Whelp its that time of year again. Time to pack up my art bag and get ready for Condition Blue. This particular con has a special place in my heart, as its the closest con to where I live and the first fur con that I ever went to. The friendly folks at Condition were my very first real life exposure into the fandom, and it was where I met the lovely  Cooper, whom I will be sharing a commission table with in the dealers room this year.

On the subject of being in the dealers room, here's the lowdown: Traditionally I offer blue pencil sketches with darker pencil lines on sketch paper, but Netty has offered to let me use his laptop in combination with my sketching tablet this year. So I need some opinions from you folks. Should I do my commissions digitally and post them here on the gallery, as would be expected if I were taking normal commissions online? Normally this would be a no-brainer for me, especially as I could throw flat colors on the sketch in relatively short order for a small extra fee, and I much prefer digital arting. But I feel something is lost in not handing out paper copies.

Thoughts?

Now, before anyone jumps in with how summer is the greatest season of the year, don't get me wrong - I love summer. Autumn is my favorite for its milder temperatures and beautiful colors, but summer is still great. However, what is not great is boiling alive in my two bedroom apartment on the second floor of a building which does not have central air, and makes you pay 60.00 bucks a month extra just to have your own personal AC unit - which, I might add, they do not supply for you.

Now, I can see why they might charge the extra money monthly for the operation of an AC unit in a building which supplies all of our utilities. I really can. But for some of us who don't have a very high monthly income, the extra money is simply not available. With heat up in the 40s celsius and 50+ % humidity, heatstroke is a very real possibility, especially for children like my two year old little girl. Today we finally had to break down and purchase an air conditioner unit (we decided to spring some of our money we were going to put into savings and get a decent mobile one). 300.00 bucks later, our apartment is cooling down and we're no longer running the risk of suffocating our little girl with the nature of summer, but now we're fighting to recover the finances lost in the act.

And frankly? Apartment buildings should come with air conditioning of some sort as a mandatory requirement. Landlords should not be able to gouge financially unstable families just because they want a few extra bucks. If you want to charge 60+ dollars every month to run these units, you should supply the damn units in the first place. I dunno, I just feel like this is some super dick around. These are the same guys who still haven't fixed our leaking bathroom faucet after we repeatedly reported it for four months, wouldn't fix the door to our daughter's room when it didn't close because it was not cut properly (we had to shave it to make it fit the frame), and still haven't looked at the raising floorboards of our living room hard wood floor. So, yeah. Not impressed.

Don't mind me, I'm just bitching.

For those of you who are wondering where some of my artwork went, I removed some and/or moved the rest to the Scraps folder. I was looking through it today and had a bout of OCD which demand I get rid of anything I didn't feel belonged in my gallery. Some of these pieces may come back as I get around to adding finishing touches or cropping, ect ect, or they may not. Sorry about that.

As for some of my other works, like a lot of my pencil and ink sketches, those can still be found in my Scraps folder. Take a peak if you're looking for art you fancied and lost track of.

EDIT: The original journal entry by Razor was removed at the request of the establishment where FurBQ was held.

---

This. THIS. I have NO WORDS.

For those of you who have not clicked on the link yet, here's a brief recap to urge you to do so: FurBQ is a charity event held in Jew Jersey. Or it was, seeing as the FurBQ is no longer allowed to happen due to the ridiculous, selfish and downright destructive behaviour of a pair of fur suiters who decided to showcase their sexual activities on the hood of a vehicle while at the charity. The damages to the reputation of our fandom, as well as to the charity itself (which is no longer being supported in that town), and to the venue which was generously hosting it, are quite a lot indeed. Several people are in risk of losing their jobs and the establishment was fined for the behaviour, when they themselves had nothing to do with two people's need to have sex in full view of city officials and children.

Out of respect for  razor_wulff and his wishes, posted in his journal about the matter, I am not listing the dollar amount of the damages in mine or any specific details about what happened. Just take my word for it when I say that it is a lot of money.

Honestly, I have to shake my head. Every group on the planet is judged by the worst in their lot, and over the course of history we have seen a lot of our species' "worst". This blatant disregard for basic common decency is one more of the reasons I despair for humanity, because you would honestly have to be some kind of malicious fuck to deliberately ruin a charity drive.

BUT HERE IS SOME GOOD NEWS.

 reaux started a ChipIn donation box to help the venue where the charity was being held, along with the individuals our fandom's actions have intentionally hurt. I am posting this link because I implore you, the part of our fandom which is comprised of sane, decent beings, to click on this link and spare a dollar. You do not have to give 5, 10, or 20 bucks. And you certainly do not have to give more than that. But if a hundred people give one dollar, that is one hundred dollars that this donation did not have before.

Every dollar, every cent, counts.

ChipIn: http://twinwrescue.chipin.com/twin-w-rescue-squad

As some of you know, and most of you don't, recently I have come down with a rather unfortunate case of RSI in my hand and wrist. This severely limited my drawing, and because I have important things coming up (a wedding I am attending in may), I have been suffering through it to work on some paying commissions and other projects. I unfortunately had to take several weeks off from art to be able to let it heal when it became so bad I couldn't even hold my pencils.

Now that its healed I'm picking back up again (freebies, I haven't forgotten about you, I promise). In the interest of getting back into the game I am getting around to finally finishing a picture I promised  netrogo over a year ago. (Sorry Net!) I will be livestreaming this most of today starting now, only going offline for meals and other events I cannot avoid. I will be offline around 8 PM EST to 11:30 EST, and will back to streaming until about midnight EST.

You can catch this livestream at http://www.livestream.com/AraChan . Feel free to jump in and watch and chat and/or lurk. If you don't recognize my username in there, its AraChan.

So I ended up going to FE with  Furball and  Netrogo and while there I met up with  Cooper,  Strype and their whole gang  Caltroplay,  asphyxialemieux, Lisky and 'M . Coop, Fur and I spent most of our time on Sunday in the artist's ally belting out drawings, but I had fun nonetheless. After that we got some foodstuffs and headed back to their hotel room for possibly the weirdest (not a bad thing!) and most awesome after-con party I have ever been to. Everyone was great. Both Saturday and Sunday were an absolute blast. Unfortunately I didn't catch any panels, as Sunday I was busy and Saturday I was distracted and/or passed out asleep at one of the zoo tables.

Either way, it was great.


Also, for those still waiting on the new year commissions: I haven't forgotten about you. I'm 75% through the first one but had to put them aside for a time to deal with other non-related matters. I'll be getting back to them shortly. Please check your notes inbox for detail questions from me.

Christmas is my favorite time of year despite the consumerism that usually plagues the holidays. Its a time for family, for giving and sharing, and for the holiday spirit which reminds us what is truly important - not gifts and money, but the setting aside of differences and enjoying the good times.

I've had some really rough times over the holidays what with my financial situation (see Journal "Tis the season"), but I really have a great set of friends and family. They came to my aid with money that allowed me to make this holiday great for my daughter and I really, honestly appreciated that. It shows us that there are always people you can depend on, who understand how life can sometimes be rough, and are willing to set aside their own convenience for other people. Good deeds shouldn't be kept to themselves, and I believe in pay it forward.

Starting at 12:05 am of the 26th, and ending on December 31st at 11:59pm (EST), I am opening commission spots free of charge. These spots will be first come first serve, and in order to get a spot you must leave a Shout on my user page. This way I, and others, can easily keep track of who's come before them. However anyone who leaves a Shout before the appropriate time will not be counted. Lets keep it fair for everyone.

There are six slots open.


1.  haggetti

2.  StormTiger

3.  Ilchymis

4.  EvilBirdie

5.  evilkitsune71290

6.  AuryDragon

I just got home from a wicked Christmas party hosted by the Furnal Equinox crew. It was an amazing get together and I was surprised and delighted by how many people showed up to have fun. Although I didn't do much but sit at a table with  furball and draw, we still had a kickass time. People came over and talked to us all night and everyone was very friendly. The food was really good too, especially that taco lasagna and the stuffing, and I admit I probably ate more than I should have....

There was a raffle too, but I didn't get to stick around for that. The only downside to piling a couple dozen people into a set of party rooms is that it tends to get pretty hot pretty fast. There weren't any fans to circulate the air, so it just sort of settled. Because of my asthma I had an attack and was forced to leave the hall several times to go to somewhere cooler. Unfortunately, being the derp that I am, I didn't think to bring my inhaler. By the end of the night I thought all was lost! But thanks to a timely rescue from  evilbirdie who swept to my aid with an inhaler he let me use, I was saved. We left shortly after that, but nonetheless I had a blast. If you didn't make it out to the party this year I highly recommend it next year if they host it again.

Well, I am opening commissions for the holiday season! I've been really leery about doing so thus far because I didn't have a very large gallery to showcase, but after today I really don't think I have much of a choice. Here's why. /sigh

My husband and I set aside some money in my bank account in order to purchase Christmas presents and get all the things that we needed in order to make our one year old daughter's first Christmas something to be remembered. We were pretty excited about it, being new parents. However, when I looked in my account this morning, pretty much everything was gone? Why? Because a company that I had done previous business with had taken it from my account without notification. Now, normally I'm one not to complain about debt collection. I owed the money, I forgot about it, and its my fault that we lost it. However, its two weeks before Christmas and we're SOL until the first of the new year. There goes all the presents we were going to buy, the stuff for dinner, and any extra decorations.

Wonderful, eh?

So here I am looking for commissions. I know its the holiday season and people don't have a lot of money to spare, but anything helps the cause. Even if I only get one commission, at least that is something.

Details for pricing can be found here
>> http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7034406 <<


[Request Guidelines]

-I do not draw porn. I will do nudity, but not actual intercourse.

-All prices are based on per-character. Additional characters will come at additional costs.

-Backgrounds are not included.

-Costs of busts/upper body only can be negotiated depending on content.

-Money is to be given to my Paypal account only.


[How to do it!]

Send me a Note with what you want to commission and any and all details of the picture. At which point my paypal information will be presented, and we can discuss the finer points of the image. Drawing of your commission will not begin until the money is received.

http://i932.photobucket.com/albums/.....3890202657.jpg

This guy really didn't think this through, yo. Its exactly why you don't mess with Charities. Or US Marines... Or Charities being run by US Marines.