Surprise change of plans, trying to go to Tails and Tornadoes this year, our friend Jomack gently pushing us in that direction, we'll spend a day or so bopping around Oklahoma City with J and then go to the con the next day.

This year's theme at Tails and Tornadoes is Ren Fest. Since I've already got the material together, I submitted a panel on demonology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. We'll see how this goes. We're flying there, so I can't take too many books with me...

I've been working on a new podcast project, "The Dispatch.ist," http://www.dispatch.ist/ a friendly conversation about hell...its mythology and pop culture, not so much why you might be going there. If you are, though, I'll probably beat you there, so that's probably okay.

Because I'm a sucker for chaos and ironic smirks, I ended up with a weird crush on Buer, 10th demon of the Goetia. He's a doctor and a president, so...I could do worse. Anyway, I don't know. It's all those legs. Anyway. I commissioned a piece of Rule 34 of him, but really got stumped on what that would even look like. I mean, he's a lion head with five goat legs. Yes, he's got a career, but could there be a physical side to the relationship?

I actually got a small statue of him, but it doesn't really answer any questions. Basically if you made a pinwheel out of goat legs, took the front 8-12 inches of a lion (nose up to ears, get the mane too), and then the BACK 8-10 inches, not counting the tail...so haunches, butt crack, and tail...and then made a sandwich...Actually given cat layout, I guess that DOES answer questions. Maybe I shouldn't worry about these things.

Buer art collection: http://www.dispatch.ist/buer-art/

(someone pointed out that I hadn't said anything here in like two years, so I felt like I should rectify that.)

I really don't know what to make of 2016! It's been a very all over the place year. I can't hate it, because it's been positive in places. I want to hate it, because I'm a liberal gay sane person and this has not been a good year for liberal gay sane people.

Lessee...2015 was pretty awful. I lost my job in March, got a job in August, lost it in December. Spent three months unemployed again.

In December, I was diagnosed with ADHD, at a "moderate" level. What that meant--according to my neurologist, I was operating at about 50% of my mental ability, and had been for decades. The side effects of this are pretty serious--depression, subconsciously writing off chunks of job, probably why I wasn't able to get a doctorate, some unknown percentage of the huge amount of bullying I had in school...who knows, and the longer you go without getting it treated or diagnosed, the more it messes with you on levels (and I'm 40!)

The medications have helped a LOT. I can accomplish all kinds of stuff now. *snicker* I can almost see how Amadhia does all the stuff she does now that I'm operating on 3.5 of four cylinders, or however many cylinders I'm supposed to have. It's great, as long as I remember to take it, which is a bit of a self-fulfilling thing.

Got a part-time job in March, paying $17/hour, but for 19 hours a week. Not really survivable. Transferred to a similar full-time job, which pays a little over $15 an hour...it's not TERRIBLE money, it's above minimum wage, but a bit low for someone at my age, experience, education, etc. I'm living, the department's really sweet and I very much feel like a member of the team, which I haven't felt like since 2008 or so.

Boss is also newly diagnosed as ADHD, so we can bond over that. If we remember to. She's a little sharper-edged than I am and MUCH more deadpan, but like her a bunch. She's also okay with furries, broadly speaking. So that's good, if it happened to be an issue :)

It's nice to work near Whines again.

Started a new project, the Radio Free Deimos podcast, which I just got on ITunes. I'm really pleased with this little accomplshment. Fleshing out the website to be a nice place for fan-created content for the Hc Svnt Dracones furry RPG.

Learning a BUNCH about Wordpress and audio software, yay!

I'm having a bit of a hard time juggling projects. I'm months behind on my Furry Fiesta blog...but I'm also feeling kind of like I'm not part of that team. My work's very "an island on its own," but...well, since I'm doing the official photo blog of the con, It'd be nice to, oh, get a link off the con page! There's a lot of other stuff, a lot of it me just being pointlessly bitchy, but I've been asking and asking to be put on a team and nobody seems to hear me. Grump. I know I'm being bitchy and ragey, but...I'm not sure what to do about that.

Random things...I really need more money. All teh webstuff I'm doing is a tiny financial drain, but it's there. I'm in debt and it's hard to get out. Basically I've got enough to either make forward progress on debt OR be a creative person and cater to my hobbies and interests, but not both.

I'd like to be in a polycule again, that was nice when it happened. But it's hard to manage it with a pretty crowded life, the big age difference between me and most of the fandom, and the lower level of community involvement I've been doing hasn't helped. We'll see, maybe 2017 will go somewhere fun in that direction.

I'm going to try to get into a graduate program...OR get into a career track job in academic advising. One of the two. I don't know which, they're kind of the same basic idea for me at this point. I really think I'd do a bang-up job in academic advising, it's kind of the priesty-counselly thing I've always thought I'd be good at, in an academic context. Looks like a neat field, and I've been on the edge of it dipping my toes in for the last 9 months or so.

So...I really hated 2015, it was horrible. 2016 has been steadily good, and getting better. The nasty pall of the election is hovering over it, but in some ways that's a "next year" problem, I'm going to do my best to look at 2016 as the year that my life changed, the year I was able to claim my entire brain again (it's a good brain! Does all sorts of tricks!)

So I've signed up for two panels at Havencon - the Meet and Greet for furries, and the After Dark meet and greet too. Last year these two events seem to be on the schedule but without a lot of supervision - so the adult meetup with like 50 people was scheduled in a conference room about the size of an apartment bedroom. After a little bit of arguing with the staff we got it moved to the auditorium, where I tried to improvise some programmming. It was okay.

This year I'm going to pack that fucker with improv games, silly read-alouds, and other fun stuff. It should be good. Ideas are welcome - I think I'll be working with Buddy Bunny on it a bit.

This one just screamed..."build me."

"http://www.austinfurs.com"

A reasonably one-stop collection of Austin resources, artists, community stuff, etc. to help newbies find their way into the fandom in a reasonably unbiased and friendly manner.

Haven from Havencon was VERY supportive, and gave us a 15% discount code - use the code "AustinFurs"--"https://register.growtix.com/e/havencon_3?aa=austi286" that kicks back a nice little 2% cash-back to help cover site costs and newbie events. Very sweet of him!

Here's more information - please recirculate this!

"http://www.austinfurs.com/austinfurs-blog/havencon-support/"

Well then! I'm starting a full time job in a week or so :) Doing degree audits and optimizing student character sheets for the University. I've been doing the same work for a nice team in Natural Sciences for a while now, this is a bit of an upgrade!

In the meantime, I'm really trying to cut down on projects. I promise.

So I'm trying to start a podcast. *laughs* Whines, Ashtaar and I recorded the first episode of Radio Free Deimos, a podcast focusing on the newish "Hc Svnt Dracones" sci-fi furry RPG. It was a pretty positive experience, though I'm alarmed at how many "ums" I dropped. I try to lead an um-free life, but if I get the tiniest bit nervous. Oi.

Of course, still working with Furry Fiesta stuff at Furry Flashback. I took a month off from that project (and nearly broke the site with unprocessed updates). Working on getting back on that particular horse.

Recently completed stage one of the website for IARP, the furry psych research team! I'm happy to have finally found a way to help and join the team in some small way :) It's currently at iarp.us but will move to furryresearch.org once some transfers go through.

I'm still wanting to find time to work on my art website, tamonnataoa.org, and I think once I can get to work and take a standardized lunch break I can start doing a post a day or so there. We'll see, it's hard to find time--or remember that it exists :)

Well, I had a wonderful time at TFF. There were some hiccups, but none with the con.

Had a chance to touch base with [icon:buckyboy], an artist from when I first joined the fandom, that was nice :) and herded a crowd of 600 or so people during closing ceremonies, got to play carnival barker during the circus to drag a few more people in there. I'll flatter myself by saying it really helped, who could tell though.

As always, TFF is a weird time for my relationship with Whines, we're both staff now and it's hard to find time for connections.

My staff position has very few boundaries, and I have, perhaps, a bad habit of ignoring OTHER people's boundaries, so I have a lot of lingering "oh, I did this wrong..." feelings through the weekend of plowing through people's silos, not doing the right thing in the right circumstance, not hearing a person's words perfectly or applying my own values to someone else's hurt feelings. In this fandom, being an extrovert is a LOT like being a macro, it's so easy to stomp on something. And the circumstances of the convention (everybody frantically busy) makes it hard for me to get the kind of feedback I need to function well. If a thing isn't being done, I'm happy to do it, but when you're going outside the lines like that, it's hard to know if you've done the right thing :(

Lots of nice sketchbook commissions, lots of nice moments.

Where are you staying?
Third floor hotel room! I don't know how Whines swung that...black magic...

What day are you getting there?
I think we'll be getting there Thursday mornafternoon to help with setup!

Who will you be rooming with?
Whines, Cosmos, Axle, one other?

Who will you hang out with during the convention?
Oh jeez...nobody! *laughs* I'm staff and my job is to be in every place at once and talk about how wonderful it was later. But if I'm anywhere, it'll probably be at Kempi's.

How can I find you?
I think I'll be wearing flannel shirts and an over-the-shoulder messenger bag. But you can always leave a message for me with Kempi's staff.

Are there any panels you might be attending?
I love the psych panel and try to make it every year. I'm also running a few panels, "do you remember 2009?" and "...2010?", and "So you want to be staff?"

Are you attending any stage or public performances?
At least a bit of all of them! But I'm hoping to catch the jazz show on Friday, Amadhia's been sending me teasers and it looks great, a little electroswing inspired. I'll also be DJing the Brony Dance Party in my sloppy way.

Will you be suiting?
Nope!

Do you draw?
Nope!

How old are you?
I'll just say 40, it's statistically quite close to accurate.

Can I talk to you?
Catch me first, but sure!

Can I touch you?
Maybe? I don't really like being cozy with people I haven't met though. I guess this question is targeted at fursuiters.

Can I visit your room?
Probably not!

Can I buy you drinks?
Sure, diet coke please :)

Can I give you stuff?
Uh...probably?

Can I hug or snuggle with you?
If I know you, hug yes, snuggle...I don't know about that. Otherwise, hug maybe.

What’s your goal for the con this year?
Magically attend every event. Meet photographers in advance so I don't have to track them down later.

Are you nice?
Depends. I'm friendly, but I'm an adult and have just run out of energy for dealing with deep weird.

How long are you going?
Thursday through Monday

If I see you, how should I get your attention?
Say hi!

Where will you be most of the time during the days?
Simultaneously in every panel and event room, through the power of science

What/where will you be eating?
You know, I've never gone for the idea of eating at an upscale chain at the con, life's expensive enough! I usually end up at Pancake House and big burrito place every day. Sometimes Jason's Deli.

Can I come with you for food/fun etc?
I usually use lunch and dinner as quiet time, so honestly, unless you're the sort of friend I have long conversations with, probably not? Breakfast, sure. I love shared breakfasts.

Can I take your picture?
Sure! But if you do, please consider sending all your TFF pictures to me so I can make them part of Fiesta's website photo collection!

Erg, spent WAY too much time venting about a very few people that shouldn't be in any fandom, ever. It always keeps me awake half the night when that happens :( stupid, pointless stress.

Furries: If you don't like someone, don't interact with them at all. In exactly the same way that a cat comes back over and over again for food, if you show kindness and charity and tolerance to a complete asshole, he's going to come back. If he has very few friends period, than even "yeah, sorry, I've got something else to do, maybe next time okay? :)" creates a window, because assholes really don't take hints.

I love this fandom, but the inclusion, one of its greatest strengths, creates vulnerabilities :( But I need to stop ranting about this stuff, it just makes me unhappy.

Last month has been a bit of a trial, I lost my job again...bummer, but I was prepared for it emotionally. I just kept screwing up and never getting the processes down.

I thought that I was likely dyslexic--it's possible to overlook that, if you're sharp with words and such. So I went to the neurologist. He suggests that I'm ADHD, which, well, join the club, it's called the Internet :) But I still need to learn to cope with it.

I'm having a hard time with this job search because I've lost two jobs in a year, and it's really shaking my self-confidence! Hoping to land something in a writing role, but I'm still just chronically unsure of self right now. WE'll see what's next, I'm not overly concerned right this moment, but panic should start to set in by the end of January...

While we were in Minnesota a few weeks ago, I got a book with nice, high-end ice cream recipes. Really pretty stuff. I'll skip the "human breast milk" ice cream, I'm all in favor of expensive ingredients but that's a bit too much :)

Anyway, I've been playing around with recipes and a nice little ice cream maker. Week one was white chocolate with a few shots of Bailey's. Round two was pistachio ice cream. Both were rich to the point where a small scoop was a pretty good serving. Tomorrow's is Horchata, I think it'll be a little bit milder than the others, less overwhelming.

After that, who knows! I think banana for certain, I don't know what else...coffee probably...

Here's my latest project:

 TFFlashback

The photoblog magazine for Texas Furry Fiesta. It's going to be its own website (go Wordpress Furs), but I'm using FA as a staging ground, conversation point, and way to track down photographers...

And landed a job within my old college system :)

Looking at three oppos currently for work.

The first one, development/fundraising staff for a local Seminary. I really love religion, though I'm not particularly religious, it's still a major hashtag in my life. I had a callback for a second interview, they said that ...

ARGH The lame-ass museum my mom works for has pushed out a banner ad to me on FurAffinity. ARGH. Go away!! Stay out of my happy place, bad side of life!

Ahem. Sorry, that was startling and irritating. Real-time journaling, right here.

Anyway, they said that it might take a few weeks to wrap up the interviews. So we're still on schedule, but it's hard having that floating out there.

#2, a presumably low-paying job at Goodwill, working with their online auctions. I'm UNUSUALLY EXPERIENCED in writing about thrift store items online. Like I've been doing it for seven years. so...maybe? It'd be nice to work at a thrift store that I really love, and for a good social services organization. But I can't imagine the pay is good. Still, it'd be a low-key sort of job, which maybe that's fine for now.

#3, I'm interviewing tomorrow for a job with the local holistic wellness/community pharmacy for a PR/social media thang. I don't think I have a strong shot at it because they'll likely get a LOT of applicants and I'm not super-qualified for a writing/PR gig--I've been doing datas so long that I almost need an entry level job to get into writing for realsies. But...we'll see.

I've been working pretty srsly on a new blog, the thrift store blog
http://www.thrifthorror.com
that I've been doing on and off for about seven years has really lost its charm--Facebook throttled the amount of people who saw my posts through that portal, and without that--and any sort of back-and-forth between readers and writer--many fewer hits and no feedback at all. The site never really caught on anyway.

So I'm retooling it as a strange parody of an art museum, making it a more specifically Austin site, hopefully getting in on some keyword action, and generally upping the class level by a good 100%. The writing's harder but more engaging--it's more storytelling and less snark, since I'm building the conceit of the parody art museum. I'm also going to see if maaaybe I can actually swing an IRL showing of "art" since I have a lot of physical art already. We'll see.

The new site, which is very work in progress, is at:
http://www.tamonnataoa.org

Well, this particular downcycle started April 22, wherein I lost my job--either downsized or fired, I don't really know which, but I'll be putting "downsized" on my job applications, thanks.

Partly, I think the new VP of my department didn't like me at all. I'm a guy, and a fairly strident person at times, and maybe that was threatening. I also told her she was wrong a few times (she was, stupidly wrong, "let's fuck up everything I do" wrong, but maybe I shouldn't have said that.) She didn't talk to me unless she could avoid it, and habitually thanked everyone on the team except me for our good work.

The job had turned from 70%/30% data entry/creative and brain-engaged to like 95% data entry, mostly under new VP's leadership, and I had also told my direct supervisor that, frankly, I was too old for a data entry job, and in an ideal world the role would go back to more problem-solving stuff (I didn't say that exactly, it was more "direction of the role in the future," and the problems I had had been discussed before.) I don't think this was a bad conversation to have, her response was "well, that's nice, I sympathize, thanks for telling me, not gonna happen."

so when I lost the job, the VP said "poor work performance," my supervisor said "position eliminated." I don't know what to believe, but since I never received any notice that I was doing something fireable, I'm going with the latter--they wanted a pure data entry person at $12 an hour, not a professional. Anyway, that's what I'm telling myself. There's evidence for it.

One of my colleagues said "oh, you should use this time to relax!" so I took a morning off job-searching to have breakfast with my father--and got rear-ended on a difficult turn. Limped my car to a mechanic's, called the insurance, and got a ride home with Whines.

Last monday, I got a call back saying the car had been totalled, which is super-upsetting. It was a nice car, it didn't seem like THAT much damage had been done, and it's r-e-a-l-l-y hard to get a new loan when you don't have a job...

Anyway, that's the worst of it. I lost a day this week to some sort of stomach bug, and I'll add that to the "bad luck comes in threes" (hoping this is #3 and not #4, which seems more likely).

Job prospects: One strong prospect working with three furries at a neat job-search company with an in-town office, and one distant opportunity doing civic admin stuff with the neighboring town of Elgin--I would have ignored that one since it'd be a HUGE pay cut to the tune of $10K a year, but it looks like a fun role supporting a lot of the city's festivals and events, and potentially that could grow into something long-term and rewarding.

We'll seee what the next few days bring, and allow some cautious optimism.

I'm hoping this doesn't interfere too much with our plans to go to the convention in Minnesota at the end of August. It'd be really nice to do that, since I've already put the vacation on my credit card and all!

Got our tickets to Furry Migration picked out, so journeying to Minnesota for their late August convention :)

Not a full con report, because I can't possibly acknowledge everyone, but I did have an amazingly positive experience at TFF, which is really unusual because, frankly, I'm kind of bitchy and get bent out of shape about organizational stuff. But this was a great con and I have no complaints, it was a joy beginning to end :)

Lessee: I had to work Thursday because of a database collapse during the week, so I only ended up with one real work day--Wednesday--and needed Thursday to get caught up. So I left town at like 2:00 and hit the road. Whines and Bauson had their own truck, so it was just meeee, all alooooonne...I'd planned a couple of stops to play Ingress in target-heavy environments, but with the late and the dallas traffic, I didn't play much (except when I got a little lost in the Dallas art district and was hacking portals at the red lights. Don't tell Whines. Or the police.)

Got to the con Thursday night, waltzed through our wonderful registration system, said hello to a couple of people, helped a bit at Kempi's setup, brought Whines some snacks, went to bed early at like 11:00. Not a lot to say about day one, it was day one :)

Friday: First day of con! Was aggressively pursuing con sketchbook art, so vultured Artist's Alley and the Dealer's Den with four sketchbooks, started that out early. Opening Ceremonies, etc. A lot of panels about "basic life stuff", which I admire, but didn't go to any of. Went to the "Ask a Furry Researcher" panel, but was a bit dull, so left that one early.

A little scheduling conflict: Parabolic Disfunction was DJing ElectroSwing at the same time as the Bandthro concert. The first, I love electroswing and Para's a friend and I'd been one of the people pressuring him to do Electroswing! The second, I've got a friend or two on stage for Bandthro and some people I'd like to know better. Soooo...I did a little of this and a little of that, but mostly Para's set.

DJ'd for the first time at a con that night with an 80s-inspired (but not authentic 80s) synthpop and glam set. It went over really well! I don't really know what I'm doing on the mixboard, I need to take some "basics" lessons from friends to get the minimal competency thing down, but I picked good songs, Ethpee is a marvellous ham and ringleader, and ended up with a very uplifting moment of singing and dancing and Bowling for Soup's "1985," and a lot of very happy people. It was great. Will do again.

More or less wrapped up a great evening with the Cartoon Theme Sing-Along, a complete blast. One of the best experiences of the year for me. A roomfull of people braying along to the Pokemon theme song. :)

Saturday, more sketchbook hunting. Whines ran a panel called "My Kids Brought Me To This Con," which was good! I think I'll take over timekeeping and flow next time, since I can be a jerk on demand and my mate isn't super-great at telling people "no" and "shut up." So that might free him to be a good panelist and keep the flow going. One of the asberfurs in the audience was droning on in a dull monotone, and bringing up all the kinks in the fandom over and over again. Nothing against zoophiles and babyfurs, but this isn't the right panel to discuss all our sticky laundry.

Briefly met an artist I'm somewhat in love with,
 MelWhite
who I loved in middle school (that was like 1987, for those of you who weren't born yet), and still love for her cute anthro dragons and silly cartoons. She let me touch her. Yay.

Got stuck in the dealer's den behind the fursuit parade.

Furry Psych panel with Nuka, always another one of my favorites, ten I think a lot of nothing. Dinner was kind of interesting--it was at first me, Sark, and a few friends, then everybody grabbed a friend, and then we were leading 16 people to dinner! Hah :) I played a little bit of sunday school teacher, asked everyone to introduce themselves. There were some panels that weren't as involved as that little dinner excursion. Fun fun.

Jazz Night at Kempi's was pretty cool, I got a LOT of photos, more on that later, but I think as an event that semi-imprompteau concert probably marked Kempi's as an event venue for the con and a jewel in the TFF experience. I'm .... unsure if this is a good thing. I like that Kempi's is a restricted dictatorship and worry that if the music track of TFF touches it they'll turn in into the relentless poop that is ALL furry music, nothing but mediocre house, stomping on your head forever. I actually DO like techno, but it is not the opiate of the masses, ppl. Anyway, /rant. Lovely event, lots and lots of photos, Amadhia is beautiful as always.

Then sleep.

Sunday, I ran my panel back to back with one of the Guests of honor. I was going to talk about kickstarter, but he only talked about kickstarter, and then used our shared time on stage together to finish his talk. Then when it was my panel, he stood up and left....and everybody went with him! I'm not upset, it was kind of funny, and deferring to the GOH is the right thing to do, but still :) Stayed back with three furs who both were working on Kickstarter/RPG tabletop projects, an intersection I'm really strong on. That was rewarding, one of them has emailed me to continue our discussion.

I think closing ceremonies were next, then some takedown time at Kempi's, we skipped the dead dog dance.

Some stuff came up that made Whines and I have a long discussion about our semi-open relationship, which we'll need to pick up again later, but that's a couples thing and not a con thing, it's still part of my weekend. This is on me as a screwup. Anyway.

After the Jazz stuff, I'm making gentle inquiries about a staff position--there's nobody in charge of keeping up with convention history, of telling the stories of cons past, of putting up photos and videos in a way that's friendly. So I'm asking about an editor/reporter/blogger role within the team. We'll see how that goes, but Path has been receptive.

Gotta go, breakfast!

Q: Where are you staying?
Hotel room achievement unlocked!

Q: When will you be arriving and leaving?
Whines is staff, so likely we'll be getting there earlier than the average con attendee on Thursday, and staying through Monday morning for some last-minute cleanup.

Q: Who will you be rooming with?
Current plans are, variously, GilesLevin and Bauson, depending on the day?

Q: Where will you be most of the time during the day/s?
Either in the dealer's den or people-watching somewhere in the main hallway!

Q: What/where will you be eating?
There are so many options nearby! International Pancake House and their Dutch Baby for breakfast, possibly every morning. Freebird's Burritos in the afternoon. And possibly evening. AT least one trip to the old dirty spoon diner we used to go to at the old TFF hotel.

Q: Will you be having a room party?
Sadly, no, I'm not that much fun.

Q: Will you be drinking and/or getting drunk?
Sadly, no, I'm not that much fun.

Q: What is your gender?
Sadly, no, I'm not that much fun. Oh wait, male.

Q: How tall are you?
5'10. What a specific question.

Q: If I approach you, will you chat with me?
Sure! Ask me about crowdfunding!

Q: If I see you, how should I get your attention?
Everybody still calls me Spotty Logic. So I answer to most things now. Try saying something like "That is the most unique costume," though, if you really want my attention.

Q: How many furry conventions have you attended?
Different ones? Not many, TFF, Anthrocon, and the original Austin furry con. But I've been to TFF five out of six years now.

Q: Do you own a fursuit?
Yes, though it's a bit short on fur :)

Q: Can I hug or snuggle with you?
I don't know! Hug certainly. Snuggle is more context-dependent.

Q: How can I find you?
Go to my panel on Crowdfunding 101 on Sunday, or look for the guy handing out dog-biscuit shaped cookies. Or ask for Whines at Kempi's club downtown. I'll also probably be wearing a jacket and tie with a green shirt most of the con.

Q: Can I buy you drinks?
Does Diet Dr. Pepper count as a drink? Or anything from Starbucks, sure. If you're trying to get me to a state of impaired judgment, though, don't worry, I come standard with that feature.

Q: Can I look in your sketchbook?
I'm not an artist, though I'm going to try to bring a few sketchbooks with me for mini-commissions. So, yes, but they're mostly blank :)

Q: Can I take your picture?
I don't see why not

Q: Do you do free art, trades, commissions, badges?
I have no graphic art skills at all :) And writing is hard to do at a social event, so probably not.

Q: Do you have a table in the Artist Alley / Dealer's Den or a panel in the Art Show? If so, what are you selling?
No, but I am speaking on Sunday at the "Crowdfunding for Furries" panel and the Q&A just before. I have a product, thanks, it's just one that I can sell!

Q: Do you plan to volunteer?
My mate is staff. I don't plan to volunteer, but I assume it :)

Q: What's your goal for the con this year?
To enjoy myself and not have any snarktastic moments. And not destroy another car. I think this is an attainable goal.

Had to put our little spitz dog down today. It was time, it needed to happen, but of course still sad. Really draining day.

I'm not COMPLAINING per se, but if anyone can tell me why a dozen people started following me over the last week, I'd love to know!

Does anybody have some pointers for startng to collect sketchbook sketches? how much guidance do you give the artists? Theme books? Leaving it with them? Considering starting this as a thing...

My mate's been working on a partial for me. Sort of a 1/4 rlly, but then my character is lacking in the fur department, so I'm not sure more than that is really meaningful...I think his next step is airbrushing and then maybe sleeves?

da head:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13855478/

I wore it today, the structural elements are pretty close to done. Can't see a blessed thing, I think I can just about move around but it's like navigating by laser pointer...*bumps into wall, flails around, pretends it's goth dancing*

Well, this is an interesting opportunity, and it's starting to actually come together in a mid-sized way.

When I had my "Furry Kickstarter" panel at Furry Fiesta, I met a neat woman, kind of soft-spoken and friendly, really didn't have any idea who I was dealing with. And of course, more on the loud, extroverted jerk end of the talky-talky spectrum, I kind of left it at that. She asked about perhaps collaborating on a kickstarter type project, and invited me to attend a show the next evening.

It turned out she was (is, rather) Amadhia, the creator of the 2004 animation, "Kaze Ghost Warrior" samurai tiger film, and a phenomenal singer, singing for Fox Amore's benefit concert. It took me a bit of research to figure that out. I didn't think to ask at the time (the singing was amazing though).

So I've been spending a fair bit of time working on that project--I hope to have a Furaffinity presence and Twitters ready in June for a soft launch, and will be at Anthrocon for the hard launch--hopefully!--of the Kickstarter.

I'm a little scared! It's moving at a controllable pace, although my June is going to absolutely suck with all the work inconveniences, I think there'll still be time to do the OTHER major part of the project (the kickstarter page itself). Amadhia's helping, but there's a fair bit on my plate too, she's an astonishingly busy person, and is of course mired in creative work of her own.

Anyway, all interesting and weird. And I only have one vacation day to cash in between now and AC, erk.

mentally mapping out my panel for Furry Fiesta on crowdfunding for furries.

Thinking generally:

What's the basic concept? There's a chance we'll have some newbies to the idea.

The four big platforms that seem most useful (kickstarter, indiegogo, offbeatr, patreon), and what they work best for.

Fund my project, fund my business, fund my art, fund my life, and how they differ.

The basics of a strong campaign, and common pitfalls.

Not sure if I can cover all that in 45 minutes and leave some time for questions...we'll see!