Recently I submitted a short story to a literary magazine for publication for the first time. Today I got my first rejection letter! How exciting! I'm a real writer now!

So, I can't classify myself as a fursuiter .... maybe a wanna be, but fursuiters -- "real" ones -- are performance artists, and that's just not something I've ever even thought about for me and something I've never developed a talent for. Anyway, I'm already some sort of canid, so what's the point of dressing up as one?

However, I dressed up as a a different animal (Ash Fox) this past Halloween and had the Halloween of my life. Well, three ladies in my wife's Bible study, out of the blue, asked for an Ash Fox encore appearance at the next family pot luck! How could I refuse? I mean: three women asked! And there'll be a huge handful of pups and kits, and I've always loved playing with the offspring. And me give up a chance to go out in public showing my ears and tail? No way!

So, first Friday in January, I guess the local kitsune will be lurking around the church basement!

So .... I'm in the final stages of prepping a short story for my first attempt to really get something published ....

I really want to be a writer when I grow up and start my second career in a few years. I won't mind if this first attempt is rejected, but I do hope it at least gets the equivalent of an honorable mention so I can feel that it is even feasible for me to think I can make money as a writer.

I putting it in the required submission format and getting some final critiques from family, friends, etc., right now.

Happy St. Nick Day! Today is the feast day of St. Nicholas. We honor the German tradition where the kids put their shoes out the night before and when they wake up find them filled with candy and/or gifts. The tradition remembers the boundless generosity of this great bishop and Saint.

What I did over my Thanksgiving Vacation
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First, you must know that last year for Christmas I got a pair of fuzzy feety pajamas (http://www.amazon.com/Del-Rossa-Fleece-Hooded-Pajamas/dp/B005L9ZMYE/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1). They are most excellent, except for the fact that the soles of the feet are made of thin fabric. Within a month I wore a hole in one of them. Fortunately, and one of the selling points for me of the pajamas, the feet are removable, by means of a zipper.

While I was replacing the worn pieces, including using leather for the soles, I went ahead and turned them into paws. Here's a pic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15155293/

Though they are removable, they are made loose to work with the pajamas, so they don't work well as stand-alone slippers. So, over the Thanksgiving holidays, I whipped these out: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15155315/

They represent a couple of experimental techniques on my part, including steel toe nails (I ground a steel rod and then painted it with automotive touch-up enamel).

In the meantime, my mate, the pups, and I gave Snapdragon a try -- a game involving raisins floating in a bowl of flaming brandy. I'm sorry I don't have a very good picture. My mate could only find the smartphone for the photographs and it didn't work very well, but you get the idea: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15155352/

More info on Snapdragon here: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godand.....11/snapdragon/

Once those were done, I realized my best friend, Proxy (who my mate made for me over the summer), didn't have a Christmas hat: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15155373/
So I made him one. It isn't very good, but he said he's just happy to have a hat: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15155395/

Then I wrote this poem, inspired by Lois Ehlert's "Moon Rope": http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15110998/


All-in-all a very satisfying four days off!

My mate's report on verbal exchange at home. Names removed to protect the still innocent:

Pup #4 (male): Argh! I hate hiccups! If I could just burp they would all go away!

Pup #1 (male): Can't you burp on cue?

Pup #2 (female): Actually, he can burp on EVERY letter of the alphabet....

The Red Wolf Coalition has a matching donation opportunity for the next few days. Donate to help save red wolves!

http://fb.me/3q0p3L58v

The 5th Joyful Mystery of the Rosary is "The Finding of Jesus in the Temple". It is found in Scripture at Luke 2:41. Every year, Jesus and his (earthly) parents would go to Jerusalem for the Passover. When Jesus was 12, on the way home, they realized he was missing, so they went back toward Jerusalem looking for him. They found him in the temple with the leading theologians of the time and these guys were amazed at his wisdom.

I was talking with a friend of mine about this recently. Though he likely headed toward the temple intentionally, he was separated from this parents and not where he was expected to be. His parents assumed, I'm sure, that he had gotten himself lost. Maybe he was hanging with some cousins (remember John the Baptist was his cousin and the families were close enough that Mary visited Elizabeth while they were both pregnant and stayed with her six months) who assumed he was with Mary and Joseph when they left town, while maybe Mary and Joseph assumed he was with other relatives.

In any case, Jesus was left behind in Jerusalem and I'm sure was considered "lost" by his parents and that he was aware he was left in Jerusalem without them. So he wandered around and ended up in the temple. There he sought out the elders of the temple and spoke with them, asking questions, I'm sure, and in asking, teaching them through the wisdom he had by virtue of his divine aspect.

But what occurred to us while discussing this mystery was that wherever he went, he always went prayerfully: that is, mindful of the Father and the desires and will of the Father, thus no matter what circumstances of his getting there, wherever he ended up blessed all around him.

If we get lost, geographically, or error in the work or other actions and behaviors we take, we most often think that it is all misfortune and waste. But God doesn't work that way: as he did at the Creation, he always brings order from chaos. As long as we pursue every moment prayerfully, even when we get lost or err, God will take what we are offering Him, bless it, and return it to us perfected and effective for service to His Kingdom.

So if we keep Him always in mind, we may wander and get lost or make mistakes and yet we will always discover that we are exactly where we most need to be and have done what we most should have done. We truly will be "like water", flowing around the obstacles we inadvertently place before ourselves or that the world sets in our path, and where we flow God will work blessings.

Thus it makes no sense to get upset when we get lost or make a mistake. That would be, in one sense, sacrilegious and sinful. Instead of cursing, we should admit the error, make a note to do better in the future, but in the moment seek how God has orchestrated the universe such that our error is a blessing.

This is, I think, the foundation of what it means to "pray always."

So, I started work on this story I had an idea for about 2 months ago and I had this outline and some themes and symbols and character ideas. Then I started writing it yesterday and today and following the outline and as usual it just isn't going where I thought. I get into scenes and characters and by the time I feel OK with it, I'm several pages along on part that isn't crucial to the plot, but really does paint some nice environment and characters. Then I don't know what to do with it. Cut it? Start over? Leave it and keep going.

Same old story ... my short stories never are really all that short

Have to say, I've seen some really cool and clever stuff submitted to FA in the last few days .... Keep it up, furs!

I think I might become addicted to making fursuits and pieces of them. I've got my next in mind -- based on a raccoon. I started researching raccoon anatomy and was (pleasantly) surprised at the degree of similarity between raccoon and human skeletal architecture. When 'coons stand on their hind feet, for example, they are flat-footed, and their hind feet are generally human-shaped, so I don't have to create an optical illusion of digitigrade feet for plantigrade users -- my raccoon will always walk on his hind feet While their fore-paws do not have opposable thumbs, their toes look like five fingers, so the forepaws will be easier than my fox (I made "gloves" for that with 4 stubby-looking toes my five fingers filled).

The skull is very similar to the fox (for my purposes), but with a shorter snout, and the eyes are solid black -- if I want realistic ones I don't have to detail pupils, irises, and sclera. I think black eyes will work better for the character anyway, so I'm happy with that.

The rib cage looks rounder and more human like than canine rib cages, too ....

Haven't posted here in quite some time, not even a pic. Been busy with a programming project in my free time, but maybe its time to get back here more ....

That collie is elusive. Aw, well.... I've been distracted, anyway. I'm writing a content management system and teaching myself to weld in order to make a crucible to further my self-education in backyard metal casting. Why? Because in the end I think that'll be an easier way to make custom brass hardware than cutting pieces from door kickplates with a jigsaw.

But I digress. I realized that the true beauty in life is learning to make things using skills new to us. It's the reflection of the creator in us, I guess. Most important is that we try and why we make. So do what you do for something much greater than you, and know in that gift of giving that you have made a masterpiece......... even if what *I* make isn't.

I met someone late last night - a collie mix. I can't be starting another relationship right now ... I have Krya to consider, after all ...

But I can't get rid of her! She keeps coming back into my mind, begging to be released! I don't even know her name.

This one is insidious. The others were friendly, this one only appears to be.