Two movies have made the news recently. First, Star Wars.
It's official. The force is awakening with this one. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the title of the next movie. It gives the vibe of "A New Hope" for me, as it makes me think of the sun(s) rising and a sense that something is about to happen. It also makes me wonder... was the force sleeping? In the end, the title doesn't matter. It's the plot that matters, and I have a good feeling about the movie since it has some different people working on it than the prequels.

And now I'll copy-paste my Facebook post, which linked to this article that announces that Toy Story 4 is happening.
Toy Story is great... but 4 movies feels like they're overdoing it. However, there have been movie series that have done well past 3 films(Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings, the entire Marvel series), and Toy Story will absolutely have a new setting that won't feel like "more of the same". It's important to break up a series like that if it goes past 3 movies.
I felt like a THIRD Toy Story was milking their success too much, yet was surprised at how great it turned out. Toy Story 4 has the potential to surprise us with a great story, and while 3 seemed to close out the story perfectly, it also opened up a brand new story. It helps that they space the films out so well, with 4, 10, then 7 years after the previous, so it doesn't feel like too much.
I'm very curious if Toy Story could become a perpetually-running series with new characters showing up in each film. If so, how long before Woody and Buzz get broken beyond repair?

I was tempted to buy it but then I remembered that I'm a guy that doesn't wear bras. It was cute, though.

7 days left to support Project Gooseberry!
The Blender Institute is raising funds to produce the world's first feature-length open movie. I'm very excited for this movie. The story is about a sheep that longs for a more interesting life, when along comes a salesman that gives him the ability to try different lives for 5 minutes at a time, until he finds the life he wants. One of those lives is as a wolf, btw. Here is the teaser trailer:



Since I have recently started a new job that has tripled my income(don't get too excited, I worked 13 hours per week at minimum wage previously), I am now able to FINALLY support an open movie! One of the perks is the Blender Cloud, which lets you download all of the files from the other open movies AND all of the training videos/files. In addition, you get the same files the studios have access to, allowing you to watch the production of the film in real time! A great deal for 10 euros per month(US$12.80).

I have already downloaded some of the production files from the trailer above and have watched parts of some of the training videos available on the Blender Cloud(valued at US$217.60). Here are two screenshots I tweeted of the production files:
An overview shot of one of the scenes
An easter egg I found referencing their most recent open short film, Tears of Steel

I really want this to succeed, both for the movie and the development this will drive. At the moment, it's still quite a ways away from reaching the funding goal. I haven't been sharing about it as much as I probably should, since I know I don't have much reach, but this funding drive clearly needs as much help as it can get. Even just sharing will help.

Wouldn't surprise me if somebody decided to make a 24-hour version

One of my close friends performed “Let It Go” from Frozen and he did an amazing job on it. Had to share.

I'm not leaving FA, but if you're heading for the weasyly hills, here's a reminder that you can stop by the following page in your journeys:

https://www.weasyl.com/~ferretwilliams

Yeah, I'm not into joining pitchfork mobs, especially over hearsay. Really, it's hard to tell who is telling the truth online.

I'm still cross-posting everything between here, there and Inkbunny, whenever I actually do post any art(still very busy with life stuff & projects). Funny thing about Inkbunny, I haven't seen anybody leaving for Inkbunny. It's always Weasyl. Granted, Weasyl seems to be the best furry art site at the moment, comparing everything except membership. I love Inkbunny, but it's hard to visit the home page without seeing cub ass and loaded diapers all over the place, even with very thorough filters. I've managed to get it filtered pretty well, but it still lacks in the clean art category. If you haven't noticed, my favorites veer toward cute and/or funny, not hot and/or cummy. Still, if you DO prefer the bunny, I can be found at https://inkbunny.net/FerretWilliams . If I drop any mirror sites, that's likely to be the first, but I haven't made plans to drop it yet.
Oh and SoFurry? Nope. Just doesn't seem very focused on clean art.

...oh hey, I just noticed that FA has also started using https. I was about to mention that the others have embraced secure connections while FA doesn't, but it seems they've gotten with the times on that one, finally.

Okay, after watching several light display videos on YouTube, I think I'll name this one my pick of the year. One song choice might have swayed my decision to not look further, and displaying select lyrics at a size that would garner weird looks if somebody wasn't hearing the music, but it is definitely the most intricate display I've seen. I'm surprised this is the first time I've seen spotlights used in a Christmas light display. Might be due to the lack of snow harming equipment.



In other news:

- Mom is getting better after her stroke, able to get around the house on her own, still very difficult to understand.
- I didn't get BlendShow compiled in time(I think some compiling instructions got lost since I checked their wiki last), but still used the Blender Game Engine for my church's Christmas celebration. I still need to write a blog post about that.
- I still need to hook up the new dishwasher.
- Still getting used to Linux. Liking the Kdenlive video editor.
- Christmas shopping is done.

I figure it's about time I gave everybody an update on stuff, namely why there haven't been many comics recently.
As you know, my hard drive died several months back. Well, I've finally built a new computer, designed specifically for rendering 3D quickly, and I tell ya, it truly is fast. I'm running Linux Mint on it, which is taking a while to settle into. My first impression of Linux Mint is... derivative. Really, it just seems like an imitation of Windows and Mac. It does render animations faster than them, but that's the only benefit I've run into thus far. I bought Windows 8 anyway, but only plan to run it in a virtual machine for those few programs that I can't run in Linux, plus for developing BlendShow for Windows.

That brings me to the second reason for fewer comics. I'm increasing focus on developing BlendShow, my presentation software based on the Blender game engine. I have a goal of using it for my church's Christmas celebration on December 14th & 15th, but at the moment I'm not sure it'll be ready. I've mostly been doing the development in my head and doing several tests within Blender. The only 2 versions I've compiled thus far were lost in the hard drive death and were based on old versions of Blender anyway, plus were basically me learning how to compile software. I hope to get an initial version compiled this week, but that has been the plan all this month. However, I've been extremely busy this month.

...which brings me to the third reason for fewer comics: my mom had a stroke in September. I'm now having to take care of her 24/7. It's amazing how suddenly things like this happen. Up until the stroke, she's been very able-bodied. Now I'm having to do the cooking, handle all the finances and make sure she doesn't fall. This COULD give me more free time for coding, because I've had a horrible sleep schedule for years, very often sleeping for 12 hours or more, and now I have to be up when she's up. However, the extra awake time is filled with other things. She IS improving and can do most things just fine, but this situation still keeps me busy. She's been home one week now, and I'm still getting the house ready for her.
As a result, I also won't be going to F3 Con this year.

Also the dishwasher died.

I will try to do comics every now and then, but I really shouldn't do any until after December 15th and until after all the obligatory Christmas gift-buying is out of the way.

First off, I just discovered that I just recently finally got more subscribers than the account that this one replaced. It's sad that it took this long because that means I lost watchers by changing names, but I'm happy that I've finally surpassed my previous low, low count of 142 watchers.



Second, F3 Con is coming up December 13-16 in Branson, MO! I hope to be there, but I've been so low on cash lately that I had to cancel my annual ToonFest trip, which is also one of the few times per year I get to see my dad. My plans are to get financially stable in time for F3 Con(and to pay last month's car payment).

Do you have money or a lot of followers, unlike me? HELP OUT F3 CON! Check out their Indiegogo campaign to help make it even better than last year(it was very fun) AND favorite this FA submission to help spread the word! The more love this Indiegogo campaign gets, the better the convention will be.

Here is my animation demo reel to give to possible employers. Let me know if you see any typos.
I plan on giving it to local tv stations first, then branching out from there. I know it’s definitely not Pixar quality, heh. Mostly turnarounds. I hope I can get some character animations made in the next year. Trouble is, character animation takes a long time(all those limbs!) and I don’t get projects that allow that amount of time. Probably my first character animation besides that squirrel(which might get better use eventually, although that fur takes a long time to render) will be a cell-shaded ferret to use as an animated production company-style logo.

Old journal was old. Now it's time for something completely different:

The 25 most important wombats of all time!
Personal favorites: 5 and 1

Meanwhile, my sleep schedule is more messed up now than when I was updating the comics regularly. It was actually fairly normal for a few months! Yesterday I slept 9am-6pm. Those are hours best used for making money, something I don't have enough of. Going to bed at 9-something today. I would try to focus on making BlendShow profitable, but I know that would take more than a year to achieve, especially being a free program(money will be made from template commissions and eventually a store).

Just a late heads-up, I've started being a somewhat-regular guest on the ADHDcast, a new podcast put on by an old friend of mine, Dustin Lawson-Hart. In the third episode, he interviewed me about my comics, followed by another friend of ours talking about his current video game project, Age Of Blood. This was recorded before I announced BlendShow, my upcoming presentation software, so just so you know, that's the secret project we're talking about at the end of my segment.

You can download that podcast from this page.

The next episode, episode 5, will have a little more discussion about BlendShow and be considerably shorter. Episodes 3 and 4 are pretty long because we're old friends and don't get to hang out much anymore, and believe me, there was a LOT cut out for your benefit, heh. I am not on episode 4, nor have I heard it yet, so I won't pressure you into listening to that one.

ADHDcast doesn't have an iTunes-compatible rss feed(yet?), and the blog's rss link isn't displayed anywhere(yet?), so if you want to subscribe to it, add this url to a blog-friendly rss feed catcher.

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In other news, my backup computer is useless. The hard drive has been clicking, which means it's close to dying(my main laptop didn't give ANY warning), and installing an older graphics driver didn't fix the issue on display in the photo here. The graphics hardware might just be getting old. Lately, the computer has had trouble booting up, so I'm finally giving up on it. I am now down to a shared computer and a Nexus 7. Thankfully, my backed-up data is almost finished downloading to the shared computer. It's a nice reminder that I really need to also save up for an external hard drive, because online backup is SLOW and my super-fast internet charges extra if I download more than 50 GB in a month, not counting between midnight and 8:00 AM, when I'm limiting my backup restoring to. At least with online backup, it's extremely automatic and extremely off-site. Both key factors in choosing it.

Today, the region that Kennyland resided in has closed. This screenshot was taken while they were returning all of the objects, there is nothing left now. With a single day’s notice, less than a day after I paid for another week’s rent(I was refunded some of it) and about an hour after Second Life charged me to list the park in their directory for another week(13 cents). Thankfully that was enough notice for me to pack parts of Kennyland together for easier re-deployment. Stray bits can be difficult to reposition. I wish I could have given advance notice to you about this, but I didn’t have much notice myself. This wouldn’t be the first time a FurNation region containing Kennyland has shut down without notice.

I don’t know that I’ll re-open Kennyland. The park got fewer than 10 visitors per day, attracted fewer than 300 subscribers over the course of 3 years(Barely anybody clicks the link in the notice), and nobody buys anything from it. I check my transaction history occasionally, and all of my Second Life sales are through the Second Life Marketplace, which doesn’t require any land. Anymore, I only get on Second Life to update the comic subscription notices and the comic display in the park, and very occasional tweaks to the park. I don’t socialize there AT ALL, and that’s what Second Life is really for. For me, Second Life was for building things. Well, I’ve graduated to Blender, now. And for the cost of keeping land there, I could invest that money more effectively in banner ads on other websites. I definitely got new readers from it, but for US$6 per month and the added complication to the comic updating process(slightly longer than updating a website with the comic), there really isn’t enough return on the investment. Especially with how the comic’s update schedule is right now. If I were to re-open Kennyland, it will inevitably cost more than before, because Furnation really did have the best price in Second Life(L$1 per prim per week, 350 prims in a 28x28m parcel). Adding to that, Furnation had a LOT of traffic(people could read the comic without actually entering the park), so there isn’t a chance of losing less money on this than before.

If you’re subscribed to the comic through Second Life(they’ll be email notices for most of you), you’ll have to re-subscribe via rss or email. However, you're likely already subscribed here, anyway.

Even though I might be through with Second Life, I still hope to create more products there, because for the past few weeks I’ve actually been making back that US$1.50 per week that I spend on the park. The more products I have, the higher that profit will be. Without Kennyland, I might actually make back what I spend on web hosting! It’s sad that this is the highest-earning thing I do, not including my fast food job. Hopefully I can monetize the BlendShow software more than that.

I will miss having the only theme park based on a webcomic, though.

There's a Kickstarter for a documentary about the legendary deejay Dr. Demento! This is a necessary documentary. Seriously, he's old. We need this made while he's still in good health.

They have 5 days left and not enough raised yet. If you can help, wind up your modems and get to the ''Under The Smogberry Trees'' documentary Kickstarter page!

It's sad to see a fun French meerkat have to sell his Confuzzled ticket due to health problems, but it's the truth. If you're considering going to Confuzzled in England May 30-June 3, consider buying Titash's ticket and hotel stay from him. I really hope he can get back to normal soon.
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4558510/

I've been around furries too much. I can't help thinking the missing letter is a Y...
http://cheezburger.com/7155463424

You would shop there.

I finally rented Wreck-It Ralph and watched it TWICE in English and selected parts in Spanish. Great movie with lots of gags for geeks(watch out for that escape pod, Sonic). Speaking of geeks, or similar, if you pause the Blu-Ray you will be treated to some trivia spouted forth by none other than Nerdist's own Chris Hardwick. It's awesome to see somebody you only know from podcasts IN A DISNEY FILM. Also speaking of podcasts, Adam Carolla throws his voice in.

The Konami code was entered at one point.

The Metal Gear Solid reference made me laugh, as did many other things.

This movie makes me feel like designing a racing game track.

I took photos of several of the changes made to the Spanish version, too. Yes, photos. It's hard to hit "Print screen" on a stand-alone Blu-ray player. Really interesting how they actually translate the printed text on things directly in many of their CGI movies. You can see the gallery here.


The line "Well milk my duds" was actually said in the movie.

...are no longer needed. Weasyl is finally in open beta.
"What is Weasyl?" you ask? It's basically FurAffinity or Inkbunny but better. I'm truly impressed with the site. My favorite part is how easy it is to upload submissions. Just one page, plus a thumbnail-making tool. Not too crazy about it displaying submissions at a maximum of 800x600px, though, since my comics are 1024px wide, but it's still readable.

I'm not sure if I'll mirror the comics there, too, considering I already upload to enough places each update(Official site, FA, IB, dA, Second Life, then link from Google+ and Tumblr), although I'm considering dropping deviantART from the mirrors due to insufficient attention and my premium subscription running out. I think dA only gives furry art enough attention if it's ponies.

If you'd like to watch me at my new Weasyl location, I'm at https://www.weasyl.com/profile/ferretwilliams
NOTE: I'm still posting everything here, so don't worry about that.

Good news! You can now buy ANY Ferret Williams or Ferrets Vs Lemmings comic on a shirt, poster, mug, mousepad AND MORE. Look for the drop-down menu under the last panel of each comic on FerretWilliams.com where you can select what you want it printed on. The printed versions are higher resolution(4x the height and width of online version), have no ad at the top, and contain no snarky notes about it being late. Each comic on FurAffinity already has a link to the comic in the description(the note about a transcription). If the address goes to FerretsVsLemmings.com(the old site), you'll be automatically redirected to its new location.

This journal entry is 6 days late because I wanted to make it a submission, but drawing a custom picture would take too long and the New Years Eve journal needed bumped anyway. Also I wanted to wait until all features were working as I wanted them to be. The drop-down was revamped a few days later(original didn't work in Safari) and the auto-redirect(one line of code) was added tonight.

(The following is NOT a sponsored message, it is simply something that many many cartoonists look forward to each year)
Have you noticed that the font in my comics doesn't look like the font in any other comics? I got my font from Comicraft's "annual never-to-be-repeated New Year's Day font sale" a few years ago, and that sale is here once again. On New Year's Day(starting in the very first time zone to ring in the new year, so some time New Year's Eve for you), all Comicraft fonts, ALL of them including the $19 ones, are $20.13. To give you some idea of how great this sale is, my font NORMALLY costs US$89(or $69 for the non-international version). If you want a font as unique as your comic, check out Comicraft's annual font sale, and be sure to get the international font because it'll be the same price either way.
Click here to go there (remember, sale starts New Year's Day, I'll try to remember to remind you in Monday's comic update)

And just to show how impartial I am, I also recommend Blambot.com, which has tons of great free fonts and around-US$20 fonts every day. If you need international lettering, be sure to check for that when choosing a font, since they don't all have ñ and such. Click on "fonts" at the top of the page, but also check the Bargains box on the home page if you plan on buying one of his fonts. Fair warning: everybody uses these fonts, so it won't look as unique(especially Anime Ace), but what's most important is readability and looking natural in a comic, and Blambot fonts fit the need.

And remember: WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T... USE... COMIC SANS!

So I filled out that thing posted by  F3con...

F3 Convention (F3con) is a furry convention in Springfield, Missouri on December 14th-16th. Check out the F3con website (http://F3Con.com) for more information.


The Basics

Age? 30

Species? Ferret or human, whatevah

Gender? male

Are you taken? Nope, the aliens haven't snatched me yet

Do you 'suit? Not this year, although I will be wearing a wolf tail. Next year I might make some sort of ferret costume or have a plush ferret on a leash.

Do you create (artist, writer, crafter)? If you're seeing this, you know I draw comics.

Where are you staying? Not getting a hotel room. Just driving there for the day.

What day will you arrive? Saturday

Who are you rooming with? N/A

Who are you hanging with? Everybody!

Will you be meeting friends at F3? I look forward to seeing the furs from  missourisfurries. Haven't been to any of the meets in over a year, being a 2-hour drive.

Will you be drinking? Probably not. Gotta leave at 10pm and I'm my designated driver.

Will there be a party in your room? I sure hope not, because I won't be in my room.

Can I pounce you? You know how Death reacts when somebody surprises her? That trait is inspired by my own reaction. For your safety, I'd advise against surprising me.

Can I talk to you? Of course! Mind you, I'm not much of a chatter, although if you get me on the right subject I might talk too much.

Can I hug you? Preferably not.

Can I hang out with you? Yep!

Can I get pictures with you? By all means, yes.

Can I dance with you? I probably wouldn't be dancing, although if Gangnam Style comes on then I might, heh.

How can I find you? My tag will have a smiling Kenny and a ferret doing the Gangnam Style dance. Not sure what plushie I might have with me, maybe a fox on my shoulder?



Convention Stuff

Name your conventions: Kennycon 20... oh, cons that exist and I've been to? NONE! Well, I've been to a couple Kansas City Comic-cons, a Star Trek convention(Joplin, MO long ago) and a couple Hurleycons(Joplin, MO), but no furry conventions.

What are you eating? What's nearby?

Are you buying? Is that in regards to the last question or the next question?

What are you looking to buy? Shinies, maybe comics, cheap stuff that I have to have. I do expect to buy things.

Are you selling? All I have are Zazzle products, so no, I'm not bringing anything to sell. I want to walk around.

What are you selling? Um, really, these two questions could be combined.

Favorite event? The thing getting me there early is the brony meetup at 9am. That would be my favorite. Mostly I'm looking forward to being around so many fun people.

Favorite panel? Not sure. If I went on Friday, I'd definitely be going to the parkour demonstration.

Have you looked at the schedule yet? Several times. Lots of great stuff.

Going to the rave at Club Anthro? I'd like to, although I leave at 10.



Art/writing

Do you do freebies? Nope

Do you do trades? Nope

Do you do commissions? Nope

Do you have prints/books/CDs? Nope

If you're going to the F3 convention in Springfield, MO this Saturday, you just might see me there! Tickets available at the door. Con goes from Friday-Sunday.
http://f3con.com

This Domino's Pizza box advertises their gluten-free crust, saying, "FINALLY a gluten free crust that tastes better than the box it came in." Who thought of that tagline? Your crust tastes better than cardboard? Really? Having a gluten free crust isn't even a selling point for me, so you're not making my taste buds water with that statement.

Meanwhile, I'm nipple-deep in Christmas stuff this week(especially yesterday), so just imagine a happy sleeping ferret with a tummy full of greasy pizza.

This has been your Monday blog post.

I have no news, haven't gotten much done besides watching a few more tutorials and catching up with watching movies, NOR fixed my sleep schedule(it's 5:55 AM), so here are some ferrets that I know I've shared a long time ago on the old account and at a furry meetup:





Still classics, and quite appropriate for the comic.