Month of Bunnies & Bonnets + Kaffre talks Candy #49

Welcome to my fancy new April-themed journal. Since my last journal, I've seen the Dentist for the final time this year (barring any emergencies) and celebrated the birthday of my late mother (4/20), but Easter was pretty uneventful as per usual - though as you'll see below, I did have the opportunity to sample a number of holiday-themed goodies. Unfortunately, I completely flaked on my taxes and so will probably have to do them in May instead. Despite my natural talent for being foolish, nothing interesting happened that day either.

I've also spent a bit of time learning how to use Twitter @ KaffieKitty. I'm still getting the hang of posting and responding, but I also feel like my account could do with some sprucing up, but am not yet sure what sort of art or decorations to incorporate and as such am seeking suggestions from my talented journal-readers. I have been blesed with some truly lovely piece of gift art and can't decide which, if any, to use as my icon. I suppose I could just cycle through a selection of them as I do here on FA, but I still need to pick one to start with...

I also played Sunnypaws Daycare again and managed to beat it (on Easy). I think, technically, mine was supposed to be the 'Bad End', but that's very much a POV thing where that game is concerned. It did get me thinking about my long-neglected Babyfur RPG project, however, particularly where the enemies you face are concerned - many of their attacks either don't inflict physical harm or else they also have other ways of incapacitating the PC as well - while most RPGs using 'Bonk' systems tend to be lighthearted and cartoon-y (Toon, Meido, TFOS), something like that could be a good way of handling combat and other sources of danger without necessarily having to do something super detailed. My only real qualm is that I feel some way to distinguish between different sources of 'Bonk' is called for though as I'm still struggling with questions of theme and setting, I can't yet say what this might be or even whether it's an appropriate system anyway. Thoughts?

For this month's topic of conversation, I've decided to expound upon one that was touched upon frequently when I was examining different historical epochs through a furry lens - since animals are, as a group, far more diverse than people in terms of diet, habitat, etc it often seemed to me that, while not isolationist per se, furries of different species would often have little reason to interact with each other as either friends or enemies since their interests frequently wouldn't intersect. There are two counter-arguments that can be made to this position that I have identified. I'll be using cats in my examples as that's the species of my primary fursona, but hopefully the principles I intend to illustrate can be easily extrapolated upon.

The first is that furry civilizations would not segregated by species and would consist of all animals indigenous to a given area - actual national boundaries would possibly be different, but generally species would inhabit the same lands they did historically. Sure cats probably wouldn't be interested in fighting rats over the best farmland in a region, but rival parties of rats in two nations might and would possibly make extensive use of feline soldiers during the conflict. Actually, as I type this, it occurs to me that this very diversity could give furry civilization a huge advantage over humanity when it comes to division of labour as the difference in skills between species could naturally encourage specialization.

The second relates to strategic considerations as they pertain to military, government, and commerce. Reusing the example above, the cats might not want arable land for their own use, but might be willing to fight to keep their enemies from having it or, for example, to establish economic control over a valuable resource even if it's not one they can make much use of themselves. This seems like at least one way that single-species furry civilizations might be compelled to interact with each other, but ultimately I prefer the first possibility though there's really no reason both can't be true.

Well, I guess that about covers this month's journal. Thanks for taking the time to read *hugs* I'm very interested to hear your thoughts on this month's topic and/or on which picture(s) I ought to use as decorations on twitter! Please stay tuned for this month's installment of Kaffre talks Candy!

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Kaffre talks Candy #49

Name: Dairy Milk Oreo
Manufacturer: Cadbury
Size: 38 gram bar
Where Purchased: Dollarama
Description: Consists of a bar of milk chocolate with six dome-like sections filled with vanilla cream and bits of Oreo cookie. Outwardly resembles a standard Dairy Milk
Opinion: A new product I snapped up on a whim. Unfortunately, there's not really much to say the bar combines the classic flavour of Cadbury milk chocolate with the sweet creamy taste of Oreo cream while the plentiful cookie bits provide a pleasant crunchiness. Overall, I liked this product and will probably buy it again if it remains available - I don't think it would ever completely replace the standard Dairy Milk, but I'd probably cycle it in from time to time to change things up.

Name: Dubble Bubble Cotton Tails
Manufacturer: Tootsie Roll of Canada ULC
Size: 99 gram package
Where Purchased: Dollarama
Description: Consists of large white cotton-candy flavoured gumballs with a rough bumpy texture that vaguely resembles a bunny's tail.
Opinion: A product I don't remember seeing before, but is apparently fondly remembered by many. The texture was a bit weird at first, but I became acclimated relatively quickly and the the flavour was pleasantly reminiscent of cotton candy, but I did find that the flavour faded a bit more quickly than I would have liked - this is mitigated somewhat, however, by the fact that I tend to chew gum a bit more vigorously than most. Overall, I thought this was pretty good and I'll likely pick them up again next Easter, but I'll hardly be counting the days until they reappear on store shelves.

Name: Hershey's Eggies (Cookies n' Creme)
Manufacturer: Hershey
Size: 220 gram bag
Where Purchased: Dollarama
Description: Consists of ovate pieces of white chocolate with cookie bit embedded in it and surrounded by a pastel-coloured candy-coating.
Opinion: Another Easter-themed item, these candies taste very similar to the standard Hershey Cookies and Creme bar which is a good thing, but I'm a little ambivalent about the candy coating. I realize it's as much to prevent the product from melting as anything else, but it doesn't really add much flavour and the cookie bits mean the eggies already have plenty of crunch. Overall these aren't bad, but outside of Easter I don't see any reason to choose them over the standard bar.

Name: Kit Kat Chunky, Salted Caramel Fudge
Manufacturer: Nestle
Size: 42 gram bar
Where Purchased: Dollar Tree
Description: Consist of a standard Kit-Kat chunky wafer topped with a layer of salted caramel fudge before being enrobed in chocolate.
Opinion: An limited edition product I'd not seen before. The one I got was slightly melted after I left it sitting in a sunbeam, but even so it was quite good. The bar was a bit softer than the standard Kit-Kat Chunky and tasted very similar, but with the added salty sweet caramel flavour. Overall, I liked this bar and would definitely purchase it again if it were available, but suspect it's probably best as a limited edition as it seems like it could also get old relatively fast...

Name: Little Debbie Easter Brownies
Manufacturer: McKee Foods
Size: 261 gram box of six brownies
Where Purchased: Dollarama
Description: Consists of chocolate brownies shaped like elongated hexagons to approximate an 'egg' shape. They are covered in yellow frosting and decorated with pink and blue stripes.
Opinion: This product, which I grabbed on a whim, was a little disappointing. It was tasty enough to be sure, but despite the bright colours and cute design, the taste was pretty much indistinguishable from your typical individually wrapped snack brownie. Overall, I thought these were OK and would certainly buy them again, but I also see no particular reason to seek them out.