If anyone remembers all that awful shit that went down last year with my nieces, I have some good news.

This past Wednesday was the monster pedophile's court date. He was found guilty and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. The judge told him point blank, "you are going to die in prison."

I have to say, it is the best outcome I could have hoped for. I was so, so worried that the justice system would fail, as it seems to often do. That the defense attorney's reasoning of "children often lie" would convince some of the jurors and he'd be let off the hook. I honestly cannot express how elated I am that that man will never be back on the streets, never be around another child again for the rest of his life.

This story has a happy ending, in a sense, and I hope that as my niece matures and grows, she is able to find comfort in the fact that the man was rightly punished for what he did to her. I hope she finds some solace in that.

So I've decided to start a set of fursuit-building booklets, and I'd love some feedback on the subject.

I see a lot of people who have zero knowledge on how to get started, and they don't even know where to look to gather up all the necessary information. The set of booklets would be geared towards them, and would cover a lot of things that those online tutorials don't tell you, like the different kinds of sewing machine needles to use, and what type of thread you should buy. How to cut the fur and pin it together before sewing. That sort of thing. I'm not going to cover stuff like character design, or how to choose a name, or anything like that. I imagine that anyone looking to build a fursuit probably already has a character in mind for themselves. The idea is to give someone who has the desire, the skills necessary to set them on their way so that they're at least on par with industry standards, so that if they decided to sell their creation, it would not disappoint the customer.

The first booklet I'm working on is "The Basics," and it covers pretty much everything you need to get started. So far I've got:

• Part One: The Basics
o Setting Up Your Workspace
o Materials
o Fur Basics
o Resources

• Part Two: Your Machine and You
o Choosing a Sewing Machine
o Machine Basics
o Needles and Thread
o Stitches
o Sewing Primer

• Part Four: Hand Sewing
o Needle and Thread
o Basic Techniques
o Stitch Types

Later booklets would cover individual projects: tails, handpaws, footpaws, heads, and bodysuits. They would all include printable patterns as well as step-by-step instructions and information on how to edit and create your own patterns. I may also make some smaller tutorial booklets on "stylistic" options, like how to do 3D eyes, casting silicone and resin parts, stuff like that.

I'd probably end up selling them as .pdf files through my etsy store. Not sure on the price yet, but I definitely want to keep it reasonable. I may even cover things like how I make my awesome bird wing-sleeves.



So all that said, I'd love some feedback. Is there any information that you feel I should include in these books? Anything you feel has been missing from tutorials you've read? Something you've always wondered about but could never find a straight answer for? If you were interested in getting into fursuit-building, what information would you need to do so?

I'd love some opinions. :)

Man, FWA was fun. :) There were so many more people I knew there than I realized! I got to spend a bunch of time with friends, I got some great compliments on my work that just made me feel so happy, and sales were so surprisingly good. The shiba inu partial we made for the con sold within an hour of the dealer's den opening! I'm super inspired to get more work done now, lol. I've been feeling kind of down about things lately, feeling like my work is subpar and crappy and like I've been messing things up a lot. After the stress of last year it's been sort of hard to really get my head back in the game because I've just felt down lately. But the compliments were a real confidence boost and exactly what I've been needing.

I think the only bad thing about the con was the new hotel. God those elevators! I've heard people complain about other conventions with their crappy elevators and honestly, those cons were NOTHING compared to how bad these elevators were. We were on the third floor, which is actually like the 6th or 7th floor of the building from the con space. That made it almost impossible to get down there in suit via the stairs, so we would spend 20-30 minutes at a time waiting on elevators. On saturday night I actually gave up, shoved my wife (whose suit is huge and heavy and could NOT get down stairs) onto the probably fifth full elevator that stopped on our floor (some guy tried to act like there wasn't enough room but I told him to just move because we'd had enough) and trekked all the way down the stairs. By the time I got to the bottom I was dizzy and overheating.

But once we got down there and suited around, it was great. I love being around the non-con-goers who come into the hotel to hang at the bar and get pictures. They're always so much fun. It's great when big macho guys who act all tough like they don't want to hug the big fluffy creatures end up giving in and just going with it. And people just love my pig suit almost as much as I do, which makes it all the more amazing and fun. Women especially tend to get really excited when they realize the pig makes oinking sounds. :)

Yeah, so overall I had a great time, and I'm looking forward to next year! :D

First off, things have settled down since those journals from months ago. Dad made it through surgery alright, took a very long time to heal but he's pretty much back to normal and back at work as of two weeks ago. So that's good news.

Still am not able to see the children. My mother has seen them once or twice for very short periods of time. Usually when she catches them after school, before they walk home. DCF has a case open on them. Their father has been showing strong signs of being back on drugs again.

Quaylak and I bought our first house not too long after the whole dad-in-hospital thing. So we spent a bunch of time going through that crazy ordeal. All of this stuff ate up a bunch of time and set back my work schedule but I'm dealing okay. Not really "catching up" but back to moving along smoothly I suppose.

I keep getting sick, though. We've found the probable cause and it has to do with our HVAC system not being set up properly. We'll have to spend some time correcting the issue and hopefully these frequent sinus infections will stop occurring.

And I'm just gonna throw this out there: during the week, I sometimes get kinda bored and lonely, working on these suits. If anyone has AIM or Skype and likes to chat, I'm usually logged into one or both as jakejynx. Feel free to say hi. :)

My father is in the hospital.

If he winds up needing surgery I'm going down there to be with him.

To add to the very long list of Bad Things we've been dealing with, one of my dogs was just attacked by the neighbor's pit bulls. It's been an ongoing problem--they jump their fence and go into the yard next to ours and attack our dogs through the chain links. We've reported it about six or seven times now but nothing ever gets done. Last time it happens they bit my jack russel, Kip, on the muzzle and gave him a couple of not-too-teribble wounds. The animal control office said there was nothing he could do about it because at that point the dogs were back in their own yards and no longer "at large."

This time, they got Kip much worse. He has very large puncture wounds at the base of his jaw (basically his neck) and bite marks pretty much all over his face. One of the puncture wounds went completely through to his mouth so that when the vet flushed his mouth the water came out through the puncture. He was out under general anesthesia and given stitches.

After I pried Kip out of the pit bull's mouth, she leapt the fence and went after our chihuahua, Spartacus. And the male joined her soon after. I was able to grab Spartacus in time to keep her from biting him, but got nipped in the hand by doing so. I threw Spartacus into the house and went back out to corral Kip inside while trying to keep the pit bulls away.

I kept the dogs in my yard until animal control showed up and they were taken away. The owners will be cited. That's it. Nothing more.

My dog bite was "provoked" because I was trying to protect my dogs, so nothing will be done about it.

The owners know what happened and have yet to even stop by to speak to us.

We took some quick pictures of the damage that was done to Kip and my hand. Quaylak put the camera on the trunk of the car while we spoke with the animal control officer. When she left to take Kip to the vet, she forgot about the camera. It fell off the car and she ran over it. Luckily the SD card seems to still be intact so we'll still have our evidence.

But, jesus. Can these things please stop now? Seriously... I've really had enough. In the span if about two months we've had SIX really bad things happen, including this incident.

Kip is currently done with surgery and headed home now. He'll have to eat soft food for a while and be given antibiotics and pain meds. I just hope he recovers quickly from this. These dogs are my children and I'm torn up enough about this happening. I don't know if I could deal with it if something goes wrong at this point. I'm very paranoid about things like infections, since a friend's dog recently had to be put down due to necrotizing faciatus from just a small scratch.

I don't know if anyone is interested in hearing about it, but just in case, I thought I'd let people know how things are going.

Not too long after the arrests took place, the local newspaper ran two articles about the case, both of them on the front page. People that the man had previously been in contact with recognized him and spoke to their children. As of now, seven children have come forward with allegations of abuse (including my three nieces). He is charged with only three counts of sexual assault. While he was originally charged with sexual assault against a child under 12 while acting as a custodial figure, which is a heavier offense, they lowered it to all charges being simply sexual assault against a child under 12. He faces life in prison. Chances are very good that would not happen, but I do hope that it does. None of the children have been given examinations, and there is no physical evidence of what occurred. I only hope that testimony alone is enough to convict him.

He has been in and out of the hospital while in jail. He's tried to slit his wrists and has been on suicide watch. He's also been beaten at least one time by his fellow inmates. He continues to deny all of the allegations.

As for my sister, she's spent most of her time in jail in solitary for her own protection, as her fellow inmates have found out why she is in jail and have begun making threats. In case anyone reading this is not aware, people involved in crimes against children are not treated well in jail or prison. The majority of them spend most of their sentence in solitary because of it.

We've gotten conflicting information about what, exactly, caused her to be put in jail. The newspaper reported that she actually walked in on him assaulting my niece. She herself has told my mother that she only walked in on my niece climbing into the bed with him. Personally, we believe that if nothing else, she was probably passed out drunk or high while he assaulted the kids nearby--one of them has said that this all happened while mommy was "asleep."

My sister's arraignment was today, and though my mother attended and waited for four hours, they never brought my sister out, so she does not know the results of the arraignment. From the information I've found online (which has not yet been updated), she entered a plea of not guilty back on the 23rd.

Her being in jail is actually a problem if she wants to fight the charges. She's spoken to her public defender only one time, and is not able to contact him on her own--it's up to him to stop by and speak to her. Being a public defender, you can imagine how that goes.

She's currently begging my mother to hire an attorney. And my mother, in turn, is casually trying to pressure me into helping her pay for it (or pay for it all), due to the fact that my father does not allow her access to their finances.

As for the children, their father is still refusing to allow my mother to see them. His wife keeps saying that they will set up a visitation and then never returning calls. My mother has been asking them to let her take them back to school shopping so that she can see them, and they won't even let her do that. Things are not looking good for the future.

This is where the issue comes in with my sister. If she is found guilty of these charges, she will lose all custody of the children and they will go to their father. In the state of Florida, grandparents have no rights whatsoever. The only thing my mother could do would be to hire a lawyer and petition the court for visitation, and 99 times out of 100, that does not happen. If we hire a lawyer and she is somehow found not guilty, she will retain custody and they will be returned to her. But considering everything she has put those children through, the question now is if she ever should get the children back. Honestly, this one thing... it's just the cherry on top. Plenty of other horrible things have happened that I don't even want to get into.

So... as you can see things are still going on. Still being dealt with. I'm still stressed, still not sleeping right. I've gotten to the point that I can only sleep for about 20 minutes at a time, and only out of sheer exhaustion. Most nights I lay in bed for hours, partially dozing off but never really sleeping, before giving up and finding something to do. At least I'm getting some work done. But I had to miss two deadlines lately because even though I'm working, it's distracted work. I spend a lot of time watching tv so that I can just focus on something else.

But there's a bright side coming up. We're going on a short cruise soon. I was able to convince my parents to go with us (which was a huge, drama-inducing chore that resulted in a lot of hurt feelings because nothing with my family is ever easy), and we even decided to take my mother in law with us as well. It more than doubled the cost for us (and my inner cheap bastard is still reeling from it, especially since we still have to pay for things like clothes/bathing suit for her and getting her hair done), but I'm sure it will be worth it, what with her losing her house and all. Everyone right now deserves a bit of a good thing. I'm not doing nearly as much for my parents, but I bought them a fruit+cheese+wine basket for their room and offered to pay for some of their drinks and such while on the cruise.

I'm hoping all of this turns out well. My parents have a tendency to kind of make things... go sour. I always look forward to seeing them and then get disappointed at the end of it and regret ever trying with them. I sincerely hope that does not happen this time, and that we can just spend one weekend being happy together.

I'm sorry for the rambling in this journal. I didn't sleep last night again, so my thoughts are kind of crazy. But thank you to everyone who gave me some words of comfort, encouragement, or kindness to help me through all of this. I'm hoping that I can steadily get my life back in order and carry on soon.

I'm going to do something I pretty much never do: I'm going to talk about myself, my life, and the personal things that have been going on. I almost never use this account anymore, but this is the most appropriate place to put this, since it does pertain to my work, but is too personal for the savageturtlestudios account.

Some awful things have been happening, lately. This is the kind of shit you see in news stories, and it makes you lose your faith in humanity. I honestly am not sure why I'm revealing this information here, especially since I doubt most people will read it. I don't know what I hope to accomplish by it. Maybe I just want to get it out. Maybe I just want someone to say "that's terrible, but it is not the end of the world."

To start off: I come from a horrible family. I've distanced myself as much as possible from them because of what horrible people they are. Drug addicts, alcoholics, abusers, thieves and liars. Most of my family has been in and out of jail for various offenses, the most amusing of which is my cousin and uncle, who tried to rob a bank. My immediate family, they're not too bad. They're alcoholics. They're drug addicts. They were abusive. Not gonna lie, according to my psychiatrist, I've got PTSD from the crap I went through growing up. But for the most part we had stability: my father always held down a job, and though we were very poor, we never really went hungry or got evicted or had our utilities shut off for failing to pay our bills.

My sister started getting pregnant when she was 14. I say "started getting pregnant" because, barring a few dry spells, she pretty much never stopped. At the age of 32, she now has seven children, and it's only limited to those seven because she finally got her tubes tied. I grew up around her first two children, Chris and Tyler. I loved those children. But my sister began getting into drugs pretty hard, and left her husband. Eventually, when they were around 9 and 7, she finally lost custody of them to her ex, and we have not been allowed to see them since. Almost ten years later, I still have dreams about them. I dream that I see them again, and I get to hug them and tell them that despite what their father said, my family and I never stopped caring about them, and we never stopped thinking of them. I still hold out hope that one day they will find a way to contact my family again.

After leaving her first husband, my sister had a few horrible relationships with various abusive assholes. She eventually settled down, though, with a man who in our small town is a known Piece of Shit. He's pretty well known for drugging and raping women. In fact, he did this to my ex-girlfriend. She started hanging out with my sister, got into drugs. Despite my trying to keep her out of it, anyone who's had a loved one descend into that lifestyle knows there is pretty much nothing you can do. We got a call early one morning from this man's grandmother, saying that my girlfriend and my sister had both overdosed at his house. We found them both passed out, my sister naked and my girlfriend naked from the waist down. Despite all of the blatant evidence, the police failed to file charges against him, because my girlfriend could not accurately remember all that had happened. All she could tell them was that she'd had a headache and he had given her a pain killer for it, and that's the last thing she recalled.

My sister was in the hospital for about four days. When she got out, she went right back to this Piece of Shit. Eventually, she got pregnant. Eventually, they got married. And despite the rape, despite him beating her up, despite him beating on the children, despite him trying to run her off the road with his car to kill her and her children, they stayed married for a good while, and they ended up having five children together.

After a good long while of him being a generally poor piece of shit, refusing to get a job or do more with his life than beat up his family, she got tired of it and left him. A lot of bouncing around happened, a lot of bullshit and drama. For the most part, my parents have been raising her five children. My sister lived with my parents for a while before taking the kids and moving in with some 36 year old man who is, surprisingly, worse than the rapist piece of shit.

Which brings us to today. She'd been living with this man for over a year. She's been prostituting. She's been addicted to crack. And as of a few days ago, she is in jail for child neglect and failure to report a crime. The crime that she witnessed that she failed to report? For the past year, this piece of human excrement has been raping my three nieces, as well as the child of a neighbor that the children would play with. All of these children are under 9 years old. The youngest is 4. Four years old. Despite all that has happened to her, my oldest niece has been a straight-A student, and has taken on the role of mother to her younger siblings. Unfortunately, the same can not be said of the oldest of the five, a young man who has been taught by his father to use and abuse women in the same way he does. I won't get into all of that, but I will say... I honestly fear for the safety of his younger siblings, especially the girls, as he gets older.

Today, the Department of Children and Families decided that the best course of action, with my sister in jail, would be to give these five children to their father. And because of the bad blood between him and my family, we will likely never see them again. My mother can barely talk for three minutes without breaking down into tears--despite her problems, she loves those children, and has done better for them than for even her own children.

What really breaks me about this entire thing is that all of this began to come to a head right in the middle of my Anthrocon crunch time. I kept thinking I had time... just finish these two suits, and I can go down to visit them. I can hug these girls and tell them that everything will be alright, and that despite all of the horrible people they've had in their lives, they will ALWAYS have a person who loves them. And now I can't. We'd planned for the older kids to come and spend a week at my house over the summer--it's somewhat of a tradition at this point. Now they won't be able to. When they found out they would have to go live with their father, they cried. They said they didn't want to. They asked "what about uncle Jake, when will we get to see uncle Jake?"

My heart is broken.

Now I'm stuck here. I haven't slept in days, and when I do pass out from exhaustion, I either wake up from nightmares or to a phone call giving me more bad news.

Another topper to this is that my mother-in-law just lost her house today to foreclosure, and has to be out in two months' time. She has nowhere to go, and we have to worry about helping her find a place to live (she may end up moving in with us), and pack up all her things to put into storage, or sell, or transport to... wherever she ends up. So there's that added bonus of stress.

Oh, and I can't forget: I had to go to a dermatologist to get a mole looked at. He said that it "didn't look good," and I still haven't heard back on the results of the tests, despite it being past the two week time frame. No one ever answers the phone for the number they gave me for the results, and I haven't received a call back. So I additionally get to worry that I might have god damn skin cancer.

So... I'm literally at the end of my rope here. I don't think I've ever been so stressed in my entire life. I teeter between total numbness and complete breakdown. I'm not sure if I want to push myself and finish these suits and meet my deadlines, or just... say fuck it all and give up because I can't take it anymore. I don't even know what to do at this point.

EDIT: Just in case anyone wants to know, I heard back from the doctor this morning. I don't have cancer, but I do have precancerous cells. I have to go back in to have more of the surrounding tissue removed in the hopes that we get rid of all of the dangerous cells in the area.

Recently I've been thinking that I want to try and build a MLP:FiM head or suit. Only thing is, I wouldn't want to wear/own it. It would just be put up for sale. (I'm more interested in just trying my hand at making it than actually owning it.) I understand the standard legalities of it--you're not supposed to make a profit off of fan works and stuff--but I have seen plenty of MLP heads/suits out there. So I assume the show creators lean towards being okay with fan works such as that. But in general, would it be frowned upon to make a MLP head just to sell?

What are your opinions?

Journal pimpage for DreamVision Creations. They're currently doing some giveaways on their older-style noses.

I've used these guys multiple times for their pawpads and noses. They have some really good stuff, so if you've never checked them out before, now's the time. This is a great way to get a good sample of their work if you've never done so. Chances are pretty good if you use them once, you'll come back for more. :)

Their journal: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4901533/

Just letting everyone know that we are officially open for all commissions over at Savage Turtle Studios. We've got a couple of slots available for rapid turnaround, so if you need a suit for AC or sooner, we may be able to accommodate you!

Click here to send in a quote request!

Okay, so I'm back to making fursuits. And we are now officially open for commissions of paws, tails, feet, and ears. Also accepting two slots for head-only commissions.

Head over to the quote request form if you're interested!

So for the past, mm, 6 months or so, I've been looking for work. I finally got a call from a local staffing company that I've been working with. I spoke to them on Thursday, and was offered the job on Friday. There's good and bad news about this.

The good news is that it's in my field. I'll be doing quality assurance as a lab tech at a local food and beverage testing company. Finding a job that actually uses my degree in this area wasn't all that easy, so I'm pretty happy that I didn't go to college for nothing. :) They also tend to be good about doing a lot of internal hiring and promotions, so if all goes well I can work my way up the ladder in a few years. And we're hoping to move out to that area in the next few months, so my wife and I both will be living very close to our work places at that time.

The bad news is the hours. All of the lab tech positions are 3pm-3:30am, 5 days a week. That sucks for me, of course, but it also sucks for the fursuit business. As much as I wish I could put it off and start at a later time so that I can complete all of the things in my queue, I'm afraid that's just not possible. And I'm just not willing to pass on this job for the sake of the fursuiting thing, because as much as I enjoy it, I never had plans to make it a full time job for the rest of my life.

I'll be sending out emails to all of my commissioners to tell them that there will be serious delays. They can either wait, or they can get a refund. And until my queue is cleared out and I have more time on my hands, commissions will also be closed.

Just letting everyone know. :)

1. A selection of television programs you do not care for.
Big Bang Theory, Dr. Who, True Blood

2. A selection of musical artists you do not care for.
Lady Gaga, a lot of other pop singers

3. A selection of celebrities you couldn't care less about.
Pretty much all of them.

4. A hobby you “don’t get”.
To be honest, "furry." I like it, but I don't get it.

5. A habit you find disgusting.
Picking scabs, eating boogers. Standard stuff.

6. Something in school you really liked doing that everyone else bitched over.
Pretty much everything. I loved school.

7. Your favorite household chore.
Washing dishes and mopping the floor (I got a swiffer wetjet for crimmus. o_o)

8. Popular video games that make you go “meh”.
Haven't come across one yet. Maybe Resident Evil or Dead Island.

9. PC or MAC?
PC

10. A sport you don’t like, for whatever reason.
I don't like any sports

11. A sport you really like, for whatever reason.
-shrug-

12. Television programs you love but have gotten shit for liking.
Tim and Eric, Family Guy, Superjail, Metalocalypse... pretty much all of those Adult Swim shows.

13. Musical artists you love but have gotten shit for liking.
I don't love them, and I've never gotten shit for it, but I like Nickelback.

14. A hobby you have/find interesting that other people bother you over/make fun of.
I guess the furry thing. Nobody's ever really made fun of me for it because I laugh about it myself, though.

15. A habit you have that other people bug you over.
I fart around my wife. She thinks I'm gross for it, but I think it's hilarious.

16. Something in school you hated doing and it felt like everyone else loved.
Lunch period. I hate large crowds.

17. The household chore that makes you want to shoot your own face off.
Laundry, vacuuming, cleaning the cat box or the rat cage.

18. A selection of video games that you enjoy that perhaps you really shouldn't.
Katamari?

19. A celebrity crush that maybe even you don’t understand.
I have a huge mancrush on Robert Downey Jr. I used to like him before he became all popular these days. But after Sherlock and Iron Man... yeah... now I have a huge mancrush.

20. Free rant on whatever grinds your gears at the moment.
I hate it when people do stupid stuff. I'm not going to be specific, but some people just make stupid decisions, and I have to keep my trap shut about it and it bugs me.

Deleting this journal 'cause it's way too whiny. Sorry.

Happy new year to everyone!

So I decided that I'd make a new year's resolution this year. I've never done that before, because I never saw the point. But this year, I decided I'm going to get in shape. I've always been decently average, but I've never been, mm, "buff?" I mean, I've never had noticeable muscles. So my goal this year is to get there, using P90X.

It's not going to be easy--over the past year or so, I've packed on a couple extra pounds of fat, and have gotten noticeably softer around the middle (something that's embarrassing to admit, because I've always been very critical of myself). I've also noticed these past few years that when I exercise, I don't get the kind of quick results that I used to get when I was younger. And with my wonderful ability to lose interest in things very quickly, sticking to an exercise program for an extended period of time is going to be really tough.

That said, I'm turning 29 on the 9th. Yep. I'm getting old. That's probably part of the reason I decided to get in shape. I want to be in good shape before I leave my 20's.

So, uh, words of encouragement are definitely appreciated. I want other people to be aware of my goal so that I can be held accountable if I start slacking off. :)

My idea for sending out gift boxes fell through this year, I'm afraid. I made them up for friends and family, and by the end of that, I was out of supplies, funds, energy, and time.

I'm sorry to anyone who got their hopes up about it, and I'm sorry I wasn't able to follow through. And I refunded the donation that I got, just so everyone knows. Hopefully I'm able to try again next year, and I hope everyone had happy holidays. :)

So for the holidays this year, I'd like to send out some goodie boxes to some people. Just a bucket of homemade cookies and sweets--something to brighten someone's holiday.

Does anyone out there know of anyone who might be in need of an extra little pick-me-up this holiday season? Maybe a friend of yours has had a particularly tough year, and they could use an anonymous gift just to make them feel special.

Obviously, I'd need their shipping address, so don't recommend them if you think they may be weirded out by you giving their address to a stranger. You're free to recommend yourself, as well, if you feel you need the pick-me-up, yourself. :)

I'm not really limited by the amount of goodies I could make, but by the cost of the materials and shipping, so I can't say that if I get a lot of recommendations, everyone will get something. But I'll try.

I don't know, though, if anyone would want to donate a buck or two to help purchase supplies or pay for shipping stuff off, let me know.

EDIT: Just so people know, I'll contact them later (closer to mailing time) through notes to get the addresses needed!

I swear, sometimes it seems like the only way I'm able to get out of bed at a reasonable time in the morning is when I wake up in pain and have to get up to take something for it. I'm so sick of being tired all of the time, sleeping for 12+ hours every day because I'm unable to wake up, and being in pain off and on nearly every day.

My work has slowed down dramatically lately because I just can't dig up enough energy to force myself to work, a lot of the time. My lower back has been hurting a lot, and sitting on the floor to work (even on a cushion) hurts and makes it worse.

For anyone who was curious, by the way, I did go have the CT scan done. Everything appeared normal to the doctor. So while we still have some theories as to why I'm having so much pain, it doesn't seem to be serious. Unfortunately, the meds my doctor prescribed do absolutely nothing, so I think it's time to go back and ask for something stronger. At the very least, I need to get some sort of stronger pain killer, even if it knocks me out. Too many nights I've been kept awake until the wee hours of morning because the pain won't let me fall asleep. I'm so tired of it. :(

Had to clear out that last venty, emo journal.

So hey, I'm learning to play the violin now! :D First lesson, she basically just taught me how to hold the violin and the bow, and where the finger placement is on the strings. Then I came home and taught myself simple songs that I've been practicing. Of course, I'm also slowly trying to teach myself the Zelda theme song, because I can't just stick to simple stuff. :|

I've been having some issues doing work lately, mostly due to health issues. Got sick for a while, tired all the time, and now I've got a lot of doctor visits to deal with. I've got to go in for a CT scan on Friday, which has me all anxious since I've never had anything like that done. I've always been a very "just ignore it and it'll go away" type of person, but after many months of dealing with this issue, I guess it's time to get it figured out. :c

I doubt many of my commissioners actually watch my page, but just in case: there's your specific reason for some of the small delays, lately. I'm trying to get back on track, and we should (barring any unforeseen circumstances) have a fullsuit done by the end of the week. :)

I've decided to open up some slots for smaller commissions (tails, feet, paws, ears). We've opened up for fulls and partials on the savageturtlestudios account, but I think I'm going to sort of keep this account separate. Our quote request form on our website is now geared towards heads/partials/fulls, so if you're interested in a parts commission, either note me here, or send a direct email to savageturtlestudios@gmail.com.

So, I hate to say it, but this was the worst convention experience I've had so far. Not necessarily because of the convention itself, but because of all the crap we had to deal with regarding it.

We decided to rent a van from Budget and drive 12 hours up there with a couple of friends. An hour into the trip, the rear tire just randomly decided to pop. AFAIK, we didn't hit anything (I was driving), and it certainly wasn't a puncture, because it went from 33psi to 0 in about 30 seconds. We called the roadside assistance number multiple times (they hung up on me once) and were told that we would have to just change the tire to the spare. Well, it wasn't a spare tire, but a donut, which we couldn't drive 700 miles on. So we had to drive 60 miles out of the way at 45 mph at 3 o'clock in the morning to the nearest Budget location, and then wait over an hour for it to open so that we could wait around for a rude, unhelpful woman to give us a replacement car. There were no gas stations on the way there--literally none, we were in the middle of absolutely nowhere (oh and I should mention that Budget only gave us the address of the nearest Budget location, not directions to it, so it's a good thing we had a friend there with internet access on their smart phone). So we were unable to fill the tank with gas, and will be charged a lot extra for that. Come to find out, they may also try to charge us for the tire despite the fact that we had full damage coverage. Because apparently even though the tires are part of the car, they're not actually part of the car and thus aren't covered by the damage waiver?? Oh, and if the rim got bent, we'll apparently have to pay even MORE to fix that, because that's not covered by the damage waiver either! In the end, we spent 19 hours on what should have been a 12 hour trip, and with the cost of the car, the tire, the gas they'll charge us for, and the gas money we spent on the trip, it is probably going to wind up being MORE expensive than if we had just flown up. So basically we paid more than our plane tickets would have been to get screwed up the ass by Budget.

I will NEVER rent a car from Budget again. It's one thing if your tire pops and they're apologetic about the fact that there's nothing they can do to help you while you're stranded on the interstate in the middle of nowhere, but not one person that I dealt with bothered to say "sorry about all this hassle." All of them were more interested in telling me all of the stuff that was my fault, all of the stuff I would have to pay for, and all of the things I should have done to avoid the situation.

And then at the convention, so many things went wrong. My Secret Suit that I'd been working on (which will soon be revealed) had to be finished at the last minute. Because of the delays on the way up there, we had to spend all day Friday working on finishing things. We were hardly in the Dealer's Den because of it, and sales were terrible. I forgot the foam needed to finish one of my feet, so I had to basically just build the foot covering out of fur and then stuff it with scrap fabric, so it looked like a mutated, club-footed mess. Though the bodysuit fit, it was a bit looser than I'd like, and the foam padding in the left leg kept slipping down too low because I was unable to attach it to anything.

And the internet in the Dealer's Den did not work. We tried it every day on two iPods and my laptop, and it never worked. It would accept the WEP key and "log on" to the internet, but it would never actually connect no matter what we tried. Even the knowledgeable techie who was there to help with that sort of thing basically told me "sorry, you're SOL." So we were unable to accept credit cards the whole con, which hurt our sales.

AND, I had to make a pair of feet for a past commissioner, and I got them done with time to spare before the con. Then I give them to her, and within a very short amount of time, the bottom just FELL OFF on one of the feet. I always use Shoe Goo, and have never had a problem, but the place I got it from is no longer selling it, so I thought E6000, which should have been pretty much the same thing, would work just fine. It did not. I felt so embarrassed and terrible about handing her shoes that fell apart like that. My work is up to a higher standard than THAT, and she'd already had to wait a good amount of time, so I felt like complete crap after that.

Oh, and my stomach was hurting all day Sunday into Monday, just a tight cramping for no discernible reason. Though I think it may have been from some Nestle chocolate I had. :(

Even still, I loved my suit, and wearing it was the best part of the whole convention, but I do have to say that with all of the negative stuff that went on, the trip was definitely not worth it at all. I am so sad and disappointed about how this con went down, and I regret ever going. Honestly, we're not sure if we will go next year. The suiting aspect is pretty fun, but damn it's an expensive con for us, and sales were pretty darn terrible the whole convention. We just barely broke even (and only then it was because we finally sold our bunny partial for super cheap--much less than we'd hoped), and if we wind up getting charged for all that extra BS with Budget, we will be very far in the red for this trip. :(

I am so exhausted today and I look forward to just laying around like an old slob, eating pizza and playing co-op video games with my lady friend.

Just finished the Mass Effect series, and I'm so conflicted about the endings, the interpretations, and the implications. I feel like I want to write out all of my thoughts and theories, but there's just no point. I'm the only person I know who played the game and got seriously emotionally invested in the story and the characters. The game made me teary-eyed in a few parts, that's how invested I was. :| I keep geeking out about it and annoying my wife (and probably the few FB friends I have), so I think I really just need to shut up about it at this point.

I'm hoping the upcoming DLC will at least provide some clarity or explanation that makes things more transparent, but we'll see, I guess. Overall, I still feel like the story and the universe they created was incredible, and it's probably one of the best sci-fi stories ever told, even with the ending. Shepard is the perfect hero, to me, and seeing those endings (one in particular, and yes I played through all three because I'm a completionist) made me feel sick to my stomach. It's really tough to see a character that you've molded and directed and come to sort of love in a way go through that sort of ending. Now that it's over and there's no real closure, I feel sort of empty and unfulfilled, like when you masturbate like crazy but can't reach that climax for one reason or another. :|


That said, if anyone out there reading this would like to discuss the endings, I'm all ears. I have no one to bounce ideas and theories off of, and it's making me crazy because I like to analyze and interpret things. I'd be interested to know what, if any, you think the 'right' choice was.

So. I'm graduating on Saturday. After four long years, I'll finally be receiving my Bachelor's of Science in General Biology. Pretty darn stoked about this, ngl. :)

Of course, now I have to worry about getting into graduate school. I've finally decided to get my Master's degree in Early Childhood Education.

Commissions are slow right now until finals are over. My last final is on Tuesday, so after that things will start really speeding up. We've got a lot of work we've been doing lately on a new owl and kangaroo, and some other smaller commissions and items. Expect updates as they become available. :P