WTF?!! I wake-up at firetrucking 3am and toss and turn until giving it up at 5. Why body, why?

Salad for breakfast. What? Well, I bought a couple of chopped salad kits for quick meals. And I haven’t touched them yet. It’s Sunday. I still have one meal voucher, so I can either eat the salad that needs to be used or hike four blocks downhill on the coldest morning of the weekend. Salad it is. I then get dressed cosplaying at the Moxie Man. Why? Well, read on further below.

I play some pinball in gaming while it’s not busy and beat my best score from last year by 300K (13.8 million) on the furry-themed Police Force pinball machine. Where was that earlier in the weekend? ‘Cause by Sunday, it’s nowhere near what I’d need to get on the score board (26 million!!). You know if I played more than one weekend a year, I might get good at pinball again. Oh well. Two hour morning shift with Registration. Just a slow trickle of people wanting day passes. That makes 19 hours overall. 18 gets you a free regular registration for the following year.

I’m done volunteering for the weekend. I’m free! I’m free! Back down to the dealers den for another walk through. A vendor from Seattle snags me as I’m dressed as the Moxie Man. We talk for a while as he and his daughter just tried Moxie the night before and love it. I gave them some Moxie stickers. Alas, they’re a fursuit parts vendor, so not what I’m looking for (no fursuit parts vendor has come to this con with squirrel tails. All kinds of other tails, but no squirrel. Understandable as there are so few of us in the fandom and this is a smallish con.). Look around again more carefully and no squirrel art. Oh well.

FCL is very music oriented. There were music-related panels all three days in addition to live music all afternoon at the street fair on Saturday. They feature two guests of honor each year, one a visual artist, the other a musical artist. The musical guest of honor is doing a set of his/their original music in the Maine Events room. I listen for a while. I’m trying to kill time until staff lunch opens at 1:30. Bad timing ‘cause there’s a panel I want to see at that time. And it’s Sunday, so the evening dinner is the staff appreciation dinner. I’m not about to use my voucher than. I don’t feel that’s right.

Staff lunch is running late, but they let me in. They’re working on tacos. Um, thanks, but no thanks. I’m wearing white and white attracts spills. They have premade chicken salad sandwiches available and some leftover lasagna. I grab a sandwich and chips. They refuse to punch my card and said I’d be welcome back in the evening. Again, I have no plans to show-up at the appreciation dinner. I scarf the sandwich and chips and am only 20 minutes late to a panel on the history/evolution of fan conventions. Very interesting. They’re scheduled through 3pm, but wrap-up at 2:45. Great! I climb the five flights back up to my room. Grab my laptop and props and am back in that same panel room setting up early for my 3:30pm panel.

And, yes, that’s why I was cosplaying at the Moxie Man all day. I was asked if I’d repeat my Moxie history presentation from two years ago. I’m glad I had extra time to set-up ‘cause my antiquated laptop is a bit slow on boot-up, probably due to the bloatware…er Windoze operating system. It takes a while to load the slide deck and extra surprise as I’ve updated it bit since my previous presentation two years ago. The same fur offers to film it again as two years ago. The room isn’t packed solid, but I’d say I had about 40 attendees. Not bad on a Sunday afternoon when many are already heading out to either drive home or catch a flight home. I had asked to be placed earlier in the con schedule to avoid that issue like two years ago. Oh well. I provided that feedback on the panel survey I received via email several days after the con.

The audience loved the presentation just like last time. My surprise was that I found a downloadable copy of the 1921 Moxie song, now in the public domain. And I forgot to bookmark it and haven’t been able to find the downloadable copy since (sigh). Moxie commissioned a full-length song in the then popular fox trot style and they then gave away the records and sheet music. The sheet music runs for about $50 or so in antique stores these days if you can find a copy. If I recall correctly, the 78 rpm record can run for about twice that amount. Half-way through the song I ask if people want me to pause it or let it run through to the end. They wanted to hear the whole thing. Do you know of any other products that have commissioned their own song? I’m not talking about a jingle or licensing a hit song and altering it. I’m talking about an original full-length song. And hiring a well-known singer of the time to sing it? You can listen to it online (but I can’t find a way to download it on this site) at i78s.org, an archive of early 78rpm records.

Got 45 minutes? You can watch the entire presentation thanks to Wolven Terror on YouTube.

I finish the slide deck in forty minutes as I promised. I answered a small handful of questions and pass out Moxie samples. Those who were interested in a full can followed me back up to my room and received full cans. I couldn’t bring them into the con space due to hotel rules (may only serve what is bought from the hotel in con space). I still had 18 cans left. My across the hallway neighbor gladly took them. Me? I drink Diet Moxie, not regular.

Down to the charity auction and then closing ceremonies. Prior to heading to the con, based on past growth projections I figured we’d have around 2,300 attendees this year (40% growth year after year for the past 3 years). Surprisingly, just 1,903 paid registrations (13.4% increase from last year). At the same time I’m not so surprised based on the lack of lines waiting for registration to open on Friday through Sunday. I’m not sure why the growth slowed down so much, but in some ways this is a good thing ‘cause it means it’ll take longer for them to outgrow this venue and as it’s the largest available venue in the city, it’s not like they can relocate elsewhere or expand “next door” as Anthro New England just did. Just over $10k raised for the charity. Next year’s theme will be Lights, Camera, Action. As always, closing runs late and as I wanted to hear the figures, I am late for the last panel of the evening that I had also wanted to attend on the history of the lore of mermaids, fitting with this year’s Harbor Howl theme. It was well presented though lightly attended due to the time slot. I peak in briefly to the feedback panel next door. I then head back downstairs briefly.

I got to talk to some of the Discord Maine Furs again, who attended my panel. I answered questions they didn’t want to ask in front of the group. Things are a blur at this point in my recollection. Maybe they flagged me down prior to closing? Anyway, I get up to my room at 8:45 and haven’t had dinner. All the nearby restaurants close at 9 and I don’t want salad again. Nor am I going to drop in on the staff celebration dinner. Fortunately, the hotel restaurant is open until 10, so a grilled chicken sandwich and fries. I’m in bed around 10pm.