On Tuesday my mate and I signed a civil partnership. It marks an important milestone along the road to getting to where we really want to be, and once we get more settled where we're planning to live long term with the people we want to be with and I've got a job and all, we'll have a more proper celebration. In short though, I've been in love for a good long while, this is an important step along that road, and we're very happy. ^^

Moving isn't always easy, even at the absolute best of times. Everything is going well for me and I'm very very happy to be where I am, but over the last couple weeks there's a realization that has been increasingly dawning on me.

The one thing about being in the UK that is very slightly less than absolutely fantastic is the time zone, at least if you have American friends. I am an American, I have many American friends and they mean a huge deal to me. There are a lot of really fantastic people who I'm delighted to know and who have brought al manner of awesome into my life at various points.

You know who you are. <3

But, the way time zones are arranged, very little of the free time I have to be online coincides anymore with the usual times that American folks tend to be online. Many days I might show up for a couple hours during my late evening before going to bed, and that being the afternoon for North America means it's about the only time I'm available to chat in real time to -anyone- in the States. During the rest of my day they haven't woken up yet, and during the rest of their day it's the middle of the night for me and I'm asleep. So those couple hours tend to be pretty frantic, trying to keep up with everyone who's around that I care about. As long as it's just friendly conversation and catching up I manage it happily, but anything beyond that tends to get unmanageable in a hurry.

Coupled with all this is a realization that, as a general shift in my lifestyle, I'm just not interested in living my entire day sat at the computer any more. During graduate school, pretty much all of my free time was spent online because I had no good friends closer than a 5 hour drive away, so as much as I honestly loved living in Iowa, my recreational time was generally spent wishing I was somewhere else and with other people. My life is moving along now, I'm a lot closer to where I want to be, I'm with one person I really want to be with and soon will be with more, I've got a couple hobbies and in a few months I'll be looking to start a full time career.

Long story short, I'm not as much of a spending-my-entire-life-sat-at-the-computer kind of dragon as I used to be.

I know I've been a lot more scarce to many of my friends than I used to be, and for that I am truly sorry. I miss all of you, and as much as I'm shifting my life to be less focused on the internet, it is very much not my desire to shift my life away from any of my friends. The way I communicate and socialize with them though is changing one way or another, so as with so many things in life, we must adapt. I think we're all going to find that the best ways to keep in touch with me are going to start being less about seeing me on the instant messenger of your choice on a near-daily basis, and more about email exchanges, journal comments, private messages, and other means of communication that don't depend on real time interaction.

So, if any of you are missing me and wishing to keep in better touch with me, drop me a note or something and we can sort things out to start pinging emails back and forth or whatnot. I am not leaving the internets forever, but I'm forced to accept that I will no longer be frequenting them, at least in real time chat form, nearly as much as I used to.

All is still going well for me in Scotland. I had a wonderful holiday season with loved ones, am having a fantastic time all around, and am generally about as happy as I've ever been. I've also just acquired an Ibanez GSR200 electric bass in deep blue to start teaching myself. Very excited and happy. Photos of said bass will materialize on Flickr or something once we get some really good ones!

Hope you're all doing well. ^..^

I have arrived safely in Scotland and am in the care of my Zelandeth. I'm sure I'll have more to say later but for now I'm quite tired and am gonna go collapse. ^^ But I'm here, safe and sound.

It's been a good week, with many visits and lunches and dinners with good friends and family that I'm going to dearly miss until I see them again. Yesterday morning I got confirmation that the graduate college has cleared my final deposit, so now it -is- really official. I also sold off RedShift yesterday, my much-beloved car. I'll miss it dearly, but it's gone to a good friend. And tomorrow I make the great journey across the pond to live in the UK for good.

Tomorrow I fly.

Tomorrow I soar.

It isn't -totally- official yet, one last tiny formatting issue to fix with the graduate college, but my committee has signed off on my revised dissertation and I have made final deposit. In short, I AM NOW A DOCTOR.

My doctoral defense yesterday was successful; I passed. I gave a 20-ish minute presentation summarizing the major points of my dissertation that I felt really good about, I think my delivery of the presentation felt as smooth and confident as any presentation I've ever given. After that the rest of the two hours was spent with me being grilled by my committee, having to answer some pretty hard questions about the choices I made and justifying the flaws and discrepancies in my research. It was harsh, but I made it through and passed.

So the next step now is that I've got some edits to make to my dissertation, probably about one or two weeks' worth. Once I've made these changes I can submit the paper to the University and at that point, once it's accepted, I'll be officially able to call myself a Doctor.

After the defense I had a really nice lunch with my adviser and my parents at a restaurant/bar in downtown Iowa City called the Airliner, before my parents and I made the drive back to Michigan.

So, I've got a bit of science to do yet before everything is totally wrapped up, but I'm clear on what I need to do, none of it is too big or unreasonable, and the biggest hurdle by far has been conquered.

Here's my victory music playlist, because music is very important in all of this:
"Victory" - Jack Wall, Mass Effect Soundtrack
"From the Wreckage" - Jack Wall, Mass Effect Soundtrack
"The End (Reprise)" - Jack Wall, Mass Effect Soundtrack
"The Final Reckoning" - Jack Wall, Mass Effect 2 Soundtrack
"Epilogue - Those Who Remain" - Kow Otani, Shadow of the Colossus Soundtrack
"Journey to Alba" - Fox Amoore
"Legacy of the Gods" - Jeremy and Julian Soule, Guild Wars: Eye of the North Soundtrack
"Secrets" - Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells III
"Far Above the Clouds" - Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells III
"The Pines of the Appian Way" - Ottorino Respighi, The Pines of Rome
"The Doctor Forever" - Murray Gold, Doctor Who Series 3 Soundtrack
"I Am The Doctor" - Murray Gold, Doctor Who Series 5 Soundtrack
"Sonic Rainboom (Instrumental)" - Daniel Ingram and William Anderson - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Soundtrack
"At The Gala (Instrumental)" - Daniel Ingram and William Anderson - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Soundtrack
"Test Drive" - John Powell, How to Train Your Dragon Soundtrack
"Coming Back Around" - John Powell, How to Train Your Dragon Soundtrack
"Bye and Stuff" - Nigel Godrich, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Original Score

My doctoral dissertation defense is Monday morning. I'm going to Iowa with my parents tomorrow to prepare. At this point I think it's mostly down to confidence and the strength of my research, but I won't say no to wishes of good luck as well!

On Saturday I mailed in my application for a UK visa. Today I got an email informing me that it has been approved.

I've just purchased one way plane tickets.

On 17 December I will be moving permanently to the UK.

This represents the culmination of at least six years of hard work and pretty much a lifelong dream coming true.

I am happy.

Weird but fun MLP-inspired dream last night. I was a pony in a community of ponies, but it was some kind of darker setting where we were a group of freedom fighters banded together against some antagonistic force or group that wished us harm. We lived in a large compound, either underground or a single massive building. Neat design to it, much wooden construction and candlelight, many large interior rooms spanning multiple levels with walkways and balconies and interwoven stairways.

While I appeared as a pony myself, my brain visualized pretty much all other characters as humans. Despite that being how I saw them, my brain steadfastly insisted that they were all ponies so I just kinda went 'whatevs.' Dreams are funny like that. I quit complaining when one of the other 'pony' characters appeared in the likeness of Nathan Fillion.

As part of the setting and atmosphere I guess, pretty much everypony including myself dressed in many layers of clothing, robes and cloaks and whatever other sorts of garments had been improvised. My awareness of the dream opened with me making my way through the compound to one of the larger chambers, where a sort of ceremony was taking place. I joined a line of ponies advancing to stand before our leader, one after another each removing some of our clothing to expose our flanks to reveal whether or not we'd been granted our cutie marks. I seemed to be suffering from a problem familiar to fans of the show, where despite getting deeper and deeper into adulthood in terms of my age, I had not yet acquired a cutie mark or found my special talent. Having this once more revealed before our leader and the population of our compound was, as one would expect, a continuing source of humiliation and distress for me.

Right then an alarm was raised, seeming to indicate an attack was imminent, so everypony broke from the ceremony and rushed off to prepare. Since I had no cutie mark and therefore no known special talent, I couldn't be trusted to do much in defense of our community. What if I failed at some critical task because it wasn't something I was good at? What if our compound fell because I was put in charge of something I couldn't do? It made sense in the dream anyway. And it compounded my feelings of self-doubt and uselessness in a setting where not having a cutie mark wasn't just about whether or not you knew your true self, but was essential to one's ability to contribute to our society when it was in need.

Staying deep in the compound during the attack, out of the way of harm or responsibility, I was left alone with my sorrow until the Nathan Fillion pony wandered by to watch over me. While I can't remember specifics of the conversation, he took me under his wing a bit and spoke with me, acting as a bit of a mentor and helping me feel better.

So, MLP fanboyism meets Nathan Fillion fanboyism. Cheers for that, brain!


Also just to update, since I did it last on LiveJournal but not here, I'm getting close to getting my Ph.D. I've submitted my dissertation to my committee to look it over and suggest edits, as well as making the first deposit with the University so they can check it for formatting. My defense is tentatively scheduled for November 28, and it should be shortly after that that I'll be making the final deposit and officially graduating.

As such I'm also starting to prepare my records and documents for submitting my application for a UK visa. Big stuff going down!

Hello there everyone! Two quick things.

Firstly, a squee. I've just finished and sent the first draft of my doctoral dissertation to my adviser! There are still a few months of work ahead while he looks it over and I make revisions, but it still is a pretty satisfying milestone. I'm getting close.

Secondly, I've been pondering the idea of starting to post artwork that I've commissioned from other artists in my scraps. Historically I've preferred to keep my gallery here as only being my own stuff, but I figure if I post things I've commissioned from others it'll be a fun way to help more people see it and for those artists to get some extra recognition they all deserve. I intend to make it very very clear on each one I post that it is not my own work, and provide full credit and links to the artist's FA gallery and original submission if available. If there are any objections from the artist in question though I'll be happy and quick to take stuff back down.

So watch this space for commissioned artwork by other people. I'll be posting them probably in no particular order. It's the least I can do for you all, having not been doing much drawing of my own lately!

I have successfully moved out. My parents arrived yesterday and we headed out to pick up a Uhaul trailer. About ten minutes down the road we experienced a small 'adventure in moving' as they advertise, in the form of the trailer bouncing off the hitch and fishtailing like mad as we dragged it by only the safety chains to a careful stop on the side of the road. Apparently the person helping us hook up the trailer had neglected to tighten it properly. So, we spent a couple hours waiting around while a maintenance fellow arrived and did some work to replace the trailer wire that had broken, reset the trailer's emergency brakes and sort out the coupling. With that fixed and hooked back up we made it back to my apartment in time to get my futon and dining set dropped off at the consignment store before they closed, and then spent today ferrying the remaining contents of all my worldly possessions down from my apartment into the trailer. I turned in my keys, had a nice dinner out with my parents and bade farewell to Iowa City. Tomorrow morning we'll make the drive back to Michigan. I'll see Iowa City once more probably when I come back for a couple days to defend my thesis, probably a month or two from now, but I'm done living here.

In all honesty, it's been a really great place to live. Say what you will about the land of corn, but I've found the people here to be friendly and mellow, and Iowa City itself to be a very livable mix of big enough to have a lot of culture and amenities, without being so big that everybody's rushed and stressed and rude and out to kill you or something. Graduate school stress aside, it's been very good to me, and a very worthy place to live that I will remember fondly. I made a home here for six years, mostly all on my own. And I managed pretty well at it.

In a week and a half I'll be moving out of Iowa. My parents will visit for a couple days and we'll be renting a trailer and taking my worldly possessions back to Michigan where I'll stay with them for a few months, while I finish up the last of my dissertation by remote before making the ultimate move to the UK.

So for now, I'm starting to pack and sort. I'm going through all the material possessions I've got here and packing away those things I want to keep, while selling or donating or throwing away everything I don't need. Since I'll be moving overseas before too long I have to be pretty ruthless about it. There are a lot of really neat dragon coffee table artwork and reference books that I've gotten as gifts from loved ones through the years, a lot of movies I've collected, a lot of dragon statues and miniatures, a lot of fantasy novels, old video games and consoles, and a lot of assorted other housewares that I'm forcing myself to part with, only keeping what's most important or meaningful to me.

My first trip to the consignment store a couple days ago went well, they took nearly everything and priced it in ways that seem very respectful, so it'll be nice to at least make some money from some of it and give somebody else the chance to enjoy the things that have served me well. It is, of course, a rather bittersweet process. Choosing to part with so many things that constitute the life I've made for myself here the past six years is hard. But it feels good in ways, too. Simplifying, getting rid of a lot of the material stuff that we all say we know isn't the most important stuff in life but get pretty attached to anyway. Weight reduction. Knowing what I've got to look forward to. Shedding the old scales and feathers while knowing that new ones, brighter than ever before, are going to be growing in soon.

Happy Independence Day everyone.

Just a quick update on where my life is at just now, for those I don't speak with as often.

I'm still living in Iowa and working toward finishing up my doctoral dissertation, but things are getting pretty close to finished now. I'm working on the final chapter and have a clear direction on what's needed to do that, so I should be graduating sometime during the Fall. This coming July my lease expires so I'll be moving out of Iowa and back in with my parents in Michigan for a few months while I finish up the PhD by remote.

For the friends I've made up in the Minneapolis area, I'm planning to visit up there June 25 and attend the meet that weekend, but that will be the last time I'll be visiting the area for the foreseeable future. I've made good friends up there and will miss you all, but I will of course continue to exist on the internet.

Once my dissertation is all finished up and I've graduated sometime this Fall, the next phase of my life plan will get underway. This will involve applying for a visa and, once approved, moving overseas to the United Kingdom to live there permanently. It's been a long time coming but things are finally getting close.

It has been my observation thus far that the only outright negative reactions I've encountered to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic have come exclusively from people who, for one reason or another, haven't bothered to actually watch the show at all. Among people who have taken the time to watch it the most negative reaction I've encountered has simply been to the effect of, "Okay, it's not really my thing but it's a lot better than I was expecting and I can see why people like it."

I've got no issue at all with people giving something a try and deciding it's not for them. That's fine, that's normal, that's part of the beautiful diversity that makes up the experience of life. But the people who feel the need to get particularly vocal about their distaste for something without or before having actually seen it themselves, be it the new My Little Pony Show or Avatar or Twilight, grate on me considerably. What it really seems to boil down to isn't even a dislike for the actual thing most of the time, but rather 'I'm tired of hearing about this new thing that's popular and well-liked, how dare so many people around me actually find enjoyment in something and want to celebrate that enjoyment. I think I'll decide to hate it and insult it just to be contrary.'

So if we take a step back and analyze this train of thought for a moment, people are effectively deciding to be crankypants about something solely because other people -like- it. Maybe even because their close friends like it. I bet that's doing wonders for those friendships, in that special way that having people you care about insult things you love always does.

People love to be armchair cynics, to sit back and complain about something they have no intention of actually doing anything about, or have no firsthand experience with to really be entitled to a particularly strong opinion on. It's a cheap and easy way to make oneself feel superior and clever without actually having to do anything, or take the risk of standing up for something that somebody else might come along and bash on. But it is also shallow, immature, and needlessly alienating to everyone around in the long term. Maybe it's a quick thrill to sit around and insult something to watch its fans get upset, but as people mature they tend to, startlingly, prefer to be around people who are capable of taking enjoyment in life rather than people with persistent stormclouds over their heads. Bear this in mind, it will be on the test.

It may be tempting to read this entry and immediately think, 'well I don't like X because of Y reason.' If Y is something you have decided or confirmed for yourself by firsthand exposure to X to a significant enough degree that you can reasonably reflect on it and form Y as truly being your own thoughts, then congratulations, you have performed Thinking and formed a Valid Opinion. Go celebrate with your favorite variety of cookie.

If, on the other hand, Y is simply something you are parroting from having read or heard somewhere without confirming for yourself, and/or you haven't spent enough/any time investigating X to really grasp what it's referring to, then at best you are making a huge leap and assuming things without any verification or any real thought on your part. In doing so you are insulting the miraculously capable brain you presumably have nestled between your ears by ignoring its capabilities, and you are potentially spreading a practice of misinformation and uninformed thinking that reaches as far as influencing the politics of nations and doing harm to the long term welfare of the human species and our planet as a whole. Knock it off.

This began as a brief observation about MLP: FiM specifically and I got all soapboxy about a related pet peeve, apologies. I believe I make valid points though. Just some things to consider.

Bonus thing to consider: When you have valid negative opinion about something, there is a very big difference between these two things:
A) "I don't care for X."
B) "X sucks."
A is how to correctly state a personal opinion. B is how to misrepresent a personal opinion as a solid fact, carries with it the subtext that anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong and an idiot. As such, it is a very effective way to unintentionally insult all of your friends who might feel differently than you. Knock it off.

 Starseekerdragoness reposted this journal and I felt it was worth passing along.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2200673/

It's a brief list of excuses people make to talk themselves out of doing art, and why they're silly excuses that you should fight your way out from under.

To add my own two cents:

I don't like it when I hear people convincing themselves they can't do art to where they won't even try. And it makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable when I hear people tell me things like 'I could never draw as well as X.' Get this thinking out of your head. Comparing yourself that way is just going to sabotage your efforts, and even if you DID actually meet that goal you would then be just... doing somebody else's art instead of your own. Do art for yourself, on your own terms. Make it something special and creative to you, not because you're being controlled by what you think other people think.

For my own part I will happily admit I'm just an amateur (which for the record doesn't mean you suck, it just means you do something out of love rather than profession) and there are scores of 'better' artists out there when it comes to ability and refinement and various other measures, if we're going to insist on applying measures to art at all. What I do still fulfills me and makes me happy because I really love doing it and it's a deeply personal creative process to me. When I see 'better' art it just inspires me more. I draw what I do now because of two things; practice and observation. I started with cruddy stick figures when I was a kid because I had images in my head that I wanted to visualize better. I look at other art and the real world to try and notice how things really look, and I practice when I spot something in my own art that I'd like to do better. It's actually a pretty simple formula, I've just been doing it for decades. That's it.

Now get out there and art. ^..^

Stolen from  Prannon and  Dreedragon and  Kurradragon all at once! 'Cause I'm evil like that. And they're all awesome so if they're doing it it must be worth doing.

Four jobs I've had:
-Landscape Entomology laboratory assistant
-Department of Environemntal Quality Water Use Reporting intern
-Population Geography teaching assistant
-I lied, I've only had three jobs.

Four movies I can watch over and over:
-How to Train your Dragon
-Aliens
-Avatar
-Contact

Four places I've lived:
-Michigan
-Iowa
-I lied, I've only lived two places.
-Though Scotland and/or England may be applicable by the end of the year.

Four TV shows I love:
-Top Gear
-Star Trek: Any of Them
-My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
-Doctor Who

Four places I've vacationed:
-Continental Europe
-Kenya
-The Caribbean
-Hawaii

Four of my favorite dishes:
-Deep-dish Chicago style pizza
-Chili dogs
-Seafood
-Very nearly anything else

Four sites I visit daily:
-FA
-dA
-LJ
-My email

Four things I like to do in my spare time:
-Cuddle with awesome people
-Drive
-Draw
-Keep up to date with the above mentioned websites

I've mostly said this elsewhere, but I just wanted to reiterate it here. The pawboot design project I've been posting the last couple weeks has been a tremendous amount of fun, thanks in no small part to the very warm and positive response it's received from so many of you. When I started it I wasn't sure if it was just a silly thing that only me and two or three other people would care about at all, but the amount of comments and favorites and watches it's brought has totally blown me away. :) I had no idea there would be so many out there who'd find the same enjoyment in paw attire design that I did!

It's been a lot of fun just doing it for myself with how into the project I got while doing it, and having such an overwhelmingly positive reaction felt really validating. Starting a small business for pawboot design and sales would feel like an ideal career path for me now if only we lived in a world of furries and dragons and whatnot. And one of the most flattering things is that two or three people have liked some of the designs so much that they've adopted them for their own fursonas, which means I already know there would be a customer base! ;) Even so, just seeing something I had a part in making feature in other people's art that way feels pretty awesome.

In conclusion; you're all fantastic, and thank you all so much for your interest and the warm response! Keep being awesome.

I had a blast. It was my second con ever, the first being MFF 2009. The new hotel was very impressive and nice, the whole space felt really great for the con. I attended a lot of really neat panels that left me with many neat things to think about and some new friends, especially several spirituality-related panels. Kage and 2 playing off each other made me laugh until I cried several times, so normal stuff there. I bought a lot of spiffy new art also. Just one custom commission; a sketch badge I commissioned from Rukis that I'm delighted with. Also got several prints from Rukis, Stephanie Lynn, and Nambroth, who are all among my favorite artists.

Seeing the pet rescue charity representatives cry and be totally blown away when they find out how much money we raised for them was awesome. I always love that part.

Post con depression has hit in a few waves here and there. Had a bit of a weep into my pint and chili at the hotel bar after the closing ceremonies. It's always hard for me, the part where it ends and we all go our seperate ways into the rain, hiding the ears and tails and pretending to be 'normal' people again, back out into a world where you can't just look down any hallway and get random fursuit hugs. Still though, more of it is just emotion overall than sadness specifically. I get into this stuff.

The arts I bought prints of:
Detox by Rukis http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4048714/
Panel from Cruelty by Rukis http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4347445/
Follow by Nambroth http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1469140/
Metal art card of Istaria Loading Screen by Nambroth http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1515676/
Big Bite by stephanie Lynn http://stephanielynn.deviantart.com.....Bite-174147195

I'll be there. :) Not much else to say beyond that! Don't think I'm known by all that many people anyway. but last year's MFF was my first furcon ever, I had a fantastic time, so I'm very much looking forward to it this year. As with last year I'll be the friendly but shy dragon wandering around in rave pants and blue wings and tail. See ya there!

This is a political reflection made from the perspective of a somewhat liberal scientist who believes in equality and rational thinking. I don't do this often, but apologies all the same.

In 2009 the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a ban on same-sex marriage was in violation of the state Constitution's promise of equal treatment under the law. The same decision most courts have made whenever the issue has been brought to them, based on rational interpretation of the laws our country was founded on. Yesterday these judges were ousted by popular vote, thanks in no small part to the millions of dollars spent by the ironically-named National Organization for Marriage on a campaign to smear them as biased, liberal 'activist judges' as opposed to people, you know, just doing their actual job.

I consider NOM's name ironic because the Organization exists essentially for the sole purpose of funneling large amounts of money from conservative religious groups into political campaigns at all levels of government, with the intent to manipulate and frighten people into -banning- same sex marriage. Which seems rather more against marriage than for it, to my thinking. Their tactics, like every argument against marriage equality I've ever encountered in my time, are based entirely on hyperbole, emotional manipulation, fear, and outright lies that never hold up to any attempt at rational justification.

The retention or dismissal of the Iowa Supreme Court judges was a local issue of importance to me, so seeing fear and bigotry win out over equality and reason and once more shove our backward little country a bit further into a shameful past of outdated thinking was a major disappointment. The other elections weren't much better for one with my leanings. We've spent the last two years watching the Obama administration try as hard as possible to make positive changes and be blocked at every turn by the Republicans. Despite the way it gets spun, I believe quite a lot of good was achieved. But the majority of the voting masses have been successfully convinced that all our woes are the fault of the current administration, rather than being inherited from the one before it, and so we see the balance of power shift again. It's just the way things go back and forth in the system we have, but I can't help feeling a bit like Obama's presidency is effectively over and the best chance we had to make progressive changes to our country is ended. At best, the Republican-controlled House will block any further moves from being made to bring the US into the 21st century. At worst they'll manage to undo what's been done and in a couple years time we'll be back to a country where the medical insurance industry is free to decide who they feel like offering coverage to, and the banks and global corporations are free to gamble with our investments and economic stability as they see fit to line their own pockets.

And we'll somehow be certain that everything's been Obama's fault, too. Because apparently the majority of us are just that easy to convince.

Reposted link from :userNoben:'s journal:

http://aristotleslighthouse.blogspo.....yranny-of.html

It's a somewhat long but very well-written blog post about the arguments made against gay marriage, that goes through and looks at all the reasoning and tactics that get used. I think it does a fantastic job at really dissecting the issues and exposing the entire argument against gay marriage as being riddled with fallacies and misinformation. When you really look at the issue, it's all down to emotion and fear with really no valid arguments that can really be made against allowing gays to marry. Good read.

A few years ago now, a special person in my life named Azakir and I had this idea for a fun sort of artistic collaboration. I tend to mostly draw stuff, while he's more of a writer. I've done drawings for him on a number of occasions, both by request for projects of his in the filk community and more generally just because he's awesome.

Anyway, he had this idea where we could combine our talents. I would draw a picture of a character, give him an image and a name, and he's see where his creative energies took him based off that. Give the character some background and a short story or something.

Or so I thought.

The image in question that I drew back in February 2007 is here, Idrin Starpaw: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1906173/.

The idea digested for a little while and in January 2009 Azakir came back with his half of the fun. Rather than writing a short story or something like I'd been expecting, he came at me with a beautifully printed and bound 91-page encyclopedia detailing the geography, history and culture of Idrin's entire world. Within the pages it detailed not just any old world but a world with a rich and tragic history where a global project meant to make life easier had unforseen consequences, leaving much of the world uninhabitable and many of the ecosystems collapsed. The dragons remaining led desperate lives without much hope for the future. It was incredibly rich and amazing and deep.

Thing is, Azakir enjoys surprising me and shaking up my world. Turns out, that was -not- his half of the fun, that was just a prelude to the real thing. Which is what he gave me a few weeks ago: a full-length NOVEL taking place in this amazing world he created. I've just finished reading it and it completely blew me away. He is an amazing writer, and the knowledge that he did this all for me and it all started from a single drawing I did leaves me full of astonishment and wonder. It's one of the most precious gifts anyone has ever given me.

Now that I'm done reading it, the extra happy news is that he's posting it to his dA account here:

http://my.deviantart.com/messages/#/d2rz1n5

Beyond a Charmbound Sky is a fantastic story with brilliant characters like all his work, and it's a thing of deep importance to me. I encourage you to go check it out!

Often I see people post things in their gallery that others have done, commissions and gifts they've received of their character. Since I draw my own stuff I don't like to do this myself, because I want to avoid confusion. If it's in my main gallery, that means it's my work. Putting other people's stuff in there would lead to confusion I feel, and I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to take credit for their work.

So here's a compromise! I've gotten quite a lot of really really fantastic art over the years, both things I've commissioned and things that friends did for me just out of being awesome. Below are links to all of them that I'm aware of being posted online, either on FA or DA. Have a look! Maybe discover some new artists! They're all fantastic and they're all work safe, 'cause that's how I roll.

Eggie Icon by Tojo the Thief
Another case of 'oh my goodness that's adorable, I must have one.'
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4634264

Iron artist sketch, by Ryoken
An inexpensive sketch commission from one of my favorite artists that was worth every penny and then some. I love the angle he went with here.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4231436

Doran Headshot, by Sedrin
Gift art of Doreyface by my good friend Sedrin.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4176381

For Doran by Prannon
Random gift art that was incredibly sweet and wonderful. I look so happy!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3811787/

Paw Charm by Icono
I thought these were adorable and couldn't resist getting one for myself!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3522608

Doran and Zelandeth by Ryoken
Us being cute and cuddly. Really delighted with how this one came out, I've loved Ryoken's work for years so this was a real treat.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3415177

Faceplant icon by Ryoken
Sometimes the small, cute, and inexpensive commissions are the best. They act as good 'gateway' commissions too I think. I love how this came out, and I've always loved Ryoken's artwork, so it all makes me more likely to commission something bigger from him in the future. (See above)
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3146617/

Little Toy Cars by Duo Radon
A commission by my friend Nauta. My presence in it was a delightful surprise!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3129622/

Doran by Amoryllis
Commissioned at MFF 2009
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3125178/

Pipey Doran by Floppybelly
Commissioned at MFF 2009. Her pipe cleaner sculptures were too cute and brilliant to resist.
http://floppybelly.deviantart.com/a.....ipey-144734966

Doran art coin by FlyingFire
Commissioned leading up to MFF 2009.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2972072/

Doran going 'grah' about homework by SilkVixen
A happy surprise gift from a good friend.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2914836/

Doran posing as an Audi R8 by Kurra
This was a happy surprise too! And a really cool idea I thought, with my pose and expression suggestive of my favorite supercar.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2138389/

Doran licky icon by Snapai
For all your monitor-cleaning and cuteness-poisoning needs!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2535381/

Doran's dragon family sculptures by FelineFlames
Miniature sculptures I commissioned of my very special dragons.
http://felineflames.deviantart.com/.....ssion-96245046

Road Trip by FelineFlames
A fun sketch by a friend, featuring myself as well as a bunch of other, possibly even more insane dragons. It's a random mental image she got of all of us taking a road trip. I have no idea how they convinced me to drive!
http://felineflames.deviantart.com/.....-Trip-52530735

Doran's costume paws by Bladespark
http://bladespark.deviantart.com/ar.....freet-43941063

Custom Doran windstone paint job by Bladespark
The sculpture itself is by Windstone, but the paint job is Spark's work. This was a surprise Christmas gift that totally blew me away. She really does beautiful work!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/313477/
http://bladespark.deviantart.com/ar.....Eirok-44426365

Doran by Sebychu
Requested by my friend Amber as a birthday gift some years back. I really love how both the scales and floof turned out! It makes me look all awesome and mystical and stuff too I think.
http://sebychu.deviantart.com/art/P.....fluff-25048512

Doran by Bladespark
Part of an art trade from years ago.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1937771/

Doran by Chrysandine
Surprise gift from years back.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/997667/
http://chrysandine.deviantart.com/a.....Doran-32661887

Doran by SlushPuppy
I'm the one on the left. Gift art from years back.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/634320/

Okay so... this will probably sound like a rather ridiculous thing to ask but here goes.

To date, pretty much all the art I've done since I first got my tablet has been done in OpenCanvas 1.1. It's worked pretty well for me so far, and I got started using it pretty much because it was free and what somebody tossed my way first. It is also true that as a program it's poorly translated, kind of strange, and just a little bit dodgy (the way rats are a little bit covered in fur).

(Part of this dodginess comes from my experiences trying to get my laptop running Vista to work with my tablet. It spent a couple hours downloading drivers, which then ended up being all the software necessary to make my laptop think that it was a complete tablet PC. o..o All manner of nonsense I did not need, and after all this the tablet wouldn't work with OpenCanvas on there. So basically when I move and stop using my desktop in about a year's time.... that's it, I can't do any more drawing the rest of my life! Or um, I could adapt a bit I guess.)

SO ANYWAY! The point. I'm wanting to at least start some casual research into what other options are out there. For those of you who do your art by computer using a tablet, what software do you use and why?

Obviously I have a preference toward the free side of things, and failing that the 'not hundreds and hundreds of dollars' side of things. The tablet I use is a Wacom Graphire 2, which I really would hope makes no difference since it's a tablet and it works perfectly well and I don't wanna have to get a new one of those too.