August 8, 2006 - Bunny Ears of Command

Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

August 8, 2006 - Bunny Ears of Command

Our kitty, Luke, tries to stow away.

This past weekend was the 13th annual Otakon, so The Gryphon and I were in Baltimore, helping to run it. He's the head of Human Resources, and I was his assistant this year, which meant that our job was to make sure that the Otakon staff had what they needed to do their jobs properly. We spent a lot of time putting out fires (literally, not figuratively, of course).

We arrived on Thursday, which was one of the set up days, and stopped first in the Staff Suite, located away from the convention center, where we met with the people who were coordinating off-site food for staffers.

I amused myself throughout the first day by taking so-called "before" pictures of Otakon staffers, to document how much more sane they were the first day than they might be as the weekend wore on. Of course, I didn't manage to follow up on everyone, but here are the "before" pictures of The Gryphon and me.

While there, I also got a photo of the honorary Staff Suite mascot, Ralph, who was also looking fresh and ready to go. He'd received, of course, a staff badge, showing that he was in charge of "glomping," fan speak for hugging people.

Then we made our way over to Con Ops, which is the central nervous system of Otakon. There, we picked up the radios we would be using to communicate with other staff members during the convention.

I'd never had a radio before, although I'd often helped people who had them. I soon discovered some of the drawbacks. The radio unit itself is very large, which is why it's been nicknamed a "brick". Not only is it large but it's also heavy, and by the end of the weekend, I had soreness in the leg and gluteal muscles on my left side, where I carried it.

You could either clip the main unit to your waist or put it in your pocket, whereas the ear/mouthpiece itself could be clipped anywhere: on a shirt or strap, typically. Of course, the brick has a long antenna, so when I clipped it on my waist in the front, it hit me in a soft, protruding area. When I moved it on my front, it poked me in the armpit. I ended up putting it in a front pocket of my shorts, which were fortunately cut in such a way that it fit. I clipped the ear/mouthpiece to my camera strap. Following The Gryphon's advice, I plugged an earbug in so that I could listen to the radio even in loud rooms (or, alternatively, screening or panel rooms).

Then we had a special errand, as we delivered a gift to a fellow staffer in honor of his upcoming wedding. He's very fond of bacon, so The Gryphon bought him one of the Down Home Diner T-shirts at the Terminal Market in Philadelphia.

We checked in then with his fiancé in Gopher Ops. I'll call her The Doctor, since she's in her medical residency. This is my "before" picture of her, sporting bunny ears and an easygoing smile.

There were a few tasks to take care of, such as distributing the meal vouchers which would be used for those staffers who couldn't leave the Baltimore Convention Center (BCC) to get food or get to the room where Aramark, who handles food in the BCC, was providing a limited number of meals. The vouchers were good at the Aramark concession stands located throughout the building.

Because Otakon had paid for a set number of vouchers, The Gryphon requested two gophers, and the four of us sat in a table and divided them into stacks of 100. When the gophers arrived, I was being a little silly: "We have a fun and interesting game that involves counting!"

One of the gophers, who was wearing a princess dress, joked back, "I don't know how to count."

I observed, however, that she ended up being the most efficient of all of us and joked with her, "You're pretty fast for someone who can't count."

After they were counted, The Gryphon divided them up and gave a large chunk of them to the Gopher Ops staff to distribute. The rest we divided between myself and him to distribute as needed throughout the weekend.

He also made sure that the Registration Department received the food they were expecting. They were having pizza provided by Aramark. The registration staffers, many of whom had already been in the BCC for much of the day helping to get things set up, are tied down to work stations for seven to eight hours Thursday night, one of their busiest nights as they process the thousands of people who have pre-registered.

Then it was just a matter of checking up with department heads and making sure that they had everything they needed to get set up properly.

One of the people I would see a lot that weekend was a staffer I'll call The Cosplayer, because while I've never personally seen her wearing a costume, I've seen many pictures of her in beautifully made costumes and know it's something she's done for years. This is not to be confused with our friend The Costumer, named for her role as the costumer for a local theater group.

In her capacity as the Con Chair's assistant (whom I'll nickname The Godfather, due to his habit of talking with his hands and his natural air of authority), she and I were often in rooms together, biding our time and waiting to be useful as the people we were answering to discussed situations.

She made me laugh quite a bit throughout the con, such as when The Godfather left the room, with her behind, chanting, "Follow, follow, follow, follow." At my request for "before" pictures of the two of them, I got these.

"No, look less insane! These are before pictures!" I said.

We attended the staff meeting, then, where The Godfather went over staff policies and made general announcements. Next to him is our Chief of Staff, a.k.a. Mistress Chimera (from her LiveJournal handle).

The previous year's Con Chair, Pimp Daddy, distributed a few Hiroku-Chan awards, named after the Otakon mascot, for those who had earned them the previous year and had not yet received them. I got a picture of him ahead of time, holding all the awards, wrapped in tissue paper.

Afterwards, The Gryphon and I got dinner at a bar across the street. I had crab cakes and would later regret it, as they came back to haunt me. It was either that or the oppressively hot day. I had to take a break, eat some Gatorade and chill out in Con Ops until I felt good enough to help out again.

The BCC closes down earlier on Thursday night than most other nights of the convention, so we could leave fairly early. We met up with The Dormouse and walked down to Burke's, a bar and restaurant not far from our hotel, where we enjoyed a late night snack of ice cream all around.

I carefully marked down the ice cream in a notebook I carried around with me. It's easy to overdo it at Otakon, because candy and other snack food is prevalent. I wanted to make sure to keep track of everything I ate, although I did eat a little more than normal, since we were getting a lot more activity with all the extra activity. I definitely got hungrier than normal.

Here are a few more "before pictures".