Hi all,

I've finally went ahead with the move. If you are interested, please go follow my new account,  helloitsecho .

I will no longer be posting or commenting from this account. I will be taking down submissions within the next couple of weeks when I have time.

Thanks for 10-and-a-half years of fun. Now, it's time for a new start.

Stay safe!

Peace, love, and social distancing-acceptable-methods-of-affection,
-E

Hi all, whoever happens upon this,

I've decided I'm going to shut this account down for good. It's a long time coming, and it doesn't reflect who I am now as a person and who I want to be in the community.

I will be more active in the future there, and actually have some projects ready to go that I will upload there.

Feel free to go give the new account a follow. It's still a WIP, but I have the name set already.

 helloitsecho

I think I'm gonna shut this one down in early November.

Until then, peace, love, and hugs,
-E

Hey.

So...I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do with this account lately. Mainly because I made it when I was in high school and super incredibly cringey and awkward and...yeah.

Don't get me wrong, I still like being a part of the fandom, even if I am kind of off to the side a bit. I just feel like a refresh might be needed.

So I'm leaning towards making a new account and utilizing that one going forward. I'll still keep this one for archive purposes, but I get the sense that the "Pho3nixx" name has overstayed its welcome.

I dunno. I'm just trying to get rid of the awful parts of my past I think. Lots of bad memories associated with a lot of them.

Thoughts. Words. Things. You're all awesome.

If you read this, thanks for taking the time to entertain my ramblings.

-E

...I don't even remember the last time I updated this.

But I just went through pretty much everything I ever did and just...cringed.

A lot of the stuff on this page I made back when I was an awkward underclassman in high school. I wasn't too social, nor did I have the best of communication skills either. Thankfully, that ship has sailed.

I looked at my join date and realize I've been on here for almost 7 years...that's honestly insane. I can't believe that at all.

I'm not as big into the fandom as I was back then, but this still kind of holds a place in my heart. A weird one, and a confusing one, but a place nonetheless.

Darkness Rising Part II is about 2/3 done. Blame school and real life for getting in the way. Maybe I'll upload it at some point.

Till next time,
-E

welp that last journal was a complete and utter fail.

I hit a wall about halfway through and then school took over my life and it was just like a;lksdjasasfajlkfd all over the place.

I'm hoping to have Part 2 done by...the end of the summer? I hope? I think that's a fair goal.

...maybe.

-E

I've got a plot and a rough draft working on Part 2 of "Darkness Rising!"

While that's good news and all, somehow my mind has begun to turn things in a dark direction for the loyal members of Diamond Squadron. Plus, we see what exactly led to the transformation of Echo and the rest of the billions of people who were alive and well on that fateful Thursday morning.

I should have this done by early February!

TL;DR I FINALLY BROKE MY WRITERS BLOCK AND ACTUALLY HAVE GOOD PLOT IDEAS THAT I DON'T HATE. WOO.

Are people really that stupid?

Again, with the art theft. Cut it the fuck out.

Somebody's been taking a lot of artwork done by a lot of well-known artists on here and on DA and keeping credit for themselves.

I'm honestly aggravated that people have the nerve to take people's creative property--something they slaved over for hours on end in most cases--and say OH YEAH I DID THIS ME ALL ME GIMME THE GLORY ITS MINE.

...except it's not. You're just lazy and inconsiderate and you really need to get off the internet.

DON'T. STEAL. OTHER. PEOPLE'S. ARTWORK. EVER.

-_-;

-E

...anyone on here ever been in a car accident before and want to lend a hand on how to go through the whole insurance/police report process and everything?

Ps I'm not joking.

Still shaking. Want to throw up. Seriously the worst day ever.

Tomorrow is 4/20.

Roommate is a pothead.

I am not.

This is going to end very, very badly for me.

*rummages around for an oxygen cylinder and a gas mask*

Guys I'm kinda freaking out.

For no explainable reason, I basically just opened up and let one of my interests out on here.

It was in a comment and I was trying to make someone feel better.

I'm not comfortable by ANY means of other people knowing what kind of things I prefer behind closed doors. Mainly because it's something that next to no one would consider attractive.

But still. It was really hard for me to open up and come out of the furry closet. I swore to myself that no one would know anything else about me aside from that. And for me to just go and do something like that...seeing it physically attached to my name...it's like...really scary for me.

Sorry for the baww-fest. But this shit's important and needed to be said.

Back to my scriptwriting and keeping my mouth shut for the next forever.

-E

So for those of you who do not know, I work for an ambulance corps up at my place of higher learning. It's purely volunteer, but I call it work because it's the equivalent of a part-time job in some aspects, and because it's setting me up for a potential career/volunteer position in my future as an EMT.

Anyway. You ever get those moments where it's like, something happens to you or you watch something happen and you just like...freeze?

That happened to me last night. One of my patients' presenting problems were WAYYY out of my comfort zone and I just...completely froze. Forgot my protocols. Forgot my training. I just...stopped. Completely motionless, deer in headlights, the whole nine yards. I had to have one of my Senior EMTs talk me out of bashing my head into a wall soon afterwards, too.

And I've heard of this happening to people in the Emergency Medical Services before, too. We oh-so-lovingly refer to those types of alarms as "Epiphany Calls", because they wake us up and make us realize what we do in this line of work and why we do it.

Unfortunately, most people (once they get their first "Epiphany Call") tend to have a minor nervous breakdown and immediately stop their progress and training. Some even quit the agency altogether. Some of them vow never to return to EMS.

Then there are people who have those alarms, and they channel that into making themselves a better EMT or a better firefighter or a better Aide.

I'm one of them.

Last night's call made me realize what it really means to be in EMS, and what I need to work on in order to make myself the best EMT I can possibly be. I'm going in to the class next semester at my college, so hopefully by December I can say that I'm on to my next level of training.

I just hope I don't have another out-of-my-comfort-zone alarm any time soon. That shit's FREAKY, yo.

I've devoted more time to writing music in the past week that I've been back at school than anything.

And I'm okay with this. 'Cause, in reality, this is what I want to do with my life.

I dunno why I felt it necessary to make a journal about this. But I kinda had a moment of discovery here. Conventional ways of life aren't for me. I wanna be a fucking rockstar, dammit. I know I have what it takes. But the reason that I'm at school is so I can have something to fall back on.

I'll be damned if my name isn't in lights at some point.

Meep.

-E

Just checking in to wish everyone a belated happy new year!

HOLY SHIT 2012 WE'RE ALL GONNA D--I mean...what?

Also, quickie poll: For those of you (the 16 people I mean) who have read my first installment of my brainvomit known as Darkness Rising, is it worth continuing? I'm stuck in a plot rut right now and I'm wondering if people are up for seeing brainvomit part dos.

And with that, I retreat to my studio to write more music.

PEACE Y'ALL.
-E

...until today.

My last journal deals with art theft. And how much I hate it.

Someone got the oh-so-clever idea to post a coloring of another artist's sketch work without explicit permission, and called him out and insulted him in the image description.

You don't do that. You don't defy an artist's wishes and then antagonize him because you're a retard.

I don't want to become an art vigilante, but if people start to pull shit like that, then believe me I'll have no problem making their lives on here hell.

DON'T. STEAL. OTHER. PEOPLE'S. ARTWORK.

-_-

-E

I have a real problem with people who blatantly steal other people's art and try to pass it off as their own.

Really. I saw eight pieces of art on here TONIGHT that were at least 95% similar to another picture that I've seen, drawn by respectable artists, a long time ago. The only difference was that these people have no artistic ability whatsoever. And they didn't credit the artist they copied the picture from.

That's called art theft, assholes. And it's a reportable offense.

Now, I'm no artist. But I have an eye for detail like you've never seen. And the fact that you COPIED A PICTURE done by ANOTHER ARTIST does not fly in my book. A work isn't put out there so you could capitalize on it and reap rewards from THEIR work. It's put out there by the artist as a way for people to see "oh, hey! they really have a great drawing ability" or something.

Next time I see it, I'm getting an admin on your ass and hopefully banning you. That's not a threat, that's a promise.

Kind of?

I started making music. More music. More electronic music.

Two songs are currently up on my SoundCloud account.

http://soundcloud.com/djecho_ny

Listen and critque for le foxy please.

Also, college is boss, and Darkness Rising part 2 will be coming by the end of the month.

*waves*

I had a gem of an idea at 5:00 this morning. Spent an hour writing it. Editing it now. Posting it later.

Be prepared for amazingly addicting brain vomit. In the form of words. That you will hopefully enjoy.

Hi all. That's a pretty big update, I think.

Finally, after years of trying to finally have my own pet, my family caves. A month before I leave for school.

But we picked her out yesterday. She's a Golden Retriever, named Skye.

If anyone here has ever picked out a puppy before, you may know the story that you don't pick the puppy, the puppy picks you. Well, little Skye did just that...'cause when I picked her up, she immediately gave my wrist a very thorough tongue bath, and then cuddled up against my shirt and started wagging her tail.

Even at two weeks old, she knows where she belongs.

Now, since I leave for college before we take her home, the breeder agreed to let me come over whenever I wanted to and play with her and her eight other litter mates. Which is AWESOME. 'Cause now I get to play with 9 little fuzz balls instead of one before I leave! :)

I'm so incredibly ecstatic to FINALLY have my puppy. Really. It's like a dream come true. <3

Very small little thing here. Tomorrow I start the second half of my basic training for the fire service. I've been doing classroom lectures for the past 8 months and FINALLY got CPR certified yesterday, so now I can move on to phase 2: the hands-on evolutions.

Four days. Eight tests. All physically demanding tasks. And all in the early-June NY humidity. Yay.

Hard to believe all this work goes into running around a burning building in bunker gear, putting out fires and saving lives, right?

Oh well. Wish this little foxy luck. I'm DEFINITELY gonna need it. -_-

-E

Greetings to all the fuzzies and fluffies out there who read this.

As you can see, I AM BACK FROM THE DEAD. Also known as school.

I honestly have not had ANY free time what-so-ever since the year began, and I apologize for that. Considering I said I would have some new things up by now...and not fulfilling that promise...I feel bad.

Some good news though, I got into all five colleges that I applied to. YAY! :3

SO...that being said, I will now say this:

I'm not really sure when my next submission will be up. I'm having a hard time thinking of some decent plots for the new series I want to write, so that got put on the backburner. I *could* put up some poems that I wrote, but they're very dark and depressing, and this community seems all happy and stuffs. Tell me what you think about that.

Lastly...ummm...TACOS.

(I have a rekindled obsession with Invader ZIM, thanks to some of my IRL friends...so any random quotes you see is a result of that. Like the title of this journal.)

DO NOT INTERRUPT MY BEING A GENIUS!

Catch y'all later.
-E

...so I'm a very excited foxxy today.

Wanna know why?

CAUSE IM FINALLY DONE APPLYING TO COLLEGE! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!

Unbelievable...three weeks of nothing but stress, headaches, and wanting to rip all the fur off my head and bash my brain into a wall.

BUT NOW ITS OVER. AND I CAN RELAX. FFFFFFFFFF <3

oh and one more thing.

 blackrathmar OBJECTION!

Catch you fuzzies later.

-E

I posted this as a Facebook note. Let's get some political shit going on FA, huh?

--

So, to anyone who happened to see my status two days ago, you might recall me saying something along the lines of "I hate politics." Granted, I still do. But, fact of the matter is, as being an upcoming voter as of next year, we (as a whole group) kind of need to concern ourselves with this topic of conversation, as our very lives and the America we know does, in fact, hang in the balance. Political apathetics like myself even need to do this. If we don't get involved now, then what? Our indifference of the subject will lead us to elect a sharp-tounged psychopath who is good with words and even better at manipulation. He'll rewrite the Constitution to make America into a dictatorship. Do you want THAT?! (I know he can't, but still.)



I digress.



Reason I'm sitting here, writing this note which none of you will probably read to begin with, is because I read something in the paper today that irked me. And yes, it has to do with politics.



Anyone here read Newsday?



Anyone see the giant headline this morning: "Another $600 Billion jolt to the economy" ?



Yeah. THAT irked me.



ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?! Another $600 BILLION?! On top of the over $3 Trillion you've ALREADY SPENT to try and fix this crap?! You've got to be joking me. Oh, and here's another little fun fact: the increase that they're proposing is going to HURT our economy, EXCEPT for housing mortgages and the stock market. So, basically, we're going to have to pay more--for EVERYTHING--because the dollar will be (not might be, WILL be) weakened thanks to this "stimulus plan". Oil will cost more. Traveling abroad will cost more. EVERYTHING EXCEPT HOUSING AND BONDS AND STOCKS IN THE MARKET WILL COST MORE.



Gee, now doesn't THAT sound familiar. *cough*Mario Cuomo*cough*



But how do they expect to pay for this? "Oh, we'll just make a bunch of new taxes, that'll do it." Yeah, smart move. Make more taxes ON TOP OF the insanely high amount of taxes WE'RE ALREADY PAYING thanks to the 2008 fiasco. And our wallets are stretched thin enough as it is.



But wait, there's more! Did anyone think about the National Debt when they wrote this? Probably not. Look at where the deficit is now. Ever since 9/11, we've racked up $13.7 TRILLION in debt. That's $13.7 TRILLION. The actual number is $13,723,902,939,962.71 . Did anyone think about who, exactly, is going to foot this bill? Again, most likely not. I have yet to see a plan as to how we're going to a) bring the budget back to normal and b) avoid being taken over by Saudi Arabia AND/OR China because of how much money we owe them! And there's STILL MORE! In past presidencies, the budget was balanced thanks to an increase in taxes. Yeah, you heard that right, MORE TAXES. Guess which generation is gonna be responsible for cleaning up the current government's rambunctious house party? OURS! WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DO THIS! "We need to focus on schools so our children can get a decent education." More like "We need to focus on schools, so your children can all get six-figure jobs and devote a good 5/6 of that to helping our federal government solidify itself and prevent itself from imploding." OH GEE THANKS. THAT'S COMFORTING. I'VE GOT MY OWN SHIT TO WORRY ABOUT, AND NOW THEY'RE PILING THIS ON US?! Dis-GUS-ting.



I sound like a walking TEA party ad right now. And that's fine. For the record, I'm moderate, but I lean Democrat. And even I'm sick and tired of this. Such a nice world we're gonna live in when we grow up, right?



How's THAT for a wakeup call. Let's get this shit straight before it gets worse and our kids end up with this on their shoulders...shalllllll we?

--

Discuss, fellow furs.

The Echo now haz the coffeh. Caffeine addiction ensuing. Prepare for end of world.

Seriously, I had my first cup of coffee YESTERDAY. Not even 24 hours ago. And in the last 18 hours I've had 4 cups.

IT'S GOOD STUFF MAN! *holds up a paw in approval*

Comment on your opinion of coffee...regular, decaf, whatever.

My coffee of choice: Green Mountain's French Vanilla. YES<3

So, this is more of a little filler update than anything, but...here goes!

I got meself a new avatar photo thingy. It's only temp, but I thought it was just so damn cute I couldn't resist. The picture is by my awesomest fluffy buddy  blackrathmar (WHO I AM GOING TO MISS DEARLY WHEN SHE GOES TO COLLEGE!) and she's awesome 'n shtuff. Yeah.

Number two, and this comes after much thought: I'm scrapping the Silverstar Chronicles and starting anew. Mainly because I've lost the direction for which that story was going. I want my stories to actually have a plot, instead of just life things, 'cause that'll get mundane after a while. So, whilst I think of a new plot, enjoy the current stories. Once I put up the new stories, the old ones are going to scraps. And they ain't comin' back. MWAHAHAHA.

Lastly, I've decided to back off of requests for now because of all the shit in my life I still have to do for college and school and everything. I'll stick to the little gifty stories and poems for now, but until the end of the year that'll most likely be all I do.

Well, that's all fur now. Enjoy the summer, my fellow fluffies!

-Echo

Stolen from my buddy RedMP.

---

[01] Do you have the guts to answer these questions and re-post?
I'm a firefighter. Shit don't scare me easily.

[02] Would you do meth if it was legalized?
No.

[03] Abortion: for or against it?
Against. Contradicts with my beliefs.

[04] Do you think a country would fail with a female president?
Sex has nothing to do with it. If she's a good leader, yeah. If she's a dumb wench, then hellz yes it should fail 'cause the people were stupid enough to elect her in the first place.

[05] Do you believe in the death penalty?
When it warrants it. [lawl legal system pun.]

[06] Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already?
Uh, not in the least. Drugs have done nothing but screw up an already-screwed up society. Legalizing it would just make everything worse. Plus, pigs would start to fly.

[07] Are you for or against premarital sex?
It's their call. I'm not gonna do it, doesn't mean other people will save themselves though.

[08] Do you believe in God?
Am I gonna get attacked by a bunch of angry furs if I say yes?

Okay, then. YES I BELIEVE IN GOD.

[09] Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized?
That's an iffy area. Same sex MARRIAGE, as in recognized by the church, probably won't fly too well. Same-sex marriage as far as government is concerned needed to happen like five years ago. I'm not gay, but I know a ton of gay people, and they deserve the same shit we do. Just because someone likes something the general population doesn't like does NOT mean we need to make them feel like caged animals.

[10] Do you think it's wrong that so many Hispanics are illegally moving to the USA?
Immigration itself is a fucked up part of our country. Illegal immigration is just flat out pissing me off. Stealing our jobs, getting free healthcare (free in the sense that legal citizens pay for it), all the other crap does not fly with me.

[11] A twelve year old girl has a baby, should she keep it?
Funny joke. Can they even have kids at 12? Either way, don't keep a kid unless you know youre ready to take care of one. Therefore, no.

[12] Should the alcohol age be lowered to eighteen?
NO. Don't even get me started on the subject of alcohol and the age rule. My best friend was killed by a drunk driver with a revoked license. The driver was 20. My friend was 17. If anything, raise that shit to 24.

[13] Should the war in Iraq be called off?
Is the sky blue? Do dogs bark? OF COURSE IT SHOULD BE CALLED OFF. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CALLED OFF BACK IN 2004!

[14] Assisted suicide is illegal: do you agree?
I'm indifferent on this issue.

[15] Do you believe in spanking your children?
Hitting them? Not really. Child abuse is another thing that pisses me off.

[16] Would you burn an American flag for a million dollars?
No.

[17] Who do you think would have made a better president? McCain or Obama?
Obama.

[18] Are you afraid others will judge you from reading some of your answers?
Yeah, but then I remembered I didn't care.