http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5660985/ <-- This was the raffle. 19 people entered. I am going to use random.org to get a number between 1 and 19, and I suppose you're just going to have to trust me that I'm not just making it up!

And that number is...
4.

And that means the winner is Fandramon! Send me your address and I'll mail your dong ASAP.

Edit: For anyone else, do you think I should have more raffles? I am sure to make dongs from time to time.

It's two announcements, actually. Bet you weren't expecting that!

1) My egg and sphere molds came in and I have successfully produced eggs.

2) Sweet shit, I can make sparklies now! Got four colors: silver, gold, copper, and black (true to its nature, black isn't very sparkly). I can make any dong sparkly for $5 (body-safe sparklies are kinda expensive) or EXTREMELY SPARKLY for a larger amount, depending on the dong.

Sparkly egg: http://imgur.com/9KgZX0l
EXTREMELY sparkly spheres: http://imgur.com/SVOETr5

Eggs and spheres are going to have a seam in them. It's the only way I can properly degas the buggers, but the seam is relatively unobtrusive. If you're disappointed that you can't get a seam-free butt toy, well... I'm a bit disappointed too, but that's life. Link to pricing and sizes here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13179698/

And now, for the raffle:

I made a test dong with some spare silicone to test out the sparklies. It's not super shiny, but it's got a nice luster to it. Check it out: http://imgur.com/Kx32m0n Hard black base, soft purplish shaft, Shortcat all over. And it can be yours! Yes, yours! I'll leave the raffle open for one week, and if your name is chosen, you will get it for free. Of course, you still have to pay for shipping. I don't want someone from Outer Asscrackia to win and then I pay $100 to send it across the Transthessalonian Outback. Shipping typically runs $5-10 within North America, $12 to Continental Yerp, and $15 to the UK.

To enter, just post a comment here with a big ol' ME (bolded, too), one entry per person. You don't have to go posting a journal about it or any of that shit.

There will be an important dong-related announcement tomorrow, as well as a raffle on a ~very special dilz~

Would anyone want to buy some silicone eggs? I could do them for $5 for a chicken egg sized one, $8 for something a bit bigger, in just about any color. They're butt-safe silicone, same as my other toys, but obviously I can't encourage anyone to put one up their butts, because I just know one of you is going to leave it up there and forget about it and clog a toilet.

You all know how much I love caulk, but now I've moved on to platinum-cure silicone! Yes, that's right - I now make silicone sex toys. Turns out I can make reasonably sized custom toys for about $60 - $30 for the mold, $30 for the dong. So if you wanted two, that'd be $90.

Oh god, they hurt so bad! Why won't they stop hurting?

In a few more days, it'll be time to swap digits and enter a whole new year of excitement and exploration. Let's see what we have in store:


One day after my birthday in February, SpaceX has a good chance of bringing the first stage of their Falcon 9 rocket back to land without making a crater.

In May, the Rosetta probe will finally reach its destination after a tortuous 10-year journey, going into orbit around a comet and dropping a lander.

In September, MAVEN and the Mars Orbiter Mission will both reach and go into orbit around our red brother.

Sometime in 2014, Angara, Russia's long-delayed launcher, may make its first maiden flight.


Not especially exciting, but hey, that's what you get when you continuously skimp on space funding.

Oh, and one more reminder: I post one picture per day on my tumblr, including lots of stuff I don't post here: http://avthepornfish.tumblr.com/

And I'll be posting one piece of art per day for a long time. You don't need to have a Tumblr account, or to follow it, because I'll post a journal here when I put up new art (once the backlog is done). You'll also see art there that I haven't posted here, as well as alternative versions of pictures and in-progress stuff.

http://avthepornfish.tumblr.com/

AverageFish was taken, bizarrely enough, so I'm AvthePornFish.

So, I got banned for three days for something I didn't even do. Nice.

I had time to think about things, and I realized that I don't want to give FA any more ad revenue. From now on, I will be posting my art on Tumblr. Followers, fear not! I'm going to post journal entries here every time I put a new pic on Tumblr, so you won't miss out on anything.

Feel free to post here and ask any questions / offer any comments. Here are pre-emptive answers to some questions you might be thinking of!

Q: Why not InkBunny?
A: I have an account there, but after uploading a few pics, people asked me to draw cub art and I realized it wasn't the right place for me.

Q: Why not Weasyl?
A: I hear Weasyl is great, but it requires you to have an account to view adult art, which Tumblr does not.

Q: Why did you get banned?
A: A couple months ago, Ruuki asked me to ink/color/shade a sketch of hers. I did so (and did a pretty amazing job, I think!). After I posted it, someone told me she traced the sketch's pose from someone else. I asked her about it and she said that, while she did use the same pose, it wasn't traced. I figured that, since re-using a pose wasn't against the TOS or against any copyright laws, it wouldn't be a problem. Heck, if anyone had asked me to take it down, I would have.

But nope, 3 day ban. Honestly, I was furious at first, and even now, I'm still quite upset. I know I'm not a popular artist here, but I still know a lot of friends just from FA, and not even being able to see their comments was terrible. I was not paid for this picture, I did not know it used someone else's pose, and I didn't break any law.

Q: What picture got deleted?
A: This one: http://imgur.com/vm0C90R

Anyway, I hope you all understand my decision, even if you don't agree. And if you've got anything you'd like to say, please do.

What an awesome weekend that was! I met lots of friends, got lots of hugs, and learned a thing or two. What more could you ask for?

And finally, I have some free time now that my fursuit's done. Might commission some good sketch artists, so if you or someone you know is great at sketching, let me know!

Look for me in my ridiculous black + white + red all over fursuit. Slap me on the back and say, "fuckin' fish, you owe me five bucks!"

That fucking fursuit... finished? What the hell? I thought it would never be done, but now it is. I guess there's nothing left to do but wear it to FurFright and get some photos taken.

Might post a couple here, if you folks don't mind. If you'd prefer, I can toss 'em in Scraps.

and it's awesome. Between Pokémon Y and Dwarf Fortress, I could probably go another year or two without getting bored.

I have it in French, by the way, so if you folks want some Coxy or Archeodong, just hit me up in-game.

My wife and I will be grabbing 'em on release day. If you'd like to play with us, I suggest arranging things soon. We both have 100 people on our friend lists and will need to make some room before the games come out.

... until FurFright! It's the only con I go to, and I usually have fun. At $35, it's a bit expensive for my tastes, and it looks like it'll hit the 1500-person cap this year, which is a bit much.

If you're thinking of going, I hope to see you there. Heck, maybe I'll give out special gifts!

Edit: I'm sorry for the brevity of this journal. I'm still mourning the untimely loss this week of a close friend of mine. He was 28.

Pretty much everyone here knows by now that I've been working on a fursuit. It's nearly done, by the way. For people I've just met, though, I don't know how (or if) the subject should be approached. Obviously, for the non-furry sort, I'd never mention it. They might just see me as someone who really likes sewing, and whose clothes are inexplicably coated in a thin layer of fuzz.

But even among my friends here and on F-List, I find there's still a strong stigma attached. Some folks assume it'll be a modded fursuit, others abhor them; it's not, but I don't have anything against folks who do.

So, what do I do? Should I avoid talking about it, a sort of 'don't ask, don't tell'? Should I be ashamed of the whole affair? You can be totally honest with me. If you don't want to post publicly, shoot me a note and we can talk there.

SO much better than hot glue: no waiting for the gun to heat up, no shoving in new sticks every two minutes, no burning yourself on scalding plastic and metal, no little spider-web strings flying about the room... The only real downside of caulk is that it takes a while to cure. But hey - while it cures, it releases vinegar fumes, and I happen to like vinegar. Plus, you can cover your hands with silicone and peel it off like dried glue later. Or keep it on, and you become waterproof! AMAZING.

Think you're good enough to RP with the best of 'em? Let's see! Answer these questions, and I'll send you a note to tell you how you did. If you don't want to answer them here, you can always send me a note, too.

1) Providence is the _____ of Rhode Island.
a) capital
b) capitol

2) If I'd known there _____ a circus in town, I _____ gone.
a) is, would have
b) is, would of
c) was, would have
d) was, would of

3) Its _____ was not lost on the crowd.
a) affect
b) effect

4) Between the two of us, we can _____ some real progress.
a) affect
b) effect

5) His cruelty didn't _____ me in the least.
a) fase
b) faze
c) phase
d) phaze

6) Some people call it Aluminum, some people call it Aluminium. Which is correct?
a) Aluminium
b) Aluminum
c) Both are correct

7) _____, I'll just do it myself.
a) Never mind
b) Nevermind

8) 12 _____ is also known as Midnight.
a) A.M.
b) AM
c) a.m.
d) am
e) pee emm

9) A trimester is _____ months.
a) 3
b) 4
c) 5
d) 6

10) Scuba, snafu, fuck, laser. Which two did not begin as acronyms?
a) Scuba, snafu.
b) Scuba, fuck.
c) Scuba, laser.
d) Snafu, fuck.
e) Snafu, laser.
f) Fuck, laser.

And yeah, English is a flexible and ever-changing language. If you want to say 'libary' and 'nucular,' that's fine, and I'm not here to tell you that you're wrong. You won't win any Pulitzers, though.

Edit: Aaaaand turns out I would've gotten a 9/10 on my own quiz. English is such a horrible language...

We had 22 entrants. Asking random.org for a number between 1 and 22 gives:

21.

Well, that's easy enough to count - it's the second-to-last entrant,  RedEngineer! Come claim your prize, buddy.

And to everyone else, thanks for entering :) I'll probably throw another contest before long.

Wow, a contest! Haven't had one of these in a while.

Plenty of people ask me for free art, and I usually say, "maybe if I have time." Well, I don't have time, but honestly, I could use some more practice with my tablet. I will randomly choose one lucky person who replies to this journal, using random.org to ensure it's fair. That person will get one free picture, single character, done up in my usual way. I can't guarantee anything quality-wise, but, hey, it's free!

In order to be eligible to join this contest, you have to post here AND either be watching me, have favorited one of my pictures, or left a comment somewhere, anywhere, other than this journal. As much as I'd like to get a million replies to this journal, I'd rather favor people I already know :)

Tell your friends - or don't, as it'll hurt your chances of getting stuff for free.

So much sewing, stitch ripping, and re-sewing! I want this fursuit to be perfect :) And of course, it never will be, but I'm going to do the best I can.

Heck, if it turns out well, I might even make 'em for other people. $500 or so; they only cost a couple hundred in parts.

You guys know I love participation, so here's an easy one: which picture in my gallery would you like to be my featured submission? A simple link or name will suffice.

I'd like your help. Not all my pictures have good tags, not all my tags fit my pictures, and my pictures often don't have enough tags!

I'll make things easy - link me to a picture, and whichever tags you'd like to add or delete.


Contribute!
Participate!
Masturbate!

say so! I'd love to get to meet more people in person, even if it amounts to shaking hands and saying hello.

http://www.furfright.org/

- Two coats of SPF 50 sunscreen aren't enough to keep sunburn away if you spend the whole afternoon on a boat.

- When your friends hold a deeper appreciation for you than you do for them, don't question what they're overlooking; just enjoy it.

- No matter how bad traffic on the Mass Turnpike is, it will always be worse the next time you're in a hurry to get home.

- Hard hats give you a weird tanline.

- No matter how hard you work, your boss will always want more.

- And, on a related note, no matter how good your decisions are, people will still find a reason to argue.

What did you guys learn this week? And no being shy! I want at least six replies this week!