(Expanded version of a series of tweets I posted this morning.)

I know it's 2013, but I still use a VCR regularly. I love DVRs. DVRs are great. But eventually, they fill up. And if you have a crappy Comcast one, like I do, that tends to happen rather quickly. If you want to keep stuff indefinitely, you need something else. Thus, my VCR.

I just discovered that my VCR has lost color, and only records in black & white now. Of course, I didn't realize this until after I'd taped several programs I wanted to keep, and then deleted them from my DVR. I looked online for possibilities of why this might be happening, even though I really knew that the answer is just that it's getting old. But maybe, just maybe, there was something I could do. One person said, "I'd clean the recording head. Use a head cleaning cassette with some head cleaning fluid on it." Yeah, not likely to happen. Even three years ago, when that answer was written, it would've been difficult to find a head cleaning cassette. Now? Pretty damn near impossible. Even finding blank VHS tapes can be a chore these days. I know you can still find DVD/VCR combos in some stores, but I really can't afford to be buying a new one.

Anyway, while I was thinking about all this, a realization hit me: In essence, I am that VCR. Once useful, now obsolete, a relic, no longer functioning the way it's supposed to, little chance of being fixed.

I'm joking, of course... but not that much.


P.S. The swelling on my face continues to go down. Thanks again to all who expressed concern.

Last night I ran my hand across the left side of my face and noticed a mildly painful swelling underneath the surface. Like most adults (I imagine), I still get the occasional pimple, and at the time, I thought that that was probably what this was, just an unusually large one that hadn't worked its way to the surface of the skin yet. As of this morning, it was apparent that that was not the case. The swelling had increased, and so had the pain. My mom's a nurse, so when I saw her I asked her about it, hoping that she'd say, "I'm sure it's nothing, give it a day or two." Instead, with almost no hesitation, she said, "I think you should go to the emergency room."

Emergency room? Really? (This is what I imagine you're saying.) I thought she might be overreacting, but she's not really prone to that. There definitely was something unusual going on, and I don't really have a primary doctor (haven't been to one in years), so it was my best chance to get in and see someone quickly. So with a lot of mixed feelings, I went to the ER, almost hoping that there'd be something wrong with me, so that I wouldn't forever be known at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital as "the guy who came in to the ER for a zit".

They asked me a bunch of questions. I told them that on a scale of 1-10, the pain was only a 1. Really, 2 or 3 may have been more accurate, but thanks to all of my dental problems of the past (including going days on end with toothache pains so horrible that I literally thought I might lose my mind), my pain threshold is pretty high. Anyway, I wasn't in pain as much as I was just scared, because something I'd never experienced before was happening to me, and I didn't know what it was.

Everyone there was really nice, nobody made me feel stupid for coming in (it probably helped that it seemed like it was a fairly slow day in the ER). The doctor who saw me said that he didn't think it was a situation that required "cutting your face open" and prescribed some antibiotics, which I have to take for a couple of weeks (although I hope to God it doesn't take that long for the swelling to go down).

The worst part of it all (except for the worrying) was answering all the questions they asked me. Most of the info they had on me was 10-15 years old. I had to tell them that I was still living with my mom, that I didn't have a job anymore, that I didn't have insurance anymore, all that good stuff. It shone a light on just how much my life, if you can call it that, has fallen apart. And if I haven't figured out how to fix any of it by now, what chance is there that I'm going to anytime soon? Or ever?

So, yeah. That's going on. But hopefully my beautiful face will be OK.

https://www.weasyl.com/profile/kiffakitmouse


I have no plans to leave FA or anything like that; I just want to be able to keep up with my friends who don't post here anymore. Haven't uploaded any of my music there yet, but I probably will sometime soon.

I briefly mentioned this on Twitter recently, but now I can talk a little bit more about it.

I have a friend who's an animator. He's been working on a new project, and a little while ago he hinted that he wanted me to be a part of it. Tonight I got my first details. It's an animated series that he's producing himself (I assume for the internet), and I'm going to be voicing a recurring character. I'm hoping that I can do a good enough job that my friend and his son, who is working on the show with him, will want to make the character a full-fledged regular.

I didn't get to find out too much about it yet (we just talked about it briefly while at a birthday party), but I know the show's title, the basic premise, setting, and my character's name, occupation, and general demeanor. From these, we have an idea of what the voice is going to be like. For the time being, I'm sworn to secrecy, but hopefully it won't be too long before I can share something concrete!

Woooo!  dramaarmada just made the  furrymusicians Musician Spotlight for the 4th and 5th time, with our Simon and Garfunkel and Gotye parodies from last fall-- yeah, they're running a little behind, but that's OK, as long as we keep getting featured! :P

It was a lot of work to get those two songs finished in time for FurFright, but it was all worth it to get the kind of reaction we've received. More good stuff is in the works for later this year, so watch this space! :)

Tomorrow, April 21, 2013 marks the 25th anniversary of the first song I ever recorded. I had planned to do something on FA to mark the occasion, but timing being everything, computer problems have struck at my home and my internet access is currently limited to when I can get to the public library (groan). I still hadn't decided exactly what I was going to do, though, so I guess it's not all that big a disappointment (except that it is lol).

I may still do something when I have the 'net back up at home. It'll be late, but what can you do. I don't have anything new ready to post though, so it'd be something from the vaults. The problem with that is that ever since about 2007, when I started doing music that sounded a bit more professional, I've been hesitant to go back to posting stuff from my old lo-fi days. Is anybody interested in hearing any of that stuff anymore, or would it just be an exercise in futility (and humility)?

At any rate, I don't have time right now to write a lot, so I'll just post a short chronological list of what I consider 'career highlights'. Even though it's nowhere near one of my best songs, I have to begin with the one that started it all, 25 years ago tomorrow. It's a little embarrassing, but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere.


Radio Temptation (with The Businessmen, 1988)
Winter (originally 1992, re-recorded 1994)
Learning To Let Go (1993)
Under Your Spell (cover version; written by me, recorded by Hunter Coyote, 2007)
Nobody's Watching Me (with Drama Armada, 2007)
Fortnight (2008)
I'll Drown The World (2008)
$ Or ♥ ? (2008)
Walking Away (2008)
The Song Of FurFright (with Drama Armada, 2012)

When it comes to social networking and me, the status of our relationship has always been "it's complicated". There are sites on which I used to maintain a presence, but that I never go to anymore because they feel like ghost towns (MySpace, livejournal). There are sites that I'd rather not touch with a ten-foot-pole (Facebook). And then there are sites on which I'm currently active, but that don't always meet my blogging/journal needs, because either they cater to a niche audience whom I don't always want to bother with off-topic subject matter (FurAffinity) or they limit users to a ridiculously small message size (Twitter).

Long story short, I joined tumblr about an hour ago in hopes that it might be what I'm looking for. I really haven't visited the site much before now, so I'm still figuring out how to use it. It might be a while before I'm posting regularly, but feel free to add me, or watch me, or follow me, or whatever they call it there. Eventually I hope to post a mix of stuff from my real life and the furry fandom, along with music-related stuff and whatever comedic material pops into my head. There may be occasional cussing, but it'll probably all be relatively SFW.

http://kiffakitmouse.tumblr.com/

See you there!

Pressenting  dramaarmada's collaboration with  asianeko!

It's called "A Fursuit That I Used To Own", and it's yet another take on Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know". Yeah, I know you're sick of that song, but go listen to our version anyway. In return, we promise not to parody "Call Me Maybe".

For anyone who hasn't heard it yet, the first of 2 new Drama Armada songs is now up on our page. It's called The Song Of FurFright, and it's a parody of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound Of Silence", as well as a tribute to 10 years of FurFright.

Hope you like it!

(P.S. Our other new song will be up as soon as the final mix is done.)

Back in 1995, I wrote a song called "Under Your Spell". In 1996, I recorded a crude, lo-fi version of it. In July of 2007, I uploaded it to FA. The following month,  huntercoyote blew me away with a brilliant cover of it. A couple of weeks ago, I learned that  mpony remixed Hunter's version and included it in his DJ set at this year's Camp Feral. And as of a few hours ago, it's up on M_pony's Soundcloud page! Stop what you're doing and go listen!

Incidentally, I'm on Soundcloud too.

(BTW, my original recording of "Under Your Spell" is in my FA gallery. I'm not bothering to link to it because once you've heard Hunter's version, there's no point in listening to mine lol.)

Hey! If you're a fur who's a fan of Duran Duran, whether it be die-hard or casual, please join the newly-created duranfurs group here on FA. It's a great way to connect with other furry DD fans (or at least it will be, once we have some members. Cut me some slack, I literally just made the group lol).

P.S.: We will also have discussions about other '80s & music-related topics, not just Duran Duran.

Some stuff that's been going on lately...

I went out for a drive today, up Route 1 through Topsfield into Rowley, then over to Ipswich and Essex. When I was passing by the Topsfield Fairgrounds I was surprised to see two full-grown elephants grazing in the adjacent field. Turns out that the circus was in town. I pulled into the parking lot and got out of my car to watch the elephants for a while. I really wanted to ask their caretakers if there was any chance that I could get up close and maybe meet the animals, but I didn't work up the nerve to do it. They probably never would've let me, anyway. Still, it was really cool to see them. There were some camels on the other side of the parking lot too. One of them was really cute; he was lying on his side, kind of rolling around on the ground trying to scratch an itch, the way horses do. He looked like he was having a lot of fun, and it made me laugh. :)

Tuesday night a couple of friends and I went to the Radiohead show in Mansfield. It was pretty damn sweet. They played for a good long time (16 songs in the main part of the show, 7 in encores). In addition to a lot of stuff from the last 2 albums, they played a lot of my favorites, including "Airbag", "There There", "Idioteque", "Everything In Its Right Place", "Myxomatosis", "Pyramid Song" and "Lucky". We were seated in the outside section (the seats, not the lawn), which worried us a bit, because the forecast called for rain. But while some other areas got drenched, the storms avoided Mansfield, no doubt due to the sheer power of rock lol. The opening band was Caribou, who I'd actually seen before several years ago opening for Super Furry Animals. I enjoyed them quite a bit at that time, and probably did so even more this time around. All in all, a very cool evening.

Sedge and I have gotten together several times over the last few weekends to write, and as a result we have completed lyrics for not one, but two new Drama Armada songs. One will be for this year's FurFright Masquerade, and the other one will hopefully be done as a special performance during one of FurFright's other events. I'm not really sure how much we want to say about it at this point, so I'll leave it at that.

None of the other stuff I was considering writing about is very important or interesting, so I guess that'll do it for now.

Lately I've been trying to get out and take walks more often. I could definitely use more exercise, and I'm probably never going to be the kind of person who does a real workout, so this is my compromise. Luckily, I live right across the street from a 640-acre forest with two beautiful lakes, a blocked-off paved main road cutting through the reservation, and miles and miles of trails covering all kinds of terrain. I still like to go out and explore places further away, but this place is so close to home that it's great for when I only want to be out for an hour or two.

Recently, I've been sighting deer there semi-regularly. I've been going to this place for as long as I can remember, and I've never seen deer there before this year, or perhaps last year. I don't know if it's just because I've been going there more often lately, or if they've only recently migrated here from somewhere else, but whatever it is, I'm loving it. It does make me a little sad to think that they may have been pushed here from somewhere else, but they seem like they're doing OK, if maybe a little too accustomed to humans than they should be.

Case in point: Yesterday, I was taking an early morning walk on the main road when a deer just stepped out into the road maybe 30-40 feet in front of me. I just stopped and watched it as it paused for a moment to see if it was safe, and then continued across to the left side of the road, at which point I realized that there was another one that was already over there. A little further up the hill on that side of the road, there were four more. All of them were within eyesight of this road, which is very well-traveled by people jogging, walking their dogs, etc. I sat down on a rock at the side of the road and watched them eat for about 15-20 minutes until they broke off into two groups, four of them staying on that side of the road, and the two closest to me going back to the other side of the road and up a hill. I knew that just a little further up the road, there was a trail that cut back towards the direction these two headed in, so I made my way there. A little bit up the trail, I found the two of them, staring back at me through some trees. Again, I sat down for a while to see if they'd stick around even though they knew I was there. Not only did they do that, but after a few minutes they sat down, while still keeping an eye on me. I hung out for maybe 10 minutes until I couldn't resist the temptation to try to get a little closer to them. So I got up and started to slowly walk into the area where they were. They got up on their feet, but didn't go anywhere. Little by little I made my way closer, stopping every once in a while if they started to seem like they were going to bolt. At one point, when I was maybe 30-35 feet away, one of them started grooming the other one, licking it behind its ear (so cute :3 ). In the end, I managed to get about 15-20 feet away from them before they decided it was too close for comfort. Even then, they walked away with what seemed like relative calmness. It was pretty damn awesome (although the whole thing did have me kicking myself for being one of the last people in the world not to have a cell phone-- so unfortunately, no pictures). I felt kind of like a jerk for disturbing them, but I couldn't help it. When I was younger, I was one of those little kids who chased after the birds on the beach, or the squirrels in the park, forever hoping that eventually, one of them would realize that I didn't mean it any harm, and that I just really wanted to be friends. I guess not a lot has changed.

Doing this old meme mostly because I'm sick of the last journal entry being on my front page. But also because it's fun.


1. Open up your media player or winamp or ipod or whatever, set it to shuffle.
2. Skip through the first 25 songs and list them.
3. Add "In My Pants" to the end of each song title.
4. Bold your favorites.


1. New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle In My Pants"
2. U2, "Wire In My Pants"
3. William Shatner, "Theme From Cyrano/Mr. Tambourine Man In My Pants"
4. Robert Palmer, "I Didn't Mean To Turn You On In My Pants"
5. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Manic Depression In My Pants"
6. Coldplay, "Square One In My Pants"
7. The Rolling Stones, "Angie In My Pants"
8. Wire, "Drill In My Pants"
9. Elvis Costello & the Attractions, "Accidents Will Happen In My Pants"
10. Faith No More, "From Out Of Nowhere In My Pants"
11. No Doubt, "Hella Good In My Pants"
12. Johnny Cash, "Delia's Gone In My Pants"
13. Duran Duran, "The Reflex In My Pants"
14. Robert Palmer, "Johnny & Mary In My Pants"
15. Stone Temple Pilots, "Days Of The Week In My Pants"
16. Wire, "Eardrum Buzz In My Pants"
17. M, "Pop Muzik In My Pants"
18. U2 "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For In My Pants"
19. Super Furry Animals, "Chupacabras In My Pants"
20. Pet Shop Boys, "The Truck-Driver And His Mate In My Pants"
21. Led Zeppelin, "The Song Remains The Same In My Pants"
22. Tears For Fears, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World In My Pants"
23. Arcadia, "The Flame In My Pants"
24. Led Zeppelin, "Immigrant Song In My Pants"
25. Pet Shop Boys, "The Sound Of The Atom Splitting In My Pants"


Wow, 5 repeat bands? That's kind of surprising, considering how many different artists I have on my mp3 player...

But OH MY GOD, #9. So perfect.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6696603/

One of my favorite ones we've done yet. It got us 2nd Place in the FurFright 2011 Masquerade! Please go check it out! <3

Been spending the last few days doing some much-needed prep-work for  furfright... sending out the pre-con message from the Charity Dept., doing laundry, buying candy to give out in the Charity Room, working out the last details of this year's  dramaarmada performance with  sedge, updating the con's FA page... blah blah blabbity-blah. In between it all I've managed to have a little bit of fun. Went to the Topsfield Fair today, and tomorrow I'm planning to go on a walking tour of the former site of Pleasure Island, an amusement park that used to exist in the town where I grew up. It was closed down a few years before I was born, but I've always been interested in it. Today the area is an office park, but a few tell-tale signs of the old amusement park remain for those who know where to look. Me? I have no idea where to look lol. That's why I'm going on the tour.

Getting more and more excited (and nervous, too, but not in an altogether-bad way) about FurFright! I really can't wait to get the new Drama Armada song out there. I've been proud of every song we've done so far, but there's just something about this new one that for me, kind of sets it apart. God, I hope I'm not hyping it too much lol. I'm just really, really happy with how it came out. I think it's as funny as our other stuff, and sounds as good as we ever have. But don't take my word for it-- oh... I guess you'll have to, for now. :P

Oh-- I almost forgot. While I was out today I stopped into a convenient store (Richdale? Cumberland Farms? not sure) in Manchester-by-the-Sea. While I was at the counter paying, I noticed some sort of utility box on the wall that had a V66 sticker on it. I couldn't believe it! V66 was a local-to-Boston music video UHF station back in the mid-'80s. It was cool because they played all the same big hit videos that MTV did, but in between lavish videos by Duran Duran, Def Leppard and Michael Jackson, they also played lower-budget videos by local acts like Ball & Pivot, New Man, and Lizzie Borden & the Axes. It didn't last for very long, but while it did, it was sweet. Seeing that sticker today brought back some great memories. :)

Also, I just saw a super-cool commercial.  punktiger and any other tigers who might be reading this, you should get a kick out of this one.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I'm so frustrated right now...

OK, so I know that I watch too much TV. It's way more important to me than it should be. I know this. But, whatever. It's my escape from reality, which tends to depress me. Some people abuse alcohol and drugs to forget about whatever it is that plagues them. Me? I abuse TV.

This past Wednesday night I was watching "Modern Family" when my TV signal suddenly cut out in the middle of the episode. This happens every so often (much too often, in fact). My signal will be gone for 20-30 seconds or so, and then it will come back. Afterwards, if you press the "Guide" button on the remote and bring up the little grid that's supposed to have all the shows, all the little spaces will say "To Be Announced", and over the course of a few hours, they'll fill back in with the show titles. I figured that this was due to some sort of 'refresh' signal being sent to my cable box by Comcast, but when I called them about it, they said that they had nothing to do with it and that it was probably a loose wire. How coincidental, then, that about 70%-75% of the times that this happens, it happens right at the top of the hour. 12:00, not 12:17. 4:00, not 4:38. I guess my 'loose wire' just tends to come loose right at the top of the hour. Because wires, like all inanimate objects, know how to tell time. Whatever, Comcast.

Anyway, so I missed my show. But I didn't get too bent out of shape about it because I noticed that ABC was scheduled to re-air it on Friday night. I had to go away for the weekend, but I set my DVR for it. Upon arriving home just a little while ago, I sat down to watch it, and I was happy as a clam. Suddenly, about halfway through the episode, the station cuts to a press conference about Terry Francona getting let go from the Red Sox. Guess what? I DON'T FUCKING CARE about that! I want to see the goddamn show I set my DVR for! Save the news for, oh, I don't know-- the NEWS, maybe? 'Breaking News' to me is not a press conference about something that's already been announced earlier that evening, about a subject that only certain people are going to give a shit about. 'Breaking News' is "Terrorists just destroyed the World Trade Center", or "Oh hey, there's a meteor on the way and it's going to kill us all".

Several of ABC's shows are offered on Comcast's 'On Demand' service, but of course, "Modern Family" isn't one of them. But hey, at least I can watch "Bachelor Pad", "Grey's Anatomy" or "Desperate Housewives". Oh, wait. I'm looking for something that will make me forget how much I hate the world.

And before anyone says it, no, I'm not interested in watching it online. I don't like to watch video online. Partly because I'm old school and like to watch television on the television, and partly because my computer doesn't handle it well. Stopping and starting every thirty seconds. It's more hassle than it's worth. Which pretty much describes how I feel about life right now.


Note: While I am truly upset about Comcast and ABC apparently working together to dash my hopes, don't take some of the more extreme statements in this post too seriously. I meant it to be a half-serious/half-comedic rant a la  belicbear. It's his fault, really.

Just read that Frances Bay, one of my favorite character actresses, passed away Thursday. She was 92, and as recently as last year was still working.

She first caught my attention in the small but creepy part of Mrs. Tremond (aka Mrs. Chalfont) in the TV show "Twin Peaks" (she would reprise the role in the movie version, "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me"). Later I realized that I'd already seen her in numerous other shows/movies, including "Happy Days" (as Fonzie's grandmother) and the original version of "The Karate Kid". After "Peaks" she continued to show up in many other things I watched, including "The X-Files", "ER", and most memorably, "Seinfeld", on which she played the elderly woman who Jerry mugged for a marble rye. Most recently, she had a recurring (although non-speaking) role as 'Aunt Ginny' on ABC's sitcom "The Middle".

She rarely had very large roles, but I always loved it when she was in something because she invariably made it more interesting. I'll miss that.

Oh, hey there! So lately, everybody's been doing that personality meme from http://www.signalpatterns.com/psych_central . I went to the site myself, and here are my results:


Apathetic

You couldn't be bothered to spend 10 minutes taking some test that tells you things that you either probably already know about yourself, or things that don't really apply to you but you start to think maybe they do because the test said so.

---

Wow, that's pretty accurate! :D

Some of you may have heard this story that's been in the news for the last couple of days about a family from Tennessee who were driving down a highway when a stowaway snake crawled out of the engine compartment and onto the hood and windshield. I first saw this story on Monday's 5 or 6 AM news, and it's been interesting to see how the same network (WHDH Channel 7 News in Boston) has made changes to the story since then.

Monday morning they reported it with big smiles on their faces, seemingly delighted by the story. In the video that the family shot from inside the car, they too seem to be having a ball. The story ended with the reporter stating that the snake eventually fell off the car, making me wonder just how long this idiot family had to pull their car off to the side of the road and let the snake get off the car safely.

Well, a lot of other people must have wondered the same thing, because when 7 News reported the same story that afternoon, the reporter said something to the effect of, "The family posted the video on YouTube, where they took a lot of flak for not pulling over." They then cut to interview footage with the mother and father of the family, who stated that it "never went across their minds" to pull over. No, they were too busy laughing and filming the whole thing.

OK-- so, now, it's Tuesday morning, and it must be a slow news day, because they're reporting this story yet again. Only this time, they ended it by saying that the snake "managed to eventually climb off the car and head off into the woods".

No. It didn't. It fell onto the asphalt from a moving vehicle doing 65 miles an hour. Even if it managed to survive that, the chances are pretty slim that it would've been able to get off the highway without being run over by another vehicle. And even if it did, there's no way anyone knows that, because the family would've been too far down the road to see it happen.

I don't know why I'm so mad about this whole thing, but I am. How f***ing gullible do they think people are? I get the feeling that if I tune back in for the 4 PM newscast, they'll be saying that the family and the snake traveled to Nashville together, where they all took in a show. Just unbelievable. :\

I'm just watching tonight's episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which I DVR'd earlier. Tonight one of his guests was the Amazing Kreskin. He started off by doing a simple card-guessing trick, where he had Jimmy pick a card and then show it to the camera while Kreskin closed his eyes. Kreskin then correctly guessed Jimmy's card, but revealed to the audience that that's an old trick in which a plant in the audience signals the card's identification to the 'magician'. He then went on to do the same trick again, only this time he instructed Jimmy to keep the card against his chest, then turn around and look at it quickly without showing it to the audience or to any cameras.

Just for fun, I decided to try and guess the card too. Without taking even a second to think about it, I just said, "Three of diamonds."

Kreskin instructed Jimmy to turn back around, and then asked him, "Would I be safe in asking you to hand me the three of diamonds, Jimmy?" Jimmy, seemingly stunned, turned his card around to reveal... the three of diamonds.

WHAT. THE. HELL. lol... I swear to God, I was freaked out for a second. I mean, I know there was a 1 in 52 chance of getting it right just by pure dumb luck, but it still felt pretty weird. I need to test this. I'm gonna dig up a deck of cards and see what happens.

OK, I've found a deck of cards, shuffled them, and cut them. I'm going to guess this first card will be... the Jack of spades.

Nope, three of spades. Oh well. It was a nice 10 seconds lol.

I just got back from having dinner with my mom at the IHOP here in Saugus. Being the music whore that I am, whenever I go out to a restaurant I can't help but tune in to whatever music they're playing, whether I like it or not. Tonight this was to my advantage. IHOP was rocking the '80s tunes the whole time we were there. Yeah, I had to sit through a couple of could've-done-withouts (Kool & the Gang's "Celebration", Kenny Loggins' "Footloose"), but those were far outweighed by cool songs like the Cure's "Inbetween Days", Talk Talk's "It's My Life", Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill", Eurythmics' "Here Comes The Rain Again", Depeche Mode's "People Are People", After The Fire's "Der Kommissar", Aztec Camera's "Oblivious", Thompson Twins' "In The Name Of Love", the Power Station's "Bang A Gong (Get It On)", and the Police's "Hungry For You" (this one was a real surprise-- so cool that they played an album track instead of one of the more obvious choices). Needless to say, I was pleased, and was in no hurry to finish my meal lol.

Anybody want to go back there for a Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n Fruity with a side of Kajagoogoo? :P

Just made a second Twitter account. I know, ridiculous. But since I wanted my other account to be a place where I could send non-furry friends and family, I downplay (read: ignore) the whole furry thing there. This new account is furry-friendly, so feel free to add me if you'd like. :)

http://twitter.com/#!/kiffa_kitmouse

Pretty much every 4th of July, I get together with a group of friends and go to a big bonfire up in Rockport. This group includes my brother and a bunch of people he went to school with. Even though technically, they're his friends, I've known them all for about 15-20 years, so they're very much my friends too. Aside from my brother, though, none of them have any idea that I'm a furry.

This year I invited  sedge to come along. Anyone reading this who has friends both inside and outside the fandom would probably agree that-- let's be honest-- when it comes to your furry friends, there are some who you might feel like you could mix with your non-furry friends, and some who you feel like you probably couldn't. Sedge is someone who I know I don't have to worry about. He's been to 3 or 4 get-togethers with this group already, so they know and like him.

At one point in the evening, I was involved in a conversation with a couple of my brother's friends. While that was going on, my brother was talking to Sedge, asking him if we'd come up with our song idea for  FurFright this year. This was not a big deal, as the two of them were kind of off to the side having their own conversation that no one else was listening to.

As the night (and the bonfire) started to wind down, my brother decided it was time for him to take his leave, so he started saying his goodbyes. When he was saying goodbye to Sedge, he said, right in front of everybody, "If I don't see you again before the convention, good luck with the song," or something to that effect. So of course, my friend Jim goes, "What convention?"

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU. I am not prepared to have this conversation with them.

I have to hand it to Sedge, he was quick on his feet. Having no real idea whether or not any of them had any idea about the whole furry thing, he just said, "It's this thing we go to every year around Halloween. We do some music for it." This might've prompted more questions, but I quickly put a period at the end of the conversation by saying, "I'll tell you about it sometime." That's code for, "Please forget all about it and never bring it up again. These aren't the droids you're looking for. You can go about your business. Move along."

I got the sense that my brother instantly realized he said something he shouldn't have. If he didn't, he certainly figured it out from the "thanks a lot" look I shot at him before he walked off. And I'm sure he feels awful about it. But the truth is, that knowledge does exactly ZILCH for me right now. Now I have to worry about whether this is going to come up again, and how I'll explain it if it does. I have no idea if any of them know anything about the furry fandom or not, and if they do, what exactly they've heard, and what kind of opinions they may have already formed. It's not like I'm worried about losing any of them as friends-- they're better people than that-- but even if it doesn't change the way they treat me, it could potentially change the way they think about me. And that's maybe even worse, because I'd have no way of knowing. I'd just always be wondering whether or not they think I'm some kind of freak. I'd rather know than not know.

I can't believe my brother didn't know better. I love him more than anyone on this earth, but that was just plain careless. And I'm the one who has to deal with whatever comes of it. And I'll be honest, there's part of me that's saying, 'Well, if they end up finding out about me being a furry and they're cool with it, maybe I'll be grateful to not have to be secretive about it anymore'. But right now, I don't know that that's going to happen... and optimism isn't exactly my forte. And either way, it's supposed to be MY decision to make.

Goddammit.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't already met her, I'd like to introduce you to Michele Bachmann, a Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota who did two things in the past couple of days: 1) announced she was entering the 2012 presidential race, and 2) officially became the "new Sarah Palin" by making an incredibly uninformed (not to mention hilarious) statement in the press.

In an interview with Fox News, Bachmann spoke of her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, from where she had announced her candidacy. At one point, she said, "Well what I want them to know is just like, John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That's the kind of spirit that I have, too."

The problem? John Wayne the actor is actually from another Iowa town, named Winterset. The John Wayne that did hail from Waterloo? That'd be John Wayne Gacy, a serial killer who in the 1970s murdered over 30 men and buried most of them in the crawl space underneath his house.

Oops.

How can you make a mistake like that-- like THAT-- about your own hometown? That'd be like me talking about my hometown of Wakefield, MA and claiming that instead of it being the place where Michael McDermott shot seven of his co-workers, it was the place where Michael McDonald shot seven of his music videos.

Actually, that sounds a lot better. I'm gonna tell people that from now on.