Heh, it's been one hell of a year if I do say so myself. Looking back to over a year ago, I wouldn't have believed you if you told me half the things that happened would happen.

First and foremost, I never would have imagined being the owner and caretaker of all of these wonderful squeaky animals I've surrounded myself with. I've gone from being nervous about simply buying an intex gecko to having obtained 2 custom toys and a whole host of intex and jets (non lifelike) creatures. It was also a year where I openly talked about this odd love first to one of my best friends, and later to my mother (though I still don't think she "gets" it). I can finally say that I've come to terms with it myself for the most part. Heck, I managed to bring Barge to my old college campus and everyone seemed to love him. I must say, having these guys to come home to and love on is great. *hugs his squeakies*

Now for one of the more frustrating aspects of this year. I do have employment in the form of being a cart wrangler at ye olde wallyworld but it bugs me that I'm still stuck here nearly a year and half after graduating with a biology degree. It's almost as if no one needs a college grad for anything other than menial work these days. I've kinda learned to not get my hopes up about any job opportunities since there seems to be only disappointment down that road. I suppose I should be thankful for what I do have though as it did allow me to get some very nice things this year. It's just frustrating as all hell to be stuck back in my home town doing nothing more than cart wrangling. I suppose I'm just looking for something with a bit more meat to it.

This year has also led to me ending up on FA. Oddly enough the whole reason I even bothered to make an account was to ask a question about a certain big blue Barge draggy. Heh, I'm glad I did though since it's been nice mingling with all the toy lovers that inhabit this realm. Well that and seeing all of the squeak art. Mhmm. . . . squeaky draggies, horsies, and all manner of good things.

Now for some more forward looking things. Recently a friend of mine (who is perfectly fine with all of my squeaky weirdness) offered sharing an apartment in one of the larger towns here in Arkansas. If I can pull off a store transfer or find a better job, I'll probably go for it. I'd be in a similar job situation but living around more folks my age in a college town. I'd bet that would do wonders for my outlook on things (aka having more of a social life than coming home and cuddling squeaky animals, yep it's that bad here as there really isn't anyone around here to hang with).

As for goals for this 24th trip around the sun, I'm looking to be able to live on my own without financial assistance if I can finally get a decent job. Along with that is getting in on either Zenith 2.0 or the rerun if it all possible (I'd make it possible hehe). The Zenith is one of my dream toys so the potential to own something similar or get one via rerun is hella exciting. Finally, I hope to be a bit more social. I have this bad habit of disappearing for weeks on end and not keeping up with folks the way I should. This goes for both friends I've met here on FA and in "da real world".

Whelp, that just about sums up this year, minus all the gaming I've done hehe. I hope everyone has a merry (insert holiday of choice) and a happy new year!

Well, Barge made his first appearance outside of my house. I ended up taking him to my old college to visit some friends. I learned several things on this little excursion. The first being that Barge, will in fact, fit in my trunk in a partially deflated state. Since I don't own a good air pump yet, I figured my best bet was just to not deflate him entirely and inflate him by mouth when I got there. Hopefully the moisture from that one time didn't do too much damage.

When I finally decided to get him out, I aired him up beside my car on a blanket. Unfortunately it was a bit cold and Barge's vinyl was a bit stiff so I only inflated him up enough to where he would stand in hopes that, when heated up in the student center, he would be properly inflated. I took him over but was surprised that many folks didn't pay him much mind. Honestly this is one of the reasons I love my college. Between sword club, the quiditch team, and a college president named professor godzilla (he's written books on the big lizard and has an enormous collection), a giant blue dragon wasn't entirely out of place hehehe.

Once in the student center, one of my friends just shook his head while most of the others asked a couple of questions. What I had forgotten was that I was in a high traffic area (by my small colleges standards anyway) and dinner had just ended. Before I knew it I had all sorts of people taking selfies and giving Barge hugs. One group of girls had to apologize for impulse hugging the big guy and proceeding to take pictures without asking. I was mostly all right with this since they weren't doing any harm and I'm not concerned with pictures or anything. My protective side did come out with a few friends that wanted to punch him in the nose like a bop bag. I ended up catching his hand and explaining exactly how rare Barge really was (I would have done the same for my common toys as well since I hate seeing them hurt as well). After that they were a lot more gentle. It's a bit of a shame I probably couldn't explain exactly how attached I really am to these critters hehehe.

I also took him to several friends apartments while I was there. The first group of people had already seen my pictures (I drew up the courage to actually post about him on FB) of him. Once inside, he got some more love and attention. My friends already had a few inflate things inside too. They had an inflatable unicorn head on the wall (which they had actually repaired at one point due to heat expansion causing a small split) and one of the jets small dinos in the corner. I ended up introducing them to the wonders of puffypaws while I was there and explained custom toy creation.

I ended the night at some other friends apartment since they also wanted to see the big guy in person. He received even more love there but he was upstaged by the new smash bros. game. Anyway, after a while I deflated him and put him back in the trunk and then went home. Luckily, other than a few minor paint blemishes (Barge is a pain to fit through a door, even partially deflated) he came out of all this unharmed.

I guess to finish things up I forgot to add a song for musical monday yesterday. I'll probably start just doing one song instead of whatever it was since that's just silly. This time it's Gaur Plains from Xenoblade Chronicles. In this game, the whole world that exists is on two enormous titans named the Bionis and Mechonis. This theme plays when you reach the Bionis's Leg and is one of the first areas where the game really opens up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xweRl4LZlmo

For anyone that knows me, they'll probably know I'm absolutely in love with video games music. I grew up around this stuff and much of it left a lasting impression. With that said, I think I'll start doing a little thing where I pick a game or two and post my favorite tunes from each.

For this inaugural addition, we have the old SNES classic, Chrono Trigger. Most of the music was done by Yasonuri Mitsuda. It was his first full game soundtrack and one he put his whole being into. Word has it he passed out and ended up in the hospital he worked so hard on it. Without further ado, have some 16 bit goodness. I had problems just picking a few since I could easily put the entire soundtrack on here but I'll try.

First up is the classic title theme. I really love that portion leading up to the title screen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDZ2W0GpP_E

Next, we have a song that has gotten me through a number of harsh college assignments. It is such a relaxing theme. It's title is Corridors of Time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcf_FBbIRpM

The next two themes both get me quite pumped up. The first is the theme of Frog, one of the game's badasses (he's a frickin anthro frog swordsman that uses water magic) and the second is Magus's theme, the "antagonist" of the first half or so of the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YsAyO9oW00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfCV1bVOiGc

Next we have Schala's theme. Fun fact for this one. Wiz Khalifa actually used this song as the base of Never Been. It's up to you whether he butchered it or not. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJtwEpQe6w0

Finally, a song that has really resonated with me as of late. It's the theme of the semi final battle with Lavos. The song alternates between Chrono's theme and Lavos's as they fight for the future of Guardia (quite literally as you travel to the future and see the results of Lavos's terror). It resonates with me as I also have an internal battle going on within myself all the time with anxiety and such. Anyway here it is: World Revolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z74e6bFr5EY

That about sums it up for this week. I don't really expect anyone to actually listen to everything (that's a bit too much time) but if you ever happen to be bored or something one day, have at it ;).

Hello everyone! I must say things have been going quite well as of late, minus a few work frustrations here and there. Finally having a small squeak collection has done wonders for my mood. It's kinda hard to be too terribly down when holding a dragon or pony in your arms after all. Moreover I think finally coming to terms with my odd love of inflates had improved things as well. Heck my mother knows I've been cuddling my Pony, Lucky, on a fairly regular basis and honestly doesn't mind. I'll have to see about my father later though as he knows I have a few but no idea of the extent of my interest (or that Barge is going to be a thing haha). I'm sure it wiill all be good in the end though as even though he'll likely make fun of me for it, he'll probably only do so mostly in jest.

On another note, taking a page from Baphnedia, I've been patching up my (squeaky) relationships as of late. As a non popper, my squeaks aren't handled all that roughly but they still sometimes develop leaks and such if I get too into riding or something. I've just managed to finally get my jets tiger airtight for the first time since I got him. Third time was the charm in his case as I finally got that stupid neck split of his airtight. Fang got his second repair as another pinhole seam leak occurred on the base of his neck but it is now right as rain too. That just leaves finding wherever else my Sinclair Dino is leaking and getting around to fixing my Gecko's now stiffened nose (didn't know about plactisizer leaching at the time). Hopefully I can improve my repair skills before I ever attempt fixing Barge, Lucky, or Chip.

I'm not sure if I really should mention this next bit but what the heck. I'm finally getting off of the SSRI Celexa (I can't quite spell the chemical name). I had gone through a very bad bout of depression around 6 months or so ago related to constant unemployment and some feelings of isolation from moving back to my hometown after I got my Bachelor's degree. I had fought the idea that anything was really wrong for the longest time (several years to be exact) but that last bit pushed me to finally seeing a psychologist and getting onto an anti depressant of some sort. Well, flash forward to now and I've mostly overcome it and am finally getting the chance to ween myself off the stuff (I'm not one to go for treatments for this sort of thing). it's a good feeling to be sure.

Finally, thanks to all who I've pestered in the past month or two. You guys have certainly helped me get over the hill with all this. No need to mention names as you guys likely know who you are already .

First off, I would like to thank all of you guys who have made me feel welcome since getting here. Being new to this whole deal is kinda intimidating (it kinda still is) but I'm starting to feel better. Also a big thanks to those who I've talked to about inflates recently. It feels pretty good to finally talk with other folks who "get it". It's a heck of a lot better than the blank stare and "I'm sorry you feel that way" I got attempting to explain some of this to my mother. Not that it's all bad as she's fine with me getting Barge. Heck, her reaction might have just been from how disturbed I must of looked that entire evening before I went through with it. One down I suppose so that leaves my Dad, who might get a shock when Barge gets here.

As for life, it's been coming along decently I suppose. The only real strife I've been dealing with is dealing with the fact that I still haven't gotten that career job yet and am stuck as a cart wrangler for the time being. It kind of sucks having studied biology for four years only to get stuck promptly afterwards by that whole experience wall (yep, I was a good student but screwed myself a bit with a lack of internships). On the other hand, I'm quite an effective cart wrangler I've found. Heck I even managed associate of the month for August so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Outside of work it's been basically come home and cuddle my squeaks. Recently I made two additions in the form of an Intex Medieval Dragon that I named Fang and a Jets Baby Tiger I named Chance. Chance got his name from a small seam tear he got underneath his chin shortly after I got him. I felt so horrible about it that I felt that I needed a second chance and thus the name. Don't worry though as he's all fixed up now and quite loveable. The draggy has quickly became one of my favorites. Intex really outdid themselves with him as he's probably my favorite non custom design of all time. He's such a good cuddle. Finally, I'm happy that Barge finally went into production. Being my first custom toy, I'm super excited about all of this. That big belly awaits just over the distant horizon.

Other than all this I've been indulging in my pokemania a bit as of late. By this, I've gone crazy with GTS trades and am getting close to actually completing X's pokedex. Gotta catch'em all as they say right? Besides I need that shiny charm to hopefully help me get that shiny Charmander I've been masuda methoding for. Seven hundred eggs hatched and nothing yet. It'll happen eventually I'm sure.

Finally for those watching, I wouldn't expect any art or anything like that out of me. An artist I am not. I might take a few pictures of my squeaks but they'll probably go straight to scraps as they are all common toys (of course they are all special to me). I might could do some simple rural photography I suppose or maybe upload a few pictures of my time in Costa Rica (field ecology class project) but that's about as artsy as I get.

With that, I bid everyone good night, morning, or whatever the heck it is in your time zone.

Panzerwing

Why hello everyone! With this first journal entry I figured I would explain a little bit of how I ended up here on FA. Many years back I learned I had this weird attraction to balloons that I really couldn't explain which then shifted towards pool toys and such as I went to college as a bio student. I had been rather unsettled out by this for a great number of years until I finally started indulging this weird interest via Youtube videos and such. It was there that I ran into the glory that is many of the amazing customs that are out there right now. From here I started looking up some of the pictures of things like the Puffypaws Zenith, G & G dragon, and the G & G palomino. This led me into both DA and FA in recent times. It was five or six months ago that I brought up the courage to browse around FA in order to read the journals of those that had a similar interest to me. After reading through some of the Journals from the likes of RyuSyro, Baphnedia, Tico the Timberwolf, and a few others, it reassured me that maybe having this interest didn't make me near as a big of a freak as I made myself out to be. It also helped seeing all of the squeaky art scattered about FA and all the pictures of various folks enjoying their toys in a more groupish setting. All of this has reassured me to the point of finally going after my first custom made toy (Barge the Dragon) and even led to me explaining this odd interest to my mother and a few of my closest friends. Now that I'm being more comfortable with this, I've decided it's time to actually start interacting more with the community. This doesn't just include inflatables either as I've also grown quite fond of some of the amazing fur suits and other art that can be found here on FA.

Anywho before I bring this to a close I guess I'll throw in some of my other interests as to not sound so single faceted. I've been into distance running for a good six years (I can talk times if anyone would like), video games, anime, biology, and chemistry. With all this said, I look forward to seeing you guys out there!