Almost ten years ago, I had a brief journal called "They misspelled 'Rhinoceros?'" You see, in 2011, "Rhinocerus" [sic] was added to the fledgling list of species tags that have been used since before there was even a search engine (I remember when "Apple" was a choice and some used it for pigs). Driving the message home that "Elephant" still had not been added was a picture from a certain pachyderm lover.

The biggest land animal, the longtime symbol of Animal Planet, the mascot of a baseball team and an insurance company, the genus of Babar and Dumbo, the avatar of a major U.S. political party, had been out of the tags for all these years. Holding back seemed understandable; there are thousands of pictures, many of them from users who won't be applying that species tag. It's exciting, though, to see that this long-standing oversight has been dealt with. We'll see if some prominent users will take note.

Sure, it's bizarre to see vehicle tags at the top, but we get kobolds and werewolves and tanukis! Aw yeah!

This has been the inevitable reaction to today's development. We now return you to whatever in blazes you've been browsing before.

EDIT 11/9/21 12:18 p.m. EST: It turns out "Tanuki" was an option this whole time. My mistake.

"Why is there joy in this poison?" - Andy Black, "We Don't Have To Dance"

I've thought about tomorrow, and these things are coinciding: a "Werewolf Wednesday" that some here follow, an actual full moon, the second half of October, and the 80th and 40th anniversaries of the top two werewolf movies.

Let's make the most of it.

I might sound as if I'm pouring it on, but I've fallen for the developing idea of a new furry sport! "Be the ball" may be good advice in other sports, but here, you want someone on the other team to have that distinction!

I cannot believe that I've been on this site, in this mad house, for over a decade. But that's what it says in the user profile and in one of the latest shouts. That doesn't include the year or so I lurked without a user name or the five-ish years that led me to FA. In spite of everything, I just keep coming back.

From where I'm looking, I now have seven pics of King K. Rool on my homepage -- including three just posted -- in recognition of yesterday's announcement. I'm not sure how long I'll keep to this arrangement, but this is the right time.

Yet again, I'm moved to remark -- but not quite -- about how I'm still occasionally doing this sort of thing after all these years. Nothing too personal, specific, or judgmental.

I'll spare the details, but I've felt for a month or two in advance that I should mark the beginning of this year in particular with a journal.

After all these years, I finally have a definitive answer. The scene is from "The Fifty Karat Furball," a Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries episode.

That and aircraft repair ads. What'd you get the most on this first day?

In the five or more years that this site has been the center of my browsing experience, I've shared things that were clever and things that were dumb. At some point, the frequency of my journals and comments dropped as I got lazier and focused on saving more images and pages. At the same time, I got wiser with age and my tastes gradually changed. But what's been happening in my life in the last year? That'd be too personal.

What prompts me to post that mini-update is something that caused me to put my hand on the top of my head in surprise. The recent FA updates, with its new list of species, has "Rhinocerus" [sic] among them. Nobody checked that? Yikes.

I feared I'd get bad grades. I felt worse about myself than ever before. More on that when I feel like it.

My attention is on an emerging personality on FA. This guy writes sports stories like I can only dream of writing, and for now, it's because of these that I'm ever so slightly into basketball for now. I don't know what I want him to call me if he thanks me (I like how you do that), but this is the guy behind T. Matt Latrans and Buck Hopper. The latter is his username.

Oh, and I'm sorry if I said anything controversial. At any rate, I'm glad to see someone on FA who's such a sports fan.

Maybe I should let Fanimal know about "Bowling Peludo;" perhaps he'll more effectively pass it on than I have.

At any rate, let's get this on.

With so many entertaining drawings, many involving larger characters drawn quite well overall, this guy deserves a watch. He's great at facial expressions, and he really can show the different attitudes emitted by the characters he draws. So what the hell am I waiting for? I'm adding Trigger to my watch list!

On a related note, here's another guy whose drawings convey attitude and emotion. I like the faces he does (a lot of 'em show some fangs, which is a nice touch), and also the body builds of the characters he draws. Again, he might be worthy of more words, but I'm just ready to add Lodoss to that watch list!

And I still don't know whether I'm going to add Pixel Penguin to my watch list to reflect the fact that the artist has let go of the last vestige of his previous fursona, to say nothing of how else he's changed his tune in the last year. Sure, he's just as excellent an artist, but I'm not interested in Dae Hyun. And Pixel? She's no Gill, although I see she appeals to the guys out there who like fat fur females. Yeah, most of the twelve of us. Guess I'm gonna have to see how things go.

I dunno if anyone around here's seen this one, but I think it'll appeal to some of you out there.. "Bowling Peludo" (the latter word meaning "hairy," if that's relevant) is a five-minute short about an old, fat mouse who used to bowl, but can hardly do so anymore, except maybe in his dreams. Here's the forum on which I found a link to it when image searching for "fatmouse." http://forums.3dtotal.com/showthread.php?t=65023

And now, to defeat the purpose of the previous link, here's a direct link to the video itself. I was going to only use the one below, but the one above also briefly provides a bit of context.
http://www.vimeo.com/3022038

What's there to say about this next artist's style? Is it cute? Surely. Does it have a unique flavor? Certainly. Does the artist do well with characters who have a good amount of bulk? Oh yes. All this is why I should add Greening to my growing list.

I hardly ever have the incentive to do anything besides getting pictures and pages from dA and FA, so updating my journals is hardly a priority for me.

Anyhoo, I'd like to give props to some more artists. One of them is, in a word, excellent. He's great at linework, inks, and coloring; he has several interesting and good-looking characters; and he can really work with many poses and facial expressions. But that could describe several artists; the one in particular I'm talking about is "Ronzo" Murphy, the one who brought us Shred and friends.

I'll come up with more to watch as I go along.

The next two who can count on me watching them are as follows:

He does well with big furry creatures, his work is colorful, and his work has quite some heart to it. Here's someone whose work I haven't been following for that long, but he gets a watch from me anyhow: Benny J. Ross.

He sure knows how to draw large, shapely females, among other large beings. And he backs it up with what he has to say about his work. Mesdames et messieurs, Eddy the Okapi.

I have sort of a hypothesis about Japanese artists on this site: the ones who post art here are among the very best their country has to offer when it comes to kemono/furry. One of them, this artist I'm going to watch has shared with us art that is of a style all his own, showing all manner of fat furs in many poses, and in a good amount of body detail. I gladly add Karsaku to my watch list.

And while I'm on the subject of very good kemono artists, I might as well add more, like an artist who has charmed us with his/her neat-looking dragons, whether very muscular, very chubby, or both. This artist's smooth coloring, entertaining poses and gestures, and excellent depictions of dragon muscle tone all rock. I'm talking about Kitora.

Thank you both for letting us comment about your great work!

When I checked out some of the rankings for FA users' watch and watched-by lists -- mine range from universal favorites like Spunky and Solidasp (each in the top 0.1%) to under-the-radar honorables Mike Fang and Wanderer Werewolf (each in the top 20%) -- I realized I hadn't watched anyone in a while. That's because it doesn't feel complete on here without a few nice words to say about the users in question (also, I tend to be more selective here than at dA). However, I spend most of my time fooling around with random things, so I hardly ever take time to do that. Still, these are some very good furs whom I have yet to honor. Just noting what they can do artistically won't do either, but I'd better type something. So, here are some quick things.

A well-motivated artist whose style is deep, epic, and beautiful, Strype.

A guy who is quite good with fat body shapes and even better with detailed scales on scalies, Daniel Kay.

A guy who's entertained and charmed many for the last ten months with his comic, and has been a good commenter and artist before that as well, Ollis.

A skilled and witty purveyor of the big folks, especially the big girls, Eddy the Okapi.

And that's the ones I could think of for now. Maybe I'll be motivated to let a few more in sometime.

Oh, and it's kinda surprising that I'm in the top 50%. Thanks much to the fifteen who watch li'l ol' me.

When will they return? Maybe I should take some time to think about whom to watch and how to praise their overall contributions. I'll have a list sometime.

I'm glad FA's data transfer was successful.

While it was offline, I was one of many who had more time for dA. One of the major goings-on there is the Colosseum, an original character tournament. Kilojara, one of the main folks behind the tournament, is one of two who made up my gateway to following the tournament. The other will be the subject of my next watch. He's a good comic artist, and his skill showed as he guided his gladiator to a berth in the tournament, a first-round victory, and a good battle in the second round. Conner Coon, whose Mexican-style wrestler El Toro is someone I've seen and liked even before the tournament, is one of several who did very well with their entries. It'll be good to see what the FA crowd has to say about both sides of his second-round match.

Now that she's stopped using that eyesore of an icon, I can finally add this accomplished artist's name to the watchlist. She brings the cute and fluffy when she wants to, and does so excellently. This is Spunky.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIRC.....;feature=bz302

Such variety, such style, such dedication. An eleven-minute Web gem.