I've regained control of my original Tek Roo account, so I'm moving on over! If you've been reading me here or digging the rare photo upload then you may want to watch me over there! I'll be unwatching critters on this one and unfavoriting and stuff just to keep things good and boring. I'll probably leave the old journals here and I'll leave my current submissions in case they are favorited somewhere.

Enjoy!

Got back from the GABF yesterday! Was hanging with Ferret Parade (known here as Fanatic Fox) and Jake T Wolf, both of whom had never been to such an event. If you wanna see the videos, you can start here and then keep clicking next entry until the 19th.

In other news, I regained control off my Tek_Roo account here, so expect a move announcement once I get my act together.

Enjoy!

First week of our every-other-year maintenance shutdown and the most use they have been able to make of me is picking up trash the contractors should be picking up themselves, shoveling gravel from one place to another and scraping unknown sediment out of gutters.

Don't get me wrong -- I actually enjoy being paid $20 an hour to pick up trash all by myself away from the others while I work on my plot for world domination, but the fact that I would be of so much more use to the company either doing Safety patrols or better yet -- working with the Instrumentation people and actually learning something useful to the company is downright idiotic. The fact that I'm doing nothing but menial labor while humming Viva la Vida when I could be doing something of value to the company exposes just how incompetent my managers are and that right there is what pisses me off.

I gave Ferret the order via SMS to resume construction on the Brewery today from work. He totally misunderstood and thought I was working with milk now...

...long story.... maybe...... or not.....

...bedtime...

Here's a fun game you can play! See how far you can travel by hopping on one foot from grasshopper to grasshopper, crushing each crunchy critter as you go! Bonus points if you can bring both feet down simultaneously on two different grasshoppers. You can even play it indoors!

If you are having a hard time finding one grasshopper let alone five gajillion, then you ain't living in Southeastern Wyoming this year! >.>

AND STAY OUTA MY FACE YOU DAMN BUGS!!!

*snarl*

I thought I was going to make at least a day and a half of the Rocky Mountain Fur Con, but once again "real life" intervenes and has me working overnight shifts the entire time!

That Con is cursed or something. Barely less than a two hour drive away and something always comes up!

Okay, maybe not quite yet... I'm still futzing around in the kitchen trying to get organized, Ferret is still in bed and Jake T Wolf is still in transit.

It's all happenin' here though!

For those who missed my short notice last time, Ferret Parade and I will be uStreaming another brewing session this coming Saturday right here! No idea when we'll be starting or what other critters may turn up.

See you there!

Can't make it to AC? Why not watch us make beer?

Yeah, I know... dumb idea...

I think I can now safely say I shall NOT be making it to AC this year (again). Haven't been on the new job long enough to justify a short vacation and the schedule failed to line up properly. I get a whole week off every month to compensate for long hours the rest of the month, but not only has my schedule NOT been lining up right -- they keep moving me from crew to crew as well. Gimme another month or two and I may start turning up at various Cons though!

Had some time to brew up a batch of English Bitter a couple of Sundays ago!  jaketwolf (he's not a jacket, but I can't help but be reminded of sour cream and bacon bits whenever I see his FA-truncated username) and  jdfuchs were able to make the trek up from Fort Collins to witness a full-grain mash -- or most of it at least!  kipper just happened to be in town as well as those who are in the habit of visiting my Weather Cam would have noticed (Tractor/Trailer parked out front).

The Bitter is still fermenting slightly -- may just up and transfer it to a cask, though  fanaticfox (Ferret Parade) may end up drinking most of it during my upcoming work shifts...

By the time the Bitter was being brewed, we already had a new Coffee Oatmeal Stout in one of the other fermentors -- coffee selected and supplied by Coffee Expert  goldenrod, who I just now noticed I wasn't already watching (coulda sworn he was one of those I added right after FC), and a fine choice it was! That beer is now in bottles with a(nother) test bottle in the fridge to see if it's done enough with the conditioning! Gotta get several bottles out to him somehow... The Belgian Strong Ale we brewed up a long time ago now is still fermenting! Lotta complex sugars in that one!

Coming to the end of my first week-off n the shift rotation! Been getting a lot of stuff done. Welded me up a new indoor door latch unlatcher handle thingy for the truck -- been getting real sick of rolling up the windows and shutting down the truck only to find I'd forgotten to reach outside the truck and open the door from there and then having to engage the electrical system to roll the window back down again! Welded up a broken exhaust hanger as well.

Got a good deal on a PTO Generator off eBay last week! Only had to drive out to Scotts Bluff, Nebraska to pick it up which is only a two hour drive from here. Needs a little bit of work, but by next week I should be able to use it for backup power by spinning it from my tractor and also use the tractor/generator combo to burn up all this used vegetable oil I've been saving up (not good for the septic system), run it through my grid-tie inverter and sell the energy back to the power company and make a few bucks off it! Yeah, I really have that much waste oil...

Gotta get a move on!

I've got my new work schedule in paw and it looks like it precisely conflicts with AC! I do have a week of vacation time to play with the rest of the year, but I gotta put the Great American Beer Festival first. Once they learn to trust me enough I'll be able to trade shifts with others to get more time off for free, but that won't happen for a while. AC will have to be crossed off the list of things to do!

Many other Cons are impacted too -- funny how I actually get an entire week off every month and nothing falls into that week -- but most of them only partially. FC is now a "must attend" for me but they will have enough faith in me by then that I can replace anyone on any shift for trading purposes.

Had a homebrewing session last week that Jake T. Wolf made it to even though the planning was very last minute (he arrived half way through the sparge) but there shall be more in the future! Got a couple other Brewin' Furs I need to talk into attending...

Gotta get Ferret out of bed and into town today to finish up his relocation to Wyoming -- car insurance, car registration, credit union, Old Chicago World Beer Tour registration, homebrew ingredients... yeah, that bit's important!

Gotta get that free medium pizza from Old Chicago by the end of the month! Birthday pizza y'know... Also gotta get the garden started this weekend and at least one batch of homebrew into a fermentor and next weekend as well! Any localish critters that are wanting to make the drive out here to witness a full grain mash, lemme know and I'll get you the details and hopefully figure out WHEN such things are happening! If I have to reschedule last minute, maybe I'll put you to work in the garden...

I shall probably be hosting a larger event involving the beer I make this following week coupled with more brewing, a bit of barbecue and some fireworks. Don't know how widely I'll advertise it or even if I'll be able to get my act together enough but drop me a note and I'll put you on the list! Biggest complication being that both Ferret and I are going to be starting new routines and neither of us knows at this time what those routines are.

Oh, and be sure to check this out!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3880648

I'm done with the Salt Lake City project, which means I am done with the Safety Job... period! No moar!

Headed back to East of Cheyenne in the morning! I start the new, regular job of Operator at the local fertilizer/explosives plant on Monday and get to work on my Brewery in my spare time!

See ya on the flip side! Ferret, Jack and I are on the way home!

Ferret tells me he won't consider me a "creepy old fur" until I'm 50, so I guess I've got five more years of non-creepiness left!

That being said...

Coolness awaited me two nights ago thanks to Ferret Parade!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3819726

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3819738

MMMMMmmmmm... Birthday Beer! Just gotta be careful not to burn my muzzle on that candle...

Then, bright and early yesterday morning I find that Harvard Heinous had a commission made for me by Scheree!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1.....00dpiHQ_sm.jpg

Apparently he made her read my entire journal just to make sure there was enough relevant stuff in the picture! Thanks!

In other news, I'm still in Rawlins working very long hours. Last word was I'll be out of here around Monday and I'll be heading directly to Salt Lake City for a project that is already in progress and then after that I have a permanent job lined up with Dyno Nobel in Cheyenne as a Plant Operator. No more Safety Critter! Woo hoo! These people are driving me nuts!

If you know which way you are headed, a shadow can give you a good idea what time it is.

If you know what time it is, a shadow can give you a good idea what direction you are headed.

A shadow can also tell you if the jokers at the permit shack have attached a Styrofoam cup with safety tape streamers sticking out of it to the top of your hard hat while you were in there signing permits.

"It doesn't work when the sun is out guys!"

::sticks it to the inside of the permit shack door::

One of our guys spent half the day sporting a Tyvek tail a week ago!

I hate this job.

I hate these people.

Why in blazes can't I find another job elsewhere?

Perfect day destroyed in the final 45 minutes! I just can't win!

The construction company I haven't done any Safety work for since last June woke me up yesterday morning and told me to get my tail out to Rawlins. The job is supposed to last a week.

We'll see!

Salt Lake City in May apparently... two weeks duration...

Gotta load the trailer...

An old favorite this time of year!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3573147

Strung together from some photos taken by a coworker while out on the town in Harrogate, North Yorkshire where I once lived. Oh, to actually be able to walk to a good pub on this day again and stagger back home instead of the fifteen mile drive I'd have to cope with now! Buy five pints and get a free hat, T-shirt or other goodies! We'd each buy five pints at the beginning of the night just to get the free stuff and by the end of the night we were usually giving the leftovers to passerby!

Okay, I have a bar three miles from me but it's a crappy trucker bar and I'd have to walk through brush in the dark along a highway to get there.

Enjoy!

Still looking for a job, still looking for a job, still looking for a job, still looking for a job, still looking for a job, still looking for a job... I've got this wonderful plan to get myself and help a few select others out of debt by the end of the year but one important part of the plan is GETTING A JOB!!! ...or getting others jobs... or winning the Lottery...

Either way!

There are a few splinter plans to the main plan that involve the happiness of others as well as my own amusement (must... attend... moar... cons...) but I shan't go into details!

Have patience! I'm workin' on it!

At FC I found that now that I'm getting more involved with the critters and closer to them, that the field of view on my Camcorder isn't quite wide enough!

Problem solved -- gots a wide angle lens in the post today!

Not sure what Con I'm going to get talked into attending next outside of AC, but I'm ready for my usual level of overdocumentation!

Yay! Best Con evar! So many cool critters to hang out with!

My FA skilz are still a bit weak, so a better writeup can be found over on LJ:

http://tekroo.livejournal.com/347666.html

Thanks to all those that made last weekend a complete and total hoot!

Enjoy!

You know what I discovered at MFF? though I enjoy watching Mascots and Fursuiters do their thing from a distance, when a critter attempts to interact with me personally I'm more liable to turn around to see who they are gesturing to!

Yes! I suck at one-on-one interaction with fursuiters! I should have realized this at RF at the Rave when the GoH was using pantomime to suggest I should maybe join in on the fun and I just stood there clueless, but better late than never, eh? At MFF I had an otter standing next to me for a while who kept looking up at me and I just kept thinking "this thing is still here..."

I'll try to do better! I promise!

I shall apparently be there!