So, after almost a year of absence, I'm finally writing a journal. What has happened, you may ask? Well, a lot. I've spent a shit ton of time job-hunting, I'm currently involved in a legal battle with my college that scammed me, and as a person who's starting to gain adult responsibilities, I've generally worried a lot about how shitty life is and how I can hardly do anything about it.

Moaning about life aside, I've also spent this year contemplating starting a 'career' as a furry ranter. Yes, that's right. There are just so many things that suck about this fandom and in general (you heard me before, right?), and I just have this huge craving for catharsis at this point in time. So, lo and behold...!

https://www.furaffinity.net/user/li.....iddragonrants/

I've already recorded and posted one rant on it, which is me reading off a litany of all the shitty things and people in this goddamn fandom. It needed to happen. My recording equipment is still shit, but once things get the headstart, I'll probably have a better microphone at my disposal.

That said, I'll still be using this account, naturally.

Liquid Dragon, out.

Twenty years! I've just exited the stage of being a "dipshit teenager", and am now initiating the phase where my age actually gives credibility to my hypothetical future employers. Because despite having almost 2 years of professional experience, 19 years is still "too young" to be a freelance translator apparently.

I did get some sweet stuff though: two tees; one with a dragon and one with dolphins, three Russian Tintin comics, a towel and mug both dolphin-themed, and a multitude of tiny goodies that really aren't worth mentioning.

Here's to another good year!

(And no, no happy Valentines from me; you should show your SO love all the time, not just one day out of 365. It's a stupid, useless holiday)

Let's all hope and pray that 2017 won't be as shitty as its predecessor.

Merry Christmas everyone! And happy holidays to those who don't happen to celebrate Christmas too!

OMG HOLY SHIT!!!1 TRUMP IS NOW PRESIDENT OF THE US!!!one!1! WORLD WAR 2016 IS GOING TO HAPPEN THE APOCALYPSE IS TODAY OMG GAWD HALP US ALL HE WILL NUKE IRANISTAN AND NORTH KOREA WE WILL GO BACK TO THE CIVIL WAR ERA AND ALLAMERICANS WILL BECOME RACISTS AND FEMALE PUSSY GRABBERS!!!!!!!!111!eleventhousandonehundredeleven1!11!1

So there's the fake outrage worth my own entry into the inescapable news. Now leave me alone.

I think Trump is an awful presidential candidate, but seriously, lighten the fuck up, peeps. This is exactly why politics, to me, is tantamount to a botched theater play.

Remember that YCH story I held seven months ago about micros trying to steal food from Sadea the dragoness?

I haven't forgotten about it at all, in fact, I'm writing it right now! Expect it to be finished around, well, 14th September, maybe?

I listened to this while doing work and it triggered an internal reaction of infinite happiness within me.

Your team isn't a goddamn personal trait. I get it, the game you play is hyper-popular and therefore you give in to the playerbase's expectations of automatically making public which team you're playing on. But it's not something that defines you as a person. Do you bring this shit up in job interviews? "I'm 19 years old, I live in the blahblah area, my team is Mystic, I have experience with HTML". No, you wouldn't. Nobody wants to hire a person who'd walk around catching Pokemon instead of being productive, especially if they've been following the news. Do you do this because you take pride in being team X over team Y? If so, that's just as stupid; you selected one team with no discernibilities over another in a mobile video game, and you're shiningly proud of that. Congrats.
Letting your Pokemon Go team define you as a personality trait is as ludicrous as letting your political beliefs define you as a personality trait. Rant over, peace out.

Over the course of the last three months I haven't really done a lot on this site besides faving shit. I could tell you about college and stuff but I know you wouldn't be interested. Also, I've been mass-indulging in creating my own set of custom Yu-Gi-Oh cards because yes, I like YGO. But it has mainly boiled down to the fact that this FA management "drama", and I use that term VERY loosely, has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Anyway, I want to get into this site again. I still haven't got a semblance of an idea of whether or not I'll write again, however, I do want to do things such as conversing within my friend circle, despite me hardly being sociable at all. Maybe do a little roleplay with them every now and then, because I'll be on Skype more often from now on. That, and maybe I'll upload some of the art I've gotten and will get as well.

So yeah, consider me back. As in "back" back.

"...it's the laziest form of creation" - Adam Buckley, ADoseofBuckley.

Seriously, just look at this blatancy. Totally shameless.
http://imgur.com/vOlIxcj
(Image on the right are the original, made by my brother FattyDragonite)

I'm not allowed to release the individual's name, but luckily I don't have to as this person should already be well-known as a total asshole / dipshit in the past, and since he's been pumping out new fat fur pictures left and right. Completely on his own merit, of course.

Many of you may have noticed that I've not been active for two whole weeks. To keep it short:

- I've had four nerve-annihilating exams a a couple days ago that I've assiduously studied for;
- Lackluster management of this site has been an off-putter;
- I've been suffering from an agonizing fluctuation in blood glucose for the last four months. There is no underlying cause, I'm the only one in the whole world ever confronted by this "disease" of sorts, and I could do fuck all about it. HOWEVER, for some reason it has been getter much, much better now. Let's hope and pray it stays that way, I know I certainly will.

That said, 1.1K submissions, holy shit. :P

Home to one of the most prolific communites on the planet, is now officially heading down the slope in my opinion. Back in August when the whole FATransparency deal was trending among the members outraged over the lackluster staff management and one of my favorite artists at the time banned for speaking her mind, I didn't pay it too much attention and hoped it'd be over in a week or so, hoping the staff would rightly catch up to the community's wishes and not be sanctimonious, mendacious dicks about it. Granted, not every one of FA's staff is guilty of being stuck in this complex. I've seen a staff member do a good job of addressing the issue in a civil manner instead of outright refusing to engage in parole about the situation. But...

Nothing seems to have changed yet, and it also seems to be getting worse by the second. Members of this site simply criticizing the site's management are still getting suspended under the guise of "divulging confidential information", even though they didn't include any private information at all in their critique. Which in turn causes more and more members to leave the site, either through boycotting it, getting banned for the aforementioned reason, or leaving because the site is becoming less lively because of the fact that people are leaving. And so it becomes a vicious cycle.

I, too, think the site is losing its soul because of this. However, I won't boycott is by moving my shit to a different furry site, or get all rebellious about this. Something NEEDS to be done, yes, I think we can all agree on that. But that's not going to be easy, believe me. This site will continue to plunge as long as the management continues to make stupid decisions instead of those that actually benefit the community and try to cover it up.

Now, I made this journal for a reason. Not to tell you what you already know, but how this lingering irresponsibility on the staff's part affects me. I am - to be blunt - growing out of this website. Manily due to the fact that - like I said before - the lights are going out. I still have a story to finish and will probably finish it at the end of this week, and then I will take a hiatus from writing for a while. I want to know if my stuff actually has a reason to exist on this site, and to be honest, writing stories slowly starts to feel like a chore instead of something I can relish performing. I'll still be interacting with peeps, looking at art, favoriting stuff et cetera, so no need to worry that I'll just vanish amid the crowd.

Just had to get that out there.

Doing this thing again after a possibly contemptuous pause. Ask me any question and receive a comical answer or one with brutal honesty.

девятнадцать
dziewiętnaście
neunzehn
negentien
yhdeksäntoista
diciannove
dix-neuf


I just turned that number today.


Soooo... party time?? :)

So, the raffle's over. I'm using the word "raffle" very loosely as there was literally zero competition. The winners know who they are, but just to make things clear:

Leader:

Scout:

Stealers:

I will be writing the story from now on, stay tuned!

It's a bit weird to see only a few people having entered into the raffle I opened two days ago, so I'm posting this here for those that may have missed it. If you legitimately have no interest in joining, I don't blame you. It's just kind of odd since my previous raffles had many, many more entrants.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7360867/

Only 4 people have entered so far; your chance of winning is still very high!

Whew, those titles are always a mouthful. But I want to make the best impression!
I've been quite inactive in terms of writing / Skype messages and overall presence due to being preoccupied with the stress of college, the job market, and my physical health having shifted into a state of disarray. I think apologizing for your absence from a leisure activity is a bit ridiculous, though; it's like a firefighter apologizing to his family for not being able to drink tea with them because he had to save people from a 20-story burning building, though I do think it is important to let your fans know where you've been all that time.
Now, time to start recruiting people into my first YCH group story of 2016! It will be a macro/micro themed story featuring my cyan anthro dragoness character Sadea, and the option to allow the raffle winners to determine a section of the story themselves! The plot is as follows:

______________________________________________________________

Plot:
A squadron of four trained micros have been assigned with the task of slipping themselves into the homes of unsuspecting macros and stealing any accessible food items they can find there. The micro squad arrives at a very alluring house, inhabited by Sadea the dragoness, and the team's leader decides that this will be a very easy target for their raid. The three other micros enter through the front window that's been locked in an open state at a slight angle, each having been given a radio communicator by the leader while the leader himself waits outside with a wooden toy wagon used to transport the spoils and vacate the area quickly.
Once inside, they see the cyan dragoness reclining on the couch, with a bowl of potato chips and a soda bottle on the table in front of her, and the bag from which the bowl was filled sitting beside her against the couch and completely outside Sadea's view. One micro (the "scout") plans to hide at a vantage point to give intel to the two other micros (the "stealers")who will be attempting to surreptitiously steal away the bag. When they have just begun dragging the massive potato chip bag back to where they entered from, the crinkling finally gets the dragoness's attention, as she gets up from her seat and catches the two micros red-handed, picking them up, ready to give them their due punishment...

and YOU may decide what that punishment is!! Maybe you want her to sit on you? Get played with by her paws? Perhaps even swallow you whole? Your choice!! (provided it's PG-13)

And what will happen to the scout? You'll see...
______________________________________________________________

So, do you guys like it so far?? ^..^
Here are the rules:
• Entering is completely free of charge. (duh!)
• You don't have to be a watcher to enter.
• When entering, reply to the comment corresponding to the role in the story you want to be eligible for with the character you want to enter. Only one comment per person!
• When vouching for the "stealer" role, include the thing you want Sadea to do with your character in your reply! Keep it general-themed, please!
• Journal-boosting this raffle will earn you an extra slot on your name!
______________________________________________________________

S L O T S:
(a visual rendition of your winning chance)

Leader:


Scout:


Stealers:

______________________________________________________________

This raffle will end on February 8th, 16:00 GMT, 10:00 EST

Happy hunting! I'll be more active from now on. ;)

Yes, I'm still alive on this site.

Tagged by  RaveDragon67. Using the word meme loosely because I hate using it at all.

What is the name of your main sona?
Thamaeyo, canonically shortened to Thammy because nobody seems to be able to spell his name right.

Where did the name of your sona come from?
I just made it up myself. It's not in any way derived from things I consider myself a fan of.

What species is your sona and why did you choose that species?
Dragon! Because I think of dragons as beautifully majestic creatures.

What color is your sona and why? Hair/fur/ eye/etc...
Brown-hided with a pale, cream underbelly. Wing and ear fin membranes are a dark teal. Eyes are light green.

What is your sona's personality and how does this compare to your RL personality?
Shy, clever, intent on having the last laugh, occasionally cheeky. The only match is that I'm also introverted IRL.

What is one item your fursona owns that is significant to you in RL?
N/A

What is one thing you think you would say to your sona if you could meet?
"Sooo... Can you really do everything the way I designed you?"

What is one thing your fursona would say to you if you could meet?
I really don't know.

How has your sona changed over the years?
He has gone from being a completely ordinary, run-of-the-mill dragon to one with the innate ability to decrease in size, and do the same to others. After a few more months of refining his skills, he might able to grow as well.

How long have you had this fursona?
Since August 2014.

Would you like to be more like your fursona?
Well, I wouldn't just want to be "more like" him. I wish I could BE him, but who wouldn't?! Don't we all want to escape this shitty reality in a form that can accommodate all our deepest desires?!

I think a couple of things should be said now that the contemporary has shifted into the last 24 hours of 2K15 (12 over here in Europe as of writing this). No, I'm not referring to New Years Resolutions; solutions for one's current problems and aspirations for the future should be made right at the moment - you shouldn't wait a whole year to do that. However, there are some topics that I feel are at the right time to be discussed.

Right off the bat, I want to discuss Sizecon a very little bit (pun somewhat intended), as there is only one thought I have on it. Because this is the very first macro / micro-oriented convention ever organized in the history of mankind, and me being a very conspicuous fan of size difference, I'd say my two cents are more than well warranted. Even though it's over in NYC and I live across the pond, having travelled very few times. Point being that I wouldn't go thee anyway, but I still think I'm in a position to say something about it due to me comprising SC's target audience.
I've peeked at their site just to familiarize myself with the organization, the variety of things there would be to do at the con, all that jazz. And eventually I stumbled upon one thing that turned me off as opposed to turning me on: the fact that there will probably be a shitload of adult content. Of course, I get how mega-popular porn is and how it invades everything, and that's fine with me, it's just that I don't like porn. Go ahead and call me a 'special snowflake' for proclaiming to have been born without an interest in something the supposed vast majority is very interested in, the compliment is appreciated.
They say on their site how "of course, not everything will be sexual in nature", which reasonably leads me to the conclusion that the main course will be porn, and that there will be so much of it that the organisation found it wasn't worth segregating into an exclusive 18+ section (yes, the con is for adults only). I get how size difference has a higher perceived image of being a sexual fetish rather than being a tame, leisure interest, but my point still stands. If there will indeed be as much adult content as I predicted here, then my aforementioned reasons are just from my perspective only as to why I dislike the con. If there will be just as much porn as general content, then that means the organization team is just shitty. My bet is on the former. I'll obligatorily reiterate: I don't hate porn, I don't want it to be banned, and I don't say I dislike porn just to be that one super unique individual that stands out from the crowd. I just find it annoying how it invades everything, but that's just how human nature works. We seek sexual pleasure in absolutely everything, and that's fine provided full consent is involved.

Secondly, I have plans in mind for another YCH group story, where I'll propose a plot with several character placeholders, that one of your characters could be occupying! My first ever story that followed this organisation and format was in January 2015, and I think it'd be appropriate to do it again that same time next year, wouldn't you say? I'll publicate the recruitment journal with the plot and character roles somewhere next month, so stay tuned!

Third thing is about Skype. I have been very inactive due to school work, but also just because I know you don't want to be bothered by me. It has happened before, and I'll really only start a conversation when I feel it can bear fruit. Not only roleplay, but talks about casual stuff too, y'know. But I want to dedicate this part of the journal to give a brief PSA about insecure Skype clingers and insecure individuals. My brother FattyDragonite has a 'friend' on Skype who is borderline obsessed with him, and according to witness testimony, with others as well. One of FD's other friends, who has this obsessive guy as a contact as well, told him how he has shown pictures of his penis to several of his contacts without being asked to do so, and then demands that they do the same. He has attempted to solicit sexual e-services from my brother, too. When he doesn't comply, the obsessive person starts crying and whining about how they're "breaking up with him" and "leaving him alone".
The worst thing about this? The obsessive guy in question is 14 years old. FOURTEEN.
Then there's that other guy who's incredibly insecure and controlling. He has told my brother to stop watching "porn artists", when he's 16 and has the filter turned on, he thinks a simple disagreement with a friend constitutes "backstabbing", and much more to save for a later date.
This shit drives me insane. Point of this rant being that if any of my Skype friends start behaving this way, I'll remove them in an instant. Fortunately I haven't experienced any of this behavior from my Skype friends, and I doubt they're going to resort to this malarkey in the future. But beware of these clingers like a disease.

Last thing, the best Christmas present is a promise not to get somebody scratchcards, lottery tickets, or any other luck-based cash-for-cash commodities. I got €10 worth of scratchcards and before I even scratched them, I told my parents that I would win nothing anyway because I'm a unrealistically unlucky person and that it was a shitty gift. I promptly gave them to my brother who scratched them, and guess what? He won nothing. God forbid I get held hostage in a casino someday.

That said, now it's time to cower in fear of all the ear-tearing bangs outside from irresponsible shitstains throwing firecrackers around like confetti and putting home-crafted bombshells in mailboxes and trashcans.

(obligatory xmas journal to make sure I'm not an inconsiderate, forgetful asshole)

Merry Christmas to all my kumpels! Or Happy Hanukkah. Or whatever you celebrate at home. *wraps you all in festive lights*

My sincerest apologies for my outburst yesterday. It was made in the heat of the moment in which I lost all sense of control over myself. My health is still in the dumpster though, but things are ameliorating.

*hugs all my watchers*

My blood glucose levels are completely out of control. Literally. My physical health started to deteriorate since last month for some reason but only now it is taking another step towards its mortal stage. I can do fuck all to palliate it; insulin used to work just slightly but now any dosage is in complete vain. Then again, I'm one of the unluckiest motherfuckers on this planet whose life is devoid of logic to the most primitive aspect. No matter what I do, fate always throws in some occurence beyond my fucking control that devastates everything. The steps I've taken should logically work in my favor, but fate has decided that my life must be an absolute hellhole no matter what happens. It started with diabetes when I was 14, two years later a chronic urination malfunction that nobody else on this planet has, and now this. Why in Christ's name does this have to occur to me and me only, and why am I not allowed to do anything about it. Not to mention my neighborhood is an absolute warzone rife with fireworks stunting day in day out. Fuck.

Would you like to inquire
into a nugget of my mind?
Then go ahead and fire
your questions of any kind.

I'm going to answer your questions with a little bit of poetry. No, not with the type of rhymeless, meaningless pseudo-thought-provoking nonsense you're indoctrinated with in schools, but with something with panache. Also, before anyone asks, my new avatar is a parody on the Flipsid3 Tactics logo.

My mind is clear of thoughts. Go ahead and ask me your most itching questions to fill it up again.

Nerve-racking Nuisances is a journal series in which I cynically express my contempt towards a certain 'something' on FA that just incites a butt-load of furious rage within me. Though I try to be as friendly as possible, there's always that moment when you stumble upon something that annoys you so much, you'd have to smash your mother's expensive fine china in order to vent your frustration. Luckily, we don't own any fine china, but that vitriolic rage has to leave your system one way or another. If you have any criticism that you want to shoot me, don't be afraid and do so! So long as it's constructive and something I can actually do something with.

---

For the ninth episode of NrN, a different type of furry artist takes their turn on the chopping board; fursuit creators. Now let me clarify that - while I have no inclination for having a fursuit of my own - I'm completely passive against the concept of fursuits, fursuit making or fursuiting. It's very cool for some, and fursuit makers have provided the community with their great, prolific services. But as with the usual furry content creator, it seems, elitist, grandstanding business attitudes have also infested the constituency of fursuit builders. Their type of pretentiousness is completely different from artists, though, and I will be digging into the soil of their wannabe 'big business' and the arguments that support it.
To give credit where it is due, and not to make this journal seem completely abrasive and jaded, I will say that a lot of them have the 18+ age rule quite right; saying that minors are allowed to commission a suit provided they have signed parental consent. Of course there are still the ones that refuse services to minors not because of the age limit for entering into a legally binding contract, but because of the inane "minors are stupid and immature - doing business with them is unprofessional" bullcrap. Those assholes can go fuck themselves, but I will not be talking about them because it creates no bigger picture. Every decent human being despises them. It's much more of a realistic scenario to arrange a court case for an unpaid fursuit of over $1,500 instead of $40 of artwork, hence why I fully support fursuit makers putting the 18+ age limit in their Terms of Service, provided they won't entirely disbar minors from ordering a fursuit from them. ("Clients under the age of 18 should have a parent / legal guardian consign and vouch for their legal position with their prior consent, written in the initial order request." In the off chance of a fursuit maker viewing this journal, feel free to steal that clause.) If not, and just put "You must be over 18 years of age to order", go ahead; I'm not responsible for your loss of clientele.

Now, after that diatribe of a paragraph, let's get to the chorus, aka. the "We" mentality the title of this NrN alludes to. Now, I must of course say that not every fursuit maker is guilty of conducting in whatever this "We" mentality is. Now what is this "We" shit I'm talking about, you may ask? Well, it's fursuit makers who run their fursuit making business all on their own referring to themselves using plural pronouns, and sometimes even calling themselves a company on top of that. While being aware that the maker is only one person and with absolutely nobody else, how would you feel when reading the following: "We do our very best to parallel our products to the highest of standards."
Seems utterly unnecessary, right? They're managing their fursuit business all and solely on their own with no employed help from a second person, so why would they use plural pronouns to refer to their singular self? There are a couple of arguments I suspect will be used to defend the usage of "we" and "our" by a singularly operated business owner, so I'll be going over these and preemptively refute them.

"It's more professional!"
I've dealt with this asinine crap argument numerous times. It's a blatant cop-out to people criticizing your business and still too many artists seem to espouse this fallacy. Define professionalism, and then explain how using "we" and "our" to refer to yourself falls under that definition.

"Other businesses do it, therefore it makes sense to do it myself as well!"
This is the textbook pompous business attitude in argument form, and will cause numerous analogies to arise from those who can actually think shit through that will refute this argument. Like, does a 5-year-old lemonade stand holder think: "Hey, the company of Microsoft has HRM, PRM, CRM, a Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, and a vacancy board. Might want to implement those myself as well!" Granted, supply chain management could work very minimally with fursuit and art businesses, but the others only pertain to huge enterprise businesses that operate on a large scale. And to assert that being an artist or fursuit creator is operating on a scale just as large as the companies you cite as inspirations for your snobby eminence is pretentiousness at its finest. Now, back to the main point. OF COURSE are other big businesses doing it; they are multiple people, so it makes sense that they do refer to themselves with plural pronouns, since they want to speak representatively of the entire company. Case and point, scope matters. Every business has its own size, which is determined by: advertising frequency, international provision, market audience, market ownership, product demand, and physical branches. In the case of a fursuit business, these are respectively almost always FA ads to no ads, worldwide shipping, furry community, average ownership, limited demand, and one phycial location: the maker's house. Of course, the figures given are like I said, average, and I can't dictate if you want to limit your costume creation to only the furry community or the outside world, with roadside advertisements and several physical locations and shit. You are allowed to do that, but it's going absolutely overkill in my opinion, so I and many others will most likely point and laugh at you if you ever decide to stretch that far.

"I'm speaking from a business perspective!"
Which is exactly why you should be using "I" instead of "we". You operate the business on your own, and since your business wouldn't exist without you, you should be speaking for yourself and not for a phantom second person who would be helping you. I think you should be proud of managing a business by yourself; it's a great achievement and the building blocks of your possibly huge career, and you decide to go through the hardship of dealing with all the baggage that comes with running a business yourself instead of getting a second person to carry the load for you. I'm not demonizing the decision to operate a business with more persons, but simply saying that managing a business on your own is something that the operator should be proud of, since keeping track of financial records, ordering materials, storing customer records, answering questions and emails, and of course building the suits, all by yourself, is definitely nothing to scoff at. If anything, this should compel future fursuit builders to refer to themselves as "I". Though there is virtually no incentive needed not to refer to yourself with plural pronouns if you're a single business owner; it's just common decency, and there is no rhyme or reason to do this shit either other than to appear self-righteous and greater than what you actually are.
In essence, this argument is a more subtle hybrid version of the first two arguments above. How would you know that using plural pronouns to refer to the business operation constitutes a business perspective?

"But what if I find someone I want to work with in the future?"
Then you just switch every instance of "I" and "my" with "we" and "our". Copy it into Microsoft Word, Ctrl+H and bam, you're done in less than five minutes. Are you that fucking lazy? Your business appearance represents the contemporary you, not the future you.

If you really want to speak representatively of your own business without coming off as a pretentious asshole, I suggest you use the name you're doing business under to refer to yourself in the introductory section of your business. Even though I'm also not that big of a fan of constantly using your username to refer to yourself if you're a single business operator, the introduction of your business speaks the loudest, so I think it is warranted there. In all other cases, you should just use the singular pronouns. It's a lot more personal and emanates a friendly attitude that doesn't immediately think they're higher up than their commissioners just because they own a business.

To end this rant on a good note, here are some fursuit makers that - as far as I know - employ reasonable business conduct, have a very personal and point-blank eminence and aren't guilty of being complete arrogant whackjobs:
Beastcub
Skyprofursuits
Wildvskings
http://www.morefurless.com/
http://www.donthugcacti.com/