Morrigan Kig

November 28, 2022

Macs and Tracking

Going to do a minor rant now, so bear with me.

My thoughts on Apple and their hardware is well known - I dislike them immensely.

My workplace has been trying to get me to use Macs for ages and I have stubbornly refused to do so.

Sure, running Linux on a non-supported machine does have its problems, namely that I have to fix my own issues when they appear, but it does help the company when they hire contractors who are also running Linux and have the same issues that I do, and that I have already solved.

The company VPN for example, they provide a VPN client by Palo Alto which is horrendously bad -- provides no UI and returns after connecting so I have no idea if it's connected or not and it broke when the company implemented SAML.

I used OpenConnect with a SAML wrapper to work with it.

All of these are minor compared to what I found out this last week.

It seems like the company has installed some software on the macs it issues that calls back into the central office so the business can track what you're doing.

How detailed? Well, apparently to the level they can see what tabs you have open in Chrome and how long you've been on them.

I, of course, am not subject to this tracking since my machine and OS are not installed by them, but this really scared me.

I also found out several years back (before I started here), they actually tried to track people's time at desks to see if people were having too many/too long cigarette/toilet breaks.

If you think Macs are the only target, then nope. Windows users have to use Citrix to log into a "virtual" PC, where they can probably track the same things.

I guess I will continue being the black sheep of the team. The moment they force a mac on me, I will be heading in my notice.

November 12, 2022

MCM London October 2022

It's not often I get to do two conventions in a year, but I did this time. I attended MCM London's second convention, attending the previous one in May.

Generally OK, same problems as May though.

I attended with Hazel Ferret joining on one day, bringing her Twinkle mascot and Coral The Cat (bringing her Charly partial).

I brought Y'shtola who took up pretty much half the room, primarily due to her staff. While offloading the boxes into the room, one of the housekeeping staff took major interest in that and wondered what was in that box, so I brought it out and showed her how big the staff was.

Y'shtola's staff is about 6 ft in height and reached floor to ceiling in the hotel corridor.

Coral brought her partial up on the Friday and since we would be attending the event all three days, she left her partial in my room.

Charly and Y'shtola side by side on the bed

Coral trying out my Y'shtola mask. Proportions were a bit off due to height differences.

Getting Y'shtola ready for her first convention outing since 2019

Hazel came to the event on the Friday, bringing Twinkle:

I ended up being photographer for the group instead of actually going in kig since having all three of us visually impaired could be extremely dangerous. Here's a selection of the photos

On the Saturday, I took Y'shtola out for the entire day. She was extremely popular, and the hall was very crowded. She even got interviewed for an Indonesian cosplay channel on YouTube and Instagram, although being a kig, she couldn't talk and ended up flailing her arms a lot.

Only a few pics were taken by the group, although a lot of pics were taken by others. One or two I managed to scrounge in the later days, such as this one with databunny_cosplay (IG):

One of the main reasons I took Y'shtola this time was because someone I used to play FFXIV with (and had actually had married in-game) was attending. After so many years, Y'shtola met her in-game hubby:

And an obligatory selfie

Sunday, both Coral and I went in suit, and my FFXIV hubby acted as spotter. We got this pic, which I absolutely ADORE

I also got a pic of Charly with Tigress from Kung Fu Panda

But, come mid-afternoon on Sunday we knew things were coming to an end, Y'shtola looked sadly out of the window wondering when the next time she will come out to see the world

Other pics that we found after the event:

May 30, 2022

MCM London, May 2022

So this will be my writeup to the event. This will be cross posted to other sites also.

MCM London was my third MCM Convention, and my second MCM London one.

I have to admit upfront, this one was not as good as I expected, but more details on that shortly.

The Days

Friday was, as always the quieter day of the event since people were still working.

But Fridays are normally very good for buying stuff because it's quieter

I found out from Jilly (https://twitter.com/JillyDutchie) that there was another kig in the same hotel as me, so we arranged to meet up. This kig was Kityoko (https://twitter.com/kityoko_) and was really fun to work with during the event, I was her handler during Saturday when she brought out her furhead and proceeded to charm almost all the convention goers. Even the police got in on the fun and pretended to arrest her ^_^

I brought two characters with me -- Jennifer (the Kingmask doll), and Jenny (from Bucky O'Hare)

I ran both of them during all three days of the event, posting ready pics on the Friday -- which surprisingly someone at the event mentioned on the Saturday that they spotted my IG posting Jenny ahead of the convention. Perhaps I should spend more time working on my IG presence? But the site is horrible to work with...

Saturday was.... horrendous. I know in general that Saturday is the busiest of the three days of the event but this was insane.

You couldn't even walk in a straight line down the hallway, which had very little air conditioning, so if you were in a fursuit or costume like I was, it turned the costume (and mask) into a sauna.

The side halls were marginally more comfortable, but the around 20 deg C heat didn't make it much more comfortable.

Sunday was much easier going. which was expected as some people either checkout Sunday as they only got a Saturday ticket, or go to the Sunday early, then head home for the afternoon. Also, some vendors close up on the Sunday either entirely or close up early if they run out of stock.

Costuming Experiences

Generally, Jenny had the most positive reactions. Understandable since she's a very toony, friendly looking character. Kids love her look because she's a personification of a cartoon from TV. Adults love her because she's a reminder of their childhood and the nostalgia is strong.

I had a Sub-Zero cosplayer ask me if the character was from Bucky O'Hare and it feels SO GOOD when someone recognises your character :)

And for the first time, someone actually asked me about the costume construction. Specifically, how the shape of the head. I simply told them it was pretty much a motorbike helmet.

Later, at the same place, a couple were giggling over my costume. They're probably of the opinion that only weird people dress up.

Also later, when I wasn't in costume, a visiting American (who I found out was from Dallas Fort Werth) happened to ask me about the event, probably because I wasn't wearing anything Anime related, he probably thought I was a "normal" person (oh, how wrong he was... ) so I explained about cosplay, anime, and about the event and how the event was purely about dressing up, that there were vendors selling their wares there and how some actually rely on events like this to survive, get their name out there and make a living on commissioned work.

Jennifer on the other hand had a mixture of reactions. Some were impressed by the detail of the costume, others were unnerved by the face. BJD looks are very niche and not everyone "gets it". But I loved being the doll. It also picked up the attention of a few professional photographers, so here's hoping I find them at some point.

Kitokyo also found Jenny in an IG reel the same day: [www.instagram.com/p/CeHNeH9...](https://www.instagram.com/p/CeHNeH9Dv_E/)

Not found anything on Twitter yet. And I don't really want to trawl through YouTube videos :P

Negative Experiences

Oh boy, where to start....

A couple of days before the start of the event, MCM notified that the East Exit of the ExCeL, which is entranced used by the Aloft, Hilton DoubleTree, Premier Inn would be closed and only people with accessible needs would be able to use that entrance. This pissed a LOT of people off, since MCM then recommended using the DLR. That's right, take public transport to go to the other entrance, and pay for the trip, costing £1.80 at peek, £1.60 off-peak or £6.30 cash:

Even more annoying, a construction worker then told me the single station journey would be free (which is contradictory to the screenshot above).

Not everyone could change hotels. Helenako managed to though: [twitter.com/HelenakoC...](https://twitter.com/HelenakoC/status/1527300722014191623)

Walking down the dockside was also not an option as that was blocked. Walking along the other side where the lorries go was an option, but when I tried to do that in costume, I was yelled at by a DLR staff and had to go up the stairs, but was then refused entry and had to take the DLR.

When I finally got in and walked through and got to the other side, there were bag searchers and security there, so the entrance WAS open. I asked if I could leave and return through this entrance. Security guy said as long as I have my pass, yes. But guess what, when I tried to return (with Kitokyo), a different security guy said unless I had wristbands, they can't let me in. So a completely different story. then when we looped around and again tried to exit through the East Entrance we were refused and had to walk all the way around and back. Security were not consistent through the event. Some would let you in, some would not.

The consequence of this was that all the crowds were trying to get in through the one West Entrance. MarioMeta (https://twitter.com/MarioMeta_cos) and I were stuck trying to get back into the event after taking some pictures outside together because of this mess.

By the time Sunday came round, security seemed to understand and as soon as I walked up the stairs to the entrance to go to the DLR, security spotted my pass and directed me to the entrance.

Mind you, as a consequence of the DLR requirement I can now say I've travelled on the TFL network as a kig and as a furry...

Another negative experience, though not one I directly experienced is the lack of security at panels. Found at these tweets:

[twitter.com/Satori_In...](https://twitter.com/Satori_Infinite/status/1530771583006121984)

[twitter.com/taste_soc...](https://twitter.com/taste_society/status/1530840761075367936)

Generally it was an enjoyable event, severely tarnished by some stupid management decisions.

March 12, 2022

Cloe Casual

Got new set of jeans and hoodie for Cloe. Of course, I had to keep the Bratz theme. Might need to consider some pumps for her next.

I've just noticed part of her eyelash is coming loose, but nothing some glue shouldn't be able to fix. In fact, I might peel it off, trace and see if I can get some felt to replace the missing one (when I got Cloe, one of the lower eyelashes was already missing)

February 13, 2022

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day from your local lonely bunny.

January 8, 2022

Kig of the Month

I decided that I should revive my Kig of the Month project.

For those of you who were not familiar with the project, I use a spinner to pick a random kig character from my collection and use that for the entire month.

The last character picked was Juvia from Fairy Tail. However, I had MCM London, followed by an injury, and then the Christmas/New Year period, so that never happened.

I dug out the mask and it now seems like it won't latch properly (Juvia is a full-head latching mask), meaning I can't secure it well enough to wear.

I'm not sure what the issue is, and will need to check it further. I think maybe the hinge might be failing, as the back panel latch is not lining up with front panel latch.

January 1, 2022

Happy New Year -- And a PSA about Strokes

It's now 2022. A New Year and a new start. I'm hoping this year will be better than the last one, but for some, it won't be. This is a sort of a sombre post, and I apologise for it not being the usual celebratory post you might be expecting, but it is an important message.

A friend of mine (for privacy reasons I won't give much more detail than this) is a retired nurse. Her daughter had a stroke while in bed. She managed to stand up and make it to the door, but the stroke made her collapse face down onto the floor, and unable to move, as the stroke damaged more of her brain.

The door obviously could not be opened because the daughter's body was blocking the door. The fire brigade had to be called to gain entry from the window side. The daughter's muscle control was so compromised by the stroke she could no longer control her bowels or bladder and... well, you can probably guess from that, not to mention the extra time taken meant more of her brain was getting damaged by the stroke.

This happened a few days before Christmas, and already medical staff are limited during the Christmas/New Year period, and now are already are overloaded due to the Pandemic. This was probably the worst time to have any sort of non-covid medical emergency, not that you have a say in the matter.

They are now waiting for doctors to check. The daughter only has movement of her right arm and is constantly crying, understandably. Her life has been permanently changed in a few minutes.

The friend is wracked with guilt for not seeing the stroke signs, even being a retired nurse.

As a PSA, please be alert to the signs of a stroke. This can be remembered easily using the acronym FAST:

F - Face: Is their face drooping on one side? Can they smile?

A - Arms: Can they lift both their arms up above their head and keep them there?

S - Speech: Is their speech slurred? Can they speak clearly? Can they understand what you are saying?

T - Time: Call 999, 911 or whatever emergency service number you use in your country.

More details at Stroke.org: [www.stroke.org.uk/what-is-s...](https://www.stroke.org.uk/what-is-stroke/what-are-the-symptoms-of-stroke)

[twitter.com/TheStroke...](https://twitter.com/TheStrokeAssoc/status/1369573823734050816)

I am not asking you to share this. I'm only asking you to read this and be aware. If this saves someone you know from suffering more Stroke damage than is necessary, it is well worth it.

December 26, 2021