Kakaodieb is hosting a raffle---first one in at least two years. Slide on over and check it out!

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51591617/

I just discovered a report that Charlotte Rae passed away yesterday, which her time was indeed coming sooner or later, but no matter how much preparation for this time was given, it would still never cease to fill those who knew her with sadness and mourning nonetheless. Although she was 92 years of age at the time of her death, she never ever felt that she ever grew old. Her charm, personality, and humor kept her forever young, and she was always the type of person that loved life, loved her fans, and did whatever it took to put a smile on their faces. I was fortunate to be able to have personally experienced her true sparkling personality up close. The fans will remember her as the unforgettable and sometimes strict Mrs. Garrett from The Facts of Life, but on a more personal level, her outlook on life and the stories she told of her time as an actress, a songwriter, a performer, and an all around wonderful person truly showed us that there existed a very sweet and dear lady that was welcoming to everyone. I will always remember Charlotte Rae this way. May she forever rest in peace, and continue to shed her warmth and light beyond the gates of Heaven.

One of my more personal acquaintances had gotten admitted into a local Los Angeles hospital for alcohol abuse last month due to a huge case of depression. A concerning neighbor noticed his behavior was something to be alarmed, and informed the hospital about his condition. Less than a month later, Verne Troyer passed away. He was 49 years old.

Those of you that are unfamiliar with Verne, he got his movie debut in the film Baby's Day Out as a stunt double for Baby Bink, followed by performing stunt doubles for actors in films like Dunston Checks In, Jingle All The Way, and Men in Black, and more famously portrayed the role of Mini-Me in the latter two Austin Powers films. Fellow actor Mike Myers was very impressed with Verne's acting skills, and was captivated by his tremendous personality, that they became quick friends within the movie industry.

Verne was born in Michigan, which explains his faithful love and fanfare for Michigan University football. In his early years, he followed the Amish lifestyle until his parents withdrew their faith in the religion when Verne was still a child. He moved to Los Angeles after being discovered by the president of Little People of America, where he developed a love for acting.

Over the years, Verne remained in Los Angeles and would eventually start his own YouTube channel, where he would take the viewer into a day in his fun-filled life. Anyone who has ever met Verne Troyer would always speak of his great sense of personality and humor, but he had a problem battling an alcohol addiction, which was a side to Verne hardly anyone ever saw.

Recently, Verne's neighbor placed a concerning phone call to the hospital on Verne's condition, saying that he was behaving very unusual and very depressive, and had taken to an alcoholic binge. He was hospitalized for less than a month to recover.

The news I was afraid to hear had just hit me today while I was working on today's Bing rewards, and my hands started shaking when I saw a thumbnail of Verne on the front page, thinking that this was that bad news I was afraid was going to hit. Sure enough, Verne Troyer had just passed away.

Though Verne is gone, I will never forget him for his kindness, personality, humor, and the way he made people around him so very happy. I've often said that Verne may have been a little guy on the outside, but within his heart and soul lies a humongous personality, which made him the biggest man I ever knew. Many huge thanks to you, Verne, for your friendship, your warmth, and your bright and great personality. You are seriously going to be missed. Hell, I miss you already.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holidays out there. To help celebrate your Christmas, I give you the gift of this music video from the soundtrack of our latest film: Bwing and the Wishing Coins, soon to be released onto DVD and Blu Ray. Stay safe and warm this year!

Those of you that will be around on Christmas Eve that are looking for something new by which to be entertained, and are getting tired of having to see the same stale Christmas specials they air every year might want to join us for our screening of our latest film, Bwing and the Wishing Coins, which will begin this Sunday night from 6 to 10 PM Eastern time at www.ohpawpetsshow.org/watchus.html. Please come on out and show your support for furry-run entertainment, and give our labor of love a reason to become a part of your world. We'd love to see you there! The trailer for the film is included in this post.



Happy holidays to you all!

As per Dougal's suggestion to troubleshoot the computer, I unplugged everything except the graphics card, (mind you, it's the brand new GPU I got which runs just fine) which means no hard drives, no CD ROM drives, nothing else plugged into the board. I even unplugged the audio and USB cables from the multi-card reader so nothing was transferring anything to the board other than the CPU, the power supply, and the RAM. I powered it on to see if it'll get through its initial POST, which booted up fine. Got past the MSI logo and into the boot sequence screen. When the computer realized there's nothing there, it went to the message "No bootable devices found. Press any key to reset." and since I didn't have the keyboard hooked up, about 20 seconds later, the computer shut itself down. I'm thinking that could be due to an automatic shutdown timer that powers down after nonactivity from the keyboard, so I waited about 10 seconds before powering it on again. This time, it got past the MSI logo and about a brief second into the boot sequence before the computer shut itself down again. Therefore, the problem isn't a bad driver, sector, or corrupted OS install on the hard drive, since there's no hard drive to boot from. Since the RAM worked just fine before, I ruled out the possibility of bad RAM and narrowed the issue down to the motherboard itself. Somehow when the USB3.0 card was doing its disconnect/reconnect thing, it had to have shorted out something in the motherboard from keeping a steady flow of power coursing through the board. The 600 watt power supply had no problem running for about 11 hours before it fried itself, but both of the 700 watt power supplies caused the computer to shut down immediately. I'm guessing either it's because the 600 watt power supply didn't have enough capacity to run power to the board and defend itself against a problematic situation at the same time, but the 700 watt ones had the capacity to detect a problem and had enough extra power to trigger the automatic shutdown defense mechanism in the board, where the 600 watt didn't have that capacity, which could be why it fried itself. Either that, or Thermaltake just issues out crappy, poor quality returns for products that were still under warranty. Either way, the problem seems to be within the motherboard...so that means I eliminated all other possible means for this computer not to want to run, when the whole problem was with the motherboard the entire time. So now, I'll be on the lookout for a replacement motherboard and CPU, and as predicted, once that happened, I would have replaced every single component inside the computer with all new components.

My problem is, I've been way out of the loop in current computer components and socket sets for motherboards for at least 6 years, so I have no idea what's out there that's decent. My question to you all is....can anyone recommend a really good motherboard that's also not so outrageously expensive? I can always look for a Pentium i7 CPU that'll go with it on Ebay...but keep in mind, my budget right now stands once again at borderline broke. I have maybe 3 bucks to my name until my Patreon rolls over next month, but that's only going to be another 10.00, which won't be anywhere near what I'll need to acquire a new motherboard, but by your recommendation, it'll give me something to shoot for, should I be able to raise the funds to acquire it. How I'm going to do that, I have no idea. All I can say is I have a Patreon page with lots of rewards and tiers if anyone can help with even a measly dollar a month. Every little bit helps a lot. I really don't want to keep going to my show's viewers every weekend asking for donations, because I can't stand how it makes me feel like I'm constantly asking for handouts anytime something like this comes up that I can't afford to get through. At the very least, I like to encourage people to check out our storefront and see if there's any of our DVDs, Blu Rays, or parody music CDs that anyone would like to order, which will really help out a lot. At least that way, I'm able to give back to the people that give to us through our art of entertainment with our line of films and my parody music CDs. If anyone is interested in placing an order at our storefront, please refer to http://www.ohpawpetsshow.org/store.html and see if anything catches your eye that you would like to pick up. It's a labor of love, but the key word is "labor". I do work very hard in making and producing these films in the hopes to keep a budget going for our show. and to also have something to give back to those who give to us. Alternatively, there's our Patreon page, which is linked on all the pages in the Oh! Pawpets! web site. If you're able to help either way, I do appreciate it greatly.

I'm back, and I still have computer issues. Let's try to recap what I've done.

1. Received computer sent by one of our friends and viewers of the show.
2. Set up computer with new hard drive, new multi-card reader/USB device, and USB 3.0 card.
3. USB3.0 card turned out busted. Kept disconnecting/reconnecting all devices plugged into it.
4. Windows gets stuck in Auto Repair mode.
5. Reinstalled Windows on a different hard drive.
6. USB3.0 card still disconnecting/reconnecting after tech support suggestions of hooking up SATA power cable to the card.
7. Computer shuts down and repeats powering on/off.
8. Removed USB3.0 card and sent it back for refund.
9. Graphics card unable to run anything graphics-related. Fan is completely dead.
10. Switched to friend's old graphics card. Computer continues to reboot itself.
11. Acquired brand new graphics card. Computer continues to reboot itself.
12. Switched power supplies with the one that was in my old tower.
13. After about 11 hours of use, strange noise emits from inside the computer.
14. 2 minutes later, I smell burning electronics.
15. Attempting to power down, and computer beat me to the punch by shutting itself down due to overheated power supply.
16. Tested internal fan in power supply. It will not rotate. It is dead.
17. Switched back to the other power supply that was in the computer to begin with.
18. Reset all RAM sticks in motherboard.
19. Computer continues to reboot itself.
20. Acquired new power supply. Installed it and plugged everything back in.
21. Computer CONTINUES TO REBOOT ITSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
22. Switched out the power cable with the one that came with the power supply.
23. Computer CONTINUES TO REBOOT ITSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
24. SonicBlu yanks every hair out of his head in frustration.
25. Computer tower continues to remain world's heaviest and most expensive paperweight.
26. ....Maybe it's the motherboard? CPU? Because those are the only 2 things left that need to be replaced before I've gone and replaced everything in that tower.

Heck, I've even tried to BLESS the computer in case it was possessed by a demon! I've done everything except splash the tower with freaking holy water! I would give my entire eternal appreciation and gratitude (since I don't have any money to offer because I'm once again broke from having to make all these replacements) if one person....ONE MEASLY LITTLE TEENY TINY ITTY-BITTY PERSON OUT THERE WITHIN A CROWD OF A ZILLION BAZILLION PEOPLE can help sum up or pinpoint what the problem might be that I have overlooked in all the other replacements that were made that might be affecting this computer from working normally...and if you say "send it to an exorcist" you're too late. I've already read the Rites of Exorcism over it and it still continues to behave this way.

I was able to narrow down the problem by several attempts to reinstall windows on my computer, and as it turned out, one of the cards I bought from Ableconn, which was a USB 3.0 card, wreaked so much havoc on my Windows install by constantly disconnecting and reconnecting my devices I had plugged into the card. The damage was so severe, it nearly rendered my hard drive dead. Had I not started taking it upon myself to have the card removed when I did, it would have completely killed my hard drive. Now I have a hard drive with errors all over it, and I discovered this after I formatted and tried to reinstall Windows. I reinstalled it 3 times, but to no avail. We finally had to go in, take out the SATA cable, hook it up with a different SATA cable, then it allowed the fourth attempt to reinstall. Got all the way to the desktop after everything was set up, and while I was attempting to install the graphics card driver via Nvidia Geforce Experience (God, I love that program!), I noticed that something wasn't right...it took about 10 minutes to get the process started. While it was doing that, I thought I'd see if I could explore the structure of my newly installed Windows hard drives and see what drive letters associated with the drives I had connected. That's when I realized Windows Explorer was struggling to execute all my clicks. Went back to the Nvidia install window, and it was still showing me the splash screen. Finally after 15 minutes, it loaded the main window asking me to download the latest driver for the card it detected. Usually this task is very fast, but this time, the task took four times longer than it should have. All the while, I'm testing out the stability of things like opening the Start menu, scrolling and browsing through the program list, etc. and even THAT struggled. Then I notice in my notifications that there were errors on C: and I had the thing fully formatted, and there are still errors? That tells me that some bad sectors had to have developed through all this. So I decided while I had the desktop up, I would move all the files I had on my D: storage drive to another storage drive, so that way I would have a different hard drive to reinstall Windows to. So I shut down, rebooted from CD and reinstalled windows to the emptied storage drive, which would become my new C: drive. The other C: drive from before was going to switch places and become my D: drive for storage. I got Windows installed instantly and very fast, which was the way it was supposed to be in the first place. Got Nvidia Geforce Experience installed and right away it started downloading the driver in record time. While it was doing this, I decided to move the files I had on D: drive back onto the D: drive (keep in mind, this D: drive was my other C: drive, the one with the faulty windows installs.) and I noticed that anything i did on D: drive would struggle and hang up a bit, and the files were transferring very slowly. Whatever errors that were on that disk are still on it! Tried to format D: and since it was formerly a system drive with a previous install of Windows, it wouldn't let me format the drive because it still registers as a system drive.

I feel that all of the above could have been avoided had that USB 3.0 card worked the way it should have, but all that continuous disconnecting and reconnecting of my devices caused the hard drive to create errors on the disk. Keep in mind that everything was working just great when the USB 3.0 card would OCCASIONALLY disconnect and reconnect, and I didn't have any problem executing programs or even exploring my computer. It wasn't until the card went haywire and continuously and repeatedly disconnected and reconnected everything, and that's when the problems sort of hit me like a ton of bricks, and I still have those errors on the disk, so I'm not out of the ballpark yet. The new C: drive is working like a charm though, and you can sure as hell bet I'm never ever ever ever EVER going to install anything from Ableconn ever again! If you get tempted to get a new piece of hardware and the name on the box says Ableconn, CAVEAT EMPTOR! LET THE BUYER BEWARE! Ableconn is crap and it will destroy your hard drive if you try to install it into your machine.

Now I'm waiting for Ableconn to give me the return address so I can mail this hunk of garbage back to them for a refund. I find it funny that they were very punctual with their email responses when they were helping me to diagnose and troubleshoot the card, but the moment i requested a return address for a refund, that's when the replies stopped coming. If I don't hear back from them today, I'm writing them back again and re-requesting a return address for that refund. I don't care if I have to flood their inbox and spam my request to them over and over again, I will be getting my refund...and then I'm boycotting their entire company and I urge everyone else do the same!

Well, first things first, I wrote a very extensive and thorough, angry, yet professional email to the manufacturer of the USB card saying thanks to their cruddy lousy equipment, it ruined my os and made it run unstable, then told them rather than helping me fix the problem, just give me the return address so I can mail back the card for a full refund. I then went down to remove the card out of the computer, rearranged the USB devices yet again and now I'm waiting for the lunkheads to mail me back.

Secondly, I will be starting all over again and reinstalling everything, which is something I'm not looking forward to but it needs to be done. I haven't yet had a successful bootup shutdown sequence where everything freezes or fails.

Thirdly, until the computer is back to normal, I don't know how this will affect the oh Pawpets show or my performance with all the stress I'm going through, but I can say it might be a while before the show is going to be back to it's fill potential amain. Which means all the videos including into an outro sequences will not be shown because I can't get to any of the show files. I can certainly say wolfdog won't be able to run it with me for a while unless he does the whole thing by himself, otherwise it'll be broadcast by Ronin on his machine until this computer is fixe, but there won't be anything other than 100 percent live stuff. Not even intro or outro sequences will be shown until I can get to my files again. Right now I'm just lucky if I can get to my desktop.

... And this is exactly why I don't ever look for office work. There are some things they teach you in schools about computers, but none of them will ever teach a person to have patience or keep their cool when these computers fail. I have zero amount of that when this kind of thing hits.

I am either to stupid to know how to operate a computer, or I'm just not fit to be using them. My other computer started to handle like an outdated old woman driving a 1971 Ford Pinto, so one of our viewers sent over an extra tower with a better cpu. I also had to Shell out nearly all the money I had to get the rest of the parts I was needing in order to be back in action again, namely a new hard drive, a card reader, and an internal usb Port card. After getting everything installed back on the computer, which took a couple stressful weeks, I noticed all my devices plugged into the USB card were disconnecting and reconnecting constantly. After narrowing the problem down and as suggested by the manufacturer that made the USB card, I hooked up a sata power cable to give the card more power to run my devices, which worked most of the day, and then while watching a movie on the computer, the devices started disconnecting and reconnecting again, this time it was doing it more often, and before I could fix it, the computer went bsod on me, then restarting the computer, I went into one windows explore window and everything locks up and crashed. While waiting for the computer to fully shut down, which took about 15 freaking minutes, I made up my mind that I just don't know what more i need to fix. I'm absolutely clueless. So I come to you tonight from typing all of this on my cell phone to basically announce that i don't know what i can do now and with no more money in my account, and my patience is worry completely thin, I'm going to have to just not use a computer anymore. I've had it with crap I don't know how to deal with it or fix, and no way to make any more repairs or replacements to this money pit of a machine I'm dealing with now. So I don't know how long I'm going to be without a computer again, but it's either use an undertake computer and lose my patience and temper on a constant basis, or do without one and live like a frigging hermit because I feel to damn retarded to know how a computer works x.x I'm truly at my wit's end and I have no other options or clues as to what I need to do to get back to doing anything computer related. I just can't afford to keep throwing money at a computer that just plain doesn't want to give me the privilege of being a member of a technological world like everyone else. Signing off until God knows when, I bid everyone farewell. I don't want it to come to this, but I have lost my patience, i can't handle the stress anymore, and I'm pretty much screwed. x.x sorry for splitting on everyone, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like my head is going to explode. Take care and will miss you all.

Rest in peace, Glen Campbell. Such a talented singer, songwriter, and guitarist. I grew up listening to Glen Campbell thanks to my mother, whose favorite albums were Wichita Lineman and By The Time I Get To Phoenix. I grew up to be a tremendous fan of his as well, and I used to have a huge stack of all of his 45RPM singles (but I lost them all after having to move out of Columbus and I wasn't able to rescue them. Now I'm really wishing that I had rescued them...but easy come, easy go they say.) At any rate, Glen Campbell sure lived a long and successful life, and now all of that hard work has come to an end. May Glen Campbell get the deserved rest he needs.

I just got word that a very close friend Richard Concepcion has passed away while en route to his home in New York. He felt a little ill and called in for medical arrangements when he landed at the airport, but unfortunately, he died before he could make it home.

I met him way back in 2000 at my first Anthrocon and have been good friends with him ever since. We had a really great time anytime we talked together. He did so much and entertained so many people over the years, appearing in the Doo Dah parades and left a lasting impression with his Chuck E. Cheese's career, and he ran his show Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends for nearly 35 years. I never forgot the time he came over to Ohio to film a segment on how carousel horses were made, and we went up to Mansfield with him and had a wonderful time learning all about carousels and we even fursuited at a nearby carousel as we filmed more footage for our specials. During that weekend, he appeared on Oh! Pawpets! with us, and he also helped us out a little with our Christmas special we were filming. As such, I've had the pleasure of appearing on it a couple times. Working with Rapid T. Rabbit was indeed very fun, and he's always been a fun-loving guy. Nobody in the world is ever going to replace him. I will be playing a tribute to Richard this saturday on OH! Pawpets! which will feature footage of our times together on each other's shows.

I'm really going to miss Richard a lot. He'll always be remembered for the happy, joyous person he always was, who was well admired by many, and no matter what type of day someone has, having him around always brought about rays of sunshine and happiness to everyone.

Rest well, my friend, and may all of your accomplishments here on this earth be forever remembered.


To everyone who has had the pleasure of hanging out with Richard (Rapid T. Rabbit), and have managed to capture the events on video or pictures, please feel free to send that stuff over to me. I will be dedicating this Saturday's episode of Oh! Pawpets! to Richard, and I will also be featuring videos and pictures of anyone with Richard sent in by others. If you wish to send something to the show for memorandum, please send it via email to ohpawpets at gmail dot com. I will put it all in queue to be featured this Saturday on Oh! Pawpets!

Hey everyone. Just giving a heads-up on the status of the fundraiser we're helping to host for our good friend Ranger Stormwolf. He's getting closer and closer to his goal, and it looks like he'll barely be skating by. I have decided to continue hosting the fundraiser until July 15th, so any extra sales we get in will give Ranger a bit of extra to work with as sort of a buffer in case he needs more than what was taken in, and we want to make sure that we can help provide that for him with our sales this month. Now, I know everyone and their grandmother was at AC, so money is going to be a little tight, but if you or anyone you know has a little extra to throw into the fundraiser, we are still taking orders for our line of DVDs, Blu Rays, and music CDs, if you're looking to add our films and parody music to your movie and sound collections. For those of you that are interested, the breakdown is as follows:

For every music CD that sells, we will donate $5.00 of the payments to Ranger Stormwolf.
For every DVD that sells, we will also donate $5.00 of that into the drive.
For every Blu Ray disc that sells, we will donate $10.00 of that into the drive.

This offer will expire on July 15th, so if you are interested in helping out, head on over to www.ohpawpetsshow.org/store.html and browse through our list of media to see if anything catches your eye. Be sure to also pass this note along to friends, in case they too are interested in helping out. The more orders we take in, the more gets donated to Ranger Stormwolf.

As usual, I do thank you for taking the time to read this journal post.

Hey all. I'm participating in a fund raiser in aid of our friend Ranger Stormwolf to help raise funds to help him through the August month with bills and expenses. As such, during the month of July, whenever you place an order at the Oh! Pawpets! storefront, we will send a portion of sales to Ranger to build up funds for him. Here's the details on the donation drive:

For every parody album CD that sells, we will take $5.00 of the payment and add it to the donation drive.
For every DVD that sells, we will also put $5.00 into the donation drive.
For every Blu Ray that sells, we will put in $10.00 to the cause.

We have a lot of Oh! Pawpets! related material for you to choose from, plus all the parody albums that have been released to date. By placing your order, not only will you be helping Oh! Pawpets! with our show budget, but you'll also be helping Ranger make sure he can see through the month of August with all his bills and expenses paid in full.

We have until the third week of July before we will be sending any collected funds to Ranger in time to allow him to pay his bills. The more media sales we make, the more funds will go to Ranger. This will be a good chance to start checking out some of our films and parody tunes (if you have not already, but have been meaning to) since all proceeds will help go to multiple causes.

Please refer to this page to look over and order any of our Oh! Pawpets! merchandise: http://www.ohpawpetsshow.org/store.html

Whether or not you are able to lend a paw in our donation drive, we thank you nonetheless in reading this journal post.

What I'm about to post may be considered a lot of reading material, but I have a lot to say on behalf of the friends I have lost along the way. Some of what I'm saying here had been said at the opening of the latest episode of Oh! Pawpets!

I have always kept my friends very close to me, and I have made many a close friend in my life. But what happens when close friends are no longer an instant message away? What happens when plans to meet at the next convention cannot happen anymore? At times in life, we tend to lose the ones we hold so close in our hearts, and it hurts just as much as losing a family member. We will be starting off by paying our respects to the recently departed, two of whom had quite a positive impact on this fandom of ours. Dealing with the tragedies of loss among friends is just as painful when it comes to family as it is when you lose a good friend. I felt a great deal of sadness for the loss of some really close friends over the years, namely JBadger, Quasi Skunk, Pandaguy, Lemonade Coyote, and Furp. When we lost them, it affected me in a way that it was as if I was losing family. Now, we have more names to add to that list. This week, we got a call that Ronin's brother Brandon had died, and it was quite a tragic time for his family. I didn't know him very well, and only met him once, but to see the reaction from his family as they mourn the loss was a difficult period through the week. Seeing their pain and suffering hurt me just as much as losing a dear friend. Later this week, I discovered that we lost Albert Temple, AKA Gene Catlow, a successful artist and writer whose web comic was admired by many. Many of the comics' followers were showing a great deal of concern, as he had suddenly not updated his web comic in weeks, leaving a lot of bewildered friends and fans alike. The word about his passing quickly spread, and a great deal of sorrow was felt. He was a tremendous person with a heart and soul to match. He was well respected among a great deal of the fandom that ever had the pleasure of meeting him. He was a strong supporter of anything he came across, and he's never shown any negativity or hostility toward anyone. He had just celebrated his 59th birthday in December, and had died this week due to natural causes. I regret not keeping in touch with him, and I regret even more that death happens so fast, that I never have the time to say goodbye. I lost many a good friend that way, never even knowing that their time had come before I had a chance to say goodbye. Death happens that sudden, that we never think about it happening to anyone we know...until it happens. Despite not being able to bid a proper farewell in their time on Earth, I feel that they at least know in spirit what we really wanted to say to them after the time does come.

I was surprised to hear about Furp's passing. He was one guy that really stood out among the crowd, and we had many a great time together at MFM. He would go out of his way to make sure anyone around him had a good time. He was quick with a joke, had a priceless sense of humor, cared a great deal for his friends, and wished nothing but the best for them all. If he saw that somebody was feeling down, he would make time to talk to you and cheer you up. He made time for his friends, even if he's never met someone before, they would definitely have one in Furp once he had met them. When I heard about his motorcycle accident, I was in quite a shock. I never thought anything like that would happen to him, but even the most skilled of riders can never react safely enough while being on the same road as a careless drunk driver.

When I heard about Pandaguy's passing, I was hurt...and it hurt badly...mainly because I didn't get a chance to tell him goodbye, yet I had just spoken with him a few weeks before he died. The last time I spoke with him, his health wasn't doing all that well and he felt pretty miserable. My heart instantly went out to him, yet I never would have even known his time was running shorter and shorter. Upon the game's release, Pandaguy got a copy of Mists of Pandoria, and being able to play the game had restored a lot of his happiness. Just a brief period of time after that, Pandaguy was gone, and I felt as if a part of me was broken, like a rope that had been cut clean in two.

Lemonade Coyote was another great friend who always did the right thing, always had the best advice, was fun-loving, very energetic, and as much as he loved his friends, he also believed in them. When I heard he had gotten into an accident while driving an ambulance and died shortly after, I didn't know what to think. I kind of refused to believe it were true. People like Lemonade Coyote, you would think, would live a very long time. Sometimes Fate seems to have other plans, even if a person is healthy as an ox and puts other people's lives before his own. He put his life on the line and worked very hard in helping to save lives, so he was more than a friend, but a hero to so many. Lemonade was the best coyote I knew, and he left behind a miryad of friends that felt the same way. To this day, I still keep his memorial con badge, just as I keep the memories of his wisdom, kind nature, and involvement inside and out of the fandom.

Another hero in the fandom that we lost along the way is JBadger. He and I went as far back as the year 2000 when I attended my first Anthrocon. Over the years, I considered JBadger among one of the greatest furry friends to have. I was nearly at a loss for words when I heard that he had developed a type of cancer. He was barely able to breathe from the fluids in his lungs, and his physical health was deteriorating fast. The moment I heard about his situation, I wanted to do something for him that I was never able to do with anyone else that I had lost. I wanted to make sure that if JBadger was well enough to appear in a Skype call, that Whitefire and I would host a stream, inviting as many of his friends as we could to join us, and I wanted to make sure he knew just how much he meant to the people around him and what his friendship meant to me. I wanted to make sure that if another good friend was going to be taken away from us, JBadger at least deserved to know just how much of an impact he had on the people that admired and appreciated him just as much as I did. On the morning of his death, JBadger died peacefully while watching "The Sound of Music". That week, just before starting our weekly Oh! Pawpets! stream, I saw the message in the IRC chat that JBadger was gone. The first thing I wanted to do was to have a moment of silence for him, and then the video footage of our last call during Whitefire's stream was played.

Another motor accident claimed the life of good friend of the fandom Quasi Skunk, whose trademark was tying a bundle of car air freshners to the tail of his fursuit. I first met Quasi during MFM 7, and would see him attend many conventions that followed. It was always a delight to see him around, even though I always saw him most of the time in his fursuit. I do admit, I didn't keep as close of contact with Quasi on a more personal level, but I did appreciate all the times I would see him at any of the conventions I attended, and from the looks of it, he would make the list of true and compassionate friends that were taken away from us much too early. The news of his passing was still quite a shock to me.

MFM 7 was also the same year that Planetfurry's TV Dave was going to attend and join with the Planetfurry group, but he died of complications due to his diabetes while working as a video consultant in Saudi Arabia. He was looking so forward to sharing the festivities with his furry friends at MFM 7, but he was taken from us before he could even experience it. Ever since then, the Planetfurry group would host a memorial meal in his honor called The Planetfurry TV Dinner.

And now we come to the most recently departed that I considered to be one of my closest friends of all, David Von Foxkin. I met him way back in 2004 when he attended his first Anthrocon, and he was taken well with the fandom, the fursuiters, and the fun, that he developed a great sense of Post Con Depression when it was time to say goodbye to it all. After a weekend of seeing him and paling around with him, I saw this sorrow in him that he didn't want it to end. At that moment, I knew exactly what he needed, and I started up a huge furpile of all the nearby fursuiters to surround him in a huge warm group hug. He never forgot that moment, and the result of that event was immortalized in the first parody song I ever put to music, called "The Pile Of Furries" which had become a big hit in the fandom. Another song off the same album, "P(ost) C(on) D(epression)" was also written for him. He was also one of the friends that was mentioned in the song "Con of the West Coast Bay" from my third album. You might say that Foxkin had a huge impact on my life and most of my inspiration came along with him in mind. Our friendship meant a great deal to me, and I went through great lengths to show it. We went on to converse often online and by phone on a regular basis, talking of the things we would plan to do when we saw each other at the next year's Anthrocon. Through the years, Foxkin has gone far and beyond the calling of a caring friend and helped me through a lot of troublesome times. He helped me get an apartment, he helped me with computer upgrades, and he helped me with the supplies to fund my first four albums. The most memorable times were when I would visit my old stomping grounds in Southern California, and anytime I planned a trip there, we always met up and went to swap meets and computer shows near his Riverside home. Foxkin found a sheer happiness when he discovered Second Life, and would spend a great deal of time on the grid. He eventually became property owner of a vast majority of islands which he rented space under his online company, Foxkin Rentals. From there, he would go on to befriend many new people, some of whom I've grown to know and love as my own family, and we all quickly became a wholesome part of a close-knit group of close friends. Foxkin was the type of guy that never picked favorites with anyone. We were all equal in his eyes; no single person was ever greater or smaller. As Foxkin's health started failing, we saw less and less of him on the Second Life grid, and in 2013, started living on Dialysis. This week, complications from a major heart attack wound up claiming his life, and I felt a great deal of sadness and emptiness inside. Foxkin lived to be 58 years old. I would like to take this time to wish the recently departed a long and peaceful rest in peace and tranquility, and I hope that we can find one another again in the next life.

I would also like to mention that on April 2, we will be congregating together on Second Life to remember David Von Foxkin in a memorial ceremony. If you can make it for the event, we're looking to get started around noon-ish Second Life Time. Anyone that is interested in attending can request a teleport from myself, DJOmniFusion Snickerdoodle, or SleightOf Hand.

Borrowed from Keefur, who borrowed it from someone else, who borrowed it from someone else, and so on, and so on.....

Anyway, here's mine:

1. Been in the fandom for...

I've officially been in the fandom since 1997. Before then, I didn't know what to call it, but I knew I was furry practically as far back as I can remember. Looking back to when I was in first grade, I saw an old picture of my younger self sporting a T-shirt featuring an anthropomorphic dog surfing, and I always took an interest in that sort of thing growing up. My favorite cartoons have always featured anthropomorphic furry characters in them.

2. Found the fandom how?

It started when I first got on the internet, using a Sega Saturn NetLink modem, and found out how to get into IRC chat from the browser that came with it. I discovered #sonic chat which was a channel for Sonic the Hedgehog fans, and learned about the furry fandom from the users in the channel.

3. Chose your species cuz...

I chose to be a Dilophosaurus, since I had the costume ever since 1994, and since I didn't have the money to shell out for a fursuit at that time, I decided to make the Dilophosaurus my main fursona. My alternate bear fursona was developed after I acquired a bear fursuit back in 2002, which was eventually named "Meddle Bear"

4. why/how did you choose your name?

Going back to my Sega Saturn NetLink days, I used my nickname that everyone called me back when I lived in New Mexico as the first name I put in for my e-mail account, and then just used my real last name. When I logged into IRC chat, the name given to my nick was based off of the first 8 letters of the name I put into my e-mail account, which wound up being "SonicBlu", and it's the name I've been using ever since.

5. if you had to change your species what would you choose?

I'm really not sure. There are so many good species to choose from. I think I would have to be a shapeshifter, so that way I can become any species of animal I feel like at the time LOL

6. What percentage of your friends are furries?

I'd say about 75% of them are furries.

7. If you've been, favorite furry con and why?

There's quite a few I would consider "favorites" of mine. Morphicon (now called AnthrOhio") would have been my first choice since it was basically my "home convention", at which I also became staff. My next favorite would be Mephit Furmeet, since the entire convention seemed like coming home after being away for a year. Further Confusion would be my next favorite after that.

8. Got a fursuit?

Yes. I still have my bear fursuit, but I'd really love to get my Dilophosaurus fursuit made sometime.

9. RP'ing is:

...Fun, if you have the time. Sadly, I don't have much time for RPing.

10. Are you open about being a furry, I.E if it comes up in conversation

I'm pretty open about it.

11. Gay / Straight / bi?

Gay, and proud of it.

12. Ever kissed another furry?

Yes.

13. Do you have adult art of your fursona? If yes, post favorite

I do, but they're in my sketchbook. I don't have them scanned. The only one I have is already in my gallery section.

14.Ever hooked up with another fur? If yes, ever done it at a con?

Yes and yes.

15. Opinion on murrsuits?

Umm...no....just.....no. x.x

16. Do you have a kink related to the fandom? If yes, post the one your most open about, if you dare ;)

No kinks in particular, but I do like looking at erotic furry artwork.


17. Are you in any 18+ Telegram groups? Name one.

18+ /r/Yiff, but I'm very very very rarely in Telegram. Too busy in RL.

I was hoping not to come to you all here tonight with this, but thanks to a poor decision on behalf of one of my colleagues (it's a very long story...don't ask) I am needing to make an emergency run to Columbus to our storage unit to bring back some important items, and among the effects, I still have some family items given to me by my mom and dad who are now both deceased, so if I end up losing that, I won't ever see it again. We have managed to save the storage unit in question with a loan to pay the delinquent bill, and now that it's current, this is my only opportunity I'll have to get over there to grab these important items.

Therefore, my friend WhiteFire, who is a very talented artist, is setting up an emergency fundraising stream to help raise the funds to get us to Columbus and back with these items in tow. Our goal is $250.00 that need to be raised by no later than the 6th of this month. If you are able to and you have the means, I urge anyone and everyone out there that can help toward the cause. WhiteFire will be drawing requests for everyone that wishes to contribute.

If the goal is reached, I'm going to see to it that all the rest of the important items are out of that storage unit so that we're not ever going to be hit with this issue again, as I'm only planning on leaving behind all the junk that I don't need.

The stream will be going on live tonight at 8PM Eastern time, and will run until Midnight.
The stream address is https://furstre.am/stream/Whitefire
Alternatively, you can also donate to the cause directly to my PayPal account at eeriebblum@yahoo.com, but you might as well get a really nice piece of artwork in exchange for your contributions. I'm also going to be announcing a special sale on all our line of DVDs, Blu Rays, and Music CDs in the Oh! Pawpets! storefront to help add more items to help raise funds.

I appreciate any and all help that comes through. Thank you all for your time to read this post.

Hey everyone. I haven't been able to write much here as of late. Productions have been keeping me pretty busy as usual, but I would just like to pop in a quick journal post inviting all my watchers to come and watch my latest Let's Play video, where I will be initiating a free game giveaway. I will also include a free gift with the game code to the winner. All you have to do to participate is to view my Let's Play/game review at this YouTube address:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YQDUOwKkSA

Once you've reached the end of the video, I will give details on how the contest will work, all you have to do is leave a comment. At the end of the contest, I will draw a random winner by the comment they leave on this video's page.

Good luck to everyone who participates, and the only thing it'll cost you is a moment of your time. If you like first-person RPGs, you may want to look into this video's contest.

Heading back to the bump n' grind of filming and editing. Good luck, everyone, and I'll see you on the flip side!!!!

A couple months ago, I learned of JBadger's life-threatening situation with cancer, and I was very shocked to see that he was in such critical health. I as well as many others in the fandom were all coming together with our best wishes, thoughts, and prayers that he would have a chance at battling his fight against the cancer that tonight has claimed his life.

No matter how prepared you are when you hear of such a situation regarding someone so very close to you, nothing in the world can ever prepare you for the time when you get news that their battle with cancer had been lost. I got the news about JBadger's passing just moments before starting tonight's episode of Oh! Pawpets! and I made sure to start off with a moment of silence in remembrance of JBadger, his friendship, my memories of him, how his enthusiasm toward his friends was always incredible, and how his smile could warm any heart in need of a cheering up. JBadger did so much in his life and offered so much, was a tremendous inspiration to us all inside and outside the fandom alike, and it's not very often to find a friend as dedicated as JBadger.

I've had the pleasure of knowing JBadger for well over 15 years, and I never had one single bad experience with him. I was very grateful that I was able to befriend him, and then meeting him for the first time face to face in the year 2000. Ever since then, we've become pretty close friends, and have shared many memories together. I'm sure there are many other furs in the fandom that can say the same thing. JBadger was the type of friend that would never turn down anyone in need of a cheering up, a chance to share some amusing stories and anecdotes, and just forget about life's problems for a while whenever in his presence. He was more than a friend, but an inspiration to always be of kind heart and spirit, to always give your all whenever you do something important, and to never let the frustrations of life bring you down, or bring down anyone else around you for that matter. Even in this late hour, my memories of his kindheartedness, his friendship, his outlook on life....even his smile....the smile that can warm any heart and enlighten anyone's life...is still fresh on my mind, even when I feel the most sorrowful time of his loss. It's like I can still feel his spirit calming me and supporting me. I will never forget what his friendship meant, not just to me, but to all of the furs, family, friends, and acquaintances that he has had the pleasure of knowing in his life. He will be in my heart forever.

Now that he is no longer with us in body, I know that his spirit is out there watching over us all, and will continue to be there for us the same way he was when he lived on this Earth. I shall always continue to remember and keep within my heart all the memories I have of him, and I will never forget him. His friendship was held in a very high regard with me, and that is something not even time itself can deteriorate.

JBadger, I miss you so much, and I know I will always miss you, but I know there's a part of you that will always be with us, watching over us, and striving to keep our memories of you alive and well within our spirits and our hearts. You will severely be missed, and I will never forget the many times we've shared together. You will never be forgotten, for you have left behind more than good memories and great friendships, but the inspiration to always find the lighter side of life in everything we do and everyone we know.

I will miss you greatly, my friend.

I'd like to direct your attention for one moment to spotlight a particular artist here on FA. He might not be as spectacular as some of the talents you'll find here, but the experience of working with him and the ability to see my descriptions come to life in a picture goes far and beyond any that I have ever seen before. The artist's name is  AsterIrizuta, and he is looking to gain more commissions to add to his portfolio. He is currently offering commissions, which will feature backgrounds that will literally make your picture pop right off the page. Aster works very fast, is very reliable, and is also the type that will work with you, showing you step by step every detail that goes into the pic, to make sure it meets your specifications before going onto the next step. I highly recommend commissioning him for your next piece of artwork. If you're interested in having a commission of your character done, it would be a humongous mode of gratitude if you would consider Aster for your next one. His prices are very reasonable, he works hard for you, and he will not be truly satisfied unless you are satisfied and will do whatever he can to keep you that way. This is indeed a very rare quality to find in an artist, which is why I feel working with Aster on my latest commission has indeed been a wonderful experience, and one that I will be just as happy with the next time I commission him. Every little bit helps in many huge ways, after all, and by commissioning Aster, you'll be gaining a lot more than a piece of artwork, but an enjoyable experience the both of you can share together. To find out how to commission him, check out his user page at furaffinity.net/user/asteririzuta and browse through his options. His prices are very reasonable, but you can never put a price on the experience you get in return. I greatly appreciate everyone that takes the time to check out his work, but please check his commission info page before you make any judgements. You will find a link to that page in his profile. Many huge thanks for reading this journal post, and may your own experience be just as great as mine were.

We've been running Oh! Pawpets! for nearly 8 years, and while I have a breathing point between seasons, I decided to surprise everyone with a fun little fact sheet. I get asked a lot of questions about the show and its development, and so I have decided to dig up the top ten facts about the show that many people have either inquired about or have been confused about.

1. Oh! Pawpets! is a spin-off puppet show from PA Pets Live, which was a spin-off from Utah Pets. This is mainly why some of the puppets used in the original show also appeared in season 1 of Oh! Pawpets!

2. The name Oh! Pawpets! was originally named to keep up with the whole "naming your puppet show after the state of its origin" cliche, but after the very first test run, it was decided to turn "OH" into "Oh!" (from the initials of Ohio into an exclamation of someone shouting "Oh!",) therefore giving it a more universal name that will travel along with the show if it ever were to leave the state of Ohio without bearing any resemblance to the state of its origin.

3. Bwing T. Fewwet, the first character of the show, was originally going to be called "Poot T. Ferret" on PA Pets Live. On Oh! Pawpets!, he was initially going to be given the name "Bling T. Ferret", but it wound up becoming "Bwing T. Fewwet" mainly because of Bwing's "fewwet speech impediment" that was applied when he made his own collar tag at the pet store, and he typed his name into the computer the exact same way as he would have pronounced it vocally. This was explained in the very first episode of the show, and that form of his name has stuck with the character ever since.

4. The characters Bar Hoppin' Bill, Fabulous Fox, Dredd "Heymon" Headley, and Carl "The Mad Cajun" Marksman are all puppet forms of the extra voices that I used during the entire run of my earlier radio broadcast, "The Time Machine Show". (We still have yet to provide a puppet body for Carl.)

5. The characters Bar Hoppin' Bill and the middle voice for the 3-headed dragon Doremi were originally created back in 1995 when I lived in New Mexico, putting together demo tapes for a local radio station as extra character voices for my sooner-or-later-to-be broadcast radio program.

6. The character Shagg Kinastrich was based off of an unseen creature my uncle invented to keep me amused and occupied whenever I visited his home when I was a very young child. There was a hole in my uncle's shed, which my uncle told me served as a doorway for a race of creatures called "kinastriches". They were a very sensitive species, that whenever they made eye contact with a child, their bodies would paralyze and become wooden figures. Every time I visited him, I would stare at that hole waiting for one to show up. After a year or so of being disappointed of not seeing a kinastrich, my uncle made a surprise visit at my house one Christmas and handed me a small box. Inside the box was what his interpretation of a kinastrich was, and he told me that it had come out of its hole when I wasn't there, and he captured it and placed it inside the box. He also warned me that when I opened the box, that the kinastrich may instantly turn into a wooden figure. Sure enough, he was right. I pulled out a wooden figure with bright orange fur all over its body and face. I kept the wooden kinastrich on my shelf, thinking that anytime my back was turned, that he would come to life and move around my room, but whenever I woke up, he was always in the same position as I left him originally. My uncle said that when a kinastrich is in its wooden form, the affects are permanent. I decided to put that entire story as the background origin to the puppet character, Shagg Kinastrich, the last living kinastrich on Earth.

7. Two celebrities have called me during a live taping of the Oh! Pawpets! Show. In season 2, Fat Momma (winner of "Who Wants To Be A Superhero", season 1) called me out of the blue to see how I was doing, and I instantly turned on the speaker phone and told her that she was now a part of a live puppet show broadcast and was now piped into the ears of the viewing audience. She greeted everybody, and plans for a live phone-in interview were made, but they were not yet put into effect. In season 5 of Oh! Pawpets!, Voice actor Jimmy Weldon (Yakky Doodle) mistakingly called me on the phone right before an episode of Oh! Pawpets! was about to go on air. He tapped what he thought was someone else in his contacts list and he tapped my name instead. Subsequently, this happened precisely on Wolfdog's birthday. Before heading downstairs to start the show, I asked if he wouldn't mind calling back in ten minutes to have "Yakky Doodle" wish Wolfdog a happy birthday, and he happily obliged.

8. The puppet of Jose El Camillion was originally purchased in the year 2000, and would also be the very first puppet I would ever purchase. I kept the puppet around for ten years trying to come up with a decent character before arriving at Jose El Camillion, a chameleon who hailed from Jenesjela, a poorer, more run-down area which was adjascent to Venesuela.

9. I first learned how to use ventriloquism when I was a child after watching episodes of Mister Rogers's Neighborhood whenever he showed the "television neighbors" his ventriloquist's dummy, "Hischer Booptrunk".

10. As of March 2016, there have been 77 characters that were featured on Oh! Pawpets!, 71 of which I have voiced. The extra puppets belonged to or were voiced by past supporting actors: Sajin Candour (Sajin, Charles Knight, Sammy Spaniel, Slobber Spaniel) and Max Goof (Twitch Ferret, Ozark, Hayseed, George). Sajin was the original voice of Cryo Jennix, which I took over voicing at season 3 after Sajin moved out of the area for the first time. In turn, I was the original voice of Charles Knight for use in the film Paw, which was later voiced by Sajin for the live broadcasts in season 5. The extra remaining puppet, Tekk Wolf, is Wolfdog's puppet character, which is never seen during the live broadcasts since he's busy at the console running the tech and sound for the show's live broadcasts, and only appears in pre-filmed productions. In addition to the 76 characters that have been featured, another 18 new characters are in reserve and waiting for their "puppet bodies" to join the cast, which will bring my grand total of puppet characters to 88. When that time comes, thoughts of building a piano using all the puppets as keys came to my mind, but I doubt I'll be able to construct something of that nature to be used live on the show.

The Oh! Pawpets! Show will be in its 8th season this May, and we continue to strive to bring its viewers some much-needed humorous entertainment every Saturday night to help shake the stresses and woes from the preceeding weekdays. We devote our thanks and gratitude to the viewers that place us where we are today, and for that, we love each and every one of you for your continuing interests in the show. After all, if it wasn't for you all, these puppets would be lifeless pieces of cloth and fur collecting dust on a shelf, and that's no fate for any puppet. ;)

What is it called when you've played enough Minecraft where you still see pixelated blocks after you close your eyes? Yeah, I know...It's called too much Minecraft. I can't help it though. I've only just started to get into Minecraft about a couple days ago and I have been building like mad on our Pawpet Land server since then. I started by building a house for Leovinus and a pool for Sorocco, put up the Pawpet Land hill lettering, then I built Kharif a new pyramid in an area that I'm looking to expand into a desert. Came back to the main area and built the Pawpet Land Ranch for Floyd, Connie, Buck, Cornelius, and Angus, then once all that was done, I decided to head up the Snovius Mountain and build Mortimer an igloo at the peak. I only just finished a small island for Mocking Byrd, and then I built a path leading to Kharif's pyramid from there so that visitors will be able to find it now. I'm thinking of expanding the path into a maze that you have to navigate through to get to it, but I don't want to make it too difficult for any visitors. I want them to find the desert, but I don't want to get anyone lost along the way. Something to think about I suppose...

I'm not sure when we'll be opening the Pawpet Land Minecraft server to the public just yet, but we're still working on building homes for all the characters on Oh! Pawpets!...which is close to about 70 or 80 characters. So many puppet cast members on the show, it's no wonder why we need to build them a whole town all to themselves! What better place to do that than in Minecraft?

All in all, Minecraft has been really fun for me to explore and build. Now, every time I close my eyes, I get the clear vision of big blocks flying all over the place. It's probably just a case of Minecraft Fatigue or Post-Traumatic Minecrafter's Disorder...or maybe those blocks have been permanently burned into my retinas. I place my wager on the latter of the three.

Wow. All I can say is....just....wow. I finally got through the Den of Trials, got SUPER lucky to beat all three shadow Links without losing all my backup lives, and once I obtained the Fierce Deiety Suit, I went right into the Sky Fortress area to tackle what I couldn't get through before. The Fierce Deiety Suit makes things loads easier to fight off enemies that way, and I was able to make it to the final battle of "The Lady". (ugghhhh....can I hurl now? I'm still not jazzed about the main antagonist of the game) but who cares....I'm finally here, and oh my freaking God, what a tough battle it is. Even with the Fierce Deiety Suit, I had trouble trying to defeat her. After weeks of this battle went on and on and on, getting nowhere fast (this battle, you really really need those extra players that know what they're doing) I decided to see if I would be able to skip over the final battle with The Lady. Turns out, I didn't even need to face her once. Just hit that "skip" button and bypass the entire battle completely! I got the final piece to the Lady's Ensemble, and got to see the cheesy ending to this messed-up title.

ATTN: SPOILER ALERT!

After you get the Lady's Parasol, you take the other 2 pieces to Madame Couture's shop to make the Lady's Ensemble, and then you proceed right to the castle and break the spell Princess Styla was under the entire game. She is now finally able to ditch the cursed black leotard suit and becomes a beautiful princess (big surprise there.) She then decides to give Link the cursed tights in exchange for freeing her from the curse. (Gee. Thanks. I guess.) and you are declared a hero of Hytopia. The king and his cohort totem you into the air as the kingdom rejoices. Link once again prevails, now roll the super long credits.

When you come back from the closing credits, two things are different. First of all, that cursed black leotard the princess once wore is now part of your wardrobe, and when you wear it, you will be able to dodge 50% attackes, but if you do get hit with something, it deals twice the damage...as if we REALLY needed to make things harder on you with this game's difficulty being what it is. You will also notice that the vendor in town now sells...drum roll please...Friendly Tokens! If you have trouble finding other friends to play this crapfest of a game with you, you can pick up some Friendly Tokens in town to help get the other 2 suits made, although I've only been able to buy only 3 of them before the item became unavailable again. Not sure if he will bring any more back, but I'll keep checking in.

END SPOILER ALERT

I'm still not able to face a lot of the difficult challenges through the game, so I can pretty much forget about getting the material to make the remaining suits. Doesn't matter to me anyway. I completed the game (had to use a "skip" option for the final battle, but that was the only way I could get through it alone, but I finished it nonetheless.) Now I'll be anxiously awaiting Hyrule Warriors Legends for the New 3DS system, and I KNOW that's not going to be anywhere near as bad as Tri Force Heroes was.

I figured that the reason I got no responses from anywhere I've ever posted, looking for decent players for Tri Force Heroes was because either they're very smart and don't want to touch this title with a ten-foot pole, or they do have this game, but are just about as frustrated as I am with it and don't even want to look at it, let alone play it...and I did ask very nicely and was very patient for replies...of which there were none! However for these reasons, I kind of understand why getting some decent online players is hard to come by, and I'm stuck having to go in randomly for co-op players. Today, I wound up taking about twelve more attempts at battling the three shadow Links in the Den of Trials on solo, but to no avail. Out of risk of doing something terrible to my New 3DS XL system in the process of my frustrated rages, I was able to control myself long enough to simply rip the cartridge out of my system, attempted to crush it with my bare hands, and then tossed it across the room. I don't know where the cartridge went, but it's somewhere in here. I couldn't care less if I found whatever is left of the cartridge either. I'm dead serious, I am absolutely flustered with this game, and I just can't take it anymore.

Now, you may think this is a result of someone with a lot of anger issues, but it's really not. This is a result of someone who is just so sick and tired of having to endure the frustrations this game produces. I'm actually a very mild-mannered individual otherwise, but very rarely does something come along that pushes my patience over the limit, and this game has done that way too many times. I never felt this way over Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania III, or any other incredibly difficult games I've ever played. I never even shouted any obscenities when I kept getting murdered in Hell level in Diablo 1 or Inferno level in Diablo III! I can accept all that easily! All I can say is that Tri Force Heroes is finally out of my life for good now, and I admit and accept defeat to this crappy abomination of a game---even though it's complete horse shit and deserves to be recalled from existence!

If you are considering picking up this game---even if you're a die-hard Zelda fan that has to get every title into your collection---I beg you to reconsider. You don't know what you'll be up against. I would be more successful at playing Castlevania III blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back, compared to finishing any portion of this game. I would much rather play any game on a Tiger Electronics digital watch with my tongue than to play Tri Force Heroes ever again. As for the whereabouts of where that cartridge bounced off to, I couldn't care less. (Actually, I kind of wish I didn't do that. I could have sold it back to GameStop, but then again, they'll probably only give me a couple bucks for it, and it would probably cost me more in gas money just to head out that way to take it back to begin with. Never mind. Nothing gained, nothing lost I suppose.)

Now I think I'll try to relax for a while. I'm surprised I can still type after the stings in my left hand from attempting to crush this cartridge, and I haven't quite stopped seeing spots or the color red, but in time all of these post-rage effects will cease, and things will return to normal. Until then, I'm going to do everything I can to relax. Until next time, stay safe, and stay the hell away from Tri Force Heroes. It will kick your ass inside-out!

I'm calling out an APB for anyone that has Tri Force Heroes for the 3DS.....

HELP ME PLEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before I get to my predicament, how about a little rant...I'm so flustered with frustration right now, I have to get it out. I feel that I deserve the ability to rant after having to endure what I have in this game so far.

First of all, let me just start off by saying that I have played (and defeated) every single Zelda game ever made (with the exception of the CDi titles and Wind Waker...still haven't played it yet) and I have NEVER had a problem with any of them. Each Zelda game had their challenging moments, and I spent a lot of extra time working out a pattern to get through it, and all my diligent efforts have been rewarded......

But this game....Tri Force Heroes......IS FREAKING HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I understand that this game has its certain fan base, and I will probably expect to get a lot of hate mail in response to my rant about this game from die-hard fans, but I don't care. It's my opinion and I'm entitled to it when I say how much I freaking LOATHE this game.

First off, I think it's an abomination that should NEVER be tied into the Zelda franchise when it revolves solely around "style" and mainly focuses on "online multiplayer technology". First of all, you're not even in Hyrule, you're in a lame knockoff land called "Hytopia." You are called upon by the king, whose daughter, Princess Styla (how freaking original) has become cursed by the evil villain who calls herself "The Lady" (<sarcasm>Ooh, I'm overwhelmed by the originality of these colorful characters!</sarcasm>. Actually, I found it absurd and unbelievably lame.) Anyway, The Lady got angry one day and decided to make a rule that nobody in Hytopia was allowed to dress with stylish clothing, and in turn, places a curse on Princess Styla where she's forced to wear solid black tights. The king, being extremely distraught about his daughter's fate, calls upon three heroes to join in the fight against The Lady and restore fashion to the land of Hytopia. (What the flying blue f*** is this??? Is this a Zelda game or a complicated Barbie simulator????)

Now, there's a reason why I'm so hacked at this game, and I can't keep it inside me any longer. I'll explain later on, but first, a brief run-down on the game:

This game was designed with the sole intention of online multiplayer playability in mind. Just before the game's deadline, the game designers went back to add a single-player mode, where you can play alone, and control yourself among the 3 Link heroes (one to control, and two "doppels" to carry around with you) at the same time. Using the bottom touch screen, you are able to switch control of the 3 heroes by transferring your "soul" from one Link to the other, in order to kill certain enemies or get through certain obstacles. Basically, you can only control one Link at a time in solo play. Whether you play alone or online with others (or even Download Play with some friends), your main goal is to venture through all 4 areas in each realm. Every area has 4 zones within. At the end of the 4th zone, you are granted a prize for your efforts in one of three treasure boxes. Inside these treasure boxes are materials that you can take back to Madame Courture's boutique and make outfits that will enhance Link's weapon abilities. Some outfits even give you extra speed, enhanced sword techniques, or extra heart containers. Among these many outfits will cause Link to sometimes cross-dress into a cheerleader's outfit, Zelda's dress, or other types of women's clothing. Now I know some people would get into something like that, but for some reason, a cross-dressing Link is something I wasn't prepared to endure, but whatever. I've seen some bizarre stuff out there, so I let that one go. To make things a tad bit easier is the ability to communicate via the many touch-screen emotes that express commands such as "over here!", "Throw", "No", "Item", and a cheer emote whenever you do something good. Sadly, this is the only form of communication you have with the other players, and sometimes you really need to converse with the other players. Best to play this while on a Skype call to everyone.

Now, I may not fully" buy" into the story line of this game, since I think it's as lame as all hell. What gets me so burned up...what really brings my blood to a boil...what makes me want to piss a stream of fire.....what makes me spew loud obscenities out of my mouth like a volcano and makes me want to rip the cartridge out of my 3DS system and chuck it against the wall a few times....what really really gets to me is how annoyingly challenging this game is---almost to the point where it's impossible. Like I said before, I've been met with a lot of challenging stuff in the Zelda series, but I've always managed to get through it. This game, however, is more than a disgrace to the Zelda franchise....it's an abomination that should never have been made, and no matter how hard I fight in these last areas, it's borderlining on impossible to advance any further.

The online multiplayer option is good if you can get some experienced people to play with you and willing to help you, but most of the time, I've only found the typical asshole who wants to rage-quit if you don't get it right the first time, or they'll just up and quit on you when you start to get anywhere. Other times, there's so much lag, it renders the game unplayable. I've played the multiplayer mode enough times to experience a lot of both situations, and not being able to properly communicate with the other players is a huge obstacle in actually considering this game "fun". Sadly, I don't have any fun when I'm too busy getting my ass handed to me every time I even so much as attempt to get further than I am. To me, that just takes any and all "fun" out of the game and replaces it with so much anger, that I start seeing red.

I'd also like to add that some of the rarer materials you need come from completing all of the challenges in each realm. If you manage to get through each area in each of the realms, you will then be able to replay the areas with various challenges (such as pop all the balloons, don't pop any balloons, don't fall, pass the orb, and the hardest challenge of them all, race against time.) I was able to get through some of these challenges, but many of them are just ridiculously impossible to do in solo mode. The worst one of all is the timed challenges, where you have to get through all 4 zones in one certain area in as little time as possible. I've even tried to do this on solo play, and I know the first realm like the back of my paw, but I still can't get through it in the time allotted. When you finish the first zone, they don't give you any more time when you start the second one...the clock keeps ticking down. So you have just one time clock to get through all 4 zones. The only help you have in gaining more time are the hourglasses you can pick up along the way. Even by collecting them all, I still can't get to the last zone in time, and you need the materials you get from beating all the challenges to make all the rest of the outfits. I've even looked online, and everyone I've ever seen post a message about it has had trouble getting through the timed challenges. Some even have even prayed to the game creators for an update where it's not so difficult to get through them and allow more time for margins of error. Even in multiplayer mode, these challenges are next to impossible. Your best bet is to go into Vs. mode and fight the other 2 Link heroes to obtain the materials you would normally get by facing the challenges. You can talk your friends into going into Vs. mode with you, and then let them stand there so you can attack the other 2 Link heroes, so that you can farm for the items you need. That is the only surefire way to get around this obstacle, but I haven't been able to find anyone to help me in that department yet.

Other posts made by fans online are saying how much "fun" this game is. Tri Force Heroes??? FUN???? Not to me, anyway.

Now, I do admit, I started out just fine in the first few regions---and it was considered fun at that point---but once I got up to the last 3 regions, I've had nothing but problem after problem after frustrating problem getting through them...but as I said before, I'm a trooper. I'm always up for the challenge, assuming I get the pattern down to defeat it, and I've managed to solo up to the final realm. The last two zones in the last area are where I'm stuck.

In short, there is very little pattern to learn, no mercy from almost-impossible gameplay, cruelty from a very slim margin of error if you happen to make a mistake, and a ton of frustration if you so much as make one wrong move or have your "doppels" in the wrong places to get pushed off of the platform (primarily by Moldorm...ughhh I HATE that boss.) Moldorm will not only go after you when you're controlling your live "Link" hero, but will also go after your "doppels" and start pushing them off the platform, forcing them to lose hearts faster than you can recover them. If you happen to totem your 3 heroes together and fall off, that's 3 hearts at one time gone! You only have 9 hearts to share between the three Link heroes through the whole game, unless you wear an outfit that gives you up to 3 more.

I'm at the very last area in the Den of Trials and the last two zones in the last area of the final realm within the main game (Sky Realm, area 4, zones 3 & 4.) After weeks and weeks of trying to get through these two obstacles alone and getting nowhere every time I play it, I'm at the point of quitting before actually finishing any area within this wretched game. Therefore, I'm sending out an APB to anyone who happens to own this game and wouldn't mind helping me get through it. I've tried it in solo play and it's practically impossible to get through. I'm also tired of rage-quitters and trolls going online for multiplayer. I need to start getting serious about finishing this game. If anyone out there owns this game, are having the same problems I'm having, and are willing to help, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEEEEEEEEASE add my FC and leave yours in the comments section so I can add you. Then I say, we get on Skype and help each other get through this horrid abomination once and for all so we don't have to deal with it any longer. I've been an avid Zelda player from the beginning, and I really don't want to start giving up now. The sad truth is, I'm at my breaking point with Tri Force Heroes, and I don't want to surrender just yet.

FC: 0919-9569-4564
Skype: sonicblu
(Skype will make it a lot easier to stay in good communication while we're in game mode...it's a lot easier than using brief "emotes" to one another.)