http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/.....ermvasctomies/

For your edification only, I hope.

Anybody else notice Fchan's down?

Why the heck did I stop posting colored works?

Because a marker running dry without a replacement on hand is a catastrophic failure mode. And mine are running dry and I can't afford to replace them right now.

Why the heck did I stop posting colored works?

Tempted to pick up a pack of 17*11 printer paper. Should I?

How then shall we mock fox (faux?) news? C'mon, we have enough fox sterotypes, one of them has got to fit. Like how Fox and Thor go together or something.

 Strype,  Sixshades, I blame you two.

PRO:
1)I like when you draw _______________________.
2)I wish you drew more _______________________.
3)I wish you drew more fanart of these series/characters:
4)I wish you did more original art of these characters:
5)I love how you draw ________________________.
6)If you were to do a comic of/about I would be soooo happy!:
7)If I could get you to draw anything I'd get you to draw ___________________.
8)My favorite part of your work is __________________________.

CON:
9)I hate when you draw _________________.
10)I wish you drew less ___________________.
11)Stop drawing ________________!

OTHER:
13)When I think of your art I think ______________________.
14)If I had to describe your work I'd say ______________________.

http://io9.com/5377598/furries-take.....e-year-of-yiff

I LOL'd.


http://io9.com/5343458/would-you-ha.....ns-blue-aliens

Yes. Also, call me when cosmetic surgery gets far enough advanced... ;)

http://io9.com/5378477/why-are-peop.....cience-fiction

Io9 ran an article that I just found today, and it made my day.

I wonder what they'd say about my art.

I was just reading an article on Io9 about Superman, and what value a Superman movie would have in the Obama era; I could explain it all, but it'd take longer than the Io9 article takes to read. Key points: the following sentence.

"If we elected a president because we believed in the ideals of Yes We Can and Hope and Change and all those buzzwords, I refuse to believe that we wouldn't want to see a movie that sold us the same message but with added punching, flying and action."

http://io9.com/5311382/is-superman-.....-damaged-goods

At the same time, my mind was wandering toward Angroboda's recent "Caduceus" t-shirt design found here:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2344740

Here's my challenge. You may participate in it if you wish, and I'll be working on something like this myself. Create a bumper sticker (rectangular, square, round, or whatever shape you like) around the TF-inspired theme of "Change", in the spirit of the Obama "Hope" sticker. Alternately, parody the "Change" theme.

What's the next fetish I should start drawing?

Assume 30-35 years in the future, and both technology and society keeps going like it is now.

After discovering the book by Alastair Reynolds, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days, I find myself amazed that nobody's fanarted the diamond dog cyborgs yet.

I'd be working on that myself tonight, if I had access to a copy of the book - which was sold out everywhere nearby.

Found a sale on art markers today, and stocked up.

... Probably should go back and buy more lime green, though.

(Double-post deleted.)

http://digg.com/political_opinion/W....._the_Gun_Lobby

Nobody, I hope.

Do these people realize that the 'gun lobby' consists of voters and people hired directly by voters?

I want to know what they think an assault weapon is and why they think these are particularly 'bad' guns.

Is it normal to want to spend $450 on a custom titanium flashlight that will slip into a back pocket and doubles as a flash drive? It performs like a 40-watt bulb fed wall current, but focused in an even 20-30° rectangular flood pattern.

That said, Ra Lights is producing something called the Twisty that's my current object of desire. Still, doesn't go bright enough in my opinion, but damn is it practical.

Also, the ROP worked wonderfully after I ditched the crappy explosive lithium batteries for a more resilient Ni-MH solution.

'Fursona' Name:
Chrontius

Sex:
Male/gelding

Sexual Preference:
Bisexual, with a slight female/herm preference.

Role Preference:
Switch, with preference for sub.

Defining Marks:
-Heavy brass ring worn in nose
-Lighter bellyskin continues up over his nose
-Two piercings circling top spar of right earfin
-Pale green (same as belly) frost brand on right hip/upper thigh
-Muscular, prehensile tailspade pierced in two places.
-Brass ring worn around tail behind tailspade
-Two parallel scars on groin from bilateral orchidectomy
-Two Y-shaped scars on back from wing removal
-RFID implant over right ear

Special Characteristics:
-Custom designed cardiovascular system for optimal endurance
-Hide is extremely resistant to heat
-Maintains the ability to spit liquid or congealed mixture of ethyl alcohol and oils from a gland in the chest and an orifice below the tongue
-Body has long cables of electric tissue connecting strategic points - opposite hands, top and bottom jaws.
-Electric arc can light up the flammable mixture
-Can choose to spit a solution of mostly ethanol or mostly oils - the mostly-ethanol mixture is quite drinkable.

Misc. Details:
-No claws, just little pink slits in their place
-Keeps points of horns filed down with a powerdrill.
-Major fangs have been pulled

Canon Forms(Canon forms are any form that your fursona can assume that they are actually capable of assuming)
-Lapdragon form
-Cyborg form; male pseudohermaphrodite.

Non-Canon Forms(Non-Canon forms are any form that your fursona can assume that isn't actually something they can do)
-Anthro form
-Feral form

Fursona Origin (How you came to making them and certain differences from the original version)
-Flipped a coin to decide whether to go with dragon, cheetah, or otter. Was on a huge Guyver binge at the time; fursona was intended to be a 'were' style shapeshifter.

Anything Else You'd Like to Add:
-Procrastinating, really want to be drawing, really should be doing something else.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/.....l#previouspost
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/.....l#previouspost
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/.....l#previouspost
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/.....?currentPage=1
http://www.flickr.com/photos/152030.....N00/502393229/
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1366
http://www.psychologytoday.com/arti.....03-000002.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2.....rnationalnews1
http://www.slate.com/id/2192260/?from=rss
http://xkcd.com/487/
http://www.cracked.com/article_1635.....uides-sex.html
http://www.wikiafterdark.com/index....../WikiAfterDark
http://www.cracked.com/article_1678.....y-science.html
http://blogs.webmd.com/sexual-healt.....-want-sex.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20975555-29277,00.html?from=public_rss
http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/02....._gamers_h.html
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=pto-20070604-000001&page=1
http://www.homemade-sex-toys.com/quiz1/
http://ifyouseesomething.net/2008/0.....-kinds-of-sex/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269115,00.html
http://www.forbes.com/health/2005/1.....005health.html
http://www.santorine.org/adolph/ohyes.html
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/04.....p-conventions/
http://www.avert.org/aofconsent.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/3.....chemicals.html


I think that should do it for now, if you're bored and in the mood for something to read that'll hold your attention.

Anyone ever read anything by Thorarinn Gunnarsson? I'm thinking of Make Way for Dragons! (ISBN 0-441-51537-1) - if you like fantasy, especially urban fantasy, do yourself a favor and read it. It's got four and a half to five stars on Amazon right now, and it's been out of print over a decade, pushing two. (1990)

Thing is, I was hoping for someone to recommend a cheap commission artist that would be willing to do a picture of the book's titular dragons, who was willing to play it straight - I want to see what they'd actually look like; while I have a good idea and a solid mental picture, it's not quite enough. Problem is, Strype and Sixshades are all rather expensive, and I'm rather broke at the moment. Wait 'til I can do it right, or find someone else, perhaps someone willing to negotiate on unique ideas?

Okay, so combat cyborgs - how should I draw them? I don't really want to go for the 'canned meat' thing of brain-in-a-jar in a totally robotic body, and I don't really like the 'Hollywood cyborg' effect of plastering prosthetics on as thick as they can (the Star Trek approach). I want something rather more subtle and less traumatic to the cyborg.

So what do you guys think?

Drunken Smash Brothers - or dare I say it, Smashed Brothers?

ugh. I'm sick. In more ways than one, now.

When I'm not drawing freaky pictures, I have started building flashlights.

Last week, my ROP parts arrived from China - two D-size lithium ion cells, a textured, heat-sinked aluminum reflector, a disk of 99% transmittance anti-reflective glass, a lithium-ion smart charger (the kind that automatically stops charging your batteries before they assplode all over your workbench!), a short, low-resistance tailcap spring, and a pair of 3 AA to 1D serial battery adapters that I didn't actually need except as backup plan (they're crap anyway, at $1.50 each, two of 'em were an impulse buy).

These joined the parts I bought in America, a 2D Mag from Home Depot, and a pair of Pelican 3854 bulbs, one 11 watt, one 24 watt.

Compare this to your average flashlight bulb, 2.4 volts at 0.5 amps - about 1.2 watts. (Lithium ion batteries, for those not used to them, usually run around 3.7 volts)

The net result of this collection of premium parts is a Mag-Lite that actually has more in common with your laptop and car headlights than ... you know, a maglite.

So I got my third Logitech G9 a week or so ago, and... at this point, it's kinda meh. I've mostly been sticking to my Deathadder, not that I've had any real time to devote to gaming or arting lately. At least the tilt wheel works this time. But it can take up to three months for them to cut a check to cover the cost of shipping. And I missed out on a rebate due to the time it took to get one with a working wheel.

Three months? What the shit. They may have made it right, but they did that wrong, and they won't even provide half-assed Mac or Linux drivers. I am thoroughly disappointed in them.

Spring break sucked.

Have a tentative, unofficial job offer, which will probably pan out.

Trying to figure out how to mod an Ultrafire C3 with a next-generation LED, a forward clickie switch, and a better driver circuit - not saying that will be my next EDC (Every Day Carry) light, but the stainless one is a lustworthy piece of industrial design, with some thought to possible 'tactical' design cues. (See the Surefire Z-series combatlights for reference - the wasp-waisted design makes it easy to effectively use with a handgun.)

Happy Singles Awareness Day, everybody!

I'm going to get my new Logitech G9 today, according to tracking data, and we're going to spend some quality time together with UT3 and Darkstar One and maybe Bioshock for the trifectra.

But that means booting over to Windows to set up the profiles, since these fine hardware engineers don't see the need to write Mac drivers.

From Caz's journal, found here:

I'm in the same boat -- I really, really don't know how to answer this question.

I'm proud of my bullshit detector, my ability to see complicated scenarios immediately decohere into a relatively simple explanation and internal model most of the time. It's not entirely reliable, but when it works, it's useful. It'll find a relatively simple explanation of a sociological problem I'm told is somewhere just under 'fiendishly complex' and leave me feeling underwhelmed and confused. It'll detect violations in internal consistency - which I've turned mercilessly on myself, in more in-depth self-examination than most people find comfortable. It's more than I find comfortable. But it made me a better human being.

Despite this, there isn't anything that springs to mind that I love about myself. I'm bright - probably very bright - but I don't know how to use it well, and it brings me little to no joy. I can now - finally - do decent art, but it mostly serves as an escape valve for my inner demons. When I get in the Zone, I can write like a fiend, but the warmup can be fiendish - and I don't even have a Cave. I can no longer read like I used to when I was a ravening bibliophile, most of which I blame on Robert Jordan and The Wheel of Time (book five or six, mostly). (Tangentally, I loved Dragonhaven - while the intended audience is rather younger than I am, it's the only good field biology I've found in a SF/F book in recent memory, and I have a newfound desire to count turtles in the Galapagos.) I've stopped taking joy in computer games of late, too - I'm very rarely the best in the group at whatever it is, and I'm not getting much better at the rate I'm playing.