So, I'm seriously considering selling my Surface RT tablet.

Selling points:

- Seen very light use only for note taking in class
- Has never been dropped, banged, or otherwise handled roughly
- No scratches
- 100% Functionality
- Comes with Microsoft Surface Touch keyboard/cover
- Comes with soft case
- Potentially includes a flash drive and/or microSD card

The device is perfectly functional. I'm only considering selling it because my needs exceed the capability of the Windows RT operating system. If you're interested or know someone who may be, give me a shout!

Hey hey everyone!

So, I'm taking another shot at drawing, and I'm focusing on digital because... well, just because. So, for those of you who draw digitally, I need some hardware and software recommendations. I've got a Surface RT that I intend to use primarily, and I'm thoroughly an amateur, so I'm not looking to drop hundreds on a fancy drawing tablet. Honestly, I just want something better than a mouse! Additionally, I'm using MS Paint... And It's not the best, but it works, I guess? Eh, stuff.

Hey everyone!

Meredies currently has this fellow (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5948503/) up for adoption. Go check it out!

Well, I'm trying to. I desperately need one of my brainstorm buddies (you know who you are), but both of my brainstorm buddies are otherwise occupied. Aaaaalllll the frustration.

Well, I might as well hop on this goofy bandwagon for no apparent reason.

I stole this meme from  bering


1. First thing you wash in the shower?

It depends?


2. What color is your favorite hoodie?

You mean my favorite jacket. It's black leather.


3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?

I'd like a plate of nope topped with nope and some nope sauce with a side of nope and a nice tall glass of nope to go with my nope.


4. Do you plan outfits?

My outfits fall into two categories: "normal" or "work". "work" in this case refers to working on vehicles, and includes a specific set of really grungy, oily and otherwise ruined clothes so I don't mess up my "normal" set.


5. How are you feeling RIGHT now?

Content, but restless. I need to write more!


6. What's the closest thing to you that's red?

Um, heck, I dunno. My desk, I suppose?


7. Tell me about the last dream you remember having?

It was unpleasant, and I'd rather not discuss it.


8. Did you meet anybody new today?

Hahaha, that's hilarious. Of course I didn't.


9. What are you craving right now?

Nothing in particular, actually.


10. Do you floss?

No, not really. I do occasionally use this neat device called a Waterpik, though.


11. What comes to mind when I say cabbage?

Something that I'll only eat as part of a salad.


12. Are you emotional?

I try not to be, but I have my moments.


13. Have you ever counted to 1,000?

Nope.


14. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it?

It entirely depends on the form of ice cream delivery.


15. Do you like your hair?

I suppose? I've never really cared much about my hair. It's a thing that's on my head.


16. Do you like yourself?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.


17. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush?

Possibly, but most likely not. I don't like politicians as a general rule.


18. What are you listening to right now?

My air conditioning, at the moment. If you're referring to music, I make a habit of listening to Ratt, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Van Halen, Judas Priest, and the like.


19. Are your parents strict?

They're a pretty even mix.


20. Would you go sky diving?

I could probably be coerced into it without much effort.


21. Do you like cottage cheese?

Eh, it's not my favorite.


22. Have you ever met a celebrity?

I once met Justin Brayton from the Joe Gibbs Racing team, but I'm not sure he's quite at celebrity status...


23. Do you rent movies often?

Rarely.


24. Is there anything sparkly in the room you're in?

Define "Sparkly". If you mean something reflective, there are a number of glass and polished metal items. If you mean precious metals and gems, nope.


25. How many countries have you visited?

Not many. Outside of my native United States, I've only been to Canada, which was on the way to Alaska.


26. Have you made a prank phone call?

I have not, in fact.


27. Ever been on a train?

Yes, actually, during the aforementioned visit to Alaska.


28. Brown or white eggs?

Really don't care.


29. Do you have a cell-phone?

Does anyone not have one these days?


30. Do you use chap stick?

Nope.


31. Do you own a gun?

... ... ... Why exactly do you want to know?


32. Can you use chop sticks?

I certainly can!


33. Who are you going to be with tonight?

Hahahahahahahahahahanobody. *sobs*


34. Are you too forgiving?

I am not a particularly forgiving person, but that is conditional. It entirely depends on the severity of the transgression. If someone has intentionally harmed me, I will not forgive them, or if they make a habit of petty games. If someone actively makes an effort to apologize, I'll usually make an equal effort to forgive them, though the slight will not be forgotten.


35. Ever been in love?

Certainly not by the popular portrayal of love.


36. What is your best friend(s) doing tomorrow (or the next soonest week day)?

I dunno if I have anyone who I'd consider a "best" friend... The only potential candidate is traipsing across Europe at the moment.


37. Ever have cream puffs?

What the heck is a cream puff?


38. Last time you cried?

... I'd really rather not answer this.


39. What was the last question you asked?

"Could you cook with just that?"


40. Favorite time of the year?

Winter, without a doubt. I love the cold, and I love the occasional snow it brings even more. For some odd reason, I'm always happier in the winter.


41. Do you have any tattoos?

I don't, and I have not intention of getting any. I prefer art to be on a page.


42. Are you sarcastic?

I am a very snarky individual when the opportunity arises.


43. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect?

This is a bizarrely specific question. I don't believe that I have, though I could just be forgetting.


44. Ever walked into a wall?

Does an enormous concrete pillar count?


45. Favorite color(s)?

Dark blue. Most of my personal characters that represent me in any way will have dark blue eyes. Two exceptions exist. I'm also very fond of blue eyes in others.


46. Have you ever slapped someone?

I have not, though I have come exceedingly close to backhanding someone before.


47. Is your hair curly?

It's kinda wavy, I guess? I just shower, comb it, and go. As long as it doesn't look completely idiotic, I'm good to go.


48. What was the last CD you bought?

Oh, geez, I don't remember. It's been quite a long time since I've even used a CD player.


49. Do looks matter?

To a point, but I will always consider strength of mind and heart as well as personality before appearance.


50. Could you ever forgive a cheater?

Seven shades of nope. Trust is not something that I am wont to give out, and if you betray that trust, there will be consequences.


51. Is your phone bill sky high?

It's... reasonable, I guess?


52. Do you like your life right now?

It's pretty good. I'm currently caught in a huge transition period right now, so I'm extremely stressed for the most part.


53. Do you sleep with the TV on?

No, I don't have one in my bedroom. With my laptop on and my face on my keyboard? Yes.


54. Can you handle the truth?

I do my best to seek it out. I get very upset when I'm lied to.


55. Do you have good vision?

Eh, kinda. I have to wear glasses, but I can pick out motion very easily. I'm also quite colorblind. If I ever ask you about a color, I'm not kidding. I just can't tell.


56. Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people?

I suppose I do.


57. How often do you talk on the phone?

Very rarely. I find that I do not often have cause to.


58. The last person you held hands with?

Same person as the last one I kissed.


59. What are you wearing?

At the moment? A set of my "work" clothes. A pair of old grease stained jeans and a torn, stained t-shirt. What I usually wear? Blue jeans and a Harley-Davidson or motorsports related shirt, often coupled with a black leather motorcycle jacket should the weather permit.


60.What is your favorite animal?

Most wild canids including foxes, wolves, and coyotes. I've also got a soft spot for viverrids.


61. Where was your favorite picture taken at?

I'm not much of a picture taker.


62. Can you hula hoop?

It's been a very long time, so probably not.


63. Do you have a job?

Not at the moment, but I'm currently looking.


64. What was the most recent thing you bought?

Lunch.


65. Have you ever crawled through a window?

Indeed I have. I once locked myself out of my house. It was fortunate that I remembered that one of my window locks was not functioning properly, and I was able to force it open and get inside. Crisis: averted.


If there's anything you want to know about or if you're just down to chat, don't hesitate to note me. I may not always be talkative or keen on discussing certain subjects, but I appreciate the friendliness!

Dear Spell Check;

Please stop trying tell me that my characters have multiple faces. I did indeed mean to write "hid her face", and not "hid her faces". Additionally, the S'ahl are a species, not an individual. Thank you.

Just a shoutout to all the artists out here who constantly beat themselves up when there's no reason to: Your art is great, and it can only get better from here. Never tell yourself that you can't or dwell on a mistake. The rest of the world does that enough without you helping them. Just keep going, climbing higher and higher. The sky is the limit.

So, does anyone else get needlessly paranoid when someone doesn't respond to a note as quickly as you expect them to, or reads a note and then doesn't respond, or is that just me being a paranoid turd? I dunno.

Well, I got some work done on Sand at least! Not actual story progress, but I've been trying to develop a couple characters some more. You really don't realize how long it takes to design a whole new person from the bottom up until you actually sit down and do it. I'm not even done with one town. Wehh... I think I'll keep knowledge of characters who do not directly interact with the protagonist on a cursory level. If not, I'm going to be designing characters for years! Anyhow, I'm feeling confident. I've got a pretty decent idea of how the plot will develop from here. It may seem to meander and wander from time to time, but it won't stay that way for too long.

Also, I really want to get some of these characters illustrated! The issue is either that I don't have the money, or the artist in question doesn't have time to sit down and work out a ref for a new species with me. All the sadness. I could use recommendations if anyone has some! That would be awfully cool.

15 pages... now that is ironic. As it turns out, I'm still sitting at eight! Between other stuff going on and me just being plain lazy, I literally have neglected writing all flippin' week, and am kicking myself for it. Got to chase issues with my truck, got to order this bit and that bit, got to organize this list, blah, blah, blah. Oh, and for some odd reason, the 'ol R5 absolutely will not get past 72 miles per hour... Yeah. Two strokes are awesome, but they're so darn picky about tuning!

Yes, I am currently neck deep in dialogue. You know, I have always found the construction of dialogue to be exceedingly challenging and arduous. I'm uncertain as to why, but it's proving to be very time consuming. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, of course. What better way to characterize the characters than to observe them communicating with each other? Some action will be coming up soon, though. Maybe not super exciting "massive battles sword fights and explosions" action, but more exploring and venturing action. Hopefully, I'll be at 15+ pages by Friday. I imagine that I'll get much more done each day if I actually begin to write before I'm so tired that I become nearly illiterate!

Hooray.

Thanks for reading!

I'm still working on Sand. Finally made it to a full seven pages of actual story, and nearly forty pages of brainstorming, species designs, world design, etc. I suppose that I feel compelled to create a rock solid foundation of details to make the story feel more authentic. May post some more, but probably not until a while later. I didn't exactly get an overwhelming response to the initial post, and even less of one on the second, positive or otherwise. I suppose I really can't be surprised. FA really isn't a site for writers and readers, and the formatting for written works is atrocious. In that aspect, Weasyl is much more user friendly. Perhaps I will begin linking to my Weasyl instead... Anyway, it's not like I'm getting much exposure anyway. I get a few minutes on the FA main page that practically nobody looks at anyway, and then the only way to find it is with a stray search, especially since I don't post on a regular basis like most of the popular artists on here.

I know it may be asking a lot, but I would really appreciate if whoever reads this could take a peak at the two samples I have and let me know whether or not you'd be interested in seeing the Sand concept fleshed out into a full fledged novel. And yes, I do intend that this be read by general, non-furry audiences. It does involve anthropomorphic characters, but nothing exclusively furry. I realize that, in literature, this is effectively an untouched genre that could lead to one of two conclusions: A) I open the door to a whole new successful genre that proves surprisingly popular, or B) I awkwardly shove my strange creation where it doesn't belong and get laughed out of the building. I suspect that option B is much more likely, but I'm hopeful.

Thanks for reading everyone!

So, I've been designing a number of species which will be featured in Sand at some point. I'm rather pleased with their social and psychological designs, but I can't seem to pin a physical design for two reasons. Primarily, I cannot describe them in terms that do not directly reference known creatures. As such, I feel like I'm just creating a bunch of patchwork monsters that aren't new or unique at all. Secondly, every fur pattern I attempt to design is TOO realistic, TOO practical. I cannot define fine markings or subtle variations. I don't want all the members of each species to have one of three specific markings, I want there to be variations in between, and even outliers which are completely different, but not stupid looking. Too practical... How typical of me. Aaaarghh! It's so frustrating! Any suggestions or ideas would be awesome!

Nineteen pages of world building, write one down, staple it up, twenty pages of world building on the wall.

Hehe, I'm still working on Sand, guys, I promise. I've just been doing a LOT of brainstorming regarding the numerous species which will be featured, as well as the world which they inhabit. Most of 'em are very different from humans, but not all!

Hullo! I'm still working on Sand, but I've been doing a lot of world building to help get everything straight before I dive in head first! Just informing those who may care.

First off, I apologize for the last gripe journal. I just needed to vent a bit. The new writing project I'm undertaking, entitled "Sand" is going as decently as can be determined by a couple of pages. I've got a sinking feeling that dialogue will be my greatest stumbling point. I'm rather quiet and communicate awkwardly, and it comes across in my writing. It's killed a couple of my attempted stories in the past. I'll see what I can do about sticking to my "different angle" idea. It's a huge pain to only have one or two hours per day to work on this, but I'll get it rolling. Just got to keep on plugging away and see where the story takes me!

All I wanted was to do some little doodle to help alleviate my frustration. I figured I'd drawn that little wolf doodle in the past. It's shitty, but I can get better, right? Wrong. I started drawing circles, because all I ever seem to make are potatoes. Lots of potatoes. Then, I went to sketch the body. It's three circles and some lines, right? So, I get something that looks half way mediocre, but now I've forgotten how to do the legs. So, I go and pull up the youtube video, and decide to just start on the back and walk through it, but now I can't draw anything in proportion, and my circles are potatoes again, and my lines are jagged, and twitchy, and don't even look remotely fluid, and my paper is covered in eraser shavings. I eventually say to hell with it, and attempt to sketch the guide lines for the legs, mess up a bunch, but eventually just stick with what I've got. Now, I try to draw the muzzle. The f**** muzzle. And now my wolf is a duck. Then it's a platypus. And now it's a spatula with legs. At this point I'm literally so angry that I'm resisting the urge to gnaw on my eraser. And then I lose the clip for my pencil... *insert inarticulate rage noises here* Now I fully realize that, not only has this attempt gotten worse than the previous one, it's gotten MUCH worse. I'm on the verge of having a panic attack out of sheer frustration. Even with the previous attempt which I considered a decent effort, I was so strung out that I was shaking at the end. I desperately want to draw. To be able to express myself. I have so many ideas that cannot be conveyed through the written word, but for some reason that only god knows, I cannot draw the simplest of things. I understand that my favorite artists whom I aspire to be like have practiced for as long as I've been alive, but still, I cannot see how I may some day see this as FUN. It just feels so unnatural. Writing a commentary or an evaluation feels natural. Building an old motorcycle feels natural. Drawing feels strange. Creative writing and writing stories feels unnatural. I have so many stories but no way to tell them! I cannot endlessly commission artists, or even fully communicate the scope of my ideas to them! What the hell??? FNARKALJLGJELALJARBLGARAGJLAFAEKLJFLAJELFJALLJEOIAFAAAAARGHHHHHH.
Anyway, nobody will read this, as per the usual. Why would they? I'm just some dude, trying to make shitty drawings, and shitty stories because I have no life, and no actual friends whom I can confide in. Hell, I don't even have any online furry buddies!
I just feel so damn awkward. Whenever I'm in a livestream chat or something, and there is a conversation going on, I feel compelled to interject with some random-ass comment which ends up making me look like a fool. Or I just get ignored and fade away. That seems to be the trend for me. And when I try to communicate with an artist directly, I just misinterpret everything, try to insert humor or clarify, and then I get misinterpreted. I guess so much of how I communicate is based off of physical factors: eye movement, gestures, posture, etc. that I am incapable of gauging an appropriate response.
And there you have it. The world's shittiest essay on me feeling like shit and being angry about shit. There is a bunch more, but I figure I ought to quit while I'm ahead and spare the whopping zero people who pay attention to my journals.

So, I have decided to learn how to draw. As it turns out, I have little (read as none whatsoever) confidence in myself, but will try nonetheless. I would greatly appreciate any assistance or tips that anyone can provide. If you have something that you'd like for me to try and draw, I may, but be warned: there is a 90% chance that it will turn out looking like garbage as this is really my first serious effort to go beyond stick figures and smiley faces. I'm just tired of having endless ideas and no way to act on them :(. While writing is fine, it lacks some level of expression as opposed to an image.

TameraAli (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/tameraali/) is holding an art raffle completely free of charge! Head on over and check it out! http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4961611/

Alrighty then, I'm back, and am going to try to focus a little more energy into FA, streams, and other fun stuff. Now, for that question for those few who watch me. I may be looking to get my first large-scale commission. I really don't have any specific details nailed down yet, but it would probably be colored and shaded, and may include up to three characters. The artist would have to work with extremely limited visual reference, but I do have detailed descriptions, and could quickly answer any questions regarding character design. So then, any volunteers or recommendations to speed along my search? Any assistance would be very much appreciated! (I'd also be interested in anyone who is particularly adept at drawing cars)

And probably won't be on much anytime soon.

Selas is gearing up for another stream, so come on over and enjoy the show!

If we manage to get enough of a crowd, she may even sing!

http://www.livestream.com/selasse