resurface but...more on that later. Promise this time.

So what did _I _do at the con, and where'd I stay? Well, I roomed with a few other furs in the con's main hotel, and....to be honest, I spent a lot of time in the hotel room gaming on my laptop. To be fair, I hooked the laptop up to the room's TV so the others could watch; I even teamed up with fellow roommate Wildshot for a Metal Slug X play through - oh man, it was crazy, you had to be there. Lots of things flying on-screen. Lots of carnage. And continuing.

I stayed in the room for two-fold reasons: one, I had _just _finished my latest semester at CSULB, and I wanted to relax. Hell that Friday I had a final in my poetry class! Whew! And the other one was....

...well, things at the con itself just weren't interesting. The panels that were being hosted just didn't stroke my bunny curiosity. Sure there was a scary story and fanfiction panel, but I don't write horror nor do I write fanfiction, I'm not that big into inflatables, and, I dunno, I just couldn't get into any of them. Perhaps I was still jet-lagged from college, or maybe horror just isn't my thing. Though I do have to give points to the con for having a panel that (supposedly) featured actual paranormal investigators and for giving local furry goth fellow (and one of this year's guests of honor) Raven his own event, titled "A History of Darkness." The dances also didn't garner much interest from me, as the music seemed rather...not danceable. Though that could have something to do with their previously planned DJ not being able to show up and someone else having to take the reins - supposedly the person who supplied the music was playing off of their iPod. I mean, at least there was music? The dances also looked dead, low energy and not that many furs there. Did I go at the wrong time? Who knows? Though I suppose not sticking around long for the dances probably didn't help either - though _someone _played Bohemian Rhapsody. I think that was on Saturday, though.

Update 5/30/17: Turns out that there may have only been a replacement DJ for Saturday - Friday's DJ was still replaced, but by the DJ for Sunday, who was already up and ready to spin. Kudos for being ready to roll when the con needed you. Thanks to DJ Däch for the heads up in the comment section!

Another major issue, and this is something that seems to happen a lot, is registration. Oh God, registration. Just ask _any _fur that's gone to CF and they can tell you how much it sucks. I arrived with one of my fellow roomies on Thursday - "Day 0" as it's called - with hopes that registration would be ready. I arrived at the Sheraton at about 5pm or so, and after crashing in with my roomie, Growly, I was told that they hadn't got it ready yet, but it'll be ready later. I think it was either 7 or 8. Then it became 10. Then 11. And finally, when I was ready to leave to crash back at my place in Long Beach (Remember, Friday final! Ain't no way I'm doing Friday morning traffic from Pomona!) at 12am _oh look registration is open! _Finally, an hour or so later (due to continued problems with their system and the printer) I had my badge that proudly shone with the blue PATRON ribbon - the highest ticket for Califur. But was it worth it at this point? Registration would continue to have reported problems throughout the con, and at the closing Q&A panel with staff any complaints or suggestions with registration were met with the rather seemingly canned response that they were understaffed, and if they had more people it would go smoothly. Right, I distinctly remember how having more people staffed can make software issues go down. I do understand how low staffing can put a strain on folks - ask me about Wal-Mart some time - but that can't be the end all be all answer ladies and gents.

So, since I've started the tangent about my issues with Califur I might as well continue them. Don't worry I'll get to the tale of Niko's neon green fishnets in due time.

The other major issue for me was the theme. Not the fact that I'm not into horror, but the fact that it seemed so....under utilized. Alright ring the bell, I know what's coming. Another canned response in the form of: Well if you want to see more done for the theme, donate. Okay, I get that it's stupid expensive - some might even say it's highway robbery - but c'mon, not even a few dollars for some cotton webbing? There's also the concept of theme phrasing, which seemed to completely escape the staff's mind 0 so far no one I've brought this issue up to has mentioned it. Theme phrasing, for those not in the know, is changing the way you talk or word things to fit a theme of an area - think Disneyland, and how riders can be called different things from ride to ride, or to use the park's own overall theme phrasing attraction to attraction. And you can do this for almost everything: documentation around the con, the program guide, the website....

...oh dear Star Lord Akeno the website. Just have a look for yourself. It just looks so...bland, so underdesigned, so...like all they did was change some text and that's it. No bother to fix formatting typos, or make it look nice. This is the con's landing page! It needs to look nice! And some themed phrasing would be great here too! Contrast with my own mock-up Califur site I created in the span of two days. Sure it's not 100% deep professional level, but it at least looks a little better? And it infuses next year's Western theme. Also I know it's supposed to be Califur 2018. Just roll with it y'hear.

Other various problems I picked up on were start and end times being off for panels - the closing crew said it was a "small typo" that the times on the program book's schedule block and the panel listings didn't line up - some events' timing wasn't planned out well, such as when Growly and I were a whopping _two minutes late _for the pre fursuit parade photo only to find that they took it already and left us fursuiters to wander around the backstage area for 30 minutes. Even the other Guest of Honor, Duke the Dancing Dog, missed it - Looks like someone's going to get an email. Then there was word that either con or hotel staff were shutting down room parties. Come on! Not the room parties! That's part of the con going experience!

Alright, so I think you're wondering now where the good times were. Well, first of all there was the Pet Auction on Friday which I entered - patrons bid on fursuiters, with the money going into charity. This year it went for a special bat charity - The Bat Sanctuary I believe. Now what do you do with your won suiter? Well, they have to spend the evening with you. No, they can't do anything sexual - that's prostitution and is forbidden by the rules. I went second and sold for a whole $15! Not much when you consider that some others sold for $30 or even some couples going over $100!

Niko trying so hard to look adorable and get sold. Photo by Flamie Shadow Tiger

Ah, but little did the disappointed bunny know that he was being collected with two other folks - a gal named Winter that was a human demon, and another suiter known as Crazy Joe who makes really cool part animatronic-part fursuit costumes.

Photo of myself along with the other two pets my owner won, along with a friend of his. Photo by Mike Nicholes.

So what did my dear old owner have in store for us? Well, it turns out his roommate - who was dressed up as Frisk from the Undertale _video game - had bid in the auction too, winning _two pairs. Ah, I remember seeing them whip out their $20's with excitement back in the pickup area. We legged it on over to their shared room for what I describe as a Post Pet Auction Cuddle Party. We just hung out, cuddled with our owner (What? Furries are known for our cuddly nature!), and he bought pizza for everyone present. Talk about delicious.

See, I told you I'd show you the 'nets. Photo by Mike Nicholes.

It was really one of the more memorable moments from the convention, and unexpected. I had no idea what was going to happen, and it was nice. I mean lookit how happy the guy looks - he's up in 7th Heaven!

The fursuit parade - despite missing the photo, was great fun. I loved prancing around in suit and waving to all the cameras, and getting featured in who-knows-how many videos and photo albums. I can tell the audience just loved watching us all come out. Another plus was that there were all these young fursuiters and it was so adorable seeing the little people prance around in costume. Speaking of cute, well-known fursuiter Telephone came in, Dutch Angel Dragon squeaks and all. And if you've never seen her? Well, here you go. Try not to die from the cute. Apparently her player's boyfriend had a table set up and she tagged along with. Always a bonus!

Much fun was also had in Growly's room. Hey, mind out the gutter. I mean with Jackbox. Roommate Wildshot was excellent enough to lend us his laptop for some Jackbox gaming goodness with friends on Friday and Sunday, and we were all hootin' and hollerin' so loud into the AM I'm surprised that no one complained. Then again we were at the butt end of the hall, so I guess we lucked out. Not to mention it gave birth to a running joke/meme between Growly and I: "I got this! :v"

Also I went on a date with a cute little red fox, and that's always something sweet, innit it?

So as you can see, there's some good, some bad. I know I went on a bit of a tangent there, but this is all out of concern for the con. Anytime I voice displeasure it's to make sure things are looked over and hopefully addressed for next year. Califur's a local con to me, and I feel the SoCal furry community is too big _not _to have one. I can only hope that CF staff really takes any and all suggestions and criticisms to heart - it has a lot of room to grow, and this dorky blue bunny hopes that it'll continue to grow!

Have you been to Califur before? What was it like? Good? Bad? In the middle? Have you been to other cons? And if so, how was it, and how's it compare to Califur? Sound off in the comments below! As always, thank you for your time, and if you want more fuzzy furry fun, a little bit of support can go a long way - check out my Patreon page for more info.

Until next time, partner.