I'll be rooming with  StormKern and friends. No suit for now, but look for the guy wearing the Curus Keel badge. Will hope to meet others there - may even provide more details later. First furry convention after all.

EDIT: But this isn't my first ever covention. I will also be going to Madison's Gamehole Con in November, in case you want to meet me there.

Sooo.... While the furry community is really about mutual interest in anthromorphic animals and other creatures at its core, everyone sort of knows that the most visible representation of the community is the fursuit. That big costume representing a character of yours in the flesh is a dream so many of us in the community share. I happen to follow that dream too, and there was a lot of consideration and fuzziness on my part on what, exactly, I should get and who to get it from.

I have answered both of those questions for myself.

In the near future, I will be working with  takumori to represent my dragon self as a fursuit. Well, OK, it's an inflatable latex suit in the likeness of my character, but what else would I call it? Scalesuit? Squeaksuit? It'll definitely seem like a living pooltoy. Regardless, with cash inflow from my job and combined hatchday/christmas money, I'd be surprised if I couldn't afford it. I'm not disclosing the quote here, but I have seen others here pay literally twice as much as I've been quoted for the particular suit. It's more than I usually spend on a single thing, but it's really not as expensive as I thought it was going to be. Who knew, it would have cost about the same as the combined parts for upgrading my computer, and I can stage those.

I'll keep everyone posted on this. We need more inflatable dragons in the world.

 traediras needs your help. He needs $500 to repair his car and make it roadworthy again - as of now, it isn't. Get your butts over and give someone to a friend who has meant a lot to me. His original journal is here.

This is the link to donate to.

So, you know how the partner in my relationship has chosen to remain anonymous? Well, he's ready to reveal his identity. I have chosen to be in a relationship with  IcyDraggyVisy, AKA Visimar. For the nearly two years that I've been in the fandom, he and I have been mutually supportive to each other, having our interests bounce off one another, and little by little gaining more insight into ourselves. The diligent tester to my relentless creative works, the freezing cold to my inner storm, and yet when we're both together, we're resonant with a warmth that's plain uncomparable.

It is no surprise to see him getting the beneficiary of my gifts, art or otherwise. Our own anxieties feel relatable to one another, and without a doubt... I can say that we stabilize each other by being together. Never a moment together has been wasted on someone who can appreciate my intellectual gifts and emotional passion at once

And for all those reasons, I just have to love you, Visimar, and I hope that we can meet in the flesh as soon as we can. Love ya.

I've chosen to be in a relationship. Yes, I know I was just in one at the start of the month, but honestly... wow. I don't even want to pretend of its existence. If you know which one, let's agree to never talk about it again in public.

What I will talk about though is the new relationship. For now, the partner has chosen to remain anonymous at the moment, and I will respect that. What I can tell you is that I have known this person for a long time, and we've legitimately considered this before. Now is a better time than any for me to have someone that I can trust and to be trusted in return.

You may already know I'm referring to. I request you to keep these guesses to yourself. I will reveal more in due time.

We may consider allowing a poly relationship, but to be honest we're perfectly happy by ourselves. Still. I'd like to be surprised.

If  pentalis is convinced about doing it, I'll do it too. I actually quite like it.

Real First Name: William
Nickname: Curus Keel, or just Curus
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Age: 19 (will be 20 in November)
Gender: Male
Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius
Chinese Zodiac: Rat
Briggs Type: INTP
Pets: Two cats (owned by family)

Sexuality/Romance

Sexual Orientation: Bisexual/pansexual with demisexual tendencies
Romantic Orientation: Dragons & those who particularly interest me
Relationship Status: Single
Poly or Mono Poly preferred
Particular kinks/fetishes: Varied, but inflation and inflatables are most prominent.
Want to marry: Yes
Want kids: Wouldn't mind having them.

Silly Stuff:

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
GoT House: Whatever house has dragons in it.
Bending Style: I am Bender, please insert girder.
Pony Race: There are still dragons in that series.
Pokemon Type: Electric/Dragon
What you are reading: The Hobbit and House of Sand and Fog (latter for English class)
Last movie I watched: Fight Club
Greatest Irrational Fears: Unexpected loud noises?

Sleep

Early bird or night owl: Leanings towards night owl
Normal Bedtime: 12 AM
Normal Wakeup Time: 8 AM
What do I sleep in: My bed, nearly always
Dream Frequently? Nope. Kinda want to.
Position I sleep in: Sideways
Last Dream I Remember: I think I remember waking up while still in a dream before the haze of morning completely went away. I don't remember dreams, to be honest.

Work & Education:

High School: Graduated & Completed
College: In a transfer program, looking to study game development in an in-state university.
Ocupcation: Off and on tech support for a special needs school.
Ideal Job: Game developer, preferably one who makes a name for himself on his own.

Favorite Stuff:

Food: Fetuchini Alfredo, pizza (especially gourmet kinds - fig'n'bacon my favorite), Mexican food, anything made by Pig in a Fur Coat.
Carbonated Drinks: Sprecher's Root Beer, San Pellegrino. Coke is usual default.
Non-Carbonated Drinks: Earl Gray Tea (cream and sugar included), lemonade
Ice Cream Flavor: Butter Pecan or Mint Anything
Season: Spring, Autumn
Animals: Birds and reptiles of all sorts.
Colors: Blue
Music: Bemani, J-Core, electronic in general, Gorlliaz, classic rock, lots of video game music.
TV Shows: Mr. Robot. And Mythbusters, when it was still airing.
Video Games: Skyrim, Baldur's Gate, Civilization, and a host of other games (mostly RPG and strategy stuff)

EDIT: Oh, and I did that other furry meme making the rounds right now... ugh, I hate it already.

The blue dragon that you see here has always been my main face here. But he isn't my first character, I've conceptualized characters for tabletop RPGs long before I was even a furry. Pretty much every one of them has been fleshed out to a true character with backgrounds and histories and all, except for Curus. He went the other way and became my skin. For the longest time, he's been stuck to those ways.

Yet, I've reached the point where my tastes have started to settle once more. The full emergence of my love for inflatables has shifted Curus's primary form from being that of a scaly dragon to being that of an inflatable. At the same time, the idea of synthetic life really grasped hold as an interesting little concept. I've toyed with a robot form before, but I didn't hold it for long in favor of my default at the time organic form. But then, the compactness and gas-filled nature of vinyl inflatables, fitted with tech of war and science, alongside the strong detail of lifelike inflatables, and it feels like a better fantasy has emerged.

And that's where I'll take the character. Curus will be an AI platform residing within an inflatable, made with force fields, electric breath, lighter-than-air assisted flight, and many other details I hope to work out. This would also form a good basis for the other characters I plan to make - I might actually have an impetus to create a shared universe involving that.. perhaps a collaborative work with friends that are important to me and who would be receptive to this. The sillier, more cartoony side of Curus will likely be shifted more towards  toymancer-curus.

I know who I am now, and I want to embrace it as much as possible.

Here's the link. The world needs a good place to discuss the love of playing with balloons.

Join if you'd like. Considering that I'm getting my first batch of balloons IRL, this is rather topical to me.

 traskfox and I are thinking of setting up custom inflatables for our toymancer selves. I have set up an interest form for this, including ideas on possible posture and size.

Come down and fill it out here! You need a valid Google account to submit to this form.

Ask me anything! Figured it was time to do this.

Blame  onyxrend for this. Well, in part. It was something a long-time friend also played lots and recommended. Me, having never played in an MOBA before, but been interested in the concept due to how successful it was and how interesting it was, I took the game developer's plunge into it.

And holy crap. I can see why these games appeal so much. There's a form of tweaked real-time strategy involved, even if it's mostly automated for you with pre-built, pre-defined structures and auto-spawning minions.. but with you controlling a character who practically functions as if they belong in a top-down action RPG, complete with leveling and a set of hotkeyed skills that are fixed to character, and even a equipment/shop system in play. Mix that with plenty of other characters like you, set them in a map that requires collaboration in order to work, face them off against a team that's like yours, and... wow. I feel like I want to play it again and again, and even dig into related games like RTSes and action RPGs (two things I wanted to try as well)... AND get Overwatch too because of its inspiration from this genre and its own very, very good success.

So, uh.. I'm part of  LoLfurs now, I guess. Add me under the summoner name "CurusKeel", if you'd like.

This has been weighing me down for a while, but now I know enough about it and am at enough peace with myself to write it.

...My grandmom on my mother's side is expected to die soon. I've known her extremely well throughout the years I've lived, and she was always there within the city to be a caring presence. Her kidneys have failed, and since she is already suffering from colon cancer to a strong degree.. she's expected to fall into a coma and peacefully move on. I expect to see her again sometime.

Moments like these are when I most want someone close to me, hugging me tight. But that isn't right now..

Frankly. I should be doing more writing than I actually do. And it's been tough to get me to focus on actually writing those stories. Not helping were that the two I actually took on were NSFW tasks, something I don't have much experience anyway. But I will try and make sure that those commissions are still done.

In the meantime, here's my plan. I will take requests for story ideas and will get them done on my own time, whenever I feel like writing them. I can't give estimates for them, but they will let you get to influence what I write to a degree.

I will also now be accepting writing trades with those interested, though I do expect the people that I trade with to have competency in English, and I would like the person to also have written stories of their own somewhere to share. That being said, if this sounds fun, go ahead and do it with me!

Finally, I'm accepting PWYW commissions for writing. Send me a note with an idea, maybe how many pages you want me to have it go on for, and I'll write it. For now, only stuff that's SFW. Afterwards, we can discuss payment

Good luck!

Recently, due to an unfortunate accident of my part, I cracked the top part of my phone screen. While it is still usable, it is making me worry.

For my phone, a Nexus 6, getting a replacement screen costs $175, due to the difficulty of taking apart the device for repairs requiring a replacement unit to be sent. However, as I still actively use my phone, I would prefer paying the $25 extra to keep my phone on hand - so the total cost for me is $200. As such, if it's at all possible, I'll take any and all donations to get an unforeseen expense out of the way. While I otherwise plan on paying this on my own, this would be a big help to get off my shoulder. Please note me if you'd like to donate.

Any amount can help! As an incentive, the top 3 donators will get a equivalent value commission from me, either from another artist or a writing commission from me. This will be done after the donation drive is over. Any money donated will exclusively be spent on repairing the phone screen. As soon as I can make the difference between the donated money and my own cash, I will do the phone repairs. If by any chance I get excess cash, that will be fair game for me to use, and will still be appreciated.

Will cancel the donation drive once 2 weeks pass from the first donation or my phone screen is reparied, whichever one comes first.

Even small amounts will help greatly here!

Total: $0

EDIT: Update with more detail

Well, here's what happened for the first month of summer.

I went to New York City! Overall, had quite the fun time, was able to visit the World Trade Center, stop by the Museum of Moving Picture to check out their interesting film exhibits and spend time on their classic arcade game collection, and in general just explore the food landscape there. Seeing the play of Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was well worth my time, even though...

I got sick midway though, and had to sit the rest of the week out in barely functioning status. Thankfully, the entire week afterwards was awesome for recovery, and I'm back in my fighting fit mood. So, well.. that sucked. Did get DDR Hottest Party 2 and the dance pad for it as a surprise gift from my mom, so that's all worth it.

And job prospects are really looking up. Multiple offers, but the two jobs that I really want have in-person interviews scheduled next week. Hoping that I do well on both of those, not really nervous about them.

Finally, after some time to think, I'm looking to have someone to call a mate again. Talking with  HHHHHHHU again, we ended up falling back to our old relationship. Hoping this works out better than the last time, really do. We're considering dating with each other in the near future - I hope to have that happen.

EDIT: Eh, scratch that last bit. Waiting on that for many reasons. User does know that. There's probably better choices for the both of us in the future, we've got plenty of time each.

Welp, found myself with a fever starting a few days ago. It's not doing me any favors, especially as I had to miss out on part of a vacation.

Things are looking up otherwise. Jobs offers came in, I'm now following up on them to the best of my abilities.

Before reading this, cool off with this fitting track.

Major\Minor and the situation surrounding it has reached full levels of ridiculousness. The artist for the game, Shiva AKA PawziClawi, has just been hit with a freeze on her Paypal account because the developer thought she was being "too slow". This, coupled with how she was supposedly hired under the same developer AND has to do art with her job in mind, makes this just all the more painful. Please, seriously go and fund the artist's emergency campaign, spread the link to the campaign, and do not under any circumstances give Klace your money by paying for his game.

This has gone well beyond any reasonable scale, it's time to stop this growing stain on the community.

Eh, this has been bugging me for quite some time. I'm at the stage where I really could use some form of a job. Sure, I could work as a cashier or clerk at the megamart or be doing some fast food shifts like other people my age, but I both feel that I wouldn't really fit in those positions, and that I'm already overqualified for them.

Honestly, I've been looking for part-time IT jobs, and I tried a few to Madison area companies. However, I have not heard back from them beyond the application stage, I have not been drawn into an interview with them yet. I feel like there's something I'm missing, perhaps there are online-based jobs that can fit into my part-time schedule with college and all, ones that pay well. I haven't found those, but if anyone wants to refer me to them please do so.

Well, that was a real waste of my time. I was able to recover my FA account after a support intervention. The issue that I was having before is now fixed for those who can get their FA account back, as basic email validation has now been added. Still feel a pit in my stomach that this issue happened in the first place.

At least I'm lucky enough to still have my account and otherwise be unscathed. Others, not so much. A friend of mine can't even go through the reset form because he can't copy and paste the required verification code on his Xbox One. Many users have been using old email addresses for this and either have to reactivate these addresses themselves or wait for support to do it for them. There's even been a user so screwed over that they got outright death threats soon after the hack went through.

Eh.. I'm really not sure if I should be using this site anymore. You can find me on plenty of other places:

Furry Network: @curus_keel
Twitter: Curus_Keel
Weasyl: ~curuskeel
Steam: Curus Aurora Keel
Telegram: CurusKeel
Skype: Still for close friends only.

As for those who I'm commissioning, please use email or Telegram for contacting me. I do not want to risk loosing lots of valuable commission information over this.

I only just found about it recently through DDR - and seriously, I think everyone should at least listen to the Mickey Mouse Club March remix within. I've got no connection to where it originally came from, but I can't stop listening to it.

And if you are wondering, yes, they have a remix of the love song from Robin Hood. Because of course they had to do it for the upcoming generation of furries that remember the film.

I'm going to be working on a paper for my class that's due Friday - thankfully the only one, but it will put a dampner in my general workflow here. Also dabbling in music creation, with eventual intersest in electronic music - currently seeing this as a hobby, but I'll see how it goes from there.

Writing commissions are still in progress. I'll make sure to get good work on them after I finish up my writing obligations for college.

Well, after what felt like so long after the release of that film, I'm actually going to be seeing Zootopia. The film this community has been talking about. Shame there's no scaled creatures within it, but from what I've seen of trailers and stuff, it'll at least be a source of amusement for me.

I'm at least in very good spirits nowadays, already found others that I'd love to talk to again and again. Just goes to show that a lot happens when you are in this community for a year.

(And no, I'm still a dragon, and will be a dragon for the foreseeable future)

I don't feel like being a dragon anymore.

Instead, I'm switching to a rainbow haired pink husky who may or may not be actually talented at pop singing, but we'll say he does. I'm sure this change will not make me look foolish, and it will surely reflect my level of actual creativity.

Join me next time when I rope a bunch of friends into making an unedited visual novel, Light\Dark, in which I try to tell the story of Persona 4 with everyone switched out for self insert furries. For extra challenge, I'll be making the whole game using the Pinball Construction Set, as if there aren't way more fitting engines to make it in. Wouldn't it be wonderful? And don't even think about leaving any negative review there, or I'll get mad and burn your reputation down with combustable lemons.

(please check the date I posted this before you take this seriously)

At this point, it can't be helped. I'm  single and looking for others to talk to. I'm generally interested in others who want to make friends with me, possibility for future romance or not, but I'm especially interested in dragons (and dragon-like creatures), that around my rough age range of 19-20, those that are deeply interested in games (especially if you to make them or play tabletop RPGs), and those who are in the Midwest USA area or those who don't mind being around in that area. No preference for gender.

It sounds like a lot, but don't worry if you don't meet all my critera. Just note me and we'll go from there.

I'm starting up writing commissions. As I am currently still in the early stages, I am limiting it to 5 slots overall, hopefully to get a better picture of my pacing.

Price is $8 per each half page, or $16 per each whole page. I plan to have a turnout of 1-2 weeks, and will actively engage with the commisioner to get the idea for what they want just right. Editing and drafts will be included as well. Longer stories will require more time for me to write.

Open to writing both general and NSFW stories. I may charge extra for using multiple characters on a case by case basic, but generally including one of mine will not cause additional cost increases.

Will never write stories that involve:

* Babyfurs
* Diapers
* Bathroom stuff (scat, watersports, etc.)
* Using child furs in NSFW situations
* Gassiness (burping, farting, etc.)

Generally interested in stories that involve:

* TF
* Latex
* Dragons, snakes, and other scaily/reptillian creatures
* Avians
* Inflation (esp. air or liquid)
* Inflatables (esp. living, balloons, or living balloons)
* Hypnosis
* Vore
* Magic or technology use
* Footpaw attention
* Basic, non-fetishistic content

If you are interested, send me a note, or comment in the journal.

Slots:
1.  KaliburTheWolf (two stories)
2.  tempos (one story, waiting for further details)
3.
4.
5.