Just a quick little pseudo-survey thing...

It might be an acid flashback for some, but I sort of got my start with writing online by writing fanfiction for some franchises, mostly Pokémon, but having started with 101 Dalmatians the Series, Lady and the Tramp II and those sort of things.

My interest over the years has shifted almost entirely to my own universe, world, and characters--however, I still feel the pull sometimes to write some Pokémon inspired fanfiction again. My own characters (some names you might recognize), but existing entirely within the Pokémon/PMD universe, or something closely resembling that.

As current (or future) readers of my short stories, would you prefer that I stay the course and continue doing original works involving my own universe and world, or would you be okay with some Pokémon short stories mixed in for fun here and there?

I'm really just curious if there is any interest in that stuff before I go down that path in any real capacity. It very well might turn into a thing where I just do it anyway because I want to, but still, getting your thoughts does help me pick a direction and stick with it too.

Thanks for giving these idle, late night ramblings of mine some thought.

Clickbaity title aside, this month's story is turning out to be a doozy, not just in terms of length, not even just in length and in terms of additional effort put into world-building and fleshing out of some necessary lore--but also, because I'm stepping into a time and space that goes well outside of my normal stance when it comes to writing.

I don't want to spoil anything, but the good news is, I am very proud of the story so far--the bad news is, it's taking a lot longer than I intended it to for an already busy month outside of writing. To top it all off, this weekend is going to be spent away from my computer and under my mom's vehicle replacing her axle shaft, rotors, pads, calipers, and just giving the whole thing a good once over.

What does this mean? I don't have plans of finishing the story this month...

What do I intend to do about it? I plan to complete the story within the first week of the following month (June), and currently my plan would be to release two additional ones for the month of June--a bonus one, likely a shorter story to make up for my missed date this month, as well as June's normal story.

Hopefully, you all will find that to be an acceptable price to be paid. I probably should have held off on this one and did something a little more simple, but I really did want to do something special, and the muse told me now was the time to do it--so what're ya gonna do?

In any case, I hope you lovelies are having a great month and that you all have a fine summer coming up! Take care, and I do look forward to your feedback, especially on this upcoming story ^^

A little survey to get a better idea of what format and content you all would like to see in the stuff I plan to write going forward.

Just as a heads up, I won't be immediately putting these results to work, but they will heavily influence what stories I choose to work on and in what order. Later on, when I have several stories under my belt, I'll be able to post surveys/polls relating to which stories people would like to see an update to, or written next, etc.

Thanks for reading ^^

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1gn.....PSySSWIExyM7Y/

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/59549804/

It's been awhile since I posted one of these. Check out this art raffle if you'd like a chance to win some great, free art :)

I hope everyone had a great, or at the very least decent holiday season, and that you all find yourselves in good health and happiness coming into 2025.

Only a handful of you probably knew me back in the very early days of the internet (circa 2001 - 2006), but I used to be very active in the writing/fan-fiction scene, and I even self-published an episodic fiction series (or rather, the first piece of it) in 2012, shortly after exiting college and starting my life as a "real boi". I guess, to put it mildly and as simply as possible, as much as I enjoy what I do for a living, it has been rather soul crushing and some piece of my brain never really took to it all that well. I've often gotten off work feeling resentful toward my job, and the fact that I have to work 40 or more hours a week, and it has resulted in my busying myself in my off duty hours with either mindlessly playing video games, watching movies or TV shows, and generally not giving too many fucks about my life, if I am perfectly honest. It really sucks too because I *should* feel pretty blessed about where I am in life these days even though I really don't, the weight of the world always seemingly pushing down on me, making me feel bad for others who have it worse off, etc. It's just become routine, and way too easy to shrug at the end of my work day, tell myself "I deserve this", and to just do what seemingly makes me happy, or at least happy enough to forget about life for awhile.

Needless to say, it hasn't exactly worked out, as not exercising my favorite creative outlet from my youth has left something of a hole in my heart, and for more than a decade I've felt very guilty for *not* sharing my writing pursuits with the world, since that is what brought me a lot of joy when I was a stupid high school student and young adult. Sure, I've busied myself with other hobbies and interests to pass the time and it has helped, but writing always was that special something in my life that I truly loved to do, even if it can be incredibly satisfying to create something neat while programming or to successfully accomplish some mechanical feat that I've wanted to do for awhile. The tl;dr of it is, I'm getting older, my life is getting busier, so it's time to stop making excuses.

I plan to start off slowly, but the general premise of my plan is that I want to post a short story involving my own characters, once every month, just to get the juices flowing again and to satisfy that itch that has been missing for way to long. I already have the first two planned out, but at the moment, March is planned to be a "polling" month, where I hope to post a dozen or so concepts/ideas for people to vote on, and then I will write the story that wins. It could be fun, right? I do reserve the right to change these plans though, as my brain can sometimes take me down wild bends and avenues and cease to let me go when it does so--I could very easily be inspired by a particular concept and badly want to write that one, or maybe I'll write two in a month! What a surprise that would be!

In any case, I've been babbling a bit too much--it feels good to get some of this out. Hopefully a few of you will find this interesting enough to read what I put out there, but don't feel too guilty or obligated to do so--I'm mostly doing this for the sake of my sanity.

I love you all and thanks for taking the time to read my little 2025 rant.

PS - I really don't mind creepy comments and stuff related to my characters. If any of them really particularly grab your interest and you want to tell me about it, you're likely to bring a big smile to my face at the very least ;)

Who wouldn't want free art? Click below to check it out :)

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49097574/

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44954437/

Check it out, a chance to win free art from a great artist? Who can say no to that! :)

This goes out to any artist who posts "controversial" content, but it's aimed primarily at feral artists who feel they can no longer draw feral art because they are afraid of people who bully them or call them zoophiles for posting the content that they create.

You know you're not the things they say you are, you know they are not correct, so why would you legitimize their claims by bowing down to them and removing the "offensive" content from your gallery? Art is art. No one should dictate to you what you can and cannot do with your art. Honestly, by giving them what they want, you're only empowering them and giving them more fuel to rush out and harass/bully other artists who post stuff they do not like.

Stand firm. Don't give any ground. Fuck ignorance and stupidity.

That is all.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36008078/

You should check this out. Artist has a very cute style and who can argue with a chance to win cute art? :)

With the third book out in the Foxcraft series,  nyrox and I have finally got around to finish reading it and getting our discussion on related to the story. If you're at all interested in the book (and don't mind major spoilers, it might be up your alley, but if you plan on giving it a read I highly recommend waiting until you read the book first! :)

It's an hour and a half long so if you're in the mood for a nice long discussion, here you go! Be warned, super major spoilers as we're going through almost all of the major scenes in the third book, so you've been warned! :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmDFv3Fnw2A

 nyrox and I decided to have a discussion about a book series we've been reading and rather enjoy. We also posted said discussion on the youtubes for kicks.

In the video we talk about the first two books in the series (spoilers) and speculate about the third book coming out in mid-September. This is largely just an experiment by both of us, for kicks mostly, so don't expect premium quality :P Also, the original intent wasn't exactly to post it on youtube so rather than chopping it up into an edited/scripted manner, we bleep out our last names in the introduction at the beginning. At the time the bleeps were just added as a joke, but we found them to be funny enough to just keep in, because why not?

If you're interested in the series and have read the two books, why not give it a listen? It's almost an hour long, so grab some popcorn! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3s0ywWrqTA

Am I the only one who thinks this? I used to live and breathe Newegg. I thought, with Newegg, all I would need is a work at home job and I could live anywhere I wanted, even in the damn mountains if I wanted to.

Not anymore.

So far this year I have had to send back roughly 40% of my purchases from Newegg, which accounts for 100% of my 'expensive' purchases. What did I all get, you say? Well, let's see...

When I first moved into my new place to start my new job, one of my old LCD monitors crapped out so I ordered a new on off of Newegg. It was a brand I wasn't familiar with, but it was a good price and the right size. I was very impressed on day one. Then on day two, out of nowhere, I have 3 dead pixels and a fat (5 pixel wide) line running down the entire screen.

Was it worth sending back? Not really, the sale had ended and it is only a tertiary monitor anyway so I sucked it up and just rolled with it.

Recently, my headset that I stupidly bought at best buy died. I couldn't find the warranty paperwork since I moved so I said fuck it and bought a new one off of Newegg. A nice, $100 Turtle Beach headset. What could go wrong?

Well, immediately, the most important feature - other people being able to hear me. The 'mic monitor' worked just fine, IE, I could hear my own voice through the speakers on the headset. But could it transmit my voice to anyone? No. Oddly, some of my friends could hear the youtube videos I was watching through the headset, so--I don't know. Sent it back and after a month of going without a headset, I received my replacement and as of this moment it still works. Don't worry though, I've only had it for one weekend, it's still early.

Now - I am getting into healthier eating and such which is hard for someone who has grown up on the rural American diet. I decided to get a juicer and found a nice Hamilton Beach juicer (same brand as my slow cooker) and everyone claimed it was an amazing juicer. Best of all it was $20 off and free shipping.

Day one, works great, absolutely impressed with it and though I had some minor nitpicks, it did its job well.

Day 2? The strainer no longer fits correctly in the clamp to attach it to the motor of the unit and it flies off inside the enclosure and starts rattling around inside at a sound that is roughly 10x louder than a Boeing 757 engine taking off in your fucking ear.

After monkeying with it for hours, I just called it quits and finished applying for my RMA on the device to return it.

So far this year Newegg has taken up more of my time to fucking fix their shit and deal with their cock ups that they should be paying me hourly for my time. Hell, if they did I could probably buy Newegg at this point.

Am I seriously the only one having issues with this formerly amazing website? Have they gone the way if Blizzard, EA, and so many other absolutely useless companies whose soul purpose is to appease the shareholders? Or am I just looney and imagining things?

For a project that is still heavily a WIP, I am looking for someone who might be willing to work on a few concept drawings I have in mind for a story and setting that might one day become a stylized 2D RPG and is highly likely to end up at the very least also a work of prose.

This artist can expect payment for his or her services should he or she desire it, but I am looking for someone who considers him or herself skilled with drawing inanimate things such as ships, weapons, armor, apparel, aircraft, etc. The characters in this universe are still being worked on a bit and I already have an artist in mind for them but I would be very grateful if someone with the talent described would be willing to step forward and talk to me about this project.

Feel free to note me if you're interested and I'd be willing to share some details. Thank you very much for taking the time to read.

Sorry to get your hopes up, but The Aeon of Survival Volume II won't be in e-book form for a little while yet. I've been blasting away at my new job and find myself with a bit less time than I had previously, but, I am still plugging away at Aeon Volume II. Part of the delay is because I am also working on a program that will automatically convert text files into the format necessary to upload my stories as an e-book, instantly. It's 'fun' balancing writing with programming :P

But yeah, I turned twenty-seven as of today. If I were a vehicle, I'd probably be taken off to the salvage yard by now! If I were almost any other mammal I would be pushing up daisies right now! Such pleasant thoughts!

So there is my update. No new e-book (yet) and I'm getting old. Do enjoy this plethora of content, my pretties!

Okay, so it's just an e-book, but I did spend a good bit of time researching how these work and in doing everything in my power to make it as good/professionally done as possible and I do think I succeeded, though there is some room for improvement. I even made sure that the NCX (Kindle uses these files for navigation purposes) worked correctly which my research has shown me, most Kindle publishers don't even bother with because it's 'too hard'. It's just XML :)

Anyway, under the pen name "Daniel Bane", I've published Episodes (Chapters) 01 - 06 of the Aeon of Survival series that some of you may have read already on FA or dA. I won't be updating these submissions or adding anymore submissions to FA or dA. I am sorry about this. I have, however, gone through the first 5 and fixed a lot of typos and added/tweaked/changed things here and there to improve them as a whole. I also fully wrote up the new (sixth) chapter and it is part of the bundle on Amazon as well. My intent at this point is to add more content to Amazon as 6 chapter installments for the remainder of the series. That is roughly 45,000 words for only $0.99 on Amazon's Kindle service.

The e-book can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Aeon-Surv.....on+of+survival

You don't need a Kindle to view these books, however. There are Kindle apps for PC, Mac, and various mobile devices.

Here is the download for PC users who may be interested: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.ht.....cId=1000426311

For you Mac users out there: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.ht.....cId=1000464931

This project is now my baby and I plan to devote a great deal of my non-work/non-sleep time to continuing the series and any side-story arcs that transpire throughout the process of writing it. I have dozens of other stories in my head too that will one day be available in the same format as Aeon now is. I hope any of you who are fans of my older works strongly consider taking a look :) I am sure you will not be disappointed.

I want to thank  GreyKitty for her wonderful work on the cover for this series, she has definitely made this a fun and exciting experience.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to write me here or send me a private message. I am all for fixing typos or any mistakes you might find, as I am sure there are some. I could go through these chapters 50 times a piece and probably still find flaws :)

Thank you all for taking the time to read and I do hope you give Aeon a chance.

So we all know that Best Buy has been failing miserably for years. They're staff are often less educated than the customers about what the customer is intent on purchasing, some of them carry an undeserved sense of superiority, Geek Squad has been known to destroy the computers they have been paid astronomical amounts of money to fix (or to use them to surf for porn all day), they charge way the hell more for their products than it would cost to get the same thing online ($55 for HDMI cables? I bought two for $5 AFTER shipping on Amazon), their warranties are literally useless, etc, the list goes on.

The only service Best Buy still has that I thought had value, no longer has value, at least not from my experience today.

I wanted to bring my 2001 BMW 325i in to have the stock stereo replaced with one I can use my USB flash drive with, as well as one that could use Pandora as a music source and still function with my steering wheel controls. The latter option was a $105 part and $70 install. They estimated it'd take an hour or two.

Four hours later the technician managed to fail miserably at getting my steering wheel controls to work and 'gave up', he managed to destroy a lot of the connectors to my dash so the deck and mounting kit doesn't even fit and bounces around inside of the dash, my trim pieces he removed do not fit over the new mounting component well because of it and he succeeded in losing the remote control that comes with the deck I purchased. To top it all off, it would seem the deck I purchased does not allow you to change the balance, bass, treble, etc, without the remote.

He told me they will replace the dash parts he broke at no cost but it might take weeks to get them. He told me he will 'finish the steering wheel controls' part after he can talk to someone else. Since I work from 8 AM - 5 PM all week and they don't want to work on any cars after 5 PM, I have to wait until next Saturday before I can get my steering wheel controls to work (and most likely to pick up my remote, since when I called after getting home 10 minutes later they told me the install bay was closed). So I paid a good $390 for nothing so far as I can only use about 20% of what I paid for.

So congratulations Best Buy on fucking up the only service you still had that was worth anything. I don't think changing your store to look like an Apple Store is going to help. You will lose customers rapidly at the rate you are going and your company will join Circuit City very soon.

Steer very clear of Best Buy. Choose Amazon.

I for one approve of subscription based games converting to a F2P policy. However, in my experience so far, many of these game companies are failing miserably at getting it all to work right, especially when it comes to the communication between their various pieces of software in order to make it all work.

One in particular, that I have been 'enjoying' lately, would be Dungeons and Dragons Online, since it recently became free to play as well. A week ago, I made a Lord of the Rings Online account since this game did the same thing and is run by the same people over the same F2P system. However, because I already made a free LOTRO account, making a free DDO account is a total headache.

After scrounging the net to figure out why I could not use my Turbine Account (the account needed to access both of these games) to play DDO, I found posts from 2009 from people complaining about the same problem, before the games became F2P.

Turbine's FAQ page is a joke and you have to literally be a psychic to figure out how to get to the support ticket system. Apparently, they are too lazy to create an automated process to 'generate' a product key needed to subscribe to DDO for free on the same account as your LOTRO account. I'm not going to make and keep track of two accounts for the same interface. That is just stupid.

So anyway, I finally get a ticket in. Life is good. Now I can wait a few days and can finally play the game I downloaded and installed. Nope. No response after several days, so I submit another ticket--and another ticket--until finally I get a reply days later.

Yay! I finally get a product key. Well, that is all good and well, but when I go to submit said product key, I get a different error message every time, ranging from "this product key only works if you already have a subscription" to "this is an invalid product key", etc.

How can you fail so damn much at implementing a F2P structure? Seriously? All of the ground work was laid out when you introduced the game to the world about half of a decade ago. I work in the industry of software development, do you want me to come over there and show you guys how its done? What makes you think that I would even remotely consider buying anything from your game store or subscribing to VIP status when you cannot even make your F2P structure work?

Am I just nuts or has anyone else experienced beyond horrible, nightmarish issues with subscription based games converting to F2P?

I've dealt with plenty, Fallen Earth was another one, but this one by far takes the cake.

To make a long story short, I bought a four license pack for Renegade Ops on steam, so I could play with two friends in particular. This leaves me with one unused license.

If I know you and you have Steam, and you might be interested in playing said game with me and two friends, let me know, I wouldn't hesitate to give the license to the right person for free :)

Regular Commissions

A friend of mine is taking some commissions at the moment. I've commissioned her several times in the past, she always delivers in a timely manner and is very cool about drawing pretty much anything with some exceptions of course, we all have those xD She's in need of a little bit of money at the moment, so if you're looking for an affordable, fast commission (or multiple ones), I recommend sending her a note ^^

 invaderpichu
Price List / Commission Details - http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2625997/

Go on, don't be shy, she doesn't bite too hard :3

---

Badge Commissions

Also, if you're looking for some truly stunning badge commissions, I would recommend sending a note to another friend of mine who is also a very gifted and talented artist with a very unique and beautiful style. She's currently taking badge commissions more than regular commissions, so why not send her a note and see what's up? Her prices are very reasonable and she is hands down the artist I've commissioned the most in my time on the interwebz.

 xashleymx
Badge Examples - http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6304485

If you want to tell her I sent you, you might get a higher priority ;) But to be honest, if you say you want a badge commission, I can almost promise you'll be on the top of the list. She's very quick and very affordable, go on, check her out ^^

I wish I could get paid to only pretend to do my job like so many people out there, it's bloody fucking amazing.

So, I ordered a part from Best Buy over the phone (since they refuse to carry this item), which would allow me to use the steering wheel controls in my car, to adjust the volume and such for a new stereo. I am sorry but if the steering wheel controls are there, not having them hooked up is ghetto and stupid. So, I had to order this part over the phone and it'd be delivered to me, so I could bring it in and have them install it. Lame, right? It gets worse.

So apparently, despite the invoice having my address 100% correct, UPS manages to fuck up the apartment number. Not sure how a letter and a number are so difficult to read, but whatever. They take the package and put it on hold until they get the apartment number--and yet are somehow able to still send a post card to my correct address, telling me to call them to get it settled.

Before doing that I call Best Buy since UPS's website says the sender is the only one capable of changing the address. Best Buy tells me to call UPS. UPS tells me to call Best Buy. Best Buy's automated thing disconnects me twice before I get a person again.

After all this bullshit, it seems like I have to drive 30 miles one way to go pick this fucking thing up because for whatever reason they apparently can't change the address over the phone or over Best Buy's or UPS's system, despite the fact the website says they can do it over the phone.

I might be getting a $10 Best Buy card out of it, so that might pay for half of my gas lol.

Just wish I could get paid to act like I work :)

New icon done as a badge commission by the GREAT and POWERFUL Trixie  xAshleyMx! If you want to commission her I doubt you'd be disappointed :) Thanks again, Ashley ^^

So, I listed my old car on Ebay awhile back and someone who was a non-registered user did the buy it now option for $1800. Because the individual was a non-registered user, the bid and auction were both automatically canceled by Ebay. End of story, right? I thought so, but I was wrong.

I get a charge on my debit card for $76.40 several weeks later from Ebay. When I try to use their online resolution center, it keeps basically telling me, "Fuck off, case closed, can't help you, have a nice day :D" even though I never opened a case for this issue, I didn't have to, Ebay acted on their own and canceled the fucking thing.

So, I have to track down the god damn customer service number (not on Ebay, it's impossible to find there), call them, and complain. Thankfully I didn't spend an hour on the phone trying to solve this problem, but they apparently are crediting my account, minus the listing fees, but it's going to take 3 weeks?

How the hell does that work? I hope they get their shit straightened out, how can you charge someone for the sale of an item that wasn't sold because the sale was automatically canceled by them?

Fucking n00bs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110201....._dog_slaughter

Really? Fucking REALLY? So, your boss orders you to shoot, in the least humane way possible, 100 dogs at the dog sledding business you work at. What do you do?

A) Tell him to fuck off and report him to the police.
B) Murder him yourself.
C) Follow through with his orders, and then several months later, seek monetary compensation for the "trauma" it caused you.

The correct answer: A & B.

I've seriously given up on humanity. Every day I read or watch countless events that make me sick to my stomach, but this by far takes the cake recently. To top it all off, the police are actually investigating "serious threats" made to someone who was involved in this massive canine slaughter? Really? As if that isn't to be expected?

Some days you just want a huge meteor to crash into this planet and end the plague that is humanity, we're a bunch of fucking parasitic monsters and we NEED to be purged.

Rant over.

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/white-firefly/

Seriously, I whole heartedly recommend watching this new user. I have very high hopes for the future art that white-firefly will be sharing with us here on FA :) Do yourself a favor and go watch them ^^

Darfy out.

Seriously, FA, what the fuck? I would think being a website of furries that the majority of us would be at least somewhat liberal and tolerant of other peoples' preferences and what not, but it seems like there is a sizable enough group of people on this website who are so fucking intolerant and hypocritical that I think they'd be more comfortable at a witch burning convention than they would be on a website dedicated to furry porn.

What the fuck, people? Why is it that mature feral art is apparently some kind of heinous crime? I am absolutely dumbfounded by the fact that some people on this site can bitch and complain about "bestiality" (which is the pairing of a human and an animal, not an animal and an animal, in case you lack the brain capacity/attention span to google that for yourself) when it comes to feral art, but then 5 seconds later they're commenting on how awesome the next scat eating, cock vore, or dismemberment picture is that pops up in the newly uploaded section. Why don't you just trade in what dwindling bits remain of your sanity for a red trident and change your name to Karl Rove for fuck's sake? What is the matter with you people? Can't your minuscule brains comprehend the ridiculous level of hypocrisy that you are displaying? or has that part of your anatomy not transcended beyond what was required of it during the stone age yet?

I am beyond fucking disgusted by this kind of behavior in every day life with every day people, so when I have to witness it in my own "peer group" at such a painfully abundant level, I'm bound to get more than a little pissed off.

Isn't it time we evolved a little bit beyond bashing each other over the head with clubs and bathing once a year? Seriously people, come the fuck on.