I got the time off approved from work!

I will be attending MFF hopefully with a few other people. Let me know if you're going (especially if we know each other in person) so we can meet up when there and hit a few panels together!

I went on a family trip for a little over 1 week and we hit all of these locations.

- Sand Dunes National Park (CO)
- Mesa Verde National Park (CO)
- El Malpais National Monument (NM)
- Petrified Forest National Park (AZ)
- Saguaro National Park (AZ)
- Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (AZ)
- Arizona Diamondbacks Stadium (AZ)
- Grand Canyon National Park(AZ)
- Arches National Park (UT)

As a 5/8 Norwegian, 2/8 English, and 1/8 Dutch boy that has lived in the Upper Midwest his entire life, I was pleasantly surprised! I really enjoy the area and seeing mountains, mesas, brush, sand, sandstone, and experiencing the constant +100 degrees F. heat and bright Southern Sun. I especially enjoyed seeing all of the lizards! I didn't get any photos unfortunately (They move so fast!) but I saw at least 10 or more while I was there. I saw gray ones, green/yellow ones, and even one that was blue!

Even more than the lizards I loved seeing all of the Cacti. Some of them had to have been growing at least 200 years or more considering that a cactus can only grow about 1 inch per year. I'm just shy of 6 feet tall, and most of the cacti more than doubled my height.

I came back with a few souvenirs such as turquoise earrings, a polished rock bolo, shot glasses, Navajo-grown whole blue corn meal, and prickly-pear cactus candy and jelly, but that is not enough. I hope to visit Arizona and see the desert again someday!

Has anyone else been to that area, Arizona, or those parks?

I was initially convinced that it was a joke, but then again, this is F.A. Thoughts?

A little while ago I just stuck the last two of my checks needed to pay off my medical bills from my surgery about a year ago. Here's to hoping it goes off without a hitch! Now if only hospitals would consolidate all of the expenses into one, single amount in an itemized document, and send it to you themselves instead of having disjointed debt collection agencies handle it...

They would get paid a lot more accurately and faster if they did it that way here in Minnesota. Or better yet, why can't we fully have everyone have access to free government-provided healthcare that just comes out in taxes?

With  lola102938,  Khameleon_Sabreonic, and  MysticSabreonic!

Amtrack trains suck though... they take forever and have horrendous delays! If you can avoid the train, do so.

We were talking about strip clubs in a group of my friends as we were driving downtown. One of my female friends said, "We should go to the Gay Strip Club." Another female friend of my responded with disdain that she didn't think it would be so good for her, because she finds the male penis to be unappealing and un-sexy.

If you're a straight woman who doesn't like the sex organ of the male body... how in the world do you have enjoyable sex, let alone marry a male, knowing he most likely has one?

Please watch this video.

Por favor, mira este video.

...of my sister's frozen embryos. Hehe.

I'm both amused and honored.

Since pornography is considered generally harmless and an easy way to explore and understand sexuality (though maybe not the most honest source of information) by most furies and liberals, it becomes a potentially volatile subject to even suggest. Especially since anti-pornography groups and people also tend to be mired in religious exploits and faith-based lifestyles, instilling a fear of God as opposed to a fear of problems with sexual health, nobody likes to take the claim seriously. However, if you subtract the sappy telenovela-soap-opera-tv-drama style stories that newly "enlightened" people bring to the table, and then take religion and "morality" out of it, and just look at the facts, I think a serious discussion can begin.

Dopamine is a pleasure-inducing chemical in the brain that is released when we accomplish important tasks or experience anticipated, new, or novel things. One type of event that causes dopamine release is a new sexual encounter or experience. Meet a new partner and have sex with them for the first time... bam, dopamine release. Keep having lots of repeated, same-kind sex with that person every day, over-time, the dopamine releases become smaller and smaller, and suddenly, you may feel like sex is boring or unsatisfying unless you try something new in the bedroom or take a few days off from sex. Eventually the desire will kick back in and the sex will release some dopamine once again with that partner.

Now imagine being able to "have sex" with many different partners with minimal effort, not even needing to know their names or ever meet them, let alone get up out of your chair and home and establish some kind of emotional or familial connection with them. You can do this at any time, for free, or by paying small fees, and you can do it for as long as you want, for as many of your own orgasms as you want, and you can choose precisely who and what you are "having sex" with without fuss.

Some researchers studying human sexuality believe that pornography viewing literally can bypass the desire to have live sex with a live person you're in physical contact with. Also, if you ask most any furry, Skype and video-chat, phone calls, and even text-based role-play are enough to feel like you're really having sex, so long as you can pleasure yourself with one hand. If electronic-media-based sex can substitute and "fool" the brain and is interpreted to be the same as actual, physical sex, then it has the potential to reduce or even eliminate our need and desire to have live, physical sex with another person.

Those same researchers also believe that extensive and chronic pornography consumption can also be related to the concept of sexual desensitization. Our expectations of real world sex versus pornographic sex may become skewed, and things like sexual violence, pedophilia, rape, bestiality, huge orgies, unsafe sex, depending on the types of porn we consume, may no longer seem like a big deal to us, when at least some of those things ought to be... and it becomes scary when people cannot properly identify rape, sexual assault, or sexual harassment.

Other researchers have done studies that they believe show that in developed nations, particularly the U.S.A. and some Asian countries like Japan, that people as young as their early 20's are losing their sexual appetites and libidos, and some even complaining of impotence... issues which normally don't start occurring until the late 30's to 40's for most people. Over-consumption of pornographic media is considered to be a cause of this, though it is not the only possible cause.

There is a lot more out there on this topic... but please do not stop being critical of "porn addiction" claims. There are still all kinds of shmucks who see sexuality, sex, porn, et cetera as evil, immoral things that incur God's wrath, and those kinds of arguments need to be quashed into the ground. Do I think porn addiction is real? I'm not so sure... but I do believe that over-consumption of pornographic materials can potentially lead to problems, especially for people involved in committed, long-term romantic relationships. I hope that studies continue in this area, but I also fear that certain religious institutions may use the findings to try and stigmatize sexuality in general, in addition to the LGBT community.

I believe we need to create a sex-positive society world-wide that values sexuality and sexual activity and sees it good light, as well as being honest and truthful about it. This means that we also need to be critical of how certain things can corrupt or harm our sexuality, both on a large-scale systemic way, and on more personal, individual ways.

05/31 Saturday - Ireland send-off concert 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm, Lake Harriet Band-shell: Minneapolis, MN
(Singer Call at 6:30 pm) with special guests Hounds of Finn

06/02 Monday - QMC Concert 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm, Como Pavilion, 1360 Lexington Pwky N, St. Paul, MN (Singer Call at 6:15 pm)

06/29 Sunday - Twin Cities Pride Concert 3 pm - 4 pm, Saint Mark’s Cathedral, Minneapolis, MN
(Singer Call at 2 pm, Worship Service at 4 pm)

This is more for me, but it's to help remind me when my final concerts are for this performance season. I'm still a bit bummed that I can't go to Ireland for the Various Voices LGBT Choir Festival in Dublin, but they were asking for somewhere between $2K to $3K for the trip... not in my price range. Even so, I got to spend a lot of time with family and my cousin  Khameleon_Sabreonic after his sister's wedding was finished. I even got to sing for her during the wedding, which was fun, though it made me a little bit of a nervous wreck before, though I pretended it didn't.

This was inspired by  incredible_crocodile 's journal, which can be found here. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5755095/

A SUMMARY OF WHAT TROLLS ARE AND DO

Trolls feed on negative attention, so the more attention you give a troller's trolling, the more they will want to do it. However, most feel Troller's Remorse after a certain level of negative reaction has been attained... (a worst case example is encouraging a depressed person to commit suicide in which the person eventually did, and another older example was when a 12-14 year old troll forced an autistic person to try and shove pieces of a broken clay medallion literally up his anus).

The suicide I was talking about happened on a facebook video, and it was after commenters eventually started telling the person to go ahead and do it. The 2nd incident after that I was talking about had to do with a person named Christian Weston Chandler. If his name is too long to type, look up "Sonichu."

There was also the "Thank God for the Tsunamis/Earthquakes in Japan that killed the Atheists" girl who after making that video, was finally threatened enough by the angry internet people that she closed up her entire YouTube channel because she was "sick of pizza" as she said. She had been receiving all kinds of death threats, and eventually came out as a Cannibal Troll. Her "Troller's Remorse" came when she posted a video that essentially caused her to receive so much negative attention that she didn't even feel safe leaving her house... she had gone too far in her game, and unless she fessed up to what she was really doing and called it quits, she was actually in real danger. Obviously, Troller's Remorse is best defined as when a troll has gone too far in their intent to cause emotional distress, and the consequences of their actions are highly severe for themselves, their victims, or both.

"Trollbait" is an interesting concept, but it basically refers to any person who has publicized internet presence of some sort that has a weak, or vulnerable appearance, in addition to putting out content that is controversial or falls outside of social norms and mores. It's also why the internet can be very dangerous for children and teens, particularly ones that want to make videos, art, use a social website like Facebook, or post a personal journal. The content that teens and children may find isn't what's dangerous (porn will not permanently scar someone)... but the types of people they may find that are dangerous. A Cannibal Troll is someone who poses as trollbait to lure potential other trolls in, just to mess with them. Are their actions benign, perhaps even benevolent? We will never know for sure. There are some who pose as an exaggerated strawman example of say, a religious person for satirical comedy, but if it is not known to their audience that they are simply acting the part and don't actually believe the things they say... labeling them as a troll can still be an accurate way to describe them, as again, their intention is to cause emotional distress, whether they have good intentions or not. Occassionally, "trolling" someone into doing the right thing can be very effective. Coaches and drill sergeants constantly demean their players and recruits with the intent to make them so angry that they perform better. Not everyone performs better under duress, but some do. Anyways, to continue my discussion...

A "Greifer" is a different kind of troll, where it specifically applies to video games and entertainment. The Greifer's intention is instead of just blatantly causing emotional trouble for others through unnecessarily severe criticism and threats, they try to interrupt game-play and inhibit the enjoyment of the games for others in order to cause emotional distress. Obviously, this only works in multi-player games. Don't mistake a regular Troll within a game for a Greifer. A Greifer will actually try to sabotage the players in some way, whereas a troll will merely use the messaging system or voice-chat to cause distress, though situations where a player purposefully miscommunicates information to the other players to cause them to lose or interfere with their goals could be considered greifing as well. In sandbox and socializing games like Second Life, a greifer will have many more tools at their disposal to inhibit game-play, as certain programmed scripts and actions will allow them to directly affect other players virtually however they want, whether it be hyper-spamming their private messages, causing an overload of data in the immediate area to slow everyone's program down to a crawl (the animated musical batman cubes come to mind), or inhibit the player's character's movement or force them to move around against their will.

ADVICE FOR DEALING WITH TROLLS (or potential ones)

Most trolls and greifers will "attack" you only once or twice in an encounter, or common worst case scenario, you will be forced to fully complete one matched game with them, or leave the area you're in. The volatile comment threads you see on some websites have more to do with the concept of flame wars, but the parties involved are not always trolls, rather people with very strong opinions who think what their opponents are saying is wrong. Some of these flame wars may be instigated by trolls initially and then slightly encouraged, but by the time tons people are leaving paragraph long comments and the thread keeps growing, the troll has long gone or is just grinning at his or her work and not contributing to the discussion.

If you find yourself directly in the line of sight of a troll's activities, the best thing you can do is to ignore it. If it is within your control, delete the messages or comments left by the troll. If it's on a Voice Chat, mute their microphone so you no longer hear from them, and the same goes for their typed messages, if there is a mute, block, or ignore feature for it, use it! If you are unfortunate enough to have to deal with a troll or greifer within a game, be sure to report them if the feature is provided. A single report won't do much, but if the troll is a repeat offender enough times, it can result in temporary bans, in rare cases, a permanent account ban, and in some online games, repeat offender trolls are only allowed to be matched up against and with other troll players!

At first, it is always a good idea to ask the troll or greifer to stop their behavior once or twice. If there is no resolution after a couple of tries, stop communicating with them, and ignore them with any website or game feature provided, and if the behavior persists afterward or gets worse, definitely report it. Beyond this, do nothing. Trolls and Greifers feed on you getting angry, frustrated, or sad, and expressing those emotions. The internet and online-gaming world is not quite up to speed with dealing with these kinds of people... they cannot be castigated from the group nearly as easily as they can be in real life (and sometimes they can't be made to go away in real life, either). Keep yourself in check, and if things get to be too much for you to deal with, finish the last thing you were doing, and turn off the game or leave the website, or leave your computer or game device completely for awhile.

For anyone who hasn't seen the Nostalgia Critic's (Doug Walker) review of this movie, I highly recommend it. :) He had to remove it from his website, but many people mirrored it right back onto YouTube. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dfxri6oREMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4IG_kgdcy8

This just happened yesterday at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus performance in Rhode Island. It is a rare act where the performers are suspended by their hair twisted into tight pony-tails, but that's not the reason it went totally wrong. Inspectors believe that a faulty 5-inch clamp securing the suspended performance apparatus was the primary reason for why it took a tumble, and they believe other clamps may have failed as well. As expected, all 8 of the suspended performers involved in this scene were severely injured, as well as 1 of the dancers on the floor that was not suspended. They say others involved in the scene had minor injuries as well. It has been declared by the circus company that the circus will continue performing/touring, however the Hair Suspension Act has been cut.

Well, when your entire team of performers for that act are laid up in the hospital, you don't really have a choice. I hope that they all heal up well and continue to perform, whether they decide to continue their current act or not.

This accident will also raise more debate over safety measures involved in doing stunts like these in any acrobatic stunt show. Just last year, not too long ago, Cirque du Soleil experienced its first lethal accident during one of their shows when a performer's harness failed and they plummeted several stories to the floor, dying on impact. If there had been a safety net like during a Trapeze Act, the performer would have survived, and probably not have sustained any injuries. Many aerial circus acts rely on the "danger" of the act to keep audiences entertained, but I think that we can still appreciate the talent, skill, strength, beauty, and art of those acts while still keeping the performers safe. Minimizing danger doesn't HAVE to mean minimizing entertainment.

Since this is the first year that I cannot be claimed as a dependent, I filed my own taxes for the first time, but of course, with some coaching from my father. I'm sending my Property Tax Refund back to my parents though, since they paid my rent for most of 2013 when I was still in school, so that will cut my return down by roughly 25% to 30%, but I'm still happy with what I'm getting back.

However, looking at all the sections related to foreign income, I can completely understand why many former U.S. citizens have renounced their citizenship... specifically, ones who live abroad or spend most of their time in foreign countries. Even if you never set foot in the U.S.A. or earn a single penny from the U.S.A. during the year, U.S. Tax forms still require you to report all of your foreign-earned income and they will expect you to pay them for it... even though you're already paying taxes on your income for the country you're in. The only way to get out of paying taxes for the U.S.A. legally is to renounce your U.S. citizenship.

Also, as for the hospital update, I'm no longer taking my Vicodin pain-killers, most of my energy is back, and my abdominal pain is all gone. For the most part, I can use my abdominal muscles again, though twisting, jerking, or stretching in certain ways can still cause some pain in the area where my gall bladder used to be. I imagine that won't be fully recovered for at least another week or two.

On a sad note, I have no idea where my copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, has gone. I've really been wanting to play it. I love the Mass Effect series, but I've played it to death since I finally got around to re-doing save-files starting from Mass Effect 1 (since it was made available for PS3).

On a less sad note, the tax refund will come in very handy... I'll probably be putting much of it towards a new computer, and perhaps towards a PS4... though there are no games I currently want to buy for it. I've considered investing in a Wii U, but we shall see. I'm looking forward to the New Super Smash Siblings game, but is that really enough to merit buying the Wii U when I already have a 3DS XL?

I can't take a deep breath, I can't sleep, my gut hurts, even moving my torso causes me pain, I'm hooked up to an oxygen machine to make sure I get enough air, and now I'm actually afraid to eat because of all the pain... but I know they are going to try to make me eat today. :(

I hate my body so much right now.

1. My sister was not pregnant. So we won't be having any big family dispute, but maybe my sister will use contraceptives more carefully.

2. The past several days I had an ongoing indigestion pain... when I tried to eat some stuff Monday night after my choir rehearsal, I ended up doubling over in pain, and spent the rest of the night crawling and lying on the floor in pain. I was eventually taken to the ER in a hospital nearby. It turns out those on-and-off pains I'd been having for months were not indigestion, but Pancreatitis. I've been in the hospital ever since and as soon as my pancreas settles down and goes back to normal, they will prep me for surgery to have my gall bladder removed, as the cause was gall-stones blocking the duct from the Pancreas, which caused it to get inflamed and producing way too much enzymes. My gall bladder currently has stones inside of it, so if I don't get it removed, I will have more Pancreatitis attacks coming, and potentially have other medical problems and associated diseases if its not removed.

3. As a direct result of this medical problem, I've missed a few days of work, and I will most likely miss my first One Voice choir concert, and the weekend retreat with the choir that I paid $90 to reserve a spot for. My family and friends have been very supportive, but I'm still disconcerted about missing out on work and choir stuff. :(

Also, as a reminder of what went down in the past on this website, I figured I'd help try to solve some of the issues and misinformation by sharing this video that describes what sexual consent looks like versus sexual assault or rape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD2EooMhqRI

So, my older sister, age 30, has been trying to get pregnant with her husband for well over a year now with no luck.

My younger sister, age 18, who is just finishing high school, informed me today that "there's a 70% chance that I might be pregnant" and "my boyfriend and I decided to keep it if I am." Of course, this would have been accidental... at least I think it would have been.

We're not telling anyone else in the family at this point. My parents wanted to send her off to technical college, so they won't be too thrilled about it, and my older sister would be annoyed with her AND jealous.

My little Michelle, my American Short-hair tuxedo cat I got when I was in Middle School, seems to be very sick, potentially with arthritis, ear mites, and potentially a tumor. She's also pretty much completely blind in one eye. My parents are going to take her to the vet to let me know what's up. If she's really sick and not going to get better, they might euthanize her so that she can die as painlessly as possible. She's about 12 years old, so she's lived a long life for a cat.

Here is the Memorial Post with her picture.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12896123/

It is EXTREMELY well hidden and you can only discover who it is if you have downloaded the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC and finished the mission so Liara becomes the new Shadow Broker. You find this video clip by going into the back room where Feron is sitting and going through the video feeds on the platform on the other side of the back room.

I can't believe I missed it, but some people didn't. There's a chance he might be bisexual or pansexual, or that this video doesn't mean anything. However, why would BioWare take the time to create a video clip of this Turian sitting on a bed with a male human approaching him? The purpose of the videos is to show us that the Broker has cameras everywhere, even aboard the Normandy and in people's private offices and homes. However, each clip also has an associated message or "knowledge" with it as well, and many interpret this video to mean that this Turian is in a romantic relationship with a male Human.

If you can't remember who Preitor Gavorn is, he's the Turian that appears on Omega after you make the Vorcha leave the Market District of the area, the ones standing near the Quarian's kiosk. He's the Turian that stands outside of the Afterlife Club with a sniper-rifle near where you left to start the Archangel mission.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou6Jqy3Tdxc

I'll try to embed the video at some point, but I felt that this was a neat Easter Egg, and I can't believe I missed it the first time. :D

It finally came to me why I'm so bothered with Zaush, even though the allegations that Zaush committed rape against another member of Fur Affinity are just allegations (for the most part), there is definitely one thing that really cannot be disputed, at least not very well.

If Zaush at any point was making unwanted sexual advances towards any of the women that were mentioned or that came forward and claimed that he was... he committed sexual harassment. Even if the women "eventually gave in," it does not excuse the behavior. This is, by far, a less serious offense...

...however, in nearly ANY professional work environment, sexual harassment is not tolerated, and it can quickly become a law-suit or a termination of contract. The fact that Dragoneer is wanting and willing to retain Zaush on his website update project... and the mere fact that he even put him on the project in the first place speaks heavily of his character. It's not looking good.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

With that said, I've start up a Weasyl account. There really isn't much there at this time, but I slowly plan to remedy this.

Here is my page! https://www.weasyl.com/~indigothecat

DISCLAIMER: I'm making this post because I actually like FurAffinity and I care about the website and what happens to it. That said, I feel that examining the various components of the website critically without avoiding the acknowledgement of "uncomfortable" information is important to understand all facets of the issues, both on the technical aspect of the website, and on the social aspect of the people who both use it and run it, both the user-base as a whole and its administration. With that said, I will further preface this post:

I've done a bit of research off-site whenever people have offered links to screen-captures, blogs, and twitter feeds, and I think I have the general idea of what actually happened to cause the "Drama" that's going on. I'd hesitate to call it drama... rather, just website management making a few too many poor decisions, and it finally created ripples and got people talking. This situation is not the first time that the F.A. Administration has been painted as incompetent, arrogant, and filled with favoritism. A simple example beyond this current situation is the bad relationship he has with Uncle Kage, known as one of the most important members of the Furry Community, particularly for his stance and informative conference session trying to teach Furries how to deal with the media, not to mention that he has also been the chairman of AnthroCon since 1999 (almost 14 years).

We shall see just how good the Admins can handle damage-control procedures, see if they apologize for anything, and if they will attempt to make any amends to the community to improve their currently very spotty PR.

I'll try to keep this as factual as possible, but it's mostly based on second-hand knowledge, and while I understand this situation is partially due to what I call "the natural order of hating those in power," it is possible for those in power to be corrupt. Assuming my findings are accurate, I'll let the readers decide, based on what's been dug up by myself and others, if Zaush and the administration is guilty, and if so, just how guilty.

Let us commence, these points are not 100% specific and a bit general, but it should give the general idea of what's going on.

- Last year Dragoneer started up a website update project, perhaps to rebuild the website from the bottom up, or just to improve it in its current state and fix issues. However, there was another website update project plan prior to this that Dragoneer completely scrapped "due to personal issues" as he put it. This did not engender him much respect.
- To start up the new update project, the administration asked for volunteers with experience in website coding, trouble-shooting, and building websites, and they then divided the project into two teams.
- One team made some decent progress while the other team stagnated...
- Prior to the website update project, or perhaps during, there was a major hacking attack on FA, and many private messages from the inboxes of the administration were leaked to the public. Most of them were pointless drivel or not important, but this was when Zaush's sexual coercion story was revealed to the public from messages in both the inbox and outbox of Dragoneer.
- The messages not only revealed a sad event, but also revealed that Dragoneer never once instructed the victim to go to the police, just to keep quiet and not say anything. Obviously, huge public issues and backlash against both Zaush and the F.A. administration occur.
- At some point, it seems Dragoneer decided that having 2 different teams working on the website update wasn't working out, so he merged both teams into one. At some point, Zaush was also put into the project. I don't know if it was before the merge or after.
- After both of the above occurred, the progress made by one of the original two teams was also completely scrapped in favor of what Zaush wanted to do for the project... it seems that he was sort of turned into the project-lead without much question or oversight.
- Zaush has been accused of lying about his knowledge and expertise regarding website coding and other programming systems. While these accusations might not mean much, at least one person accusing him was actually one of the volunteers for the project that had worked on it even before the merging of the two teams.
- Initially when people started calling out Zaush and Dragoneer once again about the rape allegations and additionally about the cruddy project dealings, the comments/journals were actually being deleted. The only defense the administration offered for their decision to cover up the naysayers was, "There was no reason to perpetuate drama."

If you want to see some of the comment threads that were hidden in addition to having a more transparent view of the situation at the point of the cover-up, you should go here.
http://ransomdracalis.tumblr.com/po.....-ashes-im-gone

- And finally, while many people love Zaush's art and says he is "nice," many people have also claimed he has done terrible things to other people, similar to the rape allegations, in addition to being extremely difficult to work with on the website update project.

IN CONCLUSION:

These are the things I feel the Administration needs to do to improve the current situation:

- Issue a site-wide apology about the current state of affairs and unrest.
- Either pull Zaush from the program update, have him step-down from the team lead position, or allow for more volunteers to join up with the program, and whole-heartedly consider their suggestions and skills. Doing any combination of these things is also a good idea.
- Either through a survey, polls, or other means, allow for the F.A. community user-base to have input on this update project, perhaps with layout suggestions or desired website implementations (such as sorting folders, extra galleries, more text editing) for the final outcome.
- If the project is to continue, the administration needs to create a solid foundation of a team and stick to the project and see it through... in short they must COMMIT to the project.
- After the project is finished, if Zaush was retained on the project staff, have him step down and do not enlist him for future website projects... and definitely do not make him an Administrator.

While F.A. will not suddenly shut-down and it will retain I imagine almost all of its current user-base, they've given a great boost of web-site traffic and account creation to SoFurry!, Inkbunny, and especially Weasyl. If F.A. can't get itself together and stop making these crappy PR mistakes and get some actually qualified people on staff to set up a decent security system, good programming, and proper server maintenance, they will continue to support the growth of other furry art exchange website and slowly lose their backers' donations and potentially their user-base will slowly start to slip away. This is all future speculation, but if trends continue, this is a very possible scenario.

Go to this website for help! --> http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-police-trojan/

If you're getting this weird message proclaiming that the FBI has "locked down your browser" because of suspected illegal pornography viewing/sharing, exposing sensitive state information, and pirating media, movies and music, keep in mind that it's a totally bogus claim. It's just a mal-ware virus manufactured by the Moneypak, Paysafe, and Ukash companies.

This is a paragraph from the website link I posted above.

If your computer is locked, and you are seeing a “Your computer has been blocked” notification from a law enforcement agency (FBI, Australian Federal Police, Metropolitan Police, U.S. Department of Justice) asking you to pay a fine via GreenDot MoneyPak, Ukash or Paysafecard code, then your computer is infected with a piece of malware known as Trojan Reveton.

I suggest using their guide and resources to help remove the mal-ware.

We've been spinning around the same star on the same planet for at least 10 millenia. I think it's high time we had FTL drive installed into our space-faring vehicles, no?

Oh, and have the obligatory message: "Happy New Year!"

Well, it seems enough religious nut-jobs seem to be able to use the internet, and boy are they complaining!

If only they could see and understand that Christianity was not the "first" religion, and it definitely won't be the last. If only they would accept that other religions came before, and they had holidays and celebrations during this time of year. If only they would accept that the primary reason there is "Christmas" this time of year is because the Christian church wanted to compete with Pagans, Wiccans, et cetera who celebrate Festivus and Beltane this time of year.

Perhaps they'll never understand.

I'd actually argue that a decent chunk of religious folks don't actually believe in their respective religions. They were just raised and brought up in a religious environment, they never heard anything different, and really they are just continuing tradition as opposed to actually questioning the actual Doctrine and belief-system. They are too afraid to rock the boat, and the holiday seasons are so much more about partying, socializing, family-time, traveling, and of course, rampant consumerism... barely attached to the original sentiments of the religion.

As more people hear about Atheism and the holes in religious Doctrine, and learn to break away from religion, maybe we'll get lucky and religion will die out. Heck, even my own father says, "I'm NOT religious, I am a man of FAITH." In my opinion, that's just a fancy way of saying that you barely believe in the things you follow. You want to believe that there is some super-natural entity out there in control of everything, but you're not certain. If that is true, then that is a common definition of an Agnostic.

Maybe it's just me, but I actually think that if MacFarlane continues to produce more Family Guy episodes and seasons that it will be just fine without Brian.

It will be a little said that one of their primary Show-tune performers will be gone (leaving it to Peter and Stewie to sing and dance), however the overall dynamic of the show will not be affected save for Stewie's character, which they actually did address in the episode of Brian's death.

I think that perhaps Seth should have split Brian's death and the adoption of Vinny into two different episodes, but it also does go to show that the family, while they respected and loved Brian, saw him as more of a loyal family pet than a person with his own goals and aspirations. Remember, Meg and Chris are both teenagers so they would handle Brian's death more maturely than baby Stewie, who was by far the most devastated. It's one of the rare points of the show where emotions are actually fairly realistic given each character's age.

Now, why do I think Vinny works as a character? Well, he does have a pretty over-the-top personality and accent,k you probably couldn't make him any more Italian mobster unless you gave him the prefix "cousin" and had him work for the Godfather, but that works for his character, because lets face it, a bipedal talking dog is a pretty ridiculous concept, let alone having gone to college and working as a radio personality. I think it will be a good fresh start to have a character we aren't required to take nearly as seriously like we were expected to take Brian's character.

Speaking of that, I'm going to briefly touch on Fanfiction Tropes. Specifically, what Brian's character represents. Brian is pretty much the "Marty Stu" of the show. He represents Seth MacFarlane as an avatar within the show. Simply, Brian is Seth MacFarlane's attempt to insert himself into the Family Guy world. It's not so hard to believe, as some of us remember the lawsuit someone filed against Seth MacFarlane, which turned out to be a real-life neighbor of Seth's that he based Peter's character on.