Welcome to a new episode of "Things you might see at Eurofurence".

It is almost certain that every attendee of EF16 will pass through this building at least once and has the opportunity to catch this view.
Still, the ones passing out after partying hard, or taking the time to lounge away from it all for a while have a higher chance to find this gallery.



So, what is this Building ?
Send us your answer and win a free miniprezel.

In our ongoing effort to make our guests feel at home at Eurofurence, we would like to inform you about the local distinctions ahead of time.

So don't be surprised when in Magdeburg, trains drive on the street in the entire town, buildings have zebra camouflage, but not right angles, and trees glow in the dark.

( Visual information behind the cut - click - )

Looking forward to see you all in wonderland, and stay tuned for more information.

I have been away from LJ since last EF, so it only seems right to return to LJ with a Eurofurence post.

This weekend we had a staff meeting at the new Hotel, and boy will that new location change things for EF.

( Today news fact no.1: New toilet paper - behind the cut - )

( Continued from http://mystifur.livejournal.com/16908.html )

( LJ-Cut for shortness: Hospital - part 2 )
I had a couple of hours left before the rehearsal to StageFever started, so I darted down into the dealers den. My tables where waiting for me, along with a couple of clients. Chatted some with Natasha and Gideon, answered the reoccuring "Are you ok now, then?" with a polite "Yes, I'm fine" while sipping on my tea to keep it that way.

Next thing: Stage Fever rehearsals. I would have so totally lost it, if it weren't for Shay, Fawks and the incredible stage team.
They had prepared almost everything about the story part.  The fact that "magic carpet ride" went overtime a lot, gave us the neccessary opportunity to fix the final skit files and plan audio/video/light scripts.

The dress rehearsal was... a desaster. And that's an understatement. We knew we were going to fail that epic, but there was nothing we could do now. People were waiting outside.. Actually for more than 90 minutes now, because of the accumulated delay of "Magic Carpet" and our rehearsal.

I don't know what exactly happened then, but "StageFever" went as smooth as any possible. All cues worked out, the improvising was great.
Just a few setup delays and a drunk american doctor who didn't want to leave the stage. Everything else seemed to work out fine.
..but maybe that's just because in a muffled head with tinted eyes, you only notice half of the things around you. *g*

I had to pass on the fursuit dance. Despite me wanting to attend, my physical conditions didn't let me. I talked to AJA and a few friends, paid a short courtesy visit to a small party I was invited to, and went to bed early.

With half of the attendees and nearly all staff arriving on tuesday already, the con felt like it was going on since yesterday.
I tried to get up early to get the fursuit lounges set up as soon as possible. ...which turned out to be not as easy as we thought.
While we had access to the neccessary rooms in time, and my team working quite effectively, the problem was to gather enough pipes to build the actual fursuit dryers.

We literally cleaned out 3 building supplies stores to get all the some 300 pipes and parts, that we needed to create a 50-spaces head-dryer and 40-suit-dryer-rack. Eventually we got everything we needed and with my car loaded up to its roof, and with the great and much appreciated help of Shay, Fawks Beaumont, Furvan, Edelweiss and DinoEx, the blowing beasts came to life in time for the EF opening ceremonies.

I went to grab a bite at the barbeque and got to greet a few of our abroad friends. The weather gods were really in a good mood and the food was plenty to choose from. So, it was quite a nice dinner.

Went into the Stage-Fever rehersal room, to see if everybody was fine. Luckily, with only answering a few questions, everyone indeed was doing fine so i could dart back up and care for the final touches on the fursuit lounges. By the time everything was running smoothly, when i returned to the rehearsal room, it was already empty. I could only hope that things worked fine for everyone. I had hoped to talk to people there to finalise their stage directions in time. ...because the actual directors script that i was supposed to finish wasn't done yet due to.. well.. let's just say "circumstances beyond our control".

I didn't get much more done there, feeling quite tired. I decided to head up into the lobby to find a few more long-time-no-see friends and finish the script in the morning then, when the 2nd rehearsal was set.

The lobby was, as usual, quite alife. Felt good to be around and chat some for a couple of minutes. Went to sleep around 2 am.

Tuesday 25th: Stuffing stuff and passenger into car, drive to Suhl...

Wednesday to Sunday: EF and stuff..

Monday 31st: Packing up, drive to Hamburg, drop off passenger, start working a nightshift in another town, faint sometime around midnight.

Tuesday 1st: Continue work, drive home, some hours of sleep, back to nightshift work, feeling a bit better.

Wednesday 2nd: Finish work, drive home, drop dead into bed.  Woke up now and found out that I'm still alife. :-)

Will try to remember what happened at EF and post as i succeed. ^^

8:30pm now.

Things left to do:
Clean workshop,
load car,
drive home,
packing clothes and alike,
write scripts for the show,

departure to Suhl, Eurofurence 11am.

Ok, if  I'm lucky, I'll get 3 or 4 hours of sleep.

Some days ago somebody drove his car backwards into mine, but later on decided that au contraire, I had been driving into his car instead.
(You might remember. http://mystifur.livejournal.com/14545.html )

Along with the papers of her insurance came a letter from mine as well. That woman realy had the guts to tell my insurance I would have damage her car by driving into it...
"We are being asked to pay for some other cars damage that you caused. Please explain in detail." And so i happily did.

With my neighbour and eye witness proving what I said, I didn't doubt the outcome for a second, but it was still interesting to read the opponents insurance letter now.

"..nach dem jetzigen Erkenntnisstand können wir unsere Eintrittspflicht hinsichtlich der unfallbedingten Schäden am Fahrzeug bestätigen."
which roughly translates to something like
"according to our current state of knowledge, our liability concerning the accident-caused damages on the motor vehicle can be confirmed."

And yes, it sounds as clunky in german. :)

Wow, one hell of a week is over, staffing at a major local event with everything that comes along with that. Truckrental, loading, unloading, setting up tents, running booths, install infrastructure, herding cats..err..participators, packing up, loading and unloading trucks,..

Now all left to do is dry the tents from the thunderstorm-while-packing-up wetness.

Oh, and of course catch up with everything that i've fallen behind for Eurofurence in the meantime.

If you ever pondered running two big events in the same month: Dont. Just don't. :-)

Just left the workshop for a break. Thought I'd have a nice walk to clear the mind. (Ok, nice is relative when you're walking through narrow streets of an old workers district, but that's beside the point.)
While walking I noticed a constant "fft fft fft fft fft fft .." from a barred basement window well. By the sound, I was assuming someone was sawing wood in his cellar room.
Nosy as I am, I stopped to peek through the well and window.
What I found though, was not grandpa working on his model plane, but a hedgehog, trapped in there, with his head stuck halfways in some plastic garbage.

Luckily the grill was removable, so I could reach in an pull him out. He didn't even try to hide or make a ball or walk away, when I sat him on the floor to replace the grill. He was clearly aduld size and besides being a bit thin, looked well and healthy.

Since we have a lake with park and woods area within 15 minutes walk range, I decided to relocate him there. He was a little too apathic to be left on the sidewalk in the middle of a concrete area.

So we had a nice walk to and past the lake until I found a swampy area with a shallow waterside, to give him easy access to fresh water. He refused to get off my hands or do anything for several minutes, until I started rubbing some water all over his nose and muzzle.

Now that got him interested! :-)
Still sitting on my hands, he drank what seemed like half his weight, and with his now returned animal spirits, he took off, scampering into the bushes.

Analysis
Cause: Me going for a walk at work, which I seldom do,...
through roads I usually avoid,...
checking for a small noise that's barely noticed.

Result: One more living hedgehog. :-)

What happened so far:

As you know, about 2 weeks ago, a young woman drove her green Volkswagen Polo backwards into mine.
As you know as well, said lady decided to call my insurance instead of hers, and claimed that I ran my car into her rear fender.
(Yes, I, the callcenter person and the witness all had a good laugh at that.)

Now, two days ago, I found a notice under my wiper:
"You drove into my car. How about contacting me." ...nothing more
More than slightly puzzled I called the police if they knew anything about this. Nope, they didn't
Well.. there must be a reason that person put that note to my windshield.. so I played along and left a notice of my own.
"To the notice writer. Who are you, and when and where would I have driven into which car ?"

Next day, new notice. Address, license plate number, Name.
Now I found that car in our street and instantly knew whom it belongs to. It's my direct neighbour from the house next door. And her car is....yes, you guessed that right... green as well. Seems she noticed me parking in the lot right behind her one night, and the next day, she found a mark and long dent on her cars side, that wasn't there before... or so she says.

Since my car has green scratchmarks, Miss Sherlok Holmes precisely reasoned that it had to be me who left that 20 inch indentation in her cars side.

Now, it has to be said that her car is a 25 years old, 3 tons heavy Mercedes Camper. The car is more rust and dents than anything else, but nevertheless all around 2mm steel. I am deeply impressed. No, not by her combinations, but science must have made impressive progress in polymer technology, if my slightly scratched plastic bumper can totally deform a steel truck wall.

But that's of course just unimportant details. As is another small detection I made. The strange fact that her crash mark is 63cm/25inch above the ground, while my green scratch ( from beforementioned Polo) is at 48cm/19inch.

So obviously my car is not only made from nearly indestructable plastic, it is as well capable of jumping up and down at least 6 inches !!

I have a cool car. :-)

This post is Spam, so I'll put it behind the cut. :-)

( AKIRA Band 1 bis 19, Deutsche Version in Farbe, 1991-1996 )

I'm not so sure Mangas work well as a dictionary, so since this is the german edition, they're probably not first choice for my english readers. ;-)

Since yesterday I have this odd feeling in my right ear..
assuming it's a swollen eustachian tube, since i'm a little allergic.
let's ask google and wiki...

feeling of pressure ? check.
slight numbness or feeling like there's a wad of cotton inside ? check.
feel like you hear a bit less on that side ? well.. slightly
had a lot of stress recently ? can't deny that..

congratulations. good chances for an akute hearing loss.

Yay, just what I need.

In my last post, I told the story of that young lady who was driving backwards into my waiting car.
http://mystifur.livejournal.com/14280.html

Now, about 10 days later with no news from either that lady or her insurance, I called her insurance to inquire if the accident had been filed and when i would receive the papers to fill out.
The call agent was quite surprised to hear my version of the accident and told me, slightly amused, that they indeed had a call about that time and date, but that was more like.

"Oh hi, I'd just like to give you the advance information that there was a little accident with my car. Somebody drove against my car from behind. Wasn't my fault, so you shouldn't be bothered."

That'll be interesting. :-)

When you're driving home and suddenly find a sweet parking spot on the curbside, it's absolutely normal to slow down, stop at the end of the spot and maneuver into it backwards.

What you don't do is slam the brakes in a narrow one way street, instantly change into the reverse gear, and keep driving backwards while completely ignoring the car behind you that is already waiting and sounding its horn continously for 2 or 3 seconds, and only stop your car after it starts bucking and makes strange noises from scratching along the front bumper and fender of said car behind you.


I politely tried to explain this to the young lady who just parked her car in my new Astra as we were driving to our monthly munch.
She didn't quite understand my point and kept insisting that she had set her direction indicator, so i must have known she would be entering the spot backwards, and that naturally I and all the cars behind had to drive back and make way within the second.

Of course everyone his entitled to his own opinion. So we will just have settled this through our insurances. I had an eyewitness in my car, so.. :-)

Happy birthday to
Yag - [edited, due to possible misunderstandability]- Fox !

Edit: D'oh ! It's of course not Yagfox' birthday, but Yappyfox. Argl..Ok, happy birthday to Yappy then. :-)

So while half the world is traveling to Anthrocon, I'm catching up with commissions.
Handsewing the last long seem on a bunny. Not as much fun as vacation, but still good. :-)

So tonight some funny person decided that it would be fun to remove my front license plate from my car.
I don't quite get the idea, but whatever the reason, let's assume he had 2 minutes of fun with it.

So, what's in for me ?
- Call the police.
- Be told that you have to come to the police office for report of theft
- Having my cars number now being tracked and thus have it invalid.
- Having to go to the admission office to do paperworks, request new numbers, buy plates, get new legal stickers on them,..

So in total i'll be loosing about 3 hours of a work day and 90 Euros in cash.
...for someone elses 2 minutes of fun.

Departure  Germany, Hamburg,  Thursday 08:00 PM
Stopover Swiss, Zuerich, Thursday 09:30 PM to Friday 07:15 AM
                 ( trying to get some sleep at the airport. no free wlan. )
Arrival United Kingdom, Manchester, Firday 08:15 AM

Hopefully meet up with BBF, Cheetah, doco and Kralle at the Airport Hotel.
Drive into Manchester. Buy food and essentials. Arrive at Youth Hostel, Potatoe Wharf.

Enjoy Confuzzled.

Redeparture United Kingdom, Manchester, Monday 06:45 PM
Stopover Swiss, Zuerich, Monday 09:45 PM to Tuesday 07:30 AM
                  ( again trying to get some sleep or kill time otherwise )
Arrival Germany, Hamburg, Tuesday 09:00 AM


( I will have my german cell phone with me, so I can be reached. Need the number ? PM me. )