Wölfischhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/2015-12-21T01:58:56+00:00Jörg's BlogUpdated Map2015-12-21T01:58:56+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/updated-map<p>Look, it's a shiny <em>new</em> map! And even with two more US states I've visited:</p>
<p><iframe height="480" src="https://yaina.de/static/gps/states.html?visited=AZCANVNJNYMAUTWYCOPAFLWAORMIINOHILWINMTXMTID" width="740"><a href="https://yaina.de/static/gps/states.html?visited=AZCANVNJNYCTMAUTWYCOPAFLWAORMIINOHILWINMTXMTID"><img height="720" src="https://yaina.de/static/gps/us-states.jpg" width="460"/></a></iframe><em><br/>23 states so far!</em></p>
<p>I'll probably add some interactions eventually, but now it's time for me to go to bed.</p>Vacation Photos2007-05-16T11:15:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/vacation-photos<p>Remember my vacation reports from January? Well, I've got the photographs cleaned-up (f...ing sensor dust!), cropped, scaled and uploaded at last.</p>
<p><img height="213" src="http://yaina.de/~jreuter/lj/calico-sundown.jpg" width="320"/></p>
<p>You can find a selection of the pictures at <a href="http://gallery.yaina.de/album/jreuter/roadtrip-2007/">my web gallery</a>.</p>Remains of Further Confusion and back home.2007-01-25T16:41:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/remains-of-further-confusion-and-back-home<p>What else happened on FC? I watched the Critterlympics (or, Fursuit Destruction Derby, as I like to call it), attended the fursuit head construction SIG, watched the masquerade, missed the Sub-Level 03 concert due to exhaustion, bought some more t-shirts, got two pictures by <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/tanidareal/">tanidareal</a> from the art show, watched the fursuit parade, bought a book and two magnets, went to FNL, and finally drank a cocktail and a glass of wine at the bar with Tani, <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/bigbluefox/">bigbluefox</a>, Jaryic, <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/lynard_/">lynard_</a>, Kayjay and Kacy and her gang.</p>
<p>The masquerade was a mess, technically. While it is a good idea to collect the songs in advance and burn them onto a CD, they missed to test whether the CD actually works in the player. Additionally, always write them at a maximum speed of 4x and use high quality media. Yes, we at Eurofurence learned it the hard way, too. The suits were excellent this year and every winner certainly deserved their price. This is definately an improvement compared to the previous two years.</p>
<p>FNL itself was very entertaining and well-prepared. The pause between the acts probably was a bit too long sometimes, but I know how complex it is to run such a show. The hecklers were rather annoying, though. Folks, it is getting old. The stage ninjas were extremely well organized and quite a show by themselves. Room for improvement: one should switch to a different video source before ejecting a DVD. About the skits: I liked the Blue Fox Group best, it was original, well choreographed and excellently performed. Followed by the soda and mentos skit, which is somewhat an old gag, but very well played. Even though I'm not really a fan of parody skits, I also liked the Dead Bones skit quite a lot. What I didn't like at all was how admission was organized. First of all, the show started one hour late. Secondly, we were still standing in the upper lobby at the sweet dessert social event (or whatever it was called), while some people where queuing at the door, others just sitting around. Eventually, without any notice, it turned into a long queue down the stairs, into the lower lobby. It never happened before in the previous years (apart from a short queue at the door, it was informal admission), and shortly before admission, after waiting for almost one hour already, some lady from security demanded in a rather unfriendly tone, that we would have to get in line at the end of the queue. That was when I went ballistic (sorry, <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/aeto/">aeto</a>, for being the victim of my temper, you had the bad luck of being the only staffer around), because this is one of the few things that piss me off seriously: changing rules in last minute for no reason and forcing them down my throat.</p>
<p>I did not queue at the end of the line, but squeezed myself in. Not my style, but I also do not let me being messed about. Which was even more insulting: when admission finally started, half of the folks waiting for so long didn't even come in, which left the ballroom half empty (and I hear, several people quite angry about how the situation was handled.) This spoiled the evening to a great degree for me.</p>
<p>While I'm at it: security wise, it is a very bad idea to let people queue on a stairway, especially if the stairway is part of the emergency exit. Another exit was (at least visually) blocked by the separators for the headless lounge, leaving just one accessible emergency exit at the upper lobby. Which is not enough, as there were more than 200 people at times. Staff told me that nobody expected such a large audience, but then again: you really need to take this into account when planning the event. And let security take action on that, instead of yelling at the audience.</p>
<p>The flight back home on Monday was delayed by two hours. I had some issue with an unfriendly lady at check in. One case was three kilogram too heavy, the other was ten kilo below the limit. While on other airports the personnel usually does not care much about it, especially when both cases are as tightly packed as mine, this lady demanded to distribute the weight. So I quickly moved some stuff into the smaller case, which took about five minutes, as it was extremely tricky to close the zipper. Eventually, she asked me in a very unfriendly voice to move on and check-in the case later as it was taking too long. For what reason?! There were about 10 parties in the queue, four other open counters, check-in for this flight only, which was delayed by two hours. I never had experienced this kind of arrogant behaviour with Lufthansa before, usually their staff is very friendly and competent, but I guess the check-in crew is employed by the airport, and I already heard several similar complaints from others about SFO.</p>
<p>And what the hell happened at FRAPORT? I've never been treated that politely, fast and competent there like this year, as well as on departure and arrival. They used to be the most ignorant and slow staff I've ever experienced on an airport, but this time: perfect service! Apparently, they finally have recognized that passengers are guests and customers, not <em>Beförderungsfälle</em>. If they keep this up, I'll love to fly from Frankfurt again! This really made my day!</p>
<p>Everyone except <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/f_u_r_v_a_n/">f_u_r_v_a_n</a> and <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/tioh/">tioh</a> is safely back home now, the two are flying back tomorrow. No further problems with my baggage as well, most of my clothes are washed, I'm slowly stowing away the other stuff. I lost a package AAA accumulators and a keyring (without keys, thank god), in return I found sunglasses and a spoon which aren't mine...</p>
<p>Now I'm back at work. It was a great holiday and I had a lot of fun. And I can't wait to return to California.</p>Waiting for the flight... 2h delayed.2007-01-22T22:57:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/waiting-for-the-flight-2h-delayed<p>You won't believe where we found free WLAN (and where I type this) at San Francisco Int'l Airport...</p>San Francisco and a bit of Further Confusion2007-01-20T18:30:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/san-francisco-and-a-bit-of-further-confusion<p>I'm late again with the journal, but this time due to too much to do than the (not perfect, but usable) Internet connectivity here at the convention hotel.</p>
<p>On the first night in San Francisco we went to Fisherman's Wharf and had dinner at Johnny Rocket's. The next morning we went to Pier 39 and bought pawpets at Puppets on the Pier, some t-shirts and a few magnets. The sea lions were mostly fishing, only a dozen of them dozing on the pier. Next, we went to china town, where <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/tioh/">tioh</a> bought a tai-chi sword, <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/f_u_r_v_a_n/">f_u_r_v_a_n</a> some gadgets for the dance at Further Confusion and I some Loony Tunes action figures. At night, we had dinner at the Sausage Factory, a nice Italian restaurant on Castro Street. Unfortunately, the Luna Piena has closed for renovation -- I hope not for good. While the Sausage Factory is very nice, the Luna was just excellent. On Tuesday, we were doing some fursuit photo shoots at the Golden Gate bridge, until the police asked us to move on for security reasons. I have to mention, though, that they remained very friendly all the time. Given the current paranoia in the US, I'm amazed how professional they handled it. Afterwards, we went to the San Francisco zoo. Unfortunately, most animals were not in the enclosures as it was quite cold this week, and I was about to write off my investment of $10 entry fee. But we had the luck to meet a keeper of the snowleopards who showed us a very cute and fluffy tomcat with the habit of taking his tail into the mouth. Which resulted in lots of incredibly sweet photos, I still have to sort mine... That night we had a quite expensive dinner at the Hardrock Cafe, but it definately was worth the money. The food was excellent.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, we checked out, drove to San Jose and went shopping (again.) The Great Mall was a disappointment, about on third of the shops being temporary. Fry's on Thursday was much better. Is it just me, or have DVD prices skyrocket the last year in the US? You won't get anything below $10 and even almost all old movies go for at least $20 now... In the evening, we checked in to Further Confusion.</p>
<p>Further Confusion is quite nice so far, many new costumes, lots of people, a busy dealer's room, though I have seen better art shows before. Yesterday, <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/bigbluefox/">bigbluefox</a> was one of the DJs at the dance, which was a big success (the guy before him was also quite good, but the one afterwards started with hard techno, which drove away the fursuiters.) Let's see what happens today.</p>The rest of the RV trip...2007-01-15T00:26:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/the-rest-of-the-rv-trip<p>Thanks to extremely unstable WLAN connectivity on the previous campgrounds (why on earth do they offer it if it doesn't work properly?) I wasn't able to update my LJ earlier. Here's what happened the last couple of days:</p>
<p>After leaving Campland on the Bay, we were doing some groceries, went to the gas station, had some excellent donuts at Krispy Kream and finally drove (like hell) to Santa Clarita, where we had dinner at an Outback steak house. We stayed at Valencia Travel Village over night.</p>
<p>On Tuesday we visited the Excotic Feline Breeding Center in Rosamond. Though Trapper does not like to get petted by strangers anymore, he's still a very playful and gorgeous lynx. The other cats on exhibit also look very well handled and in good shape -- the place was definately worth the visit.</p>
<p>Next stop: KOA campground at Circus Circus, Las Vegas. Shopping in Vegas was fun, even though FAO Schwartz had sold out most plushies and many other stores have limited their selection of merchandise. Fry's, however, was surprisingly well maintained. I got a lot of stuff that's hard to get otherwise. The show at TI's had more FX than last year, the outfits of the girls are more sexy, but the current choregraphy is not that smooth anymore and I think they shortened the songs. We also visited the lions at MGM and went briefly to the Venetian, but no other casinos. <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/f_u_r_v_a_n/">f_u_r_v_a_n</a> even won two bucks at a slot machine and <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/lynard_/">lynard_</a> at least won the money back he lost before.</p>
<p>Friday: Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park. What a great view! <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/tioh/">tioh</a> and Furvan took on their fursuits and went suiting there. We shot an enormous amounts of photos there, I still need to sort mine. The RV park for the night was the KOA Lake Isbella, it was freezing cold there, the showers were cold, the toilets clogged and the wireless connection was a poor joke.</p>
<p>And finally, we drove to Pleasanton for the last night before we had to return the RV. The web page of the Alameda County Fairground RV park promised excellent restrooms and showers, however what they do not tell you is that they are closed in winter. We returned the RVs today, Zlatko drove us to the rental car station at the airport and now we are in a hotel on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, where we will spend the next couple of days before Further Confusion.</p>San Diego2007-01-08T19:31:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/san-diego<p>Yesterday, we drove from Morro Bay to San Diego, with a stop at San Luis Obispo. The small city turned out to be very scenic, with a small river running through old town, a nice old mission building and some interesting sculptures spread over the location. We had a second rest at a Fry's near LA and arrived at 8 PM at Campland on the Bay RV park (BTW, their mascot is a wolf!) <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/lynard_/">lynard_</a> and I went directly to the excellent pool area, relaxing in the jaccuzi. Later, we joined the Jägermeister crew at the BBQ and sat down at the campfire until late at night. Today, we continue to relax here and will drive to Santa Clarita later.</p>
<p>I have only one complaint: could they <em>please</em> fix the US 101 and the I 405? They are in a worse shape than the roads of Eastern Germany in 1989...</p>California Highway One2007-01-07T06:33:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/california-highway-one<p>After being picked up by Zlatko of El Monte at the Hotel (at 7 AM), we got our RVs, our team the CS30 (30 ft long with slideout, 8 tons of weight, based on a Ford pickup truck.) Afterwards, we went to Safeway to buy groceries and stuff (total amount: $ 417), to In-and-Out burger to eat an excellent burger and to Home Depot to get Maglight flashlights and duct tape. Finally, we took off to CA 1 via Santa Cruz and observed an extremely scenic sunset at the Pacific Ocean. Right now, we are on a campground at Morro Bay, making coffee and writing LJ entries... ;-)</p>Arrived safely in SF2007-01-05T23:26:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/arrived-safely-in-sf<p>We just arrived in sunny San Francisco and have checked in to the hotel. The flight was slightly delayed and while I got my luggage after two minutes, the others of my team had to wait more than half an hour. The Jägermeister crew is currently on their way to the hotel and I'm off to find the vending machine for a coke...</p>California, here I come!2007-01-05T04:51:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/california-here-i-come<p>My flight to Frankfurt will start in 90 minutes, from there we'll fly non-stop to San Francisco. At last! More when I've got net access again ;-)</p>Finally booked everything for our vacation in January2006-10-19T21:58:00+00:00o'wolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/author/owolfhttps://woelfisch.de/blog/finally-booked-everything-for-our-vacation-in-january<p>I went to the travel agency yesterday and finally booked the plane tickets, RV, rental car and hotels for my group for the vacation in January. Much like the 2005 vacation, it will be an RV roadtrip with two RVs, a couple of days in San Francisco and of course attending Further Confusion. Unlike that infamous trip, we'll have the two crews split into the infamous <span style="">FIA</span> Jägermeister (<a href="http://users.livejournal.com/tanidareal/">tanidareal</a>, <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/bigbluefox/">bigbluefox</a>, Jaryic and <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/nachtfuchs/">nachtfuchs</a>) who love to sleep long, and an early bird crew (<a href="http://users.livejournal.com/f_u_r_v_a_n/">f_u_r_v_a_n</a>, Kayjay, <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/lynard_/">lynard_</a>, <a href="http://users.livejournal.com/tioh/">tioh</a> and me) who will be up early in the morning -- in my case only due to jet lag, I have to admit. This allows the <span style="">FIA</span> Jägermeister to relax and the Early Birds to actually see all the attractions. :-)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the flights got more expensive that necessary due to problems getting vacation for some of my group. And now, booking almost everything that could get booked in advance, my credit card is screaming in pain. I think this is the largest amount of money I've spent on a single day so far. And I'm really glad that I have that Amex Corporate card, though I expect a phone call from them any minute, asking me what hell I am doing :-)</p>
<p>But I'm really glad that thanks to the nice and very competent travel agent we got affordable direct flights from Frankfurt to San Francisco for all of us. And even cheap transfer flights from Paderborn and Nuremberg to Frankfurt (and back) for Kayjay and me on top of it.</p>
<p><strong>Edit: </strong> ;-)</p>