I bumped into a fur at FC that works for IGN. He mentioned it on the elevator right as I was getting off. As a former IGN employee I'd like to know who this is. I can't for the life of me remember what his badge said, and I assume it's the same for him as we just met quickly in passing. Anybody know someone that's a furry that works for IGN? I've known a couple over the years, but this is someone I've never met before.

I'll see ya all there. Debuting my new fursuit.

Over a year ago I got really caught up with some work and I fell behind on FA notifications. Moving forward it kind of snowballed. Every time I looked at my notifications I went, "Oh shit, that's a lot. I'll take care of them later." It continued on from there, "Damn that's just too much to deal with right now, some other time." Until it was in the thousands, and then tens of thousands. I did not clear my backlog for over a year. I attempted it a couple of times and would put a several thousand notification dent into it, but never enough to really make and keep any momentum.

So with a sigh and for my own well being and sanity I have just Nuked everything short of a couple of old comments I wanted to keep. That in mind, if there is anything important I have missed over the last year, let me know. I can only imagine what art or news I have missed. Oh well time to start fresh.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/21/ign-layoffs/

This gets me right in the feels. GameSpy was the first major industry company I worked for. This coupled with FilePlanet being sunset about a year ago, it feels like someone is erasing my past... :(

Edit:
I saw an old co-worker on FB taking a shot in honor of GameSpy out of one of our old GameSpy shotglasses wearing one of our Gamespy shirts and jacket. Mine is in the other room, I.. I think I'll go grab it and join him.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b.....ps36800d7d.jpg

Fel and I are at the con. Whoever knows me and wants to hang out knows how to get in touch.

I would like to give my deepest thanks and gratitude to ******, as well as all those who have had faith in me over the years.

I have had a tough stretch after losing my last major industry job, but now I am back on the right path. I start my new job on Monday with ****** as their new PR Coordinator. I am ready for a fresh start, and to really show a new company what I'm capable of.

P.S. I'm just blanking out the name of the company for my own protection so that things can't be traced back to my FA.

*Cross posted from facebook*

I am truly bothered by the fact that even a few of my FB friends are making posts in support of Chick-Fil-A. More so that they are claiming that it is about freedom of speech and not that other, much darker reason that some people are shamelessly trying to pretend this is not about.

The right is always complaining about the left, extremists, activists, or the government persecuting them and their beliefs, very simply mistaking not being able to do whatever they want, whenever they want for censorship. For once they actually have a point, when several cities in the US told Chick-Fil-A that they were not welcome as long as they, as a company, maintained their repugnant and hateful ideals, following renewed remarks by the CEO of the company. The CEO is allowed to feel how he wants about whatever he wants, and believe whatever he wants.

The thing to remember about free speech is that it is also a two way street. So when you open your mouth and make shameful public statements, adding the tag of "free speech" to homophobic comments, combined with a long standing homophobic agenda, and millions donated to anti gay causes, you can expect a verbal slap back. The whole point to free speech is the invitation of praise or criticism when you make very public declarations. It is not, a term to be bandied about like a shield, so that you can say whatever you want, then quickly yell "FREE SPEECH!" to shut down people any time somebody doesn't like or agree with what you say. You can also very much expect that push back when you shamelessly use the window dressing of free speech for rampant public homophobia.

If you really believe in first amendment rights, great, but it is hard to believe that is truly the reason that everybody came out on the 1st. When bible verses are being chanted, and someone brings a (no joke) 8 foot cross to CFA. This doesn't look like people protesting for freedom of speech, but a simple us vs "them" flocking to flaunt bigotry. If it was just about the first amendment, you guys couldn't find a better first amendment rights case to stand up for than the rich homophobe that's being picked on by those evil gays and their agenda that he so publicly bashes?

I won't even get into the pathetic hypocrisy of this entire gay marriage battle, but suffice to say cherry picking the bible so profoundly cheapens its overall message and thoroughly disrespects your God.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7026/.....4c35d7ac79.jpg

I know this happened a little bit ago, but for those of you that are unaware, FilePlanet.com is in the process of being sunset.

We live in a day and age where it is not a completely useful service or viable business model anymore, so this is understandable. Games now auto-update, demos are served up via Steam, and trailers via GameTrailers and Youtube. The website is a dinosaur, that is now mainly used as a repository for all those aforementioned files of past games, that weren't web integrated in the way that games are now. But in its heyday it was the worlds biggest subscription game file website, and immensely useful for what it was.

After running the site for a couple years it hurts my heart to see it go, especially without any kind of send off after 13 years of operation, a whimper as it were... Godbless FilePlanet, and may we all remember the good old days.

Hurf

P.S. IGN stated that the people still working on the site had been moved to different projects and nobody lost their jobs, I just saw another article talking about the closure and one of the first comments was somebody saying, "I worked on FilePlanet and I can say this isn't true, I was just told that my expertise was no longer required by the company."

I miss doing articles, so I threw something together for old times sake.
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9098414
Let me know what you think folks, I might do some writing more often.

Going skydiving tomorrow morning so </life> I guess. I kid, but if nobody ever hears from me again, you all know what happened. :D
I love you Fel.

Edit: Didn't die!
http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b.....rst%20Skydive/

Happy New Year all, it's 2012 and people are hurf-a-durfing over the end of the world. The movie 2012 was playing in the break room at work today, which just reminded me of the time one of the actors in the movie molested me on camera during an interview. ;3

Anyway FC is coming up in a couple weeks, going with my mate  felcat. We'll have our own room, so if anybody wants to hang we won't be crowded. There are so many people I want to see and visit with, but too many to remember, so if you want to meet up sent me a txt or note here on FA.

I love Penny-Arcade. I love the comic and the forums. I've been a member of the forums since 2004 and have been reading the comic much longer. I am a regular contributor to the forums posting, and creating new threads, some of which are 3+ years old and still have people posting in them. Not only that, but I regularly give back to the forums in various ways up to and including giving out tons of free games to forumers. I am even debating having a Penny-Arcade forumer meetup at my home at some point.

With all that in mind, fuck the forum staff. I know that admining and modding forums can be a tireless and thankless job, but I'm still irate right now. In the 8 years I've been posting on the forums, I've always done my best to follow all the rules and behave in an appropriate manner. I've been infracted 5 times, and am currently jailed on the forums, meaning I can't post new threads, I can't edit my posts, I can't post images, my new posts are now time delayed, etc. I've not earned a single one of the infractions I've gotten over the years, and at this point it is enough to put me into a small rage, requiring me to make a post to vent about it.

I'm going to now list all my infractions and why I never deserved to get them:

Infraction #1
Somebody on an Apple thread spent several pages trolling me after I asked what they assumed was a stupid question about an iPod. After multiple pages of this person not letting up, and people telling him to repeatedly shut the fuck up and leave me alone, I finally made a snarky reply to them in my next completely on topic valid response. I was making a real post in the thread and threw in a backanded comment. I didn't flip out, I didn't curse, I just acknowledged the person trolling me with a subtle insult. I was immediately infracted. People posted and told me that I shouldn't have been, it should have been the other guy for 2-3 pages solid of poking, even another moderator agreed. When I tried to PM the mod that infracted me I never got any sort of reply, this turns into a bit of a pattern.

Infraction #2
Somebody made a thread with a picture from a particular internet meme asking about the origin of the picture. The question was eventually answered, but several other people posted other pictures in the thread that were variations of the same meme. I myself posted a picture of my favorite variation of the meme. Without warning we were all infracted for either trolling or being off topic. I meant no ill intent, and when talking about a fucking meme I'd imagine that posts regarding it even if not answering the original question would be on topic. I sent a PM to the mod in question explaining that I never meant any harm and was ignored.

Infraction #3
Somebody was talking about my favorite game of all time in a thread, then lamenting the fact that the game was so far out of print that it probably wouldn't work on modern day machines. I made a post letting him know that a developer approved version of the game was available on a particular abandonware site and was promptly infracted. Now on the Penny-Arcade forums most talk of abandonware is a big no no as a basic CYA (Cover Your Ass) rule, it's close enough to piracy that it makes people uncomfortable and sometimes piracy related problems can arise with abandonware/abandonware sites. There is a rule on the forums that if you want to make a thread about an abandonware game you have to bring your request before the staff and get it approved before hand to make sure no problems arise. I mentioned that I wasn't making a thread but merely mentioning a DEVELOPER APPROVED location to get the game. I couldn't imagine what trouble the forums could get into when the developers themselves say, "Hey the game is a decade and a half old and out of print for so long that you couldn't buy it anywhere anyway. We are just happy that people still want to play it, sure go to X site and download with with our blessings." But I got a blunt, thems the rules, tough shit. That smacks as complete and utter following the letter of the law while totally ignoring the spirit of it.

Infraction #4
I made an innocent fat joke in a thread about the 3DS where somebody made a sarcastic joke themselves about the distance that you have to walk every day on the pedometer to earn system coins was making him exhausted. The person laughed at my joke and replied in kind. I was promptly infracted, and when I asked why I was told because I had trolled that other poster. When I explained that it was just a joke and noted that the user also joked back, I was told that jokes are indistinguishable from actual insults and if I had a problem with it I could take it up with the head admin. Well first of all, wow. So nobody is allowed to joke about anything ever because it might in some way shape or form be misconstrued as an insult unless you add 17 winking smilies at the end, and secondly, so this mod just took it upon themselves to become offended on behalf of the person? Me thinks that somebody might be a little fat themselves and took it personally. Also I've tried taking multiple issues up with the head admin and in 8 years have only gotten one reply, and that was not directly, but through another mod, so fat lump of use he is.

Let me also just add a little bit to Infraction #4. I was infracted for an innocent fat joke even after explaining myself, yet someone who recently thanked Osama Bin Laden in a thread because 9/11 caused a game he wanted to be released a couple days early was not. When I asked why I was and he wasn't, I was told that people just need to get a thicker skin over that. WHAT?! What the fuck?!

Infraction #5
Microsoft announced Kinectimals Bear edition. So the next couple pages of the generic "videogame industry" thread that it was posted in devolved into various jokes about bear related games. I posted my own joke about it possibly being a game about Bear Grylls drinking pee via Kinect motions, or possibly a game about gay bears. I posted the following picture:
http://www.bears2twinks.com/leather.....-gay-bears.jpg

I was told by other posters that, I might get in trouble for posting that image. I replied with, "I looked for a picture that didn't break any rules. No naughty bits are showing what so ever, he's clothed with only chest and tiny bit of thighs showing, and I've seen people post pictures of RL, videogame, and anime, guys and chicks wearing far less. The only problem I can really see with that pic is, "Ewww gay..."

I was then not only infracted, but my post was deleted, and I was jailed for it with a jibing comment from a mod that not only was it unacceptable, "It was off topic."

So in a thread where the last 2 pages were nothing but bear game related jokes, I was the one that was off topic. I also showed several examples that took me a few minutes to find of things on the forums that were as bad if not worse than what I posted.
I was told that the bit of inner thighs that were showing were unacceptable, so I posted this:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/disc.....Comment_150202 I see plenty of inner thighs there.
I was told that there was a bit of a bulge showing and that is unacceptable, so I posted this:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/disc.....Comment_151067 Not only does this guy have a full on massive, visible boner, but this photo spawned several pages of discussion when it was posted.
Then to top things off I posted the following picture to show that pictures of men wearing a TENTH of what I posted never posed a problem in the past:
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/disc.....Comment_151764
I even offered to post more pictures, as many as I had to showing years and years of the exact same kind of thing if not worse being posted with no problem or punishment and was told, that those other pictures might be bad too, but because they weren't punished then doesn't mean I can't or shouldn't be punished now.

I was also told that it was NSFW, and when I flabbergastedly asked why people at work should assume that reading videogame forums is alright, but seeing a provocatively, yet mostly dressed gay guy is not, I was brushed aside because one is goofing off and the other is possibly browsing porn. Oh in an incredibly offensive fashion one of the mods told me that I probably wouldn't understand the difference between just being unproductive at work and browsing possible porn at work because, "You have trouble holding down a job, so I couldn't imagine you actually understanding the concept."


In short, I respect the people that work hard to keep the forums running and enjoyable to all, but when you rule however the hell you feel like and unevenly enforce rules, you can go fuck yourself. I've always been an upstanding member of the forums and never done anything wrong, yet am continuously punished for nothing. It fills me with impotent rage, because there is nothing I can do about it. I just have to grin and bear it, because if I want to continue being a part of the awesome forums, I have to put up with occasionally being punished for no good reason. In the end it really is a matter of follow and put up with our arbitrary enforcement or leave, you aren't being forced to stay. That and, well you know that eventually you'll be punished for something, no matter what you do, so just "deal with it" when it happens.

http://kotaku.com/#!5793660/self+pr.....ve-child-abuse

Read the article, and tell me where the fact that the guy perpetrating the crime was a furry has anything to do with anything?

Now I'm going to just crib a couple of my comments from the article rather than rewrite them basically if you don't mind.

"I loath to ask what furry has to do if anything with the article in question? If the situation was different would the article title have been, "Self-Professed Bicycle Enthusiast Charged With Xbox Live Child Abuse."? This smacks of very attention grabbing, dishonest and unscrupulous reporting to me.

If what is mentioned in the headline has absolutely ZERO to do with the article what is the point of mentioning it in the first place unless you want nothing more than to garner more hits via an inflammatory title? Have you seen what the comments section of this article has devolved to, and what percentage of comments have anything to do with the actual crime that took place? Kotaku knew full well what it was doing."

This is an article about a man that found a kid to molest via Xbox live. Kotaku's kiddy pool depth of research into the guy found out that he was a furry, and while it had nothing to do with the crime in question they felt it necessary latch onto that and to plaster it into the article headline for hits. They did this so that while reporting on a horrible pedophilic act, they can also take a jab at furries, and frankly sit back while the comments section exploded with a level of hatred that would have people be getting banned left and right on any other site were it about any other topic or group. They knew full well what they were up to and as such had a transparent and weak attempt to dodge culpability by putting a token, "Oh but I don't hate furries" comment right at the end of the article, while opening the floodgates for everybody else to say it for them. I'm not saying they set out to write an article to bash furries, but the moment they found out that they could possibly tie them into their article somehow you know damn well they bent over backwards to make it work.

This isn't the first time either, a short time ago they posted a video of a fursuiter doing amazing DDR runs for charity. At first it was a nice little article about a gamerfur (PS speaking of GamerFurs check out #GamerFurs on irc.furnet.org), but they just couldn't help themselves and later just had to add the tag to the article above the headline, "Can't Unsee." Really Kotaku, what's so "can't unsee" about a guy in a costume dancing for charity?

It isn't just bad reporting, it's irresponsible reporting. I've worked for a few media outlets in this industry in my day, some smaller and some much larger than Kotaku, and frankly I would have known better, they should have too. They should be ashamed of themselves for taking an already largely hated and misunderstood group and just helping foster that hatred by finding a way to tack the word furry next to the word pedophile. I'm a furry, and I'm also a victim of violent and sexual child abuse, so to have the two put together like that just hurts. Though let's see how quick they would be to post an article titled, "Gamer uses games to molest children."

Stuff like this posted on very large blog sites don't help our community, they hurt it severely, but I don't think they have that presence of mind when posting these things. I mean just looking at the comment section of the article, be sure to hit show all comments, and see the level of hatred and vitriol. I'm not talking about the typical, "Fucking furfags!" or "Kill it with fire." comments, but people trolling or sincere are posting in a belief that all furries are sexual deviants, pedophiles and rapists, and Kotaku is allowing these comments! Check out the comment tree from my posts and you'll see a few appalling replies.

Please, tell me what you think of this whole situation, and if you think that crap like this is unacceptable please repost this and link my journal in your own with your own thoughts and feelings on the matter.

Edit: They can't leave well enough alone, the very next day they post an update on the article and once again within the first sentence just have to point out that he is a furry.
http://kotaku.com/#!5793879/digital.....xbox-pedophile

On our way, we'll (Felcat and I) be staying a regrettably short time, late Friday through Sunday evening. If you want to hang out send me a text. If you don't have my number send me a note on FA with your number and I might catch it in time.

Are the interwebbernets just overloaded with gaming podcasts, because I've recently started debating if I should start one up. With almost a decade in the industry working for various companies, running their sites, writing for them, consulting for them, etc, as well as a year+ of live broadcast media in the videogame industry, I thought that maybe I could actually make a half decent one. Would I have any chance of carving out a decent niche?

It wouldn't be furry, just so that it would have a wider potential audience as well as being seen as more professional and less weird by the industry when I want to do interviews and such. But that is not to say that I couldn't occasionally do some FA exclusive ones that I would do with furs in the industry.

I've even been offered web hosting for it, and they would try to get it on iTunes.

What's a better name OmniGamer because I am anti-fanboy and like pretty much every kind of game, while owning every single console and handheld. Or GameSpan, because it's a play off cSPAN and my nickname?

Flights booked, room at Saint Claire booked for just me and my  felcat. Everything seems to be set, going to be much shorter trip than I wanted, just late Fri-Sunday evening, but I have to hedge my bets while I'm unemployed in case I get a call for an interview. Alright so who am I going to hang out with?

26 now.

Edit: for some reason this journal posted twice. Sorry to those that commented on the other one.

A little while back on my favorite forum that I frequent somebody made a thread titled, "Furries Are Filthy Sacks of Awful". The thread reached almost 20 pages before I found it, but since I was a long time regular I made a reply.

A few pages in somebody said the following:
"Man I've truly never met a reasonable furry

do they even exist? Maybe we can get The Spaniard in here to provide some perspective." <-The_Spaniard is my alternate web name.

After nearly 20 pages a lot of comments were made, accusations leveled, and questions asked. So I said the following, which you have to remember is a large reply based on 19 pages of discussion and a few of the things I said may be a little confusing out of the context of the entire thread. Just keep that in mind when you read.

"Ask and ye shall receive.

Since I'm a good sport I shall provide my question answering services to this thread.

The problem with furries is that the group as a whole is very inclusive and accepting of people, it's like the nerd group in high school that accepted all the other outcasts. The issue arises when people who are truly fucked in the head and have crazy ideas and fetishes that see how accepting furries are and go, oh boy I want to be one too! So there are segments of the furry fandom that scare the SHIT out of the larger more normal percentage of furries. That and the fact that lots of fetishes mix and people making fun of furries are oftentimes unable to tell that fetishes aren't always mutually exclusive. So there is a huge percentage of completely normal people with just strange interests/fetishes that are looked down upon when they have no business being over things they may have no part of.

There are also HUGE variations and levels of "furry" problem is that it's always the most vocal that people see most clearly. I mean think about gay. What do you think of when you hear the word gay? Any reasonable person in this thread can tell you that the average gay guy is just a a regular person, but most media interpretations embellish for entertainments sake. I mean how often is the leather wearing, peacock, pride parade, lisping homofag thrust in your face when gay is mentioned or shown on TV?

The whole fursuit thing is grossly exaggerated as well, most research puts it at about 18% of all furries even owning fursuits, and those things cost money. Could you seriously imagine spending between 1 and 5 grand on a costume that you absolutely love and then wanting to jizz all over it? There are people that do, but think about it like this. 18% actually own one, and an even smaller fraction of that 18% ruin them with their juices.

Somebody mentioned SA and furry hate, the funny thing about that is that yes a lot of the anti furry stuff online was actually started by former furries or "burnt furs", people that were furries and got put off for some reason or maybe even booted out and now want revenge. They go around trying to spread as much hate as they can and often times blowing things way out of proportion if not outright lying to succeed in their goals.

Now I don't feel persecuted myself, and a lot of you guys are talking about how furries love to baw about how they are, but the truth is that objectively furries really are fucked with pretty hard core. Really look on the internet and tell me if you think that the amount of shit that furries get is proportional to all the other subcultures out there? That people don't go out of their way to make fun of them. People have tried having cities or hotels shut down their cons just out of spite, by calling up officials and claiming all kinds of wild shit. One internet group recently called a hotel the day before a minor con and talked about how this perverted sex cult was coming that was going to do all kinds of debaucherous things in their hotel. I think it got shut down. Other groups have resorted to finding the personal info of furries and start calling up family members and jobs to disseminate info trying to ruin their lives. Hell just look at the geek subculture hierarchy chart.

Some of the people that really hate on furries are disturbingly militant about it, like KKK etc level, saying they wish furries would die, if one ever came near their children they would kill them and so on. A while back I actually had someone from these forums unprompted tell me that I and all other furries are worse than Hitler. He actually pulled Godwin's law on me.

The funny thing is that with all the people talking about how awful furries are, how they wish they would all die, and they are just social rejects that couldn't carry a normal conversation with a normal person or ever get laid to save their life.. Well I'd be willing to bet that I know a great number of furries that have accomplished more in their lives, and even things to further humanity as a whole than any of the people that hate them so staunchly. And I'm willing to qualify that with examples of things furries I know do, and you guys would be shocked to shit and back to know what kinds of jobs some furries hold. Oh and about the social reject virgin part, some furries are as suave and sophisticated as anybody you will ever meet. Most furries also get laid plenty though regardless of how geeky they are, cause think about it.. really think about it.

Somebody asked about the sexuality split in the fandom. To answer the question it's about a 70/30 split between straight and gay/bi. It's about the same for boy to girl ratio, though I could be mixing up my statistics, it's been a while.

Another few comments were made about number of furries. Conservative estimates put it at about 200 thousand world wide if not more, with the most densely populated location being Southern California, and the place with the biggest furry to non furry ratio being the UK. I live in Southern California and am surrounded by thousands within I'd say a 100 mile radius.

CSI was brought up. Pretty much every furry on the planet is pretty grossed out by that episode, most agree that it was a shameless Hollywoodization that went way over the deep end also making shit up as it went. Seriously satanic music blaring as a group of fursuiters gyrate all over each other on the ground with security standing outside? Yeah...

People wonder where furryness comes from, it's been a subtle part of humanity since the very beginning. The worlds oldest cave paintings, over 50 thousand years old, were a combination of drawings of humans animals, and anthropomorphic art combining the two. Human animal hybrids were worshiped as gods for thousands of years by many societies and religions. This shit is also a huge part of day to day human speech and sexuality. If you watch how you talk on a day to day basis you really start to notice how common it is. I have to piss like a race horse, hung like a horse, kicks like a mule, shags like a minx, he's a bulldog, she's like a cat/animal in bed, etc. Furries seem to have just taken it to the next level.

When you look at the number and variety of fetishes out there are furries really one that needs to be made that much fun of? I mean really is it that much weirder than mister urinal, guys that like to dress up as women and get spanked, clown fetishists, balloon fetishists, scat fetishists, etc?

A few people mentioned bestiality, most furries hate it, consider it animal cruelty, and will report you to the police if you even mention that you are into it. As a matter of fact the worlds largest furry website will ban you instantly on sight if you mention that you molest animals. It's simply not the same thing.

Oh something interesting, there was a furry convention about 2 miles away from me a few weeks ago and KROQ was sharing the hotel, so Stone Temple Pilots and Smash Mouth were trying to crash the dance because they wanted to party with the furries.

P.S. Many of the replies in this thread have been incredibly heartening, IE "Oh no somebody is into something I'm not into, let's hate them!? Big fucking deal." Yeah!"

So this thread started with somebody trying to badmouth furries like so many others, and as I mentioned at the end of my post, the level of actual support for furries was quite amazing. It wasn't even so much support, but people saying, "So what, just leave them alone." Live and let live. The people replying to my post took the thread to a new level and it was then when I truly felt like I did a good deed for the fandom.

"That is a lot of words that I agree with, but wouldn't have had the attention span to post. You rock for posting them."

"The_Spaniard, you totally killed the thread by making a great, intelligent and good-faith effort.

...Thank you?"

I also received this PM:
"Hello!

This is probably going to sound a bit awkward, but, I'd like to say thank you for the well-written and sensible post you wrote in the furry thread in the whining forum. As you've no doubt guessed from my username here on the PA forums, I'm a fur, but generally have kept it quiet due to fear of ridicule; it's very heartening to read something like yours which calmly rebuts a lot of the misconceptions without resorting to whitewashing.

So, in short, thanks again."

The thing is that many furs get overly defensive or militant, or too graphic when it comes to discussing or defending furryness publicly, but I think more people that can calmly and rationally discuss furryness in this situations without glossing over issues and knowing what hot buttons to avoid would do this fandom a lot of good. And if we had more people like that, maybe one day we wouldn't all cringe at hearing that another furry was interviewed on the news before even seeing it. It's a difficult tightrope to walk, and many people would consider it a damned if you do and damned if you don't proposition to talk furry publicly. But with the right people and level of discretion I don't think that doing it should have to be the kind of scarlet letter that it is in the fandom. I mean we shouldn't have to suffer the threats of, "You will be banned from this convention if you talk to the media." Furries are threatening other furries into silence and it's not right. We aren't a bunch of 5 year olds, and the moment that we all acknowledge that some of us are up to the task and do have some kind of charisma and public speaking skill, maybe this self imposed media blackout will end and more of the positive stories will start airing. We already have a couple of well known and respected furs that are really good at being furry mouthpieces, let's see if we can find more.

Just follow the link.

http://consumerist.com/2010/08/best.....up-for-it.html

Someone I considered a friend blocked me on FA, because I didn't talk to them enough? Two way street buddy.

Awesome, while I was in Europe a gag picture I took was used to headline a Gizmodo article.

http://gizmodo.com/5580475/12-gadge.....arrassing-ways

My picture was the playing Peggle on your partners back while making love one. I was trying to go for something really unromantic, embarrassing if you get caught, and hard to explain away. ;3

Forgot to mention I was going, but the trip was nice and relaxing. Didn't do anything super exciting though seeing as I was with my parents the whole time, but I loved the delicious food as always, and even lost weight while doing it. Thought that's probably because I wasn't able to hit a gym for 2 weeks.

We were in a nice restaurant when the final World Cup game was going on, and they had a TV showing it. The waiter was practically pouring drinks in peoples laps because he couldn't take his eyes off the screen. Then I'm pretty sure he ran off to get stoned at one point, when a friend came up to him with a small zippered pouch and a lighter, and told him to take his break.

I also loled a bit, when I was walking along and I heard some loud obnoxious thumping French rap music coming from a car. I turned around and it was a french black guy.

One thing Europe always does is really throw off your gaydar. You'll be all heeeeellooo at some FLAMBOYANT guy and then see him kiss a girl and it will confuse the hell out of you. You're like, what the hell just happened? Europeans really mess with your head in that way, in the way that they act and dress. I've been saying this for years and people that I talk about it with agree with me. Also as fashion savy as Europeans are, there is the occasional style time vortex

I just had an incredibly aggravating experience that I really didn't deserve. I'm not going to name names, because I'm classier than that, but I will explain what happened.

Long story short another industry fur IMed me to shoot the breeze about industry stuff. He started gushing about the 3DS and so did I. Then he stopped me to tell me to say "Hey hey, why don't you listen to me instead of trying to educate me on things I already know." I told him it was a really rude thing to say, but we got over it and continued talking. At one point he explained something to me twice, the first time I let it go, but the second time I mentioned that he didn't need to explain that industry thing to me because I am familiar with it and explained why I was. At that point he snapped at me went off on a tirade, and before I could even reply back to defuse the situation he said screw this and logged off.

Now while we were having this conversation, when things were still civil he linked me to an FA journal of his where he was talking about somebody that called bullshit on his industry credentials and blocked him when he offered to prove himself.

I replied with this:
"I had the exact same thing happen to me several years ago on the #techfurs IRC channel. I had all the evidence on hand when they called bullshit, I had a co-worker come in and verify and even my own boss who was a good friend. They called BS on every piece of evidence as easily faked or just random friends being brought in, and then banned me. Never again going back to that den of retardation and idiocy. It actually encouraged me to make my own IRC channel for gamer furs which I've been running for a few years now. BTW STILL working in the game industry."

Now after raging out of the conversation we were just having I could only imagine he angrily went straight to the journal because he replied to my comment with this:
"Hey, just for anyone watching - just because you happen to write a column or something on the videogame industry or run some shitty website doesn't mean you actually work in the videogame industry. It just means you're some dude who talks about games and gets paid to go to gaming conventions."

I tried to write a reply, but was blocked before I could hit send and reply with this:
"That is an incredibly uncalled for and douchey comment, not to mention completely pulled out of your ass seeing as you have no idea what I've done in the industry in the near decade I've been working in it. I've worked for major companies like IGN/GameSpy, done tech support, retail, did much of the work on and helped run the worlds largest subscription game file website, writing, consulting, broadcast game journalism, run betas, designed and ran contests and advertising campaigns, given multiple speeches on the videogame industry, and had my work in a game or two.

Normally I don't spit out a list, but that was really below the belt and without merit. "

Am I crazy to think this guy just went batshit insane and threw a childish temper tantrum over simple misunderstandings? I mean man on his FA journal he took a blatant cheep shot at me and then blocked me so I couldn't defend myself. You might as well punch a guy while he's tied down. The funny thing is that by blocking me before I could even reply he did to me exactly what he was railing on the guy he made his journal about for. Pot meet kettle.

He mentioned that I give off this air of wanting to prove how much I know about the industry, but the problem is, he didn't understand that whenever I talk about the industry I just start spewing facts about any topic we are talking about. It's part of what gets me hired for consulting and such, with encyclopedic knowledge of the industry any time I talk about it I kinda go off the deep end. It's not with ill intent, it's just how I discuss it.

I'm back from E3, man what a show. Also went to Videogames Live. Tommy outdid himself this time with all the special guests, and as always a really nice guy to talk to. Shane and company, professional as always! I'd be happy to entertain any questions about E3. Pictures and video will come later.

3DS, highlight of show!