So I've never really been to a big con before! I've paid visits to the last couple of Vancoufurs but have always been locked into school and/or poor and unable to check anywhere out. This year that'll change a little bit!

I'm a little nervous about it but I'm sure I'll have a good time. Hugs and chatter are always welcome if you end up spotting me handling for my roomies or my local suiters there~

Twitter! About time I got a furry one, totally me~

Twitter.com/kirkusdramon

Bork.

...Except at VF this year.

Many of you guys know I'm not too active in the Community nowadays - life's been carrying me along with it the last year and a half and things are really coming together! At the same time, it's been a little hectic and just keeping up has me missing out on some pretty awesome events.

VancouFur almost ended up being one of them, but I managed to sneak down there with a couple friends for about 6 hours on Sunday and breathe in all the glamour and loved it. I wasn't able to make it at ALL to the one last year, and being there for an afternoon and making friends in an instant provided a little reminder of how welcoming these events can be. Cheers to everyone I ran into and look forward to hanging with again.

The BIG thing I noticed though was the Publicity of it. Incidentally, a bunch of Syrian refugees moving to Van City were parked at the Executive in Richmond for the weekend before a Re-location. Canada's become a hot topic in this regard recently after letting in 20,000 refugees over a few months against a minority outcry of fear-mongered tards and right after a huge Canadian election. This was coincidentally the same hotel the convention was held at, and something pretty cute happened - the kids and furries got along, and the Media loved it:

- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w.....-a6921341.html
- http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/0.....n_9432534.html
- http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat.....icle-1.2559408
- https://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/syr.....rry-convention

All of this coverage is positive news not just to the furry community, but to Vancouver itself (yeah whatever it was technically held in Richmond nobody cares), and made the city a better place because of it. That's a pretty cool upside to the swashbuckling of negative coverage we sex-offending animal-humping pedophiles tend to get.

So what about me. Well things have been pretty awesome the last while; I have a couple of positions at Vancouver General in Organ Transplant and Bone Marrow Transplant waiting for me when I'm finished school in a month and a half and they seem to enjoy my company there; the downside is many of the shifts until then are on Nights and this generally means missing out on any hangouts. Friends have been good to me and appear good themselves lately. Don't plan on getting fit again until school's done so the beer belly's here to stay, and I'm happily single by choice until my life settles down a bit.

That should only be a few years from now.

It took up until early September to finally see the schedule, but it looks like I've got a shift until 7pm on Friday and lecture at 9am Monday, so Unfortunately it'd be a tad redundant to attend Rainfurrest this year. Sorry guys! A couple of you have been asking, but I'll be stuck in Van this weekend.

So what's new? Well I'm still in Van and the career's been coming along pretty darn swiftly. A couple months ago I was hired onto a Surgical Unit here in the city that focuses specifically on Organ Transplantation like kidneys, livers, and in some cases even lungs. The unit is quite acute and intense for a first-timer, but they've been nothing but great to me so far and I'm learning a ton. If the allotted hours contracted to me go well as a Student, then I can get hired on after school as a fully Registered Nurse, which is good because my loans need some SERIOUS love right now. These workshifts take place in the middle of the school year, so nowadays I have lectures on Mondays and Tuesdays followed by 12 hour Organ Transplant shifts on Wednesday and 12 hour Mental Health clinical shifts through Thursday and Friday. This leaves a weekend freed up, buuuut usually that's spare time for studying, papers and volunteer work.

Volunteering's been taking up all of the rest of my time. My position in the student body's up in a couple of months which totally sucks because I love the ego boost; a lot of it's preeeetty boring logistical stuff, like revising Constitutional bylaws and public speaking engagements with Nursing Faculty. Had the opportunity to spearhead a big Boat Cruise between Health Science clubs the other day; it ended up being pretty big!  katsuke and  z00p had the opportunity to join me and the other 320 folks there on a big oceany tour through the city harbour. Basically, it was just an excuse for everyone to get plastered on a big boat for charity :P

Overall, things have been great! Apologies to a lot of local friends who haven't seen much of me lately. It's currently the hardest term of the Program before even involving the volunteer and work stuff, but in only 7 months I'll just be an ordinary guy who's working in the city.

But yeah! Not dead folks, thanks for looking out for me. I'll never be the common poster on here, so if you feel neglected for whatever reason just go add me on Skype or something. Cheers~

Every three months, something comes along and punches everyone's dicks like it's The Order: 1886.

Everyone threatens to leave, 1-2 do, and then two weeks later here we are again. If you didn't leave when this site was given $20,000 (?!?) by this community and spent it on dildos instead of server upgrades, you're now going to do it because a two-bit Second Life bought it out?

C'mooooooon.

Welllll shucks that was basically the fastest four months of my life! After taking a year off from the city I returned to Van City to get started on the Nursing program out that way. It's been going great so far, spending the majority of it at RCH in New Westminster doing ADLs with old folks, stabbing people with Dalteparin, and getting yelled at by Primary RNs, but after all these years at least I'm finally using a stethoscope and that feels pretty great. I've had to go through a lot of heart-to-hearts with myself because Medicine's been the big goal all these years (got the pre-med degree, just couldn't freaking get in), but each practicum shift in this program keeps shifting me towards that bright and shining Nurse Practitioner position instead. It doesn't help my chances for Medicine that I got elected as Nursing president for the 2014-2015 student year either, lol. Luckily I've still got a couple of years before I need to figure anything out.

Otherwise the big slump this semester has been having to consistently put work before friends. I had a couple nice opportunities to hang out with some old friends and a couple special new ones (Bren, Bloop, Luis, Kat, Serra, thanks for keeping me sane in-person between October and November), but going weeks without seeing anything but pharmacology and theory got pretty ridiculous. This term was the hardest of the program and after getting up at 4am on Saturdays and Sundays I finally get weekends off next year. Can't wait to put them to good use, starting with a Canucks game :3

Thanks to a Bursary from UBC I can also bring my car back with me, and thank God for it cuz I'm kiiiinda going to the DTES for my first month in pediatrics and I'd rather not take the bus there at 6am. Get to play weekend hockey again too, might keep the muscle and lose the desk pounds I put on from this last term.

That should be it for the new year review! After a long wait I got a pretty nice commission from Azelyn on its way so stay tuned for that. I'll be back in Vancouver in January, but I don't have a PC so I won't be on Steam until then. Gonna be a tad lonely as most of my hometown friends aren't even here for the holidays yet, so bug me lots on Skype. Thanks for reading everyone, Happy Holidays!

Shootouts in Ottawa, ISIS decapitating journalists, Russia engaging in nuclear simulations against Sweden, and the flare-up of the Gaza Strip yet again. Things feel... kinda on edge right now, aren't they?

Let's not be so sure. Though it depends on a little perspective, rather than being on the brink of a third world war, we're more likely simply on the brink of prosperity as the deaths from local conflicts and civil wars are on a steady decline. All it'll take it is time to determine if humanity is in fact, changing.

Great video well worthy of a watch. The music's pretty epic too and made by Kurzgesagt themselves, available on their Soundcloud. Enjoy!



As for a quick little life update, things have been going smoothly in school, but a lot busier than I expected. As soon as one paper or exam finishes another starts up; I've been able to stay on top of them reasonably-well, but at the cost of being able to hang out with my Van City buddies as much. Bummer, but the next semester should calm down pretty significantly from what I hear, so there's a glimmering light at the end of the tunnel :)

In the meantime, you're bound to catch me around town doing clinical work and giving flu shots! Boring, but at least it's progress towards something I wanna do~

When the makers are behind Halo, you gotta expect it to live up to at least some high expectations~

Go get vengeance on  flaydramon for me and wish him a Happy Birthday :3

This place is pretty awesome. I'm really glad to be back.

:3

A few months ago I joined the forums for this great phone to become one of the first to own it and in the end decided to grab a Note 3 anyway about a month back. For those who haven't heard of them, OnePlus is a startup mobile company based with Oppo in China, and they're trying to grasp a foothold in the market by releasing a beast of a device from the get-go.

Price is ~349$ USD unlocked before shipping, and the buyer must be in one of their shipping markets to receive the product. If you don't make the purchase within the next few hours (about 5am PT tomorrow), your invite will become invalid.



Invite goes out to first commenter in the right market. Exceptions will be made if a local Vancouverite quickly throws their hat in the ring as well :)

Amazing, I might actually be keeping this whole journal thing updated at this rate! Life's been damn busy the last couple months, so I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

A month after VF wrapped up and I left my buddies in the city again, I was invited for an interview to UBC's Advanced-Standing Nursing Program, where 120/550 applicants earn a BScN and become a Registered Nurse in 1.8 years instead of the usual 4. The interview was in MMI format, where you complete eight six-minute interviews with well-known folks in Health Care, all of which have their own scenario you learn about two minutes before you walk through the door to their room. It was pretty intimidating, and some of the scenarios were nasty, including a cultural question regarding an Asian couple, where an older woman suffered abdominal pains while her husband beside her claimed she was perfectly alright.

After finishing the interview I waited two years for, I got an invitation to leave the country for a bit with an old flame, and joined  flaydramon in Hawaii for two weeks afters years of straying no further from my hometown than Alberta and the West Coast. It was an awestruck experience, checking out everything from Mauna Kea on the Big Island to the beaches of Waikiki in Aussiebums, and with someone I figured a year prior I'd never see again. We're figuring there's something else in the works coming up in a couple years, unless of course one of us shacks up with a mate in the meantime (him being more likely than me).

After getting back I spent the day hanging out jetlagged with a good buddy  serratiger in Vancouver, who I barely got to chill with at VF. About two hours after walking in the door and hitting up Smash Bros, I got the big DING on my phone and opened up an Acception letter from UBC, so the MMI went well after all! We spent the day celebrating, getting pickled on awesome food and shots at the Storm Crow. The next day I headed home, and since I've been saving up and prepping the big move out to Vancouver this August where I'll be spending the next 4 years becoming an RN and working towards the NP Master's (Medicine's still possible, but far less likely after this acceptance). I once had my heart set on moving out to Toronto, considering all the great folks I know on the east coast, and I had even gotten some good news from UofT as well a couple weeks after the acceptance. But considering the expenses and a lot of lost motivation after a recent breakup, I figured it would be best to stay in the city where most of my besties happen to be. Wouldn't be the right direction at this point in my life :)

Well  vancoufur summarized in 5 words or less: What The Fuck Just Happened?

In a four day period that felt like 2 hours I walked out of a hotel with a massive hangover, an empty wallet, 10 phone numbers, 5 business cards (?!?!), and a sense of pride! NO HOMO THO I SWEAR.

Yeah honestly I was pretty nervous when I got the request by  ryluen to join him,  skyfang and  sevi to room at a convention full of hundreds of furries I had just recently started scratching the surface with a month prior, meeting a couple folks briefly at one Sushi Night in January. I've always been kind of hanging on the fringe, picking and snipping at folks here and there that met a boyfriend or myself; eventually I found a small clique I stuck with. The Heritage Classic and my birthday were on the same weekend, so I bit my lip and booked the time off knowing it'd be a great time regardless and just got back tonight, frankly a little exhausted.

I was caught off-guard, and had no idea I'd have as much fun or meet as many wonderful people as I did. Between all the lunches, dinners, dancemeets, boozeruns, coffeeruns, and room parties I lost track of the time and found myself crammed into Monday morning, packing up and heading out for my last day in the city with Ry and Sev. I felt a little regretful to boot after spending so long without branching out, only to do so once and get a significant headwind. Now here I am trying to catch up on all the good people I met (and reconnect with the ones that slipped my grasp) after adding a couple into my life each year at best.

A quick shout-out to the new and old that treated me so well at this convention; unfortunately the numbers came out to about 30 or so on the first couple counts so I'll skip out on that, but you know who you are! At the bare minimum, love goes out in no particular order to Ry, Bloop, Ceo & Flint, Skye, Trevor, Tristan, and Sev. Pure bro love for these guys. Asides from them there were also a few great locals that slipped my grasp, but it'll hardly be a long wait until the next opportunity!

If I get accepted into UBC's Accelerated BScN in the next month (110/450 admitted each year, dayum), I'll probably see you guys at Rainfurrest in September to keep the momentum swinging. In conclusion, it was a surprising blast full of great fun and people, and I'm glad I finally opened up to this community a little.


Also way too much of THIS at cons, you folks are naughty!

First Convention: [✓]

Pretty straightforward! Sounds like a good time as long as people ask me something, go nuts~

Happy Halloween folks! I may live in this teeny little country-bumpkin town but it's in full swing today- lots of costumes all over the place and here I am just chilling on a day off not wanting to do any of that~ Plus the town party's tomorrow night.

Also, after missing out on something pretty special with  hockeywolf I realized I'm not really that connected with the general furry crowd out there, and get the impression I'm really missing out. My personal life and furry life are pretty separate, and because I'm looking for work I had to make my normal account protected, so I decided I better make a new Twitter just to hang out with the fellow furs :3

It'll be pretty much NSFW because I'll post commission porn and whatnot (sorry no pen0rs~), but I hope to see you guys on there! No doubt on Team Followback with other furries.

https://twitter.com/Kirkusdramon
https://twitter.com/Kirkusdramon
https://twitter.com/Kirkusdramon

A couple of years ago I was lead onto this cute little development of a Kemono-based game that was headed by  gamma-g that I'm sure you've heard of called Morenatsu. The game basically works like the dating sims currently sapping young Japanese men of their fertility to the point of a national crisis; you are brought into a world of 9 different Kemonos and you choose one to go on a month-long journey of character development with.

Back then, the game was still in its native Kanji without any impression of a translation coming out. Only a couple of characters' paths were fleshed out and only to a small extent, and the artwork and music were still lacking. This was all very understandable though, as the project seemed massive in ambition just in the dialogue alone.

I tried it out again last week after a recommendation, and this time had a proper translation to go with version 3.5- I was floored. Even with characters still left in development, I couldn't believe how much effort went into each of these characters. I'm a sucker for a pretty face so I went with Kouya's route first, and by the time I wrapped it up I had 6 hours of pretty emotional dialogue behind me. After going through Shin's and Shun's I'm also very impressed with the amount of work and effort that went into each story, which are endearing, relatable and frankly far more rewarding than the sex scenes the game's notorious for.

Top of my hat to the blood and sweat put into this game so far. I hope they keep up the good work so we can see Torahiko's soon too :3

Unfortunately, that was not a BS title just for the sake of getting your attention!

A study by Cardiff University directed specifically at trends in otter anatomy has shown that their penis bones are indeed getting smaller over the years, and the cause may be because of increased pollutant levels in their British environment. As our cute little furry sea mongrels are losing ground in this department, the British river inlets that the study took place in has had large pollutant contaminations back in the 1970s, which can have substantial effects on marine life that live consistently in this medium. However, there isn't any conclusive evidence yet as to what physiology the pollution is affecting to lead to teenier otter peeniors.

If these results are found because of hormone disruption, then these same pollutants may have an effect on us as well, leading to other differences in developing male sex organs like undescended testes, low sperm count and testicular cancer.

God speed British otters, we all can sympathize...

So yeah, as the title states it's been a pretty busy time up since August, and I'm feeling more than ready to finally open up about Flay and I.

The first and foremost is that a couple weeks ago,  flaydramon and I broke up after a very-healthy, loving four-year relationship on and offline. Although it's been about two years since I was down in Australia living with him, things had been going well up until about 6 months ago when things took a turn for both of us. Flay had received his big, well-deserved promotion in hospitality as a barista in a pretty popular Sydney bank. As terrific as this was, it's a full-salaried position and as a result of this and the huge split in time zones, Flay and I were never really able to see each other since. As for myself, this year I'm wrapping up my BSc. and going into health care, applying for UBC Medicine 2014 as well as their accelerated Nursing program, the latter I seem well-fit to get into with my GPA and NAQ. Both lock me into BC for at least a couple of very busy years that Flay and I wouldn't be spending together.

As a result, we ended up chatting it over and decided that it would be better to end our relationship now before the resentment of being alone and never seeing each other would kick in- our fates are pretty much sealed away from each other after all. There's no bitterness and we're still remaining good friends, but of course it's pretty difficult to reorient your life after a 4-year relationship when you've never really had to before (the case for both of us). My friends have been great to me and helping me through it nicely at least.

Otherwise life outside of Flay and I has been pretty busy. I was a pedestrian in a hit-and-run a few months ago back home, but I've almost healed up. I still have a nasty lump called a hematoma on my leg, so hockey and rigorous exercise (including running) is out of the question, but otherwise I have a clean bill of health! Here in Vancouver I've been kicking butt in school and doing lots of work as the VP Public Relations of the Canadian Liver Foundation at UBC, so in the last couple weeks I've been representing at pretty big galas and was on CiTR 101.9 the other day for a good half-hour. I'm super-looking forward to Christmas because boy, a break could be nice and it'd be awesome to work in produce back home for a little bit like the good ol' days.

So wow, total tl;dr but it felt good to unload a little bit. More than willing to reply to comments :)

I suppose now's as good a time as ever to give a good journal update here! The last few months have been very steady and straightforward with lots of good weather. From April onward I've been back in my hometown working full-time as a produce manager at a grocery store. It was good, honest hard work so it's actually been a pretty enjoyable Summer :3

Last Saturday though things got turned on their head pretty significantly. While walking home from the village bar/Hotel at about 1:30AM with a friend, a car took a run at us and ended up striking me in the left thigh while trying to get out of the way, throwing me over the hood. I was lucky enough to not break anything, but suffered huge bruising to my leg, lots of road rash, a good gash in the head and some pretty sprained hands. Since then there's been some good developments- turns out the guy turned himself in, and evidence is showing that he charged at us in his car on a case of mistaken identity, intending to hit someone he got in a scrap with that night. As a result this is now a criminal investigation and can last a helluva long time.

As for me, I'm doing alright! I have a hematoma in my left thigh which sucks, so I need to get the blood drained from it every other day until my leg can absorb again. I also limp around like I'm Gregory-Freaking-House, MD, but with the hands and road rashes all healed up at least I can masturbate like a baws again!

Now that you took the time to read all this, here's an episode of the Bedfellows as a reward, courtesy of  ryokx :)

Here's an excellent video created by Janne Makkonen of the journey through the Playoffs last year, and boy was it an emotional one.

Even if you're not a hockey fan (though you probably just don't know it yet), I'm sure some scenes'll send a shiver up your backs. Enjoy :)



Song: Maybeshewill - Words For Arabella

If you haven't given it a shot yet, I stroooongly suggest giving it a try on PC now. It's on for 10 bucks! I paid the full price for this back on the release date and loved everything about it- especially the environments and storyline. It even comes with their first DLC.

http://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/28050/

The GOTYE cover of What I Used to Know. Worlds of talent here!

First off, thanks for following me over here folks! After shifting everything over from the other account I'll upload the newer stuff here as well :3

Gamespot recently released the first 20 minutes of the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII-2, and it's blown my mind so far. The music is epic, the gameplay's going to be focused on open-world again, the story looks holy-christ amazing, and the cutscenes are- well, Final Fantasy cutscenes! The conversation between Noel and Lightning towards the end of the video is enough to get a jaw or two dropped.



I'm a little biased though, because I was one of the kids out there who didn't take Final Fantasy XIII and throw it into a well, watching it drown sadistically as it tried desperately to grab onto something. I actually enjoyed it, but I think it's because I knew what I was getting into with it being very cinematic and linear. To make up for it though, XIII-2's going to be entirely focused around Historia Crux, which is basically a plot device that allows us to explore Gran Pulse and Valhalla (the video's location) as we see fit. So yeah, I'm getting a little giddy over it... Etro Lightning is my babe.

On a sidenote though, how gay does Caius look?