Last Res0rt – The Cyberpunk Furry Webcomic. Updates Sundays.

It’s that time of the year where t-shirt contests abound… and the Georgia Tech Alumni Association is no exception!

Voting is now open on the Pi Mile t-shirt contest — yes, that’s my entry right there, too — and voting couldn’t be easier!

• Voting is once per day per IP address (so trying to vote with multiple computers at home / in a school lab likely won’t work)
• Winner is announced March 12, so  vote once a day up until then!
• Winner gets a Flip Video Camera (which would come in handy for conventions, hint hint…)

Head on over and vote today! Then remember to vote tommorow, and the day after that…

UPDATE: Well, someone at MomoCon must’ve heard me, because I managed to find and secure an indoor space after all! ‘Course, it doesn’t solve the problem for everyone else who’d like to be at the convention, though…

Short Answer: Maybe.

The Problem: Everyone loves MomoCon. So much, in fact, that MomoCon is becoming entirely too big to accomodate everyone (Hint: if you want to go to MomoCon 2010, you need to preregister at Fandom U, because there IS an attendance cap) , including all of the artists who got wind that it’s a great place to set up shop, and so there’s not enough Artist Alley spaces to go around… including the one that was supposed to be mine, apparently.

There’s going to be an Outdoor Bazaar section to accomodate this, which is good in the respect that the tables are free (like they cost much to begin with!), but very, very bad in that they’re:

• Weather permitting (so you better hope it’s sunny and warm; I’m more than happy to remind everyone that two years ago MomoCon was interrupted by tornado warnings, so this is by no means a given. )
• First come first serve (i.e. I still might have trouble finding a spot)
• I won’t have a dedicated (let alone secure!) table during the duration of the convention, which means I’ll have to set up / take down my entire setup each day of the con.

Yes, those of you familiar with furry conventions may not find this to be all that unusual (save for the open-air part), but there’s a significant difference between “carrying your supplies back and forth each day to you hotel room that’s an elevator away” and MomoCon, which is not located inside a hotel and even if you live on campus, that’s no small trek to do with a dolly filled with merchandise and supplies.

In short: It’s doable, yes, but most of the implementations  that come to mind so far tend to suck, and the weather is a significant wildcard even with the best of ideas. (And remember all those books I’m getting ready to sell soon? All those paper-based, ruined-by-rain-and-possibly-wind books?)

I don’t blame MomoCon for doing this. I’ve watched them grow / been good friends with the con heads from previous years, so I know their hands are probably tied between “We can’t afford to rent all this space for a free convention, but we’ll never afford this space if attendance drops because we start charging for the con!” and “We want to make sure the convention is able to grow and become even better!”

That doesn’t mean I’m happy with this decision by any stretch.

Maybe there’s a bunch of you out there lured by the concept of a free table enough that you’re willing to come out here with a binder full of wishes and give it your best shot anyway, so the odds are good that MomoCon is being shrewd by doing this and allowing their convention to grow as big as it wants by having this additional spill space.

But as much as I’ve raised and invested in books, buttons, prints, and other oh-so-sensitive -to-wind-and-rain merchandise? I want a proper table.

There’s still a few months between now and then, though, so who knows? If enough of you write the Dealer’s Rep and ask very nicely for more space somewhere indoors, explaining to them that having a thriving Artist’s Alley is one of the better parts of their conventions (and it’s a sure bet that if I’M having trouble securing a table, tons of other worthy artists are too), and that there’s no shortage of nice places on campus to have it in that don’t involve leaving all those artists at the mercy of the weather, maybe they can find a way.