Maybe some of you do need help with something and you just sit there and say nothing to people, expecting them to read your mind and KNOW that you need help. Well thanks to people like that, everyone seems to now assume the position that if a person doesn't make mention that they need help, then they obviously MUST need it!

Here's the deal. If I want to know how something's done, a better way to do it, or anything like that I will first play around and see what I can do myself. If I come to a brick wall and I absolutely CANNOT figure it out myself, I'll look for a tutorial. If there are no tutorials for it, then I'll ask people that have done it 'how is it done'.

I WILL ASK A PERSON FOR HELP WHEN I NEED IT. That's the key right there. "ASK"

If I do NOT ask you for any kind of help at all, then please do not feel the need to be "cool, smart, and totally badass" because you're going to help "some poor defenseless person that doesn't know what they're doing". But what if the person doesn't require your assistance? Did you ever think of that? Most likely not. So basically you're going to go over there and make yourself the 'bigger person' by doing something totally stupid? That's so cool!

Notice how I don't turn around and help someone with something unless they ASK me do I know how to do it or just ask me for some assistance in general. Maybe it's just something minor and they already got the basic idea, but it's just not working out right. They make mention that it's not going so well so I think of a way to make it so it actually DOES work. On most occasions with the two people brainstorming, they'll both come up with an idea between themselves and put it to the test. If it's a go, everyone's happy, if it's a no, then it's back to the drawing board.

Point being, they still asked for help. I'm not a 2 year old that doesn't know anything. It's like telling a 13 year old to stop putting things in their mouth they shouldnt (like a rock, since little kids do tend to pick up rocks and put them in their mouth). As a toddler, the person doesn't know any better, thus you show them, tell them, and eventually they train their brains that 'rocks aren't to be eaten'. By age 13 a person knows this EXTREMELY well and would never pick up a rock and put it in their mouth in the first place. They'll think it's stupid and if they're constantly told over and over by their parents to not put rocks in their mouth, well the kid is going to think that the parents are not only retarded, but you will annoy them and after a while it will piss them off.

When it needs to be said, it's great. Unfortunately, something like that doesn't need to be said at all times no matter what. Just because some of you believe I can't do a damned thing for myself, doesn't mean that's true. I've done more than enough proving to you that if you leave me be and so on I'll figure it out on my own.

The heads:
Generation 1: Tried carving a styrofoam block for the muzzle, did not make patterns/measure out stuff. Result: A very very heavy front end that did nothing but make a mess and had pretty much no definition/shape to it. It looked silly and was a pain in the ass to wear. No patterns resulted in two sides of it looking completely different from each other and lop-sided. Idea was scrapped immediately, but it was worth a try.

Generation 2: Squishy foam was enstated. I found a bunch of this old yellowed foam rolled up in a giant roll in the garage. I asked my mom if anyone was using it she said no and that I could have it. I washed it and then tried to accomplish something with it. Tried doing the whole 'one strip around the cheeks and one going vertically over the head' and then adding a muzzle. Result: Doesn't carve nor cut very well. The foam retained no shape and it looked like a complete chop job. It also sucked for gluing down to the balaclava hood. The two strips going across and up and down didn't help any. Method was 'refined'.

Generation 3: Still using the same crummy foam and the hood. This time I found a way to make it "smooth", but I'd always end up making things too short. Result: Again, holds no shape and looked overly funny. Gluing down ears to the hood was also a pain because they didn't stay attached very well. You could easily pull them off without a problem. The foam for the muzzle was glued over and over, but had problems staying together. Hit a brick wall and started asking around as to WHERE do you get foam to use for this kind of stuff seeing as where I lived had nothing around and nowhere near it had anything either.

Generation 4: Moved. All the stuff I was using was left behind at my mom's. Asked one person how they did their head and made it look so good, they said camping pad. Gears started turning and an idea finally popped up a couple months after I moved. I headed out to town to pick myself up a mat and some of this green foam from the fabric store that people say they used for their heads. Brought it home and started playing. The old method using a hood and that crappy foam- forever scrapped. Result: Mat made a wonderful base/skeleton that's sturdy and durable. The green foam worked out beautifully and cut/shaped like a dream. From all of this I was able to attach the ears much better along with everything else. Also, everything stayed glued together this time without me wasting two large packs of hot glue trying to make it work. The fur stayed on the foam securely, and if I needed to take it off for whatever reason, I was able to do so without causing major damage to the foam itself.

See? I asked a couple of times about what people used. Now the heads come out how I want them to. It's nice to be able to visualize something and have it come out like the picture in your head. The new heads are more balanced and they are much more comfortable and lighter to wear. They retain their shape, hold together, and look about 50 times better than Generations 2 and 3. Still need slight tweaking on some parts, but the first one came out great (better than I expected) and so there is plenty of hope for this method being the one I'll stick to until I find something better (if I ever do).

I did that without people getting up in my face, telling me I need to be just like them AND without people constantly trying to help me when in all reality, I DON'T NEED IT unless I actually ask for it! Minor things that people point out like 'needs black around the eyes' or something like that are just fine. Normally people sit there and ponder on minor details and they see what they can do without having to put it on first. If it doesn't look quite right and they think so, but they post it anyway and just about everyone else agrees with them that, oh yeah something's missing, then it's time to go back and add what's missing.

Nagging on a person and telling them they must have this, they must have that, they need to chuck this, they need to live somewhere else, find a different job, stop making costumes, etc etc..... I'm sorry but if I did that to you how would that make you feel? Probably shitty and after a while you'd get mad. Do you want people constantly telling you how to live your life, which job you should have, what you should and shouldn't be doing, where you should live and all of that kind of crap? NO! You don't want it, and neither do I.

There is nothing wrong with construction workers. If it weren't for us, guess what, you wouldn't have anything built! You need us just as much as we need you. We put in long hours every day and every week to help better things around the country for not just us, but everyone. If it weren't for the office workers for the construction companies, none of the maps would ever be drawn out, nor would anything get accomplished. You need to have specific pieces of paperwork filed for everything that you do and want to do. If you don't have it, not only do you violate saftey rules from the saftey company, you create a mess. You could easily screw up and hit a water line, natural gas line, oil line, under ground power. If you're not careful with the cranes, you might get tangled up in the power cables up above. That is why maps need to be drawn and EVERYTHING needs to be marked down so pepole know where it is so they don't hit it. Accidents do happen, but the objective is to try and minimize the number of accidents you have. If you complete an entire project without any work days missed due to accidents, you're doing good.

Some construction jobs require people to move every few months because they do work around the country. When one contract is finished in one state, they will most likely send you to another state to start the next one. Because of this, most of the workers who work things like the windmill farms and the pipeline will haul around campers with their pickups. Generally people use diesel because it can haul heavier loads. A 27 foot camper can weigh a good 16,000 pounds. That's pretty harsh for a little gasoline engine to try and haul all over the country, so you get a heavier duty truck.

The other option you have is to get together with a bunch of people and try to rent an apartment or a house (this is hard to do a lot of times just for the location alone). If that's not up your alley, you could also try hotel/motel rooms. Unfortunately with those, they cost more to live in than renting out a lot at an RV park, and you're forced to eat out most of the time.

Look at it this way. A small studio apartment (the ones I've seen) is about the same size as a 27 foot or larger camper. You have your own kitchen, your own stove/oven, microwave, sink, fridge/freezer, living room, bathroom, bedroom, and closet. It's just arranged in a different way. Instead of being a big square, it's a rectangle. If you have at least one "slide out" it's pretty roomy. Just like a small apartment, however, you will be cramped it you put too much stuff inside. There's storage, but never enough to be satisfactory.

These kinds of jobs pay out a very decent wage, which is why people do it. If someone were to offer you up to $15 an hour (sometimes more depending on what you're doing) for 40 hour work weeks with overtime and $55 a day for being out of your home state, wouldn't you take the job (if there's nothing better where you already are at)? That's more than just a minimum wage job flipping burgers (we need people for that too, but not everyone is happy doing it). Your pets can also travel with you (cats are iffy, they generally don't like travelling). Keep in mind that every state has different rules/laws about pets and that if you move there for however long you need to be there, well I'd take your animal to the vet shortly after you arrive. There might be new viruses around that weren't around back where you came from, so the animal may need new vaccinations. Once you've taken care of that, you should be set for the state you're stationed in. If anything comes up, you'll know where a vet is. (Oh and do the same for yourself... go find the nearest hosipital ASAP that way if you need to go there, you actually know how to get to it. Dental clinics are a plus too- things could happen and if you break a tooth, it probably won't feel the greatest and you'll be wishing that you knew where one is if you didn't go out and find it before something happened.)

So you move around every 3 or so months. You move around in the military too. They station you in one state for some training, then ship you somewhere else for another reason. It's not forever, but it pays your bills and gives you enough left over to save up incase something comes up (like you're temporarily laid off) and then have something to spend on whatever you feel like. In the event that you do get laid off you should at least have enough saved up (like me) to last you a month AND pay off all the bills for one month (if you got more stashed away, great). That leaves you with a window of time to do job hunting (like we have been) and wait around to hear back from the company you worked for to see whether or not something pulled through on their end. If it doesn't, well yeah it sucks, but you can't do much about it. So what do you do? Sit around and burn up whatever you had saved? Or go around and start inquiring the places you applied to and see if they have any openings for you? I'm thinking the latter is probably the best bet right?

Onto the artistic section. Many people bitch and whine and cry that nobody 'new' or 'starting out' will make anything worth while. Everything they do for the next year or more will look like shit until they have 5+ years of experience. People will be overly rude to anyone starting out because of that AND because of the fact that it's competition to them. Other artists/fursuit builders don't want new people selling stuff because if it just so happens to be pretty good and people like it and start buying it, it takes away from THEIR business. Some artists are fine with newcomers and don't view them as a threat, but those are very rare.

Materials. For drawing, a sketch book from walmart is roughly $5-$6 and just a regular number two pencil works (I sugget getting a big pink erraser since the ones that come equipped on a pencil are generally shit). Markers/paints/all that good stuff? There's nothing wrong with Crayola markers/crayons/colored pencils. You don't HAVE to have a jumbo sized 'professional' book, the fancy pencils of all sorts of hardness levels, the prismacolors/copics. You can do so much with using what you got. You just make do with what you have until you have the money to buy yourself that nice huge prismacolor pencil set or copic marker set.

For fursuits the materials are pretty basic. Sometimes places like Walmart will even carry them (I haven't any luck with foam, but occasionally fur). Again, you make do with what you have. Yes, you'll need fabric scisors for sure and measuring tape, maybe some fabric markers for patterns and such, but other than that you can find hot glue and a glue gun just about anywhere that has craft supplies. Foam is found in places like fabric stores and hobby lobby (or other places similar to it). Fur- you can order the fur (a little more expensive, usually higher quality) or find something at the fabric store that'll do justice. Is it really that hard to find the materials to make a head? No. You don't NEED an airbrush system (though it is nicer), you don't NEED a fancy camera (try to make the best of it with what you have), you don't NEED a big fancy studio/workshop with lights and all that crap. There's nothing wrong with building a fursuit from your bedroom or house or garage (garage is nicer for foam work, easier to clean). LOTS of people do this! Lots of people start out like that as well.

The point of all of that is a TRUE artist will work with whatever tools are given to them to work with. They might have to go out and buy some things because they don't have them on hand, but for the most part they have a good portion or KNOW where to get their materials. Anyone that decides that you're not "good enough" to be making anything is an asshole. So your first few tries at artistical things look shitty...... oh well! Nobody has the perfect result the first few tries Don't let the more well-known, more experienced people scare you off. A lot of them are nice......and others think they own the world.

Remember the saying "You can do anything if you put your mind to it?". It's pretty true. Granted there are some things in this world that some people just can't physically do no matter what. That's fine, not everyone has the same abilities as the next person down the road. There's a calling for everyone and everyone does what they enjoy doing and what they do best. They also seek jobs in those categories.

Using art as a living, however, is something that takes an extremely long time to establish. Most of the time it won't work. There isn't enough demand for it, so it's a tough break for anyone trying to make a living just doing crafts and artwork. Some people make it, others don't. So what if you don't make it big? Just keep it as a hobby while you're working away at some other job that does pay the bills. I do that and so do many others.

Going back to the beginning of it all, unless a person ASKS you for help, please don't try and shove it in their face that they need it. Let them be. If they figure it out on their own, fantastic, if not, they will eventually ask somebody for help.