Miss Wing Commander? Tie Fighter? Privateer? StarLancer, Freelancer? http://www.robertsspaceindustries.c...../star-citizen/

HELP BRING THESE GAMES BACK! Check it out and consider donating to get a free copy of the game (or possibly more, depending on how much you give) on release!

A.K.A. Who we are and what we stand for! ( http://banthas.enjin.com/ )

Bantha Buccaneers is a Star Wars the Old Republic guild. We are, in order of priority:

1 - A family.
2 - A furry guild.
3 - A general guild.
4 - A Republic guild.

All Banthas stand for fairness.

All Banthas stand for sportsmanship.

All Banthas stand for kindness.

We recognize that these things are becoming increasingly rare in our world today, and together, we will see to it that the Banthas are a beacon. We will be the shining light that that leads the Republic, and our server, to that most ultimate of victories - victory of spirit.

We are not furry exclusive. But we are very largely furry, and proud of it! We don't feel furries are "superior" to anyone. We're not like that. We will never be like that. We just like to hang out around similar folks, and others who will accept us for who we are. None of these core tenets will change. Ever.

Together we sail, eternally into night, always through to dawn.

~First Guild Master, Bantha Buccaneers

---

PS: We are on Mind Trick (US). Republic.

We are the Bantha Buccaneers. We are a furry friendly Republic guild. To sign up, hit http://www.swtor.com/guilds/284563/.....tha-buccaneers

And yes, you read that right. We're the BANTHA BUCCANEERS, baby! Yeehaw! Or is that "Avast, 'ye maties?"

Our guild goals will be:

- Social, friendly environment for furs and cool folks we meet in-game.
- Mature players and enforced code of conduct.
- Once established, a ranking system with flexible but established criteria for advancement - we want to minimize the "popularity contest" effect of many clans and guilds, while giving leadership the flexibility to select capable leadership as members advance and needs arise.
- We wish to help one another with quests, crafting, etc.
- We wish to one day do endgame content as we grow.
- We wish to do pvp content as we grow.
- We are casual and "medium core," but we also accept hardcore players if they're willing to be in our ranks.
- We pledge to help one another. We're all part of the same family as a guild, and for the furries among us, we're a family as a sub-culture as well. Let's band together and make a fantastic guild in this fantastic new MMORPG! Together, we'll make our TOR experiences grand!

For those interested in my qualifications, I'll lay it out plainly. I have extensive experience with guild and clan leadership in games which pre-date MMOs' massive rise in popularity, as well as MMOs. I was an officer and game division leader in the multi-game clan Void Alliance. I was an officer in one of the largest furry guilds in early to mid-WoW history, Fellowship of the Huskies. I co-founded The Order of the Claws, one of the largest furry guilds to date in WoW, and was their Executive Officer. Later, I left WoW due to increasing disinterest in the game, and Order of the Claws has gone on to be an incredibly successful guild under numerous different competent leaderships - I'm proud of the entire guild. I was a Squadron Leader in the niche game Jumpgate for the Solrain Guard, and served in PvP anti-piracy conflicts within the game. In EVE Online, I was XO of a pvp/pve and mining guild over 100 members strong - Miners with Boomsticks! I've raided. Over the years I've matured a great deal as well, and have made some trusted friends who have proven themselves level-headed and capable leaders. These friends are joining TOR. I feel this maturation, guild leadership experience, and a solid and trusted command staff could help us all to found an incredible guild which we can enjoy. So I beseech you, fellow furries, join us in an incredible MMO - Star Wars: The Old Republic.

~Icefox, Bantha Buccaneers Guild Leader

PS: And in case you were wondering my impressions on TOR after my participation in beta weekend, here it is plain and simple: This is the first MMORPG that prioritizes its existance as an RPG before MMO. TOR, in short, is (2)RPG + MMO. The result of this formula is nothing short of a breath of fresh air for an increasingly stale MMOG industry. TOR is breathtaking, engrossing, immersive, story-oriented, social, streamlined, and intelligent.

I hate talking about this with anyone, much less the entire furry community. But I also can't run from this forever. To make this easier for myself, I'll go through this point by point.

1 - I am a morbidly obese person. I weigh, at present, a shocking 480-490 lbs. It is hard to say where I am in that range because affordable personal scales tend to have a harder time with accuracy as you go up for various reasons, and I'd imagine all the extra "water weight" a huge body can hold would result in a lot of fluctuation as well.

2 - In terms of the completely unreal, fantasy world of what we choose to imagine ourselves and portray ourselves as "physically" in furry, I am not morbidly obese. This is not something I am comfortable with being. This is not something I accept about myself. This is not something I find acceptable. This is not something I want to fantasize about being - EVER. Most furries idealize themselves in their furry forms in one manner or another. One way I do it is in relation to being a healthy, skinny sort of fox "in-character." One reason I am not very keen on getting a fursuit even though I want one desperately is that I do not want my character to be fat, and to wear that suit while I'm this weight - well, you get the idea. That said, I'm considering it anyway - it would sure encourage me to exercise more at cons too, and I shouldn't get too self-conscious - for every fur that finds my weight disgusting, there's a chubby chaser wanting to glomp any big fursuiters they see. Sigh. :P

3 - Given the above, given the health concerns such high weight brings, given I have been heavy since the onset of puberty and it has only gotten worse over the years, given I have bi-polar depression and hypothyroidism which not only can lead to weight gain but heart problems if you don't manage it with medication (which I have skipped taking far too often in the last year), one can conclude I NEED TO GET MY SHIT TOGETHER.

This is a wake-up call. IF I DO NOT DO SOMETHING, I AM GOING TO DIE. Probably soon™. I do not want to die. Anyone that knows me very well personally knows that my fear of death is ridiculously high, even for someone my age. I don't wake up as much at night as I used to worrying about it, but I still do sometimes. Maybe I'd fear it less if I didn't feel it was watching over my shoulder. I'm afraid. And that's okay. But I need to use that nervous energy positively.

Not to induce panic or anything with myself here, but honestly, I think I need to take this situation a little, or rather, a LOT more seriously. I can't just continue to stick my head in the sand and either a.) Pretend everything is okay or b.) Beat myself up and talk about how terrible life is and how terrible I am and spend all my energy on self-esteem downing nonsense instead of what I actually need - action. I've talked with my doctor, and I have a plan I'd like to share with those of my friends who keep up with FA, and anyone else that cares to take an interest.

What I'm doing (and have been for a couple days now):
1 - Taking medication every day. Synthroid is necessary, and my bipolar meds are necessary. They're required for their own reasons like heart and mental health, but they'll help me lose weight as well through a properly functioning metabolism and better, more stable moods.
2 - Exercise for 30-45 minutes every day. Walking around the neighborhood, and perhaps making an ass of myself on DDR at home as I feel healthier again.
3 - Watching what kinds of foods I eat, though not cutting myself off from them entirely. Swearing off of things like cheesecake or burgers forever will result in diet failure. The key is MODERATION when I eat, and eating that stuff infrequently.
4 - Which brings us to the most important point - Moderating my caloric intake. If I eat like a cow, I'll look like a cow, not a fox. I don't approve of this.

I feel unattractive, unhealthy, and stupid. Whether or not I am or not isn't as important as how I feel about it. I need to stop feeling that way about it, and losing weight is no miraculous fix-all - but it would help. I'm aware that I'm eating myself into an early grave, and I'm a very intelligent person - intelligent enough to see truly how sad and foolish that is. Therefore, limits must be imposed.

My "weak" willpower needs to be improved. I need to stop telling myself I have bad willpower and instead, as one of my most beloved friends told me, "admit that willpower is something [I] could stand to improve." Insulting myself and insisting my willpower is bad just lets me surrender on some intrinsic, subconscious level, even as I claim to work on it. So, what do I need to practice throwing my improving willpower at? LIMITING WHAT I EAT EVERY DAY. I will be limiting myself to 2,000 calories a day as recommended by my doctor, and once weight loss becomes difficult at that level of restriction I'll up the calorie limit and increase exercise to bring my body out of "starvation" mode and settle in for the long-haul of losing weight. Last time I did that, I lost 50 lbs before I hit that limit, and then lost another 20 in the long-haul portion. I got down to 350 when I was done. Sadly, I ballooned back up to 400, and over time, to 480. I'm tempted to write "What have I done..." but it's unproductive. Instead, I must look at this as a challenge. Probably one of the greatest challenges I'll ever face.

And I'll kick its ass.

Gamers do that to challenges.

A bit late, admittedly. This is primarily a message to the Americans on FA, but folks of other national persuasions might find this interesting (and more than a bit scary). It's "old" news now, but I decided to inform my family about what has been going on lately with SOPA since they were in the dark about it and curious. If you, like them, were in the dark about it, please read this. This litigation could bring down many websites we all know and love and trap us in hellish and unnecessary litigation in the name of neutralizing only a small portion of piracy. It could even possibly bring down interest sites like FurAffinity if it were to pass. That said, it seems to have been stopped - but it doesn't hurt to remain watchful and make sure our voices remain heard.

Here we go:

http://americancensorship.org/
http://lofgren.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=661&Itemid=125
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-v.....ill-has-failed

We, the American people and the minority in Congress that saw the Stop Online Piracy Act for what it was, just defeated what is arguably the greatest single threat to our civil liberties we have faced within the past 10 or 20 years - and largely because of the Internet. Thank you, Free Internet. You do us proud and prove once again why you are an indispensable part of our culture and the best "watchdog" against government corruption ever invented. Before, SOPA was expected to pass under the radar, quickly and efficiently, just like lobbyists wanted. Now? We've stopped it dead in its tracks. Together. And in case you're wondering if this was a fringe issue, it wasn't - just check the links above and do your own independent research. As Nancy Pelosi tweeted to her fellow congressmen, #Dontbreaktheinternet. When Yahoo walks OUT on the Chamber of Commerce (which was pushing this bill in its current form) and even Google publicly shares that they are strongly considering doing the same, you should know there is a serious problem afoot.

Oh, Congress! When you're looking for ways to solve social and economic problems, don't take advice from Hollywood. In fact, from here on out, let's ixnay on the adviceay from Hollywood in general, 'kay? Seriously, look up the statistics sometime, the Entertainment Industry doesn't even make up a significant portion of our economy, and our officials were lined up and rushing to their aid, ready to take calls from them like they're the banking or foreclosure (oops, sorry, I meant housing!) industry! ;p

Seriously. Hollywood just essentially tried to take us a huge step in the direction of, say, Iran. All so they could sell more of their garbage. I have a bright idea as to how they can sell more movies - how about make GOOD... ONES? Brilliant concept, I know. Someone should write that down. Oh wait. I just did.

When did "Those who can't sell, litigate" become one of the facts of life?

Though SOPA is probably dead in its tracks, it doesn't hurt to send off another mail via Americancensorship.org - feel free, if you feel opposed to this atrocious litigation. No harm helping to keep the point absolutely clear in a matter this critical to our freedoms and security.

OCCUPY WALL STREET, folks! Look it up if you're not familiar, as this one's important whether you love or hate politics! We can keep living as we have been, or we can stand together and institute true global reform. Our global society of unfettered capitalism run amok must change. Capitalism is good in moderation, even necessary, but our societies' left moderation behind years ago. Many polls have shown over 50% of Americans agree and are behind this movement, so if you're somewhere in the world and think this is pointless because we're in the minority - think again, we're not. Even in America, people are rising up against an inherently flawed system led by an utterly corrupt leadership. We have become a group of oligarchic democracies in which we "elect" corrupt corporate politicians A, B, or sometimes C. In a world where global change and homogenization is a very real phenomenon, we cannot afford to sit idly by and allow this to continue to spread from nation to nation. Where will we flee to for our freedoms when the entire globe has fallen under this shadow? Have faith in each other, and stand together. We'll change the world one person, one vote, one protest, one city at a time.

Amid all this chaos, understand that we are rooted within a peaceful movement. But this does not mean we will not stand our ground. As John F. Kennedy said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." It is in my sincere hope that peaceful revolution is possible. But one way or another, if we are to restore our democracies, this must happen.

Things've been interesting lately. Met a local fur that seems pretty cool, and I've been entirely too social in general lately. Anyone who is extremely extroverted will understand the concept of "biting off more people than you can chew" I imagine. ;p (No, that was not a reference to vore, but points for perversion.)

Also met up with a couple furs from PA the other day. NICE folks. Hope to see them again soon, or failing that, we'll all be at Anthrocon. Woot.

The new icon is courtesy  Zambuka

Check their stuff out. It's awesome. :3

My new FA icon above is thanks to  Kalira9! She is awesomesauce. Be sure to check her out. While you're at that, check out  Kwan, who heaped an awesome load of appreciation on me a bit ago, for which I remain immensely pleased and red-toned (and was the origin of my LAST icon, FRILLY HAIRED ICEFOX™). Between the both you, I'll become a purple fox at this rate.

This was a gift, so thanks are in order! Thanks Kalira! Gosh, between the art lubbins Kwan and Kalira are both heaping on me lately, I'm going to like, be buried in a pile of mushy blush. I always have thought one of the sweetest gifts are those crafted by someone's own hands. They just make me melt. I feel so lubbed. Thank you, both of you, for being fabulous friends in the first place, and then on top of that tossing awesome hand-crafted awesomesauce art at me. I will collapse into a pile of red blush now, what with all the attention and gifting lately.

The icon is actually a small part of a larger con badge, which is in turn part of a full pic in progress, which is epic win! Wowee. :3

Pardon my obvious attempt at building brand equity. Zomg capitalism (though only one of them is thinking of commissions later on. Kwan shies away from the whole commission gig nowadays, for which I can't blame her really, as it can be quite thankless and low income per time invested). I seriously think both aforementioned artists deserve more recognition, even if they BOTH disagree and are all ridiculously humble. Silly girls. SILLY GIRLS. Still, being humble is good, and it helps develop art skills all the better.

Still, part of me is all like, acknowledge your talents or I shall unleash my foxcrabs on you. Seriously. Headcrab + Fox. Look up "Headcrab" and Half Life 2 if you don't get it. Now mix a fox with it. <3 When they attach to your head, they make you think of only sex, and you therefore seek out warm bodies like a disturbing (rutting..) zombie. YOU DON'T WANT THAT. Srsly.

Ahem. Anyway, hope everyone out there is doing well. Things are mostly okay over here. Going out tomorrow to a Philharmonic Orchestra performance to celebrate my anniversary with my boyfriend. It's actually on the 7th, but the orchestry performance is on the 2nd, so we'll be doing some celebrating on the 2nd, and then a little more private celebrating on the 7th. Should be awesome and a half. AND NO, I DID NOT MEAN PRIVATE CELEBRATING THAT WAY. Sheesh, furverts. I swear.

Utilikilts? Seriously?

 Kwan scares me sometimes.

Though I must admit, they are kind of cute. In a disturbing kind of way.

Woo! Lot going on here. A quick summary of my life at present! And next time, I think I'll actually write about something INTERESTING rather than my boring 'ole life. *grin* We'll see. I've got some comments about a number of games I've tried lately, not just the one I will end up addressing in this post. Anyway, on to the blather!

- Got a new job at Best Buy! Good stuff. I start on the 14th. Best of all, I'm going to be working in the media dept, and the GM wants me focusing on the gaming section of it in particular. I'm tickled pink about it. Sure, it is retail, but it's retail I could seriously ENJOY. Well, as much as one can enjoy such a Dark Art. ;)

- My mother is going into surgery in a few days. Hysterectomy and biopsy in one - need to see if a cyst she has is cancerous or not. Blood tests came back bad, BUT they can give false positives and even if she had it, there's a decent chance she's caught it early. That said, I'm still worried about her. I love her very dearly.

- I've gotten involved in Planetside again. It is the world's first Massively Multiplayer Online First-Person Shooter, and remains the most unique MMO I have ever played. I'd highly recommend giving it a try, but to play the 14-day free trial you have to download Sony's "Station Launcher" program, which is blah. But imo, worth it if only to experience it, even if one doesn't subscribe to it. If anyone DOES decide to give it a try, send me a note or reply here with the name you take in the game and I can give you a grand tour. ;)

- I've put college off for now. I need to focus on my job, especially with the debt I've accrued. I promised myself years ago I would never allow myself to get more than $500 in debt in my life (with exception to a mortgage or car loan), but this appears to have gone by the wayside. However, the spending was absolutely necessary and not flippant, so I don't feel guilty about it. It just annoys me.

- I've been learning a lot about leadership and getting along with folks lately. That is to say, I already knew a lot of this stuff, but I'm being forced to put it into practice. It's interesting how you can KNOW a lot of things, and yet until you practice them, they don't really sink in fully. I've been thrust into a leadership position in a large, fairly professional "guild" (we call them "Outfits") in Planetside. I can't say I mind - I enjoy organizing and leading others. I like "giving a hand" to people and helping them out. But even with this single week, I've learned quite a bit. I suppose it helps when there is a 64-year old guild leader that has taken you under his wing as a mentor and talks your ear off in TS a lot. *laughs and grins* He's a sweet old guy, though, and I believe he has a lot to offer me if I listen to his counsel.

- Rabbit Valley's arctic fox postman featured in their present advertisement continues to receive my approval. My goodness he's cute. What I'd do to just take him home and... *ahem* Nevermind. *A halo appears above his head, and he goes about whistling innocently*

- A pair of lumps found in my own arm appear to be benign according to the MRI I recently got done, so those of you I told about this can relax now. I'm still going to talk with the doctor himself though, as so far I just talked with the nurse about the results. I'm pleased with this, for obvious reasons, not the least of which is that mom has enough on her plate to worry about as-is.

- Thanks to all my pals that have been supportive of me! Things have been very stressful of late, and I've had to face a lot of things that a sheltered kid like myself never had before in the past year. I'm glad I've got a nice group of folks that take good care of me, and I hope I take good care of you guys in return.

Can't really think of much else for now. Sorry about the length. Boring, I know. Next time, I'll post about something a little more interesting. ;)

PS: I've looked around and maybe I am just blind, but I can't find a reference to what the tag that cuts a journal off on the main page is. You know, the one that allows you to keep the full thing from popping up and leaves a "Read More" button below so you don't spam people with a LONG journal entry right on the front page. Could someone be a dear and let me know what the tag is for this?

I'm going to see if I can get to writing in this journal a bit more often. I would frankly rather write here than on something like Livejournal, which has become quite a drama-infested quagmire nowadays. I hear FA can be bad as well, but I cannot imagine how it could come anywhere close to LJ. Also, I'm more comfortable in an exclusively furry community than LJ anyhow.

My life has changed a lot since last post. I'm not one to think so highly of myself as to think many folks would care, but for those very, very few who may be curious, I'm living with a kangaroo fur that goes by Lander. He just happens to be my mate. ;) I also continue to enjoy writing, sci-fi, and all that good stuff. I'm the same bleeding-heart compassionate sort I've always been, and I've the same temper I've always had - c'est la vie.

I'll try to make a habit of updating this weekly, primarily for the benefit of those friends who want to keep track of me and the happenings of my life. Secondarily, on the off chance that someone I don't know might be interested. Given this is a public journal, I'll be limiting the intimacy of the subjects I talk about, so if you're a friend reading this thing, be sure to contact me privately for details about anything I'd likely keep private, eh?

I've never been a fan of WikiFur, but I went ahead and modified the entry on Icefox today in the interests of getting things correct. I thought it needed a correction. First off, they had me under IceFox on a disambiguation page, then they had Icefox (lower-case f) from Boston as the ONLY Icefox in the community. I had to fix that. ;) I find it interesting Wikifur is so specific on its searches that it includes upper and lower case as part of its search and link criteria, though. Hm.

I finally got around to deleting an old journal entry of mine, and went ahead and checked out the comments on it. It was a rant I made about some folks laughing over a severely botched suicide attempt. The comments were interesting - one explaining his own perspective and in ways agreeing, another outright flame baiting - he had valid points, but his amazingly varied use of insults made it obvious the individual was a troll. It was highly amusing. I went ahead and deleted it though, as frankly, my views on that rant's topic aren't exactly the same as they were. Though I still loathe this kind of behavior (laughing at folks that attempt suicide), I have different and far simpler reasons for it today. ;) Admittedly, another reason for deleting that old journal entry is that, frankly, the flame baiter had a few points in his attempt to goad me - points I had thought of long before I came back to read any comments. The entry was written when I wasn't feeling well at all, and was frankly just not well written or thought out at all. Anywho, I'd just been putting off removing it for way too long.

In other news, I'm preparing to go back to school and am on a job hunt currently. I've decided to work while going to school part-time - I just need the money, so full-time school is going by the wayside for now.

I've got a few pictures of my character I've been keeping to myself and friends for years, but I am currently seeking to get permission to post them here by the artists who drew them. Expect to see those pictures given a bit of time.

Anyone who wants to contact me or get to know me is, of course, welcome. Just send me a note on FA.

Finally getting semi-active in this community. Emphasis on the semi for now. Seems like a rather nice place so far.

I might as well write a bit about myself here for this first entry. So here goes.

I'm more of an observer and commenter here. I do write, but I haven't written even a short piece of completed fiction in several years - a combination of writer's block, a lack of self-confidence, and outright laziness is to blame.

I've been in the furdom since around late 1998 if my memory serves me right. The first furry art I ran across was by Taurin Fox, and to this day he remains one of my favorite artists. I found the furdom via the Star Fox community and found the Star Fox community via Tengi's old Star Fox Hotel, a good old site (sadly now gone) with some amusing satire on Star Fox, Nintendo products, and other sci-fis. To think that looking up cheat codes for Star Fox 64 (how I found Tengi's site) would lead me to all this in the end... it can be amusing at times how things connect.

I GM a few tabletop RPs - one online one set in the Star Fox genre, and one local group using Ironclaw as its system and genre.

Love and honor are among my highest ideals, and I tend to be an extremely idealistic person. Of course, this comes with all the other problems that come along with being idealistic. ;) The same things can be said regarding my being very emotional, though one would be incorrect to confuse me with the "emo" crowd.

I'm currently working with a temp agency and planning to head back to college shortly. I'm deadlocked between Psychology, Sociology, Journalism, or History/Pol Sci - yes, all fields I won't find a job in! *smirk* Well, unless perhaps I go the teaching path. Time and planning will tell, I'm sure.

Finding a mate to spend and share my life with is among my highest of priorities, and I may have found such already. Another thing that time and planning will tell.

I'm very friendly and approachable, so feel free to give me a message anytime if you want to talk. My IMs are available here for a reason.

Take care, reader. :)