Lately my internet has been hit or miss.

On Monday June 29th my internet and phone went down. Using my sister's phone my parents called the Provider and was told that they were having a server problem and that they wouldn't have it fixed until that Saturday (the 4th of July) . The thing is that would explain the internet but not the phone. So a few days later we call again and this time they said they would send someone out and on Friday the person they sent got both the phone and the internet working, though the phone had a buzz. The internet was working fine despite the phone's problem.

On Sunday another person came out and fixed the phone and for some reason (I wasn't home, my parents were) replaced the router that was working earlier. Since then the internet has been less then good. It will be online one minute then offline the next, then back online for hours before it drops again. The thing is it's making my parents and myself think of getting a new provider.

If we can't get this resolved soon we may just have to do that and say goodbye to AT&T.

So I've been a little quiet lately after getting back from FWA. Basically I just been in lurker mode while I tinker with some side projects I've been wanting to do. One of these involves a program called Renpy, which is a visual novel program. For some time I've wanted to do a sort of choose your own adventure. At the moment I don't have any ideas as to what the story will be. I may even look into finding a co-author for that, but that likely will be later as I am still figuring out how best to use the program.

As for the con I keep trying to type up my thoughts but while I had an ok time, I hear more and more about those who didn't. What with the hotel over booking, people having their cars busted into or stolen, or people being mugged on the way to/from the food court. It just makes me feel down about things. I mean I like to have pride in my state but when the gem of the state, the capital, is a lump of charcoal it makes me feel sad and disappointed.

FWA is this Thursday and I've been busy getting ready for it, I have to work Wednesday but I'll be heading down Thursday morning. So those of you going I'll see you there.


As for the traditional art commissions I was offering I'm going to close those as it seems that there wasn't any interest in them. When I get back from the con I plan open for digital commissions.

So I had planned to pull an April fools but I never got around to it, oh well. Instead have some Skyrim meets Shia Labeouf.

As for the last journal I guess I'll stay.

Kind of how I'm feeling at the moment with part of me saying I should leave, while another says to stay. For the time being I'm staying. I'm thinking of posting the older art that I have on here to my Weasyl account.


for those who don't already know what it is, it's the same name as here.

https://www.weasyl.com/~shadrok

I hope everyone is having a good St. Patrick's Day. As for myself it has been an ok one. Apart from getting over the tail end of a sinus cold I spent the day working on the St. Patrick's Day pic that I just posted. Also had some corned beef and cabbage while watching “The Quiet Man”.

I'm going to open up for some traditional art commissions

These will be black and white graphite drawings of a single character bust shot on a 3 IN x 5 IN (7.6 cm x 12.7 cm) index card, Non-Adult rated, for $6 USD

The finished piece will then be mailed to you and a scan of it posted in my gallery

Here is an example of a finished piece.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15960611/

If you are interested just send me a note.

Recently I was planning to open for some quick traditional media commissions, and before I did that I looked into what it takes to sale and ship. First I looked at the shipping part; ok a 3in by 6in index card in the U.S. wouldn't cost more then a stamp it's when I looked into shipping to the UK or Europe than I thought about sales tax and such things. Looking at the US point of sale I have it mostly figured out but for EU I haven't a clue. With the VAT (value added tax) I see a lot of articles saying you have to register for a VAT number and keep customer info for 10 years.

This also hits with the digital commissions too since here in the US some states charge a digital goods sales tax and some don't. Some have it where the location of the business determines the sales tax, while others determine it by where the buyer is. From what I understand for the VAT in Europe varies from country to country.

I may just have to see how much a tax adviser costs to make sure I'm not just over thinking this, because I would like to know how to handle this before I open, though there is a good chance they will simply say since I haven't taken commissions they don't have anything to work with to give advise.

*goes to lay down due to the amount of brain hurt.*


"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
-Albert Einstein -

I hope everyone had a good Valentines Day.

Hope everyone had a good holiday season, as for myself; apart from my sinuses deciding to act up after Thanksgiving and the weather flip flopping making it where they continued to bug me, it's been ok. That's been part of the reason I've not been too active lately.

As for New Year Resolutions I normally don't make any, but this year I think I will. I plan to be more active either in posting art or in making friends. Recently I noticed how few close friends I have. Sure I have friends but if I wanted to play a game or something I don't know who I could go to and say “Hay want to play some Minecraft?” or something like that. It doesn't help that I have moments where I just curl up in my own space and just hide. I think that's just part of being an introvert, even if I have come out of my shell more then years past I just have never been much of a social butterfly, so I guess that means I'm more of a moth. By the way if anyone is going to FWA in April I hope to see you there. I'm not planing on trying to do commissions at the con but if you catch me at the right time and place you may get some free art.

Also I'm revising my TOS for commissions after looking at PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy, I noticed how it can be a bit vague on the adult art subject as it says in section 2h of the Prohibited activities “certain sexually oriented materials or services”. While this means “at our discretion” it does not outright say adult art is prohibited. So since it does not list what those certain material and services are I'm going to allow adult commissions when I next open for them. I know PayPal could freeze or close my account or even drop the “certain” in the terms, but until that happens I'm just going to move forward and make plans in case they do. If anyone has any PayPal like service they use tell me as I may make it a payment option in the future.

On the subject of adult art, while I may have been silent online I have been busy. I've written up a short comic and currently working on paneling out the actions. Also I've been before tagging art from this comic world as “Alkanna” but I'm thinking of titling the comic “Triandran Shores”, but I don't know since another comic I'm writing is called “Cerulean Skies” and is more PG then adult. I could use some thoughts on this as I don't know if the two titles sound too close to each other or not, I could just be over thinking things due to both being descriptive in nature. Also “Triandran Shores” will be a series of stories that take place here and there and not follow a set group. This may change as I do the comic but for now this is how it's forming. To set these groups apart I may title the set of comics “Triandran Shores: Alkanna” while another is “Triandran Shores: Awoken Dream” or some variation there of.

Well I hope 2015 turns out to be a good year for everyone.



- TLDR -
Holiday snot, I resolve to be productive and friendly, TOS changing, Comic production progressing, good 2015 to you.

So I'm going through my FA messages and while going through the journals get to one made by  silverone about a possible chlorine gas attack at MFF. After looking at the reddit link she linked and ones made on reddit it seems that someone decided to bust a glass container of powdered chlorine in one of the hotel's stair wells.

Another event that was going on during MFF was a dog show and it has me wondering was this a PETA extremist attack, someone targeting furries, or was this done by someone who saw both and decided to gas two groups with one jar? I don't know because it could also have just been someone being stupid and had nothing to do with either group.

It's just the odd thought that furry has reached the level of notice that we have to worry about some idiot deciding to be the bustard child of Wreck It Ralph and Bomberman and go all “I'm going to bomb it!”



Silverone's journal

Reddit page

Chicago Tribune article

Arlington Cardinal article

Today I turned 33. Not much else to say, I didn't throw a party or anything. Instead I went to work, did my shift, went home, surfed the web, drew a little, lost interest in what I was drawing after 2 hrs, and now I'm typing this up. Not much different then a normal work day for the most part.

I guess birthdays stopped being a big to do for me when I stopped getting gifts and parties. *Shrug*

Though yesterday I did buy the three live action TMNT movies.

*goes to start a turtle-a-thon*

Since last year (or there abouts) my parents and I have been taken care of a stray cat and two of her litter that has grown up and around the early part of this year both the momma cat and the now grown up cat had another litter. So now we have about ten strays we're now taking care of along with the three non strays we had before.

Well about a month ago one of the kittens climbed up into the motor of my brother in law's van, and was still there when he went to crank it up. Luckily the cat survived but with two broken legs on it's left side. So we took it to the vet and got it patched up, and two weeks ago the back leg cast was removed and a pin put in the leg while the front leg stayed in the cast. Tuesday we'll find out if the other cast comes off. I've been helping my dad take care of her when I'm not working and you would never know that she was a wild cat before. As for our other three they're slowly accepting her.

On an interesting side note before the accident my dad called her “Boots” and after the accident it took a new meaning because of her casts.


As for art I've not done too much lately, overall I've not not felt like it, so instead I've been playing modded minecraft (Yogscast complete pack). The only drawings I've done were quick 2am sketches I did while trying to fall asleep. I'm planing to ink and color the three I drew so I have something to post, but I don't know how much into them I'll go.

The hospital let mom come home Tuesday afternoon and she is doing ok. Apart from her stomach giving her problems as it returns to being use to solid food. Though they told her to stay with soft food for a while as her throat is still healing. Over all Everything is going ok.

Thursday morning (2:00Am) my dad and I had to rush my mom to the hospital because she was throwing up blood. This is the second time this has happened (last time was back in 09), fortunately this time wasn't as bad as last time as we didn't feel the need to call an ambulance and instead drove her there ourselves (also no blood transfusions need). Unfortunately I had to work that day so not having had hardly any sleep I had to call into work to tell them I wouldn't be in, which they understood and told me to worry. After mom was taken to a room we then left her and went home to get some sleep; after calling family to spread the news.

Friday morning it seemed like everyone in the family decided to visit mom, though not all at once, it was a little odd because one group would arrive stay with her for a little and when the next group showed up the previous group would leave shortly after the others arrival. When my dad and I visited we found out more on what had happened; it turns out that she had four veins in her throat start bleeding. So they banded them and put her on a liquid diet.

Today when we visited they had her walking around and off the saline drop, as well as removed one of the IV's. Also they had moved her to a semi-liquid diet as they had feed her oat meal for breakfast and for lunch she had pudding to go with her potato broth. With luck she's be on solid food tomorrow and will be able to return home soon.

If you don't know of a site called “Geoguessr” then you may want to check it out. The site uses Google maps to place you anywhere in the world and then asks you “Where are you.” It then gives you points on how close your guess is to the drop point.

I was going to link my last score but I forgot to bookmark it so I guess it's lost. Either way I found guessing where I am and getting fairly close quite fun.

Near the end of last month I received a summons for jury duty. So I wait for the day roll around and three days before I was to report a guy decides that he's going to attack the courthouse. I won't go into detail but if you want to know more you can go here - http://www.forsythnews.com/multimedia/374/
and here - http://www.ajc.com/news/news/police.....rthouse/ngFsZ/
as it is better presented then I could in this journal.

So this whole ball of wax hit the fan making me wonder what is going to happen about the summons since it did close the courthouse. Well the day I was to report basically got bumped back a day, and in the end I didn't have to serve.

I recently watched the second “Hobbit” movie and I have to say it was better then the first but I still think that they should have made it one movie instead of adding parts that were not in the book. I understand that they were wanting another LOTR but the hobbit isn't that type of story. For that they should have done something like “The Silmarillion”.

But back to my thoughts of the movie they made and not what should have been made. I think they break the link they were trying for when they have Gandof Captured by Sauron, that is unless in the third movie they wipe his memory so that he forgets that Sauron has risen and is gathering an army.

Overall I would love to see once the three movies are done for someone to take out the add ons.

As for my fav scene in the movie is the “Bilbo and Smog” talking scene before the “Here we are!” Dwarfs jump out.
I also like the song during the end credits.

I've just got back from the funeral a few moments ago and it was a good service; they played a few songs, the preacher preached a little, one of my relatives said a few things, and my aunt said a few words about growing up around her.

Over all it wasn't too long of a service and we left the church and crossed the street to the burial plot. After a prayer she was laid rest next to Great Grandpa and everyone went to my Grandma's where we talked and had some lunch, then talked some more.

I count myself fortunate to have known her. She lived a full life and helped everyone else to have a fuller one too.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes and hugs.

*Hugs everyone*

A few moments ago I just got the news that my great grandma has passed away. It's something we've been slowly preparing for, for a while now as about a week ago she became bed ridden. Though no matter how much you prepare for something like this you're never fully ready. In the end she slipped into a coma and passed away. So I guess it's one of the better way to go, and she lived a full and long life of 100 years.

I hope everyone is having a good Saint Patrick's Day.

*pops up from under a rock*
Have most of the llamas left the room?
>_>
<_<

Anyway I'm not leaving FA but here are the other art sites I am a member of

http://shadrok.sofurry.com/

https://www.weasyl.com/~shadrok

Odd thing is I made a weasyl account just before everything hit the fan here but up until now was I unable to take the time to upload there.

Also just updated my Sofurry account so most of the latest pics are on there (though the site is refusing to upload swf files for some reason as it keeps giving me a error 500.)



*looks up*

LLAMA! BOMBA!

*ducks back under his rock*

: P

In my last journal I mentioned looking into adobe alternatives with one of the harder to find substitutes being for Flash. Well after trying this and that I tried Vectorian Giotto, while it hasn't been updated since it became free (2011), is quite buggy, and despite saying it supports all Actionscrip 2 but doesn't fully; it's not too bad of a program. That is once you understand what not to do to make it crash.

Despite the problems I had getting it to work I did manage to make something I had been thinking of doing before I upgraded my PC, and that is the interactive model sheet I made here.

NSFW Link - http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12500911/

Recently I've been looking into Adobe alternatives due to their cloud decision. I've used Gimp before and it's ok but I've been looking at a program called “Krita” which kind of crosses photoshop with Painter. So far the program is interesting and it takes some getting use to, but if you've seen my recent submission then you can see that it's works fairly well. I've yet to figure out a good way to save Jpg files but Png files seem to work ok.

Here's a link the Krita website - http://krita.org/


There are a few other programs I plan on trying out, one being Blender, which from what I hear not only does 3D but also does video editing. Though the real challenge has been finding a free Flash alternative, I've yet to look into Synfig and Stencyl but they may be an option.