Heya, folks. Long time, no bark.

It occurs to me that, while I lurk on here pretty regularly, I have not actually posted any content for just over a year now. Probably right about time I fixed that, but not before a bit of an update. It has been an awfully complicated year or so. Going to keep this fairly short.

So, where have I been? Like I said, I am lurking quite a bit, but not especially vocal on any websites and mostly really present on a handful of Discord servers and Telegram chats. Anybody who has actually visited my profile in the last several months may have noticed I removed my IL Furs badge and replaced it with the MN Furs one, because I moved to that state. The last job I had was pretty awful, so I had to haul myself out of that rut and got a pretty solid job thanks to a referral from a local fur.

What have I been doing? Admittedly, aside from getting used to my new surroundings and giving work some real effort, not a whole lot. A lot of the art I am working on is small stuff for a project I am not really ready to share with everyone yet. I do have some other things to show, in a variety of formats, which I hopefully will get to posting the next couple of days. Having a phone I can sketch on has been beneficial to my quick sketching ability and I intend to explore lots of fun design ideas in the near future, even if they are a bit messy.

Where am I going? The main thing I am working on right now is establishing myself. I want to do right by the organization I work for, so I have been putting work first most of the time. As for art, I mentioned that I have a project I am working on that is just not ready to share yet, but hopefully I will be able to finish some more of the groundwork soon and some people out there will appreciate it. I still feel myself being pulled a few different directions in terms of medium, so you may still see both digital and traditional stuff.

Anyway, that is enough from me for now. Stay safe and have a great day!

Happy holidays to anybody who is celebrating them, and happy winter to anybody else!

I have not been posting much lately and I have kept putting off getting back to things, but no need to bore anyone with all the details. Just a few highlights.

I ended up participating in Inktober this year, but only recently got around to scanning things. Some of them are decent, some stupid, and I intend to distill it down to the better stuff to post here. It was kind of a last-minute decision, but likely a good decision. I feel that there is an observable improvement in my process and product from beginning to end, and even the good stuff later on took a lot less time than the okay stuff at the beginning.

Then there was MFF, which was fun. I had a lot fewer panels this year so I had more time to just enjoy the convention. Not a lot special to say really; I ended up in a more distant hotel which was inconvenient but so much quieter than even being across the street.

As for what I have been working on this past year... so much writing. So much more than usual, anyway. A lot of things are taking shape and hopefully I will be able to share some of that soon! I have a number of sketches which are related and their relation to any stories I am working on will no doubt be noted when they appear here.

Since it is unlikely I will post another journal before January, I guess that makes it time to say new year stuff. I do not have a lot to say about this year other than it has been perhaps the least stressful for a long time in a lot of ways. I made good progress on some of my goals, and even if I fell a little short on what I envisioned, these improvements will help me excel next year. On the other hand, my work is cut out for me, and I need to focus on finding a place I really want to stay, where I have friends and can really settle down for a while.

Anyway, that is enough from me, for now. Have a great day!

Hello, folks. Long time, no bark.

As usual, I will be attending MFF this year. And, as usual, I will be doing some panels.

Most of the panels I am on are ones I have done before, but I am doing a panel on meditation this year which is totally new. So, if you are interested in meditation, come check it out! And definitely give feedback after the convention to help me improve it. There will also be the biology panel and a handful of spirituality stuff, most of which is on Friday this year.

If you have not yet, be sure to check out http://sched.furfest.org for the convention programming schedule!

As for the rest of life, nothing has been too exciting. Been at work a lot, which is going well, and I have been picking up art stuff again by and by. Just have not been keeping this page up to date, really, but I do keep an eye on things.

Anyway, hope to see everybody at MFF!

I like how I get in the habit of updating all my profiles, promise I am going to keep up with them, then do everything but that.

So, as usual, going to be at MFF this year. Got fewer panels on my plate. Long story, kind of silly stuff. I am listed as Farran under the schedule, you can expect to see me wherever that name appears. Other than that, probably going to do my typical act of wandering around, pestering people I like, and shopping. Almost all the scheduled panels I am attending are on Friday, so if you want to hang out, try hunting me down Thursday night, Saturday, or Sunday (no firearms, please). I may be escorting folks at their first convention so try not to pounce without warning.

I have not been doing much in the way of art lately because work is taking up lots of my time. Ended up rolling back to Illinois for a better job. Again, long story, but I am making more money here to pay for the nice wheels. That is subject to change again in the near future, so stay posted. In the meantime, being actually tired when I get home from work in the morning (because night shift) gives me a great excuse to spend my time playing Pokémon Sun instead of doing something productive.

Anyway, I am also facing the reality that I actually just do not enjoy drawing that much most of the time, and I have far more useful ways to spend my time. I am not quitting, but I am considering laying groundwork to commission art that I want rather than taking far more of my own time to force myself through something I frankly am not that fond of, for the purpose of limited presentation. I do not take much art to be satisfied. I just want the ink in my badges to stop bleeding.

I also noticed that 11 days ago was my sixth anniversary on FA, so I have probably been engaged in this whole furry business for a number of years now. I would like to blame some old Internet friends for being bad influences, a totally restless and inappropriate imagination, sleep deprivation mixed with caffeine, and something to do with video games, I guess.

Also, HELL YEAH Pokémon Sun and Moon. That is all.

Finally in OK. It has been a busy last few days getting stuff set up. Still got stuff to do but I am kinda tired.

Work starts Monday, got some people to meet, places to check out, and so on. People here have already been very generous and I like it quite a bit.

Also, Happy Late New Year.

I do not post a whole lot here, so here are some general life updates.

The big thing is, I am graduating in December, then moving to central Oklahoma to take a job at the university there. I will be doing the same kind of work I am doing in the lab here, growing fungi and sequencing their DNA, except full-time and for money. Everybody I have met there is super friendly, the place is nice, and I am really excited to go there.

That said, I do not know more than a handful of people there (pretty much just people I met when I visited the lab) and I would be totally happy to know a few furs in the area before I get moved in. You know, because it would be nice to know some people there. Might make getting settled a little easier.

Also, I doubt anybody was really questioning it but I will be at MFF again this December. I do not move until January, but I think I will still try to make it to MFF in following years too, anyway. I may not run my 3D panel again, not because it is a bad idea, but because it is really hard to get people started on Blender in about an hour, especially when they always put us in a room without internet access. But, I have still not decided yet. I am sure I will see some of you folks at the con.

Other than that... um. Well. Not much other than school and work going on, I guess. And I started playing Elite: Dangerous. The Corn Kingdom is still a boring place.

It has been a while since I posted a journal. Close to a year, in fact. Man, I need to get better about this stuff.

So, I will be at MFF 2014, if there was any doubt about that. Going to meet some friends from far away and so on. Super excited!

I will be running the 3D Modeling for Beginners panel again, where I will talk a bit about 3D basics and modeling in Blender, at noon on Saturday, if anybody is interested in that. If you want to be there, you will get the most benefit from having a computer, a recent version of Blender (2.72b is available right now, but in theory, any 2.7x should work), and a mouse with a scroll wheel (this is not strictly necessary, but highly recommended). I am also going to be on the Biology Discussion panel, because I am a crazy scientist person. You should probably bring a brain, and questions if you have them, but I will try not to be too overly detailed.

Other news mostly consists of me endlessly plugging away at schoolwork. I have a mycology class this semester which has really made me super interested in fungi. Mushrooms, yeasts, assorted decomposers and parasites... all of it. I had to make a collection for class, so I have been out looking and have lots of pictures of mushrooms and stuff (context can be important for identification), some of which I may post because some of them are really pretty.

Speaking of posting artwork, yeah, I know, I have posted basically nothing in ages. I intend to change that, but I keep getting busy with work and school and end up not drawing. I got a Surface Pro 3, which I thought would help me get back into the habit of drawing... and it has helped me work a little more with digital by giving me an easy outlet for sketching in class, but my standards are still a little weird and preventing me from actually posting anything. Hopefully, that will change soon. There are not many programs optimized for the Surface Pro's high-res screen which are free (most of the ones that are do not have layers), but I have been making do with Krita. I am still otherwise enjoying my Surface a lot, though! Keeps me from lugging around a laptop which weighs three times as much.

Not sure what else there is to report on. So, uh... have a good day!

Is it time for another year already? Yeesh. I swear we have these things all the time.

I have not been too active on FA this past year because it was really busy most of the time. Lots of stuff has happened this year. In fact, thinking back on January, it feels like it was a really long time ago. Looks like I even only posted a couple journals since then, so here is what is going on. This is going to be a long one.

Some highlights:
- I got to go to Anthrocon this year. I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped I would, but it was still a valuable experience and I do not regret going at all. I may or may not attend this coming year, but that remains to be seen.
- MFF was really interesting this year. I got to hang out with a bunch of people I do not get to see too much, connect with others I do see quite a bit but rarely get to spend much time with, and also had a panel on 3D art/Blender. It was a great time and it really left me looking forward to next year!
- I managed to survive school. Calculus and organic chemistry were awful but I got through them and I am not looking back, except as necessary.
- Partially because of school and partially because of independent exploration, I have become really excited about the things I am studying as well as other things I can do on the side. It makes me really eager to work on new and existing skills.
- I started some projects that I am really looking forward to seeing proceed. Even though I have not done a lot of obvious creative work lately, I have a lot going on in my head that I feel will come quite in handy in the near future.
- Got myself an old Volvo brick to drive. Plus, my Cavalier went into much better hands.
- Learned a lot about computers, particularly using FreeBSD. Yes, going to another operating system, especially a less well-known one, is weird when I have perfectly functional Windows boxes. However, BSDs are used in the sciences, and are much more resource-efficient, so why not pick it up when I have a bunch of old systems lying around and not enough Windows licenses to fill them?

Some other things I am not as happy about:
- I spent way too much time online and that became obvious this year.
- Certain experiences with people have made me really suspicious about trusting people, whether I just met them or have known them for a while. I found myself actually happy, lately, that I can tolerate being a loner to some degree.
- I feel like certain parts of school were way too difficult for what they were, and just a little bit more focus, especially early on, could resolve a lot of problems that I had.
- I spent not nearly enough time meditating and exercising as I intended. Meditation is one way that I help myself focus, which has, in the past, been of great utility in studies. I also wanted to work on physical health, which happened a little, but not as much as I had hoped.
- Not enough creative work got done. Yeah, I posted a few drawings here and there, and some of them were even decent, but I have hardly done any writing all year (I even missed NaNoWriMo) and fell quite behind on project work.

I think that sums things up pretty cleanly. Now, setting a strict New Year's Resolution, as many people do, seems a little silly to me, mostly because it is difficult to determine what is a reasonable goal for accomplishing in the course of a year, and then it is difficult to remember what it was as the year advances. However, setting some guidelines for improvement is valuable.

Some improvements I hope to make for next year:
- Doing well in school! I am really excited about my courses for the coming semester, but I think I can do better than I have been doing.
- Getting more done on creative projects. I really wanted to spend more time working on writing, drawing, and 3D art, and I see potential for it this year.
- More meditation and exercise. My mind and body can and should be in better health.
- Waste less time on the Internet.

Well, I know I had some really good times this year, and I am excited to see what the new year will bring.

Happy New Year! Make the best of 2014!

Just in case there was anyone still in the dark on this, I will be at MFF this coming weekend. So excite. Very convention. Wow.

If you want to find me, the only place I know I will be at any given time is the 3D Art for Beginners panel, because I am running that one. For anybody who has not heard of it but is interested, I will be discussing basic 3D concepts and hopefully will explain enough of Blender to get you started on 3D modeling.

To identify me... uh, look for the badge that says "Farran." I might be sitting around and drawing at various points, and I intend to spend time poking around in the Artists' Alley and Dealer's Den.

Hope to see you there!

Okay... I have about an hour before I have to go to work. Will try to make this quick. But carp, my last journal was in November. Yeesh. Do I only get to post journals around cons I am attending? XP

Anyway, been busy over the past few weeks. I am basically going to school four days a week and working five days a week. I only have school for 3-4 hours each day, but I have two labs per week and quizzes/tests are generally taken outside of class. Plus, work is usually in the 7-8 hour neighborhood, which destroys a lot of time I would normally devote to homework, art, and gaming.

I did manage to get some time off to go to Anthrocon, though. It was fantastic! I mostly got to hang out with people I already knew, but I met a few people, too. There was lots of shopping to be done (oh, my poor wallet), Pittsburgh is kind of a cool city, and I got to talk with some game designers, which inspired me to get back to my own game design projects in addition to starting a new one. More on that some other time.

AC was also very exhausting, but in spite of not having a day to just relax and recover, I have bounced back pretty well, I think. I am excited about some projects new and old, and I feel like the artistic panels I attended have helped me work past some of the frustration that has been catching me for a long time.

So, will you see more new art from me? I dunno, ask my scanner. (It is kind of a jerk, so watch out. I suggest keeping a concealed weapon handy, just in case.)

November is one hell of a month.

First things first: leaving for MFF on Friday! At this time I do not plan to do much more than wander around, go to panels, play video games, drink caffeine, and other general fox things. If for whatever reason you intend to find me, look for the scrawny guy with the green collar and Farran badges, possibly on a computer in unusual places. If I am sitting in a public place with my eyes closed, it is probably a ruse to lure people within striking distance, so approach with caution. ;P

On to other business. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is this month, and for the first time ever, I am writing a furry novel. Kind of a complicated deal, but I intend to revise and post once I have finished it. It will probably take longer than November to actually complete, and then some time in revision. I might also have roles for extra characters, if anybody is interested in throwing one my way, if mostly minor roles (though I definitely reserve the right to deny requests for entry or make modifications to make a character more suitable for the setting). I am pretty picky, but I figured that the offer may as well go out because it makes my job easier. A couple of people already lent me characters for the project, so....

Also, UGH SCHOOL. In order to go to MFF, I had to push through about a week's worth of homework the last couple of nights, and it really killed me, especially spending about 10 hours on it tonight alone. I actually had to teach myself one of the units for my trigonometry class so I could do the quiz and homework earlier, and the book did not do a very good job of describing it. On the bright side, that means I should not need to bring any school stuff to MFF, and can just chill out the entire weekend and have fun... until I need to rush home on Monday to get to my chemistry lab.

All that stuff aside, this month has been very busy at work. At the movie theater we have:
- Wreck-It Ralph (which I really want to see)
- Skyfall (we had over 5000 admissions on Saturday because of this, not kidding)
- Abusive Sparkly Vampire Showdown (comes out this weekend, I have to work late tonight for it just in time to sleep deprive me for MFF)
- Thanksgiving (which will be busy as all carp)
I have not even gotten to see a movie in over a month because of all the other stuff I have going on, even though I can see them for free. Nnnyeh. T^T

I think that is all. I am tired and so is my computer, so bai.

Yeah, so I have been pretty darn busy with school lately. I had my fourth class start at the beginning of this month and I have not had much time to do much else lately. It seems like any time I get done with homework, I realize that I have more to do within the next couple of days. I get home from school after the week and usually have to turn right around and get ready for work. Hell, half the time I get off work at 2-3 AM, I have to turn right back around and pick up homework. Today was the first day I had off from both in probably a few weeks, but only because I had a concert, and I still spent the entire evening working on homework.

My schedule has been a little more cramped than expected also because I ended up playing in two ensembles instead of one, so I have three music rehearsals a week instead of just one. Plus, the course that started this month is a full chemistry course in half the time, which seems like it would have kept me plenty busy if it lasted the whole semester.

Oh, it gets better. Since I basically know nobody at school except for a few odd coworkers (who are not in my classes, I just happen upon them occasionally), and work is hardly a good social environment, I have been getting pretty darn lonely again. About the only time I get to see anybody I really know lately is at coffee. Not that coffee is not great, just that two hours is not enough social interaction to keep me content for the entire week. I do live with my family, but they are among the least supportive people in my life, so they are of exactly no help (and often an active hindrance).

Strangely, my art output has not suffered tremendously. I have picked up my 649 Challenge again, started reviewing old photography, and increased the frequency of my freewriting. It bothers me a bit that I have not had the opportunity to go out and do any new photography lately, and especially that I have not had the time to practice drawing in a more in-depth way before MFF. I was hoping to set up in the Artist's Alley for a bit, but I think that that will not happen now.

Oh right, gonna be at MFF. Money is not as much of a problem as I foresaw. But that means that November is going to be so busy, especially if I take on NaNoWriMo again. Which I might not unless I come up with such a good idea that I am itching to write 5000 words a day with little effort. I guess it would not ruin my streak as I did Camp NaNoWriMo in August, but it still bothers me that I might have to give it up.

I got Pokémon White 2, which is great and basically the inspiration for picking up my challenge again. I happened to have time to devote to it for a little bit immediately after I got it, but progress slowed down dramatically after that. I also found out that my rebuilt server-desktop-thing can handle Mass Effect, which is pretty neat.

I think that that is everything. Or, I am just too tired to remember it all. Whatever. I need some sleep so I can stay awake during trig and chemistry. *curls up and dozes off*

It has been a few months since my last journal, so why not? Granted, I think most people who are actually going to pay attention probably already know most of this stuff, but whatever.

First and most importantly, I am going to be going back to school this fall! I will be majoring in biology, which is something I probably should have figured to do a long time ago. Well, the important thing is, I am getting there, whether it took longer than it should have or not. And I love sharing what I know, so watch out.

Now, on to the other random news.

I have been working on art style a lot more lately than usual. I have not posted most of the stuff I have been working on, of course--really, who wants to see a page of various types of hands as I BS my way through them?--but the last few sketches I have posted look a lot better than the rest of the drawings in my gallery (not comparing to the photographs). Since I really do want to improve, I would like some commentary on things I post. Just in case anybody was hesitant to say something that they observed, do it. Constructive criticism is love.

Also, I have mostly finished building my new computer! This is not a high-performance machine, by any means, but it is the first desktop I have ever had. It is built on an old server platform I got most of for free (Windows identifies it as an IBM System x3200), so it has a lot of quirks not seen in standard desktops (e.g. the fans always run at full speed, and there is no option to adjust it). But I do have a Core2 Quad Q6600 running in it, which is an awesome chip. Graphics are unimpressive but sufficient with one NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 (Zotac's PCIe x1 version, even, since I have no x16 slots). I will probably use it as a competent workstation, meaning new 3D work might be coming up, and a crap gaming machine.

Just a little later tonight, as it hits midnight and becomes August, the second month of Camp NaNoWriMo 2012 will begin, and I will be producing text at an irresponsible rate. The plot is apparently solid, as I have discussed briefly with others, so it might make its way here if it turns out well. About that thing where I consider myself mostly a writer but do not post much... yeah, that might change if people actually comment on stuff I post. x:

I think that is about everything. Yeah, my life is pretty boring.

Greetings. I am a secret agent hired by the government. To protect my identity, I will only enclose my codename: Anomalous. As you may know, I was recently involved in the investigation of the murder of a wealthy corporator in the town of Novi, Michigan.

Accompanying me were agents tigertoy and sciencefun. After a lengthy investigation, we apprehended the suspect, known as Ms. Green. She subdued the subject in the sponsor's lounge and murdered him in cold blood with her Nerf pistol.

...I was actually meaning to go somewhere with that, but I am too tired. Just got back from FCN. Maybe I will do it later.

Anyway, the con was fun. Yeah, that is probably what everyone says, but try arguing that cons are not fun.

Did the usual stuff: poking around the artist's alley and dealer's den, playing Rock Band with random furs, chatting with people, drawing inappropriate things in public, etc. I actually did not really attend the dance--I mean, I stopped in for a while to check things out, but I did not actually dance, myself--because I randomly got weird pains in my leg on Saturday and so I figured it best not to push it.

One of the first thing I did, actually, was poke into the Dealer's Den. I managed to get the last copy of Red Lantern that Sofawolf brought to the con, which made me very happy (so... pretty!). I also picked up some other stuff, like a Certified Fox badge and some lovely bookmarks.

There were also some cool panels. Like, they had a writing panel hosted by Uncle Kage, which was rather surprising, and quite entertaining. There was also a Lego room that I enjoyed for some time on Friday, though I ended up skipping out on the contest because I wanted to attend Kage's writing panel.

I also attended some of the fursuit games this time, and I am glad I did. Honestly, it is not something I would normally take interest in, because I am not a suiter myself and I can certainly not afford one. But it was fun to watch, so I intend to go to the games at future cons, too. (Yeah, I knew suiters did fun silly stuff, I just never figured to go for some reason.)

They had a game that was going on at the con, too, which is what the part at the top was about. It was basically Clue, except the clues were scattered around the con and once you decided to make an accusation, you turned it in to registration and they were going to draw winners. They actually did not get many entries; only 14 people were selected as winners and they said that they would select 20. Anyway, sciencefun and I won and got free stuff. Mostly stuff from past FCNs, but also a set of smaller prints of the clues that could be used in a game of Clue.

...And I very well might. Yay Furry Clue!

Long story short, I had lots of fun and I am very tired now (got little sleep). Otherwise I might list more of the people I want to thank for having a good time with me, but I need to track down some FA pages before I could list everyone, anyway.

While I am at it: I also have some new stuff I need to post, as well as some old stuff (mostly photography) to go through and get up. So you might actually see some art from me soon.

So I have known this for a while, but I neglected to mention it on here because probably almost everyone who actually pays attention to my personal life knows this already: I will be at FCN. So... yeah. Woo.

Also, my mother has decided to demonstrate her obscene ignorance at my expense. In one fell swoop, she has decided:

1. Pansexuality does not exist. According to her, it is bullshit that someone can decide to have a relationship over emotional attachment rather than physical attraction. She says that she knows this for a fact because she is a "social scientist." Yeah, except her degree is in anthropology and is ~30 years old. i.e. she is not a psychologist and has precious little knowledge on the subject. And being married, you would think that she knows better.

2. All of my friends have no direction in life. Nevermind that pretty much every single one of them is making more progress than I am. Among my friends are two people going to the university for engineering degrees, one for sound design who already has some high-profile jobs, two more are advancing in their current jobs.... (It is almost as amusing as when she decided a couple of my friends were drug dealers because I caught the smell of cigarette smoke at a café.)

3. Because some of my friends are gay, I am automatically considering an alternative lifestyle. They are trying to "lead me down a path" of becoming gay. That is how it works, right? You can catch the gay from them! Oh, the nonsense.

That is not all of it, but those are the key points, I think. That is right; she actually made it worse than that. The bottom line is, I do not need to be around my parents. They have been nothing but an impediment for far too long, and of course they are always right, even in my areas of expertise. Ugh.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to blow some stuff up.

For some reason, I decided to take on this challenge....

Draw all 649 Pokémon!

Yes, there are that many. And yes, I am going to draw them all. zeoc713 is also doing this, so we will have to see who gets there first. |3

There are no real rules for this challenge, just that all 649 Pokémon must be drawn. They can be doing anything, and any medium can be used. Hell, for now I am just sketching them in pencil like I have done before way too many times. I am doing them in a random order, too; I started with Bulbasaur and Ivysaur, but then I grabbed a random number generator and now I am working on Heatmor (which is #631).

Wish me luck! ...Please? There are a lot of them.... XD

Is it a written rule that you have to post a journal after you go to a con? There has to be somewhere.

Well, first of all, it was my first con, which was pretty exciting. Overall, I had quite a bit of fun, and that is good. Sorry for not posting anything before the con, if it bothers anyone; I figured most people I knew had already been informed and a journal would be redundant. This one is slightly less redundant.

I was rooming with tigertoy and redyoshi49q, so thanks to you guys for dealing with my weirdness. And caffeination. And general cluelessness. Ehehe....

I spent a lot of time hanging out with shadowcat819, zeoc713, railrunner, synthwolf, firr, rioan, and other people who were around. Thanks for being awesome and dealing with those same things!

There are a couple of really nice things that happened, too. For one, people who saw me doing stuff like sketching in the con suite and lobby were actually interested in the stuff I was making. Someone tried to commission me (I only refused temporarily on the grounds that I was not in the artist's alley, and I really feel like I need to work on a few things before I start doing commissions).

Also, I really cut loose at the rave and that was awesome. That is definitely not standard fare for me (as most of you know, no doubt). I am still a little sore from it. Yeah, I went more crazy than usual. I apologize for any bad dancing to which any con attendees may have been exposed.

In addition to all that, I got to talk with arrowtibbs a bit, which was awesome, because we almost never see her at the CHUFF meets. I also got to meet rukis, and she signed a copy of Cruelty for me. I talked a little bit with some of the other artists and bought some assorted small things (not much money to work with). I finally finished my first badge on Sunday, as well! Finally!

As for the PCD, that is mitigated by the fact that I gave myself quite a bit of stuff to work on--this is still NaNoWriMo, too--and as soon as I got back, I got to hang out with one of my non-furry friends who I do not get to see often. (She is cool with fur, too. Yay!) And I still had orchestra rehearsal, which was fun.

tl;dr version: It was lots of fun, I learned a lot, and I hope to go to another con soon.

Thanks for making MFF so much fun, people!

# If I was hanging with you or something and did not mention your name, I apologize. In some cases, I just have not gathered some people's FA names yet. Also, it was a long weekend and I am really tired (keep in mind I got there Thursday and stayed until Monday, too), so my memory is pretty spotty.

Went to Kickapoo today with  tigertoy. It was very productive.

So over the course of walking around a little in a couple spots near water, I took about 450 images, most with a 180mm macro lens which I borrowed from him for the duration of the venture. Some of them are really good. Like, I knew that using a better-quality lens would improve my shots, I just had no idea how much. The fact that it was light out also helped tremendously; usually, when I take pictures in the woods at Piatt, there is not enough light to get a good shutter speed, and I have to hold so still to get a clear image because even image stabilization will not compensate fully.

Anyway, I am going to go through them over time and start posting them up here, so expect to see a flood of photography soon. Mostly insects. Go figure. |3

I also have several older images that might get posted. It might take longer to get to today's images because I usually manually set my white balance, but due to clouds and shade I had to keep changing it, until I got impatient and set it to auto. The camera was guessing what the white balance should be. Sometimes, it guessed wrong. Those images need color-correction, which is far more extensive editing than I usually do. Also, since I am without Photoshop (long story), I need to figure out how to do it with new software.

On a related note, the weather is lovely today! It was yesterday, too. Before we know it, it will be Halloween (yay!) and then we will be organizing sledding again. XD

So, the Fourth of July. Basically America's birthday party. And America sure knows how to throw a birthday party.

WITH EXPLOSIONS. |D

And Sousa. Good stuff there.

Slept until almost 4 PM. Had a bonfire and steak with kitties and patriotic Dew (Code Red, White Out, and Voltage). There was also ice cream. I note, as well, that you can see several fireworks shows at the same time if you go into the country. Who needs to go to the official grounds when you can have five shows at the same time? >3

It was a good day. Hope everyone else had a good time, too!

Okay, so summer is here. Maybe not by the calendar, but by theater logic (by that, I mean the big summer movies are starting to come out), it has started almost two weeks ago with the release of Thor. Yeah, I realize that that probably does not mean much to you, but movie debuts are a convenient way to mark time when you have a poor memory of exact dates and you work around them, okay? Anyway....

With summer comes the unfortunate realization of how much summer comes to annoy me. On with the listing....

1. Not sure why, but my body just hates summer. Not going into details on most of them, but my already unusual sleep schedule is further destroyed because I have trouble sleeping when it is too warm. While I like warm days, I also find it much easier to get to sleep while it is cool, especially in the early morning hours.

2. Big summer movies mean long work days and nights. This probably does not mean much to you, but I have been on the other side of the fence long enough to be sensitive to it. This summer: Hangover 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Harry Potter 7 part 2, Transformers 3 (gasp, not another 2... but still a sequel), Captain America, another X-Men movie....

3. All of the campus businesses close earlier. There goes my ability to hang out at Espresso Royale until midnight to avoid being bothered by my brother.

4. Since everyone is out of school, a lot of people I know disappear for ages. I just took one of my friends to O'Hare so she can go to Canada (to be fair, I hit the Field Museum while I was there and it was awesome), and a lot of my other UI friends go home. Coffee felt kinda deserted this week, especially compared to last week.

5. For some reason, things just seem more boring in the summer. It might be related to the fact that people seem to get more lethargic during particularly warm days, but this is particularly destructive when I already rarely do things unless I feel like doing them.

6. I burn easily. Really easily. There is an abundance of sunlight. Yeah.

That is enough ranting for one night, though. How about some of the good things?

1. Warm days means I can go out and walk around. I have almost no body fat to insulate me, so I can still dress warmly and not be bothered by the heat, thus helping to fight sunburns. (Even in the summer, you rarely see me without a jacket, albeit one that is not particularly warm.)

2. The ability to go out more often means I can lie around in parks to meditate, separating myself from most of the things (primarily family) that make it difficult. I might actually have an increase in inspiration and thus art, if that goes over well.

3. Some of my friends who go to school in other places are home, which means I can bother them more often. Particularly beneficial in that they are mostly people who do not spend much time online.

4. If you can survive the heat (like I can), bills are immensely cheaper during the summer than the winter. I like cold during the night, sure, but it saves a lot of money to do it during a few hours of the day or only in one room than trying to keep a house (or even apartment) a constant 70 or so degrees Fahrenheit all day, all year, even when you are not home.

Venting always feels good. Actually, so does talking about nice things.

Well, I will be around....

Yeah, today is my birthday. I turn 21. Fancy, huh?

So, here is what I have planned:
- sleep
- lunch
- work
- more food is likely to be involved at some point

Since I will probably be at work when the day officially ends, that is pretty much it. As long as my family does not draw out lunch (since I need to get to work, after all), should be a fine day. Yeah, Thor just came out and I have to deal with that crowd, but I will live. (I survived the midnight show and the first night of release, right? In fact, I have worked every Christmas since I started.)

I have no real intention of drinking or anything. I know, you only turn 21 once, and alcohol is supposed to be a big deal, but facing the facts is important. My family has a history of addiction (while usually nothing major, fortunately), going to work drunk would be entirely stupid, and I have so little mass that a shot of pretty much anything would tear my liver asunder. Also, alcoholic drinks smell awful to me.

I am actually in a pretty good mood right now. OCZ replaced the SSD that broke. Now I just have to decide what to do with it. 60GB is not much space, and while I have demonstrated that I can survive on that little room, I would like some space to roam in my new computer (e.g. space for games so I can play around with my fancy graphics card). The extremely fast boot time is very tempting, though....

Should be more updates soon. I am sure you will hear about them when they come around. For now, looking forward to a deliciously unremarkable birthday. |3

Today is Valentine's Day. The most romantic day of the year. Everyone has to go out with their date and whatnot for fancy dinners and probably other things.

Just goes to show how much we have forgotten why this day came into being!

Some hundreds of years ago, a guy (that would be Saint Valentine) got his head chopped off in a battle or something. Instead of crumpling to the ground and staying there like a normal dead person, he picked up his head and walked some miles with it to the cathedral before he finally quit. Apparently he was pretty good at religion or something, but he is clearly bad at being a zombie.

I do not remember all the details, so forgive any inaccuracies. We all forget things. If we did not, then we would not have turned a day about a headless guy into one about getting head, after all. <:

Sorry. Felt like the real story ought to be retold. Even if I was going out with someone, I honestly do not care much for holidays. That is why this day is so much fun! |D

Anyway, have fun, be safe, and remember that tomorrow is Tuesday and you need to get up for work/class/whatever no matter how much fun you have!

My computer is in really bad shape all of a sudden, so do not expect to see a lot coming from me (which is weird for a fox... okay, that one was kinda lame).

The thing practically breaks if you look at it cross-eyed. In order to work, it pretty much must be on a flat, level, solid surface and have virtually no form of motion applied to it. By that, I mean that earlier, I actually had to use a USB keyboard to keep it from crashing from the impact of my fingers. Over the course of about two hours, I had to restart it almost ten times.

Other machines that are making me rage lately:
- router (which normally behaves)
- phones
- car (only a little)
- fridge
- realty company
- erasers
- campus traffic (vehicles and pedestrians alike, mostly the latter)
- my back
- battle droids

I am surprised the thing lasted long enough for me to even update about it. Anyway, I will see if I can get my parents to pay me back the money that they owe me by getting me a computer... since I really need to have one for a lot of the stuff I do. :\

Yeah, going to post a bunch of stuff.

I realized that I have a bunch of photography that got neglected--some of it really good. For some reason, I have been hesitant to post any of my non-furry stuff here (which is a lot of the stuff I do, actually). Due to that, I am likely to actually post more new stuff soon, as well. I need to be more active on art sites anyway.

I have been shopping for a car lately and I am getting tired of that (it is not easy on a budget, either), so I will do something else for a while. May even post and/or edit some of that NaNoWriMo which most of you heard about but never saw, or do some freewriting.

So, if you see a random surge of submissions from me, that is what is going on. |3

The end of the semester, that is.

This is the time where most people do the stress thing where they freak out about finals and such. Ends of classes always have big projects and/or tests. Then, there is Christmas. Parents are freaking out about that one. Oh, and TV networks.

Not that I have nothing to stress about, but I tend to not have a problem with it. I have one project due this week, one due next week (with progress updates due this week), two or three that I would like to redo, one actual test-styled final, and then one that does not fit into a standard category. Somehow, I am totally not worried about any of it (except maybe that one program that I have to write, which is supposed to be really hard).

Since some of it is actually going to be kind of cool, you might see some of it around here. I have already gotten back to work on Arsada because the final project I am doing for rendering brought me back to it. You are likely to see relevant sketches and models show up sometime in the near future.

Just so we are all clear, though, I would probably not celebrate any holidays if my parents did not force me to do so (not even my own birthday, and I am not kidding). That said, do not expect to see any seasonal stuff from me, and do not expect me to react to much of it, either. Figured I ought to point that out before it offended anyone.

Anyway, I have enough to be doing... hopefully can start putting that stuff up soon!