I realise it has been quite a while since I have posted here and there are a few reasons for it. Mainly it is because work, family and personal reasons are taking most of my time, and partly because I'm lazy.

A couple of you have wished we could chat like we used to. As much as I would like to do so, it is near impossible for me now. Most of you are in the US and the only good time for live chatting is during my morning. This won't work for me as on work days my morning is dedicated to getting to work. And I can’t chat at work as I work in a call centre. Calls non stop. There is some time in the evenings but this is extremely early morning for those in the US and some of you in Australia, well, normally you would be in bed iron I should be getting to bed. I've tried the email or similar chats but it isn't the same and gets stale quick.

Another reason there has been so few posts is because most of my spare time since December has been dedicated to developing circuit boards for a personal project of mine. If it works out I may have a genuine business opportunity. But I need more time to work on it to see if it is viable.

I'll try and be more frequent on my writing, for those who read them, but since my muse changes focus quickly or goes on holiday without me i can't guarantee how frequent it will be.

I've been thinking for a while now about hosting a minecraft server as playing alone most of the time is getting quite boring.

Currently I have an interest in modded packs, namely FTB Infinity with Ex Nihilo added for those who want to hermit away and never be seen or who want to Skyblock a different way. Maybe a couple of other mods added here and there depending on what people want. Maybe the morph mod too.

So on that idea I was wanting to see if there was anyone here who would be interested in joining a whitelisted server some time in the near future? Also if your interested, would you be happy with the proposed mod pack, or would you like something else? It has to be stable though so orespawn will be out as it is laggy.

If I get enough interest I'll see about getting one set up. Maybe in a month or so.
If I do, I'll set up the map to create a spawn village but outside that it would open map.

EDIT:
Also, suggestions for map type would be nice as I normally play on a default.

I know I've seen one around somewhere, but I can't find it.

Does anyone know where I can find a map of Earth and it's territories as per the Chakat Universe?

I was having a discussion with a bloke from the US last night about Aussie only words and made the realisation how many I have been including in my writing. I had been under the impression many of the abbreviations I use are common language but found out it wasn't.
I do apologise to my non Aussie audience whom have no idea what I'm on about sometimes but I'm not sorry. I'm actually chuckling to myself wondering how many people I've managed to get confused.

Expect more of the same or more in the future and have fun reading.

As some of you know, I created a chakat weight calculator and chart demonstrating the different weights of a chakat.

I have been going through some numbers recently and I was thinking that maybe these weights will need to be changed. Here's my working.

I have been looking at the big cats and comparing them to the largest sizes of chakats as per the Introduction to Chakats. Here it is stated the usual upper level measurements of an adult chakat is 1.7 meters tall and 200kg.

The averages of the big cats, namely lions and tigers, comes up like this:
Tiger: 185 to 260kg - 91 to 99cm at the shoulder.
Lion: 145 to 225kg - 81 to 123cm at shoulder.

Some morbid queries of human torso weights and body parts came up with an average human weighing 78kg would on average have a weight of about 50kg when the legs are removed.

With all the additions and averages and recalculations of shoulder height of 90cm at the waist shoulder, I came up with the following based on the 1.7meter chakat.
Chakat weight based off tiger: 260kg
Chakat weight based off lion: 213kg

I acknowledge that both these weights include an overlap with the head of the animal and the pelvis of the human so take off around 10 kg.

So the big question now, is the lower torso of a chakat based more around a lion torso or more around a tiger?
Feedback would be appreciated as there is a huge gap. If Goldfur is able to weigh in on this it would be great too.
I ask due to wanting to redo my now defunct spreadsheet calculator.

Hi all.

As it says, my computer is now back up and running.
In one of my previous journals I said it would cost me almost $600 to redo the computer and I said no to that. Whelp... I have spent around $700 to get it back up and running.
Essentially the only thing that is original in it is the case and drives. Everything else is new because of the bad specs and out-dated hardware. So yep... expensive fix, but cheaper than a new computer.

Sadly, when I was rebuilding the computer, I lost all of my photos. For some reason I never made a backup copy of them at all. Luckily most of my photos were never taken off the original devices to I got them back. I was afraid I had lost almost 3 years of family photos and the kids growing up.

Whelp, now you know what's up. I'll be going back to trying to write my upcoming chapters for my stories.

Looking hack on my old journals I found I had a computer issue around 4 years ago.

Now for this computer's issue.
As I said before, the motherboard failed. Talking to the computer guys I made the realisation that even if I replace the board, there is no guarantee that the problem won't happen again as it may have been a cascading problem that eventually made it to the motherboard. Also, to upgrade my system to play Minecraft FTB I'll have to scrounge around for parts as the motherboard is essentially ancient.
So the decision is to buy a new system altogether. A built one by them will set me back anywhere from $500 to $700 depending on what I select.

So on that note, does anyone have any idea wether a i3 or an i5 would be better to run the most recent FTB mod packs like Infinity? Or will they be around the same? I'm already looking at 8Gb of ram.

As the title implies... CRAP!
On Monday my computer decided it didn't want to turn on. All it would do was turn on with the fans going and a small bit of hard drive activity then nothing. Not even an active monitor.
After a little bit of fiddling and research I came to the conclusion that what may be wrong is the power supply. So I took it to a computer repair place to diagnose the problem.
Whelp, two days of waiting and I get a call from them. The diagnosis. ..

Crapped out motherboard.

Yep. That's right. The damn motherboard died. Best bit. The CPU socket is an outdated 1156 pin type and not the 1150 current systems use, so to get a new motherboard and a new CPU will have to set me back $575 or so for the same equivalent.

Stuff that.

So I go online and I find a couple of places in the good ol US of A who are selling the exact same model of motherboard that died on me. And all for around $120. Hell yes. So I'll be without a computer for around 3 weeks but it looks like I'll be back up and running with few hassles.

Just thought I would let you all know what is happening lately with me.
As you may have noticed I have recently placed a couple of stories but have barely made any comments to anyone. This is because I have recently moved and have been flat out with work and home and unable to get online to do anything. The stories I wrote up and posted on my phone but navigation on the net is not so easy whilst on public transport. And at work I am flat chat on the phones so no chance to comment to anyone.

Also, the internet at the new place was only connected after Christmas. And since then it has been birthdays and getting the house organised.

So sorry for being so quiet for such a long time but I should be getting back into some oft of swing of things. And hopefully getting out of my funk to post some more stories more frequently.

I figure, why not share.
I have been in surgery today and have recently been placed in the ward.
The surgery was to correct an issue I have had for over 10 years. Hopefully it will be permanently fixed.
As for what was done... Lets say it is a guy thing.
Anyhoo. Doing good and should be home tomorrow. I've been ordered on bed rest as walking is, at present, a damn near impossibly.

Hi all.

Just wanted to let you all know that i'll be rewriting my chapters a little to include a little more character movement and emotion as suggested by helixthefallen.

I'll also be rewriting some of the details in relation to the radiation poisoning as some of the details i have are either grossly incorrect or require more detail to be clearer. The overall plot won't change though.

And thank you one and all for the feedback for my last chapter.

Whelp, it has been almost a month since I set out to travel back to Brisbane and a LOT has happened since then.

To start with, the damn place that was servicing my car was giving me the run around as to when it would be ready. In the end they gave me 3 weeks of 'it will be ready in a couple of days' and I was 5 days late heading out.

It took the 2 days I said I would take to travel up here so it was a nice drive instead of straining my endurance like last time.

When I got here there was less than a week till Christmas so it was all hands on deck in getting that sorted out.

Come Christmas Eve I did the cleaning of the floors in the entire house. This is a monumental job in itself and took almost 4 hours in total. Took a nap after finishing and woke up feeling like crap. You know the aches and pains you get when you have the flu? Well I had those and a fever and chills and a bad gut. The fever and chills lasted 3 days but the gut issue lingered for 2 weeks. So I literally had a crappy Christmas, birthday AND new year. I got so bad that I had to go to the hospital. They said I was dehydrated and pumped 2 litres into me. That is an entire day's worth of water your supposed to drink, and it just went in with no issues. I was so bad they prescribed antibiotics for me to try and resolve the issue.

Once I got over that I only had about 3 days till I started work and that has been a hell of a time. Learning all the ins and outs of the new job and getting to know all the legislation regarding job seekers and their rights and stuff. I have to know this as I am now taking calls as part of the complaints desk for Australian Job Seekers. Ugh. My first call and I could only understand about 1 in 50 words of this guy. Luckily I was able to palm off the call to another person. It has gotten much better since then.

So yeah. Been damn busy with Family and the new job and being sick over the Christmas break. So that is where I have been and why I have been a little quiet on here as of the past month.

Hope you had a better Christmas and new year than I did.

First I would like to apologise to all those whom I have said I would be online and chat to. Life has had me low and depressed with my current situation and I haven't been motivated to play games, write, chat or even burn things. The last normally always cheers me up. So I wish to say to you, sorry.

Second, if you are reading this then you are awesome and better than me. I haven't read a journal for months.

Now, the main news is that I'm going to be moving back to Brisbane mid December. I have been so emotionally affected by being seperated from my family because of my work I am fed up. As it stands now, I won't have a job when I get there and honestly, the worries about that come a pale second to wanting to be back with my family. And it isn't much of an option for them to move down here either.

So come the new year I will most likely be unemployed. Again. I am working on trying to get a job in government up there but I really don't know what I'm doing. I have friends who are looking for possible positions for me but who knows if anything will eventuate.

So wish me luck. Come mid December I will be packing up the car again and taking the 16 hour drive back up to Brisbane.

Yay me. Life just sucks some times.

Hi all. Just wanted to let you know that I have updated my ref sheet to reflect Strike's 'proper' weight.

If you are seeing it and it says shi is 200kg then press Ctrl + F5 to refresh.

To start off, my family is down for a month or so to visit me. They have been here now for a little over three weeks.

A little over a week ago, on Thursday night, my oldest son wakes up with a barking cough and barely able to breathe. My wife and I bundle him and his brother into the car and cart him off to the hospital to get checked out. He was having a serious time breathing and it was scaring us. It was midnight and about 3 degrees C out and we couldn't leave the youngest with my parents because he has a bad case of mummy-itis, where if he is more than 1 foot away from her he begins to cry and carry on.

Long story short we go and they diagnose him with croup. I take the next day off work to look after the kids with my wife and it is all ok. Over the weekend they both get sick with runny noses and fevers and the like. So on Monday, the beginning of a week of holidays I had booked a month ago, we go to the doctors. The youngest had a sore throat and the oldest had an ear infection. Yay. So we get their medicatikn and go home and keep them inside as Canberra has daily maximms that are lucky to reach 12 degrees C.

Come Tuesday I catch what they both had in varying degrees. A full blown damn flu and my brain has been mush the entire time. I spent the week cometely misserable and cold and frezing and aching and suffering between doses of flu medication.But I ddidn't stop. We went to the zoo as a family. We had outings and such because there will be little time to do this later.

So come this week I take off Monday because of my flue and my wife, who has been lucky and not got anything so far starts to get a bit of a range runny nose. Today we go to the doctors because she has a sore ear and the youngest has gotten worse again and now she has two ear infectins on top of the flu and I'm barely able to be at work.

So tomorrow I'm staying home to look after everyone and who knows when I or the family will be well enough for me to get back to work.

Later all, from a misserable chakity.

Well, it has been quite a while since I have updated the Black Rose website. http://blackrose.furrynet.com

I have updated it now with a new Stories section and a few new images in the Characters Gallery. At the moment there is only my own writings on there. Not all are Black Rose based.

The gallery elements have been updated and now work better. With a previous update of some background code the image gallery ceased to function normally.

If you are a member of the Black Rose and there is anything you want added to the site please comment below with the details. Input is much needed as this project has stalled.

Holy crap has this been a long week.

I have been examining my workload and realised that in the past three days I have spent two of them fixing other peoples issues. And technically that isn't my job. I work in policy and not in the help desk. Now I'm mentally knackered and looking forward to the weekend.

Well, i've been back for a week now and i've been busy with work and study.

Work has been hectic and i've been busy at home doing reports and working on presentations for my studies and it has been taking all my time.

I have been able to check up here on FA every now and then while on the bus to and from work but that is it. Haven't really been able to read journals effectively or ready any stories.

Hopefully after wednesday i'll be able to get back into a normal swing of things.

Oh, and amongst everything else, i had some time late friday nightn to saturday morning to play on the minecraft server i'm connected to. Some of you know it. It is Furry Town. In a couple of hours i had collected enough eye of enders to find the end and defeated the dragon. All without cheats and after dying about a dozen times. But now i have beaten it on the server and have the dragon egg as a trophy.

This was also on a night that i couldn't sleep and everyone i wanted to chat to was not online due to they were either asleep or at work as it was the middle of the day in the US. And a Friday to boot.

Justy letting you all know i'm going to be visiting my family for the next 10 days so i'll be offline for that time.

Hey all.

I'm really bad at names so i have taken a long time to think of a name for Goldstrike when shi was a cub.

This is the name that hir birth parents gave hir.

I was thinking of Thawun-baraay-WuRuga.

This is taken form the Australian aboriginal language of the Kamilaroi people.

English translation:
thawun - earth, ground or dirt. (Closest translations to english.)
thawun-baraay - dirty
wuRuga - calf of leg

So a literal translation is close to Chakat Dirtyleg. Please note, there is no word that i can find that is for leg, nor any where that i can find what they use for the plural of calf.


I'm still working on the name Strike is given when shi is adopted but that name will be a little further down the track. So your opinions would be helpful.

Just want to put down what has been happening with me and let you all know.

But to start, i know that a lot of people will delete this journal without even checking out. Even less will look in it to see if anything is interesting and decide not and remove it. Then there even fewer that will read and not comment. I'd like to say to those people, thank you for taking time out of your day to see how i'm going. And for those few who read and comment, i thank you whole heartedly and repeat for previous. It is much appreciated as well.

Now to me.

I guess you caould say i'm depressed, bored, unmotivated and all meh.

Why? Well, i got a new job after having been unemployed for 9 months. I've been at this new job for going on 6 months now. Damn. It has gone fast.

That isn't the depressing bit. What it is, is that i am 1250km or so away from my wife and kids. I'm in Canberra while they are in Brisbane. I call them every night just to try to connect and talk to them, but my now 3 year old says a few words and runs off to play. And my 1 year old doesn't even talk yet. And my poor wife is stuck up there while she finishes her university course. And we have no real money for me to fly up there and back on the wekends to visit.

So when i left was end of September and didn't see them again for 2 months. They were down for 2 months over christmas and new years but went back end of January.

I'm currently living with my parents and my wife is living with hers. But she has it worse. She has to rely on her mother to look after the kids while she goes to university 3 days of the week. And her mum has a bad back and gets sore quite easily. On top of that her mum is having marital issues with her current, second husband and they are always arguing and carrying on so her mum is always depressed. And since my wife is her confidant, she gets all the crap piled on her and she gets depressed from it too. And at the end of the day she gets teary and needs a hug but can't get it.

What really pulls on my heart and makes me feel even worse it when i am on the phone, my 3 year old says, miss you daddy. I can't tell my wife it hurts when i hear that. I miss them so much. And he goes around all day saying that and asking where daddy is.

It also doesn't help that the step dad is a shovanistic pig as well. He treats women with a lot of disrespect, BUUUUT will only do it if there is no other males around, or does it with males who will support him.

So here i am, a long way from those whom i love and want to be with but can't. Wanting to be there to help and support them, but can't because i need to work to support my family. I'm depressed because of it and lonely. And i've got nothing to do here. And on top of that, i'm unmotivated to write or get creative.

So for those who RP with me or who are waiting for the next part of my story, please be patient. I'm really not my happy self at the moment and don't feel inspired to even get out of bed at the moment, but do because of my sense of responsibility to my family. So if i'm slow on my RPs or not on chat, this is why. I don't want to be a drag on every one and pull down anything good or fun.

And i'm not looking for sympathy of well wishes or anything else. I know those who know me care enough to want the best for me. And i'm not asking for people to try and make me feel better. Nothing short of me being with my family will solve that.

And for those who don't know me don't really care 'cause i don't affect their lives, that is fine. It is the same with me too. I may care on some level, but in reality, there is little or nothing that can be done.

There is one small bit of good though. I'll be up with my family in two weeks, for a week. It will be good, but nowhere long enough.

I should be happy though. I have full time work that i am good at. Which is better than a lot of people have at the moment. And is the best paying job i have ever had to boot. It is still hard in the end though. You know, if i was female and more in-tune with my emotions like women are, i would be crying myself to sleep every night the way i am now. But i'm not. I'm a dude, and crying over emotions is almost impossible for me. So it all says inside and gets me down in an ever incresing tide of sadness and depression.

Damn it sucks being a male at times. Sometimes i wish i could be my forsona as shi is better with hir emotions, with a male and female side, which allows for a more stable emotional state. But alas, it is not so.

So yeah. I think that's it.

Nuf said.

Taken from  hg3300

---

Do you have the following in your bedroom?

Condoms:
Of course.

Cell phone:
Duh. Who doesnt these days?

Book shelf:
Yep.

Couch:
Nope.

Futon:
Hell no.

Computer/laptop:
1 computer

Pictures:
Yep. Family pics and some animal ones my brother took.

Mirror:
Yep.

Skateboard:
Nope.

Bed:
Yep. Queen ensemble.

Smoke detector:
Just outside the door.

Piano/keyboard/Guitar/bass/drums:
No. Definately not. I can play the piano and keyboard but there is no way they will be in my bedroom.

Blacklight:
Heck no. Those aren't good for you.

Lava Lamp:
No.

CDs:
Heaps. A huge amount from over the years.

Flag:
Nope.

Stop sign/any sign:
No.

Paintball gun:
Heck no. My last experience with paintball left me with a broken leg.

Real Gun:
Hell no.

Cigarettes:
What? No. Definately no.

Pot:
Again, hell no. Seriously? Think some one will answer this truthfully anyway?

Any drugs:
What kind of drugs? Perscription drugs, definately, but illicit ones, nope.

Alcohol:
Nope.

Books:
Aye.

Ps2:
Boo. I only have a PS1. No time to play either.

Xbox:
No.

Gamecube:
Nope.

Stereo:
No. Damn, i haven't had one in 8 years.

Gum:
No.

How many windows do you have in your room:
One.

What is the color of your walls?
Beige. I think. maybe a cream colour.

Do you get ready for the day in your room or the bathroom?
My room.

What's on your walls?
Surround speakers, calendar and the pics my brother took.

Has the opposite sex been in your room before?
Uh yes. I'm married.

Has the opposite sex been on your bed?
See above.

Has the opposite sex slept in your bed?
Again, see above.

Ever had sex in your bed?
Heck yes. MARRIED!

Who usually sleeps in your bed other than you?
Sadly, at the moment just me. But my wife when she comes to visit.

Do you like your bedroom:
No. It is too small and i'm boarding with my parents for the year.

Hey all. First off i'd like to say thank you for all those who are watching me. I took a look today and realised that i now have over 100 watchers. 122 at the present moment.

WOW! Just WOW! Thank you all, i'm totally amazed.

I've also updated my icon. Press Ctrl + F5 to see it. I'll also be occassionally changing it every now and then depending on my mood. So, every now and then just refresh the cache to see how i'm feeling.

And i must thank everyone for the amazing response to my ref sheets. It has been amazing.

Oh, i also am putting a call out to see if anyone knows who gifted the ref sheet to my friend  scytherwarlock of his character Tiladon found here http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9442060/ . I feel like trying to track down who it might be. Any help will be appreciated. All i have been able to find out is it is one of his friends. And yes, the ref sheet looks to have cost a motza so he really wants to find out.

I wan to thank all everyone who faved my last two uploads. You have blown me away with how many there are. So much so i don't have the time to thank all of you individually.

THANK YOU ALL!!!!!

You are all awesome.

If you want to show how much you like these images, then go watch  sabretoothedermine and leave her a positive shout. She is an awesome artist as you can see.

I hate tech sometimes. My phone is one example.

It has been working fine for ages then suddenly some of the programs on it decide it is too hard to work and find it funny to give me the shits. Repeatedly.

Like my phones built in instant messenger. I have had no problems then a few weeks ago it refuses to recieve messages. Now it doesn't last 5 mins without it having a session error.

And there is the internet browsers. One sucks but allows better scripting functionality while the other doesn't do scripts. And it has issues with loading pages.

Then there are issues with call connections.

#*@&% phone. No more about it.

So now i am looking at getting a new one and i'm looking to see if any of you could give me some feedback. I'm looking at either a Nokia Lumia 800, or the Samsung Galaxy S3. These i choose because of a long battery life potential. I do know the nokia does not support flash, but uses html5 instead.

So does any one have one or know of some one who does and leave some feedback so i have a bit more knowledge on what to get.