I'm finishing up the last bit of commissions in my queue so I'm setting up the march queue.

I am taking 5 sketch page slots. I am also doing con badge examples. 15$ for bust, 20$ for full. They will be laminated and mailed or delivered at AC.

I also have plans to just work on characters and designs and will do some YCH stuff.

If you're interested in a badge or a sketch page, please send a reply.

So I'm setting up to deal at AC for the first time and I'd like some input as I start crafting some goodies.
What sort of things do you guys like to buy at cons as far as merch goes?
badges, keychains, phone charms?

Considering a little side project doing some little mini comics to teach some philosophy concepts. So I'm curious what people are interested in hearing.

Want some intro stuff? Ethics? Particular philosophers? The history of philosophy?

Tell me what you'd like to read and learn about it.

Opening for February commissions coming up while I finish up the January queue. I wanna keep the ball rolling.

I only have 10 sketch page slots open atm (all others are open) these commissions are to be completed by Feb 28

Also I think I wanna do an auction so I'm between a flat page 1-2 page comic ooor some of the transformation relics. Comment and tell me which you'd rather have.

Anyway comment or note if interested in feb commissions. I'll do an announcement tomorrow but I figured i'd offer for watchers.

So today was the women's march and my goodness gracious it was bananas.

We got an earlyish start and got awful hotel breakfast, made sure to get water bottles before getting to the train station. The station was super crowded, the line to the trains was perhaps an hour and a half (to get onto the train when you already had a ticket) but all the people there were kind, courteous, and I'm not sure i've ever seen a crowd that big spontaneously form such an organized line before. it was cool.

packed train ride to DC. We got in around 11 and the streets were packed. You had to start squirming through the crowd after just getting out of the train station it was so crowded, and this was fairly far down the street from where the stage and rally point was supposed to be.
The vibe was way different from the day beforehand. It really was streets upon streets packed with people and lively. It wasn't people just shuffling from place to place but happy and energetic. I've heard it described as angry, but not violent, and that's what it was.

People were thoughtful, making sure everyone around had space, wasn't jostled or stepped on. Made room for anyone needing to make their way through the crowd for whatever reason and doing their best to be sure groups weren't getting separated as they moved.

Once the march started it was cool, lots of fun signs and we got to witness the darwinism of march chants as different chants would start up and die off then new ones spring up. The easy to say rhyming ones lasted longest.

Seriously the protest was huge. I didn't realize how big the national mall was until today, it's bigger than I thought, and unlike yesterday it really was packed. The streets were walls of people snaking their way through the streets, through the national mall, all toward the white house.
You can probably find the official route online, though the protest was so big it just sort of engulfed the area.

Saw a couple of pro-trump protestors, and anti-abortion protestors and to my surprise I didn't see anyone engaging or fighting with them. They were just ignored or people would chant over whatever it is they were yelling.

It was a long fucking day, finally got on a packed train back. I ended up giving my sign up to someone, it was a variation of rosie the riveter sign. I was lucky to be able to use my roommates poster printer, and the woman next to me complimented the sign and said she wanted to find a print so I just gave it to her.

It was a good day, and I am really glad to have come out here. Frankly it was amazing to see so many people come together and I was stunned by the attitude, the courteousness of the crowd. I've never been around that many people before where people naturally just wait their turn and ensure everyone is able to get at what they need. It makes things seem a lot less bleak knowing there are literally millions ready to stand up, and even more that didn't have the chance today.

To anyone that marched today, cheers. To anyone that didn't get the chance but sent support, thank you.

Waiting on the train into D.C. the line was huuuuge. We were waiting in line for an hour just to get on the train but the people were all very kind, well organized and patient. It's a very different vibe from yesterday.

Really stoked for the march now!

Spent the day in D.C. today. We planned to just go to the smithsonian for the day and because I had no idea the map area for D.C. it was in the same area as the inaug so we saw some of that.

TBH it wasn't bad. It really wasn't crowded, not for a city really. The only really crowded spots were when stuff bottle necked at security checks or the line into the museum (cause security checks). The most difficult part of the day was just trying to navigate with some of the stuff fenced off to allow security and services to operate.

The sparsity did give the place a bit of a creepy vibe though. The city, the security, it was all designed for more people, larger crowds. So walking around it sort of felt like falling into an alternate dimension where some Orwellian force took over. I'm not saying that for any political commentary, just it really did feel like an alt history movie or video game scene. The day was overcast, and the low flying helicopters now and then, I was waiting for the intro bars to "hail to the chief" to be played crackling over a dying loudspeaker before something blew up.
The scene wasn't alive, it wasn't energized, there were just some people there, sort of inconvenienced by some fencing and detours.

I heard some trouble popped up in other places, but for the parts we saw and where we were there really wasn't anything interesting going on, just people, trying to get places and not sure where to go.

I suspect tomorrow is going to be bonkers for the march and much more crowded. I think today I saw maybe a 60/40 split between people there for the inauguration, and people there for the march just checking out the national mall. There's always big groups of people in the area around D.C. getting ready for tomorrow, and even more coming by bus.
Maybe there will be a million people in D.C., we'll find out tomorrow.

I'll be out of town from Thurs to Mon and out of contact. I will actually be driving to DC so I'll be out of contact for that span of the weekend. I'll return on monday and will be available for updates, art, etc.

have a happy weekend all.

Thanks everyone for the interest. I'm filled up now for sketch work.

If you are still discussing stuff with me that's fine and those comms will still go through finalization, just not starting new dialogues now.

I'm still open for non sketch type commissions if anyone wants a comm for something like that.

I have been working with a small group of artists on a donation adoptable project. The idea is each month we pick a charity and make adoptables designs to sell, then donate 100% of the money to the charity of the month.

You can check out the twitter page here https://twitter.com/AIDopts we're ramping up to start selling adopts Jan 1st hoping to start 2017 on a better note.

For anyone interested in taking on a joint commission, or a commission with their buddy. I'm happy to take these but wanted to make a few things clear.

1. I'll double check with those involved that they know about the commission and are okay with the characters being used.

2. I'll maintain communication with the person paying. that means I'll send the WIPs, the final product, etc to the person that paid, even if it is not the person that gave the initial info.

The person that paid is the customer, and that is the person which I am first and foremost beholden to on a commission.

On my way home. Not certain I'll make it today due to storms in the Midwest. Oh well. I'll be out of communication today.
Still working on pwyw stuff.

It's been a whirlwind weekend. Scheduling meant I woke up at 5am and was busy out of the house til 8pm. Also I got altitude sickness lol. Nothing bad I just fell asleep on my laptop. I lost my mountain lungs I guess. Glad I came though.
Ceremony was awesome. Except air horns. Fuck people that bring airhorns to graduations

Back in Montana a few days. Goodness it's cold...almost ended up in Spokane due to a storm over bozeman that maybe we couldn't land in, but pilot was a pro so yay. Nothing to report. Planes are uncomfortable, it screwed up my back, I almost managed to read a book cover to cover....then mysteriously lost in the house somehow (I wanna read the end!)

Working on pwyw commissions in every bit of spare time. Woo. Thanks all, by the by, for the interest. I may need to cap early so I can get it all done.

Putting these on pause to work through the queue

Alright, so no con journal because honestly I did nothing at all except get drunk and teach people about philosophy for hours into the night. I do however have a new top con story to add to my list and wanted to share.

Okay so was the great god devil and was running a group of rooms for the con. This lead to fun times had by all.
We were in her room, having a sort of party.
It was a chill affair, the drinks were flowing and people dotted around the room in various conversations. No music, nothing big, one of those fun hang outs with friends. Well mostly.
Our dear friend with a bent toward ridiculous hypotheticals began a conversation about hotel bibles and literal human excrement. Starting with the possibility that you may find someone had done their business in the pages of the book and closed it up and moving into a realm of crafting a bible made of shit, and whether or not you'd accept a room that had a shit bible in it....it was a funny conversation.

We're all having a nice time when someone walks in. He's got a handle of vodka and just quietly goes to an open spot to sit. No one really reacts. It's been a pretty open party and we just assumed that it was someone's buddy that came late, or perhaps a friend of one or the people staying in the room and wasn't there yet.

He sat awkwardly for a while, holding his vodka. No one really addressed him because it's an open group. Some times people wanna be chill and just listen. sometimes people wanna talk, so you tend to just let people be till they show they are interested in joining a conversation.

Well after an hour the guy exchanges a few words with the host then leaves quickly. Apparently he wanted to know when the DJ got there, not that sort of party.
This is when we one by one realize that no one had any idea who this guy was.

So here's the punchline of the tale. Turns out earlier while someone was having a smoke, this guy wouldn't leave her and her friends alone. Complaining about SJWs and talking about alt-right for 10 minutes or so, despite clear indications that no one is interested or pleased with the topic. So to get rid of him they say there's a room party in XXXX the room we were in (this person didn't know us and picked a random number)

So that is how we got random vodka guy. He really expected a room party and ended up in a room full of communists talking about shit bibles.

I love the absurdity of this fandom.

Twitter started rolling out some features to help stop harassment on the platform and is going to start banning people for hate speech. Turns out it might not be impossible to polish a turd, but no one wants to buy a shitty platform filled with trolls saying "kill urself"

Aaaanyway, this has of course sparked some people asking such things as "Isn't hate speech protected by the first amendment" and "isn't this against freedom of speech" and the answer to that is a solid no. It's not against free speech. Also hate speech is sort of protected...but also not really, but I'll get to that in a second.

First and foremost. Free Speech does not mean that you can say whatever you want, wherever you want, and face no criticism or consequences. That's just daft. That's never been the case.
So what is free speech? What does it protect? what does it entail?
I'll break it down.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That's the text for the first amendment. It's a single sentence packed with nougatty goodness of 4 explicit legal rights. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and right to peaceful assembly. (there's also freedom of association, clarified by a later SCOTUS ruling)

We'll focus on Freedom of speech. The text above says you are protected from LAWS which would limit what it is you could say. the background of this amendment was so citizens could be free to question and criticize government without disappearing to jail, or execution, or whatever else.
An important thing to note here is LAWS not "policies from a private company or service"

FA can ban you for saying "Dragoneer looks like a left handed octopus at prom", Twitter can make a rule that says "if you say Voldemort, you're banned" and it's completely legal and these private organizations are not violating anything. A business is not obligated to offer you resources to make your message heard. you are not entitled to a service for your speech.

This goes into the nature of rights in the US, are they negative or positive rights? Positive rights mean that you have the right to do something, and are entitled to the means to accomplish this. Negative rights means you have the right to do something, but no one is obligated to help you achieve that goal. Some examples for the U.S.

Education is a positive right in the U.S.. You are entitled to an education from k-12 and we pay taxes as a society to accomplish this. Safety (from fire, theft, etc) is a positive right, we are obligated to help protect citizens by paying taxes and such.

Freedom of religion is a negative right. I cannot stop you from praying, but I am not obligated to provide you crosses. The right to bear arms is a negative right, in an oversimplified sense if you have a gun it cannot be taken (with some notable exceptions like felonies) but that doesn't mean you are entitled to a gun. It's not the government's job to hand everyone a pistol at 18.

Freedom of speech is a negative right. you cannot be stopped by law from saying your opinions but society is not obligated to give you the resources to speak, not obligated to listen, or give a shit at all.
so private organizations do not fall under "Freedom of speech" rules.

Now that being said there are some exceptions and this is where "hate speech" gets that "sort of"
The types of speech that are not protected by the first amendment are: fighting words, threats, obscenity, child pornography, inciting imminent lawless action, defamation, and various restrictions related to speech by government.

The government ones are interesting, the government if fact has no right to free speech and that's why things like license plates can be regulated (a state can deny putting the stars and bars on a license plate for a group, because the plates are ultimately state speech.) I won't go into all the details cause chances are if this effects you, you know already.

Obscenity. You are not protected if you are using obscenity. This is why radio stations or TV may get fined by the FCC. Anyone remember when a bunch of radio stations got hacked and started playing a recorded episode of the furcast podcast? due to obscenity they were subject to fines (the furries were in the clear, since they didn't violate anything) Were obscenity not an exception, the stations could not be fined as the speech would be protected.

what is obscenity? well this is an infamously vague term that once got the answer "I'll know it when I see it" but currently there is the "Miller Test". to be considered obscene an expression of speech must meet these 3 characteristics

"Whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards", would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,

Whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law,

Whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value"

Still super fucking vague...but you know, there's a good shot that if you're out in public proclaiming a love of hot furry dick, it's not protected speech or at least it'd be a court case to give a more clear answer. aaaaanyway

Child porn, is on the list because it doesn't have to meet the miller test, the test is irrelevant to child porn, CP is not protected speech.

Okay, Threats, fighting words, and imminent harm. This is what will effect most people reading this, and this is what is most connected to hate speech.
Threats are not protected speech. If you get a phone call, email, whatever from a person that is threatening your life or safety that is illegal and the person can be arrested for that (yay)
In the context for the point of the first amendment saying "I think the president has critically flawed policy" or "the president is a poo poo head" is protected speech. Saying "I will harm the president for this policy" is not, that's a threat not criticism of the government.
For threats, content is important.

Fighting words: If you are instigating a fight you can be arrested. This is why you can't be in public and just start cursing in someone's face. In this case it is not the content that is egregious but the actions. This is notable because it leads into the imminent harm part.

It was once the case that "clear and present danger" was the bar for exception, but in a later case it was changed to the higher "imminent danger' standard. This relates to hate speech as much of the hate speech would fall under the former but not the later (and the case in which the standard was changed was regarding the kkk)
so sadly, most hate speech is protected as it may present a danger, but unless it is advocating for immediate harm it is not an exception. Examples
"I hope all Gizzywigs are killed" is protected speech. It's shitty, but not illegal because advocating for harm is not advocating immediate harm. "Go out and stab gizzywigs today" could be an exception as it's advocating that one immediately goes out to harm people.
Shitty standard but it's worth noting this is all determined pre-internet, and legal philosophy is starting to debate if, in the internet age, because everything is so connected and moves so fast, clear and present danger and imminent harm are closer now than previous, or instances which in the past were not risk of imminent harm, now may be.

Anyway that was a lot of words so here's a super simple list.

Freedom of speech IS:
Protection to criticize government without legal repercussions.
Protection to express yourself without legal repercussions.
(*except in the cases of exception, as previously mentioned)

Freedom of Speech IS NOT:
Freedom of speech without consequences
Freedom to say anything on a private platform
Freedom to use threats
Freedom to advocate immediate harm
Freedom to use or express obscenities in a public forum
Entitlement to whatever resources needed to get your message across.
A magic spell that makes it so people have to listen to or give a shit about your awful fucking opinions.

I decided I'm going to offer 6 pt sketch pages again, but at a higher price to justify the time.
So sketch pages are back, but are 70$

Getting away from my other journal and political views, I will restate here.

If you are scared, need someone to talk to, or need help please feel free to contact me publicly or privately. I will do what I can to help or get you in contact with someone that can help you.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, afraid, and thinking that suicide may be a possibility for you right not (for election reasons or not) please reach out, to me or to someone else. I have gone through suicidal depression as well, I have attempted it myself. I say with experience that you matter and are important and things will get better.

If you need it please contact the suicide hotline
1-800-273-8255

If you are trans in need of help there is also the trans lifeline
877-565-8860

I am not happy with the results of last night. I worry for the future of the nation, and I have entirely lost respect for almost every aspect of government.

It is not simply that Trump won. While I don't respect him at all as a person, in any aspect, the part that scares me is that Trump will be president, with a republican congress. His VP is a man that endangered lives for his ignorant views on LGBT people and created an HIV crisis with the population he has lead thus far. Soon Trump will pick the next supreme court judge, who will remain there until death or retirement (if not more judges. Please hold out forever o'connor!) All aspects of government, all the parts of our checks and balances have swung fervently to the far right.

We are facing a very real future where minorities will face a lot of hardship. Rights gained by women, racial minorities, and the LGBT community will begin to be stripped away as the current government will likely push for more control by further weakening voting rights and gerrymandering. It is a scary and uncertain time and while I myself am in a privileged position where I could survive I am afraid for my community and my nation. A system put into place a plan to favor one particular demographic and ideology over the safety and existence of many others.

Today, there's been a lot of people to say "let's be calm now. It's time to unite. We don't need further division in the country." to that I say NO.
Normally I want compromise. Normally after an election I will say yes, we must unite, no matter who won we need to come together, but not this time. It is one thing to disagree on the economy. To have different views for states vs federal powers, but there are times when one does draw a line on their values and a compromise is impossible.

There are basic human rights that must be afforded to all. There is a basic human value to all citizens that affords them these rights. This is beyond politics and policies. I will not normalize oppression, I will not compromise on the loss of rights to women, minorities, or LGBT. If there is someone in your life that is fine with the loss of these things then it is fine to cut them from your life and unfriend.

To those that voted Trump for desperation or fear of the system, of economic trouble, I am sorely disappointed. While I understand fear and uncertainty that self interest has put vulnerable groups in danger.

For those that voted Trump to spite those same vulnerable groups, because you believe in racial or gender superiority. Fuck you. Unfollow, Block, write about how I'm a bitch or a cuck or a libtard, or whatever else. I don't give a shit. I don't need you, the world doesn't need you.

Despite my lack of respect for the government I won't leave, because that's not better. to abandon the vulnerable who have even less of an ability to flee is not much better than putting them in that position in the first place. I'm going to get more involved, locally and within this community.

So as a final word. If you are scared, if you need help, if you just want to talk then send me a note. Contact me on twitter or skype or whatever else and I will do what I can or get you the help you need to the best of my ability.

For anyone afraid and thinking this is it and you feel like it is better to end things on your terms, please contact
the Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
If you are trans and in need of help there is the trans lifeline: (877) 565-8860

History and Literature show that these things are cyclical. Nations rise and fall, cultures flourish and fail, and anger boils. This is not the end, just as We survived the fall of rome, the french revolution, the civil war, and countless movements, marches, and rebellions. We will survive, but keep strong and stay angry, stay passionate. complacency and apathy is what gives rise to oppression, and it is anger and rebellion that ends it. Stay politically active, be prepared to let your voice heard to companies, to politicians, and be ready to vote in the mid terms.

working on 10$ sketch commissions this evening. Comment or note if interested.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21389218/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21089246/

Apparently I'll be at furpoc this year, anyone I know going?

Taking a few sketches to work on today and tomorrow. I need to make up a bit of money for the comp and to make rent this month.

non-color sketch 10$, color sketch 12$
3 part sketch sequence 25$, colored 30$

If interested comment here or send me a note.

closed for now till queue is cleared. may offer more next week.

My computer is breaking apart. I'm replacing it but there's still a chance it will catastrophically fail. I'm backing up the files but if it does bite the big one I'll be a bit longer finishing commissions naturally.

Sorry all.

I think I need a break from sketch pages. I'm still absolutely going to finish the ones that are on the queue right now, but I feel like they're all of what I'm going now and I'd rather just do a proper sequence.

I'm still very interested in doing TF work and will still take the following types of commissions:
Non-color sketch pages
Flat color or shaded TF pics
Flat color or shaded sequences (I'll be offering a discount for sequences)

Hey guys, I just wanted to give a heads up to everyone. I'm still working away on commissions but some real life stuff has been getting at me and rather than work myself sick I'm just going to take a bit longer and ensure I'm doing things right.

You can see the queue here on Trello. Updated daily. https://trello.com/b/RQD5ljRs/commissions

To give a better sense of what slowdown means. instead of a 1-2 week turn around I'm looking at about 2-3 weeks (taking the queue size into account.

Thank you everyone for understanding. If this causes issues for anyone please note or DM me on twitter.

I'm on the hunt for some skulls. replicas are fine but I am looking for something anatomically correct.

Does anyone have any skulls they're willing to part with via trade or selling it?