Furdu 2013 - Day 1, Friday
Well, just got in from a fantastic first day at Furry Down-Under.

Got up at 5am to set my Gopro to record a time-lapse of the sunrise, went back to bed, got up again at 8 to recharge it. Man i suffer for my art :p Got up and ready for the day. Weather was perfect, not too hot, light breeze. Went back to BBQ Barron from last year, the guy serving us actually remembered the convention from last year, so that was nice. Quick coffee on the way back to the Outrigger for rego to open, managed to attach my gopro to a nice vantage point to get a time-lapse of that too.

Basically then just hung out, meeting old friends, making some new ones, trying to plan out our next few days. Headed down for the beach meet, and could not ask for better weather for it. The water was so warm, can't remember when I've swam in the ocean that warm. Again, had the Gopro strapped on my head, but almost lost it in a wave, so decided to keep it in my paw for the rest of the time. Played around with some different frame rates, should be some good stuff I look forward to looking at when I get home.

Quick shower, then it was off to mini-golf! This place, King Tuts Put-Put, was amazing! It was nearly the kind of place you see in the movies and wish could be real. There were 3 courses you could play: an out-door one which just had some trees, plants and water features around it; a dinosaur themed one; or an ancient Egyptian one. The later 2 were fantastic, so much fun had with the themeing, photos can only do it justice. Whilst I wasn't playing, I was running around, shooting photos and video of all the different teams, so by the end of it, I was exhausted.

Came back to the hotel, grabbed quick bite to eat and headed down to the opening ceremony, where I was lucky enough to have my video from Mardi Gras premiered. It went down better than I could have hoped for, and made all the hard work well worth the effort, hopefully it'll help grow the float by a fair few more next year.

After that was straight into the charity show with one of the guests, FoxAmore, accompanied by Kaz Dragon and Duke. I'll admit, I've never heard his stuff, but damn, and that fox play!! They did really nice acoustic covers of a whole range of songs: Coldplay, Foo Fighters, The Monkeys, and even The Presets that worked really well. They closed their set off with Hey Jude by The Beatles, and I got Jet to get the house-lights just as the final Na-na-na-na's came in with the whole audience joining in, was fantastic! I only hope they were recording the audio so I can use it in my video, would be a shame if its not.

Finished off there, came back down for the dance, shooting between my Sony and Gopro, I should have enough coverage I think :p Didn't see nearly as many people in their diesel-punk get-ups as I was expecting, but will probably see more about for the photo-shoot tomorrow.

2:30am now, so I'm gonna call it a night, going to try and capture another sun-rise tomorrow morning at 5, so we'll see how that turns out.

Hey kids!
The 2013 Sydney Mardi Gras is almost upon us, and in an order to raise funds for the OzFurs float, the organisers have put together an awesome little raffle with some great prizes, that I'm happy to say I'm apart of!

First Prize!
A video/photo-shoot with me, Logan!
Valued at $300, you'll get 2hrs with myself for a walk-about shoot, with a 3-5 minute 1080HD edited video ready to be uploaded to your personal Youtube account, or anywhere else you may see fit, and 70-100 high-res photos for you to re-post wherever you please. *Terms and conditions apply.
Even if you don't have a fur suit, but would like to support the float, you can still give this amazing prize to a fursuiter, to which they we be forever in your fluffy debt.

Check out an example of what you could win here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA1Eq0uzrgA

Terms and conditions.
Prize is good for one year from 2nd March 2013.
Can be redeemed during or around the following meets/conventions upon prior discussion and agreement: Furry Down-Under 2013, RivFur 2013, Fur-Jam 2013, or Confurgence 2014. If you are a Melbourne local, or are willing to travel there, a time outside of these events can be arranged.
One rain-check is allowed, and must have at least forty-eight hours notice

Second Prize!
Plushie Commission!
Win a 25 ~ 35cm long quadrupedal plush animal toy by Kat_Aclysm (www.furaffinity.net/user/kataclysm/ or @kat_aclysm)! This will be 100% handsewn and built to your character specification.

1 ~ 4 colours -
Limited Markings-
NO gradients-
No Multiple Wings-
No SPH

Design is subject to approval.

Third Prize!
Ear and tail set OR deluxe paws commission by Dustan DaFox (www.furaffinity.net/user/dustandafox/ or @dustandfox)!

Species dependent on availability of fur. Rob Wolven quality tested and guaranteed.

Fourth Prize!
The amazing guys at RivFur have donated a standard registration or sponsor upgrade if already registered to their new con this year! Valued at $60 you can enjoy the delights of Brisbane's delights in August for as little as a $5 raffle ticket. (www.rivfur.net.au or @RivFur)

Tickets are $5 each, 5 tickets for $20 or 15 tickets for $50. They are available now if money is transferred to the Mardi Gras fund (email dustan_da_fox@yahoo.com) or cash will be accepted on the day. 100% of ticket sales will go to the OzFur Mardi Gras float. The draw will happen on the parade day before we go into the marshalling area at 5:30pm.

Please be generous guys, the organisers make a loss every year, despite taking a contribution from each attendee on the float, so this is just a way to give back to these folk who are doing this for nothing more than for their pride and love of the fandom.


Thanks guys!

So it looks as though the FurDU video screening on Ustream will be around 10:30pm AEST tonight (That's 2230hrs for you military furs). Sorry it can't be earlier, but for all you keen little night owls, there'll be a little treat before the main feature. In fact, I'd say it's probably worth tuning in for that alone, but you can be the judge of that yourselves...
www.ustream.tv/channel/husky-pause-tv

For those who can't muster the bandwidth for tonight, fear not, the video will (hopefully) be avaliable on my YouTube account in glorious 1080HD right after the stream, just subscribe to www.youtube.com/huskypause

The full video will be made avaliable to download over the next few days, follow me on Twitter (@HuskyPause) for the latest updates.

Looking forward to seeing you all tonight!

FDU 2012 Day 3
I awoke to an amazing sight out my window this morning, the sun! The sun and large portions of blue sky were actually visible! This was fantastic, particularly so, because first up was the fursuit beach walk!

So we headed off, maybe about 50 of us in total and made the short walk to the beach. Wanting to get as much camera coverage of everyone possible, I was constantly shooting, running up ahead, shooting, running, etc. Was quite the work out.

I seemed to arrive ahead of most of the group with Oz, Tzup and Cake, so that gave me a few minutes to get some really nice shots and video with just them while we waited for everyone else. Once everyone caught up, we headed down the path to the beach, and you could not have asked for a better day for it. It was sunny with a bit of a breeze, all the tourists were loving it and getting pics with the suiters, and from a photography/video stand-point, you could not have asked for a better backdrop of the beach and the surf.

We did a few group photos, then preceded to just play around, throw the frisbee, pose for individual photos, before we saw that to the south down the coast, there was some rain moving in, and no one likes the smell of wet-dog at the best of times. So we packed up and headed back. Again, I was fortunate enough to walk with Tzup, who's fursuit antics and mischief amused to no end.

So we got back, realized we had a few hours to kill before the next thing we wanted to do, so Carnie, Crazy, Kraden, Vixen, Jen, Tom, Kell, Fuzzy, Kyle, Kaz and myself all decided to embrace the über tackiness and tourism of the Gold Coast, and get a big group photo done at one of those old-Western photo places. I was initially a little reluctant about the whole idea, but just like Ripley's on the Friday, I quickly fell back into tourist mode and had a great time.

We did a big group shot with everyone at the bar, one serious and one that was like a bar-room brawl had just broken out between us, then another setting with Kell, Kyle, Kaz, Fuzzy and me playing poker, which had a great sequence to it: the first was serious, then we were all trying to cheat and look at Fuzzy's cards, then another great fight scene.

We then grabbed a quick bite to eat before going our separate ways, some to the con, while Ray and I met up with the bowling group. Played a reasonable first game after a rubbish first few rounds, finished second with 80-something, then bowled a respectable 102 on my second game, I can't remember the last time I've broken a hundred bowling, so I was quite pleased with myself.

Finished up at the bowling and headed back just in time to catch the start of the fursuit games. I always love seeing what the organizers of these come up with, games that would normally not really be much of a challenge, if at all, to someone out of suit, but can be near impossible to someone in a fursuit who has limited hearing, vision, movement and dexterity. Here in lies the fun for a spectator, and part of the reason I love to film furry events, stuff like this looks great on camera, and even better when it goes wrong.

Everything seemed to be going well, they even managed to get through musical chairs without incident, but it was "bacon" that would be their undoing. Bacon is where there are two teams, everyone on each team is paired off with a number againat someone on the other team, they throw some kind of object, on this case, a pool noodle, and the first one to get to it, wins. What could possibly go wrong, right? Well, funny thing, turns out that two fursuiters running full-bore at each other and do a bit of damage to themselves. I won't mention names, but one basically ended up with a minor concussion that sat him on his arse for a good few hours, but was taken care of by Tom, so he was in good paws.

After a short dinner break, it was time for the Charity Auction! I've always looked forward to these at MiDFur, so I was very interested as to how FDU were going to run theirs. To my delight, my good friend, Kell, and more importantly, vocal master of the English language, was running the event, with some help from the ever fluffy Jeneara. Kell fell into the roll of auctioneer/ring-master in seconds, it was the roll he was born to play! Unfortunately, I was out-bid on every item I had my eyes on, continuing my record of charity auctions. But in less than an hour, we had raised over $1k for the Australia Zoo, a very worthwhile cause. The banner print from Tani Da Real alone fetched over $500, so that was fantastic. Everyone had a great time, a bunch of money was raised for a great cause, what more could you want.

Then, after a few closing words from Oz, Drake and Joey, it was time for the dead dog dance. I have to admit, I was a little worried when about half an hour in, there was still hardly anyone there. But soon enough, people started coming back from dinner and/or getting into fursuit, and the dance-floor was quickly pumping. Oz came down in his inflate-a-roo suit and did his best impression of a blue-berry, after which we rolled him up and down the hall a couple of times, all for the sake of a good con vid. Say what you want about Oz, he's dedicated to his art, no one can deny that!

More and more people converged on the dance floor and it was just fantastic. This was the last chance for everyone to party, and they knew it. Glow-sticks and glow poi were out in force, probably best demonstrated by Flicker, who was essentially a walking/dancing Christmas tree on the dance-floor, and it looked great.

One of many highlights for me, was when Ray let an un-named person wear his Satimo suit. I got a few photos of them together, before Satimo went out onto the dance-floor, soon after followed by Ray. It was really weird seeing them dancing together like that, after knowing them as one and the same for so long, but looked fantastic on camera none-the-less.

Oz came back down in Duke, got up on stage with pretty much all of the ACTfur crew on the stage, along with Kaz, and tore it up, it was fantastic. A re-mix of Coldplay's Viva La Vida came on, and not long after, a huge conga-line formed with Oz leading the way. It snaked its was around the dance, outside onto the large kind of smokers area, then back in again in time for the end of the song and, the end of the dance.

When the house-lights came back on, everyone was panting, sweaty, and had a big grin on their face. The good byes and the hugs started with friends old and new, sad to see the weekend end, but I think we all knew that it meant it would just make us all keener to see each other again at the next meet or con, which couldn't come soon enoughzl.

There was so little I could fault the convention on, it's not even worth mentioning here, it's been the most fun at a fur-con I've had probably since MiDFur X. The organizers, staff, volunteers, and attendees were all so wonderful and open and friendly, after feeling more than a little disheartened with the fandom over the last few months, the last weekend has completely restored my faith in the community, and reminded me of why I became involved in it in the first place.

I can't wait to get back to Melbourne to start uploading photos and editing video to share my experiences with everyone, not just those who came to the con, but to others who might be thinking of making the interstate, or even international trip to this convention.

Even though I'm not on staff or had nothing to do with organization of the con, I felt a massive sense of pride knowing the Australia not only now had one, but two world-class fur-cons. Make the trip, you won't be disappointed. I know I'll be booking my rego flights and accommodation as soon as I can for Furry Down-Under 2013.

FDU 2012 Day 2
The weather went from bad to worse this morning with the rain. It hadn't stopped since yesterday, but I didn't want to mention it because I was hoping it would clear up, and didn't want sully your image of the sunny Gold Coast, but I think everyone had accepted that the rain was here to stay for at least the next few days.

But, nevertheless, that wasn't going to stop us furrs having a good time. First up was the fursuit photo shoot, run by the very talented AtPaw, but more on that in a bit. The main attraction of the day, was Carnival Live, where they had basically combined the dealer's den and circus side-show games into this one cool experience. There were skill tester games, fortune telling, and even a fairy-floss machine, all able to be purchased with carnie dollars that we were given at the start of the con. So that was a lot of fun.

I picked up some Contact Caffeine caffeinated scented soaps in chocolate, absinthe and werewolf flavors, very much looking forward to trying them at home.

So, the photo-shoot. Was really cool to watch Atpaw running the show. I mean I knew he was a talented photographer, but seeing him in action, I now know why. He knew exactly how to direct the fursuiters to get the best possible poses out of them, stuff that you would probably take for granted for non-fursuit photography, mainly to do with eye-lines and to make sure they were looking where and how they were meant to. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

The scheduled beach-meet was postponed, as the rain still showed no sign of letting up in the slightest but it was all good, just meant more time at the bar, meeting new and interesting folk. The art panel, hosted by Kraden and Carnival, was actually kind of interesting for the parts I drifted in and out of. Rather r
than your standard "This is how you draw a brown fox" panel, it focused more on creating hybrid characters, taking certain features from each species and working them together.

Next was the much anticipated, for me anyway, Actfur Panel. Rather than doing the usual live show which they have done at previous MiDFurs, they decided to take a look back at the previous few seasons and do a comical re-cap, which was fairly entertaining for fans of the show, but if that was your first exposure to it, then I think a lot of it may have been lost on them.

After dinner was the Gameshow Night Extravaganza, hosted by Drake. This was a combination of Celebrity Heads, Wheel Of Furtine, Furmaily Fude, Who Wants To Be A Popufur? as well as a few other games. It was well run, the tech was all very slick, Drake and Oz in his inflatable roo-suit as ring-master were fantastic at entertaining the crowd, my only complaint is it could've moved along a little quicker, but apart from that, it was a very entertaining evening provided to us.

The show wrapped up around 11, so I found myself in a room party with the actfur guys, Kyle, Kaz and a few others for a couple of hours before finally stumbling off to my bed through the rain.

That's all for now, hope to have more of the last day of the cons adventures tomorrow.


This is Logan Husky, signing off.

FDU  2012 Day 1
Wow, what a day today. Where to start...

Woke up at around 6:30am, for what would appear to be no apparent reason, to a grey and drizzley Surfers Paradise, a very different look from what we had when we arrived yesterday, but oh well. Went and got a morning Kranskie sausage from the really nice fast-food place across road, more from them later. Decided to try and get some sleep, at least for an hour or so, which I somehow managed to achieve. 

Refreshed, I woke around 10:30, time enough for quick shower and to get my stuff together before going over to rego. The staff seemed to have things pretty well organized, though a little signage for where who had to cue where would have been helpful. Saw some friends that I hadn't seen yet, as well as some who had landed earlier. Wasn't anything to do till after lunch, so I headed down to Cavil Ave with Cipher to grab some lunch ahead of the trip the Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

Ripley's was actually pretty reasonable. It was just full of the same kind of stuff you see on the show, the weird, wild and wonderful. A great animatronic of the worlds largest man that would sit up from a chair when you went and stood next to him; unusual art, including a sculpture of the head of Dame Edna Everage made entirely out of chicken-wire; and an entire section on shrunken-heads and how they're made, along with hundreds of other artifacts of random oddities from around the world from all kinds of eras. Its weird, i doubt i would have paid money to see something like that back in Melbourne, but Ripley's fits so well into the whole ultimate tourist experience that is The Gold Coast, that it was really entertaining, i guess sometimes you have to just embrace the tackiness and let go! Pictures and video to come.

Next up was the poker tournament. Having only played once in the last few years prior to this, I was surprised at how long I lasted, despite only winning one hand the entire time.

After leaving with my dignity somewhat intact, I headed out to BBQ Barron for dinner and joined a steadily growing group of about a dozen furrs that had already set up camp and were gradually taking over all their table space. Met some new friendly faces there, including Lupala (? I'm sorry if I got the spelling wrong) and her other half, who's name escape me. Then went on to a nice little teppanyaki place with Rache and her sister and potential *confurtert*, Lewi Lewi. Had been to teppanyaki place in years, for those of you playing at home, these are the Japanese restaurants where they cook the food right in front of you, and we had a great young chef who was really funny, as well as really good at what he did.

The evenings entertainment was an interesting choice of a line up, magician, Matt Hollywood, and comedian, the fandoms very own Anthrax. Matt Hollywood was fantastic. His look and his act had that tackiness that fitted in with FDU and the Gold Coast so well, and his act really was amazing, great interaction with the crowd, a lot of great laughs, as well as interacting with pretty much every member of the ACTFur cast at some point over the evening, the highlight of which was pulling Kraden up on stage for the finale. Words cannot do justice to that one trick, so again I say, video will come soon.

Up next was Anthrax. If you know him and his comedy, I really don't have to say much I don't think. If you don't, count yourself lucky :p Nah, but seriously, I find Anthrax's comedy interesting, because at first, it seems like just red-neck gross and shock humor, not really my thing, but he's actually got a little bit of a left-wing twist to a lot of his stuff, which makes it interesting to watch.

After a quick room turn-around, it was time for the dance. I'll say right now that Trinixx did an amazing set, I'd dare say, better than anything I've heard in 4 years of MiDFur. The dance-floor was pumping, heaps of fursuiters and non-suiters alike having a great time, and me in the middle of it getting some great video, so to everyone who gave me a smile and wave to the camera, just want to say thanks.

Couple of highlights from the dance that stand out: seeing Oz bring out Duke V2, I think everyone had the same reaction that I did, "OMG!!! DUKE!!!" *Pounce-hug* was so good to see that suit after so many years, and I was reminded why Oz liked it so much that he wore it so often and had to retire it for a while. The other highlight was this massive conga-line that formed with Carnie, Jen and Kraden at the head, and very quickly had about 2 dozen+ people behind them as it made its way around the dance floor and out into the lounge. Oh, one more personal highlight was Trinixx finishing his DJ set with a great re-mix of an acoustic version of Times Like These by my beloved Foo Fighters.

The dance stopped at midnight, which was probably just as well, because I was knackered, as well as having gone through two 3hr camera batteries and had filled up my 32gb SD card after just 2 days, which basically means I've shot more than 3 hours of video so far.

Well, that's it for now folks, hope to have another con-report for you tomorrow.


This is Logan Husky, signing off.

FDU 2012 Day 0
So, after staying up ad packing till 3am the night before, like i usually seem to have a habit of doing the night before, I was finally ready for my first interstate fur-con. Kyle rocked up at about 10:30, and we made our way out to the airport. We got there with plenty of time to spare, so you can imagine it came as a bit of a shock to us both when not even ten minutes after boarding had opened, we were both being paged. Waiting to get through security, my bag had a bag within a within a bag, so I'm sure I wasn't the X-ray scanner operators favorite person right then. Anywho, as I was waiting for my bag to come through, the Tiger airways guys were going "You have to go now, or you're going to miss your flight." So thinking Kyle would catch up and bring my bag with him, I went on ahead. As the guy from Tiger and myself are about half-way to the plane, Kyle comes running up, sans Logan's bag. I freak. I'm about to go back for it, but the tiger guy says if I do, I'm going to miss my flight. So, with a growl, I turn and keep heading toward the plane. We board, feeling the eyes of every passenger burning us, as if to say "We were able to be here on time, where the fuck were you?" So, we sheepishly make our way to our seats, where we sit, and by this time, all I can think about is how the hell I'm going to get my bag up there, Kyle doing his best to assure me that it won't be a big deal to get it sent up on the next flight to us. After a few minutes of this panic and stress, up the isle of the plane walks the tiger guy with my back-pack! Yay! Crisis averted and problem solved, phew!

So we take off, I do a little bit of filming for my con video of pretty clouds and shit, Kyle all the while giving me greasy looks. Flight was uneventful, but I will say I was particularly happy with the landing shot I got, hoping it turns out nice.

Get to baggage-claim, meet up with Paskhowl Thylacine to split a cab to the hotel, traffic was pretty terrible, but still managed to get some nice traveling/establishing shots. Got to the hotel, Kyle and Pask  checked into the Watermark, I headed across the road to the Wyndham.

Back in the lobby of the Watermark, I start to see faces of good friends I haven't seen for many months, Kell and Jeneara, soon to be followed by Ray Liehm, and local fur and my roommate for the con, Cipher. We moved out I search of food, and as far as furrs go, we actually settled on a place pretty, a cafe/restruant called The OMG Cafe, so how could we not eat there, right?

After that, we went back to our respective rooms, some to unpack, some to grab a quick power-nap. I had decided several weeks before, that if this was going to be a true holiday, we were going to need supplies. Cipher lead the way to the nearest supermarket, where I was able to secure...Coco Pops and Ben & Jeries. Very happy husky, the holiday could now officially begin.

So we grabbed a pizza for second dinner, headed to the hotel bar where a decent number of furs had started to gather, more friends I hadn't seen since MiDFur, some longer. We drank, we laughed, we were merry. All the stress and anxiety of getting up here just seemed to disolve away, and I had to keep reminding myself several times throughout the evening that I was in Queensland at Furry Down-Under, I was on holiday! So *this* is what people mean when they go away to fur-cons and have such a great time! It's very much a foreign experience to me, but I don't think it'll be one that'll be hard to get used to, hehe.

Well, it's 7:30am, still 2 and a half hours till rego opens, might check out the hotel pool and scout out a good local coffee joint. Hopefully I'll return with more news from the front tomorrow.

This is Logan Husky, signing off.

"What's this?" you say? "Logan"? "For"? "Open"? "Commissions"?

That's right folks, I am, as of now, open for furry video commission work. So if you're in Australia, and you want a video made of your fursuit, strutting your stuff, drop me a line and we'll try and work out a meet or a con we can film at!

Alternatively, if you're not in Australia, but would still require of my services, I am also available to edit any existing footage you may have. I am able to create some pretty neat title sequences that you're able to use

Say if you're a fur-suiter who has a bunch of video from a con and you're not really sure what to do with it, I can make up a nice title sequence for you, edit it together and have it back for you to upload in full HD to YouTube or wherever. Prices start at $50AUD for a simple title sequence, but please send me a note for a more accurate quote. Also, keep in mind that depending on what you commission me for, say if it's just a title sequence for the start of your video, you're then free to re-use that as often as you want on any future videos, but also, if you're a return customer, and there's not much to alter in the new work, it will be cheaper, as well as if you get your friends to mention that you recommended me to them.

Also if you're living in the states or elsewhere and want to fly me out to film at a con, I'm also willing to take offers on that too.


Examples: Producer/Director, Cameraman, Titles and Editor on all

MiDFur 2010 Highlights Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYtHK3huVi0

ACTFur On-Location - Supanova, Melbourne 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZPkqEquON8

ACTFur On-Air - Live @ MiDFur 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgLqj6YWpF0

YouTube page: www.youtube.com/huskypause

Ok, so I don't really post on here, and those of you who do follow me are more than likely friends or people I've met at MiDFur or small Melbourne meets, and I do want to try and start post more stuff on here more often than once a year, and today was the first time in a while where I felt like I have something to say, though I know not many will read this.

This afternoon marked the end of an era for me, with silverchair announcing they were being put into "indefinite hibernation" as a band to work on their own projects. Though their speculation of remaining together as a band has been rumoured between every one of their albums, I was still shocked when I heard the news. While this is probably not a great deal for most of you, but for me this was the band that got me developing my own taste in music, rather than just what parents listened to and the top 40. I have my best mate, Anthony, to thank for putting me onto them, way back in '97, and saw them live for the first time later that year on December 13th on the Summer Freak Shows tour at Festival Hall in Melbourne, and have never disappointed as a live act in 9 times I've seen them over the past 14 years.

This is a band that I have truly grown up with, a friend that has always been with me. Freak Show, Neon Ballroom and Diorama were the soundtrack to my high-school years, I started playing guitar so I could learn all those also riffs from Anthem For The Year 2000, Freak and The Door. When I practiced in my room, I imagined that I was on stage with Dan, Chris and Ben, playing at some massive out-door festival. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, suffice to say that while it might be better to burn out than to fade away, part of me held on to the hope they could come back and once again offer something amazing to us, but maybe this is better, leave us wondering what could have been, than their last album being something half-hearted, so maybe it is for the best...

As I sit here typing this, Neon Ballroom playing in the background, I feel like I've lost a close friend, and while their influence touched millions, their full potential was never realised, whether it was missed years ago, or was still to come. Whatever the reason, I'll miss you mate...

Ok, can someone please help me out here? I had a job interview for this place on Monday last week, producing, shooting and editing freelance/casual for on-line real-estate videos, talked with them, showed them some of my work, seemed to go fairly well, then I get an email from them today saying this:

Hi Logan,
Thanks for meeting with Jeremy last week. We were really impressed with your work and will be in touch once we have some work available. Thanks again, best of luck with your current projects and we look forward to meeting with you again in the near future.
Kind Regards, Such-and-such.

I have been reading and re-reading this email for the past 20 odd minutes now, and can still not make out if this is simple a nice way of saying "Don't call us, we'll call you." or do they actually mean that they are looking to offer me work in the future? Arrrgh! Somebody, anybody, please help!!!!

For anyone that's interested, a short video that I had to make as apart of my application to Andrew Denton's Project Next. You basically had to make a 3-5 minute vid on a topic you feel is important and under-represented in the media, so I chose to talk about how Guitar Hero nights are popping up in bars and pubs all over in place of actual live music. Then I took it one step further...

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t7wty3DFi8

P.S. Let me know what you think!

For those of you abroad that have been following this in the news, this past week has seen the worse bush-fires in Australia's history. With over 1,800 homes lost and more than 7,000 people displaced by the fires, and over 180 lives lost, and that number thought to still rise significantly, the Australian Furry Association is holding an on-line, silent art auction, with about 100 artists from around the world donating commissions and pieces of work, with the aim of raising $10k to be donated to the bush-fire appeal. Go to www.ausfa.org for the full details of how to be involved.

Thank you.

Animal suits have been used in comedy for many many years - one of my more favorite recent ones being the cat and mouse punch up on Big Train (seen here at: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=hOun2I5I_co) - but I was watching my recently purchased Monty Python's Flying Circus box-set for the first time, when I came across this sketch about this sub-culture of men who like to dress up as mice and get together, and it's not too far off I think what A Current Affair or Today Tonight would do a report on furries as. I was in hysterics as to how closely this relates to the fandom!

This is very early Python, from the second episode of the first series, check it out here: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=uK92NYwBMts


That's all for now,

Peace out!

Well, here we are again. On the eve of the New Year, wondering now more than ever what the next twelve months will hold in store for us. I've been reading a lot of journals from people talking about this year and the next, and I guess that's inspired me to write one of my own, or at least make some kind of attempt at one. So, here we go...

The year has been a fairly important one for me. First year out of an educational institution, finishing my Film and TV Advanced Diploma from Swinburne last year, so going pretty much straight into a full-time job at the end of Feb was a big jump for me. Then I moved out of home, another big deal, but probably even bigger for my folks than it was for me, I would still get text messages, 3 months after leaving home, several times a week, asking if i was coming home for dinner that night! Talk about your separation anxiety!!

A downer of the year was having to decide to pull-out of going to FC due to the global financial crisis, not an easy thing to do when you've had the plans of your trip in your head for the past four months, and then the week before you go to get your ticket, the economy turns to shit overnight. Oh well.

However, MFX went off!! Australia's first furry-con and I really don't see how they could've done much better for a first-time team. Only problem is: they've set such a high-standard for themselves, that MFXI is going to have to be pretty awesome to try and top it, and just between you and me, it's going to be massive!!

To those we've lost this year. I'd like this chance to pay my respects to comedian/broadcaster, Richard Marsland, who's time on this Earth was all too short, at only 32 years of age.

To all my furry friends: thank you for being apart of my life, weather it's online or in person ("furson"?), and may the new year bring you many wonderful things. You have all helped inspire me into (slowly) bring the two parts of my life, furry and non-furry, together, and made me realize that I really have nothing to be ashamed of to have to've even split it up in the first place! I feel lucky to know such fine people and to be able to count them as my friends, and for that, I say thank you.

Well 2008, as Vinnie Jones said: "It's been emotional." 2009, here I come!!

Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that. - Michael Leunig

As anyone who read my last journal entry would know, I mentioned that after the Monday night of MFX, I was inspired to come out as furry to a close friend of mine.

So here's how it went down...

Shortly after getting home on Tuesday early-arvo, I got a call from a good friend of mine, Alex, asking me if I wanted to catch up over a game of pool, like we normally do. I said sure, and when he asked me what I'd been up to, I said "I've just had the most amazing weekend of my life." "Oh really?" "Yeah, but I'll tell you everything at pool."

So at pool, he asked me, "So what was so amazing about this weekend?" Before I preceded to try and explain, just what furry is, I asked him "Have you seen CSI or Back To You?", to which he replied, no, I then, using Kage's "Don't ask us what we are, but what we were" monologue (something else that inspired me into coming out as furry) explained what furry is, although unfortunately, with probably only about 60% the confidence from the original delivery, but I think it got my point across.

After explaining that, I then went into telling him what Midfur was, and how it originally started off as just a small, casual meet ten years ago, and how it had now turned into a fully fledged convention, with panel discussions, entertainment in the evenings, a dealers den for artists selling their work and a Gala Ball at the Hi-Fi. He seemed rather interested in this sub-culture and how it attracted me. He asked how long I'd been a member ("They don't give you a card Alex"), what happens at meets. I explained to him about fursonas, how it's a largely on-line based community.

So after all this, and many more questions, he said "Sounds like something Daniel (another friend of ours) would be interested in." I laughed, though about it for a second, and said "You, know, you're probably right!"

So there you go, one down, god knows how many more to go, but I think it went quite well, though I think I'm going to have to practice quoting Kage a bit more first before I tell any more friends.

Take care everyone, and have a merry christmas!

It's 2:24pm, Long Slow Goodbye by Queens Of The Stone Age just came up on my iPod, and I've just gotten back home from final last goodbyes.

Made my way into the city around 11am where I met up with Kraden, Jen, Carnival, Loopey and Dusten for a nice cafe/bakery breakfast. We then went back to the hotel, where i managed to catch Crazy and Vixen as they were checking out. I then went with Kraden and Jen to see them off to the airport bus with Carnie. As we headed back to the hotel once more, we bumped into Pete and had a coffee with him, Kaz, Fiery. According to Pete, we have gotten one up on AC, where the most they have raised in one year at one of their auctions is $3,000, where we managed $3,600! Now, if that wasn't cool enough, consider that per head, that works out to roughly $2 vs $14. I can only hope that Kage takes that back to AC with him, hehe.

After this, I said my final final goodbyes to all who were still there, and as i got back to my car, i had this rush of emotion over me, as it finally clicked that it was actually, finally, all over, and have now been on the verge of tears for no particular reason for the past hour. I think I can honestly say that these last few days have been the best fun I have had in my entire life, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who was there and made this event what it was.

Reflecting now, the auction was the highlight of the whole weekend, in particular, the signed MFX poster, when the bidding just went through the roof to make sure we could keep in in Australia, it showed us what the community is all about, that we were able to put aside petty squabbling and come together, it made me proud to be a furr, so much so that when my friend who I'm going to see tonight for pool asks me about my weekend, I'm going to tell him exactly what the fandom is (well, mostly anyway) and why it was so amazing.

Once again, thank you all, I will never forget these last few days as long as I live, and that you for being apart of it.


This is Logan Husky signing out.


Stay tuned...

Ok, it's 3:34am in the morning, and considering that no one seems to be reading these, I'm going to make this short.

Woke up around 9am to try and make it into the city for the recording of ACT Fur, an Australian based furry podcast, but Kraden and Jen had enough to deal with running the con, so that was pushed back to next week. Hung around, the dealer's den, where a local radio station, Triple J, turned up, and I was assigned to keep them out of the headless lounge. I spent the remainder of the day awaiting the arrival of the macbook pro so I could get started on the photo presentation for the Dead-Dog party.

We were then treated to a spectacle of an auction, hosted by Kage and 2, where art from the dealers was auctioned off for funds to go to the RSPCA. Highlights included Oz Roo simply offering a custom suit head, upgrading that to a tail and paws if it got to $500, and finally, a full suit for $1000, very generous of him indeed, and the main piece of the auction, the MFX poster signed by every attendee, where a massive bidding war irrupted so as to keep the poster, a piece of Australian furry history, in Australia (Kaz, you traitor!) We managed to win the poster, and soon after, we counted it all up, and had raised over $3k. With that note, Chairman Pete closed the con, and the drinking began.

After about 2 hours, i got wind that there was something happening up on the street. So I headed up, to find Snicks and his ute out the front of the hotel, and he was inviting people to sign the bonnet. I went back down to tell everyone that they needed to see this, and as I was walking back up, 2 was walking outside was well, so I said to him: "Well, how many conventions have you been to where they sign a car at the end of it, eh?" To which he simply replied: "About 4." Damn it!

It really was an amazing way to end the convention. I wondered back down to the party, talked and drank with Dusten and Loopy for a bit, till we were told that we had to leave the space, and then we headed up onto the roof of the Victoria Hotel, where I could see the venue for MFXI, for more drinking and talking 'till about 2:30. I walked down Swanston St, hailed a cab, and when I got in, the driver's said: "I like your tail".

I'll leave you now with a quote from Dusten as we were saying goodnight: "It's been real."

Thank you all, I had a great time and I can't wait to do it all again next year!!!

Woke up in my room around half-9, and gave some very serious thought to spending another night here, but came to my senses, and checked-out around 11am. After dropping my dad's laptop back home, I drove back into the city, where I thought i wouldn't have much of a problem finding a park. Little did I know, The Wiggles were in town, and were playing just across the river at Rod Laver Arena. Am I the only one here who can see the irony of MFX, a gathering of 200+, being held the same weekend The Wiggles are playing several shows to 14,000 per. show, a show that includes, not one, not two, but three anthropomorphic characters: Wags the dog, Henry the octopus, and of course, Dorothy the dinosaur? If I'm still around in the community 10 years from now, and Midfur is still going, I want to ask how many kids went to that concert.

Anywho, I digress. I wondered between the dealer's den and the panel discussions for a bit, went to get my new con-badge (courtesy of Trigger Fox) printed up and laminated, which I did not hesitate to show off for the rest of the day. Back to the dealer's den for a bit, then helped Jen get ready for her panel session on cos-playing, which even though I don't do any of that myself, it was rather interesting. More hanging around dealer's den, where I ended up buying a shirt from Carnival, and $56 worth of SFL's from Goldfur. We then moved onto the no-talent night, which was very amusing. A rat playing air guitar, a lion playing actual guitar, an interesting take on an Avenue Q song, all hosted by The Joker and an Orc. On the drive home, I was already thinking of several possibilities for next year...

We then moved on the Uncle Kage's show, which was very funny, then 2 did his stand-up set, also very funny, then they did their bit together, and it was just brilliant. Sorry if I'm skipping details, but it's now 2:43am and I need to wrap this up soon. So we were kicked out of the function space, so we moved up stairs, chatted in the lounge for a hour or so before planning the next day and calling it a night, which is what I must do.

Tomorrow: ACT Fur Podcast recording in the morning, then I have to organize the photo display for the dead-dog party, where I might be vjing as well, we'll see...

Night all, peace out!

Ok, sorry for anyone actually reading this and was expecting a post yesterday from MFX, but you'll soon see why that didn't happen. And btw, it's 1:38am, Monday morning as I type this, so please excuse lack of detail.

Got a reasonable night's sleep in after hanging around in the hotel, nattering away with fellow furrs, put together my little bag of goodies of what I would need for vjing later that night, and also decided it would be so much easier if I just stayed at the hotel after the gala-ball. After picking up the laptop from my folks, I made my way into the city. Upon arriving at the Hi-Fi (the venue for the evening's proceedings), two things happened: 1. I recognized their in-house sound guy, a real dick and the boyfriend of a good friend of mine. I quickly took my collar and con-badge off, not so much that I cared what he thought, I honestly didn't want to waste the mental energy on explaining the fandom, and I figured he'd be seeing a whole lot more later that evening anyways. I do have a feeling I'm going to get some interesting questions from my friend next time I see her though, hehe.

2. We quickly discovered that we did not have the screen we originally thought we were going to have. Can we hire a screen? Yes. How much? $200. Can we afford it? No. Ok. We eventually worked out that we could project the vision down onto the crowd from the mezzanine, and the projector we got to use from Kaz Couger's friends who were djing up in the chill-out area actually had a fair bit of kick to it. So, with the help of Jen and Kelt, I got everything set-up and working, went back to the hotel, got changed and headed back to the Hi-Fi.

The evening seemed to go off without a hitch: the meal was quite nice, the improv comedy show with 2 and Uncle Kage was fairly entertaining, but was more of, as they described it, a preview of their show the following evening, and with the bits that they can really only tell for an 18+ crowd. Then the inductees to the Australian Hall of Fame, with the assistance of Capt. Jack Sparrow, and then the dancing, to witch I retreated upstairs to work my vjing magic. The night went well, but I just couldn't enjoy myself because of the stress and politics of the afternoon, and just couldn't get my head out of that head space. But it looked cool and people seemed to be liking it, so that's the important thing. Went back to my room after it was all done around 2am and crashed...

*Collapses into his chair after an exhausting evening* Phew, made it. It is 1:25 in the morning as i write this, and I've just gotten in the door from the first night of MFX.

Firstly, I have to say I'm very impressed with how the con went off tonight, people were eating, drinking, with much merriment to be had by all. Traffic was a bitch getting into the city, what I would've expected to take maybe 20 minutes, 30 max, took a little over an hour due to the poor weather conditions. But I found a park not too far from The Victoria Hotel, and made my way in.

So many people that I hadn't seen for sooo long, there was much hugging of old friends. I managed to wonder around the dealers den a little, but most were starting to pack up by the time I got there. I managed to track down Flix and get my tail I commissioned off her, and I'm very proud of it.

After the formalities of the evening, I mingled a bit, before heading off to my favorite chinese restaurant, China Bar on Russel St with Kraden, Jen, and about a half dozen new furrs that I'd never met before. At Jen's request, on our way to CB, we managed to find a street performer electro-space-man, where we sat and watched him for about 10 minutes, he looked, as someone exclaimed: "Like someone out of Daft Punk Idol" Later, when I had to go across the street to get money for dinner, I think i got at least three double-takes from people in restaurants seeing a young man (me) in a fairly nice suit jacket walking past them with a large husky tail, very nice work Flix.

Our little group then made our way back to the hotel, where we just hung out, talked, drew, drank, it was all very nice. It was there I bumped into Jery and Al from Canberra, a very nice surprise. So we talked and drank for a bit till about midnight, at which point we decided if we were going to make anything of tomorrow, it was time to call it a night.

The rain, which had started at around mid-day, had gradually gotten worse and worse through out the rest of the afternoon and into the evening (as a result of which, the city bbq tomorrow has now been called off). So after a short cab ride to my car, I made my way home, which bring me here now.

1:48am. Time for bed. Plan for tomorrow is to get up, do some more work on video loops for vjing tomorrow night, pick up my dad's macbook, head into the city, met up with Jery and Al for lunch then go to the Hi-Fi around 2pm to start the set-up for the Galla Ball, so we'll see what happens...

Peace out kids, and if you're at MFX, come and say hi!

*Sighs* After sitting down and taking a realistic look at my finances, I've had to come to the conclusion that I just simply can't afford to go to FC this year. Our dollar now only being worth 60% of what it was 3 weeks ago, means I'm going to need an extra 2.5-3k on-top of what I was originally planning, and there's no way I'm going to be able to have that in time. As much as I'd love to go, I don't want to be in debt after my first venture overseas...

It's so frustrating, considering that this was looking very possible 3 months ago when I started putting this together, and now it's all just fallen to shit...*sighs* I am going to book my room at the Double Tree for FC 2010 though, so that will give me something to look forward to.

I'm looking at other options for a trip though, maybe somewhere in Asia. I need some time off, to get away from all this bullshit.

And everything was just starting to go so well...

Anywho, that's all for now. I guess I just needed to vent a little.

Take care

Well, the other day at work, we were on a bit of a break and just talking about what we were planning to do with our annual leave over Jan/Feb (that's when we are told to take it, otherwise we loose it). So some people are going to go down the coast, some just bum around at home. So I go, "I'm going to America for three weeks: LA, Vegas, San Fran."
Workmate: "Oh? What's over there?"
I didn't want to tell her exactly what FC was, because that would mean explaining what furry is, and I just wasn't up for that. "Well, there's this comic-book/movie convention in San Fran that I've always kinda wanted to go to, should be kind of fun."
Workmate: "Oh, is that where they all dress up in suits and stuff?"
Me, biting my tongue: "Yeah, a little."
Workmate, to another workmate sitting with us: "Yeah, they all dress up as their favorite characters from movies and stuff, it's really weird, they did this thing on CSI about it."
I had to keep my jaw from dropping at moment, and stop myself from just going "I'm one of them! Weeee!" hehe. But instead, I was very proud of how I played it, and pretended to try and remember the episode: "Oh yeah, what are those guys called again? *Clicking his fingers trying to remember* Furries or something?"
I could tell the concept weirded her out, so I decided to keep my card close to my chest, as it were. They then asked me what I dress up as, and I said, truthfully, "Nah, I don't dress up like that."
Workmate: "What would you dress up as?"
I sooooo wanted to say "Husky.", but that could've given me way, so I just said: "I don't know, probably a hobbit, hehe."

*Sighs dreamily* Ah, it's little moments like that that make it worth all the crappy hours they give me at work, hehe

Hey everyone. This is my first journal, so please be gentle, hehe.

Well, I've just finished unpacking the last of the boxes and all the posters on the walls are looking pretty good. Can't believe that I'm finally out of home. Still feels like someone's going to come along at any moment now and go: "Sorry, there's been a bit of a mix up, you're meant to be living under the stair-case." The move was a bit annoying, there was a lot of going back and forth, getting little things that i'd forgotten about, but all is good now. I'm loving the location. I'm two minutes walk away from bars, restaurants, a supermarket, train-station and movie theatre, it's great!

Last night was my *counts...* fifth night here and a bit of an occasion, as it was the first night i got pizza in. I'd avoided the pizza-at-the-newly-moved-out-of-home-place cliche for as long as I could, but after all the unpacking and poster putting-up, I just couldn't be bothered cooking.

Was hoping to catch up with Kraden this weekend while he's down here for Manifest to show him some stuff for the MFX vjing, but he's a busy boy, so it'll have to be another time I guess.

Well, that's all for now. I figured that the move out was a good enough reason to start posting a furry journal on here.

Peace out!


P.S. Any one from Oz, or otherwise, heading to FC in Jan? I'm starting to get stuff planned, and I was just wondering who else would be there. Apparently there's going to be a large number of Australian's there this year, so that should be fun.