I am heading out to FWA today! Hope to see a lot of you awesome furs at the con~

Another year, another set of statistics from Last.FM. Here's what I have been listening to over the past year, most of which was recorded manually by my phone, since Winamp is fundamentally broken.

Looking for new music to look into? It won't hurt to start here, though personal tastes may vary.

Top Bands:

1) Freedom Call
2) Stratovarius
3) Dream Theater
4) Savatage
5) Joe Satriani
6) A Sound Of Thunder
7) Halestorm
8) Levin, Minnemann, Rudess
9) Wolfgun
10) Bart Graft

Top Albums:

1) "Beyond" by Freedom Call
2) "I Get Wet" by Andrew W.K.
3) "Phone Sex" by OCEAN RESORT
4) "Through Mountains EP" by Casey LaLonde
5) "From The Law Offices Of Levin Minnemann Rudess" by Levin, Minnemann, Rudess
6) "Levin Minnemann Rudess" by Levin, Minnemann, Rudess
7) "Alias" by Python Blue
8) "Cocktails With Santa" by Richard Cheese
9) "PAINT (It's Like This!)" by Dark Reflection Studios
10) "+ (Cross)" by Justice

Top Songs:

1) "Through Mountains" by Casey LaLonde
2) "Fortune's Balm" by Bart Graft
3) "Burn (Alternate Version BONUS!)" by Wolfgun
4) "Come On Home" by Freedom Call
5) "Escape From Reality" by Python Blue
6) "Faith In The Heartland" by Journey
7) "Fulgent" by iamMANOLIS
8) "Genesis" by Justice
9) "Jacuzzi" by CUSAX
10) "Prisoner Of The Night (Quiet Version)" by Dark Reflection Studios

Interesting to reflect back on what I was listening to whenever the computer was watching. For much of the winter and spring of 2016 the scrobbler on my cell phone didn't work, so much of what I played wasn't recorded. I finally got the manual scrobbler to work in late spring by signing up for a Discogs account. At the time I was in the metal section of my collection, which explains Freedom Call, Stratovarius, and Dream Theater...only two of which released new material in 2016, none of which I have in my collection yet. I acquired a few new Savatage albums while exploring the band's history over the summer, and had Joe Satirani and Halestorm on heavy rotation while going to events and visiting with friends. I helped Levin, Minnemann, and Rudess kickstart their new album "From the Law Offices Of...." and got their debut album through that (the guys are a side project of musicians from other bands. Rudess is Dream Theater's keyboardist, which is how I came aware of it). Aside from them, Bart Graft is the only other one on this list who put out new material (excellent stuff by the way). Not sure why Casey LaLonde features so prominently; I might have been playing his stuff in the very earliest of the year. In the fall I got some of Python Blue's albums on discount and finally got a hold of Justice's debut album.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a good holiday season, or even just a good month of December if you don't celebrate one of the holidays taking place these weeks. I had a good one myself, and am now exhausted. All the running around, the prep work leading up to the holidays, the traveling from personal vacations, the longer hours at work, the financial concerns, the events happening like new movies and video game specials is all starting to catch up to me, I think.

I am tired...more tired than I've felt in a long time.

Put on your fresh flannel pyjamas and snuggle me, dammit! I'm gonna spend like, a week in bed.

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Would anyone be willing to do a holiday card exchange this year? I love getting them; I tape them up to a barren wall to make my home more festive.

In any case, addresses are kind of sensitive information, so if you would like to exchange greeting cards then please write me your address in a Private Message to be safe. I will reply with my own mailing address.

I usually don't get much interest in this but it's not a big deal; it's just my way of spending a little holiday cheer to people!

Cheers!

-Coon

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7927352/

On the discussion of fetish art/"sexual deviancy" and actual psychopathic behavior.

MFF 2106 was my first ever and I genuinely feel like I took part in furry history by going. It was an unbelievable weekend and though I came home with a bad case of con crud, I am still in elation of the event. Big shouts out to Max Lightpaw, Aster Typhus and our other roomie for helping to make this happen. I am still floored by our numbers at the con: 7k plus attendees-only 200 short of breaking AC's attendance record. Over $75k raised for the con charity over the space of a weekend.

I especially enjoyed running into people that I missed the one time I went to AnthroCon, such as Miles-DF, Strega, Fluff-Kevlar, Phantom Fullforce and others. Wish I could have hung out with some of y'all more! This was also the first time ever I sprung for a sponsorship tier attendance and that was pretty awesome. I kind of wish they would have run the brunch longer...I ate a lot of great food, but didn't get a chance to have some desert since my stomach was feeling unsettled. x3

I feel like I made some friends and had a good vacation. My one gripe was that the layout of the Dealer's Den and Artist Alley was balls-out stupid. They had everyone crammed into little rooms, so that both the Den and the Alley had to be split up between both wings of the hotel. It would have worked well if it were a smaller con, but the AC-like crowd at this year's event meant that you had to wait a good amount of time just to get through enough to see what people were selling. This was complicated by the fact that the Alley was lottery based, so not everyone had a table every day of the con. I did appreciate having new wares to browse each day though, but it made commissioning art a bit of a risk. Speaking of which, this is the first year in which I actually got most of the things I commissioned done at the con. I have one badge waiting, and a magnet I commissioned from Twisted Tree Productions that I need to arrange for, assuming I can find them again.

Was pleased with my decision to mail myself everything I got at the Con too. The price of extra carry-on bags aside, I do not trust the TSA. The Agent at the Chicago gate looked through my art folder, but didn't see any problem with it...I dunno what they would have made of the art collections and comics I had purchased.

Good times are tempered with somber times, and I am passing on the word of  quasiskunk's passing. He was killed last night in a head-on collision. He was an old hand in the fandom, and was known to run the headless lounge for fursuiters at MFF. Please pass on the information to those who knew him, so they can pay respects.

Probably should have made this post a long time ago....but I am definitely going to MFF. I have everything squared away and have even registered as God Level; a first for any con (doing it at the next FWA too)

I am planning next year to be an off year as far as cons go. I need to focus on my house and my health, both of which have been deteriorating.

I'm really grateful for my friends, the ones that seem to have stuck by me and helped me to experience awesome new things like this. It's been a lot of fun and I could not have done it without you~ You know who you are. So yes, this year I am most thankful for my friends.

Took some time to update my profile a little. Not much going on here right now, just working and trying to get through the summer. May have another sale soon; my last one was not as successful as I had hoped it would be, and I still have some junk laying around that I no longer need.

How are you guys doing? How's your summer going?

# Joined Team Valor~

My heart goes out to the victims of this act of senseless violence. I've heard we lost a member of the community to it, but I can't say who it is as I can't confirm anything, and don't wish to be party to hearsay. If anyone finds out anything, particularly along the lines of charity orgs handling the victim's expenses, could you let me know so that I could pass it on? I wish that there were more that I could do in times like this; I feel so helpless.

Welcome to the third iteration of my trading post: Rare & Deprecated Relics of Summer's Personal Past.
Some of the items in here may be of some interest to you guys, putting it mildly.

Anubis: Dark Desire Comics 2, 3, & 4 (Adult)
https://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1085647.html

Gathering Of The Gargoyles Convention Package (Autographed Comic & T-shirt)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272267391650?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Evil Dead: The Musical T-Shirt (Las Vegas Residency)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272267410511?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

X-Men Origins: Wolverine the Videogame (Playstation 2)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272267421016?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Resident Evil Zero (GameCube)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272267452596?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Resident Evil (GameCube)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272267466909?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Judging by the huge number of journals I've gotten now that I've reset my password, it seems that the fandom is fracturing. Some are leaving for Tumblr, others Weasyl, and still others are jumping ship to Inkbunny. Some have stated they are leaving FA and starting over on these other sites, and many more pledged to maintain presence both here and elsewhere. I am probably going to be one of the latter.

Here's my Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~coon

I've traditionally focused more on FA, so the migration of my gallery from here to there is going to be a slow process. If enough people jump ship, I may make Weasyl my more "permanent" residence. I don't expect FA will ever completely go away (unless if another database crippling attack happens and IMVU pulls the plug), but it seems the slow exodus from the site is now rapidly accelerating.

First off, welcome back.

Now, don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet, because we're not out of the woods.

It's common knowledge by now that the attack that wiped out FA's database and took the site offline occurred because FA's source code was leaked. Hackers were able to reverse-engineer an exploit in the code that allowed them to manipulate the sites functions maliciously. The problem here is that this isn't a one-time thing. With the source code of this website lain naked before anyone who goes looking for it, complete security is not going to be had until FA sees a total recoding.

We were promised a fresh coding what, ten years ago? That obviously never happened, because now we are in condition critical with our source code...which is known to be old, hacky, and full of bugs...exposed to everyone. FA may be back up and running again, but it is running on borrowed time, and I have little confidence that they'll be doing anything more than emergency damage control from here on out.

Unless IMVU steps in, that is.

I dunno. Thoughts?

...I'm on team Cap.

...you make convention plans with a friend but they forget to include you in theirs.

So space in a room that I thought I had reserved has been given to someone else, and now I am looking for people who have one, preferably two spaces open for room sharing. I was looking to do some severe cost-cutting anyways as I wanted to try going god-level for this con, and will be flying down. Given how the whole hotel was apparently privately booked for con staff, I'm not holding my breath that I will be able to find any openings, but I'm putting this up here anyway because you never know.

My other friend and I are looking into cheap hotels several miles out from the convention. I'm not sure I want to do that because traffic in Chicago guarantees that you either won't be on time and/or will have exorbitant taxi fares.

Again, not holding my breath. At this point I am pretty much writing off attending MFF this year and going to FangCon instead, since I have multiple avenues towards getting into that one.

Now that FWA is out of the way (great con as always!), I'm considering what to do with the rest of my year.

FangCon was an obvious choice for 2nd event since it was a comfortable drive at only 3 hours (4 hours is the max I've ever driven). However, it's move to Birmingham, AL this year puts it farther away from me than I'd like, and since I've already visited it once I'm thinking of doing something different this year. At only 4 hours away the driving distance is still reasonable enough that I may still make the attempt if people really want me there.

That leaves MFF, which takes place in Chicago. Visiting my then-girlfriend up in Winsconsin proved to me that Chicago was a lot easier to visit than I had previously believed. I am strongly considering heading there instead of FangCon this year (even though FangCon's theme for 2016 is awesome like hnnnng~!). It would be a new experience meeting new people and a chance to get one con I haven't been to yet off my bucket list.

FA:U is also tempting. I have always wanted to go since it was founded, but its location in New Jersey kept me from attending. Its recent move to Virginia this year puts it only 8 and a half hours away from me by car...a formidable drive but not entirely undoable, since it can be completed in the course of a day. If it stays put, I may be able to cross that off my list next year. Megaplex is also an 8 hour drive, so going to one of these will show me what I can expect in getting to the other...I'm going to have to make a choice.

Unless if I win the lottery or something, I'm probably only going to be able to do two of these a year, and that's fine. I'm not like some people who have long-distance mates they can only see at these things, though when you're single and greying like me, taking any opportunity to mingle with new crowds is imperative. Despite that, I'm definitely going to do FWA again next year, now that it's finally hit on a theme that's totally awesome and speaks to my interests. (That and it's my home con! How can I not go to one that's that close to me?)

Telegram was so ubiquitous at FWA that I was left feeling compelled to get one.

I am not quite sure how to find and add people to it yet, but I can be contacted at CoonSurya there. Usually open to a chat, rp, or whatever.

An interesting read!

http://theamazingsallyhogan.tumblr......on-of-zootopia

Just saw it today, and I must say...

It really is the furry movie we've all been waiting for.

I strongly urge you to go see it if you haven't already; this is one film that actually deserves your money. Disney has released great movies before, but for its tongue-in-cheek portrayal of modern society, Zootopia feels almost like a masterwork. I've never seen a movie handle sensitive topics like "racism" as masterfully as this one. The messages the film gets across are fully human.

Fuck "Be Mine".

Be You.

My girlfriend and I are calling off our relationship. Nothing drastic or anything; we're still friends and all that. We just found it too difficult to connect with each other.

I guess I have my proof now that I am not meant to find someone.

I hate to have to do this, but it seems like all the people that I usually room with have all moved on without me this year. It's probably a sign that I'm getting too old for this, but would still like to attend the con.

I have myself, my roommate, and (possibly) one other person.

I have an air mattress, Queen size.

I usually bring a box of various alchohols to share with the room, but can refrain from doing this on request.

If no one bites I plan on going by myself and just sleeping in the car. I've never had to do it before, but I don't plan to stay the entire 4 days if that happens either, so it should balance out.

I heard from a friend that  sesamebun (also  LemAhnayd and  LibidinousWonder, all one person) passed away today.

I didn't know him myself and don't have any details concerning the circumstances of his death, but I figured I would pass the word on so that none of his friends or commissioners would be left wondering.

R.I.P. dude.

I use Last.FM to record pretty much everything I listen to throughout the year, which gives me stats like this!

Top Bands:

1) Journey
2) The Beach Boys
3) Nowtro
4) Dream Theater
5) Linkin Park
6) Gears Of The Apparatus
7) Zircon
8) Duett
9) A Sound Of Thunder
10) Apoptygma Berzerk

Top Albums:

1) "After Dark" by Nowtro
2) "Look Into The Future" by Journey
3) "Train Of Thought" by Dream Theater
4) "That's Why God Made The Radio" by The Beach Boys
5) "Next" by Journey
6) "Frontiers" by Journey
7) "Infinity" by Journey
8) "Escape" by Journey
9) "Evolution" by Journey
10) "Horizons" by Duett

Top Songs:

1) "Endless Sacrifice" by Dream Theater
2) "After Dark" by Nowtro
3) "You're On Your Own" by Journey
4) "The Long Long Ago" by Nowtro
5) "Spaceman" by Journey
6) "Young Men Dead" by The Black Angels
7) "Honor Thy Father" by Dream Theater
8) "That's Why God Made The Radio" by The Beach Boys
9) "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" by Journey
10) "Wheel In The Sky" by Journey

It's always interesting to look back and see what I was listening to throughout the year whenever the computer was watching. I know most of these scrobbles came from my cellphone, which sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. That explains all the Journey, since I listen to all my cd's in order and spent much of last spring playing their entire discography. Nowtro was on my phone at a time when I was letting my roommate borrow it, and they really liked it. Train of Thought was the Dream Theater album I found and bought last summer at the record store, in the bargain bin. I got A Sound Of Thunder's entire discography through a kickstarter too, and spent much of the fall listening to them. Good times!

If anyone out there is looking for new music to listen to, here you go!

According to  lilifox,  Horlequism is no longer with us, the victim of a sudden heart complication.

Rest in Peace, dude.

Hello friends!

It's that time of year again, and I'd like to know if anyone is interested in exchanging Holiday Cards in the mail! I think it's fun to get something other than bills, plus I can tape them up to the wall for more festive decoration~

If you want to do this, just send me a PM with your mailing address, and I'll respond with my own. I've got a few stacks of cards all ready to be sent, and it would be awesome (though probably won't happen) if I could get enough interest to send them all. Stay warm, y'all!