I've been to a good number of conventions in my time and have been going to Califur for a few years now... never before have I ever had so much fun at a convention then I did at Califur. Despite the fact that I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off on security most of the time, the convention was absolutely a BLAST! A few of the events had some last minute technical difficulties and due to an unforeseen problem, there was no internet for the whole convention, but other then that it was absolutely amazing! The room parties were pretty much under control, the vendors were great, the staff and volunteers busted their asses and did an amazing job... but the biggest shock was the hotel.

In the past, the hotels we had were, let's just say "less then satisfactory," especially last year. Last year the hotel was just terrible. This year, the Irvine Marriot was more then fantastic. We never got the feeling we were unwelcome and, in fact, told us quite often that they loved having us all there and hoped we'd come back. The hotel staff did everything they could to help us out and their Security staff was just great to work with. They even had many of their staff wanting to go check out the convention and buy ears and tails for their own personal use. They were all absolutely great to us and made us feel welcome at every chance they got. I have honestly never been to a hotel that was as wonderful as this hotel was. I, personally, look forward to being in that hotel again next year.

As for Dr. Steel related news: As part of the security, I decided to infiltrate the convention and distribute propaganda. I have been working in the fur fandom for some time and there were a good number of inactive soldiers at the convention. When I donned my uniform and started handing out propaganda, all of the inactive soldiers jumped up for the cause. By the end of Friday I had half of the staff (and most of the security) wearing Dr. Steel stickers in their badges (I didn't even have to tell them, they ASKED if they could wear one in their badge cause they saw others with them). I gave 2 the Ranting Gryphon, a VERY well known furry celebrity, a sticker and some propaganda. The first thing he did was put the Dr. Steel sticker in his badge. DJ Raven, a mini-celebrity within the Goth/Club/Furry scene, asked for some propaganda to put in his badge because I've worked with him in both club and Dr. Steel related things before. Toy Soldier Yote is also setting up a set with Dr. Steel music in it for next years dance. I also managed to get a couple of our hand-made furry propaganda printed up and put them up on boards and the like and saw many people looking at them.

So, in conclusion: What was originally a solo-invasion turned quickly into a full-blown infiltration and it went amazingly!