The Rental Search

Although I like my current apartment in Fremont, it's costing me over $200/month just in bridge tolls and gas to commute to work (which doesn't take into account wear and tear, just the out-of-pocket cost). So I've been looking around for something closer to my office. A for-rent sign went up at a place that I pass on my daily lunch walk. That would be ideal; I could pay $200/month more rent and still be better off in the bargain. I found a corresponding listing in a local paper so I knew what rent they were asking, and it was only $150/month more than I currently pay. Alas, when I called the number on the sign this morning, they told me, "We just rented it, but hadn't taken the sign down yet." Rats.

My current lease isn't up until April, so even if the place near my office wanted me, they probably wouldn't want to hold something until mid-March. (I can't afford to pay rent on two places for long periods of time; ideally, I'd have about two weeks overlap to do the move.)

Another place nearby also has a for-lease sign on it, but when I investigated, I found that it was $2200/month, which is way too much even with the advantage of being able to walk to work. Oh well, back to looking.

Off to FurCon

The project on which I was working is all wound up, and there's no point in starting anything new until Monday, so as soon as I can get things all packed up, I'm heading down to the San Jose Doubletree to attend Further ConFusion. Although I'm not a "furry fan" myself, I know a fair number of people in that community, and many of my friends will be there. For a change, I have no planned duties; I'm just going to the con to go to the con.

Friday Night at FurCon

The San Jose Doubletree is a civilized place, and has free wireless internet in the public areas. I'm taking advantage of this, although I foolishly forgot to slot the spare battery into the CD-ROM tray.

Registration at 5 PM Friday was uncomplicated. Some people will bristle at the "government-issue-photo-ID to get an adult badge" requirement, but I think I understand the con's concerns. There are elements of the con that would probably be considered "mature audiences" -- I'm not talking about alcohol here -- and they're trying to protect themselves. Others might be concerned about the "code of conduct," although IMO it's a long-winded way of saying, "Don't be a jerk." It's sad that people have to have the law laid down to them thusly.

As a conrunner, I could easily nitpick bits of what I've seen so far, but I should say up front that overall it looks pretty well run. A minor nit is that the font selected for the name badges is uncial, which is nearly unreadable. They picked it because it goes with their "RenFur" theme, but IMO this is a case where theme should have been sacrificed to readability -- a bold sans serif font (Arial or the like) is IMO among the best choices for badges. The layout in the Dealers' Room is perhaps a little suboptimal, as it has several dead-ends in it. But nevertheless, from this ordinary attendee -- something I haven't done at many cons for a long time -- things look to be going pretty well. There are lots of people -- including a lot of fursuited characters, as you might expect -- in the halls, and there will soon be parties upstairs.

As someone used to the "standard BayCon" layout, I'm mildly surprised to not find a row of fan tables along the poolside corridor. It's the area where I've spent a large chunk of my fannish life, but FurCon doesn't arrange things that way. My personal social center of the con is thus missing.

But don't get me wrong; I'm not faulting FurCon, whose focus is not quite the same as BayCon. I'm sure that the people putting it on are working very hard to make the con look relatively effortless. (Some of them, I think, read this LJ, and they are working really hard right now as the Friday night events are getting underway as will be the parties.) I applaud their work. Heck, I even feel a little guilty for attending a convention without working on it.

But maybe not that guilty.