Vivisector
Public Discourse => Other Topics => Topic started by: GreenReaper on November 09, 2007, 03:09:15 pm
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*(Is that what his Ph.D. is in?)
No, it's in chemistry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Conway).
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Hey, how'd GR find us? I thought someone had to repeat "wikifur" in a mirror 3 times for that.
I'm somewhat surprised to hear that Conway really does have a Ph.D. in something mostly-respectable. Maybe that's how he's able to convince GoHs to show up.
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No, it's in chemistry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Conway).
To go along with his minor in physchology... oh right, he just thinks he has that. My bad.
Maybe that's how he's able to convince GoHs to show up.
That and he can bullshit his way into nigh anything. He's like Quinten Tarentino. You think he's incredible at first by what he does, but listening to him talk for more than twenty minute just leaves you wanting to knock teeth out.
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Hey, how'd GR find us? I thought someone had to repeat "wikifur" in a mirror 3 times for that.
You did. (http://vivisector.org/) Google mirrors your front page several times.
I'm somewhat surprised to hear that Conway really does have a Ph.D. in something mostly-respectable. Maybe that's how he's able to convince GoHs to show up.
They don't call him Herr Doktor for nothing. Just don't ask to see his "sonic screwdriver".
As for the guests of honour, wouldn't you go in exchange for free transport, room, meals, and fan adoration, if all you had to do was stand up in front of a crowd and make a few jokes for an hour or so, maybe take a panel or two? It's not a bad life.
(On a more general note . . . regardless of what you think of attendees in general, the staff at Anthrocon tend to be competent and concerned for the well-being of those in attendance. Yes, even the babyfurs. Most have real jobs and do not fit the "welfare fursuiter" stereotype. Big conventions have their issues, but poor staffing is not usually one of them.)
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With AC as big as it currently is, Conway is mostly the figurehead. He has a short fuse and tries a bit too hard to be the all-doing-all-dancing type. Even his ma and pa will admit he's over his head. Giza actually does more than his fair share of the actual con crap. Conway just gets plastered, does his appearances, turns himself 'on' and talks to all his favorite giant-cock artists.
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Giza is head of operations. Actually running the con - or at least ensuring that other departments have what they need, and providing contingency support - is technically his job. Kage is responsible for the event as a whole, which is something rather different, and involves rather more work during the other 360 days of the year (this is also the case for some other departments). Managing the con's finances, for example - some cons have a separate treasurer, although the con chair might still be responsible for planning the budget, but AC doesn't.
In theory if the cockroach does his job right, he shouldn't have to do anything except stand there in a white coat and look imposing and/or comical at the appropriate points. In reality people need to be around for the various crazy things that happen throughout a con - usually involving fursuiters being run over, mistaken as coyotes and shot, or contracting the plague and vomiting green bile in the middle of the headless lounge. Sometimes the figurehead has something on their schedule at that time (e.g. welcoming visiting guests, opening the convention, running an auction). This is when you will see Giza or possibly another member of the board on the scene where you might have expected the man in the white coat.
I suspect this only noticeable at Anthrocon because Kage is so visible as its head. Ask most MFF or FC attendees exactly who their con chair is this year (let alone the next) and you'd probably find most half scrabbling for an answer. How many knew FC's chairman was a chairwoman this year? It can be a relatively invisible office, with public appearances restricted to their presence at the opening and closing ceremonies.
Personally I suspect Kage would find it rather hard to keep his folks away. They seemed to be having a good enough time when I caught up with them at the hotel bar this year; I hear they even participated in a furpile. As for their son, he sure gets a lot of bottles, but they all go into a box for after the convention.
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Hey, how'd GR find us? I thought someone had to repeat "wikifur" in a mirror 3 times for that.
You did. (http://vivisector.org/) Google mirrors your front page several times.
I'm somewhat surprised to hear that Conway really does have a Ph.D. in something mostly-respectable. Maybe that's how he's able to convince GoHs to show up.
They don't call him Herr Doktor for nothing. Just don't ask to see his "sonic screwdriver".
Oh, I'm sure we're all very impressed by how close and buddy-buddy you are with him. OH WOW GUYS DON'T ASK TO SEE HIS SONIC SCREWDRIVER BECAUSE ONLY INNER CIRCLE GUYS LIKE ME ARE PRIVILEGED TO SEE THAT.
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No, it's in chemistry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Conway).
I like how his notability as a chemist is longer than his notability as a furry.
Oh.
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Verix is winner.
I think it's quite important to reiterate that he has chosen to associate himself with furries, and has chosen year after year to sit upon his throne of faggotry as chairman of a convention. I guess fame is fame, even if you're playing to an audience too sycophantic to do anything -but- laugh.
Granted, I can't imagine there's much of a population of gay macrophiles in the chemistry field, but I'm sure if he were only in it for the sex, he could find it elsewhere. If he ever claims he's not in it for the fame, blind adoration, and three thousand tender mouths eager for a few slaps of his cock, he's outright lying.
...so effectively he's exactly the same as every furry 'artist' only without the talent or effort exerted.
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Oh, I'm sure we're all very impressed by how close and buddy-buddy you are with him. OH WOW GUYS DON'T ASK TO SEE HIS SONIC SCREWDRIVER BECAUSE ONLY INNER CIRCLE GUYS LIKE ME ARE PRIVILEGED TO SEE THAT.
Hmm? No, that was just a poor attempt at joke (I'm not at my best at 9AM). He is a doctor, after all, I figure he has to have some zany, highly destructive tools of the trade.
I like how his notability as a chemist is longer than his notability as a furry.
Oh.
Well, the titles of the references are certainly longer . . .
Bear in mind that the article was mostly written by a furry, not a chemist. In theory there are two more patents and several more publications out there. I was not able to locate them from the sources I had to hand in the weekend I allocated to the article.
I would agree that his notability as a furry is greater than as a chemist. This makes sense when you consider the relative sizes of the fields, and the difference between a job and a hobby in terms of the sort of compensation you get and the activities you work on.
Kage's an industrial research chemist. I may be wrong, but I don't imagine he's done much in the way of super groundbreaking research, any more than I tend to do truly groundbreaking programming. Probably 90% of what he does at work is putting together appropriate materials and processes in slightly new ways to deliver a desired result. That's profitable, but not usually the sort of thing research papers are made of.
Still, as he says - he's a scientist, first and foremost. Maybe not a particularly notable one, but it's still an important part of who he is. That's why it's at the top of the article.
As ProvincialTwit points out, furry fandom is something which we choose to devote our time to - and if money isn't involved, there has to be some other motivation. There are plenty of choices, but I imagine most public leaders are motivated by fame to some extent, whether or not they admit it. But you can't just set yourself on a throne and expect the adulation to roll in. Event planning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_planning) is hard work - in theory AC averages 3 hours/week of Kage and Giza's time, and 2 for the other directors, but I'm fairly sure that's an underestimate. The result might not be the kind of art you appreciate, but I know what I like.
As for talent . . . there's not many I'd trust to run AC. Furry fandom has many hopeful event organizers, but few are competent to quite that level.
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Whether he's making bug poison or telling his boss that he had fag sex on his desk, it really doesn't matter. His professional life, none of us are really qualified to judge, and it doesn't influence what he is in the fandom. The most hilarious part of his education though is just the fact he likes to use his name to give an air of authority to his kink. As though a Ph.D. in electron juggling gives him a subsidiary Ph.D. in psychology.
He used to be pretty open about this, namely in the FAQ (http://web.archive.org/web/20050212201821/www.macrophile.com/~mm/faq.html) of the now debunk Megamorphics APA, where his full name and title is used just to try and promote the word he invented to 'standardize' what got his rocks off. It's mildly dishonest, but at least his motive wasn't completely self absorbed. Until at least, the Lavadomefive FAQ came about where not only does he use the Ph.D. trick with another name (hur hur he's a pharoah, hur) (http://www.lavadomefive.com/aboutus.html#macrophile) but also he used himself as a very un-psychological case study. That's a good deal more self-absorbed.
Then of course their is his horrid taste in bedfellows. I'm sorry, but I have to question the sanity, not only the judgment of anyone who would repeatedly bed the pig bottom gryphon, yet alone Albee* and all the barely legals he sneaks out of room parties with promises of backrubs. Then there's the fact he still regularly roleplays MUCKfucks with people who are not only 'mated' but in the case of a certain cougar, even married. Then you can throw in the whole mess of art he comissions which is basically the same pose and actions of his wolf self, over and over again. I think it's the most consistant comissions/fanart collection in the entire fandom. Spanning decades with zero innovation. Even ZigZag spices it up a bit more often than that.
If it were just the self-agrandizing, and the sex, then nobody would give a shit, really. No, ontop of that you have to throw in the megalomania. He quite literally has assumed some kind of 'helmsman' role in the fandom. He's stagnated not only what his con is, but the entire development process just because he's an old curmudgeon who preferred the days when he had to photocopy Ken Sample comics at work on his lunch break and the only place to get your fill of giant dog dong was Bennie's network. He's tried to even make the fandom his little niche, loading the AC staff with his megadick pals and even promoting other 'celebs' with his support (like say, 2 or Kuntztown). In this way, it's easy to view him in much the same light as Merlino, only with the good ol' boys mentality instead of the everything goes Californian bi-desperate one. The fact is though, the fandom is younger, fresher and bigger than he can handle now. Ironically, it's a bit like him trying to control a figurative giant to sate his fancy.
If you talk to people who knew him, I mean, knew him from a time when he actually had hair, he used to be a pretty decent guy. You get the general idea that sometime around his bestowment of concommandant, he went from being a normal guy with a 'stage persona' he used when describing something at Duckcon to having that persona as his own personality. This led to him to have a bit of a Monroe Doctrine concerning the fandom. It was his backyard, and any threat to it, real or imagined, he took impossibly personally. Add in pseudo-adoring fans and yeah, he's a major headcase. The kind who will call for a moment of silence every June 6th to honor the fallen, and uses the time to write about Nazi herm giants (http://rogue.macrophile.com/stories/dh.html) who crush allied soldiers under their ballsac. The kind who applies the same duality and self-righteous attitude to ever minor little thing that goes on in the fandom.
And that is why your beloved Doctor is seen as a huge douchebag to some people.
*Unsubstantiated rumor, but a rumor from someone I trust nonetheless. I just can't image the afterglow talk. Sam: "That was pretty good." Tim: "Yep. You can thank me, Timothy Albee, for the condom. Also, me, Timothy Albee, for the lube. Also for that little 'thing' you liked on your lower back... Let's see now, what else did I do?"
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Shit, if this gonna be that kinda party.
We might remember Tigerwolf (http://furry.wikia.com/wiki/Tigerwolf_(Tigerden_administrator)), the respectable one who helps with a number of conventions. He does the Internet rooms at AC and several other conventions around the country. Nice person, but why would Kage threaten his duties at AC? Because he volunteered to set up the room for Morphicon (http://www.morphicon.org/), a much smaller convention in the Ohio area (local to Tigerwolf) which is just too close to AC for Kage. Morphicon, Kage feels, is a threat to his AC. By some accounts he hates Morphicon. Maybe his science sense is telling him it's better run than his own conference. All rumors, mind you.
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Jealous of the competition? Why Sir, that's just speculation on motives of a rumor. This is beyond heresay, this is forum-clad libel!
Why I happen to know for a fact his relationship with the Morphicon staff is as professional and curteous as he always is. In his own words...
Morphicon is run in part by Ostrich, the person who is single-handedly responsible for initiating the current media problems that furry fandom has by mouthing off to a Vanity Fair reporter about his sexual escapades with his plushies. He's been unrepentent about that ever since.
Their programming tends to draw a lot of attention to aspects of the fandom that I would prefer to see less emphasis on. "Not all babyfurs do this." "Plushophiles are not bad people."
You won't see me within 300 miles of this convention.
Oh...
Also, anybody who uses the word 'unrepentant' without irony better damn well be Torquemada.
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Now this...this is a great thread. These are the sorts of things you'll never see in any sort of Wiki, with or without a big fat [CITATION NEEDED] tag.
So does he honestly think that if he talks shit about another convention that furries won't go to it? Is his influence really that strong amongst the hardcore congoing crowd? As it stands, I could totally see him trying to blackball anyone who dares speak ill of him, regardless of how true. That's the kind of intensely amusing dirt that would make this thread even more awesome; I don't suppose there any cases of that?
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It may influence a lot of furries who already aren't going to have an official reason not to go, but even his best FurryMUCK bud and longtime reciprocal fanboy, Ken Sample, attended the year he made that remark. Really, when you get down to who doesn't show because of Kage's butthurt you get a pretty short list of Kage and a few of his most sociopathic friends. At the end of the day, you have to wonder how much 'damage' it does to have him, 2 and a few others out of a convention. A backhanded blessing.
Apart from that though, I realized I missed out on something I wanted to touch on in my TL;DR post above, and no, it's not the raging wino bit. That is, he does good things. He regularly stops whenever he sees a car on the side of the road, he uses everything he learned as a Red Cross disaster relief organizer to help in emergencies. See, if you read his little dissertation on the link provided to Lavadome, you would know that his own personal theory is that his constant guilt over wanking to Godzilla leaves him in a perpetual race to morally make up for it. That would make sense, if it weren't for the fact he flaunts every little heroism he does at least a dozen times over. Apart from the ones he includes in his story hours, the ones that he outright boasts (see the car that flipped over on his way to AC), there's also the Livejournal under his megawolf name were he basically details not only the times he saved the day, but the times he stopped to save the day, and everything was fine anyway. He also reports any instance he can find to talk to a veteran.
I think it's more than a bit dishonest though. The story is never about "X person survived their ordeal" or "the veteran's story was awe inspiring". It's always about Kage. I suppose when he does good things, as long as his ego doesn't cause him to completely fuck up, it's alright. The vets though, the might as well be talking to a wall, because it's never about what they went through, it's about him, staying put and pretending to listen so he can show he's a patriotic compassionate type of guy.
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stuff
So he's a huge furry with a conscience for karma. And like any furry he goes about it COMPLETELY WRONG. Awesome.
Also, hmmm, boasting about every little thing that makes him 'better' than everyone else? Who else do we know amongst the great unwashed that does that? Some kind of recombinant bicyclist with a penchant for air-filled latex, who probably deserves his own megathread.