I spoke with Mom on the phone. She can use crutches, she’s at home, and Ronnie is helping out a lot.

She’s got three cracks in her pelvis, a cracked tailbone, and lots of cuts and bruises everywhere, including a nasty hit to her head. She can’t really remember anything about what happened, but that’s not unusual so no one’s really worrying about that. Fortunately she is a nurse, so she knows how to recoup in the easiest way possible. ^_^ I’m really relieved. She was obviously groggy over the phone, but that’s the pain medication so it’s understandable.

I've also broken a tooth way in the back and need a root canal done on it.  Yays.  >_<  So, this Friday the 13th, I get a root canal!  And then I get a bridge.  Fun times.

But in better news, I have updated my homepage - It's pretty snazzy, you should check it out - and now it has a blog with it!  I want to do a Saturday Showcase feature to keep the content fresh, so if any of you out there in Internet Land have an Etsy Page or want to be a featured artist (I don't care what you do) give me a poke.  I've got some questions for you to fill out and some ways for people to see your creative goodness, so if you've got some times to spare, why not?

Anyway, I've got some chainmaile to do.

Later!

Crazed

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I got a scary phone call earlier today.  My mom was in a car accident.

Fortunately she's not dead, but she cracked her hip on each side.  My youngest brother, Ronnie, was at home at the time hanging out with a friend so he wasn't involved, which is the good news in all this.  His friend's mom is watching him in case Mom has to stay at the hospital when school starts next week, so things are pretty much all taken care of.

It's things like this that make you realize physical space.  I'm in Pittsburgh, Mom, Ronnie and my grandparents are in Southwestern New York, and Chris is in Canada.  The geographical distance between us isn't a big deal, normally.  I talk with Mom usually a few times a week, just to chat.  I e-mail, IM and call Chris, and I even talk to my grandparents at least once a week.  They don't seem that far away because I can just switch on Skype and see them if they're on.  It's not uncommon for us to call or leave a voicemail saying, "Hey, get on-line!  I've got to show you something."

But right now I feel very far away, and it's not fun.

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I'm not a political junkie, but OOOHHH, there's a new law here in the US that's making me angry.  Luckily they've put a stay on it, but we need to let them know that we want them to change it.

It's called the CPSIA.  It's designed to help protect toys from being contaminated with lead.  It will require the testing of anything that is or can be used as a child's toy to be tested for lead.  If it hasn't been tested by the CPSIA, then it's illegal to sell.  

Sounds good, right?

On the surface, yes, but if you read it, it's going to have terrible ramifications for a lot of people.  You might think this won't affect you.  You don't make plushies or dolls or anything that can be used as a toy, so you're good, right?  Nope.  What if you want to BUY handmade toys?  

You think, "Well, the makers should just get them tested, then - That's not hard, right?"
It is, because getting things tested for lead ain't cheap.  We're talking three or four figure numbers, here.  And the new restrictions posed by this law are so harsh that there's a lot of commercially made toys currently out that will be deemed unsafe, even though they're entirely non-toxic and haven't hurt anyone for YEARS.  The average independent, self-employed artist is lucky to make that amount in a month - Trust me, I know.  How much is the average rent/mortgage?  Utilities?  Food?  Do we have insurance?  Usually not.

Chances are good that those of you who sell or enjoy buying handmade plushies from cons aren't going to be able to anymore.  Parents or soon-to-be parents like me aren't going to be able to buy handmade toys for our little ones.  Traditional toy items like corn husk dolls and toy war shields - Made by my tribe. Yep, Crazed is a Native American, did you know that? - won't be able to be sold and thus put many traditional artists out of business.  Even Japanese temari balls can't be sold as toys because they can be used as a toy.  Art objects that were traditionally toys but are now made as replicas can't be sold under this law, including art dolls.  Even if they're made entirely of cloth, they still need to be tested.

So...  Kachina Dolls?  Important cultural and religious tribal item?  No longer are they used as toys, but they are "dolls".  They will be illegal to sell unless they've been tested.  Handmade rocking horses out of wood like my grandfather used to make?  Also illlegal.  Sock Monkeys?!  Those, too.

I know a lot of people who make and sell handmade toys and children's items for a living.  I want to be able to buy them for Lemony when she's old enough to have them because I want to buy local (well, as local as possible, in today's world, so that means buying things made in the US) and all-natural as much as I can.  Please read this article on Etsy and call your state senators.  Ask them to support amending this law because of how it will affect your life.  Don't forget to mention that it will put a lot of AMERICANS out of business in an already floundering economy where small businesses are closing down left and right.  It will impact a lot of our cultural heritage as well, Native American and otherwise.  Please call them or pass it on.  It only takes a minute.

And if you just want to call your senator right now, call ths number: (202) 224-3121 and tell them what state you are from and that you would like to talk to one of your senators.  That's the number for the Senate Switchboard.  Be polite, be nice, and in the end, thank them for listening to you.  It doesn't matter if you are of voting age or not.  This only takes a minute.  The switchboard was busy when I tried last time, so I'm going to hit redial on my cell in half an hour and try again.  It's that simple.

Please, please, please call.  We CAN make a difference.  We've ALREADY made a difference by signing petitions and getting this law put on hold for a few more months while people look it over.  We can change it.

Thank You,
Crazed

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Finally, after years of fidding around and trying to get it right, I've got my shop looking how I want it, and working the way it's supposed to!  YAY!

What do you think?

I'm personally quite proud.  I'll need to do some more tweaking, but it's minor stuff and I can live with it for now.  Widgets are awesome.

Later!
Crazed

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Now that things are quieting down here and life is starting to gain some semblance of order I've been taking some time to think about my Etsy shop and my separate website.  I've always been horrible at updating my non-Etsy shop.  Even if I use the magic of copypasta to stick in item descriptions from my Etsy, I still can't seem to get sales on there.  OS Commerce, while really helpful, can be a bit tricky to use with all the code involved.  I love the idea of having my own website and I DO get visitors there, but I barely make any sales. >_< On the flip side, people know me on Etsy and I've got great ratings, and I think I do all right on it.

Normally I would just plug away at my domain and hope that if I'm stubborn enough that will somehow magically make it work, but with the upcoming arrival of Lemony (yep, that's her name! ^_^) I've been trying to make things as easy for the both of us as possible.  We're trying to build better habits like doing laundry every other day because of the cloth diapers we plan on using and making sure to start the dishwasher at night and unload it in the morning...  Little domestic tics that when in place will make things run that much more smoothly.  I'll confess that the laundry is taking work, but we've got the dishes bit down pretty good.

What about my business?  I won't be able to stay up all night and bang on code or try to divide my time between updating both Etsy and a separate on-line store.  So far my business has been self-supporting, which is wonderful.  The bit of extra money I bring in enables us to purchase little things that make life better, like books or even just some really well-made, super-comfy socks.  (Seriously, having socks that fit well and are super-cozy can make your day a lot nicer right from the start.  Or maybe I'm just that easy to please.)

But a little thing is arriving at the end of May that will make our life better, and for me that means it's time for Rabbit Dance Designs to level up!  ^_^  We could survive on his income alone but I don't want to just "survive".  I would much rather we LIVE.  I want to be able to get family passes to all the great museums and zoos that we have here in Pittsburgh, and have a stroller or carrier capable of going into the gorgeous national parks we're surrounded by.  I would like to make enough money to be able to hand Lemony over to a sitter now and then so that me and Brian can go out and connect with each other as people.  I've been looked at funny when I mention that last one, but happy parents usually equal a happy kid.

Luckily I've got a few ideas and some actual plans that should help RDD do better.  Etsy has an awesome widget that I seriously don't use enough that can show people what's for sale in it right now.  Clicking on it takes visitors right there, so I can probably have a single page with "What's For Sale".  The other site I post my work on, deviantArt, allows me to embed my images on blogs, etc. and even has a little widget to display my most recently added works.

Check it out!

I can use this to showcase the pieces that I'm most proud of and to show off things that might not have made it to Etsy, like outside commissions.  I'm going to start off by revamping my website (AGAIN) and getting it all CSS-ed up nice and pretty the way I want it.  Except now I have a really good idea of what I want and what I'm doing.

Maybe Vox has some cool widgets so I can post this blog...  ^_^ That would be cool.

Well, I'm off to sit in a more comfortable spot (with bunnies) and draw up site plans.  CSS should make the building go so much faster, and the added widgets will REALLY cut down on my update time, which is my main stumbling block.

What do you think?  Am I crazy?  Setting my sights too high?  Or have I finally scaled things back to something manageable?  Do you maybe have ideas that can help?  Because that's a nice brand of cool.

Till Next Time,
Crazed

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I got my new wall calendar in the mail today and my evening has been mostly full of me filling it out.
Sounds boring, but I mention it because I have discovered something about myself, want to share it, and I'm curious about the rest of you guys.

I don't fill out my calendar with a pen and then hang it up on the wall. I use a variety of cute stickers, gel pens, and hi-lighters. The calendar itself is a Rilakkuma (Relax Bear) wall calendar covered in Japanese-styled cute. January is pink, and the picture above the dates features Relax Bear sleeping, with his little bear pal dressed in a cow suit (no clue why), with a baby chick sleeping next to him. The date area is now covered with ninja stickers, lines of different-colored hi-lighter ink, and a lone sparkly blue dolphin sticker. Each Saturday has a black slash through it. Blue gel pen is prominent.

Why all the "ZOMG KAWAII!!" and sparkly-ness? It's because I need it.

I figured this out last year, and for my whole life I've always tried different things to keep me on schedule. Plain stickers with text on them? Nope. Writing with colored pens? No. Electronic computer calendars and phone alarms? Never worked. Calendars that we got free in the mail? I didn't look at them. Daily desk calendars? I wouldn't tear those off for months at a time. Day planners? I lose them.

But last year I decided to give day planners another try. I had always used the ones I got free in the mail from like funeral homes and car dealerships. You know, the ones with those plain textured vinyl covers with the name of whatever business embossed in gold lettering on them? Blargh. So I bought myself a cute black Japanese planner with a loop for a pen - Monokuro Boo, for anyone familiar with San-X stuff. I also bought a cute matching pen and picked up a Relax Bear wall calender, along with some random cute stickers "just for fun". (I love shopping at Kawaii Gifts)
We got home and I realized that I had a lot of stickers. I would normally snag them if I was walking through a craft shop and saw something that caught my eye. I mean, they're cute, they're like $2, so why not? I'll use them somewhere, right?  Wrong.  Most I did was put them on cards when I remembered I had them, and use them to decorate the edge of my computer monitor and my CPU tower.

I decided to use them to indicate birthdays on this cute calendar, and IT WORKED. 0_0 I didn't lose my day planner because not only had I paid money for it, but it was just so damn cute. Even the interior pages were covered in cute little piggies. The wall calendar was not only cute, but large and brightly-colored, so I had to notice it. I might ignore things in black ink, but stuff written with gel pens and hi-lighter accents? I always caught it.
Granted, I did lose the planner here and there, but I always found it again, and I used it. I found tiny mini-stickers with different symbols and little bears on it, just right for the main monthly pages, so I bought them and used them in the day planner, and I used it more because of it.

This year I'm tying the same thing, but different. I'm not really writing on the wall calendar - I'm sticking to color and sticker codes. I find that I glance at that, then I want to look at the planner for the fine details. I don't like writing details on the wall calendar; too hard to write neatly vertically, and my handwriting is atrocious to begin with.
My new planner is a Circa notebook with custom-printed pages, inside a pretty Celtic embossed-leather cover that Brian wasn't using. All it needs is a pen holder, but I'm not too worried about that - There's always a pen within arm's reach of it. I've got the little calendar event stickers tucked in the inside cover, right where I can find them. It's not cute, but it fits perfectly to the left of my keyboard. I like to touch the embossing, so I pick it up and use it.
I'm extending The Cute to the rest of my desk, and it's working. I've got a tiny kitty notepad instead of plain post-its, and I haven't lost it yet. I've got a plastic kitty folder to hold my monthly business receipts in, and that's working well so far to keep things neat on my desk.

So, that's what works for me. I'm wondering what you guys do. Are you still loking for a method? Have you gone through more than a few computer programs? Everyone learns differently and has their own scheduling needs. What works for you, or do you just not bother?

Tell me, I'm curious!
Crazed

My Resources:
Super-Cute Office Supplies - I'm sure there are other sites, but their physical shop is in here in Pittsburgh, so I love it.
Circa Notebooks - Expensive, but oh so nice.
Printable Calendar Pages, etc - FREE AND AWESOME. I love these guys.

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No, seriously.  Good things and bad things have happened since I last posted here, and things keep coming at me left and right.

First off, the Bad -
Sanjuro died early December.  She had mammary cancer, and was clearly not very happy with life.  There wasn't anything we could do because her age, combined with the inherent frailty of rabbits in general for surgery, meant that her chances of survival were very low.  But she wanted to go, so we let her.  We were all really sad, but she's with Bun-Bun now, and happy.

Work-wise, I haven't been able to do much chainmaile at all in the second half of the year.  No big deal, because the Ren Fest's new contract was downright draconian and pretty much left me with no rights, so I didn't sign it.  Things didn't go that well this year, because a LOT of people bailed.  Maybe the new owener will start listening.

Now, the Good -
Cheeks was very sad at losing her "big sister", but luckily the WPA Humane Society has the Bunny Blind Date program.  You bring in your rabbit in need of a pal, tell them what your bun is like, and they bring out some good candidates for a meeting.  The meetings are surpervised under the watchful eye of a bun-experienced volunteer in case of any fights (and to prevent them before they happen - there are signs), and they can explain the bunny bonding behaviours if thigns are going well.
Things went AMAZINGLY well for Chee! ^_^ She met Little Joe, and it was love at first sight.  At least, it was for Joe.  Cheeks is a girl in need of much attention and loves, but she seemed a tad nervous.  Joe was smitten from the onset, and when he first approached her she loafed up and demanded that he groom her ears.  He was more than happy to oblige, and she soaked it up.  It was exactly what we had hoped for! ^_^
Little Joe is a gorgeous cinnamon-sugar boy, the runt of his litter of Flemish Giants.  He's actually a bit smaller than Cheeks.  He has green eyes (very odd, but very pretty), huge ears, and is a bit shy but incredibly polite.  He would much rather kiss your hand than have you pet him, and spends most of his time within three feet of his girl, when he's not actively snuggling up to her or grooming her ears.  He even likes Bentley, who's learned that these two won't pick on him, and they often gather together in front of heat vents.
He has earned the nickname "Sir Joe the Little", because while he is shy and afraid of thigns like the vacuum cleaner, if something happens that alarms them he assumes a defensive position between whatever it is and Cheeks.  So he's not the bravest knight in the land, but he's chivalrous to the core.  If we're vacuuming he won't budge until after Chee  runs away from the machine, and then he's on her heels.  If she hides behind or under something and there's no room for two, he will stand outside and guard.  He'll be terrified (I feel so bad cleaning) but he'll stay put.

I did well at the shows I was able to do, though!  So to me the year was a success, business-wise.

Brian won the 2008 NaNoWriMo!  Awesome, awesome, and more awesome.

And the biggest, best news of all - I'm pregnant. ^_^ We're expecting our first child at the end of May, and it's a girl.  I'm about 21/22 weeks along now, and things are going great.  We'd been trying for a year when it happened, and honestly the timing couldn't be better.
After Otakon I wasn't able to do much beacuse the crippling fatigue left me so that I would sleep most of every day.  And then I fractured my wrist in October falling down the steps, and it took a month to heal because it wasn't in a cast.  I didn't know that pregnant women couldn't get even a extremity X-rayed - apparently the radiation can travel via your bones and get in other places.  The doc at the ER thought it was a sprain because of my grip strength, so I got a heavy-duty splint instead of a cast.  Of course, I didn't bother trying to tell him that my crazy hand strength comes from bending metal all day long; he seemed annoyed that I even showed up at all.  But, you can splint a break and it'll heal okay, but if you cast a sprain that can make the damage worse, so it was erring on the side of caution.
I normally heal injuries and sickness in half the time of most people ('tis a mutant superpower), but I have a freakish pain tolerance level.  Normally that is a handy thing, but that means I don't notice/feel a lot of low-level pain that most people would, so I would be lightly using my splinted right hand because to me, it felt fine 90% of the time.  And usually light use of a sprain is okay, because it actually helps.  It should have healed within two weeks, but it took four.  I have sprained thigns (badly) before, and I normally heal in a week, maybe more if it's a major muscle.  Small breaks, like in my toes, mend in two weeks.  But what pain I did feel and the swelling just wasn't going away until I realized that I must have fractured something, and using broken bones doesn't help them knit.  So I bought a sling to sort of remind myself that using my dominant hand was a no-no, and it got better in a week of not using it.  Still, I lost a whole month of chainmaile time, and then the holidays were upon us, so it was a whole autumn of no chainmaile.

Luckily, I'm getting back into the groove now that I can stay awake for more than two hours at a time, and the work is going well.  We've got happy animals, the house is nice, we're healthy - Can't complain!

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Okay, so it has been quite a while, but as you can understand, things have been kind of crazy around here...  Both good and bad news.
First the bad news:
I am sick.  I've got a really nasty sinus infection right now and I generally feel like Hell, which sucks.  I spent Monday night in the ER, which was "oh-so-fun". >_<
But now the good news!
1: I got great antibiotics that play nice with all sorts of over the counter stuff, which is awesome.  I've been stuck before with medicine that will treat the cause, but will not help the symptoms and can't work with other things, so I consider myself lucky.
2: Most important news.  Cheeks and Sanjuro are getting along! ^_^ Look!

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For my friend stopped running today."

We lost Bun-Bun yesterday. Sometime during the night he had a stroke, so we took him to the vet that we really like. They're very nice - They normally don't take emergencies, but they are willing to when things call for it.
Dr. Dorn explained that bunnies can and frequently do bounce back from a stroke. All we would need to do is keep him hyrated, fed and clean until he snapped out of it. We were actually in the waiting room, ready to leave, when he suddenly had a seizure in the crate. The techs whisked him straight back, but there was nothing they could do. His heart stopped, and he was gone.
Strange thing is, I knew two days ago that he would be leaving soon. He and San were snuggling on the floor, and I had an incredible urge to take a picture of them. I knew that it would be that last one I would take.
I'll upload it later today, once I get it off the camera.
My friend Kim is looking for a home for her little bunny guy, and I would gladly take Murphy, but I realized that Sanjuro needs a big, sturdy guy to flop into, someone who we know can withstand her Snuffles and keep her eyes and nose clean for her, and who can protect the cat from her temper tantrums. He sounds like a sweetheart of a bun, though.
Anyone looking for a bunny near Columbus, Ohio?  Kim loves bunnies, but has realized that her life has no space for a bunny right now, so she's doing the awesome and responsible thing and looking for a home for him.  It'll be hard for her, as it would be for anyone, but I commend her for it.
Usually the shelters have bunnies who have lost a friend, so we're going to start looking there for ones, soon. Sanjuro isn't doing so well right now, so chances are we'll need to find her a friend ASAP.

UPDATE:

Luckily, Sanjuro won't have to spend tomorrow night alone.
Yes, we've already found her a friend!
She took it very hard; the worst of us all, and for good reason. So after we had calmed down a bit and had some lunch, we decided to go to the Western PA Humane Society (where we found Bentley) and see if they didn't have any bunnies who might be missing their friends. The WPAHS doesn't separate bonded pairs, but it's entirely likely that someone would have surrendered a bun who was one half of a bonded pair, or would have adopted one bunny but not the other, etc. etc...
Anyway, we went down there and we looked over the bunnies. The most sociable was a really big girl - a Californian - named Cheeks. Next to her was a big boy named Rodger, and a smaller girl named Greta. Now, not only do we sort of need a big bunny, but I know that big bunnies are hard to find homes for.
We spoke with one of the workers to see about arranging a little meet n' greet between Sanjuro and their buns tomorrow, during one of their scheduled Bunny Romps. Normally that would have been cool, but they're having a huge adoption drive tomorrow (Saturday), with the radio showing up and all sorts of giveaways and craziness happening. In other words, it would be really loud and really stressful for Sanjuro.
We decided to go home, get Sanjuro, and go right back. Oddly enough, Sanjuro hopped right into the crate. I had told her before we got the crate ready that she was going to meet a new friend. She closed her eyes and ground her teeth at this; I seriously think she knows more English than we give her credit. Especially since she HATES going into the crate, but she went without a fuss.
Once we got there, we decided to start with Cheeks. Normally San is an aggressive bun, so we were kind of worried, but it went beautifully.
San and Cheeks were in separate halves of an exercise pen, both stretched out and grooming themselves in each other's presence. Basically ignoring each other, and that's a good sign with bunnies. At one point Cheeks put her nose on the ground, trying to get San to groom her and make friends, but San got offended. Sanjuro is the Queen. She doesn't give groomings, she gets them. Luckily, Cheeks realized that she had offended San and immediately started grooming her own ears and doing all in her power to make up. Sanjuro accepted Cheeks's apology, and put her nose on the ground to receive groomings and show that no harm was done. Cheeks tried really hard to groom San's nose through the bars; it was so cute!
Things went a million times better than expected, but upon reading the sheet that came with Cheeks, I can see why. She used to have a friend, too. Her owner surrendered her because "We can't afford them." The sheet mentioned that she gets along well with cats, and other rabbits.
Sanjuro looked really sad to be coming home alone, though. I feel bad that we couldn't bring our new bun home tonight, but we really need to clean and get a new litter box and everything. We know it might take a week or so before they can be unsupervised together (we can keep Cheeks in a pen) but considering how well their first meeting went, I'm not worried.
So, tomorrow our Queen will have an attendant. They will probably gossip about our past King, and Sanjuro will show her all the things they used to do.

I will probably spam my gallery tomorrow with pics - You are forewarned!
Crazed

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    Wow. The past week was one Hell of a trip.
    First off, I hardly slept in preparation for Tekko. I bought two tables way back on October, thinking that I would have plenty of time this winter to re-stock.
    BWAHAHAHAAAA! I should know my luck better by now.
    So yeah - No sleep for me. Luckily my friend Maqqy96 came over, and was able to help me not only stay awake, but keep my sanity. Add to this the fact that Brian was desperately trying to get his armor and choreography ready for the Pittsburgh Stage Combat Society (in addition to doing that "work" thing he does) and you can imagine the mayhem.
    But we got everything pretty much ready in time, and during the wee morning hours of Friday we set out for the con, which was a fortunate 15 minutes away. We got the badges and went to Artist's Alley, hoping to be able to sign in and set up. Oddly enough, the Artist's Alley was spilt between two rooms. There was no one around when we got there.
    We poked our heads into the first AA room, which was unlocked and lit, and saw the smallest AA ever, with the worst table set-up imaginable. There was only enough space between the tables for one person to walk through, and the artists would be not so much back to back, as side to side, but facing opposite directions. There was no flow at all (you walked down one side and had three prongs to choose from) and two of the tables were pushed into corners so that whichever poor soul got stuck there had to either climb over or under their table to get behind it. I've been to some pretty small-time, rinky-dink events, but that set-up was ridiculous. If something horrible happened, like a fire, the entire back half of the room wouldn't have been able to get out.
    I also realized that although I had paid for two tables, there was only one with my name on it.
    Needless to say, we weren't happy, so we asked the con staff to call the AA head so we could see about getting it fixed. After much waiting around, the hotel and AA staff finally got the room set up in a much more reasonable fashion. I felt bad for waking up the AA lady, but it had to be fixed - She knew that it was an awful set-up, too. The Alley opened late, but at least the room now had a much better and less lethal set-up (classic table-lined walls, center table island). It was still really cramped, but at least there was flow and two people could squeeze by each other. I told the AA head that I would be glad to surrender my extra table (oddly enough she said they only had me marked for one) because they obviously needed the space, so long as I got a refund for the other table.
    So we had a rocky start, but at least we got things going. Later in the day a petition was carried around to the artists asking that the AA be kept open until after 6 on Saturday. The Dealer's Room closed at 6, and any AA vendor will tell you that they make the most money after the Dealer's Room closes. Typical closing time for AA is somewhere around 10, if it closes at all. 12 hours is a normal amount of time for any AA to be open. I signed the petition because 9 hours isn't that long a time to sell on the busiest con day, and I frankly wasn't doing so hot, money-wise. I usually pay for my tables and registration by the end of the first day, and I wasn't close.
       Near closing on Friday, a guy came into the half of AA that we were in and asked that all the non-artists leave. Once everyone was gone, he closed and locked the door. He said he was the head of income for the con, in charge of both the Dealer's Room and AA. The AA lady was there as well. The guy then proceeded to rant and bitch about how terrible we were to demand that the AA be kept open. We weren't allowed to petition, and he threatened to throw us all out minus a refund for breach of contract for asking. He went on, being demeaning, unprofessional, and threateneing as he flipped out. Poor Lindsay (The awesome female AA head who had worked so hard that morning to get everything set up well) looked shocked at his behaviour, and frankly, towards the end of his little speech, looked like she was going to cry. You can read more about the guy's rant in Maqqy96's journal if you want.  When the guy finished and went to leave, poor Lindsay mouthed "I'm sorry", and went to follow him to the other AA room.
    Honestly, I was ready to laugh my ass off. I was angry, as you no doubt can tell, but I was more amused, and trying really, REALLY hard to not laugh while he ranted. I was shaking, it was that bad. I know that if he hadn't stepped to where he was obscured by a display, I would have cracked. There's something about grown people throwing a tantrum that strikes me as incredibly funny. Maybe it was because he looked like a turtle. Or maybe it's because guys with glasses who look like turtles and wear powder-blue polo shirts can't channel movie villains or drill sargeants, no matter how hard they try. Seriously, he was trying to do that low gravelly voice thing, and that "threatening slits" thing with his eyes, but he just sounded like a bad voice actor, and looked like he was wearing the wrong perscription. It was just funny and sad, like Man-Faye. I also know whenever I see that forehead vein pop out on people I feel the incredible urge to poke at it. I kept expecting him to scream "This - Is - Artist's Alley!" ala' 300, and I kept imagining the veins popping out in his neck and his forehead to spontaneously burst. Or for him to go super-sayin or something - It was that badly over-the-top.
    This is why people will say something not at all amusing to me, and I will fall over laughing because my brain took what they said and turned it into something seemingly unrelated but hilarious. At least, hilarious to me.
    But at least Captain Dramaticus said we could have the alley open until 10 on Saturday, which was awesome. And then he left. Although the icing on the cake was when the guy selling across from us flipped over his Official Tekko Press Badge and asked, "So, what did you guys think?"
    Anyway, once we were back home, we checked the AA contract. The only way we can be tossed out without an AA table refund is if we have visible porn or bootlegged stuff we didn't make. In fact, rule #7 - copypasta from the forums -
"7. Any disputes that may arise between artists must be taken to Artists’ Alley staff. Failure to treat other artists with respect may result with your removal from Artists’ Alley and depending on circumstances, Tekkoshocon VI. "
    I dunno about anyone else, but I felt pretty disrespected by that guy when he was done. I honestly thought he was joking for more than half of his rant.
    The rumor mill was running fast and furious from the start of the con, but from what I heard the reason the AA set-up was so awful was because the hotel gave them the wrong measurements for the rooms. They weren't at the Expo-Mart because of construction there, so with luck they'll be back or at a bigger venue next year. I heard that the person who presented the AA petition went over Lindsay and Captain Dramaticus' head and went straight to the top. I also heard they said something akin to, "This is a demand, and we're not going to leave the AA!" So yeah, that could have been handled better. I later heard that the reason the AA time was originally slated as so short was because they were short on staff. They have a room to "hire" minions and con volunteers right there. All they would need to do is say "Hey Artists - We'd like to give you more time but we need more staff, so if you want the room to stay open later you sould try to convince your pals to sign up as minions and watch the place for us." Problem solved.
    At least I made some cash - Enough to cover my costs and pay for my AA tables at Otakon - and we never saw Captain Dramaticus again. Last I heard there were formal complaints filed against him, which is awesome. I also went to the doll panel, and Roland got lots of attention from the ladies (both resin and non) who thought he was incredibly cute.
    Anyways, I have ranted enough. I'm off to the Tekko forum to see if anyone's complained about the crappy AA conditions.
   
    *EDIT* If anyone's been to the Tekko Feedback Forum I'm sure you know this, but I'll stick it here all the same.
Apparently Cap'n Dramaticus is named Trevor, and this will be his last Tekko. His terrible behaviour was not looked kindy upon by other head con people and as such, he has been dealth with. This is awesome, and has honestly restored my faith in Tekkoshocon. ^_^ I only that next year the con gets a venue better equipped for the huge crowds.

    Speaking of cons, I've got to mail out my Otakon table payment!

Later!
Crazed

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