Oh My God, I'm writing a Journal!

A friend of mine and artist of much of my gallery is currently finding himself with an empty queue. His stuff's good, do go and take advantage of it!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9022783/
 juindalo

Hey there, you guys reading this!

It's been a while since I've done anything of this sort, since I've posted anything and such, it's a bit empty here and the lack of stories posted lately... well, nearly all of what I've got is commissioned works! I'm wanting to change that.

I've been wanting to get back into writing stuff for you lot, and for that I need a few suggestions. So, here goes. I'm going to put up a list here of subjects I've been wanting to address and I leave it up to you to come up with some brilliant idea with one, two or multiple of these topics combined! If you have a character that fits the bill, link it and I'll use it as reference! Also, just because I've put up the list below, doesn't mean you have to limit yourself to it. If you have an idea, suggest it! I'm just hoping that someone somewhere comes up with an idea that gets my imagination firing!

Kinky list is here:
- Taurs
- Sergals
- Otters
- Dragons (feral)
- Female
- Herm
- (hyper) Scat
- (hyper) W/S
- Oviposition/Egg Laying
- Growth (limit to 3-stories tall, not macro)
- Squirting

So come on! Throw those ideas my way! I want to see a heap of ideas I can literally bury myself in!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7427536/

There we go, someone's happy to have 100 watchers! And she's doing a little something for someone who is lucky enough to win. =D

Are you interested in excitement, Fame, Glory?

Look no further! Diamond Dragon Enterprises has found for you the deal of the century, and it only takes a century of cash to get it! ($100)

Don't hesitate and throw in your cash today! Fame and Glory await!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19185045/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19185045/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19185045/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19185045/

</plugging a buddy>

It has been a while since I last uploaded stuff, just haven't been arsed to upload stuff when I got them! So today, I'm doing a HUGE upload of everything I've received since last upload.

So hang tight, keep right and weather the storm because here it comes!

his is a Journal from  deirdrefang that I am going in with. I got insanely curious what she'd put in there. And, fuck it, might as well see if I can get others to do the same with me, right?

🐟 The first 20? people that comment wanting to be on this journal will be featured below, and I'll choose three submissions I like most from their gallery.

🐟 If you comment, you must to do the same in your journal, putting the tagger (me) and three pieces of my art/stories on the first place.

🐟 The idea of this is not to get a free feature, it is to spread art around for everyone!

1.  deirdrefang
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17699425/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16683600/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15329390/

- fursuit partial
- Alto saxophone
- my own house
- car
- somebody to love :/

Something that's been lingering on my mind for far too long now... I need help but I don't know what and how it would help. Dating sites are obvious, but do I really want to have to pay for things like that? I don't know...

So, first actual journal not related to any con of sorts in MANY months and it's about me complaining. Yep, first world problems.

Ever felt as if the world's against you in some way? That you're wanting something but somehow feel as if it's just out of your reach somehow? That's kind of how I feel right now. Everywhere I look around me I see people happy, partnered up, mated, couples, however you would like to call it and I find myself wanting the same kind of companionship. Sure I've got friends, I'm happy for their presence since that's basically a relief for this persistent feeling. But it's only temporary, there's the big one. It's temporary. :/

Ever since I moved out from the Netherlands I've been living alone, the occasional guest excluded. I don't know why, but it's starting to get to me. As one who has high functioning autism solitude has always been my saving grace in many situations, but I don't want to be living the rest of my life as a hermit and that is exactly what it feels like it's heading towards. So I guess the core of this message is:

I'm lonely.

Not for friendship, but for partnership. Love.

To all my friends I say: Thank you. Thank you for helping to keep this feeling from dragging me down completely. But if you think you know someone that might fit the bill, please do hook me up. Who knows, I might be forever grateful and turn into a very happy draggy! Here's to hoping.

Okay, I may be a bit late on this one, but I am doing it eventually! A journal on how Confuzzled was for me this year (who knows, I may actually break with tradition and actually keep this going)!

In a nutshell, confuzzled was nice this year. Not absolutely fantastic, but not a complete disaster either so all was nice!

...

That was a quick one wasn't it? =P

Don't worry, I will explain a bit further.

SO, lets start at the beginning. I was really looking forward to confuzzled this year, going sponsors again and adding a bit of change to my normal convention routine by actually managing to volunteer for something, security! Yes, if you paid attention I was walking around the con with a security badge, radio and FBI-style headset kitted out. People also got to see what my actual surname was and have a good laugh, then be surprised and then be genuinely surprised when I said it was real ( I AM GROOT! Seriously. Yes, I am. That is my surname. Yes, really. That's what happens when famous characters have a name that actually has a meaning in one language.)

Then, the day before I have to head out: *head over the toilet* BLERGH! Sorry if that was a bit graphic, but yes, I did get rather violently ill, something that stayed with me until Monday, the last full day of the con. =( The whole shabang, I had to stay in bed on wednessday before I left for most of the day trying to get it out of my system one sip at a time. Most of the day I was quite worried I might not be able to head off the following morning. And to top things off, my landlord had arranged for a painter to come around during my absence to repaint the living room and kitchen, something that was definitely needed. Before he came around, the paint scheme in the living room was a nice and calm maroon. The kitchen was purple. 'Nuff said.

Anywho, due to the painter coming around, I had to clear out the kitchen, living room and hallway from everything so he could work there easily without damaging my gear. And with me being ill as I was, hardly able to stand, that was not particularly helpful. It wasn't until late in the afternoon/evening that I started improving enough to get to work on clearing stuff out to the spare bedroom and hallway to the bathroom.

Thursday: Travel to con and Early arrival day
Fortunately by the time next morning came around I had improved enough in my opinion to travel and enjoy the con. I don't know if it's the dragon part in me, or if I'm just that lucky but illnesses on my end tend to go as quickly as they came. Anyway, I managed to clear out most of the living room and kitchen before I fell asleep the evening before and I still had my lunch pack I made for work wednessday so I had something to eat on the way to the con. Still feeling a little bit woozy, I got on the train to Edinburgh, tried in vain to get money back from my season ticket which I wouldn't be needing for the whole of next week, and got on the train to Birmingham, I settled down for a 4 hour trip.

Even though it took me a couple of hours to get the courage to finally ask whether he was, I had the pleasure of sitting at a two-man table with another furry for the whole duration of the trip! Sadly we only started talking AFTER that was confirmed... 3 hours into the journey, but it was still nice. I still wasn't entirely well so the silence for the first part of the journey wasn't unwanted. If the person who this actually is about (yes I do remember your name, mister!) reads this, perhaps this is telling you why I wasn't up for any private activities during the con. I am single. Lets meet up again some time.

Okay, so trip over, walking to the con hotel I see several others including Jake/Ethan Staghorne whose mouth deformed greatly when he recognised me and realised we were on the same train. Registering for the hotel actually took a whole lot longer than registering for the convention, there was a queue for the hotel, but not for con reg. Surprising eh? Following that was some unpacking, eating, laying down and waiting for later in the evening when the general staff meeting and security meetings took place. I really could use the rest, so no complaints there. Nothing special happened, I received my security gear, an introduction to the tasks I would be performing, I got my schedule for pre-arranged duty and a quick mugshot that they used to put on my security badge that told people I was part of security, my badge number and real name (insert Guardians of the Galaxy reference here). I roamed around a little bit but for the most part kept rather quiet. It's nothing new for myself, and this time I actually had a reason for it until I got to the room and actually slept.

Friday: First full con day
NO NUTELLA MUFFINS AT BREAKFAST!! LIES!! WHERE ARE MY MUFFINS!! GIMME MY MUFFINS!!

^ Breakfast in a nutshell. Rizzorat, the venue manager, stayed at the convention hotel before the con started and apparently there was a trial with new muffins that were not due to be introduced into the convention breakfast menus. Unfortunately he did not know it wasn't for the convention and informed everyone on twitter. In the words of Matt Lion at the feedback session late on the monday: "We made a bit of a Booboo there." That was also the first time I heard of the nutella muffins. XD I had a few pieces of bread to still my stomach and headed off to do the con thing with my chainmaille tail. I didn't have security duty until later in the afternoon, so I took advantage of that to sit down and relax a bit

At this point it is worth mentioning that this year's event schedule didn't have much of interrest for myself with but a few exceptions, frankensuits, the pawpets show, kerbal space program, that game where you play the crew of a space ship (I forgot what it was called), werewolf, the feedback session of course and some random smaller events. From here, since I'm doing everything from memory and I don't actually have the miniguide with me (I'm writing this at work, gimme a break), things may or may not be chronologically accurate.

Anyway, time passed, I took up my post and nothing happened. I just stood there, helped clarify things to people, helped ensure compliance with the rules and wondered why after my shift ended no-one had shown up to take over, so I stayed for another hour. I didn't care much though, aside from some sheep and a shepard coming around herding them into the fences, all was good. Was quite funny though and no complaints from the staff there so I just let them be. They were registering after all and the queue was non-existant anyway.

After this was the opening ceremony. It was a bit more special than before, with an actual sort of theatre instead of an opening chat by the chairman. I must admit that it was rather, erm... dull, but that's because everything he said I already knew. The effort that went into it though was appreciated and it did look quite nice, just not very helpful for people who've already been to Confuzzled several times before. Or even once before.

As I usually do, for shits and giggles mostly and perhaps to help out the newbies, I went to the events for introduction to the con, listening to dhary explaining the basic rules of the con to everyone in there, 6-2-1, general code of conduct, terms of service for the con and the hotel and explaining some common sense stuff as well as the purpose of the lanyards, colour coding etcetera. and what members of staff and security can do for you as con attendee.

The rest of the day was rather quiet, some events took place, but nothing much I was interested in. The games room of course was one of them, and I spent most of my night in there having fun (with the occasional break for food or drinks).

Saturday: second full con day
EARLY ACCESS FOR SPONSORS INTO THE DEALERS DEN! Hooray for this godsend! 'Cause if I didn't have it, I would not have had my bunneh fluffehs, and my cousin's daughter would have had to go without presents from me! I loved the picture he sent me after she got it, definitely brightened my day.

Anyway, this day hosted some events. I got my kerbals into space, though not without explosions. I completely forgot to add rcs thrusters to my design, or any sort of solar panels to get them power so it was doomed to failure from the start (didn't notice this until I got into space though, DOH!). Funniest part was though that I had to do my staging and parts of my rocket collided and blew up my main engine during the insertion burn. Fortunately for me I massively overestimated how much fuel I would need so I still had the upper stage to get me into orbit, but from there it was doomed since, well, no power. Couldn't do anything. XD Still though, I got into space! More than some others could say. XD

Most of the rest of the day was rather uneventfull. May change this later on when I get to look at the schedule again and I remember other stuff from the day. I walked around, did the security on patrol thing, had fun with games whenever I had the opportunity to join them, socialised to the best of my limited abilities and generally had a good time. Met up with the guy from the train again in one of these games. Yes, I did enjoy the con, regardless of the illness I was still struggling with.

One event worth mentioning, which I usually go to, is the Pawpet show. If you don't know what it is, it's basically a puppet show with furry puppet characters written by some of the guys from the staff team. It's generally pretty good and funny, and this one was not an exception though there was a slightly darker tone to it than the theme would generally tell people. I won't say more other than that it was very nice, to not spoil it for those who haven't seen it. The video of the show will hopefully be up on youtube or something in a few months.

Sunday: third full con day
The realisation that more than half the con had gone by would have to wait until later in the day since I slept in and I missed one of my security shifts! The intention was for me to stand guard outside the Dealer's Den from 9:30 until 11, however, I woke up at 9:28. I slept so goddarn well that night, I felt so much better. I informed dispatch as soon as I noticed the issue, got dressed, had breakfast and went to my post outfitted for the fursuit parade that would come afterwards. Camera at hand, prime position due to my 'task' at the door.

So, after a bit of time, headcounter in my hand, no clue who I should and who I shouldn't let in due to lack of any instructions, the parade started. I took out my camera, handed the counter back to my team lead and got into photo position! Click, click, click-turn off. WTF? Okay, it has happened before, nothing serious, turn it back on and get back to taking pictures. Click-turn off. Turn on, click-turn off. Okay, change of batteries perhaps. Click, click, click-turn off. Okay, this is weird. What was actually happening was: I was a cheapskate. Ever heard of Kodak? They make cameras among other things and they sell HEAVY DUTY batteries for cheaply. Thinking hey, heavy duty, cheap price = win-win! I got them. Turns out heavy duty was not quite as heavy duty since it couldn't handle the demands of my camera and it was turning off since the batteries were just not turning out enough power. My parade = ruined due to bad batteries. As soon as it was over I went out to the NEC and got myself some new batteries and lunch. Subways is cheaper than the hotel. Surprisingly, the radio security uses still works as far as the NEC about 3/4 a mile away through massive lumps of concrete and I could hear what was going on in mu absence. X3

The day continued as before. Me and some random strangers joined in on a game of Artemis (Yes, I recalled the name of that game!) and as befitting my position in security, I took tactical. With my assistance, we managed to kill the enemies we had and not actually kill the only one that surrendered since we didn't actually find that many enemies. The missiles went quickly though (guilty, I fired them), so we had to resupply after most combat situations. It was fun though, so mission accomplished, aside from actually accomplishing our mission as far as we could in the 20 minute time frame.

The day continued as the ones before, roaming the convention, sitting around in the lounge playing games with fellow attendees, just enjoying the con etc. I do miss having the opportunity with so many people to just play games and have fun with lots of people instead of being limited to just a few people who live close enough to me to play with.

The night was finished with a game of Two rooms and a boom. Have you heard of it? It's about mainly 2 people, the president and the bomber. It is the goal of the bomber to be in the same room as the president at the end of the game. It is the goal of the president to NOT be in the same room as the president at the end of the game. Simple enough? Well, there's some complications. The president is deathly ill, he will die if he doesn't speak with the doctor. The bomber also doesn't have issues, the bomb doesn't work. He would need to speak with the engineer before it'll work again. This year the host also threw in some other roles: The thug, the therapist and the drunk among other things. And no, there's no pre-requisite to actually be drunk to play the drunk. The effect of the thug is that if he shows you his card, you can no longer show yours to anyone else unless you speak with the therapist, who will heal you from the trauma. The drunk is particularly funny since he has a normal role which is hidden until the very last round where he finally sobers up and has to complete the game as it is. Panic time! XD

Monday: Last full con day
Sadness was slowly beginning to set in with the general public, the realisation that this would be the last full day for many of them (with several already being forced to leave this day!), kicking in and kicking them about including myself. So, camera with me, out and about! I no longer had any scheduled security duties so I just patrolled the area, helped out where I could, took pictures where I wasn't necessary, enjoyed the company of bunnies (BUNNEEEEEHHHHHSSSS!!!) socialised some more, played games and visited the ending ceremony.

Unlike with the opening ceremony there wasn't any theatre to this one, however they did give a provisional amount for donations to the Fat Fluffs bunnies. It was OVER TEN THOUSAND! I don't remember the actual numbers, but it was clear that fat fluffs was very happy with it, and that it would be very useful for them to continue. I look forward to finding out the real number, especially since the donation bucket didn't pass my nose when I had the most money to spend, I would've added another 20 pounds, because bunnies. <.<

Now there was also something very unexpected on the ending ceremony. MY FACE WAS ON THE BIG SCREEN. BIG! FULL! THUMBS-UP! HOLY SHIT I MADE IT TO THE BIG SCREEN!!!!! https://vimeo.com/128995055 2:18 to 2:22 minutes into the video. =D I knew I had the camera shoved into my face at the time, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW MY MUGSHOT WOULD MAKE IT TO THE ENDING CEREMONY!!! Does make it all the more disappointing my name didn't actually appear on the screen, but eh, MY FACE IS ON THERE! Reever, a fellow scotfur, said his jaw dropped when he saw me on the screen. He wasn't expecting that was he!

Okay, gloating over now. Feedback session. I don't usually have much to add that's actually usefull since I think it's by definition very well organised, and it takes a lot for me to get all hot and bothered enough with something to tell others about it. That said, it's always nice to listen to what others have to say and perhaps chip in myself if I find I have something useful to add. It's also good to hear where people have noticed something that went straight past me, something I might pay attention to in the future.

Tuesday: Departure day
Sad face. My flight to the Netherlands (yes, not back to scotland) left at 13:50 hours, so I had to leave at around midday. I had a chat with a few people, nice breakfast, handed in the last pieces of my security gear to the security office and with a very sad face, a heavy heart and a bag just as head and headed off for the airport. All went well after that really.

This would be the big story of things. If you have any questions, suggestions or think I'm cute (You're not the only one!), please feel free to send me a message! You're welcome to add me on skype, but please please PLEASE let me know in your message where you know me from.

Also, before I forget, the pictures I took are placed here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/132839557@N02/mw812B

... It's time for some laughter! And this made me have a gigglefit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDR.....BbB8&t=106


On a slightly more serious note though, I believe (and this is purely guesswork, as is everything else on the subject) that IMVU has bought FA in order to gain favour with the community and as a sort of PR/marketing stunt. For the latter purpose, it has definitely worked, if there was anyone who didn't know about IMVU, they sure as hell know about it now. With the amount of talk there's going about, forum topics like these, undoubtably facebook, twitter messages and all that shit, they are gaining a HUGE boost to their exposure. In this respect, positive or negative reviews don't matter too much, people know about it, they talk about it, they expose others about it and so new (paying) members will arrive.

Once the marketing stunt is over, talk starts to die down and the innitial boost is gone, IMVU may wait for a bit to let the emotions settle, then start to make their move towards making more money out of FA than just through add revenue. Slowly the TOS will be changed to fit the company and let the monetizing begin. Sales of posted artworks (in one shape or form), offering premium membership, I can definitely see all of that coming in the future of FA. They will be adding these features slowly though, and introducing them as upgrades, sweet-toothing it to make it seem as if they do have the best interest of the site at heart.

I'll be staying with FA for now though, I've gotten too used to it by now, and I'm curious how this will develop and whether my guesses and estimates turn out to have any grip on reality or no. That, and all the drama is making me shit my pants from laughter. XD

Also, if you are going to leave FA for good, you can still find me elsewhere:
https://diamond-dragon.sofurry.com/

I also just noticed, I've got over 20k page views over there, yet not uploaded anything for years! Damn, that's a lot for an inactive account pretty much. Oh well! Maybe I should start uploading my stuff there as well.

Yes, the title is correct, I'm in the process of writing a new story. I've already started on it, and I think it might use some extra characters.

The story is rather simple, spycams in toilets. Female toilets to be precise. I'm entering some random stuff, random creatures, but it'd be more interesting with other people's imagination in there as well.

Due to the nature of the story, only female, shemale and herm characters are allowed. Sorry guys. Maybe later if/when I make a male version.

Been seeing these around a lot past week, and since I like seeing what people think of me, I thought I'd jump in and see what happens!

So, tell me your assumptions about me, and I'll tell you whether it's right or not!

It can be about -any- subject, including sexual and stuff.

Confuzzled journal 2014 (yes, I'm quick this time!)

Since I've got little else to do on the 4-and-a-half-hour train journey back to my destination, and internet connection is shoddy at best, I thought I'd just make this instead and be prepared for later!

DAY 1 (Friday)

So! As some of you may know, I went to Confuzzled this year! Again! I have to say now and up front, I almost got lost in the sheer size of the venue and location that the convention is being held this year, the Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (NEC for short) in the Hilton Birmingham Metropole hotel. It's MASSIVE! Lots of SPACE everywhere! It's like that place is built as a convention centre! ... Oh, wait...

Anywho, arrived at the convention hotel to find out that, due to delays in the train, I was late for both registration and the opening ceremony. Good start of the con indeed. Went to reception instead to get the keys to my room and dump my 25kg (roughly 55lbs) suitcase in the room before roaming the hotel and getting familiar with the venue. Well, again, this place was a giant MAZE, Lounge at one end, with rooms, suites, stages and shows all the way past the toilets to the con registration desk, in two parallel corridors. Kept roaming for a bit while waiting for the opening ceremony to end and the BBQ to start so I could feed myself with mini-spare-ribs and register for the con afterwards.

The rest of the day was filled with the Pubquiz in which my team (surprisingly) didn't do all that bad! We were apparently in the top 3rd of everyone there, so that's a good score! Afterwards was the Boardgaming event staying up to very late enjoying the company of fellow gamers. The beds were, fortunately, rather hard. Not the pillows though, which was kind of annoying since I do like some neck support.

DAY 2 (Saturday)

Convention times hadn't set in yet. Got up at 8am. Now, I don't drink coffee, but at that point in the day, I was tempted to start trying it. One benefit though: no lines at all for the breakfast tables, free pick of the best tables, and none of the food had run out yet, including the chocolate muffins (which I greedily made use of)!

Still, even after breakfast, I still had a few hours to kill before the first event, so I roamed the hotel a little, caught up with people I hadn't seen in AGES in the Lounge and had a little drink with them (nothing alcoholic, you know me).

In chronological order, these were the events I attended that day: The Fursuit Roundtable, Bar meet for First timers, Dealer's Den, Artemis, Fursuit Fiasco (last few minutes), Furry Hypnotism (after debating whether I'd go for a debate between 1 sea & sky creature and 10 scalies and beasts), Dinner, meeting people in the Lounge, Pawpets show, and another session of boardgaming.

The roundtable, while eventually it was rather useful, could've been described as a little dull as well. The intention was that people sat around a table, discussing all things fursuit. With Confuzzled being the a very large convention with one of the highest percentages of fursuit-per-attendee (almost 1 in 2!), this kind of turned out... a lot less busy than you'd expect. I got some good advice though! I'm going to be released onto the job market very soon, and with hopefully a stable income, I'll probably be able to afford to get a very nice fursuit before the next CF (hence why I was there =D). It's been in my mind for like, 5 years or something? Money is the entrance barrier at the moment. I like the idea of a big ball of fluff, running around attacking people with hugs. Even though I wear a scalemail tail nearly all the time during the con.

The barmeet was kind of meh... Chairs were full and there wasn't really much going on in the form of conversation, rather advice for first timers, the 'go there if you need help' kind of thing, and a rather interesting piece of information on some staff sacrifices for the con charity this year. More on that one, later.

Now, for those not familiar with the game, artemis is a multiplayer co-op space simulator. Basically, star trek in real life. You have a team of people, led by the captain, playing on a single server with a large screen attached. In this case, there were 4 stations: Engineering, Helm & Ops, Science & Comms and Weapons. I played Geordy Laforge first few times around. Great fun! But it also requires some finesse I didn't quite master during the first few attempts at the game. Engineering is in charge of distributing the limitedly available energy, which can get quite hectic when you're in a combat scenario, moments away from death, dealing with a lack of pretty much everything.

People who know I've been to CF before will also know that I've been to the Furry Hypnotism shows before, and every time it is different in one way or another, including this time. No chickens this time, but the group hypnosis session was still there, as well as a very interesting 'cold mindreading' session the man on stage did with one of the attendees. Sadly not me, but it was still very fun to watch JM horse squirm as he tried and succeeded to guess the right word while only being given 5 'random' words. He got 3 out of 3 correct, which amused everyone including himself!

Now, if you don't know of pawpets shows, you've never been to a convention before. It's a furry show, usually spoofs of movies or themes, made completely using hand-made and hand-coordinated puppets. This year's show was REALLY well done. No doubt, Pixelpaw will make a recording of it available on the internet in a few weeks if not months, but I shall say now that I think it was AWESOME. The normal jokes were in there, as well as the expected Uranus joke that cannot be missed in a furry oriented show for mature and adult publics. In order not to spoil too much for those who have yet to watch it, it's a mix of James Bond and this year's 'The world of Tomorrow' theme. The organisation was very well done, as you'd expect from a crew that's on their 6th show this year, the story was well developed, clearly intended to not give a damn about offending anyone or anything while providing amusement to the masses.

During this day, I also met a lot of people I hadn't seen in a looooong while, with special mention of Drealen, Oatcake, Shineyfighter and Camashred. I met many more amazing people this day whom I enjoyed conversing with, so don't feel left out if I didn't mention you, I'm just horrible with names.

Day 3 (Sunday)

Another day, less sleep and an annoying alarm clock later, it was time for the second day! And yes, I was starting to get more into the con times as you'd expect. Getting up at 9:30-ish am. No doubt Reever was claiming me insane in his mind for me getting up so early in the morning, but hey, I was used to that before. The sunday day progressed with a nice healthy (not) breakfast, followed nearly immediately by the fursuit parade. Now, undoubtably you've been to one of the many disney parks across the world. Orlando, Paris, those kind of places. Remember the large parades with all those mascots? Multiply it by about 10 and you'll have the CFz fursuit parade. Not joking, I took 1016 pictures during that event while trying to get at least one of every suit. I didn't succeed regrettably, as my camera sometimes took more time processing the pictures than I'd have liked. Still, it lasted the ENTIRE CON with only 1 set of batteries I'm still using.

After a healthy (not) bit of lunch, it was time for the first writer's event I attended, 'Finding ideas'. Now, most of who are watching me, if you hadn't stopped reading this by now, will know that I've kind of been in a writing slump. Haven't been posting many stories the past months if not years, as I've just not had either the time or the right jibe to put anything on my digital format of choice. Now, with all uni things winding down and regular life apparently coming to some sort of brief break, I've got the time to start getting some things done. I was hoping that this panel was going to help me get back into the swing of things. We'll see how that goes over the next couple of weeks I guess.

Immediately following the writer's pannel, I went to the Kerbal Space Program event. As the name suggest, it's a game based on getting into space with your Kerbals. You have to design your spaceship from components, starting with the cockpit, to electrical equipment, to fuel cells and engines. I had NO experience with that game AT ALL, and I found it rather amusing how my space ships continued to crash repeatedly while I had no idea why. Apparently my designs wanted to always move to the left, without any real explanation why. I think I should've just left it at simple rockets before immediately moving to more advanced space 'planes'. Still, I enjoyed the experience, and I'll be getting the game myself soon when it goes onto a steam sale or something.

Kazaran and others will vouch for me when I say that I've been a part of Frankensuits for about 4 years now, after volunteering to be encased in cardboard and duct tape in 2011. This year our theme was to make a Commander Armadillo. We nicknamed it Captain Commander 'Armydillo' (photos to be uploaded after I get everything sorted that needs sorting). Made mostly of duct tape, cardboard and other junk materials (in order of most used), we managed to make quite a nice suit in my opinion! Captain Commander Armydillo of the S.E.A. (little cardboard box I turned into a tank-like vehicle in a few minutes). As you'll see from the pictures I'll put up soon, it looked quite good for something made in under 50 minutes! Didn't win though, which was a bitch...

After dinner, it was time for one of my favorite group games again! Werewolf. 25 people sitting around a table, K I S S I N G and other things, Being cupid is fun, but being part of the lovers couple chosen by cupid is even more so. Phoenix Behemoth and Faust joined the Werewolf games, and me, being cupid, decided to match those two up. I had to have my eyes closed, but I heard some laughter on the background, always satisfying. Second round was me being part of the cupid's couple. The game progressed as normal (werewolves killing the villagers, and the villagers killing themselves with poor choices of sheriffs, always fun. Best part though was when I was killed by the Townspeople. The lovers couple made a nice 'scene' out of it, just as fun as watching others do it! Sadly you had to be there to enjoy it since I can't really put it into words how that went without going into needless detail.

Staying up 'till around 4am, watching others play the House on the Hill game, I was hesitating once more whether it would be a better idea to just forego any sleep that night in favour of more midnight fun. Decided against it and went to bed instead.

Day 4 (Monday)

Last full day of the con is always the worst. Waking up to come to the realisation that it's the last day and things will come to a halt in about just as many hours as you have fingers and toes on your hands and feet. That feeling is almost worse than PCD, knowing that it'll be a full year after tomorrow that it'll get back. Such a long time.

The events of the day were as follows: Explore furry through data, Family Fortunes, Lunch, Closing Ceremony, Modern Spaceflight, Feedback session, Artemis, Dinner, Capetown and yet some more Boardgames.

Exploring furry through data is the exploration of facts about furries by use of information gathered in polls taken in RL or online, where the data is used to get graphs on several factors within the furry fandom. This includes Gender, species, fursona gender, fetishes, con data and other facts. As an engineer, and being curious for statistics, this is sort of my weird wet dream, being faced with so much information. It's also quite surprising the results of some of these pieces of information (sexuality demographic), while others are kind of as expected (gender demographics). All in all, check Furrypoll.com, do the polls and help them out! The information will be looked at and used impersonally to figure out the society of furry!

I'm not american, and I do not watch American TV. What I do know is that Family Fortunes is probably a show borrowed from some popular show hosted on American TV. If I'm wrong, please let me know. The closing ceremony was as you'd expect, a way to close off the convention. Weird thing of this year's ceremony is that it was being held BEFORE the actual convention ended. This is when I talk about the staff Sacrifice mentioned earlier.

At the start of the con, security staff, specifically the heads of said security, agreed to shed some hair for charity if a certain threshold had been reached. Several of the staff left the convention nearly bald, while most of them experienced how it was to wax your legs for the first time (males). The aforementioned heads of security had something coming their way as well during the closing ceremony, public waxing. Placed on a table (in codewolf's case dragged) on the stage while the waxing strips were being warmed up. The honour of being the one to rip off those waxing strips was auctioned off during the live auction (which I missed due to lack of personal interest in it). The winner of that auction went on stage, obviously eager to have the heads of security suffer through the sensation of having their hairs on their legs ripped off. It was a shame it wasn't shown on the live feeds, I missed the best parts of it. Still, I was present in the group photo (right of the grey wolf fursuit, a few people back) and I did enjoy the show they gave to give CF a nice farewell for the year. Next year's theme will be 'Alice in Wonderland', which gives me some pause as I've no clue what to think of it.

I'll plainly admit now, during the modern spaceflight event, I was nearly falling asleep. Whether it was the time, the fact I hadn't slept enough for several days straight or the temperature in the room, I do not know. What I do know is that the event wasn't quite what I'd hoped it to be. Combined with the fact that the feedback session started straight after modern spaceflight, didn't give it much of a chance to catch up.

The feedback session is as you would expect, feedback to the heads of staff and the chairman of Confuzzled about what went right and more importantly, what went wrong during CFz 2014. There were several points made I would agree with, but in short most of what I'd agree with would be the fact that CFz 2014 was an awesome con, one that I'll be looking forward to for 2015, hopefully with some extra equipment.

Capetown is a social deduction game featuring the city of Capetown, where caped figures for good or evil duke it out for supremacy. If you are being accused of being the one who you are, the enemy team gains a point and you are eliminated from the game. This game went on for several rounds before another deduction game called 'Two rooms and a bomb', where everyone is assigned a particular role in two teams. You're allowed to show your colour (team) and your profession to anyone you like, as long as you end up winning the game. It's an interesting idea that should make it to a full real game soon enough.

Day 5 (Tuesday)

The convention came and went way too soon. At this stage I regret not having chosen to stay longer and postpone the pain, but I know that I wouldn't have had such fond memories of the event as I do now if I had spent the last day bored and unoccupied, watching people leave before I do. No events this day for me, just breakfast, packing, preparing to leave the hotel and saying your goodbyes to the new friends you've made during the convention. It's a pain to your heart, leaving those behind that you know and love in favour of returning to your own boring life back home. I'm NOT looking forward to it, particularly since I've no events of any kind planned for the next 5 weeks until my graduation from university.

Right now while writing this I have to admit, I feel as if these days have passed by so amazingly quickly, the amount of text I'm writing here doesn't do it one iota of justice. I want to thank everyone there for being such amazingly nice people, already you are being missed while I only just said my goodbyes to some people. *sigh* PCD, it's still a bitch.

If I spoke to you at CFz, please get back in contact with me, I'd love to continue to chat, get to know your better and enjoy your company. Thank you for making Confuzzled 2014 such a nice experience for me, I hope I helped to do the same thing for you. I hope to see you at the next Confuzzled if not sooner.

Thank you.

Ever wanted to have your character in a story? Want to know what it feels like to be written? Want to enjoy some shitty celebrity?

Send me your ideas! Any idea will do as long as it's not in the list of Don'ts below. Favs have a better chance to be picked than others.

Basically, the idea is that you reply to this journal with any ideas you might have. Including your character or not, it doesn't matter, I want ideas. Lots of 'm. If you want something very specific, say so. Anything really general, fine too.

Important!
If you don't want your request posted, you're at the wrong address. Anything I finish gets posted.
Want to post the request on your own page? Sure! Just make sure to refer to me as the writer/creator. Please refrain from posting other stories to your page unless otherwise told (  MessyFurs has ongoing permission to repost my scat stuff with reference).

Don'ts
Gore
Vore
Blood
Death
Drowning

Favs
Scat
Watersports
Taur
Whatever strikes my fancy at that particular time

Well, after the FA-less week, welcome back to you all. It's good to see that artists are considering moving away due to a glitch that takes more time to fix than just a day or two :-/

Anywho, this is more of a venting journal than anything. For some reason FA isn't in the pornography filter at uni (wow), so I'm writing this at uni atm.

Some of you may know, I'm a student still, university, MEng degree in Civil Engineering, 5th year out of 5. Things are going good for now, due for a 2:1 degree if you know what that means, if all goes okay. However, I have to say that the scheduling that the university has chosen to work with is rather annoying.

For example, the year has 3 trimesters, 2 of which are classes for me and the third is the summer holiday. What they've chosen to do is to have all deliverables for the classes, and a high-profile presentation on the same day... The 20th of December. Yes, the very last day before the Christmas holiday. I'm kind of struggling right now to put everything together so, yeah, I think anyone who's been a student will know how it feels. Add to this that I cant work when my mind's tired (it just won't work), just means I don't have the same time left as most of my classmates.

I'd be ok with the above if not for my classmates for the presentation wanting to spend HOURS just practicing the presentation! I'm thinking of just not showing up for those pracice sessions because contrary to them, I'm putting more importance on a 20-point module's mark than a 5-point presentation (besides that we've already practiced way too often).

Some people in the UK may know I'm also president of the Analog Gaming Society for my university. I don't know it's me, or some other combination of circumstances, but the society is on the edge of going belly-up. I want to do some promotion for the society, but with 0 budget, that's gonn be difficult. We're hosting meetings on Saturdays or Sundays most weeks in Edinburgh (look up Facebook, Napier Analog Gaming Society or NAGS, for the details), if people are interested, we're open for pretty much anyone who likes analog games.

I've also got some stories in the making, expect to see them pop up during or just after the Christmas holiday after I finish them up.

Lastly, some other stuff. This year, to cut costs, I've gone for private rent housing. Basically a section of a house with my own room and shared kitchen, living room and bathroom. The house is a 1800's mansion that's listed with the government as heritage. There's barrs in front of the ground-floor windows (Yes, no burglar's coming in, but in case of emergency, we're not coming out either), the windows are single glazing (temperature in my room drops to single digits every night/morning, and the winter hasn't even properly started yet) and communication between the three of us who are sharing this place has deterriorated significantly after some incidents over the past few months (details are private). I'm glad my room's the one above the kitchen, I'm the first to smell it when someone's leaving something to burn on the cooker, but it's also a curse since I smell whatever they're cooking (And trust me, I'm worried about fire safety almost every day when they're cooking).

All-in-all, I'm looking forward to the Holidays, putting all the stresses from uni's last days before christmas behind me and to get back to a house that doesn't leak heat like a sieve.

Not looking forward to the Dissertation crap that's coming after the holidays though. My concrete cubes broke the testing machine, I need it fixed before I can continue properly. And then there's the literature review...

Because, why not.

Taken from reever

YES... or no.
1. You can ONLY answer Yes or No .

2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages/comments you and asks. And believe me, the temptation to explain some of these will be overwhelming... things are not exactly as they seem.

3. It is harder than it looks, but NO explanations !!! You will want to... but don't!!!


Kissed any one of your Facebook friends? ---No
Been arrested? ---Yes
Kissed someone you didn't like? --- No
Slept in until 5 PM? --- No
Fallen asleep at work/school? ---No

Ran a red light? ---Yes
Been suspended from school? ---No
Experienced love at first sight? ---Yes
Totalled your car in an accident? ---No
Been fired from a job? ---Yes
Fired somebody? ---No
Sang karaoke? ---No
Pointed a gun at someone? ---No
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? ---Yes
Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? ---Yes
Caught a snowflake on your tongue? --- Yes
Kissed in the rain? --- No
Had a close brush with death (your own)? ---No
Seen someone die? ---No
Played spin-the-bottle? ---No
Sang in the shower? --- Yes
Smoked a cigar? ---No
Sat on a rooftop? --- No
Taken pictures of yourself naked? ---Yes
Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes? ---Yes
Skipped school? ---No
Eaten a bug? ---No
Sleepwalked? --No
Walked a moonlit beach? ---No
Ridden a motorcycle? ---No
Dumped someone? ---No
Forgotten your anniversary? ---Yes
Lied to avoid a ticket? ---No
Ridden on a helicopter? ---No
Shaved your head? ---No
Blacked out from drinking? ---No
Played a prank on someone? --- Yes
Hit a home run? ---Yes
Felt like killing someone? ---Yes
Cross-dressed? ---No
Been falling-down drunk? ---No
Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? ---Yes
Eaten snake? --- No
Marched/Protested? ---No
Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? ---No
Puked on amusement ride? ---No
Seriously & intentionally boycotted something? ---Yes
Been in a band? --- No
Knitted? ---No
Been on TV? ---No
Shot a gun? ---No
Skinny-dipped? ---No
Caused someone to need stitches? ---No
Ridden a surfboard? ---No
Drank straight from a liquor bottle? ---No
Had surgery? --- No
Streaked? ---No
Taken by ambulance to hospital? ---No
Passed out when not drinking? ---No
Peed on a bush? --- Yes
Donated Blood? ---No
Grabbed electric fence? ---No
Eaten alligator meat? ---No
Eaten cheesecake? ---No
Eaten kids' Halloween candy? ---No
Killed an animal when not hunting? ---No
Peed your pants in public? ---No
Written graffiti? --- No
Still love someone you shouldn't? ---Yes
Think about the future? ---Yes
Been in handcuffs? ---No
Believe in love? ---Yes
Sleep on a certain side of the bed? ---No

--- Feel free to ask, if I want to elaborate on something, I will.---

Heck, might as well do this. Small chance at something is better than no chance at all, right?

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4233852/

Read through it though, the more people join, the more prizes there will be.

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4199165/

Look there... right there, and all will be told.

Little backstory as far as I can see, Both her and her father are home too ill to work, can't afford medicine to help them get better. Bank comes in, threatens to take away their home after a missed payment (the amount mentioned in the journal doesn't seem all that much to me, especially for a bank).
Family refused to help out (partially since they're in enough shit themselves as is), so she's now asking others to help if they want to.

Not really in a position to help out myself, since I'm going to have to run on savings (and a loan I'll have to take at a bank when the time comes) for the duration of my master's degree.

Been a while since I made a journal like this...

From the Netherlands, where it has been 2013 for almost 40 minutes already, I wish you guys and girls here a happy new year. May it be fruitful, messy and full of joy for all of you! (And don't forget to share the jackpot if you appened to win it)

New years resolutions? Erm, none? Big one comes next year.

Last journal on the 30th of August?!? Unacceptable!

Not much elseto say though. Internet seems to be becomming less and less reliable, with videos decising they don't want to be loaded from the web anymore 2 minutes in, and regular connection errors. Right now I'm completely cut off for instance, using my cellular network thingy on my iPad (great thng, that).

Gonna have to see if it's fixed tomorrow, since I can't seem to get their 24-7 service on the phone right now.

Any suggestions for... Whatever? I could use an imagination-boost.

Hey there,

As some of you MAY be aware,  cronicdragon took an idea of mine, and turned it into a story. Now we're seriously discussing how we should continue it, together.

So, to figure this out, we need YOU! Read more here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3803547/

It's semi-official, I'm an certified engineer!

Granted, I don't have the piece of paper yet to prove it, but as of today, I have met all requirements for a Bachelor level in Civil Engineering.

You may call me 'Engineer' Diamond Dragon now. :D

Alright, the past two years I've made journals of my activities at Confuzzled, but never did I fully complete them. No more! This time I'm actually writing it after con, so there is nothing to be missed! Anyway, before I start with the story, I'd like to make you aware of the existence of a video I made during the Fursuit parade on Sunday morning, the details of which will follow later on in this journal. So, here you go, enjoy: http://youtu.be/YH8lp_8qEx0

Now, lets start with the Friday, when I was packing my bags and ready to escape the country with my tail between my legs.

Sometimes things go well. Sometimes things don't go entirely according to plan. And sometimes things go horribly wrong. Fortunately for me though, things went reasonably well. Not entirely though. First things first, my plan was to step onto the train, check in and board the plane to the UK. I got to the station on time, but there was a problem. The train wasn't. 2 minutes passed, nothing... 5 minutes passed, nothing. 8 minutes passed and a message was called the train had difficulties and was late. 10 minutes passed, and finally a train stopped. Only, it stopped way too early... Someone stepped out of the driver's hatch, and the train started moving again. It was an intercity train... Finally, after 15 minutes, the train I needed came by. I stepped in and things went on like usual.

I dropped off my baggage, went through security, had something to eat and drink, passed through another security checkpoint and boarded the plane on time. The plane however, much like the train, left late, 15 minutes late.

Now, giving a little background, I didn't know beforehand, but there was a chartered bus service from the airport to the convention hotel, and the time between the planned arrival and departure of that bus was 30 minutes. With the plane departing 15 minutes late, my hope for a timely arrival diminished quite quickly.

After landing at Birmingham Airport though, things got even worse. Apparently another plane was in the process of departing from the gate, and when we were taxiing to the gate, it was blocking the way, adding another few minutes before we actually could get out of the plane.

After that was sorted though, things went better. I got out of the plane as part of the first group, and the line for customs was shorter than 10 people. And with a staffing of 3 customs officers, that went quite fast. After that though, it was waiting for the suitcases. Being used to the Amsterdam Schiphol airport suitcase handling times, I knew I was fucked. Fortunately though, Birmingham handling was a lot better. 10 minutes after arrival, the cases were already on the belt. However, 10 minutes after arrival meant it was 11am. Departure time for the bus.

Luck was smiling at me though. Though there was no-one at the arrivals gate, I took a few minutes to find it, but eventually... I saw fursuit heads! Tails! Yes, that cannot be denied, those went to Confuzzled! The bus hadn't left yet! Putting my case in the baggage hold, I got into the bus, and after a few minutes, we left.

It was an interesting ride, through the UK midlands' landscape and cities like Nuneaton and Hinckley. Mostly though because I had some interesting talking companions, Cerberius and a scottish fur (whose name I regrettably forgot, but whom I'll undoubtedly meet again in the not-so-distant future). Half of the way we were talking of spaghetti bridges, and the other half about (gay) marriage. Don't ask how we got from the topic of spaghetti bridges to (gay) marriage...

After arrival though, the fun part began. Registration. Biggest challenge this year was: where the hell do I register. The answer was actually remarkably simple: follow the red carpet. Just like 'Follow the white rabbit' in 'The Matrix', really.

After finishing my registration and getting my room key at the reception, it was time to inspect the room. So, I grabbed my magnifying glass, notebook and pen, and went to work inspecting my room. I had a single room this year, a life of luxury (at least for the weekend) all to myself. Describing the room in detail would go a bit far, but in short: Double bed, two chairs around a small round table, bathtub, nice and clean bathroom, tidy bedroom, poor view on the backside of the toilets and most importantly, FLAT-SCREEN TV! Though granted, not very big... not many networks... the remote didn't always work and there wasn't really a comfortable position to watch TV from on the bed, BUT IT'S a FLAT-SCREEN TV!

Filling my time with unpacking, putting on my metal tail and seeing if I could find a few people I know (which was remarkably easy as a matter of fact, they found me), the next thing on the agenda was the opening ceremony. With a few words of wisdom, mentioning the rules and stealing a number plate from a car parked rather unfortunately, we were then guided outside to await the arrival of the Guest of Honor.

It was an event I actually kind of foresaw. Roads from both sides were closed and there was a big H on part of the car park, but it was still a rather unique experience. Everyone in the immediate area (and probably a little beyond that even) could hear what was going on. A helicopter was landing at the convention venue to deliver the GoH. I've seen and heard a lot of helicopters in my time, but seeing and hearing one landing right in front of me was something else. That thing was LOUD!

Now comes a more difficult part. I have to admit to doing something cruel... I forgot to take pictures. I had my camera with me, in the camera purse... I could have easily taken a video of the whole thing, yet, I didn't... And I feel ashamed to admit that.

Straight after the arrival of the GoH though, it was time for the barbeque. Though I can't blame the hotel staff for this mostly, it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. Most importantly, the queue stretched from the BBQ bar all the way to the southern entrance (¼ of the way around the hotel, which takes 5 minutes on foot with a metal tail). The food was quite good, though the chicken was rather dry. The burgers went like crazy, there were no name tags for the sauces and the weather was great as well as the people whom I spent time with in the queue (if you see this, please, let me know who you are. You are great people, and that deserves to be named).

With a few hours between the end of the BBQ and the start of the next event (Wikifur pub quiz), I went around a little, wagging me tail, getting used to the damn thing (with my trousers sliding off my ass, with the weight and all) and talking to random people, enjoying the company of strange randomness and furry huggings.

Come the time for the Pub Quiz, I sat down with a few guys, including a buddy of mine (Phoenix) and two others. With the questions that were asked, we ended up with 46.5 out of 77 points, grabbing the third place in the entire pub quiz. It was fun though, getting reminded of Dad's Army, Allo Allo and Are you being Served.

A few hours later, I joined other people in the Board and Card gaming, playing a few games of Race of the Galaxy and Pandemic, having great fun until late in the night, where I almost had to hurry as to not pass out on the floor from exhaustion.


Saturday

Breakfast on Saturday was the same as on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, so telling about it now, saves having to do it later as well. It was mostly a continental breakfast buffet, with eggs baked sunny-side up, bacon, potato wedges, white beans in tomato sauce, sausages, buns, croissants, toast, butter and other things of the sort, as well as breakfast cereals. The breakfast buffets didn't change every day like the evening dinner buffet did, but that makes little difference.

Walking around a little, chatting with people, showing off my metal tail (pictures to follow), I finally ended up in the first writer's workshop of the convention on the second floor (American third floor), '5 Critiques you'll hear', basically beginning with an introduction of the host Kandrel (please, forgive me if I miss-spelled it), and what he does and how it relates to the topic.

Though I had no intent of publishing my work at any time of my life, the lecture/workshop thing helped me realize a few things I did wrong, what I did right and how I can improve my interpretation of people's comments and how to go about them. Quite handy for people wanting to get published, but also for those who just want to make quality stuff to host anywhere you like. The latter applied to myself. I enjoyed hearing the discussions, adding to it myself, and I took a few much-needed notes to help me in the future (yes, this means you may expect new submissions in the (near) future).

After this enrichment facility activity, I went about doing my tail-wagging thing, getting a lunch-ish food injection, and generally wandering about, exploring the hotel a bit further and enjoying the unbritishly good weather before heading to the next event I wanted to attend, the Creativity Event.

The Creativity Event required a LOT more interaction with everyone attending, which on itself makes it a much more fun experience. In essence, the purpose of the event was to get everyone to give their two cents and their ideas towards making a framework for a story that could then be written by anyone attending. When I get the file on what was all written on those pages, I'm thinking about giving it a try myself (Yes, I was there last year too. Yes, I did have the same idea then. Yes, I did not write it then. Yes, I do intend on changing that.).

Eventually we ended up with ideas for a good-guy vs. bad-guy story based in a sci-fi world where the good guy gets framed by the bad guy who wants to steal 3 vials of liquids for some demonish purpose, but gets defeated (without death) in the end.

After the Creativity event though, things became really interesting, because I decided to visit the Furry Hypnotism event. Now I can understand you thinking 'Ohhh, were you hypnotized into doing things? Do you remember anything of it?', but no, it wasn't anything like that. I remember all of it.

First thing was a group therapy session. What the host basically did was help us to relax and get in contact with our furry selves. It was interesting to have yourself being guided into a relaxing state like that. Having a vivid imagination helped, but I think my mind was too resilient to allow me to experience the full possibility of the sensation, which is a shame in a way.

Next up was a therapy session for someone to help them lose a phobia. In this case, someone came forward with a phobia of heights. What the host did then was hilarious. He invited three people up to the stage, and had them do things in close proximity to the one he wanted to help get rid of the phobia. The first had to imitate an airplane, arms spread like wings and making sounds like a jet engine (yes, let your imagination run wild, that's what it looked like). The second had to use his finger to imitate a Bee's motion, while making a loud buzzing sound (again, let your imagination do the work). The third had to perform something called a sprinkler dance... You know what a sprinkler is? One of those automated things that spray water over your lawn. He imitated one with his hand, making similar sounds to what a sprinkler would do, jumping around waving his arm all around himself (almost hitting the host in the process!). Eventually the host told him to imitate a broken/stuck sprinkler, as to not hit him -or anyone else on stage- in the face.

What happened next is nothing short of hilarious. In order to help someone get over their phobia, it is helpful to have them remember something different associated with it. So, he told the grounded airplane, buzzing bee and stuck sprinkler to perform their dances, inches away from his face.

They did so for a little while until they were told to stop. Then he asked the one in the chair to shout the word 'Height', and for the plane, bee and sprinkler to do their dances again more vigorously each time. He did so multiple times, each time shouting louder until after a few times he called it enough and had everyone applaud for them.

The next part was more fun though. The host had two things in his hand, a bag of sweets in one hand and a squeaky rubber duck in the other. Firstly, he waved the bag of sweets and called forth a feline fur, and put him in one of the chairs on stage. With his calming voice, he then proceeded to put him in a sort of calm hypnotic state before asking him to pick someone from the crowds to help him with the tasks he was told would follow.

After the feline fur had returned (with his new temporary master), the host called forth a canine fur. The theory behind this was that he wanted to recreate the love-hate relationship between cats and dogs in relationship to their masters/owners. After putting the canine fur in a similar calm hypnotic state as the feline, he too was asked to take someone from the audience, in this case, me.

First up was the feline, with the master being tasked to get him to fetch a newspaper. Few minutes went by, and his efforts were, lets just say rather fruitless. Eventually he just had to get it back himself (after being rubbed against his leg, heheh). Next up it was my task to get the canine fur to do the same, only this time the challenge was to keep him focused on the task at hand while the host tried to distract him with the squeaky duck toy. With a bit of encouragement, I managed to get him to retrieve the newspaper and return it to me.

Unfortunately, with a good number of good laughs, that was the end of the show. The feline got his treats, and the canine got his squeaky duck toy, so all went away happy happy and happy.

With a few hours to spare until the next event I wanted to witness, I had some dinner and wandered around a little again before heading to the next writers workshop, Erotic story writing.

Many of the people visiting the previous writers workshops were present again during this event, making it kind of a tighter knit writers group rather than a massive collection of interested parties.

During this event there was a lot more discussion between the host Kandrel and Cerebelius, since apparently they disagreed on how to properly add erotic scenes to a story, and though I'm reluctant to pick sides, I'm forced to agree with Cerebelius on many of these things, as he basically said that if you want to add erotic parts to a story, you have to know in advance that you will, so you can properly work up to having it be a contributing part of the story, rather than being porn just for the sake of it, as well as saying that if you do write a porn story just for the porn, it shouldn't really contain anything else but porn.

Many other things were also said though, and I took notes of what Kandrel had to say about the subject (like it or not, he WAS the host, and he DID know a thing or two about it), before taking off at the end.

Next up was the Pawpet show UK. Now, having been to the Pawpet show the year before, and having experienced that it wasn't all that good, I was at first rather reluctant to go and watch it, fully expecting it to be the same as last year. With that in mind, my primary idea was to go to the board and card gaming. However, that one was closed until after the pawpet show, so I was kind of forced to either watch and endure it, or go do something else for 2 and a half hours while most people were watching the show.

I have to say, this show was many many times better than last year's performance. The story was interesting, the humor was good, the acting was good, the videos in between scenes were great and they told us quite a lot of background story of the main character, who this story was all about. I would recommend watching the video of the show when it is published. I know I will, as I do believe I missed a few things during the show, while getting something to drink, and I was seated too far from the screens to actually see what it said at the end.

Returning to the board and card gaming, I had a good match of Discworld with three very nice people, two of which were mated to each other. Unfortunately, I didn't win, but we did continue on for more than two hours, all the way until the deck was empty, and the game was won by the player with the role that wins the game when the deck is empty. It was absolutely great fun! Trying to bluff your way out of tight positions, threatening other players with empty words and trying to take control over as much of the board as possible. I loved it. We ended the game at almost half past 1 in the night, after which we said goodnight, and went on to bed (in my case wander around and talk to a few people until 3AM).


Sunday

The Sunday can most accurately be described with one word: fursuits. Sunday was the fursuit parade day, the frankensuit day and best of all, the meet the charity day.

Lets start with the frankensuits. It was one of the evens I would not miss for the world, and thus I was 15 minutes early (like a few others). Me and a couple of people whom I was in the team with last year, made another frankensuit, this year to a movie theme Jaws. And so, with that in the back of our head, we made a shark. Hideous to look at, even worse to make it, but it was great fun to do so. There were in total 3 or 4 frankensuits being made, which would eventually be rated by public vote at the Charity auction. We got a narrow second place out of the lot, which was exactly the same place as last year.

Following the frankensuits is traditionally the Fursuit parade. Holy hell. There were a LOT of fursuiters this year. I thought it was bad last year, well, this year was even worse/better (depending on the way you look at it). I had my camera with me and took a video of as much of it as I could. The video can be found here: http://youtu.be/YH8lp_8qEx0

The line of fursuiters was huge. The plan for the fursuit parade to go from the main stage, through the dealer's den, to the front of the hotel, then around to the southern entrance and through the same corridor back to the Rotunda. I was filming in the corridor where the fursuits going out from the main stage left, and where the fursuits returned on their way to the rotunda. What happened was that just as the last fursuits left the main stage, the first of the suiters from the parade entered the building through the southern entrance! Yes, the line went all the way from the main stage, through the dealers den, through all the corridors and along the outside, unbroken and unbending all the way back to the beginning.

No-one exactly realized how many fursuiters there were until they were collecting for the large group photo in the rotunda. Now, for the people being there, they know that the rotunda is 3 stories high, plus the ground floor, and goes all around the center area. It was packed. All the way around, on all three floors AND the ground floor, it was LOADED with fursuiters. I took lots of pictures to give insight into how many there were, but it simply does not do justice to the sheer volume of sweaty, fur-covered, overheated people there were. Estimates for the number of fursuits ranged from low 200's to around 350 fursuits, almost half of the complete attendance number for the entirety of CF. I think I even saw some members of the venue staff taking pictures!

If any of the fursuiters are reading this, and I'm sure there are a few, I wish to say to you: I'm jealous! All fursuits but for a few (and the frankensuits) were gorgeous, pretty, unique and hot as hell to the people inside it, and it was a marvel to behold. Thank you for making sure this moment was one of the more memorable and frustrating for the staff moments at Confuzzled.

After the photos were taken though, and all fun was had, the group of fursuiters started to disperse, and slowly it dissolved into the regular numbers you'd expect, and spread out of the hotel again.

Now the long-awaited moment arrived, the 'Meet the Charity' event, with everyone's favorite no doubt, Roxy the foxy. She was amazing, calm, collected, curious, and her fur was so amazingly soft and pleasant to the touch, it made you want to donate as much as you could for the charity.

Having seen that though, it was now waiting time for the next notable event, Uncle Kage's story hour. Now, I was one of those furries not all too interested in it, so I wandered around and talked to a few people, had lunch and eventually turned up, half-way through his story which I then followed up to the end. I have to say though, even with only having heard half of the story, he does know how to entertain a crowd. No wonder he was asked to do the story hour.

Following the story hour were two writing workshops closely packed to each other, 10 writing habits your editors will love you for and the Writer's Circle, both of which I attended with the 10 writing habits being hosted by Kandrel (again) and the writer's Circle being a steadfast yearly event held by anyone interested in is. The writing habits thing was actually rather straight forward, with some sheets with advice, discussion about that advice, then moving on to the next sheet for the same thing to happen.

The writers Circle is basically meant for people to share their stories with others, reading the first page to everyone out loud and then asking for their opinions and thoughts about it, which helps to improve your writing etc. In all honesty, I was happy that I was skipped this year, as I had nothing new to submit before the crowd. I intended to write stuff, but I guess I just never got around to it... Hopefully with all new events happening around me the coming year, my inspirational juices will start flowing again, and stories will pop into my head again for me to finish before CF 2013. Perhaps something worth publishing as well! Who knows, I might just appear in a pay-to-get book and get part of the profits! That would be the day!

Anywho, after the writer's workshop, most of the con was pretty much over. Almost all events were already over and all that was left was the auction, board and card gaming and the Sunday night dances before the night.

What I did after the writer's workshop was basically the following. I sat down at the reception area, and started on an idea I had for a story, when I noticed a few friends of mine going by into the all-you-can-eat buffet area, before popping back out and asking for their money back. They did get it back, and eventually I would up joining them in a trip to a local cafe/restaurant called 'The Harvester', where I had delicious spare ribs and a chocolate coupe called 'Make a wish', named after the charity part of the profits of that coupe were going to, the Make a wish charity fund.

Unlike what I expected in advance, I actually quite enjoyed just spending time eating with a few friends and unknown people, getting to know them and what has been happening with them in the past months and for some, years. The most notable thing of that night was something I'll never forget. While going to that restaurant, I was wearing my metal tail. One of the restaurant's employees noticed that, and came up to me asking where I got it from! A non-fur wanting to know where I got my scaly tail from, that's the first time I've heard of any such thing happening (oh, which reminds me, I should let the one who made it know about this. I think he'd be quite pleased!).

Anyway, a few hours later, we returned. Bellies full with delicious goodies, rushing a little to join the charity auction for the latter half of the event. Priority for me though was something else. During the entire con, I was intending to meet on person in Particular, V. But since I did not know what he looked like, I had trouble finding him (I owed him a pizza). However, he was one of the people hosting one of the Dances, DJ-ing during the live auction in the lakeside suite, and I was determined to find him and offer him either a pizza, or something similar.

V, if you're reading this, yes, I was present during the latter part of your DJ-ing at CF, though I wasn't dancing on the dance floor (trying to move around quickly and jumping is NOT good when you're wearing a metal tail weighing 4 pounds, pulling your trousers down and slapping against your thighs with force).

The rest of the night was mostly spent in the board and card gaming room, before asking a few furs to make pictures of me with my tail, and returning to my room to get a good night's rest (during a con, that's pretty much impossible. Just so you know).


Monday

I regret to say, but this day was the worst of the lot. A lot of people, friends new and old, and random furry folk departed from the hotel during the morning and mid day, and this was a sad occasion. I missed the busy talks and comforting presence of people around me whom I knew were interested in the same things I was. And with there being 8 hours between the end of the closing ceremony and the dead dog party, there was a lot of time to be sad.

Firstly however, was the Feedback session, and with me wanting to be the best help I could be, I attended, and let them know what I thought could be improved in the next year. I also got to hear answers to a lot of other people's complaints, suggestions and comments, and it was good to know that the staff listen to the attendees, and act upon it. Last year's suggestion for example, I suggested a movie theater. That was implemented this year on Saturday and Sunday under the banner: 'Furry Film Festival'.

Following the feedback session was the closing ceremony, with a few words by the president of Confuzzled and members of the venue's staff, we got to knew a few things that were interesting and funny, with reference to our general carnivorous (meat-eating) nature and the fact that even the hotel staff enjoyed having us over, adding a few compliments to us furries as a whole.

With the con having ended, I here end my journal with a sad undertone. The memories of Confuzzled 2012 are still vivid in my memory, almost 2 weeks after the convention has ended. I can assure you that by 2013, I shall be present, with high hopes, expectations and with new things to add to it and help out to help make CF2013 even better than this year.


PS, to all members of staff of the Hinckley Island Hotel reading this, I thank you kindly for all your efforts that you put into it. The work paid off and it helped us enjoy the convention to the fullest extent possible. I sincerely hope that by Confuzzled 2013, I will be able to meet you again and give my thanks in person. Thank you for making Confuzzled 2012 great. See you next year.


Video reference: http://youtu.be/YH8lp_8qEx0 ← Fursuit parade video
Picture reference: (to be hosted online soon)

Edit: I'm currently in agreement with someone on pricing and such, so this offer has closed already. Fast, eh!

On the off chance someone here is actually still watching me, or otherwise interested...

The one I've been intending to share my room with has unfortunately had to cancel his stay, and has transfered the account handling to me (since I gave the ticket to him through vouchers to begin with).

Anywho, it's a room booking for a double room, Friday through Tuesday (yes late departure), residential. Normal price is 260 GBP, I'm selling for 220 GBP. The booking can be changed in contact with the registration manager, until the 20th of this month. I'll be doing that anyway since I prefer to share my room with someone I do know personally.

Payment can be done through Paypal or direct international bank transfer, details to be mentioned when transfer is agreed uppon.

Due to the limited time before it has to be finalized, I will consider serious bids (I will not sell for 1 GBP >.>).

To sum it up:
- Double room
- Residential
- Late departure (Monday - Tuesday)

If you're interested, please send me a message here, or on the UKfurs board if you're a member there.

If you know anyone who MIGHT be interested, please, do let them know about it! I would also appreciate it if you could help me spread the message by putting a link to this journal, in yours.


Thank you very much in advance.

Well, as some of you might or might not know, I'm at confuzzled again this year. After having such a great time last year, I knew it was something I wanted to do again... So, here I am. Spending the boring hours in the morning, writing a journal about this year's experiences so far, heheh.

First things first though, there are two things I regret. 1) I wish I had taken a sponsor membership rather than the extended stay I took this year. 2) I wish I had a tail or fursuit to wear this time. I'll be honest in saying that I see a LOT of people wearing them, and I'm slightly jealous of them.

Anyway, the journey:

As I'm from the Netherlands, and the con is in the United Kingdom, there's three ways I can get to the con. By boat, by train or by plane. By boat take a long while. Relaxing, but getting me sick to my stomach if the sea isn't entirely calm. Besides that, there's transport to be considered with my large bag after I arrive. The train is just a very long sit, without much room to get some sleep. 7 hours, I think it was, excluding the trip in the UK itself. And it would offer the same transportation difficulties, getting closer to my destination (though not as much as the boat).

The last option, the plane, is the one I took. Flying from Amsterdam to Manchester only takes 1 hour and a few minutes at worst. The only problems are the fact that your baggage is seperated from you, because it has to be put in the hull of the plane, and the fact that you have to be at the airport HOURS before the plane actually leaves. From the airport though, there's a bus service, a few even, that pass along the hotel as well. I also get bonus airmiles from the airline for joining their flying blue club, gaining bonusses over a longer period of time, heheh.

Anyway, I had arranged to meet up with another furry for the plane ride... However, due to a slight miscommunication, it just so happened that I thought they were waiting at a restaurant behind the customs, while he meant he would be waiting at a restaurant before customs... so that worked out rather poorly until he got through customs himself. The flight itself was rather boring, listening to music most of the ride, with some chatting. It wasn't until we arrived at Manchester airport that things got a little more interesting.

At the airport, we met up with a couple of other furries, taking the bus to the hotel together. Was a lot more fun than going alone, though I have to honestly admit that I felt a bit left out when they started talking among themselves a little faster than I could keep up with. Other than that, it was fun meeting new friends.

First thing after arriving at the hotel: look if my favorite chair from the year before was still there. It was! And with a bonus as well! A pool table right in front of it. I happen to love cue games, so it's really something I like. I invited one of the guys I was on the bus with (sparkwolf) to play a game with me, which ended up with me losing, and treating him to pizza.

It was around that time that I also met up with my roomie for this year, with whom I went to the center of manchester to solve some issues with my british number *pokes T-mobile* and to get some drinks, specifically a pint of milk and a bottle of water, as the hotel doesn't have drinkable tap water and doesn't even serve milk in glasses seperate from breakfast.

Unfortunately, the rest of the day ended up being rather dull, with the con opening the next day (yesterday from current point of view) there were no events planned and I ended up taking out my laptop and doing some things, and heading for bed rather early.

After a rather short night's sleep (shorter than I would have liked), and getting some breakfast, I started the day with, you guessed it, electronics. As there was little else I could do at that time of day.

My roomie and I walked off to a store nearby to top up on our supplies in drinks and some food, spending the rest of the time before the opening ceremony walking around on the con grounds and chatting with random (and not so random) people.

The opening ceremony was rather a different story from the rest of the day though, starting out with the chairman having a speech with humor, introducing the staff and looking back on last years con, welcoming everyone to the con. What was most unique though, was the little event that took place right in the middle of the room. Two friends of 'The Don.' (look it up on the confuzzled website for explanation) in suits were celebrating their 10th aniversary, and were rather (playfully) forced to dance on a small stage, providing the entertainment some people weren't expecting, and others were hoping for. Following that, my roomie and I headed for a british chippy (snackbar/takeout-ish), where I found out that chips without salt taste poor, and that british chips look and taste like belgian fries (british furs, please take no offense).

Unfortunately, apart from the wikifur pub quiz, the rest of the night was rather dull, spent walking around rather pointlessly, chatting with the occasional person, and watching people get soaked by a flash thunderstorm that hit just after we returned from the chippy.

And that brings me to today. I'll most likely make another journal, hopefully a little more filled with exciting stuff than this one. Sorry if it reads a little slow, I'm rather in a hurry to make it to an event, heheh, besides having had a lack of sleep.