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Holy crap a journal
Posted 4 years agoMan, since the last journal I posted it feels like I've blinked twice and now here we are.
Working in a hospital (the first to receive a covid patient on the west coast even) gave me a front row seat to watching covid unfold into a pandemic and then into a highly unpleasant era of our lives. It's funny thinking about how one of my co-workers was admonished by a supervisor for wearing a mask in the halls back in April, and now we're all rocking face shields and N95's. It's been an arduous process getting to where we are, but I'm finally feeling some optimism about the future, both in my country and abroad.
I'll be honest, I actually preferred being deployed over this. At least deployments have fairly solid end-dates, and people generally didn't consider the enemy to be a hoax, lol.
I hope everyone is hanging in there ok. Keep in touch with your friends and family as best you can, and try to be extra considerate toward the people you love who are suffering from anxiety or depression. It's going to be hitting them hard, but they've made it this far so don't give up on them.
That includes yourself. <3
Working in a hospital (the first to receive a covid patient on the west coast even) gave me a front row seat to watching covid unfold into a pandemic and then into a highly unpleasant era of our lives. It's funny thinking about how one of my co-workers was admonished by a supervisor for wearing a mask in the halls back in April, and now we're all rocking face shields and N95's. It's been an arduous process getting to where we are, but I'm finally feeling some optimism about the future, both in my country and abroad.
I'll be honest, I actually preferred being deployed over this. At least deployments have fairly solid end-dates, and people generally didn't consider the enemy to be a hoax, lol.
I hope everyone is hanging in there ok. Keep in touch with your friends and family as best you can, and try to be extra considerate toward the people you love who are suffering from anxiety or depression. It's going to be hitting them hard, but they've made it this far so don't give up on them.
That includes yourself. <3
Furry migration!!
Posted 7 years agoAHHH!!!!
So I went to Furry Migration in Minnesota this past weekend and I had an absolutely wonderful time.
Actually, let me rephrase that. I spent this last weekend hanging out with an absolutely wonderful girl known as
Journeyer and Furry Migration was happening at the same time in the same location.
It's the honest truth, just shush!
Ok fine, about the con: The area around it has too much to offer. Breweries, restaurants, parks! Ohh the parks!! Parks with statues, parks with gardens! A 10min walk in any direction takes you to something new and fun and the city itself is so beautiful and safe. I don't do well spending an entire weekend bouncing between my hotel room and a convention center. I get too restless, and sometimes regret coming at all. FM offers everything I personally enjoy (outside places and good food/brews!) plus a fun furry environment for me to come back to once I've worn away the day.
I. Loved. It. And you will too if this sounds even remotely like your kind of con.
The con's attendance this year is 1100. Not too small, definitely not too big. Something I want to point out that I really appreciated is the food the con itself provides to attendees. For a couple bucks a day you're getting something far better than the gas station pizza and hot dogs some folks have to live off of during cons. I get it, I was in that financial situation myself for a period of time. I'm just so glad there's a better alternative for everyone these days. BLFC did it this year too, and other cons have done it to some extent as well. FM did it and they did it right. I love them for it.
OH! Also the hotel has the most amazing gym. It rivals the 24hr Fitness I go to... there are free-weights, dumbbells, tread mills, lots and lots of pulley machines. It's fit for a football team, seriously. Also the hotel has the most underutilized pool ever. Two mornings in a row I had it all to myself. IT WAS SWEET.
I mentioned Journeyer earlier and probably will for many more following journals. She's someone special to me and the absolute highlight of my entire weekend at FM. We crossed paths at Sakuracon a good 6 years ago and kept in touch on and off ever since. Fast forward to this weekend and we decide to meet up in the lobby at FM and kinda never stopped hanging out afterward. She showed me around the city of Minneapolis, she wowed me with her stories of traveling to Bangkok and Croatia and her knowledge of nature (DID YOU KNOW BEE HOTELS ARE A THING???). She was so great. Our time together was great. It was something I dwelled on each night as the con progressed. Saturday was her last day... Barely 3 whole days together. We suited together in the fursuit parade, went to the photobooth afterward and posed with a huge inflatable sriracha bottle (I gotta go see if I can find pictures of that) and then went to the Fox Amoore and Pepper Coyote show right afterward, still in suit.
Look, Fox and Pepper put on a great show but to be honest I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. I was thinking about how much I loved every moment Journeyer and I had spent together how in a few hours she'd be going home and that would be it.
So there we were, standing in fursuit together, behind the audience of a furry music show, and with Fox and Pepper rocking out in front of us. All I could think about was how I wanted to hold her hand in mine. Except we're in fursuit, so, paws. So I reach out, it's dark and a fumble a bit, I bump the back of her paw, take a hold of it in mind and squeeze down...only to figure out that I had maybe grabbed two of her fingers.
But she squeezed back... and we readjusted, palm in palm, then just stood there holding paws for a bit.
And then we danced. (I still have no idea how to dance btw, bless her for putting up with it)
And she's been on my mind nonstop ever since.
God it was a good weekend.
So I went to Furry Migration in Minnesota this past weekend and I had an absolutely wonderful time.
Actually, let me rephrase that. I spent this last weekend hanging out with an absolutely wonderful girl known as
Journeyer and Furry Migration was happening at the same time in the same location.It's the honest truth, just shush!
Ok fine, about the con: The area around it has too much to offer. Breweries, restaurants, parks! Ohh the parks!! Parks with statues, parks with gardens! A 10min walk in any direction takes you to something new and fun and the city itself is so beautiful and safe. I don't do well spending an entire weekend bouncing between my hotel room and a convention center. I get too restless, and sometimes regret coming at all. FM offers everything I personally enjoy (outside places and good food/brews!) plus a fun furry environment for me to come back to once I've worn away the day.
I. Loved. It. And you will too if this sounds even remotely like your kind of con.
The con's attendance this year is 1100. Not too small, definitely not too big. Something I want to point out that I really appreciated is the food the con itself provides to attendees. For a couple bucks a day you're getting something far better than the gas station pizza and hot dogs some folks have to live off of during cons. I get it, I was in that financial situation myself for a period of time. I'm just so glad there's a better alternative for everyone these days. BLFC did it this year too, and other cons have done it to some extent as well. FM did it and they did it right. I love them for it.
OH! Also the hotel has the most amazing gym. It rivals the 24hr Fitness I go to... there are free-weights, dumbbells, tread mills, lots and lots of pulley machines. It's fit for a football team, seriously. Also the hotel has the most underutilized pool ever. Two mornings in a row I had it all to myself. IT WAS SWEET.
I mentioned Journeyer earlier and probably will for many more following journals. She's someone special to me and the absolute highlight of my entire weekend at FM. We crossed paths at Sakuracon a good 6 years ago and kept in touch on and off ever since. Fast forward to this weekend and we decide to meet up in the lobby at FM and kinda never stopped hanging out afterward. She showed me around the city of Minneapolis, she wowed me with her stories of traveling to Bangkok and Croatia and her knowledge of nature (DID YOU KNOW BEE HOTELS ARE A THING???). She was so great. Our time together was great. It was something I dwelled on each night as the con progressed. Saturday was her last day... Barely 3 whole days together. We suited together in the fursuit parade, went to the photobooth afterward and posed with a huge inflatable sriracha bottle (I gotta go see if I can find pictures of that) and then went to the Fox Amoore and Pepper Coyote show right afterward, still in suit.
Look, Fox and Pepper put on a great show but to be honest I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. I was thinking about how much I loved every moment Journeyer and I had spent together how in a few hours she'd be going home and that would be it.
So there we were, standing in fursuit together, behind the audience of a furry music show, and with Fox and Pepper rocking out in front of us. All I could think about was how I wanted to hold her hand in mine. Except we're in fursuit, so, paws. So I reach out, it's dark and a fumble a bit, I bump the back of her paw, take a hold of it in mind and squeeze down...only to figure out that I had maybe grabbed two of her fingers.
But she squeezed back... and we readjusted, palm in palm, then just stood there holding paws for a bit.
And then we danced. (I still have no idea how to dance btw, bless her for putting up with it)
And she's been on my mind nonstop ever since.
God it was a good weekend.
I literally check FA every day but I never post journals lol
Posted 7 years agoHIIIIII
I am here! I always have been!! Journals are apparently hard for me to make time for and I rarely know what to even write about, lol.
I'm way my active on Twitter (https://twitter.com/skyandog) although even there I'm pretty bad at mentioning what I'm up to. Not that I'm trying to be mysterious or reclusive, I just don't think people are too interested in work-gym-beer talk. The weather is getting nice so expect lots of pics of my hikes to Mt. Rainier and other places along the Cascade mountain range in Washington state.
As far as furry stuff goes I went to BLFC earlier this month and had an awesome time!! I've always loved that con and it just keeps getting better each year. That infinity pool at the resort is pure bliss and I just loved spending my mornings in it while I recovered from the nights before, hehe. I generally don't go to panels during cons but
Keeko-chan talked me into doing a nearly 2hr Tai Chi session with him that was put on by a fantastic instructor. Wish I caught his name, it wasn't posted anywhere you'd expect to find in the BLFC program. Aside from BLFC I did AnthroNorthwest here in Seattle last November. I totally recommend it, the location was awesome (there's so much to do in downtown Seattle!) and the con itself was chill and had a great family vibe to it. I was so impressed by all the teens who showed up with their own handmade fursuits and they looked AMAZING. Like, these people really sat down and focused on making quality good looking suits and there was nothing simple about them. Lots of angle dragon inspirations with big tails and intricate facial markings. Incredible stuff!
Hmmm. Stuff about me! I'm still single, but in no hurry to change that. TBH my best match for a girlfriend is probably sitting on a mountain somewhere waiting for me and when we finally meet the first thing she's gonna do is chastise me for spending so much time looking for her on Twitter and the internet instead of somewhere outdoors where we've always belonged. She'll be right too xD I can't wait to tell her about my awful experiences with Tinder. I only lasted 2 weeks before I had to get rid of it, lol.
Ok, work stuff! I've advanced enough at my job to where I'm pretty much indispensable. It's a GREAT feeling to be competent at what I do and to literally see the work I'm doing make a difference for people who are sick or who have a high-risk pregnancy (I still split my shifts between an emergency department and a high-risk obstetrics clinic). Healthcare is a great field and I recommend it to anyone who wants to have a direct role in helping other people and saving lives. I especially want to see more people in their 30's and younger in a healthcare role because people like us have a solid grasp of what "the right thing to do" is and it's part of what's needed to make healthcare BETTER. It applies to everything! Whether it's treating someone respectfully or making sure someone is charged appropriately for their care. I see a lot of overcharges in my field that aren't mistakes but are literally caused by techs who don't want to take the time to correct an order and assume the billing department will catch it and handle it for them. It's MADDENING.
So yeah, that's my plug for healthcare. Want to help people? Get a healthcare job. Want to improve healthcare? Be a good person with a healthcare job.
There, I made a journal, and now it's too big for most people to bother with. Horray!!! :D
I am here! I always have been!! Journals are apparently hard for me to make time for and I rarely know what to even write about, lol.
I'm way my active on Twitter (https://twitter.com/skyandog) although even there I'm pretty bad at mentioning what I'm up to. Not that I'm trying to be mysterious or reclusive, I just don't think people are too interested in work-gym-beer talk. The weather is getting nice so expect lots of pics of my hikes to Mt. Rainier and other places along the Cascade mountain range in Washington state.
As far as furry stuff goes I went to BLFC earlier this month and had an awesome time!! I've always loved that con and it just keeps getting better each year. That infinity pool at the resort is pure bliss and I just loved spending my mornings in it while I recovered from the nights before, hehe. I generally don't go to panels during cons but
Keeko-chan talked me into doing a nearly 2hr Tai Chi session with him that was put on by a fantastic instructor. Wish I caught his name, it wasn't posted anywhere you'd expect to find in the BLFC program. Aside from BLFC I did AnthroNorthwest here in Seattle last November. I totally recommend it, the location was awesome (there's so much to do in downtown Seattle!) and the con itself was chill and had a great family vibe to it. I was so impressed by all the teens who showed up with their own handmade fursuits and they looked AMAZING. Like, these people really sat down and focused on making quality good looking suits and there was nothing simple about them. Lots of angle dragon inspirations with big tails and intricate facial markings. Incredible stuff!Hmmm. Stuff about me! I'm still single, but in no hurry to change that. TBH my best match for a girlfriend is probably sitting on a mountain somewhere waiting for me and when we finally meet the first thing she's gonna do is chastise me for spending so much time looking for her on Twitter and the internet instead of somewhere outdoors where we've always belonged. She'll be right too xD I can't wait to tell her about my awful experiences with Tinder. I only lasted 2 weeks before I had to get rid of it, lol.
Ok, work stuff! I've advanced enough at my job to where I'm pretty much indispensable. It's a GREAT feeling to be competent at what I do and to literally see the work I'm doing make a difference for people who are sick or who have a high-risk pregnancy (I still split my shifts between an emergency department and a high-risk obstetrics clinic). Healthcare is a great field and I recommend it to anyone who wants to have a direct role in helping other people and saving lives. I especially want to see more people in their 30's and younger in a healthcare role because people like us have a solid grasp of what "the right thing to do" is and it's part of what's needed to make healthcare BETTER. It applies to everything! Whether it's treating someone respectfully or making sure someone is charged appropriately for their care. I see a lot of overcharges in my field that aren't mistakes but are literally caused by techs who don't want to take the time to correct an order and assume the billing department will catch it and handle it for them. It's MADDENING.
So yeah, that's my plug for healthcare. Want to help people? Get a healthcare job. Want to improve healthcare? Be a good person with a healthcare job.
There, I made a journal, and now it's too big for most people to bother with. Horray!!! :D
MFF Meme
Posted 11 years agoDRAW ME ROLLING IN A GIANT PILE OF PIZZAS FOR 4 DAYS STRAIGHT
This MFF meme brought to you by sleep deprivation and 9 cups of green tea ASADLFKJSAFD
This MFF meme brought to you by sleep deprivation and 9 cups of green tea ASADLFKJSAFD
Rainfurrest Meme!!
Posted 11 years ago(The TL;DR: SEEEE YA THERE!!!!!!!!!)
-Staying at:
Hilton
- Arrival and Departure?
Thursday - Monday
- Mode of transportation
Carmobile
- Rooming with:
razzy_lee for sure and probably offering up space to close friends who do the last-minute "I NEED A ROOM NAO D:" thing, lol.
- Who Will I likely see you with?
I visit with too many people to list. Since this is my home con I tend to hang with a lot of locals though.
- Con Plans:
It's tradition for me to visit the AA and DD every day in fursuit to flirt/bother/amuse/entertain the folks who are stuck there all day long, especially toward the end of the con when they're not getting much business and I won't be in the way, lol.
- How can I find you?
Use twitter! Skyandog
- Do you do free art?
Gimme a marker and your forehead and I'll make art happen.
- Do you do trades?
Yes I will trade almost anything for that food you have.
- Do you do commissions?
My talents cannot be bought! ...Wait is that food you got there?
- Do you do badges?
*whips out marker* YOUR FOREHEAD, NOW!
- Will you have Art in the Art Show?
No but my girlfriend Razzy might! Also anything by
apoxon is amazing and she usually has something in them, I'll be keeping an eye out for her stuff :3
- Will you be going to parties?
It's a CON, it's ONE BIG PARTY!
- Will you be performing?
Yeah, magic tricks! Watch me make that food disappear.
- Smoke?
Mostly e-cigs and cigars now, and it takes the right occasion.
- Drink
Irish carbombs, Gin, and vodka are my favs!
- Gender
Dude
- Can I hug you?
I love hugs! Not fond of belly rubs or back scratches though. Expect to get told that when you try.
- Can I talk to you?
Yes! Whether it's small talk or something big you're dealing with I'll listen. I might even turn off my silliness and talk back if it's important or engaging enough. Unless you try to talk to me in fursuit, there's no turning off that silliness.
- Will you be at any panels?
No plans for any. Sometimes I get roped into helping out at them though.
- Can I touch you?
Hugs are ok. I'll let people who know me get away with rougher things like picking me up or tackling but if you're a complete stranger don't test those limits right off the bat.
- Can I buy you drinks?
Sure, especially if it turns out to be something I haven't tried before!
- How old are you?
I just celebrated the 9th anniversary of my 21st birthday!
- Can I snuggle with you?
Sure but don't expect it to last long if I don't know you.
- If you're pissed off, should I approach you?
Let's just say no.
- Are you nice?
Yes! Especially to people with food!
-Single or Taken?
Taken
- Cliquey?
I have a dozen friend groups and I'm usually running around with one of them so technically yes but that doesn't stop me from hanging out with anyone else.
- How tall?
5'8
- Can I Take pictures of you?
Sure!
- Will you get anything commissioned?
Not planning on it.
- How can I get your attention?
"WHO WANTS A DRINK?"
"WHO WANTS SUSHI?"
"WHO KNOWS CPR?"
"KEEKO NOOO"
Actually that last one just makes me duck.
- Can I ask you to dance at the raves?
Yes! I'm making an effort to go to these more! Too much loud bass gives me a headache so I don't stay long though.
-Staying at:
Hilton
- Arrival and Departure?
Thursday - Monday
- Mode of transportation
Carmobile
- Rooming with:
razzy_lee for sure and probably offering up space to close friends who do the last-minute "I NEED A ROOM NAO D:" thing, lol.- Who Will I likely see you with?
I visit with too many people to list. Since this is my home con I tend to hang with a lot of locals though.
- Con Plans:
It's tradition for me to visit the AA and DD every day in fursuit to flirt/bother/amuse/entertain the folks who are stuck there all day long, especially toward the end of the con when they're not getting much business and I won't be in the way, lol.
- How can I find you?
Use twitter! Skyandog
- Do you do free art?
Gimme a marker and your forehead and I'll make art happen.
- Do you do trades?
Yes I will trade almost anything for that food you have.
- Do you do commissions?
My talents cannot be bought! ...Wait is that food you got there?
- Do you do badges?
*whips out marker* YOUR FOREHEAD, NOW!
- Will you have Art in the Art Show?
No but my girlfriend Razzy might! Also anything by
apoxon is amazing and she usually has something in them, I'll be keeping an eye out for her stuff :3- Will you be going to parties?
It's a CON, it's ONE BIG PARTY!
- Will you be performing?
Yeah, magic tricks! Watch me make that food disappear.
- Smoke?
Mostly e-cigs and cigars now, and it takes the right occasion.
- Drink
Irish carbombs, Gin, and vodka are my favs!
- Gender
Dude
- Can I hug you?
I love hugs! Not fond of belly rubs or back scratches though. Expect to get told that when you try.
- Can I talk to you?
Yes! Whether it's small talk or something big you're dealing with I'll listen. I might even turn off my silliness and talk back if it's important or engaging enough. Unless you try to talk to me in fursuit, there's no turning off that silliness.
- Will you be at any panels?
No plans for any. Sometimes I get roped into helping out at them though.
- Can I touch you?
Hugs are ok. I'll let people who know me get away with rougher things like picking me up or tackling but if you're a complete stranger don't test those limits right off the bat.
- Can I buy you drinks?
Sure, especially if it turns out to be something I haven't tried before!
- How old are you?
I just celebrated the 9th anniversary of my 21st birthday!
- Can I snuggle with you?
Sure but don't expect it to last long if I don't know you.
- If you're pissed off, should I approach you?
Let's just say no.
- Are you nice?
Yes! Especially to people with food!
-Single or Taken?
Taken
- Cliquey?
I have a dozen friend groups and I'm usually running around with one of them so technically yes but that doesn't stop me from hanging out with anyone else.
- How tall?
5'8
- Can I Take pictures of you?
Sure!
- Will you get anything commissioned?
Not planning on it.
- How can I get your attention?
"WHO WANTS A DRINK?"
"WHO WANTS SUSHI?"
"WHO KNOWS CPR?"
"KEEKO NOOO"
Actually that last one just makes me duck.
- Can I ask you to dance at the raves?
Yes! I'm making an effort to go to these more! Too much loud bass gives me a headache so I don't stay long though.
BLFC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted 11 years agoI've been working a lot lately so this con is a totally needed vacation from work. I even turned away from a $5,500 offer for just 1 week of work in Californian for this. I already had the time off approved for BLFC, I could've gone to Cali and made bundles, but guys there are some things that are worth more than money. This con is one of them!
I actually have plans for this con!! Here they are:
FRIDAY I'll be in the fursuit charity auction. It starts around 4pm. If you want a dance with me come and bid!! If you wanna watch me flail on the dance floor because I'm clearly no dancer then GO TO THE DANCE!!
Saturday
Mimosas!! Sushi!!! REPEAT!!
Sunday:
Fursuit Charity bowling event with
Kijani_lion at 2:30-4pm. Come watch me tear up the gutters and fetch pins!
Monday I fly back home and go straight to work starting around 4pm to fricking 11pm!! FML I gotta make this weekend COUNT!!!
See you all there! ^.^
I actually have plans for this con!! Here they are:
FRIDAY I'll be in the fursuit charity auction. It starts around 4pm. If you want a dance with me come and bid!! If you wanna watch me flail on the dance floor because I'm clearly no dancer then GO TO THE DANCE!!
Saturday
Mimosas!! Sushi!!! REPEAT!!
Sunday:
Fursuit Charity bowling event with
Kijani_lion at 2:30-4pm. Come watch me tear up the gutters and fetch pins!Monday I fly back home and go straight to work starting around 4pm to fricking 11pm!! FML I gotta make this weekend COUNT!!!
See you all there! ^.^
A story/rant about 3 weeks in my life...and I still love it
Posted 11 years agoThree weeks ago I was in a car accident. It wasn't anything major.
I was on waiting at a stoplight on my way to work. BAM. Got rear-ended. Stomped on the brakes to stop my car from continuing into the guy in front of me and glanced in the rear view mirror at the car that had hit me. It was being driven by some kid who had the most dumbfounded look on his face moments before bringing his hands to cover his eyes and plant his head into the steering wheel. I got out of my car, walked up to him as he exited his, and we shook his hands. Then we embraced. I was just glad that we were both ok, and so was he.
He didn't have a license on him. His story was that he was just coming from the gym. We shook hands, swapped license plate numbers, phone numbers, names, addresses, etc. Called it good. The accident occurred in Everett but the home address he gave me was in Edmonds about 15 miles south. Long drive for a trip to the gym but I took it as is. Worst case scenario was that he was uninsured and I would never hear from him again. He told me he would call me with his driver's license info later. I told him that was cool and we parted ways.
I still made it to work on time.
Work was hell. Hardest shift I've ever had in the ER. We're expected to perform one complete exam in an hour and I ended up doing 11 in 10 hours (about 8 of them in the last 6 hours. Let that math sink in). No break time no lunch, I just worked. I spared 5 minutes to give the kid a call early into my shift when I hadn't heard from him regarding his license info. I got a voice mail, left him a message, went back to work. 15 minutes later got a call back but the guy who called sounded nothing like him and there was so much noise where he was at that I couldn't figure out a single thing he said. he then hung up.
Later in my shift I took a few more minutes to let my own insurance (USAA, an insurance agency used by military veterans) know the whole story up until then. The gal I talked to was incredibly nice and helpful and made me feel like everything was being taken care of.
I then took a call from a ER doctor who was unhappy with how long it had taken me to get to his patient and for him to get the results. To his (and my own) credit he said he was happy that my exam was as helpful as it had been (I had found numerous kidney stones lodged in a patient's ureter which prevented her from needing a costly CT to find them) but then he went on to lambast me about how long it too me to get to the patient and for him to get the results.
"I'm sorry." I replied. Remember, 11 patients in a 10hour day. I was working hard already.
"I'm sorry." I had said. Except with the crystal clear tone of "Fuck you. But I am sorry. Still FUCK YOU." Seriously fuck him I had done a damn good job, most folks don't think to check the ureters but I damn well did.
I went back to work. Finished my shift. Went home. Slept like a damn log.
This all occurred on a Friday. I made a mental note that come Monday I would likely have to face a supervisor for the delays that occurred and possibly an unhappy write-up from an irate doctor who found me to be an inadequate vent for him. (seriously, what a jackass. Also anyone who tries to vent at me will feel profoundly unsatisfied by it. Jeezus two of my drill instructors were former Marines, YELLING AT ME WILL NOT SCARE ME.)
My insurance had put me in touch with an autoshop that actually opened their doors for me that Saturday (when they were normally closed) just so I could get a quote on the repairs. The manager himself greeted me and inspect the car. He addressed me by my military rank (which hasn't happened for a few years now, I was both surprised and hugely humbled by that) and he was a lot of fun to talk to. Amazing customer service, I couldn't have been happier. If you ever use Fix-It Auto in Kenmore, WA you're going to be happy.
His quote came to over $3000 and he assumed it would be more once they started pulling fenders off and seeing the real damage underneath. I still hadn't heard from the kid who hit me so I waved good-bye to my $500 deductible and told the manager thanks for seeing me on the weekend and that I would bring the car by for repairs during their next opening which was two weeks later.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday flew by. Nothing came of the irate ER doc and there were no repercussions from my insane Friday night.
I went to Vancoufur on Thursday and had an absolute blast. Seriously the furries in the Vancouver, BC area are absolutely dedicated to their cause and they put on an amazing show. They also tolerate a lot of shit from us coming out of the states; especially those of us who show up to their con to troll their dance comps and get belligerently drunk. I love our Canadian furs and I can't talk highly enough of them. I LOVE THAT CON. I also hope that folks go easier on them in the future, especially those of us coming from the states. :P
Got back to Seattle on Monday and turned my phone on. Had two voice mails from Geico waiting for me. Apparently the kid had insurance after all and they had finally gotten back to me. The Geico rep was a gal who was even more amazing than my own insurance rep at USAA. I told her I already had a shop in mind to work on my car and a quote from about the repairs. Turns out it was a shop that Geico wasn't affiliated with but she said they would work with it anyway. That was too cool of them. She also said they would cover my costs for a rental car while my car was in the shop and that she would get me in touch with a rental agency.
10 minutes later I got a call from Hertz. They took some info from me and said they would get a car that matched the one I was putting into the shop and have it waiting there for me.
I found out the next day that our landlady hadn't received the utility bills from a roommate. Also Found out that she had apparently lost the rent check of another roommate. Both roommates are now going to move out and the rest of us have to find replacements for at least one of them.
I have an amazing girlfriend razzy_lee who looks out for my well-being during times like this that are stressful as all hell to me. She also lets me help her out in return when her own life gets rough. It's so rewarding to help out someone I love so much and I seriously feel that together we can get each other through anything. To top it all I have some amazing friends (Ciscofur Keeko-chan stripesthedragon) living with me, some of whom are moving on but I still love them all the same.
I'm going to stop there because as you can see at any given time I have multiple story lines existing in my life and all of them have their own drama and successes associated with them. My job alone is a huge source of both stress and success to me. Just last night (another Friday ER shift, no accidents this time though :P) I scanned a pregnant gal who was admitted to the ER following a motor vehicle accident (ok so there technically was an accident...). A case like that is kind of a big fucking deal and when I get called into that situation there are a lot of eyes on me waiting to her back if I find any signs of internal bleeding in the mother or a placental abruption with the fetus. A doctor for the mother. A doctor for the fetus. A doctor to interpret my exam. 3 minds with their own questions to answer. You can't fuck up in that situation. You can't miss that internal bleeding, you can't miss that tear in the placenta. Don't. Fuck. Up.
Jeezus. Even when I say I'm going to "stop right there" I can't. There's still something going on, something to add. It doesn't end. And you know what? I'm ok with it. I can handle it.
This is what I'm here for, and I'm loving it.
See you all at BLFC!
I was on waiting at a stoplight on my way to work. BAM. Got rear-ended. Stomped on the brakes to stop my car from continuing into the guy in front of me and glanced in the rear view mirror at the car that had hit me. It was being driven by some kid who had the most dumbfounded look on his face moments before bringing his hands to cover his eyes and plant his head into the steering wheel. I got out of my car, walked up to him as he exited his, and we shook his hands. Then we embraced. I was just glad that we were both ok, and so was he.
He didn't have a license on him. His story was that he was just coming from the gym. We shook hands, swapped license plate numbers, phone numbers, names, addresses, etc. Called it good. The accident occurred in Everett but the home address he gave me was in Edmonds about 15 miles south. Long drive for a trip to the gym but I took it as is. Worst case scenario was that he was uninsured and I would never hear from him again. He told me he would call me with his driver's license info later. I told him that was cool and we parted ways.
I still made it to work on time.
Work was hell. Hardest shift I've ever had in the ER. We're expected to perform one complete exam in an hour and I ended up doing 11 in 10 hours (about 8 of them in the last 6 hours. Let that math sink in). No break time no lunch, I just worked. I spared 5 minutes to give the kid a call early into my shift when I hadn't heard from him regarding his license info. I got a voice mail, left him a message, went back to work. 15 minutes later got a call back but the guy who called sounded nothing like him and there was so much noise where he was at that I couldn't figure out a single thing he said. he then hung up.
Later in my shift I took a few more minutes to let my own insurance (USAA, an insurance agency used by military veterans) know the whole story up until then. The gal I talked to was incredibly nice and helpful and made me feel like everything was being taken care of.
I then took a call from a ER doctor who was unhappy with how long it had taken me to get to his patient and for him to get the results. To his (and my own) credit he said he was happy that my exam was as helpful as it had been (I had found numerous kidney stones lodged in a patient's ureter which prevented her from needing a costly CT to find them) but then he went on to lambast me about how long it too me to get to the patient and for him to get the results.
"I'm sorry." I replied. Remember, 11 patients in a 10hour day. I was working hard already.
"I'm sorry." I had said. Except with the crystal clear tone of "Fuck you. But I am sorry. Still FUCK YOU." Seriously fuck him I had done a damn good job, most folks don't think to check the ureters but I damn well did.
I went back to work. Finished my shift. Went home. Slept like a damn log.
This all occurred on a Friday. I made a mental note that come Monday I would likely have to face a supervisor for the delays that occurred and possibly an unhappy write-up from an irate doctor who found me to be an inadequate vent for him. (seriously, what a jackass. Also anyone who tries to vent at me will feel profoundly unsatisfied by it. Jeezus two of my drill instructors were former Marines, YELLING AT ME WILL NOT SCARE ME.)
My insurance had put me in touch with an autoshop that actually opened their doors for me that Saturday (when they were normally closed) just so I could get a quote on the repairs. The manager himself greeted me and inspect the car. He addressed me by my military rank (which hasn't happened for a few years now, I was both surprised and hugely humbled by that) and he was a lot of fun to talk to. Amazing customer service, I couldn't have been happier. If you ever use Fix-It Auto in Kenmore, WA you're going to be happy.
His quote came to over $3000 and he assumed it would be more once they started pulling fenders off and seeing the real damage underneath. I still hadn't heard from the kid who hit me so I waved good-bye to my $500 deductible and told the manager thanks for seeing me on the weekend and that I would bring the car by for repairs during their next opening which was two weeks later.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday flew by. Nothing came of the irate ER doc and there were no repercussions from my insane Friday night.
I went to Vancoufur on Thursday and had an absolute blast. Seriously the furries in the Vancouver, BC area are absolutely dedicated to their cause and they put on an amazing show. They also tolerate a lot of shit from us coming out of the states; especially those of us who show up to their con to troll their dance comps and get belligerently drunk. I love our Canadian furs and I can't talk highly enough of them. I LOVE THAT CON. I also hope that folks go easier on them in the future, especially those of us coming from the states. :P
Got back to Seattle on Monday and turned my phone on. Had two voice mails from Geico waiting for me. Apparently the kid had insurance after all and they had finally gotten back to me. The Geico rep was a gal who was even more amazing than my own insurance rep at USAA. I told her I already had a shop in mind to work on my car and a quote from about the repairs. Turns out it was a shop that Geico wasn't affiliated with but she said they would work with it anyway. That was too cool of them. She also said they would cover my costs for a rental car while my car was in the shop and that she would get me in touch with a rental agency.
10 minutes later I got a call from Hertz. They took some info from me and said they would get a car that matched the one I was putting into the shop and have it waiting there for me.
I found out the next day that our landlady hadn't received the utility bills from a roommate. Also Found out that she had apparently lost the rent check of another roommate. Both roommates are now going to move out and the rest of us have to find replacements for at least one of them.
I have an amazing girlfriend
razzy_lee who looks out for my well-being during times like this that are stressful as all hell to me. She also lets me help her out in return when her own life gets rough. It's so rewarding to help out someone I love so much and I seriously feel that together we can get each other through anything. To top it all I have some amazing friends (Ciscofur Keeko-chan stripesthedragon) living with me, some of whom are moving on but I still love them all the same. I'm going to stop there because as you can see at any given time I have multiple story lines existing in my life and all of them have their own drama and successes associated with them. My job alone is a huge source of both stress and success to me. Just last night (another Friday ER shift, no accidents this time though :P) I scanned a pregnant gal who was admitted to the ER following a motor vehicle accident (ok so there technically was an accident...). A case like that is kind of a big fucking deal and when I get called into that situation there are a lot of eyes on me waiting to her back if I find any signs of internal bleeding in the mother or a placental abruption with the fetus. A doctor for the mother. A doctor for the fetus. A doctor to interpret my exam. 3 minds with their own questions to answer. You can't fuck up in that situation. You can't miss that internal bleeding, you can't miss that tear in the placenta. Don't. Fuck. Up.
Jeezus. Even when I say I'm going to "stop right there" I can't. There's still something going on, something to add. It doesn't end. And you know what? I'm ok with it. I can handle it.
This is what I'm here for, and I'm loving it.
See you all at BLFC!
Vancoufur 2014!!
Posted 11 years agoSee ya there! :D
By now you know that I don't do memes in the traditional sense but if you want a good one check out the VF Meme by
whitefoot http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5473808/
His answer to question #8 kills me every time xD
By now you know that I don't do memes in the traditional sense but if you want a good one check out the VF Meme by
whitefoot http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5473808/His answer to question #8 kills me every time xD
Vote for Con*Tact Caffeine BARK BARK BARK BARK!!
Posted 11 years ago
contact can potentially win $25,000 if they get enough votes in a contest FedEx is running to support small businesses!Every day you can cast one vote for them until the 23rd. Every vote helps! Whether you vote once or 17 more times over the course of the contest it's all going to be helpful. Here's the link to the contest:
http://smallbusinessgrant.fedex.com.....EBAPPFACEBOOK0
SPREAD THE WORD AND VOTE!!
Also, if you have no idea who I'm talking about their website is here: http://contactcaffeine.bigcartel.com/
Now vote! VOTE!!!! BARKBARKBARKBARKBARK!!!!! *waves soapy flags*
Living the dream~
Posted 12 years agoFirst of all I live in a full blown fur house and it's crazy awesome! My roommates are:
Keeko-chan One of my best darn friends in the world. I'm so happy that he landed the job he has and is enjoying it. Also he makes really good diners that smell amazing.....
Rather_Dashing1121 Who is the life of any party and so much fun to have around. Also he works a crazy amount of hours, I can't help but respect the hell out of him for it.
CiscoFur Who can go from being the most chill guy in the world to the biggest party animal ever. Seriously, I've never seen anyone monkey-walk up stairs like that while inebriated, haha.
And finally my girlfriend razzy_lee who has contributed so much to my life even since before we started dating. I know she's been getting some crap from the fandom lately but it hasn't changed my love or respect for her and that's all any of you will ever get from me about the subject. Also her snuggles are amazing <3.
My upcoming cons:
Vancoufur 2014!
Biggest Little Fur Con 2014 (You damn well know it!)
Rainfurrest 2014 (My home con!)
I try to split my time at cons between hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones who have asked to meet up somewhere and do lunch or fursuit together or drain the nearest bar or whatever. Seriously, if you ever want to just talk to me or walk around a bit let me know and I will do my damnedest to be there. I like meeting people, even if it's just a for a few moments, and trading stories about life and how we've ended up where we are today. Everyone has followed an interesting path to reach this moment right now and I like hearing about it.
Fursuiting stuff:
I got to model for
Kitty-Loves-Monster recently! I've always been a big supporter of stripeywolf and his KLM business so I was really happy to be invited to his lab for this. I modeled the new Barkologist and SWAG shirt (designed by Razzy!) along with 
aphinity
You can find the Barkologist shirt here: https://kittylovesmonster.com/garment/barkologist
And the SWAG shirt here: https://kittylovesmonster.com/garment/swag
You can also +fav the photos in that gallery here on FA by heading to the Kitty Loves Monster FA page
Other furry news:
Kijani_lion recently created a non-profit organization called Emerald City Critters! It has a website where you can find a couple videos of our first official event at the Issaquah Salmon Days: http://www.emeraldcitycritters.com/
It's not a strictly furry NPO which means if an event doesn't need fursuits but still wants volunteers we can still arrive under the ECC banner and contribute in a meaningful way. It at least gets the group's foot in the door at events which traditionally may not use fursuiters but might warm up to that once we build up a repertoire with them. A few of my furry acquaintances didn't see past the "Not a strictly furry NPO" portion and gave it no or even negative support and all I can say Congrats on not thinking outside of the box. xP ECC has the potential the pave the way for a lot future fursuting events and I have a lot of hope for it.
Holy crap jobworkcareerthing!
So I have this job where I use ultrasound technology to look into people's bodies and help their doctors figure out what is (or at least isn't) wrong with them. I also use it to look at babies and watch them grow and pick out defects in their bodies that may harm or even kill them at delivery. It makes the difference between a baby being born and then suffocating versus being born and then immediately operated by a pediatric cardiologist who corrects their heart vessels so that blood moves properly through their bodies and prevents them from imminent death.
It pays EXTREMELY WELL. So well that I've found myself treading a more philanthropic path through the fandom rather than spending my spare money on more parkour gym time or skydiving. I've actually discovered that helping others (especially some of my best friends most of whom are furs) feels more rewarding than a stand-up landing after a skydive or mastering an impossible looking parkour movement. It's one thing to do well myself, it's another thing to see my friends doing better than they had been before, especially when it immediately leads to them following their own dreams.
That's all for now. I'm looking into doing Elliot's Spring Gathering and MidWestFurFest next year but those cons are less definite than any other ones I've mentioned.
Cheers!
Keeko-chan One of my best darn friends in the world. I'm so happy that he landed the job he has and is enjoying it. Also he makes really good diners that smell amazing.....
Rather_Dashing1121 Who is the life of any party and so much fun to have around. Also he works a crazy amount of hours, I can't help but respect the hell out of him for it.
CiscoFur Who can go from being the most chill guy in the world to the biggest party animal ever. Seriously, I've never seen anyone monkey-walk up stairs like that while inebriated, haha. And finally my girlfriend
razzy_lee who has contributed so much to my life even since before we started dating. I know she's been getting some crap from the fandom lately but it hasn't changed my love or respect for her and that's all any of you will ever get from me about the subject. Also her snuggles are amazing <3.My upcoming cons:
Vancoufur 2014!
Biggest Little Fur Con 2014 (You damn well know it!)
Rainfurrest 2014 (My home con!)
I try to split my time at cons between hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones who have asked to meet up somewhere and do lunch or fursuit together or drain the nearest bar or whatever. Seriously, if you ever want to just talk to me or walk around a bit let me know and I will do my damnedest to be there. I like meeting people, even if it's just a for a few moments, and trading stories about life and how we've ended up where we are today. Everyone has followed an interesting path to reach this moment right now and I like hearing about it.
Fursuiting stuff:
I got to model for
Kitty-Loves-Monster recently! I've always been a big supporter of stripeywolf and his KLM business so I was really happy to be invited to his lab for this. I modeled the new Barkologist and SWAG shirt (designed by Razzy!) along with 
aphinityYou can find the Barkologist shirt here: https://kittylovesmonster.com/garment/barkologist
And the SWAG shirt here: https://kittylovesmonster.com/garment/swag
You can also +fav the photos in that gallery here on FA by heading to the Kitty Loves Monster FA page
Other furry news:
Kijani_lion recently created a non-profit organization called Emerald City Critters! It has a website where you can find a couple videos of our first official event at the Issaquah Salmon Days: http://www.emeraldcitycritters.com/
It's not a strictly furry NPO which means if an event doesn't need fursuits but still wants volunteers we can still arrive under the ECC banner and contribute in a meaningful way. It at least gets the group's foot in the door at events which traditionally may not use fursuiters but might warm up to that once we build up a repertoire with them. A few of my furry acquaintances didn't see past the "Not a strictly furry NPO" portion and gave it no or even negative support and all I can say Congrats on not thinking outside of the box. xP ECC has the potential the pave the way for a lot future fursuting events and I have a lot of hope for it.
Holy crap jobworkcareerthing!
So I have this job where I use ultrasound technology to look into people's bodies and help their doctors figure out what is (or at least isn't) wrong with them. I also use it to look at babies and watch them grow and pick out defects in their bodies that may harm or even kill them at delivery. It makes the difference between a baby being born and then suffocating versus being born and then immediately operated by a pediatric cardiologist who corrects their heart vessels so that blood moves properly through their bodies and prevents them from imminent death.
It pays EXTREMELY WELL. So well that I've found myself treading a more philanthropic path through the fandom rather than spending my spare money on more parkour gym time or skydiving. I've actually discovered that helping others (especially some of my best friends most of whom are furs) feels more rewarding than a stand-up landing after a skydive or mastering an impossible looking parkour movement. It's one thing to do well myself, it's another thing to see my friends doing better than they had been before, especially when it immediately leads to them following their own dreams.
That's all for now. I'm looking into doing Elliot's Spring Gathering and MidWestFurFest next year but those cons are less definite than any other ones I've mentioned.
Cheers!
RF Meme BarkBarkBARK!
Posted 12 years agoOmG I just drank a whole bunch of green tea and now I'm about to write a meme journal for my favorite con!!
HARBGLEBARFLELEFLLELEroo-roo-roo~
SEE YA THERE! :D
HARBGLEBARFLELEFLLELEroo-roo-roo~
SEE YA THERE! :D
It's a journal!
Posted 12 years agoI figured it's time to write up a journal about what I've been up to in the fandom and life in general. I'll start with a few quick things:
--I'll be at BLFC!! Go carts, sushi, high-class hotel and cheap everything!! It's cheap so that you can blow all your money at the in-hotel casino, which I probably won't even visit, haha.
--Some stoopid swaggerdog stole my heart!! It's okay though, I kinda stole hers in return.
I mean, I really think she likes me. ;3
-- keeko-chan is my roommate! At first I hated it SOO MUCH because he made everything smell like strawberries but then he ran out of hair product so all is well again. xP
So, about my life.
Last summer I graduated from college with a degree in diagnostic ultrasound technology. I was immediately hired by a large and well-funded hospital in the Pacific Northwest. It has a busy emergency department that runs 24/7 where I get to work with ER doctors and radiologists in order to help diagnose the varying ailments that bring people in.
The work is intense but I love it. It's incredibly fulfilling to be part of the process that helps people who are in pain or are otherwise "unwell". It's a lot like fursuiting in the sense that I'm doing something positive and helping people and my community.
The gratification is a bit different though. When I'm suiting I can see the smiles from the people around me and feel their hugs. It's a wonderful experience. As a technologist in the ER the gratification I get comes from answering the question about "What is wrong". It's tougher to get because the answer isn't always there for me to find or isn't always seen by ultrasound. Sometimes people just hurt, and other times they're lying. You never really know. Still, it's the coolest thing in the world when I'm able to use the technology and expertise I have to essentially paint a picture about my patients by describing the condition of their internal organs and the anomalies I'm seeing in them.
'Answering the question' isn't always fun. Large metro hospitals draw in people from all walks of life. Sometimes my patients are kindly old ladies with simple complications from diabetes and other times they're drug addicts looking for their next fix or suffering from the effects of their last one. You'd be surprised at where junkies are willing to stick themselves with dirty needles after all the other good spots have rotted off. Even worse is when it's a pregnant junkie. I had a gal come in the other week after taking a major hit of heroin. She didn't know she was pregnant, and you couldn't tell by looking at her because she was so skinny, but that baby was at least 20 weeks along (women generally start to look pregnant much sooner than that). I can't begin to describe how disturbing it was to put the transducer down on her belly and see that kid thrashing around inside of her like it was in a washing machine while it's heart raced at near tachycardic levels.
It's a sad fact that you will see terrible things like that if you work in an emergency department. And you'll see them regularly. Still, I've managed to hold on to that genuine sense of optimism and cheer that has come to define me since I joined this fandom, and I owe a lot of that to you guys. I don't post much but I check FA regularly and I try to keep up on trials and victories of my friends and a few other furs who popped up on my radar as being interesting or inspiring. Tracking wolfgem's recovery has been especially inspirational and I absolutely loved her Candy K9's project (They looked incredible at FC!).
It's a fun fact that my cheeriness and optimism occasionally rub folks the wrong way. I'm regularly told things like "the world isn't all sunshine and cheer." as if I were ignorant to the pains and treacheries of the real world and due for a rude awakening. To be honest I'm kinda proud of being chided that way. It's one thing to be happy because you don't know how bad things can be out there, but it's something else to know full well and be happy despite that. If I'm able to be this way after all I've seen in Iraq and the ER then that's pretty amazing, and I have you all to thank for a lot of that.
Friends, keep being awesome. :)
Oh yeah, and I'm starting to get back into Parkour after a 1 year hiatus. ...Let's just say it's been a rough start but the challenge is just as fun now as it was before. Hopefully some cool stuff will be coming of it!
--Cheers!
--I'll be at BLFC!! Go carts, sushi, high-class hotel and cheap everything!! It's cheap so that you can blow all your money at the in-hotel casino, which I probably won't even visit, haha.
--Some stoopid swaggerdog stole my heart!! It's okay though, I kinda stole hers in return.
I mean, I really think she likes me. ;3
--
keeko-chan is my roommate! At first I hated it SOO MUCH because he made everything smell like strawberries but then he ran out of hair product so all is well again. xPSo, about my life.
Last summer I graduated from college with a degree in diagnostic ultrasound technology. I was immediately hired by a large and well-funded hospital in the Pacific Northwest. It has a busy emergency department that runs 24/7 where I get to work with ER doctors and radiologists in order to help diagnose the varying ailments that bring people in.
The work is intense but I love it. It's incredibly fulfilling to be part of the process that helps people who are in pain or are otherwise "unwell". It's a lot like fursuiting in the sense that I'm doing something positive and helping people and my community.
The gratification is a bit different though. When I'm suiting I can see the smiles from the people around me and feel their hugs. It's a wonderful experience. As a technologist in the ER the gratification I get comes from answering the question about "What is wrong". It's tougher to get because the answer isn't always there for me to find or isn't always seen by ultrasound. Sometimes people just hurt, and other times they're lying. You never really know. Still, it's the coolest thing in the world when I'm able to use the technology and expertise I have to essentially paint a picture about my patients by describing the condition of their internal organs and the anomalies I'm seeing in them.
'Answering the question' isn't always fun. Large metro hospitals draw in people from all walks of life. Sometimes my patients are kindly old ladies with simple complications from diabetes and other times they're drug addicts looking for their next fix or suffering from the effects of their last one. You'd be surprised at where junkies are willing to stick themselves with dirty needles after all the other good spots have rotted off. Even worse is when it's a pregnant junkie. I had a gal come in the other week after taking a major hit of heroin. She didn't know she was pregnant, and you couldn't tell by looking at her because she was so skinny, but that baby was at least 20 weeks along (women generally start to look pregnant much sooner than that). I can't begin to describe how disturbing it was to put the transducer down on her belly and see that kid thrashing around inside of her like it was in a washing machine while it's heart raced at near tachycardic levels.
It's a sad fact that you will see terrible things like that if you work in an emergency department. And you'll see them regularly. Still, I've managed to hold on to that genuine sense of optimism and cheer that has come to define me since I joined this fandom, and I owe a lot of that to you guys. I don't post much but I check FA regularly and I try to keep up on trials and victories of my friends and a few other furs who popped up on my radar as being interesting or inspiring. Tracking wolfgem's recovery has been especially inspirational and I absolutely loved her Candy K9's project (They looked incredible at FC!).
It's a fun fact that my cheeriness and optimism occasionally rub folks the wrong way. I'm regularly told things like "the world isn't all sunshine and cheer." as if I were ignorant to the pains and treacheries of the real world and due for a rude awakening. To be honest I'm kinda proud of being chided that way. It's one thing to be happy because you don't know how bad things can be out there, but it's something else to know full well and be happy despite that. If I'm able to be this way after all I've seen in Iraq and the ER then that's pretty amazing, and I have you all to thank for a lot of that.
Friends, keep being awesome. :)
Oh yeah, and I'm starting to get back into Parkour after a 1 year hiatus. ...Let's just say it's been a rough start but the challenge is just as fun now as it was before. Hopefully some cool stuff will be coming of it!
--Cheers!
Vancoufur!!!!
Posted 12 years agoSmaller cons are really exciting to me. I like that I'll be meeting people and then consistently running into them over the weekend. That was my biggest disappointment with FC believe it or not, lol (it was still an amazing con though!). Also I love Canada and the Canadian furries are some of the most generous people I've ever met in my life. Really, Canadians in general are great people, but a Canadian furry is among the best this world can offer. I love those guys!
So that's really all a con needs to offer to get me excited for it :3 That said, I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of the con's promo video so I'm that much more excited for it!! A huge thanks goes to
BabyCheetah and 
univaded_fox and 
professor_whovianart for including me in it. :)
Here's the video if you haven't seen it yet. It's silly, it's fun, and it was so cool to be a part of!
Hope to see you there! And yes I still think those cut&paste con memes can go die in a fire because 1. NOBODY is going to offer ANYBODY "lots and lots of money" and 2. I never go to a con with a plan for what I'll be doing xP Although some Harlem Shake action is definitely in store for this one, hehe.
Cheers!
So that's really all a con needs to offer to get me excited for it :3 That said, I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of the con's promo video so I'm that much more excited for it!! A huge thanks goes to
BabyCheetah and 
univaded_fox and 
professor_whovianart for including me in it. :)Here's the video if you haven't seen it yet. It's silly, it's fun, and it was so cool to be a part of!
Hope to see you there! And yes I still think those cut&paste con memes can go die in a fire because 1. NOBODY is going to offer ANYBODY "lots and lots of money" and 2. I never go to a con with a plan for what I'll be doing xP Although some Harlem Shake action is definitely in store for this one, hehe.
Cheers!
FC Meme! With the usual twist...
Posted 13 years agoI swear these memes keep getting more long-winded, so let's condense that crap:
I'm heading to FC! It's gonna be freaking RAD!!
If I'm not running around in fursuit then I'll be running around as myself! Say Hi either way!
BALL!!!!
If I find something to jump on I'll probably jump on it! Note: persons do not count as thing that I jump on. Usually.
Don't grab my butt! It's really weird and if I ever see a photo on the internets of myself in fursuit with hands on my butt I will hunt you down and PUNCH YOUR ANUS.**
BARKBARKBARKBARKK!!!!
Also: ALCOHOL! Because I'm not driving the damn plane that's taking me there!!
It'll be Razzy_lee's birthday, so wish her a happy birthday and give her lots of hugs and drinks. If you can't give her something alcoholic then get her something hydrating, it all goes to a good cause!!
**
amani_lion is the only exception to this rule because he'd probably enjoy that, the bastard. Instead I'd probably tie-dye him. Or pay a really hot hooker chick to flirt with him for a bit THEN PUNCH HIS ANUS. WITH FALCON HOOKER PUNCHES.
See you all there! :D
BARK!
I'm heading to FC! It's gonna be freaking RAD!!
If I'm not running around in fursuit then I'll be running around as myself! Say Hi either way!
BALL!!!!
If I find something to jump on I'll probably jump on it! Note: persons do not count as thing that I jump on. Usually.
Don't grab my butt! It's really weird and if I ever see a photo on the internets of myself in fursuit with hands on my butt I will hunt you down and PUNCH YOUR ANUS.**
BARKBARKBARKBARKK!!!!
Also: ALCOHOL! Because I'm not driving the damn plane that's taking me there!!
It'll be
Razzy_lee's birthday, so wish her a happy birthday and give her lots of hugs and drinks. If you can't give her something alcoholic then get her something hydrating, it all goes to a good cause!!**
amani_lion is the only exception to this rule because he'd probably enjoy that, the bastard. Instead I'd probably tie-dye him. Or pay a really hot hooker chick to flirt with him for a bit THEN PUNCH HIS ANUS. WITH FALCON HOOKER PUNCHES.See you all there! :D
BARK!
Promoting an artist friend who makes double-sided badges!
Posted 13 years agoIf you've been to a con or a meetup then you've probably worn a badge, and if you've worn a badge then you've probably had issues with the darn thing flipping around on you and showing off its very uninformative blank side. Well 
henrie has the solution to your woes, go here! http://www.furaffinity.net/full/8884808/ They're only $15 and look amazing!
henrie has the solution to your woes, go here! http://www.furaffinity.net/full/8884808/ They're only $15 and look amazing! Rainfurrest Meme (and how to break)
Posted 13 years agoIt's gonna be GREAT!!!
I'm gonna run around and eat food and drink stuff!!
I'm gonna hug lots people!
I'll draw on your face!
I have a good excuse to finally use an elevator!!
Insert something involving the pool and hot tub too!
*Terry Crews impression* EXPLOSIONNNS!!!
BarkBarkBark!
....And that's just the first day! I'll figure out the rest of the weekend when I'm there.
*drops the mic*
I'm gonna run around and eat food and drink stuff!!
I'm gonna hug lots people!
I'll draw on your face!
I have a good excuse to finally use an elevator!!
Insert something involving the pool and hot tub too!
*Terry Crews impression* EXPLOSIONNNS!!!
BarkBarkBark!
....And that's just the first day! I'll figure out the rest of the weekend when I'm there.
*drops the mic*
One amazing week! Also Rainfurrest promo video!
Posted 13 years agoSo last week I:
1: Graduated from College.
2: Celebrated my birthday!
3: COMPLETELY finished my time in the military!
4: Went to my first day of work!
But first check out the promo video for Rainfurrest brought to us by babycheetah and univadedfox (as well as the dozens of other furs involved who deserved to be named but won't be because that kind of information overload causes furry eyes to glaze, namely mine :P)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHEDoefSFGA
Keep in mind that this is a furry video for a furry convention. If you go into with a serious mindset and expect to see Hollywood style cinematics and SFX and can do nothing but put out flaws and typos then you're missing the point of being a furry, which is to have some damn fun! Drop a few Yeager bombs if your inner critique starts to ruin the video for you. If it's a particularly loud critique use vodka 151 and a beer chaser :P
Did a cool write-up about the making of this video and the effort that went into it. These guys totally have my respect for working so hard on this, it's amazing when you see how much work this sort of project really is. Here's the journal: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3746625/
Okay so about me. Because hey that's what journals are supposed to be for, right?
1: I graduated from college!! I now hold an AA degree in Diagnostic Ultrasound. Every time I try to describe what I do people get a confused look on their face. The quick and dirty of it is that I use ultrasound technology to evaluate people's guts. Sometimes their guts have tumors, sometimes they have babies inside of them, but most of the time they seem to have nothing wrong with them (and then I have to worry that I missed something x.x). If you've ever been pregnant or visited an ER or doctor for abdominal pain then you've probably had the type of ultrasound that I do.
I just deleted a very dry and boring paragraph describing the almost 4 years spent getting this degree. Just know that it was a long process but also one that was worth the time and effort. The program prepped me for the stuff I would see at hospitals and my internships got me trained extremely well at how to do my new job. It was an amazing experience and one that I'm happy to talk about to anyone interested in it, especially if you're looking into a career in the medical field.
2: Birthday!!! I'm now 28. Fun fact: I haven't celebrated my own birthday since I was a teenager. Seriously. When I was younger I didn't have a group of friends who I could invite over to make the day feel special. Simple as that. When I joined the military my birthday was always during our annual training. When you're stuck out in the middle of a training center for two weeks the last thing you want to do is mention that it's you're birthday to a bunch of bored Infantryman. It's how you get tied to the bumper of a humvee then driven through mud puddles. Hehe...almost no one knew when my birthday was until my last couple years in the service and by then I was kinda untouchable in my unit ;) So anyway this birthday was special because I not only had the day to myself but I also had a great band of friends to do things with on that day. Was it a hard day of drinking? Clubbing? Movies? No. All I wanted was some damn sushi, and a lot of it. So we went to a really good sushi buffet and killed plate after plate of it. That alone made it the best birthday ever, but I also received some really thoughtful gifts from
Maxcoyote Kijani_lion and Razzy_lee You guys are so awesome, and so are the rest of you who came to celebrate the day with me :)
3: My contract with the military was for 6 years of national guard service and 2 years in the individual ready reserve. I extended my NG service for 1 year (which replaced a year of IRR) and the last year of IRR ended a few days ago. So now I don't have to worry about being called back even if WW3 breaks out. Yay.
4: I have a job! The hospital I finished my internship at hired me about 3 weeks ago. Pretty much none of my daily routine has changed except I no longer have to get another sonographer to check my work. There's also a very sweet cha-CHING sound in the back of my head every hour on the hour and it gets time and a half louder once 10 hours has passed by in a day *Super big grin!* I'm technically part-time but the position comes with benefits and a lot of my co-workers are taking time off for the month so I'm scheduled full time plus a day or two of OT as well. I won't be rolling in money but I also won't be hurting for it either. I can at least say I feel financially secure for the time being and that alone is a huge burden off my shoulders. It was a big source of angst for me to watch my savings erode for the past several years and now I can finally expect it to start growing again.
Whew. I should probably update more often so that each journal isn't a darn novel. Oh well, these are for me as much as they are for you so there :P
Next up on my schedule is for me to register for my board exams so that I can be fully credentialed in my current Abdominal & OB/GYN specialties. I'm signed up for 2 conventions in Sept, Rainfurrest being one and the other is being put on by Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography. It'll be my first non-furry non-anime convention so I have no idea how I'm supposed to act there xP They have a dance night on Saturday and I'm already making plans to bring my fursuit to it. Some of my fellow grads even recommended the idea so if nothing else I'll bring it and then dance with just them until getting thrown out, lol.
Didn't do any skydiving this summer. I just didn't have the mindset for it, I've been too wrapped up with everything else. Next summer though.
I also took a lot of time off from parkour. My membership at the parkour gym has been on hold for the past 5 months although I occasionally make trips to the park with keeko-chan to jump around on stuff. Overall I've been able to maintain most of the basic skills I have but there's definitely been no improvement over the last few months. I kinda hate spinning my wheels like that but it's better than completely losing what I had before.
OOookay I've been sitting here long enough. Gonna go run around outside for a bit, it's a nice day outside!
1: Graduated from College.
2: Celebrated my birthday!
3: COMPLETELY finished my time in the military!
4: Went to my first day of work!
But first check out the promo video for Rainfurrest brought to us by
babycheetah and univadedfox (as well as the dozens of other furs involved who deserved to be named but won't be because that kind of information overload causes furry eyes to glaze, namely mine :P)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHEDoefSFGA
Keep in mind that this is a furry video for a furry convention. If you go into with a serious mindset and expect to see Hollywood style cinematics and SFX and can do nothing but put out flaws and typos then you're missing the point of being a furry, which is to have some damn fun! Drop a few Yeager bombs if your inner critique starts to ruin the video for you. If it's a particularly loud critique use vodka 151 and a beer chaser :P
Did a cool write-up about the making of this video and the effort that went into it. These guys totally have my respect for working so hard on this, it's amazing when you see how much work this sort of project really is. Here's the journal: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3746625/Okay so about me. Because hey that's what journals are supposed to be for, right?
1: I graduated from college!! I now hold an AA degree in Diagnostic Ultrasound. Every time I try to describe what I do people get a confused look on their face. The quick and dirty of it is that I use ultrasound technology to evaluate people's guts. Sometimes their guts have tumors, sometimes they have babies inside of them, but most of the time they seem to have nothing wrong with them (and then I have to worry that I missed something x.x). If you've ever been pregnant or visited an ER or doctor for abdominal pain then you've probably had the type of ultrasound that I do.
I just deleted a very dry and boring paragraph describing the almost 4 years spent getting this degree. Just know that it was a long process but also one that was worth the time and effort. The program prepped me for the stuff I would see at hospitals and my internships got me trained extremely well at how to do my new job. It was an amazing experience and one that I'm happy to talk about to anyone interested in it, especially if you're looking into a career in the medical field.
2: Birthday!!! I'm now 28. Fun fact: I haven't celebrated my own birthday since I was a teenager. Seriously. When I was younger I didn't have a group of friends who I could invite over to make the day feel special. Simple as that. When I joined the military my birthday was always during our annual training. When you're stuck out in the middle of a training center for two weeks the last thing you want to do is mention that it's you're birthday to a bunch of bored Infantryman. It's how you get tied to the bumper of a humvee then driven through mud puddles. Hehe...almost no one knew when my birthday was until my last couple years in the service and by then I was kinda untouchable in my unit ;) So anyway this birthday was special because I not only had the day to myself but I also had a great band of friends to do things with on that day. Was it a hard day of drinking? Clubbing? Movies? No. All I wanted was some damn sushi, and a lot of it. So we went to a really good sushi buffet and killed plate after plate of it. That alone made it the best birthday ever, but I also received some really thoughtful gifts from
Maxcoyote Kijani_lion and Razzy_lee You guys are so awesome, and so are the rest of you who came to celebrate the day with me :)3: My contract with the military was for 6 years of national guard service and 2 years in the individual ready reserve. I extended my NG service for 1 year (which replaced a year of IRR) and the last year of IRR ended a few days ago. So now I don't have to worry about being called back even if WW3 breaks out. Yay.
4: I have a job! The hospital I finished my internship at hired me about 3 weeks ago. Pretty much none of my daily routine has changed except I no longer have to get another sonographer to check my work. There's also a very sweet cha-CHING sound in the back of my head every hour on the hour and it gets time and a half louder once 10 hours has passed by in a day *Super big grin!* I'm technically part-time but the position comes with benefits and a lot of my co-workers are taking time off for the month so I'm scheduled full time plus a day or two of OT as well. I won't be rolling in money but I also won't be hurting for it either. I can at least say I feel financially secure for the time being and that alone is a huge burden off my shoulders. It was a big source of angst for me to watch my savings erode for the past several years and now I can finally expect it to start growing again.
Whew. I should probably update more often so that each journal isn't a darn novel. Oh well, these are for me as much as they are for you so there :P
Next up on my schedule is for me to register for my board exams so that I can be fully credentialed in my current Abdominal & OB/GYN specialties. I'm signed up for 2 conventions in Sept, Rainfurrest being one and the other is being put on by Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography. It'll be my first non-furry non-anime convention so I have no idea how I'm supposed to act there xP They have a dance night on Saturday and I'm already making plans to bring my fursuit to it. Some of my fellow grads even recommended the idea so if nothing else I'll bring it and then dance with just them until getting thrown out, lol.
Didn't do any skydiving this summer. I just didn't have the mindset for it, I've been too wrapped up with everything else. Next summer though.
I also took a lot of time off from parkour. My membership at the parkour gym has been on hold for the past 5 months although I occasionally make trips to the park with
keeko-chan to jump around on stuff. Overall I've been able to maintain most of the basic skills I have but there's definitely been no improvement over the last few months. I kinda hate spinning my wheels like that but it's better than completely losing what I had before.OOookay I've been sitting here long enough. Gonna go run around outside for a bit, it's a nice day outside!
Yay, I'm in some fursuiting videos! ...And the news paper??
Posted 13 years agoI know this looks long but it's all building up to how my friends and family recently found out about me being a furry which is an event that hopefully most of you can sympathize with. If that's not a bridge you've personally crossed yet then I hope you can draw some inspiration from my experience :)
---
So thanks to Sakura Con and the Seattle PI my family and friends now know ALLLLL about what I've been up to! I guess that means I should tell you guys too, right? I have a feeling it's normally supposed to go the other way around-- furs are supposed to know about furry things before the family and the rest of the world, right? Jeez sometimes I wonder if I'll be able to do any of this right xP
OK! So I've been doing something fursuit related almost every weekend for the past couple of months and it has been AWESOME!! It wouldn't have been nearly as fun if it weren't for all the friends I go suiting with, namely the Furlife "Plastics" crew (See: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7867056/) as well as some of the notable furs here in the North West like Kijani_lion whose fursuiting videos got me hooked on the idea of fursuiting in public as a way to be a positive influence on the world around us (as well as to promote the furry community).
Yesterday I did a 5k charity Fun Run with
(Pike). He and I both partial suited for this and I gotta admit it was rather tough. He and I are the types of fools who run 5k as a warm-up but throw on a partial and stick us in a crowd of several thousand other runners and suddenly it's less of a run and more of an obstacle course where you're trying to avoid stepping on feet, cones, dogs, kids, and potholes while at the same time trying to keep up the furry act of being flamboyantly energetic and happy (lots of running backwards and flailing arms and jumping for joy whenever we'd pass a distance marker). I don't know what our run time was [EDIT: Pike says we did it in 34min! And that's with the first 6min being mostly walking while we waited for everyone to spread out and give each other some leg room. WOOO!!] but once we started jogging we didn't stop and we passed a looooot of people, lol. We got a lot of compliments for our "bravery" to run in suit and many many pictures were taken of "The two running dogs" :D
The weekend before that a bunch of us went to Bellingham, WA for it's version of the Procession of the Species parade. It was a wonderful event for fursuiting and I hope the one next year brings even more furries. Seriously, if you have a suit you'll love going to this event. Even if you don't have one you'll still love it because everyone else will be dressed up like animals anyway ;D
Razzy_Lee put together a really well made video of the event (I love the photo-album format and song she used!) which can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWi6GTQ0pcg
Kijani_lion produced this video from the event using video shot by 
dolphinecho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub-GiNHOg4o
I can't begin to describe how happy these videos have made me. The endings to both of them make my heart melt every time. When I first commissioned my suit it was my dream to be in videos like these and now here they are!
Other fursuiting events I went to were the 50th Anniversary World's Fair at the Space Needle and the Olympia Procession of the Species Parade (both had crowds numbering in the tens of thousands! There were soooooo many hugs and pictures to be had xD)
Oh, right, and there was the newpaper thing at Sakura con. So, even though Sakura Con is an anime con/Asian Culture festival there's still a lot of acceptance of furries and fursuiting there. Like... A LOT of acceptance! And we had loads of fun goofing around with the crowd and interacting with the various characters and costumers there (seriously if you want to see some amazing costumes go to Sakura con or a similarly sized anime convention, those folks go all out on their stuff!). At one point a couple of photographers from the Seattle PI snapped some pictures of us. One of those pictures was of myself,
(Crazy Bob) and 
Ho88e5 chilling on a bench. The gal then came over and asked for our names, to which I happily responded by holding up the lanyard I wear that has a couple of "Skyan" badges on it.
...She instead wrote down the name on my Sakura Con badge.... my real name xP
So a couple days later when the pictures were posted on the Seattle PI website--with our real names-- I started getting emails from my relatives in the area (beginning with my sister who already knew I was into fursuiting) and then my mom a couple days later. She then called me a minute or two later, as I happened to be boarding the Space Needle at the World's Fair, but I stayed on the phone long enough to confirm things with her. Our conversation went something like: "Yes that's me in the picture-- no I'm the other one, with the blue ear tips. Yeah, that one's me. What? No, I said BLUE ear tips, as in the color BLUE. Sitting on the far left! ...I know it's not a natural color, but I think it looks good!". In my opinion this was probably one of the best ways for everyone I know outside of the fandom to find out why I've been too busy to hang out Saturdays with them. I've never seen being a furry as something that needs to be kept in the closet but I do believe it needs to be presented to friends and family in the right way. The worse thing anyone can do is blatantly announce "I'm a furry!!" And then expect their friends and family to find out on their own what that means. Google is not your friend in that case.
Originally I had been waiting to accumulate a slew of pictures and videos of myself fursuiting so that when I finally told everyone what I was up to I could show them exactly what "Furry" means to me and why I enjoy it so much. I think having my picture and name in the gallery of the city newspaper helped give the fandom a bit more cred than I could manage on my own. It took a couple of weeks but the PI's photo began to circulate and people were getting curious. It seemed like the time had come, so I immediately collected a few of my favorite pictures from the suiting events I had been going to (namely the events mentioned above) and unleashed them onto my facebook.
The response was wonderful!
Honestly the biggest surprise was the number of "OMG you're a furry? That's so cool!" comments I got, both in public and in private. So far only one person has mentioned the CSI furries *and the crowd groans* and that was during a conversation I was having with some friends a couple days ago. It didn't take much to convince them that that's not what furry means to me or most of the fandom so everything was cool after that. I was also pleasantly surprised by the number of private messages I got from friends who are also furs or are interested in it, so a shout out to
sarahwolf who I've known for a little while but didn't know was a furry until the other week. Looking forward to bowling with ya next weekend :D
Cheers!
---
So thanks to Sakura Con and the Seattle PI my family and friends now know ALLLLL about what I've been up to! I guess that means I should tell you guys too, right? I have a feeling it's normally supposed to go the other way around-- furs are supposed to know about furry things before the family and the rest of the world, right? Jeez sometimes I wonder if I'll be able to do any of this right xP
OK! So I've been doing something fursuit related almost every weekend for the past couple of months and it has been AWESOME!! It wouldn't have been nearly as fun if it weren't for all the friends I go suiting with, namely the Furlife "Plastics" crew (See: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7867056/) as well as some of the notable furs here in the North West like
Kijani_lion whose fursuiting videos got me hooked on the idea of fursuiting in public as a way to be a positive influence on the world around us (as well as to promote the furry community). Yesterday I did a 5k charity Fun Run with
(Pike). He and I both partial suited for this and I gotta admit it was rather tough. He and I are the types of fools who run 5k as a warm-up but throw on a partial and stick us in a crowd of several thousand other runners and suddenly it's less of a run and more of an obstacle course where you're trying to avoid stepping on feet, cones, dogs, kids, and potholes while at the same time trying to keep up the furry act of being flamboyantly energetic and happy (lots of running backwards and flailing arms and jumping for joy whenever we'd pass a distance marker). I don't know what our run time was [EDIT: Pike says we did it in 34min! And that's with the first 6min being mostly walking while we waited for everyone to spread out and give each other some leg room. WOOO!!] but once we started jogging we didn't stop and we passed a looooot of people, lol. We got a lot of compliments for our "bravery" to run in suit and many many pictures were taken of "The two running dogs" :DThe weekend before that a bunch of us went to Bellingham, WA for it's version of the Procession of the Species parade. It was a wonderful event for fursuiting and I hope the one next year brings even more furries. Seriously, if you have a suit you'll love going to this event. Even if you don't have one you'll still love it because everyone else will be dressed up like animals anyway ;D
Razzy_Lee put together a really well made video of the event (I love the photo-album format and song she used!) which can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWi6GTQ0pcg Kijani_lion produced this video from the event using video shot by 
dolphinecho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub-GiNHOg4oI can't begin to describe how happy these videos have made me. The endings to both of them make my heart melt every time. When I first commissioned my suit it was my dream to be in videos like these and now here they are!
Other fursuiting events I went to were the 50th Anniversary World's Fair at the Space Needle and the Olympia Procession of the Species Parade (both had crowds numbering in the tens of thousands! There were soooooo many hugs and pictures to be had xD)
Oh, right, and there was the newpaper thing at Sakura con. So, even though Sakura Con is an anime con/Asian Culture festival there's still a lot of acceptance of furries and fursuiting there. Like... A LOT of acceptance! And we had loads of fun goofing around with the crowd and interacting with the various characters and costumers there (seriously if you want to see some amazing costumes go to Sakura con or a similarly sized anime convention, those folks go all out on their stuff!). At one point a couple of photographers from the Seattle PI snapped some pictures of us. One of those pictures was of myself,
(Crazy Bob) and 
Ho88e5 chilling on a bench. The gal then came over and asked for our names, to which I happily responded by holding up the lanyard I wear that has a couple of "Skyan" badges on it. ...She instead wrote down the name on my Sakura Con badge.... my real name xP
So a couple days later when the pictures were posted on the Seattle PI website--with our real names-- I started getting emails from my relatives in the area (beginning with my sister who already knew I was into fursuiting) and then my mom a couple days later. She then called me a minute or two later, as I happened to be boarding the Space Needle at the World's Fair, but I stayed on the phone long enough to confirm things with her. Our conversation went something like: "Yes that's me in the picture-- no I'm the other one, with the blue ear tips. Yeah, that one's me. What? No, I said BLUE ear tips, as in the color BLUE. Sitting on the far left! ...I know it's not a natural color, but I think it looks good!". In my opinion this was probably one of the best ways for everyone I know outside of the fandom to find out why I've been too busy to hang out Saturdays with them. I've never seen being a furry as something that needs to be kept in the closet but I do believe it needs to be presented to friends and family in the right way. The worse thing anyone can do is blatantly announce "I'm a furry!!" And then expect their friends and family to find out on their own what that means. Google is not your friend in that case.
Originally I had been waiting to accumulate a slew of pictures and videos of myself fursuiting so that when I finally told everyone what I was up to I could show them exactly what "Furry" means to me and why I enjoy it so much. I think having my picture and name in the gallery of the city newspaper helped give the fandom a bit more cred than I could manage on my own. It took a couple of weeks but the PI's photo began to circulate and people were getting curious. It seemed like the time had come, so I immediately collected a few of my favorite pictures from the suiting events I had been going to (namely the events mentioned above) and unleashed them onto my facebook.
The response was wonderful!
Honestly the biggest surprise was the number of "OMG you're a furry? That's so cool!" comments I got, both in public and in private. So far only one person has mentioned the CSI furries *and the crowd groans* and that was during a conversation I was having with some friends a couple days ago. It didn't take much to convince them that that's not what furry means to me or most of the fandom so everything was cool after that. I was also pleasantly surprised by the number of private messages I got from friends who are also furs or are interested in it, so a shout out to
sarahwolf who I've known for a little while but didn't know was a furry until the other week. Looking forward to bowling with ya next weekend :DCheers!
Furs For Life Red Cross charity raffle
Posted 13 years agoThe rules are simple: donate to charity, get entered for art raffle! It's so easy even a cattle dog can do it :D
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7563524/
....you're smarter than a cattle dog, riiiiiiight? ;p
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7563524/
....you're smarter than a cattle dog, riiiiiiight? ;p
*Trolls chatroulette in fursuit*
Posted 13 years agoYep, still a lot of dicks in here! *pretends to laugh every time one pops up*
Yeah this fursuiting thing is awesome ^.^
Yeah this fursuiting thing is awesome ^.^
Snow day!!
Posted 14 years agoI was told not to go to work today because the roads are too dangerous... so I spent part of the morning drifting through empty parking lots in my subaru forester. I figured out it takes about 100 feet to come to a full stop from 20mph in 3in of snow. I need to find a bigger parking lot to see how long it takes to stop from 35.....
Happy snow day Seattle!!
Happy snow day Seattle!!
Fractured bone #5!! Wooohooo!!
Posted 14 years ago*spins around in his desk chair a few times*
There are 206 bones in the adult human body and as Monday I have 201 more to break!
It seems like every two or three years I do this. It started in 2005 during Infantry training when I fractured one bone in my right foot and two in my left. In 2008 I busted my right ring finger 2 days before heading over to Iraq. Then on Monday I parkoured my foolish ass into a vertical wall and kicked into it with enough force to fracture at least one more bone in my foot. I haven't gone in to get it checked but the constant burning sensation and the bruising around my foot are all to familiar. I can walk ok and even jog short distances so it's not serious anyway, but it'll keep me from doing fun stuff for a good 3-4 weeks.
*more spinning around in the chair*
Woo, dizzy!
Sooooooo......yeah. My two-week break is about to come up and instead of filling it with skydiving and jumping between walls I'm going to fill it with video games and movies. My roommate
kae has a sweet entertainment system and I plan on abusing it with games like Stalker and Metro2033. I've played them through a half dozen times already but not on a projector screen with surround sound ^.^ 
dracona is hosting a snowboarding meet at his place a few days after Christmas. I'm hoping my foot will be well enough by then to handle a day or two at the slopes. I haven't snowboarded since I was 15 and it was only for a day, but what a glorious day it was!
donthugcacti is starting on my fursuit soon, I'm really looking forward to it! Once I get it things are really going to take off. I'm planning on heading over to IFlySeattle (an indoor wind tunnel) and testing it out there to see how it handles freefall conditions. That might make for an interesting furmeet if other furs are able to join me >:) I also live across the street from a gymnastics academy. I went there a few weeks ago with my parkour instructor and spent a good two hours practicing flips on the gym's trampolines and into the foam pit they have there. That'll be another stop for me and my suit. Hell just running and diving into that foam pit while in suit will be a blast, lol!
So that's what I've got going. My rotation at the VA hospital is being extended (Wooohooo!) but I'll also be picking up hours at a second hospital in Kirkland. That means I'll likely be losing my saturdays (laaaaaaaaame!). Thankfully that's only for about 12 weeks.
*Spins!*
There are 206 bones in the adult human body and as Monday I have 201 more to break!
It seems like every two or three years I do this. It started in 2005 during Infantry training when I fractured one bone in my right foot and two in my left. In 2008 I busted my right ring finger 2 days before heading over to Iraq. Then on Monday I parkoured my foolish ass into a vertical wall and kicked into it with enough force to fracture at least one more bone in my foot. I haven't gone in to get it checked but the constant burning sensation and the bruising around my foot are all to familiar. I can walk ok and even jog short distances so it's not serious anyway, but it'll keep me from doing fun stuff for a good 3-4 weeks.
*more spinning around in the chair*
Woo, dizzy!
Sooooooo......yeah. My two-week break is about to come up and instead of filling it with skydiving and jumping between walls I'm going to fill it with video games and movies. My roommate
kae has a sweet entertainment system and I plan on abusing it with games like Stalker and Metro2033. I've played them through a half dozen times already but not on a projector screen with surround sound ^.^ 
dracona is hosting a snowboarding meet at his place a few days after Christmas. I'm hoping my foot will be well enough by then to handle a day or two at the slopes. I haven't snowboarded since I was 15 and it was only for a day, but what a glorious day it was! 
donthugcacti is starting on my fursuit soon, I'm really looking forward to it! Once I get it things are really going to take off. I'm planning on heading over to IFlySeattle (an indoor wind tunnel) and testing it out there to see how it handles freefall conditions. That might make for an interesting furmeet if other furs are able to join me >:) I also live across the street from a gymnastics academy. I went there a few weeks ago with my parkour instructor and spent a good two hours practicing flips on the gym's trampolines and into the foam pit they have there. That'll be another stop for me and my suit. Hell just running and diving into that foam pit while in suit will be a blast, lol! So that's what I've got going. My rotation at the VA hospital is being extended (Wooohooo!) but I'll also be picking up hours at a second hospital in Kirkland. That means I'll likely be losing my saturdays (laaaaaaaaame!). Thankfully that's only for about 12 weeks.
*Spins!*
Here's why I love the Army (and the military in general).
Posted 14 years agoThis is one of the top news articles of the week so some of you may have already seen it. If not then it's a good one to give a moment of your time to.
http://news.yahoo.com/gay-soldier-s.....212421287.html
We'll leave the politics aside for now and just focus on the soldier this article is about. During a debate he asked Republican candidates via youtube if they would reinstate the ban on DADT. His question was boo'ed by the audience and the answer given by Rick Santorum was that DADT should be reinstated because "any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military...Keep it to yourself whether you are heterosexual or homosexual." I can't imagine what went through that service member's mind when he heard that answer, but the reaction from the audience is what really made me feel ill considering Rick's answer means the military shouldn't be recognizing marriages between anyone whether straight or gay.
If impatience kicked in and you thought the article too long to read then at least skip 2/3'rds of the way down to the paragraph where he was at chow while the segment about him aired on TV. He had already seen the politicians reaction to him, but now he had to deal with the Army's reaction. When he went to his commanding officer she supported him and said she was checking in with her chain of command about the issue. The response from the higher-ups was this: " What the military's most concerned with is that you are OK, because it's a lot of pressure on you and we want to make sure if there is anything we can do to help."
God I love the Army, and this is one the few times I can say that without the slightest hint of irony or sarcasm. In this instance the Army sided with it's member rather than against him. In recent years the Army has developed a remarkable focused on its people. It has effective support groups for those of us with PTSD, marriage problems, financials issues, etc. It cares. Politicians and politics in general tend to irk the hell out of me. Few issues get debated at face value, there's always a slant that charges it toward one side or another and it turns even the most simple political debates into circuses.
This article is a wonderful example of why I'm a big supporter of the Army and not too thrilled about politicians and politics in general. If a politician says that sexual activity has no place in the military then that means it needs to stop recognizing marriage between men and women in the service. Hey it's an easy solution to the topic about gay marriage among service members :P Point being is that the response given to the service member was flashy but ineffective if you actually listened to it. Sexuality cannot be taken out of the service. I'll also add that I'm not big on civilians and politics too. Don't read too deeply into that, just because you have a political opinion doesn't mean I'm not thrilled by your presence, but if you're parroting something said by people with big (D)'s or ®'s somewhere around their names then you're not exercising your brainpower or individuality. To some extent Politicians don't have much of a choice in what they say, they're being pressured by what they think the majority opinion is. We, on the individual level, don't have that excuse. You are an individual and your politics should be a representation yourself rather than a representation of the group you agree the most with. It's very hard to perfectly mesh with one political side or another, and if that does happen then you have to ask yourself is it really because you agree with that side or is it because you changed yourself and gave up an opinion on something so that you could be more agreeable with a group?
I'll give an objective review of Rick Santorum's audience. Really I could do this to any political audience (I don't think highly of any to be honest), I just happen to be picking on the ®'s today. When the audience boo'ed at Cpt. Hill's question they were exercising their opinion. They didn't support DADT's repeal and that's fine, it's their choice. But when they applauded Santorum's response about sexuality not having a place in the military they were supporting a farcical argument. That's what happens when folks stop thinking about what's coming out of the mouthpiece.
I know it's an age-old argument that political groups generally say yay to their side and nay to the other regardless of what's really being said. On the other hand it's rare to see an objective example of this given in a non-politically charged manner, which is what I'm trying to do here.
.......Long journals be long! Wooo!
http://news.yahoo.com/gay-soldier-s.....212421287.html
We'll leave the politics aside for now and just focus on the soldier this article is about. During a debate he asked Republican candidates via youtube if they would reinstate the ban on DADT. His question was boo'ed by the audience and the answer given by Rick Santorum was that DADT should be reinstated because "any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military...Keep it to yourself whether you are heterosexual or homosexual." I can't imagine what went through that service member's mind when he heard that answer, but the reaction from the audience is what really made me feel ill considering Rick's answer means the military shouldn't be recognizing marriages between anyone whether straight or gay.
If impatience kicked in and you thought the article too long to read then at least skip 2/3'rds of the way down to the paragraph where he was at chow while the segment about him aired on TV. He had already seen the politicians reaction to him, but now he had to deal with the Army's reaction. When he went to his commanding officer she supported him and said she was checking in with her chain of command about the issue. The response from the higher-ups was this: " What the military's most concerned with is that you are OK, because it's a lot of pressure on you and we want to make sure if there is anything we can do to help."
God I love the Army, and this is one the few times I can say that without the slightest hint of irony or sarcasm. In this instance the Army sided with it's member rather than against him. In recent years the Army has developed a remarkable focused on its people. It has effective support groups for those of us with PTSD, marriage problems, financials issues, etc. It cares. Politicians and politics in general tend to irk the hell out of me. Few issues get debated at face value, there's always a slant that charges it toward one side or another and it turns even the most simple political debates into circuses.
This article is a wonderful example of why I'm a big supporter of the Army and not too thrilled about politicians and politics in general. If a politician says that sexual activity has no place in the military then that means it needs to stop recognizing marriage between men and women in the service. Hey it's an easy solution to the topic about gay marriage among service members :P Point being is that the response given to the service member was flashy but ineffective if you actually listened to it. Sexuality cannot be taken out of the service. I'll also add that I'm not big on civilians and politics too. Don't read too deeply into that, just because you have a political opinion doesn't mean I'm not thrilled by your presence, but if you're parroting something said by people with big (D)'s or ®'s somewhere around their names then you're not exercising your brainpower or individuality. To some extent Politicians don't have much of a choice in what they say, they're being pressured by what they think the majority opinion is. We, on the individual level, don't have that excuse. You are an individual and your politics should be a representation yourself rather than a representation of the group you agree the most with. It's very hard to perfectly mesh with one political side or another, and if that does happen then you have to ask yourself is it really because you agree with that side or is it because you changed yourself and gave up an opinion on something so that you could be more agreeable with a group?
I'll give an objective review of Rick Santorum's audience. Really I could do this to any political audience (I don't think highly of any to be honest), I just happen to be picking on the ®'s today. When the audience boo'ed at Cpt. Hill's question they were exercising their opinion. They didn't support DADT's repeal and that's fine, it's their choice. But when they applauded Santorum's response about sexuality not having a place in the military they were supporting a farcical argument. That's what happens when folks stop thinking about what's coming out of the mouthpiece.
I know it's an age-old argument that political groups generally say yay to their side and nay to the other regardless of what's really being said. On the other hand it's rare to see an objective example of this given in a non-politically charged manner, which is what I'm trying to do here.
.......Long journals be long! Wooo!
A quick summary of my summer. Also some free Razzy Lee art!
Posted 14 years agoHappy stuff first! razzylee is hosting a commission raffle. Your odds of winning are about 1/50 (Whoohoo! Ya feeling lucky? :D) but you can't win if you don't play! She revised her drawing style recently so give her something to test it out on!
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2711476/
Aaaaaand now for a bit about what I've been up to. Yeah some of my thoughts are gonna get a bit sobering but hey life isn't all happiness and free arts. Just most of it is ^.^
What a crazy week! On Monday I started my internship at the veteran's hospital. By Wednesday a patient I had helped scan the day before was dead. Not a huge surprise... he had open-heart surgery a few hours prior to me seeing him and you could see his heart beating through the bandages on his chest. Another patient was told point-blank by his doctor that he has cancer... he was younger than my father. I was expecting these kinds of situations but I wasn't thinking they would happen so soon. I was totally unprepared for the emotional roller coaster that follows them. By far the hardest thing to deal with is when guys who are my age come in from overseas. They get injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and within a few days are here for long-term care. It was hard enough going from a warzone to a civilian environment over the course of a week when I came back from Iraq. It messes with your head a little. I can't imagine what they feel when they're rushed through that transition over the course of 48hours while having to deal with a debilitating injury. Occasionally the hospital I work at is where they wake up after the big bang that gets them. Damn that's gotta be a drag. I don't know what I will do when I start seeing familiar faces from my old units.
So I've deleted that last paragraph twice but I kept rewriting it. I guess it's meant to be posted but I can't really explain why. There's a lot that goes on in my life that I'd like to journal about but I end up not because it either seems out of place and trivial on this website or it gets a little too personal and touches on a past that I'm trying to leave behind. Oh well, knocking down a wall every now and then is probably good for me.
Overall life is going really well. I got in another 20 jumps this summer (an incredible amount for me considering I only jumped on 2 weekends) and my parkour skills are steadily advancing. The pain in my arms is almost gone (it was some sort of tendinitis that had cropped up over the late spring), although now my left knee is bothering me something fierce, lol. Oh well, I guess it's just one more obstacle to scamper over :3
Blue skies!
razzylee is hosting a commission raffle. Your odds of winning are about 1/50 (Whoohoo! Ya feeling lucky? :D) but you can't win if you don't play! She revised her drawing style recently so give her something to test it out on!http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2711476/
Aaaaaand now for a bit about what I've been up to. Yeah some of my thoughts are gonna get a bit sobering but hey life isn't all happiness and free arts. Just most of it is ^.^
What a crazy week! On Monday I started my internship at the veteran's hospital. By Wednesday a patient I had helped scan the day before was dead. Not a huge surprise... he had open-heart surgery a few hours prior to me seeing him and you could see his heart beating through the bandages on his chest. Another patient was told point-blank by his doctor that he has cancer... he was younger than my father. I was expecting these kinds of situations but I wasn't thinking they would happen so soon. I was totally unprepared for the emotional roller coaster that follows them. By far the hardest thing to deal with is when guys who are my age come in from overseas. They get injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and within a few days are here for long-term care. It was hard enough going from a warzone to a civilian environment over the course of a week when I came back from Iraq. It messes with your head a little. I can't imagine what they feel when they're rushed through that transition over the course of 48hours while having to deal with a debilitating injury. Occasionally the hospital I work at is where they wake up after the big bang that gets them. Damn that's gotta be a drag. I don't know what I will do when I start seeing familiar faces from my old units.
So I've deleted that last paragraph twice but I kept rewriting it. I guess it's meant to be posted but I can't really explain why. There's a lot that goes on in my life that I'd like to journal about but I end up not because it either seems out of place and trivial on this website or it gets a little too personal and touches on a past that I'm trying to leave behind. Oh well, knocking down a wall every now and then is probably good for me.
Overall life is going really well. I got in another 20 jumps this summer (an incredible amount for me considering I only jumped on 2 weekends) and my parkour skills are steadily advancing. The pain in my arms is almost gone (it was some sort of tendinitis that had cropped up over the late spring), although now my left knee is bothering me something fierce, lol. Oh well, I guess it's just one more obstacle to scamper over :3
Blue skies!
Rainfurrest memememeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeem!
Posted 14 years agoStolen from just about every furlife member I know, since pretty much all of you are going to this anyway, lol.
1. Will you be attending?
Jeezus why is this question even here? XP
2. Staying at:
Clarion
3. Arrival and Departure:
I might swing by Thursday evening after work but I'll definitely be there from Friday evening to the end of the con.
4. Mode of transportation
Car. Sorry, no parachuting into cons just yet :P
5. Rooming with:
My buddy Kae
6. Con Plans:
It's my first furry con and I don't really know what I should plan on doing, lol. I'll browse some arts and socialize with everyone I meet, but that's a given. I prefer to be spontaneous rather than plan out my day in advance so that's the schedule I'll be running ^.^
7: How can I find you?
See my profile picture? Yeah look for that idiot, beer ears and all. Ok maybe not the beer thing...except for on my badge, hehe. If I'm outdoors I'll have my tan hat on, otherwise it'll be attached to my bag by a D-ring or something. Sometimes
exdraghunt steals it though <_<
8. Do you do free art?
Absolutely! Gimme a marker and I'll scribble all kinds of gnarly stuff on your forehead. Although I should probably mention that I'm not an artist xD
9. Do you have prints/Cds?
Nup.
10. Will you be fursuiting? if so: What suit(s)?
I don't have a suit yet but I might borrow one from a friend if something's available.
11. Will you be going to parties?
Only if invited, I'm not big on crashing other people's parties xp
12. Will you be performing?
Heh, I was hoping to get into the variety show but the spot I thought I snagged went to someone else. Oh well, next year!
13. Smoke?
If a nice cigar comes my way then sure, but otherwise I'm not a big smoker.
14. Drink
Yeah but won't be doing a lot of that until the final night. I don't need to have a hangover during the con itself, lol.
15. Gender
Manly man *roars and beats chest* ...I just heard laughter somewhere. I bet it was keeko-chan...
16. Can I hug you?
Hugs are great!
17. Can I talk to you?
What's on your mind? :D
18. Will you be at any panels?
Yeah but I'll be in the audience where I belong. :P Something's gone very wrong (or someone was very careless) if you see me near a microphone.
19. Can I touch you?
Back and shoulder scratches are ok. Get weird with me (or any of my friends for that matter, especially the younger ones) and there might be some pain on your face real fast though. Just sayin ^.^
20. Can I buy you drinks?
Sure! But I tend to return the favor with AMFs and Irish Carbombs >:]
21. How old are you?
27
22. Can I snuggle with you?
If I know you then sure. I'm not a huge snuggler but I won't push a friend away either.
23. If you're pissed off, should I approach you?
Ahh... give me a minute to deal with whatever got me pissed. I'm pretty sure it's a situation we won't have to worry about though :P Unless it's something related to the last half of #19...that one's no joke.
24. Are you nice?
Yeah, but a bit of a smartass though :P
25. Cliquey?
I hang out with friends a lot, especially at new places, but I'll still be off on my own from time to time. I'm always up for small group activities (be it random exploring at the con or around the city) and I'm all for coordinating one-on-one time with folks in order to get to know them better as friends.
26. How tall?
5'8
27. Can I Take pictures of you?
Fire away! I'm terrible at holding a pose though xp
28. Will you get anything commissioned?
There's at least one artist coming to the con that I'm hellbent on getting a commission from. Anything else will be a spur of the moment thing.
29. How can I get your attention?
Starting with "Hi" works :)
30. Can I ask you to dance at the raves?
Ya man! My rhythemless flailings will make you feel 500% better about your dancing abilities, and that comes with my personal guarantee! And if you give me some of those tiny glow stick things-- the ones that can be connected at the ends to make rings-- then I'll start up a frisbee-style game of catch with ya. It's a fun change from normal dancing routines ^.^
1. Will you be attending?
Jeezus why is this question even here? XP
2. Staying at:
Clarion
3. Arrival and Departure:
I might swing by Thursday evening after work but I'll definitely be there from Friday evening to the end of the con.
4. Mode of transportation
Car. Sorry, no parachuting into cons just yet :P
5. Rooming with:
My buddy Kae
6. Con Plans:
It's my first furry con and I don't really know what I should plan on doing, lol. I'll browse some arts and socialize with everyone I meet, but that's a given. I prefer to be spontaneous rather than plan out my day in advance so that's the schedule I'll be running ^.^
7: How can I find you?
See my profile picture? Yeah look for that idiot, beer ears and all. Ok maybe not the beer thing...except for on my badge, hehe. If I'm outdoors I'll have my tan hat on, otherwise it'll be attached to my bag by a D-ring or something. Sometimes
exdraghunt steals it though <_<8. Do you do free art?
Absolutely! Gimme a marker and I'll scribble all kinds of gnarly stuff on your forehead. Although I should probably mention that I'm not an artist xD
9. Do you have prints/Cds?
Nup.
10. Will you be fursuiting? if so: What suit(s)?
I don't have a suit yet but I might borrow one from a friend if something's available.
11. Will you be going to parties?
Only if invited, I'm not big on crashing other people's parties xp
12. Will you be performing?
Heh, I was hoping to get into the variety show but the spot I thought I snagged went to someone else. Oh well, next year!
13. Smoke?
If a nice cigar comes my way then sure, but otherwise I'm not a big smoker.
14. Drink
Yeah but won't be doing a lot of that until the final night. I don't need to have a hangover during the con itself, lol.
15. Gender
Manly man *roars and beats chest* ...I just heard laughter somewhere. I bet it was
keeko-chan...16. Can I hug you?
Hugs are great!
17. Can I talk to you?
What's on your mind? :D
18. Will you be at any panels?
Yeah but I'll be in the audience where I belong. :P Something's gone very wrong (or someone was very careless) if you see me near a microphone.
19. Can I touch you?
Back and shoulder scratches are ok. Get weird with me (or any of my friends for that matter, especially the younger ones) and there might be some pain on your face real fast though. Just sayin ^.^
20. Can I buy you drinks?
Sure! But I tend to return the favor with AMFs and Irish Carbombs >:]
21. How old are you?
27
22. Can I snuggle with you?
If I know you then sure. I'm not a huge snuggler but I won't push a friend away either.
23. If you're pissed off, should I approach you?
Ahh... give me a minute to deal with whatever got me pissed. I'm pretty sure it's a situation we won't have to worry about though :P Unless it's something related to the last half of #19...that one's no joke.
24. Are you nice?
Yeah, but a bit of a smartass though :P
25. Cliquey?
I hang out with friends a lot, especially at new places, but I'll still be off on my own from time to time. I'm always up for small group activities (be it random exploring at the con or around the city) and I'm all for coordinating one-on-one time with folks in order to get to know them better as friends.
26. How tall?
5'8
27. Can I Take pictures of you?
Fire away! I'm terrible at holding a pose though xp
28. Will you get anything commissioned?
There's at least one artist coming to the con that I'm hellbent on getting a commission from. Anything else will be a spur of the moment thing.
29. How can I get your attention?
Starting with "Hi" works :)
30. Can I ask you to dance at the raves?
Ya man! My rhythemless flailings will make you feel 500% better about your dancing abilities, and that comes with my personal guarantee! And if you give me some of those tiny glow stick things-- the ones that can be connected at the ends to make rings-- then I'll start up a frisbee-style game of catch with ya. It's a fun change from normal dancing routines ^.^
