I dressed up as my gryphon Renaissance musician Ballad Quill to sing a karaoke medley of Rodgers and Hart's "Sing For Your Supper" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair."

Mask was created by  PuzzledJayPros, bought at Anthrocon 2025.

https://youtu.be/oY6CCN5Oyek?si=J3oyu27MU2AqrrGU

Anyone who reads my journals knows how critical I am of recent movies. But I'm actually recommending "The Wild Robot," the DreamWorks movie directed by Chris Sanders of "Lilo and Stitch" and "How to Train Your Dragon" fame. It's about a shipwrecked robot who falls in with a bunch of wild animals. (It's a talking animal movie, so there's a Furry connection.) I could go into more detail, but I think the highest compliment I can pay it is that I *don't* feel the need to write a 20 paragraph rant about it. The movie is currently on Netflix. It was recommended to me by my brother, the one I went to Anthrocon with, who had also recommended the last recent movie I liked, Sony's "Across the Spider-Verse."

I saw the first full trailer of "Zootopia 2" today.

I love these characters. It's not just the movies, but nearly a decade of beautiful fan art. "Moana 2" was a glorified direct-to-video sequel and I shrugged. It was only to be expected. But they better not screw up my "Zootopia."

First, the good.

The premise of Nick and Judy struggling with their new roles as partners has potential. At least it's focused on the character dynamic. (A buddy cop movie lends itself more to sequelization than a Disney fairy tale, as the cops will of course get another case to solve.)

The trailer doesn't spell out the movie's moral. Most family films in recent years couldn't wait to start beating the audience over the head with lessons, not even until they saw the actual movie. Whereas this trailer is high-energy and focused on entertainment.

Here's the thing -- it concerns me that so much of the trailer is screaming and fast movement and there's very little charm on display. I realize it's only a very short trailer, so hopefully the charming scenes will turn up in the film.

The animation is a little different than before, like they're leaning partway towards the more stylized animation being done over at Sony and DreamWorks. (I.e., Sony's "GOAT," another furry movie that just dropped a trailer.) The character animation in the original "Zootopia" was great -- so expressive that nearly every frame could be made into a meme -- but I'll take more stylization over "Lion King"-remake style photorealism.

The way the mouths move is weird. I noticed that in "Moana 2" as well. Maybe this is something I'll get used to.

Overall, I don't really think it's a good trailer. But there is still the potential for it could be a good movie...despite that it's a Disney sequel...with all that implies...released during what's possibly Disney animation's worst slump of all time. We'll see.

Also, the buff horse mayor looks like he could be hot.

I stopped watching through "BoJack Horseman" because one particular scene took me out of the story, the one where the random guy at the airport tells Diane to smile. I felt the writers were pushing an ideology too hard.

Then I saw the scene happen in real life. Sort of. Some customer who was already acting like a jerk told my female co-worker to smile. She wasn't even interacting with him at the time. I don't know whether he was being sexist or just a generalized rude customer, but while she rightfully told him off, she mentioned that men are never told to smile, only women. I didn't bring up that I was also once told to smile by a female customer. Another male co-worker also said the same happened to him. I guess some people just go around telling random people what facial expression to have.

So does that mean I've changed my mind and that scene was actually good? No, just because it happens in real life doesn't mean it's good writing. However, I did take it as a sign that I should give "BoJack" another chance.

And the next episode was...

...uneven. It was the game show episode and I started laughing around halfway through, when the little schoolhouse came down on BoJack. There are some clever ideas in there, like the TV executive who can't follow the show she's making, but can only react to how people online respond to it.

This episode wouldn't have made me stop watching the way the previous one did.

But I did have one little problem with it.

There's a scene where the TV executive, Wanda, threateningly tells Mr. Peanutbutter that on network TV, all problems must be neatly wrapped up in under a half an hour. Mocking this isn't exclusive to "BoJack" -- even "DuckTales" (2017), a show I really like, had an episode devoted to making fun of how older episodic shows wrapped up conflicts. Making fun of lazy, cliche writing is one thing. But it's like these writers are against having silly, lighthearted conflicts in a sitcom, or giving the audience any satisfying conclusion at all. Also, it's not really true. Older sitcoms had conflicts that lasted longer than one episode. You know the very popular trope of the "Will They/Won't They Couple?" The whole idea is that the couple's problems span multiple seasons and sometimes, the entire run! It just seems like the modern writers congratulating themselves for being better than older writers. I'm just very aware of the writers when I watch modern media, which makes it harder to get invested.

So am I going to keep watching? I don't know, but at least I don't feel I had the bad taste in my mouth that I did before.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to draw a beaver with crooked front teeth, but I just saw the trailer for Disney-Pixar's "Hoppers" and it is funny to me that both that *and* Disney's "Zootopia 2" have such beaver characters, just like my Remi. I liked them before they were cool! I haven't been this surprised since I saw the trailer for "Ratatouille" and their creative misfit rodent character said "This is me -- Remy!" [sic]

I'm on my way to see the parade -- as a spectator, though I will be wearing my gryphon Renaissance outfit, wings and tail :).

Hope to see some of you in the parade.

I took a photo with  Tiptoe the rat on Thursday. I've been watching his art for years. I'll be posting several photos here on FA.

After 3 hours in line for my badge, I am now at Anthrocon! :)

I'm on my way to my first Furry con. Maybe I will see some of you there. On day one, I will be wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt and my most conspicuously Furry t-shirt of Streamline the otter (that once cause a co-worker to ask, with some concern, why he was so muscular :D.) On the next two days, I'll be wearing a beaver ears and tail or my Renaissance gryphon's hat, wings and tail. Haven't decided which yet.

I recently drew a new character who's a female badger biker superheroine. On Roku, there's a channel that plays all the old Super Mario cartoons and they just happened to show the one where Yoshi joins a gang of evil biker dinosaurs and puts on the leather jacket and the shades and everything. I just thought that was funny timing.

In a week, I'm going to Anthrocon as an attendee. This will be my first furry convention or con of any kind. Are any of you guys going to be there? :)

I've been thinking about how the internet and fan discussion have changed over the years. The appeal of the internet, to me, has always been the ability to discuss your weird obsessions with other people who enjoy them and actually know what you're talking about. Lately, I feel like it's becoming the opposite of that, with people aggressively trying to push their interests onto others.

In the beginning, there were fan forums. You would find a fan site and attached to it would be a discussion forum. These are still around, but they don't seem as active.

Early on, it would just be *one* forum. I remember once I wanted to ask the people on my Stephen Sondheim forum what they thought about the non-Sondheim-composed "Titanic: The Musical." I was told no, you have to go to a general Broadway forum to ask that. But I wanted to know what Sondheim fans, specifically, thought of this show. Later, this type of issue would be addressed by having multiple sub-forums for off-topic discussion.

And from the beginning, there were arguments -- OH, WERE THERE ARGUMENTS! But they were usually arguments about the specific topic. (And you had to deliberately click on the title of a thread before you saw it.) If the conversation veered too far off into something else -- like politics -- the admins might lock the thread or send it to an appropriate sub-forum. One of my Disneyland forums had a sub-forum called "The Litter Box" ("Where we send the...um...") for especially controversial threads.

Today, however, social media is dominated by sites like Facebook, Twitter/X, BlueSky and whatever the kids are using these days. Or perhaps I just tend to stick to these sites rather than seeking out forums. One of the appeals is that they offer "one-stop shopping" for all your interests -- the Walmart of social media. (I think Walmart actually altered their logo to look more like Facebook's.) This keeps me hooked. These sites are also bottomless (unlike forums, which are divided into pages) and randomized. Scrolling through to see what will pop up next becomes almost hypnotic.

You no longer have to seek out a fan site. Facebook suggests groups to you and posts from groups you don't belong to just pop up in your feed, no click required. I think this where fan groups started attracting people who just want to push their ideologies anywhere they can. And there's no off-topic sub-forum to absorb this kind of discussion. It's just all mixed right in.

On top of that, a significant chunk of my feed is taken up by groups I don't belong to, devoted to topics I have no interest in. Especially on Facebook. I assume they must pay to have their messaging pushed so aggressively. Or else the algorithm somehow thinks I'm interested -- despite my flagging these posts "Not Interested" and blocking their posters multiple times a day.

To be fair to modern social media, I recall times that people on forums used politics as an excuse try to control the conversation and squelch opinions they disagreed with. Perhaps this shift is also partly the result of more and more of society being online. It becomes more like what we used to escape from by going online.

I appreciate that FurAffinity still uses a gallery format, which has also been around since the olden days.

I'm planning to go to Anthrocon as an attendee in July. This will be my first furry con and my first con of any kind.

I'll be wearing some simple ears-and-tail costumes. Mostly, I want to see all the fursuits and artwork.

Any tips or suggestions for a first timer?

I like it. It's a high-energy cartoony chase. It looks fun, which is not something I associate with current Disney movies, or current entertainment in general.

It shows a variety of new and returning characters of many different species, including a beaver with crooked teeth and a big, buff horse...now where have I seen characters like that before? ;) Anyway, I like the look of the new additions.

Of course, It's only a teaser, so it's hard to tell if the movie will actually be good at this point. The original did a decent job of working its message into the story, but if there was ever an era when a movie with that type of message could go horribly, horribly wrong, it's this one.

Still, I'll try to remain cautiously optimistic.

The tl;dr of my previous journal is that the show "BoJack Horseman" lost me after a scene in which a random dude tells Diane to smile, which I felt was a cliche that crossed the line from social commentary to propaganda.

Just now at work, a random elderly female customer told ME to smile as she was walking by!

Needless to say, I am now traumatized for life by this harrowing brush with Misandry.

Just kidding of course. I just thought it was funny that happened in real life so soon after I complained about it happening on a TV show.

(MILD SPOILERS.)

After recommendations from some of my co-workers, I checked out "BoJack Horseman," the adult cartoon on Netflix about a washed-up 90s TV star (who is a horse.)

This was originally going to be a positive review. I thought this was a show about characters who are varying degrees of messed up all playing off each other, satirizing the absurdities and complexities of modern life. It had a good sense of when to play the dark material for laughs and when to play it straight. Not every joke landed, but the ones that did were pretty funny.

The show takes place in a world with both humans and anthropomorphic animals. I like the stylized character designs. I even like how the characters turn their heads from a side view to a front view in just one frame of animation. It reminds me of a low-frame-rate furry animated GIF -- in a good way.

The voice cast is great. And it's even got a cool, funky opening theme sequence.

As I was looking up some info on the show, I avoided spoilers. I haven't been invested enough in a show to care about spoilers in a long time.

I was even going to praise how the show handled topical material, in contrast to all the recent heavy-handed media. For example, there's a flashback about how the creator of BoJack's old TV show, "Horsin' Around," was fired for being gay and BoJack didn't stand up for him. That's representing a societal issue, but BoJack and the creator Herb are both well-established characters. It felt personal.

So what happened?

The same thing that always happens with entertainment these days.

You know, you've been burned by so many shows, you don't know if you'll ever love again. Then, you finally meet a show that seems nice. Well, maybe not *nice*...but interesting. You start to open up to it. But then it turns out it's just like all those other shows. They're only after one thing. And you just feel so used and dirty.

In Season 2, there's an episode called "Chickens." That's not the episode that broke me, but it was a red flag. It's a vegetarian anti-meat episode. Ironically, I was eating chicken while I watched it. But I let it pass. I told myself, it's unreasonable to expect a show will never raise these kinds of issues. Plus, there was still some good comedy in the subplots.

Then came "Hank After Dark." This episode is about BoJack's biographer, Diane Nguyen, trying to expose a beloved TV personality known as "Uncle Hanky" as a sexual predator. Now, let me say, if you're writing a dark satire of Hollywood, it would be bizarre if you *didn't* address this subject. I thought the show was handling it with relative nuance. Then came the final scene of the episode. Diane is in an airport, visibly upset over what's happening with Uncle Hanky when some random dude turns to her and tells her to smile. Because men are always telling women they should smile. This is such a cliche. I didn't like the chicken episode, but it at least delivered its message in a weird, unique way. This is just...here's your cliche! I'm not saying this hasn't ever happened to a woman in real life. Like, I'm sure at some point an atheist has prayed during a life-and-death situation, but that doesn't mean I like it when that scenario turns up in religious propaganda and this is the same to me. I feel like that one scene recontextualized not only the entire episode, but the entire series. It seemed like it was all building to this. This wasn't about satirizing the absurdities and complexities of modern life -- it was about promoting an "--ism." Just like everything else. Nothing drives me up the wall like an irreverent comedy that's actually super reverent about something.

It also recontextualized Diane, one of the main characters. I now saw her as a stand-in for the activist writers. Looking back on the episode, one sign that it was propaganda is that while the public hates and threatens Diane for her opinions on Uncle Hanky, she receives no support from other Feminists. There *are* seemingly no other Feminists. This is, again, similar to religious propaganda films that take place in an American town where the protaganists are the only Christians.

Not to go too extreme on this, but...Hollywood entertainment is DEAD. There is only propaganda. Even if it seems like it's entertainment, it's just a trick. I'm not watching the rest of the show. I probably won't watch another narrative-driven show for a long time. At least not an American one. That's one of the reasons I'm so into furry art, like on this site, because it's actually made to entertain people.

They've posted a couple more English-dubbed episodes of "Belfort and Lupin" to the YouTube channel. While it is still primarily aimed at kids and there is still slapstick, it's not as prominent as in the first episode I saw. It's a very warm-hearted show. The main couple -- and yes, I do believe they're meant to be a couple -- are so cute together. I like how they solve a problem in every episode (that I've seen so far), kind of like a cute little procedural. The English voice actors are very good, but sometimes it does have that "wearerushingtogetthewordstomatchthemouthflaps"
thing that's common in animation dubs. I watched a clip in French with subtitles and it's more charming.

Here's my fan art of Belfort and Lupin as Road Rovers:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60264489/

I'm about to write a rant about "BoJack Horseman." I wanted to write something positive before I did that :D.

(From the writer of the Johnny Storm satire -- me. This is a satire inspired by a Facebook argument I had about movies becoming politicized. So I was thinking, what if I was suddenly the CEO of a movie studio? What would I make the screenwriters do?)

ME: Hello everyone! Somehow, I'm the new CEO of this movie studio! I've called you all here today to tell you the studio is taking a new direction.

SCREENWRITERS: *Murmur, murmur, murmur...*

ME: Now, don't worry, we're just going to do a little writing exercise. Each of you has been given an index card on which you are going to write a simple movie pitch...that doesn't directly involve politics.

SCREENWRITERS: *MURMUR, MURMUR, MURMUR...*

SCREENWRITER 27: THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS APOLITICAL ART!!!!!!!!

OTHER SCREENWRITERS: *CHEER WILDLY.*

ME: Well, that's clearly a popular view, but you are all writers, so use your imagination to imagine what apolitical art would be like if it did exist.

SCREENWRITER 27: WHAT CAN THAT LEAD TO EXCEPT THE TRIUMPH OF FASCISM?!

ME: I don't think a writing exercise will lead to the triumph of fascism.

SCREENWRITER 27: THAT'S WHAT THEY SAID IN 1930s GERMANY AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!!!

ME: THEY DID NOT SAY THAT IN 1930s GER -- Look, we're just gonna try this, okay? We're not even gonna make these movies! It's just all in fun! You can write a romance or a comedy or --

SCREENWRITER 14: Can the romance be about a same-sex couple?

ME: Yes, absolutely!

SCREENWRITER 14: Can they have their meet-cute at a protest?

ME: No.

SCREENWRITER 14: But I met my boyfriend at a protest!

ME: I'm sure you did. Let's just get started and we'll see what we wind up with...

*The screenwriters take 2 hours to fill out the tiny index cards. They all look stressed. Some are weeping quietly.*

ME: Alright everyone, I've reviewed your cards. Here's a prime example. First sentence: "GENOCIDE." Second sentence: "CLIMATE CHANGE." Can you see how this doesn't follow the assignment?

SCREENWRITER 38: That one is mine! You only said it couldn't directly talk about politics! You didn't say it couldn't have THEMES!

ME: Yes, alright, that might be a valid point if A) you had a story...or characters...and B) if the rest of your card wasn't filled with the words "I HEART POLITICS!!!" in giant letters with little hearts floating all around it.

SCREENWRITER 38: I didn't know you meant all the way through! I thought after the first two sentences it would be okay!

ME: Okay, here's another: "Once Upon a Time, there was a Princess..." A promising start. "This is NOT her story. This is the story of a single mom, navigating the modern working world." Also totally fine. "Please see other side of card for her big, climactic Feminist speech." Ah, there it is! "Note: speech would be longer but Patriarchy didn't provide large enough card."

SCREENWRITER 9: It's a comedy, like you said! She punches up at the Patriarchy!

ME: Look, there's nothing inherently wrong with writing about politics. But what about all the rest of human experience?

SCREENWRITER 9: If I don't write about punching up at the Patriarchy, how can I write a comedy?!

ME: How about some witty banter?

SCREENWRITER 9: WHO THINKS ABOUT WITTY BANTER WHEN SOCIETY IS ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE?!

ME: *YOU!* YOU'RE A HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER! THAT'S YOUR JOB! Okay...okay...I'll give you all one more chance. I'll pick one of you at random. If you can say one word...ONE WORD...even if it's TOTAL GIBBERISH...that has nothing to do with politics...I will keep you all employed at this studio. YOU!

SCREENWRITER 24:...

ME: ...

SCREENWRITER 24: ...

ME: ...

SCREENWRITER 24: Trump.

ME: OH, FOR GOD'S SAKE! YOU'RE ALL FIRED!

SCREENWRITER 24: BUT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY ABOUT TRUMP!

ME: (Throws index cards on floor.) I DON'T CARE!!! GET OUT!!!

SCREENWRITERS: (Murmuring as they exit.) I don't understand...what did he want?! I told him there was no such thing as apolitical art, etc.

ME: (On intercom.) Maintenence, can you come in here?

*Janitor enters and begins sweeping up index cards.*

JANITOR: I hear you fired all the screenwriters. Is that true, sir?

ME: Yes.

JANITOR: Wow! You must have some fresh vision for this studio!

ME: Not really. In all my decades of criticizing movies, I've never written a screenplay of my own. Frankly, I don't even know how I got this job.

JANITOR: This may be inappropriate, but...I used to be a screenwriter before all this political crap got trendy. I even have an unproduced screenplay I wrote in 2008.

ME: IT'S GREENLIT! What's it about?

JANITOR: It's about a workaholic dad who keeps missing his son's baseball games until one day he gets turned into a dog who raps, farts and makes pop culture references.

ME: I may have spoken a bit hastily...

JANITOR: *Picks up random index card and shows it to me.*

ME: Replace the farts with witty banter and you've got yourself a deal

This is in response to Joseph Quinn's comments on his portrayal of Johnny Storm in the new "Fantastic Four" movie.


THE SCENE: A press conference in front of the Baxter Building.


JOHNNY STORM: Greetings, members of the press. I am Johnny Storm. Many of you know me as The Human Torch. Unfortunately, many of you also know me as a womanizer with a devil-may-care attitude. I have come here today to put this unsettling and unsexy rumor to rest! (To a reporter in the crowd) Yes, I will be taking questions, but please hold them until the end of my statement.

REPORTER: Robbie Robertson, Daily Bugle. I just want to know what's up with the big, buff kangaroo man?

JOHNNY STORM: (Suddenly notices Jake standing onstage with him) Um...yes, kangaroo man, where did you come from?

JAKE ROOLAN: I dunno. The Multiverse or somethin'. Now, as to my purpose here today...I came to meet you, Johnny Storm! Heard you were the irresponsible one on your team. Thought we might have somethin' in common. Might have a little fun together. But listenin' to your little speech there, I guess I was wrong.

JOHNNY STORM: Oh no, I'm totally the irresponsible one on my team and I TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THAT! I've just developed a self-awareness about the deep psychological and social influences that cause me to act out in such a brash manner so that I can make an effort to do better and be better in all aspects of life, every waking moment of every day...(Looks to press for approval. Doesn't get it.)... and to also dream of nothing but doing better and being better when I sleep!

JAKE ROOLAN: Well...good for you, I guess. Anyway, you're kinda hot for a human. Fancy a shag?

JOHNNY STORM: Well...(looks Jake up and down) yes. But (turns to press) THAT WOULD BE HIGHLY INAPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR FOR THE HUMAN TORCH!!!

JAKE ROOLAN: Aw, c'mon mate! It's not womanizin' 'cause...I'm a bloke! And it'll spark a conversation about the inherent homoeroticism of big, buff superheroes, which both sides of the ongoing cultural debate conveniently ignore. Besides, I don't expect ya to call me tomorrow. I won't even be in this dimension of reality tomorrow!

JOHNNY STORM: Ah, what the hell! How many chances do you get to sleep with an interdimensional kangaroo?! (Begins kissing Jake passionately. Flames on.)

LATER, IN JAKE'S HOME DIMENSION:

BRUCE ROOLAN: Oi, Jake! You're covered in burns! What'd you get yourself into this time?!

JAKE ROOLAN: (Grinning ear to ear.) Worth it. Totally worth it.

I just saw "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" on Paramount+.

Here's another of my food-based metaphors for entertainment:

It's like if baking students were assigned to bake a cake. One of them turns in cake that's a little lumpy and lopsided, but still recognizably a cake. And that cake gets the best grade, because somehow, everybody else misunderstood the assignment and baked bran muffins.

That's this movie. It's not perfect, but it is a movie that feels like a movie and nowadays, I've come to appreciate that.

What's funny is that it does have heavy-handed lessons, the very thing that drives me crazy about a lot of other recent entertainment. But the lessons are lazy...and we're at the point where that's a compliment. It's like the screenwriters went "Okay we need some lessons...um...make good decisions...work together...revenge is bad! That should do it! On to the action!" As opposed to "DID YOU NOTICE HOW I WROTE THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON THAT'S GOING TO SAVE THE ENTIRE WORLD?!?!?!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Let's talk about the current furry *IT* couple, Belfort and Lupin. Belfort is an official royal pet in the palace of Versailles and Lupin is a wolf who lives in the garden. The cartoon just premiered in France and already, cute fanart of the two leads as a couple is like 2/3 of my X/Twitter feed.

I watched a random episode that was uploaded to YouTube. (I think it might have already been taken down.) So it's time to do what drives streaming fans nuts and judge a TV series without watching the whole thing! :D

This particular episode is about Belfort and Lupin trying to clear the name of a cat who's been falsely accused of eating the queen's parrot. The story is very simple and that's both a good and a bad thing to me. The leads have a clear goal and most of the plot is about them overcoming obstacles to that goal. In this age of continuity-heavy miniseries-style TV shows, that's kind of refreshing. It's very sweet how they help each other. The character designs are adorable, especially Belfort with his curly-haired ears, and the setting is warm and inviting, with all the sunlight shimmering through the palace windows. On the other hand, this definitely comes across as a kids' cartoon -- which is fine, that's exactly what it is, but considering all the buzz around this, I don't see a lot of crossover appeal for grown-ups. I don't mean in terms of the furry attractiveness of the leads, but just as a show to watch. A good chunk of the episode is devoted to gags about a goofy little human courtier's stinky feet. So it is actually kind of funny how the smell is so bad that sensitive-nosed Lupin gets knocked-out and assumes a feet-up death pose. But it definitely feels more like something to make little, little kids go "Tee-hee! Stinky feet!"

Well, there is one element to draw in adults...ARE THEY GAAAAAAAY?! Well, this is not the episode to judge that by. They spend most of it running around, with few quiet moments in-between. But I've seen enough screenshots from other episodes on Twitter to tell why people think that and it's sure inspiring some wonderful artwork.

Also, this episode didn't feature Belfort's family at all. I know they don't approve of Lupin, so that could lead to meatier storylines in other episodes.

Also note that this was the English dub. I think it'll probably work better in French with English subtitles.

2024 was a year of major changes for me. After spending most of my life in California, I moved cross-country to Upstate New York.

So far, I've been doing fairly well with the cold weather and snow. I recently experienced my first "White Christmas" since I was a baby. It's very pretty. The other day I walked to work when it was 14 degrees out.

I went to Walt Disney World for the first time. (I also went to Universal Studios Hollywood, Disneyland and Walt Disney World all in the same year.)

My stepfather passed away after years of health issues following a stroke. He passed the day before I left for Disney World. He had been married to my mother for 28 years. Mom is doing fairly well but is understandably still very upset. He was the main father figure in my life, but I had a somewhat difficult relationship with him, especially when I was younger, so I still don't know exactly how to feel.

I've been visiting with my birth father, a local rock and blues musician, once a week, the most I've ever seen him. Recently, I got to see my half-brother for the first time in years and meet his boyfriend. We have a lot of geeky interests in common and I'm hoping to go to Anthrocon with him next year. I gave him a Lucario plushie for Christmas and he put it in his toy display.

At one point, I was so frustrated with computer updates that I hysterically posted I was permanently quitting digital art after my current projects were done. Here's a...well, update on that. I believe the universe has a sense of irony, so I don't want to say the situation has been resolved, but if it continues as it has been, I should be able to produce more digital art. I've been doing the updates in a more timely manner. Also, I used to toggle back and forth between Photoshop and Chrome, which apparently my laptop can't handle. So I now draw on Photoshop, go online on my phone and play YouTube videos on my old phone and this seems to help. I have been doing some traditional acrylic on canvas paintings as well. They are mostly scenery, not furry, so I'm posting then on my deviantART.

I finished most of the large projects I had been working on when I left California. I'm continuing to work on the Diminisher the lioness growth/possession comic commission -- currently working on lineart for Page 4. Thank you to the commissioner and the readers for your patience.

In the new year, surprise surprise, I want to visit Walt Disney World again. This time without 30+ of buildup :D. I'd also like to go to Universal Florida for the first time and see their new park Epic Universe once the hype dies down. I'd also like to travel more locally and see places like New York City, which I still haven't been to yet. And hopefully maybe finish the children's book I've been working on for years and years!

Merry Christmas! :)

Here's my annual reposting of my old dirty furry parody of "Silver Bells":

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/4877811/

I liked him before he was cool! :D

All the social media buzz I'm seeing upcoming James Gunn "Superman" film is about Krypto the Superdog appearing in the teaser trailer!

I'm assuming this is the result of a deliberate marketing push by the studio. "You like dogs, don't you? Of course you do! Give us your money!" Basically, the same marketing as "Karate Dog," "Cop Dog" and the million "Air Bud" sequels.

However, I think this is mostly a good thing. It's been a while since I've seen a big geek movie where the marketing appeals to something like people's love of dogs rather than divisive and hateful politics.

Also, while it's much too early to tell if this will be a good movie, I like the idea of a tentpole superhero film embracing the inherent silliness of superheroes, like dressing your superpowered pet in a cape that matches yours. There's been arguing over this in the Facebook comments as some already feel this is too silly, but this, again, is more like old-school geek arguing than the more recent, bitter politicized arguing.

Furthermore, I like the idea of a (presumably) non-speaking but intelligent animal character getting so much attention. Over at Disney, they've been seriously downplaying this type of character in most of their recent animated films (i.e., the dog from "Strange World"). When done well, they can be the characters best suited to the visual medium of film.

A very important question:

Who do you think is the hottest non-furry (non-anthro-animal) animated character? Who deserves to be up on the pedestal along with the hot furry toons? :D

I think Mega Man from the 1994 American animated series is hot. Still not technically a human, but a human-looking robot. Note that this version of Mega Man looks very different than other versions. While the series has a bit of anime influence, it's pumped full of *EXTREME* 1990s American-ness. Here, Mega Man is a 6-foot-tall muscular armored superhero. You may ask, "How can a robot be muscular?!" I don't know, but this cartoon did it! His armor even basically has Superman undies, which gives him a nice (if somewhat abstract) butt. He has a human nose, which I usually don't care for as much as animal muzzles, but it's a cute rounded nose. He has that determined expression that I'm sucker for on cartoon characters. Most importantly, for my specific taste, this Mega Man is simultaneously a formidable fighter who can hold his own despite always being outnumbered and inevitably saves the day in every episode HOWEVER, is also constantly getting dominated by the numerous buff robot villains and all their various powers -- getting powered down, tied up, etc. Most of the villains are hot too, but the hottest is probably the hulking Guts Man who overpowers Mega Man with his raw strength. He's the direct inspiration for my Barbell the Dalmatian.

There are a couple furry episodes of this series, BTW. One very bizarre one where ancient cursed "Lion Men" run around turning other people into lion people with laser eye beams. And another where Spark Mandrill appears, (along with Vile and Mega Man X.)

My young co-worker mentioned he was going to see "Moana 2" and I said that I rarely go to theater for new movies anymore, but I'd probably go for "Zootopia 2" because I like the first one so much. He said that he'd seen some fan comics of Judy Hopps online, implying they were dirty and he seemed terribly scandalized by the idea. "Come on, guys!" he said. "It's a kids' show!"

Without thinking, I said, "Ah, Rule 34." He, of course, didn't know what that was and I said I couldn't explain while we were at work. (For those who don't know, it's a "rule of the internet" that states, "If it exists, there's porn for it.")

I just thought it was funny...of all the people for him to be saying this to. Me, who has been drawing furry porn for decades and who has seen every imaginable character turned into r34. Saying "There's porn of Judy Hopps" is to me like saying "water is wet." I have seen Cheesasaurus Rex, the Mac and Cheese mascot, splooging cheese!

I've been told I'm kind of a sheltered person, so it was also kind of funny to feel like I'd been around the block compared to this guy.

Later, a different co-worker was talking to me about "Beastars" when the first guy happened by and I was thinking, "if he's shocked by Judy Hopps porn, what would he make of that show!" :D

Not furry porn related, but I had another funny interaction about the "Wicked" movie. A co-worker was warning me that if I go see it, it's a 2-parter and ends on a cliffhanger. I know the stage version and read all four novels. I didn't say anything, bit I was thinking, "Not only do I know what happened to Elphaba, I know what happened to her granddaughter! :D