There's a lot of hate for Dragoneer and absolute disdain for FA in general from it's own userbase, but maybe it's time to start seeing things from another perspective, like this guy

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6606222/

I have not met Dragoneer personally, but I believe him when he says he wants to help this site succeed. I think he wants to see this site get better and I think he's genuinely trying. The problem is that the very userbase he's trying to aid is determined to paint him in the worst light physically possible as a terrible admin, and every time he takes a step to make an improvement it is picked apart and maimed and smeared until the person that was going to help backs out.

I think the best example of this behavior is with Zaush. Awhile ago he volunteered to help with the administration of this site, and when it was announced a select group of people immediately went into attack mode. He was accused (allegedly!) of sexual assault, and had to endure weeks of assault from every form of social media and journal bombing possible while not taking into account the fact that he actually had skills that could have aided the site and was quite obviously a contributor and loyal user. For like a month his name was dragged into the dirt and he gave every bit of evidence he could pull up to prove his innocence, but in the end the pitchforks and blame game kept on going until he relented and pulled out.

This behavior I have seen repeated over and over and over again to a point where it's a god damn running joke. People want to hate Dragoneer on the basis that he is Dragoneer without even really knowing the guy (though I admit that I do not) because someone on social media said something. His quotes get taken out of context when I just see it as down to earth, unfiltered non-corporate lawyer-speak.

I am mirroring my site as a safety precaution, yes, but I still think he genuinely cares about the site. I want to see what happens with it. It would be nice if people stopped trashing Dragoneer cuz it's the 'cool thing to do'.

I caved. Will be mirroring my art on other sites now, so far including Weasyl and eventually Sofurry. You can find me there, if you want. Username will be Kaliak of course.

Just in case.

This situation with my brother did not, is not working out. He perpetually does not have any money and is not giving me half the rent and utilities like I asked. A bill is due to the utility company in the amount of 130.15. I already paid a double internet bill as it got cut off a few days ago due to non payment. None of this would be an issue if he gave me what he promised but I can not shoulder his debt any longer.

I really need help. I'll do commissions, I'll accept donations, anything. I'm burning through credit far faster than I ever dreamt I would, even though I told myself I'd never use a credit card again. Come the end of this month I'm moving back in with my mom temporarily to try to get my credit balance once again back to zero and I can stop stressing the fuck out.

Please, if you want commissions, post to this journal, tell me what you want, I am forced to buckle down and draw despite this illness. I have two pictures to do first and you will be drawn immediately after, if my will permits (and by gosh it must or I'm screwed.).

Basic Rates:
-$20 for one character in whatever pose. All characters are fully colored and shaded.
-$30 if you want a new character sheet. I wanna try doing these, I find I kinda liked making my own.

-My character in the same picture is free, but add $10 if they are 'directly' interacting as it makes it harder.

-Options:
-add $15 if you want some kind of background. I tend to hand-draw these.
-add $10 for heavily detailed characters or 'gear'. (IE tattoos, machinery, complex armor etc)
-Gradients and empty space backgrounds are free.

I am willing to try mostly any content, but I do have a certain love and preference for RPG characters and scenes. I will not draw any form of child pornography or any illegal material. I am not good enough with perspective to do things like Macro and I strongly dislike Hyper or super muscles. Latex bondage is something that comes pretty easily if someone wants that. Post your ideas here if you have any or you just want to help out.

Just checked out the front page and OMG. So much beautiful work. How come no one talks about that site nowadays anyway?

Been working retail for so long I tend to forget what day of the week it is much less holidays I am never allowed to enjoy. It is November and EatAlot Day is coming up. I suppose it is a blessing I disguise since I think I am putting on an uncomfortable amount of weight thanks to a fairly sedentary lifestyle and constant exposure to food on a regular basis.

Still, at least I can take solace in the fact that all I don't have to work Corporate Worship Day, managed to get lucky on that, though would have been interested to watch the animals come in and trample people to get 10% off that I-Pod that replaces the one they bought last month.

In other news, well, not a whole lot to talk about. My brother got an X-Bone, he plays Warframe and KI3 on it. Tried to get him to play it on PC (Warframe that is) but he refuses to learn mouse and keyboard. And I don't mean that he is incapable of using it, he just doesn't want to learn, like, at all. But even then, I personally watched him get his ass handed to him like 10 times during the introductory quests.

As far as KI3 I find I am quite the fanboy of the series and am old enough to have played the game when it first came out so I have some experience with it. I really love the music most of all and the mechanics are very interesting to me as I like how you are never helpless after getting hit first. I haven't played online yet and may not for awhile until I get comfortable enough to read autos for easier breaking.

I am sooo hype for some Riptor...

It turns out my local game night host doesn't care for scaly characters! I am not sure how I feel about this, as even as a reptile I think furry characters are pretty awesome, if flammable >>

Anyway that's it for my brain dump. Anyone else here like to play Warframe or KI3?

I don't know what to say really. Dragoneer posts a top-box link that should be celebrated. New, full time experienced coder and, like clockwork, lynch mob shows up to obliterate any efforts that might have resulted in a positive push to the site.

It happened with Zaush before, where his bedroom antics somehow make him inept and worthless as a coder and assistant. It may have happened even before that, I dont know. I never paid much attention. However since I do have some stake here as this place, regardless of how'shit' people keep saying the coding is, cost me no money, but net me friends and turned my hobby into a small way to pittance on the side while connecting me with amazing, talented, awesome people.

The problem that exists now is that people are quitting including one of my best friends that has helped me as a friend and as a customer, and that leaves this awful feeling in my gut that it will only get worse.

I have a deviantart account, but the majority of the people that used to follow me abandoned it years ago. Putting art there tends to net a handful of views, at best, and at worst, I cannot post everything I am capable of drawing there because of TOS. I can't post there and expect to be noticed, not to mention I was trolled awhile back, and there are some bad memories associated with that place.

I made an IB account but for the love of god the content there is horrifying. There is only so far down the pit of depravity I am willing to go and IB goes way farther. I am not comfortable posting anything there.

That leaves Weasyl and Sofurry. I did make a Weasyl account there but putting all of my art up again feels tedious and I fear I'd just lose whatever following I have just like what happened with DA.

I want to stay here but.. Will this place last? It feels like it won't. Most of the people that complain about the failings of FA dont want this site to succeed and dig up every shred of dirt they can on every new admin or coder or employee they can, trying to make sure that no matter what Dragoneer tries to do ends up going nowhere by dragging every new hire through endless streams of mud and sharp rocks until he has no choice but to withdraw his efforts.

I don't know where im going with this. I just dont want to lose my watchers and fans and friends again.

(Edit: Starrykitten left dev team. That was inevitable.)

Ok so confidence restored thanks to some kind words and some personal projects. Back to work. Up next, one comic and one local commish.

I am daunted by this comic, and my time always feels short, but im gonna do this somehow. Wish me luck.

So I had a combination of situational drama and midlife crisis hit me at the same time over the last few days. As I am not a person of outstandingly high self confidence and pride I often wind up carrying my emotions on my sleeve and they affect everything I do and don't do.

I am mustering the strength to draw and be sociable once more. It would help if I could stream again but tablet rarely cooperates. I will do what I can because I owe it to myself, my fans, and those that have made requests. Sorry is a word I don't feel has much of a meaning anymore so I won't say it. I'll just do what it is I must and enjoy it like I should have been doing.

Thanks for watching me. Without you guys I probably would not be doing anything at all as a hobby.

This week has been a week in which I wish I had lower moral standards because I wanna just give up, give in, drink and do drugs until I can't feel anything anymore.

But yeah I am not the kind of person that does either of these things... I just kinda wish I were because fuck everything.

Were it not for the support of my friends I would just shut down. Persevering for reasons I don't even understand anymore.

My financial situation is not good. Trying to keep my promises and doing some long overdue commission(s). We'll see how this night goes.

www.livestream.com/kaliak


Update: Stream was a bust. Video was not showing up, occassional audio spurts. I paid more attention to the streaming program than the drawing and it was not a pleasant experience. This is the second time at least this issue has been a serious problem. Not pleased right now.

How interested would people be if I set up some, say, plant or possibly ice bondage YCH scenarios involving Belkas or Kaliak? And for that matter, maybe hypnosis with Spyre the naga? I kinda need the money and I want to know if such scenarios would be desirable for my watchers.

I am also considering potential scenarios involving Zipa, though the ideas in my head are actually somewhat more ... lethal than I should rightfully be comfortable with.

Besides yiffy art I also have some water bending pictures I want to do, but my actual drawing time is restrained right now and I am having a hard time getting to old commissions. I have not forgotten though.

Cobwebs shaken, back to drawing again. Let's see how long this lasts.

I don't do a lot of memes but hey why not, let's try this one.

Write an assumption about me and I'll tell you if it's true or not.

Create your own lizard character! Pay me $35 and you can create whatever type of lizard you want! $20 and you can make it neon colored!

...

I'm kidding. I'm not actually doing that, but that is an actual thing that is going around on the site currently. I get people can pay money for whatever they want to support an artist, but to charge people to have a creature that you just came up with 5 minutes ago while not even drawing it yourself just screams to me pure, raw, unfiltered SCAM and might as well be a straight up donation.

People are however buying into it, and paying the 'artist' plenty of money for it. Kudos to the person who thought of it, I expect to see plenty more 'events' like this popping up in the near future.

Keep it classy, FA. Always classy.

Politics and religion are draining my soul. It is harder and harder to feel happy about anything as I watch the steady erosion of humanity and continued abuse of women, children, and the poor. To see just how utterly disconnected from humanity the religious the rich really are has become an issue that I find is becoming soul crushingly painful to bear witness to.

i can't tune this stuff out or i get accused of being willfully ignorant, but i can't deal with it properly. The death, the abuses and degrading human condition is robbing me of a kindness i fear I'm losing, because i just don't want to care anymore. Im always grumpy and angry these days, and that worries me.

I wonder how well it would go if I started doing like... slave artistry for people on livestream? I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to do something like that since my better pictures tend to start in pencil first. Something I've been thinking about.

I'm still drawing, and in need this month in particular. I am grateful that at the very least my brother will be employed again as a security guard. Go figure... Master's f'ing degree and the only job he can get is mall cop.

Anyway. Still got slots left if you want a drawing. I'm having trouble getting into contact with a couple of people.

Commissions in queue:

1. Rusty-Draco: Sketch submitted for approval. Awaiting payment.

2. Zigzagziggy: Completed.

3. RaptorianOne: Completed.

4. Hesrah/Anon: Awaiting idea.

5. Calyo: In queue

I am open for commissions!

For the next few weeks I will be accepting commissions of both mature and general content. I want to flex my artistic muscle and apply some new techniques but need actual subject matter and ideas to replicate.

I ak willing to try pretty much anything, except scat and extreme torture. If you want to do something bondage related I can do those as well though I rather enjoy drawing unobstructed bodies. Areas I am weak in I want to improve on.

Here is the payment breakdown I'll be working with:

Base, 1 character: $20
Extra characters: $10 each (my character is free! But $5 each if you want more than one)
Extremely detailed characters or costumes: $5-$10 extra (most characters I don't consider complex enough to warrant this)
Backgrounds $10-$20 based on complexity; gradient, flat, or white bgs free.

What I need from you: a drawn reference or screenshot of any quality (I hate guessing on details.) The more references you can provide the better job I can do.

I prefer not to go by handwritten descriptions as they rarely explain enough physical details to make the sketch click, but I am not above trying to use these.

What I do when taking commissions from people is draw a sketch with pencil. If the pose and base image looks good, then I can finish the work. I will show you the sketch, and if you like it, I will then give my PayPal information. Then your picture becomes my sole purpose until the image is fully completed. Do NOT send me money if I have not shown you the sketch! I want to be 100% honest about this.

I will post commissions I have taken on this journal and will update it as I work.

Commissions in queue:

1. Rusty-Draco: Sketch submitted for approval. Awaiting payment.

2. Zigzagziggy: Completed.

3. RaptorianOne: Completed.

4. Hesrah/Anon: Awaiting idea.

5. Calyo: In queue

Been drawing things every day like I always should have been for the past few days. Hopefully will continue the trend. I have a commission to complete tomorrow and I wanna do some more personal character designs. I think my confidence is improving (not to mention competence.)

After some feedback I finally solved the issues I was having with my computer. One of the two RAM cards I had was bad. After discovering which one, I removed it, and now I no longer have crashing problems.

Sorry about the dramatic post from before... it was very distressing at the time.

And... it's not working properly, at all.

Very, very sad about this. I can't play games properly without crashing. I don't know why. I don't know what I'm supposed to do to fix it. Been stressing for a couple of days about it and it feels like forever. I want to play games. I want to hang with my friends. This is pretty much all I do for leisure.

This sucks. I'm too broke to do anything more. I can't even do commissions until my power cord replacement gets here in two days. I'm going crazy with worry and I have soooo many bills coming up.

I don't handle stress well.

Fuck.

So I went down to Texas Furry Fiesta, spent the weekend with my gracious and generous and incredibly awesome host  x1gameguy2007, AKA Jace Zantetsukin, who was one of the upper staff members of the convention. I honestly didn't get to interact with him much at the convention but I got to see how busy he really is during these excursions. I stayed there with him and his boyfriend  rexthehusky, and spent time with  tanktheorca and his mate whose FA I do not know, named Bear.

While there I saw a ton of really interesting fursuiters, many of which made me squee in delight, and by chance ran into several people I only know from Twitter including @OfTheWilds,  wullger, iconronsobeast:,  acroth,  startide, and a few others. Since I'm new to the whole social experience thing I didn't get to do much with them, though I did go out and eat with Valtter so that was pretty fun!

The convention was my first major one so that's a pretty big milestone, though I do have to say it felt a little hodgepodged at times, which I guess has to be attributed to the fact it was at a new hotel which was told to me about 50 times during my stay there. I had nothing to compare it to!

Even though there was confusion at times and trouble with lighting, scheduling, and basic communication, the convention seemed to go off without a hitch and I have to say I came away with a fairly positive vibe of the whole thing and would definitely do it again if I had the option to do so!

The best thing about the experience I honestly must say was the food. Sorry fursuiters.. honestly the restaurants we visited out there were phenomenal. Especially Saltgrass' steak. And that bar at the last bit? Flying Saucer? Incredibly good brews.

I also came away with an awesome new computer rig thanks to  x1gameguy2007 who builds these things for a living. I miss Texas alot and hope one day I get to go back and visit again, I had so much fun there.

Not sure what else to mention, unless someone wants to ask me questions?

My vacation went ok. I'll post some details about it later. Don't wanna type a journal on phone so will wait til new rig is setup. Will update again hopefully tomorrow.

I'll be there. Um... I hope to see some of you there besides  x1gameguy2007 whom i will be staying with for the duration. I don't know if i can do something like this again in the near future though.

Ok.. I was going to say something angry, passionate, and profanity laced in regards to the whole FA community thing, but I find it would not be productive. I am no apologist for illegal activity, but I have huuuuge issues with lynch mob mentality, people who bully, harass, and spread rumors about people without knowing all of the facts from both parties. I've seen it way too much.

From people who copy/duplicate people's style to pad their gallery with ONE image they drew themselves, to people who complain to FA staff about RL stalkers (Really? REALLY?!), to people who claim rape even if that's not what really happened.

I have serious problems with rumor mills. I hate mob mentality, brainless meat puppets who refuse to think for themselves, who don't want to see anything beyond the 'He said' and 'She said', despite stories not meshing and no evidence to support either side beyond word of mouth.

No I'm not leaving FA, Yes I might join other galleries for unrelated issues. This whole deal is about people being stupid lemmings willing to jump off a cliff because someone told them to, and I despise that behavior. This isn't limited to just FA, it's any gallery or site where people inhabit, and to move to other galleries expecting people to stop being who they are is ridiculous.

Everyone has baggage, history. Everyone has their own merits about them. If this girl experienced what she said she did it is NOT an issue for the art site. It's an issue for the POLICE. It is between her, him, and a signed court document. What he wants to do for this site should have no merit on his past behavior, because it has nothing at all to do with what he proposed to put together for the site's benefit.

There's so much more I can say but honestly I just don't want to. There have been enough mobs in life to make it quite obvious nothing good ever, ever comes from them.

Ok so apparently hoarding messages and notifications was the cause of the issues affecting this site. I guess it was a bad idea to rack up 5 digits of backlogged entries just because I liked to see big numbers.

Took me about 20 minutes to empty my notification list of 27K+ entries, including submissions, journals, notes, watches, and favorites. Sorry Dragoneer, I had no idea.

Just doing my small part to try to keep the site running. I really don't want to make a new gallery unless completely and 100% necessary, though one of the Inkbunny admins actually responded to me personally over Twitter which was actually quite surprising. Kinda admirable really.