As you know, Midwest Fur Fest is a large furry themed convention based out of Chicago that is held annually in early December. Around April or May they update their website for the current year and open the room block and registration so that convention goers can get a room at one of the convention hotels and sign up for the convention itself. This has gone on year after year like clockwork but this year they have done nothing. No one's talking, in or out of the convention, but it's my guess that there are serious issues going on between the hotels and the convention and the room block and convention registration won't open until these problems are resolved (one thing that they could work on is not having the registration system crash repeatedly when they open the room block). This is one member of the fandom's opinion of course, and I may be wrong.

On this Memorial Day remember that.the old saying is true..."all gave some, SOME GAVE ALL"!

I was playing "Star Wars Episode One: Racer" tonight and had the idea that the Imagineers behind the new "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge" land at Disneyland/Disneyworld ought to have a VR/AR simulator that has guests feel what it's like participating in such pod races.

This evening I saw a commercial for a product called the "Trumpy Bear"-basically a Donald Trump themed teddy bear. I love teddy bears (and other plush animals) dearly but you'll never find a "Trumpy Bear" in my collection. The Trump theme turns an innocent teddy bear into something crass and vulgar.

Thought: If a person who feels that he or she was born in the wrong sex is called "transgender" then shouldn't a person who feels that he or she is an animal trapped in a human's body be called "trans species"?

Question: why has the Republican Party targeted me twice (once by mail and the other by a phone call) in the past few weeks when I am a registered Democrat?

*sigh* Why does original gaming hardware often outlast and or work better than the newly minted clone gaming hardware that is intended to replace it???????????

I can't believe that it was 20 years ago around this time of the year that I attended ConFURence 10 my very first furry themed convention. I had acquired some highlights tapes of a furry convention called Anthrocon and had seen how much fun the congoers were having so I decided to try one for myself. I was between jobs at the time and should have probabaly concentrated more on finding work but (1) I had enough money to go and (2) this was something that I figured that I needed to try out at least once in my life.

It was a fun, mind blowing, eye opening experience for me. Here are some of the highlights.

- Meeting such artists as Roz Gibson (creator of the Jack Salem Comics), Jim Groat (creator of the "West Corner Of The Park" webcomic) and best of all Steve Galacci (creator of the "Albedo" comic, THE comic that had helped me get into the furry fandom all those years before.

- Attending a furry themed talent show with some very interesting acts (such as a character doing a skit featuring the Aqua song "Barbie Girl")

- Attending an ice cream social, courtesy of the convention

- Attending my first furry convention dance (and helping a guy out who had wanted pictures of himself in his "Gingham Dog" costume)

- Buying a cookbook called "Sweet Treats" and having it autographed by the authors (The Ozfoxes).

- Obtaining my very first fan magazines (or "fanzines"). Buying these were among my very first exposure to furry fandom produced literature.

- Running into such furry fandom luminaries as Nicolai Sharpero (founder of the furry BBS "Stormgate Aerie") and "Topfox" and "Cataroo"

I had fun but there were some bad points, among them...

- Having to do A LOT of walking. I've since heard that the hotel that the convention was based out of was originally a series of smaller hotels that were bought out and combined.

- It was raining all weekend, which didn't help the lengthy walking required.

- I was carrying a teddy bear I'd brought along with me when a gent flagged me down and interviewed me about it and my dealings with the fandom. Turns out this "gent" was the slimball Rick Castro and he was there to garner information for his "Sex Y2K" show that aired on MTV about a year later. (Fortunately none of the footage he obtained from me made it into the broadcast).

I've attended many conventions since then, both out of state and local, but I still have many fond memories of my very first furry convention experience.

I recently read with dismay that while The New York Yankees and the New York Flyers have traditionally played Kate Smith's version of "God Bless America" at their games, they will do so no more. It seems that some of the other tunes in Ms. Smith's musical catalogue have racist overtones (like "That's Why Darkies Were Born" and "Pickaninny Heaven"). This is disturbing to me for several reasons, among them...

(1). The song they're using "God Bless America", isn't racist at all. In fact, it's part of the Great American Songbook (I do recall that in my elementary schooling days, they'd play patriotic songs over the PA in the mornings before class and I'm sure that "God Bless America" was one of them). It is in fact a very uplifting song that should strike pride in ALL Americans. Also, Kate Smith's rendition of this classic number was not only a huge hit for her, Irving Berlin (or so I've heard) was suitably impressed by it.

(2) Granted the two songs may or may not have been racist, but if they are racist so what? We as Americans WERE racist at one point. Censoring songs like "That's Why Darkies Were Born" and "Pickaninny Heaven" deprives the younger generation of the opportunity to not only FACE the racism of our past but also learn from it. In summary, these old songs should be used to OPEN UP conversations about old time racism, not shut them down.

With this in mind, i hope that "God Bless America" is restored to the Yankees' and Flyers' in-game playlists soon and that Ms. Smith be exonerated.

I swear that if this "anti vax" business keeps up, We'll have start having outbreaks of Polio and they'll have to start making "iron lungs" again.

I can imagine that the Seine is overflowing with the tears of Parisians everywhere. The Notre Dame Cathedral is as iconic to the City Of Light as The Eiffel Tower or the Louvre Museum.

Photos of a black hole are in the news these days and it's awesome to see a thing that powerful. However I can't help think of someone from the fandom that died last year. Cary Mijo, known to our fandom as "Mavra" was an astronomy nut and would've been thrilled to see the pics.

The pod race sequence of "Star Wars Episode I" is a thriller and a fan favorite to be sure, but has anyone ever questioned the wisdom of letting an 8 to 10 year old (Anakin Skywalker that is) participate in such a fast paced, very dangerous race? ;-D

I'd love to see how Funcom is going to pull off a version of "Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden" for the Nintendo Switch that looks good, feels good and plays as smooth as silk. Mutant Year Zero's a very demanding game and Nintendo consoles aren't known for having the best specs.

It's just occurred to me that a lot of what Khan says in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is flowery and could have been campy, but Ricardo Montalban had the chops to deliver those lines and make them menacing.

It's said that the Mars rover Opportunity's last words were: "My battery is low and it's getting dark." I'd have thought that its last words to us would have been "My mind is going Dave. I can feel it." ;-D

Thought for the day: Fooling around with an Amazon-made tablet is dangerous. After all, you're PLAYING WITH "FIRE".;-D

The Superbowl is coming up this Sunday and as you know that's an event i don't particularly care for. It has occured to me that there should be an alternative for those of us who do not wish to watch it. To this end, I offer a solution: one of the local movie theaters could offer a special return engagement of the movie "North Dallas Forty". Why this particular movie? Simply put, it's one of the best anti-sports movies out there. It tells the tale of a football player long past his prime hitting the gridiron and having to rely on heavy doses to pills to kill the pain of his many injuries-this and team owners more interested in winning streaks than the welfare of the players under them. Thus it would be perfect alternative for those of us who view Sunday's game with the utmost of contempt.

Leave a comment

I wonder how long it's going to take for those of us who attended Further Confusion to get the phrase "Hail HYDR-ATE!" out of our systems? ;-D

I bought 'Mutant Year Zero: Road To Eden" a few days ago. Now what? Any support groups out there with tips and tricks to share? It's an incredibly complex game with an unforgiving difficulty level.

After visiting the Further Confusion "Party Floor", I have come to to the conclusion that partying hearty and swilling gallons of booze are for the young. Let us "Greymuzzles" have the luxury of sober, quiet nights in our hotel rooms.

It could be said that of Captain and Tenille while "love would keep them together' it took death to tear them apart. :(RIP

As of now, Christmas is over for another year. Why did it have to go by so quickly?

I'll admit that Christmas is still fun to me as an adult. On the other hand I wish I had some of that excitement, wonder and anticipation that I had at Christmas time in my younger years.

Interesting bit of Bible trivia. Everyone talks about the "three wise men" who visited the Nativity. If you look in the relevant Bible passages you will see that there's no mention of how many "wise men" there were, though I've heard that the "three wise men" was an assumption on the fact that there were three kingdoms active in the area at the time.