Me and the bear (or otter, depending on whose idea you go with!) have been married for 9 years today.

YAY US!

*boogies*

>.>

*horizontal boogies*

. . . It's away!


I'm almost at 10k Amazing, to be frank, considering how rarely I post art. I can't thank folks enough for swinging by and saying hellow over the past year and a half. It's been a crazy ride since I recently dipped my first toe in the fandom and fely all those paws reach up and drag me under sometimes, and at others keep my head bove water. With lots of groping thrown in there on occasion. O.o

Anyway, I know people are wonder and . . . no, I won't be going the 10k commission gift, so get your fingers off F5. Right now I just don't have the time, so I'll pick a random number sometime and do it that way when I am free.

The incredbibly talented  foxamoore (wait, what? You're not watching him? What's wrong with you?? Turn those speakers up and hear - feel - what you're missing!) mentioned on his page that I was doing something for him, and yes I am - that was the new pic I mentioned a couple of journals back. Now do you see why I was a sucker for a new commitment that I promised myself I wouldn't take? :D It's coming along nicely and actually shouldn't take all that long to finish (comparitively, considering how long I usually take) so maybe there might even be new art up this month. *chuckles*

In other news, I've figured out what I'm doing for the MFF charity auction (still a surprise until I make sure it comes out right and I decide how I'll be presenting it), Red's pic is moving along great, Wolfmonkey adds to my musical appreciation on a nightly basis, and I still don't get nearly enough excercise.

Thanks again to everyone who drops by while I'm in work mode! :D

With added family value! :D

http://www.compfused.com/directlink/4995/

. . . and that's probably not going to change anytime soon. *sighs*

work is going great, I love my new job, but I can't post from there and there's no local hotspot for me to post from my laptop on break. I'm still working on Red's commission and even though I swore I wouldn't, I broke my own promise and took on one more pic for someone. Anyone mad at me for putting my foot down previously and saying "no more trades or commissions until 2008" I know, I'm not exactly happy with me either, but I just couldn't turn it down. Sadly I won't be "adopting" the Pride fursuit from Johnnyblanco to turn into Tensik (we couldn't find anyone in our price range for a head that I was going to buy him, not to mention now I just simply can't afford the purchase outright and I won't owe someone money), so Tensik himself won't be making an appearance at MFF like I had hoped. As it is I'm working OT to get my funds back in line to be set for the con so the three of us will be all set in our room and have plenty left over to hit the surrounding area for some serious nomnoms.

So if you've fav'd, watched, commented, drawn something I should see and you're REALLY hurt I didn't see it or say something, please, don't be offended . . . I don't have time for anyone it seems like any more. Not the time I'd like to have.

*licks and hugs everyone he's neglecting and pads back off to drawing*

Every month or so I do some downloading for my big bro and send it off to him, and I've been trying to get him the Hidden Frontier episodes. The queues are huge today though. :/ What other fan shows would people recommend? (NOT JUST FIND ONLINE, ones that they actually think are semi-decent?)

So now the AUP update has been out for a week or two and the effects are being seen.

*sighs* I don't like it. There's too many good folks being affected because they post something that others may not have liked as much, or others abused the medium. I must admit that it's become pretty evident to me that even though I pointed fingers and said that others didn't take into consideration those who showed their contribution to the fandom in different ways, that I was guilty of the same. For that I can't appologize enough. I'm truely sorry.

 Dineegla is one of the people affected by the changes because he does photomorphs. Much of his work is considered to be against the AUP, even though he has permissions. I've seen other artists who purchase stock photography to use, have all the licensing, who are also out of luck because it's a photomorph. Yet remixes, with none of the content created by the user, just premade content rearranged, are allowed and eat up far more space. People can draw trademarked characters left and right and that's allowed here, but people who do legal photomorphs are out. Dineegla's been asking for a reanalysis on the rule and as of my last asking on his journal here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/152649/ there was still no answer.

 hippiemouse is another one. He's not an artist, he takes SL screens. *holds up a hand* I know, I know. Hear me out. I wanted SL GONE; if people couldn't post their characters in other online games, SL folks shouldn't get to do it either. It wasn't until they put in the 3-limit rule and I saw the journals from folks who really depended on that to take part in the fandom and show how they do so that I realized just how unfair I'd been in suggesting that it be done with. (Note: I STILL think that all MMO's should be allowed to have screens here; it's networking, it helps people get the word out that they play X game, and fur guilds and the like in WoW and EQ and Vanguard are as much a part of the fandom as SL, and YES the companies give you permission to post screenshots.) There's been other people posting that they now feel unfairly targeted, and some of them have posted INCREDIBLY well-conceived screens that they took in SL. I was wrong. What can I say?

In the meantime, I've still seen the front page flooded with what is now "legal" art. Scribbly WIP's, doodles and the like. There's rumbles of quality controls that will limit people further as they clean up the "quality" of the site based on someone's opinion, which inevitably will push out more people. Why? Because they're not good enough to be here?

Ask yourselves, is any one of you ballsy enough to stare another fur in the face in RL and say "I belong, and you don't. Take your shit and get out of here, you're not wanted. I'm better than you"? Okay, I know some who would, and I'm embarrassed to know them.

Once again I have to say, if it's legal, allow it to be posted, and put the same rules on everyone: everyone gets a daily upload limit of X number of images. Personally I can't see ANY reason why it should be above one; so people have to wait three days to post three pics. It spreads out the attention and keep people coming back to your page, that's a GOOD thing. People moving galleries here can ask an admin to remove their limit temporarily, or there can be a grace period of a week where new accounts have no upload limit so people CAN move galleries. Keep the "same pic, different pose" spam rule, but extend the "it counts if it's really different" rule to include SL and photomorphs. If the staff were to think that the site could handle three uploads per user per day, even better. But that way EVERYONE has to be considerate, not just one group of users.

I hate to sound cheesy, but it's like that Geico commercial where the caveman says that the Geico commercials are insulting and asks the shrink how she would feel if the commercial said "so easy a therapist could do it". The shrink says that the commercial wouldn't make sense to her, and the caveman says "why, because therapists are smart?" It's like that. It may seem like common sense (as it did to me) that of course, X users are exempt from being treated like everyone else. But it's not. It's unfair targeting of community members. No one is better than others because of what they do here. We should all have the same restrictions.

I'd also advocate dumping any accounts that haven't been logged into for a year. I know a LOT of people make an account, upload some stuff, and never come back past week one. However, they've still watched and fav'd and still are in that circulation of fav-surfing which generates traffic bandwidth to their defunct accounts. Put a three month warning that this policy is going in so that people know that they need to just log into an account to retain it, and then put it on automatic. One person I spoke to made the point that they don't advocate taking down the history of the fandom, but I wouldn't consider FA to be a history site; it's up to the art owner to preserve their work, ultimately.

Anyway, that's my thoughts on it yet again. Good luck to anyone who is fighting to preserve their galleries.

Not because I'm not going (I'm hard enough pressed to go to MFF, not sure I would even want to go to AC to be honest), but because it just reminds me that it's been over a year since I started looking for a printer and distributer and all three fell through, either through complete lack of contact, or in one case a rather spectacular crash and burn in the long run. Still no luck. I can't even find anyplace I can bring my art to to get printed (the adult stuff, that is) to store and market myself. My own printer sucks, and I wouldn't run it off at home unless I had a laser anyway (too expensive) because I hate ink-jet quality unless the printer is as good (and thus as expensive) as a laser.

As such I'm completely at a loss as to what tack I'm going to take at MFF. The absolute last thing I want to do is plop down in artists alley, never see the con, and just churn out sketchbook drawings (especially since I could never charge for anything like that in a million years, since my line art either comes nowhere close to anything else I do, or it takes so long I'd be booking a hotel room to draw for three people). If I did artist's alley, it would be with prints, and doodling for nothing (because it WOULD be doodles, silly stuff for friends and the like, or for people who want to plant their tail and hang for a few while I sketch them and hand their book back); I'd do this because very few people would want their time wasted with a doodle so we all win that way. But with no prints, it's not even worth my time to sit down. So now I'm wondering if I should just leave all the arting stuff at home period.

On the third hand though, I'm going there to see my brother and his mate more than anything, and they'll be doing con stuff, and the "we're perfect furs, learn to be like us" panels have no interest for me; so I'm back to watching DVD's in the room. Then it's a matter of why am I even going.

Ah well. Have fun at AC, everyone.

I'm finally done with my training with my new job, which means I'm back to NIGHT SHIFT starting Monday. I can't chat from work now (except on lunch break, at night, and that's only by phone, no boards or IM's) but at least it means I won't be coming home from work and going straight to bed any more. Man, I hate day shift. I don't think I'll ever operate well on a 9 to 5 again; I miss sleeping in and staying up until 3 AM, you just get so much DONE! Not to mention I REALLY need to get some art done . . . what sucks is I'd just figured out how to do something on Red's commish and then immediately had to switch gears into work mode. I hope I can remember how I did it . . . .

I won't be around much this weekend though, I'm crashing at Ratsmith's tomorrow night after a day out and about his neck of the woods and going to see Ratatouille that night.

A huge thanks to everyone who has watched me over the past two weeks that I've been mostly MIA, or fav'd, or commented . . . and especially a huge thanks to everyone who stood up once again to make sure that all of us, regardless of our talent or their means of creation, continue to have a home here. It's EVERYONE that makes this place someplace to come back to. Never forget that.

Last episode, Dragoneer decided to not only stick his foot in his mouth, but shove it so far down his throat it stuck out his ass and he had to walk lopsided. While no appology for his insulting the render community was forthcoming, the good news is that Poser and DAZ art gets to stay and is subject to the same spam rules as drawn art, with a mix of the SL rules as well (ie. no making an arrangement and posting 50 pictures from different angles; use your heads before you post).

The bad news is that they've made it pretty clear that even though they have a new TOS that is amazingly fair, honest, legal, and follows their previous promises, they're going to be looking for ways to "raise the quality of the site". I know, I know, everyone has their own personal beef about something they have seen here that they think doesn't belong because its a waste of space, but just remember . . . these folks could have lost their art posting priveleges because someone thought they were a waste of space. Just remember that next time it comes to pick and choose who is worthwhile here, because the staff will likely try it again from what they have said.

I still stand by my assertation that if they stopped trying to make rules that blindsided people who suddenly found their work without a home, and instead accepted that they have a massive and diverse community here that should be encouraged instead of griped about because we're all not pedistal-ranking artists, they'd get a lot more donations because people would KNOW that they would reap the benefits of the site fully. I know a lot of people (myself included) who won't send a dime again after the first time they tried this BS, until knowing that they and their watchers and friends won't be told they can't fully participate.

When the new TOS first went up I was psyched, THRILLED, but it's pretty obvious now that it's just the same old same old and the hammer will come down on someone unsuspecting yet again at some point. Guess we'll have to see what another year brings . . . .

As I'm sure many folks have noticed, there's a new TOS up, and for the most part it's GREAT. However, now Dragoneer is considering putting Poser and DAZ art in the same category as South Park generators and trainer card generators; ie. what was once perfectly okay would be banned here. (Note: generator pics of any kind were NEVER okay.)

Here's the thread he suggested that I start on it: http://www.furaffinityforums.net/sh.....7701#pid167701 feel free to weigh on there, preferably, or here if you don't have an account there and don't want to be bothered.

Here's some of the artists who use the programs . . . take a look through their galleries for examples of the art that can be produced with it:

 Challenger
 Saraya
 typhon
 whitedingo
 Ranard_Lightningfall (99.9% sure that's what he uses, my applogies if I am wrong!)
and yes, even  wookiee (it's in his scraps)

I know very well that not everyone will agree on it, but Dragoneer has asked for the pros and cons. If you can lend your imput it would be greatly appreciated. :D

It was just orientation for today, I start learning the actual work tomorrow, but it looks easy enough and pays well. However, I am beat beat beat as not only do I have to train days when I'm still used to night shift hours, but on top of that I still have to go in and work a bit at the station every night for the rest of this week. So, everyone who left a note on the fursuit head thing, thanks and as soon as I can think I'll start sending out e-mails/PM's/and the like (or Johnny, go for it if you want to start doing some contacts) and I'll probably be pretty MIA until the weekend.

*crawls off toward a warm bed*

(Only because I know some really good ones that I would pounce on overseas but I can't afford that shipping. :/)

Why am I looking for someone to build a head? No, not for me . . . for Johnnyblanco! But I'd be paying for it (and someone whom I could make installment payments with on it would be great, or a mix between payment and visual/audio trade at your choice . . . anyone want a commercial? :D ). We're looking for someone to make a lions head, with a black mane, in that happy medium between cartoony and realistically styled. If the jaw moves, even better! He needs it guaranteed to be done before FC. So if this sounds up your alley, drop a post here (which would be best, that way Johnny and I can see it at the same time) or drop me a PM, or any combo of both! Example pics and an estimate would rock. :)

Why am I getting him a head? Because . . .

http://www.thefoxden.com/conpics/in.....s-DSC00078.JPG

http://www.thefoxden.com/conpics/in.....s-DSC00079.JPG

I'm making a trade for the fursuit currently known as Pride. I'm going to retool him and have Tensik in time for Midwest. :D

*boogies*

I love this MySpace meme thing going on. Know why? Because it really just proves what I've been saying right along: FA is more than just art.

I've been watching these pics come through (some of which are hillarious) and watching who has been posting them. The vast majority are by people who by general standards I guess you would call "artists". A huge chunk of the remainder is from people who have their commission collection up (read as: the people who spend money on said artists). A very tiny portion of the meme pics are from people who have nothing up but pictures of their cats or what have you.

It just goes to show that even the artists and the supporters of said artists like having their fun and like hanging out in a "non-art" way. It's a community, not just a gallery, and a goodly number of the artistic community here recognizes that.

Anything that might happen that would put a damper on that fun sense of community for the sake of a few people who nobody looks at anyways because they act like idiots would be a shame.

I swear.

Well, it's been an interesting 24 hours! First off, I got the job that I applied for, which as this one is full time and more money, effectively doubles my annual pay. And paid vacations. And benefits. And all the good stuff. Soooooooo that means that not only will I now be AOK for MFF, but I'll probably be able to help my bro and his mate a bit on that end too, and treat Ratsmith some really spiffy meals as a thanks for the drive (on top of my share of the gas). It also means I'll be good for the road trip and able to pay a good chunk of what I thought I wouldn't be able to afford.

What's more interesting though is at the radio station. I walked in and told them I had a new job, and then had to call the station manager to tell him. He asked me to stay on partpartpart time, around 3 hours a week doing some voice tracking. Sure, no problem (I GET TO KEEP MY KEY AND USE THE STATION!), and then he asked if I'd take over half of Saturday nights. Um . . . okay, but we have someone doing Saturday nights. I said I'd fill in for that guy if he goes on vacation or the like. Weellllllll, then I go out and start chatting with the other DJ's, about how the station is being sold, and rumor has it there will be cutbacks. I knew about that, and of course my position would have been the first to go. Then it clicked . . . the Saturday night guy is the afternoon guy. and if they're doing cutbacks, they're defiinitely not going to want to go any later than 5 PM in our market live, meaning not only would I have lost my shift, they'd cut afternoon too and bump our morning and lunch people up an hour each. That's a very good and educated guess why they want me to take half of them, so that they get someone else still on the slot for when they say "we're sorry, but" to this guy in case he turns down the ten-hour offer too.

I only told the DJ's that I would be available to fill in for this fellow on vacations, not that I was offered every other one. And this guy is really convinced that he's sealed in there and not going to lose his job because he's full time. :/

*frowns slightly*

*turns it into an evil grin*

Mwahahahahahaha.

Soooooooooooooooo I not only retain use of the studio on my own work schedule that I make up as I see fit as long as its not in use *waves to Ice* but on top of that, just got half-handed the most popular time slot on the clock. *boogies*

Now I'm gonna get all religious on your tails. I'm a firm believer that bad things happen because our purpose here is to learn all that we can about being the best being that we can. If something is going wrong, it's because you've got a lesson to learn, and it's up to you to solve it (think of it as a faithful way of saying "shit happens and no one's gonna fix it but you"). I got a massive kick in the head from having to hand over all my MFF money and all my pay, and living off Raman Pride and the like, for that debt that wasn't mine - if you have JUST enough, don't take it for granted, and that's what I was doing. Sure, you might chalk it up to "shit happens", but even so, I know better now than to rest on my laurels and think (HOPE) that everything going right now is just some karma coming back to me, along with a good healthy dose of reward for hard work done at the station and job hunting. But, a grain of thankfulness, whether a person believes anything is listening or not, never hurt.

*trots off to be thankful*

Had a few folks asking about KYFF lately so here's the lowdown:

KYFF is offline until further notice due to several factors. The biggest one is that if things go well, I'll be done at the radio station very shortly, and as such will be without a recording studio. For some reason my computer doesn't want to record (I know its fixable, I just need to work on it some night) but being able to do live runs and hear how the finished piece will sound together, work on scripts in live time, and all that is invaluble; eventually I really will need to contact one of the studios and arrange for booth rental time.

The second big problem is that Ice and I have had what I think the PC-corporate phrase would term a "communicaton breakdown" and as such there's been no movement on the KYFF front, either in writing, recording, or even being able to discuss what's happening. Due to his current situation I don't think that's going to change anytime soon, but it's on his end and there's nothing at all I can do about it except sit here with my thumb up my ass. Yeah, real cranky lion over here on that front. *growls*

No, I am not going to take the KYFF name and add anyone else; KYFF is ME AND ICE, and the name is being reserved for that purpose, I can't take and use it any more than he can (well, I COULD, as I have a logged inquiry to the FCC for the name and therefore a record of intent with the letters, but I won't). No, I'm not going to start working with anyone else in the near future. Yes, if I leave the station and still have recording opportunities through some studio use somewhere and Ice isn't ready to go, I may explore other projects, but that's not something I'm even considering until after MFF at the very least. I have no idea whatsoever what Ice's plans are at this point, so you'd have to ask him.

So that's the deal, sorry the news isn't better folks, but thanks for asking.

Thanks for all the comments and watches lately to anyone that for any reason I didn't get to thank personally. :)

Been busy this week, not only drawing, but doing a lot of planning, job hunting, etc. I had an interview on Friday with a company that I would REALLY like to work for, doing office work that was very similar to my job at Capital One, minus the phones. Buck fifty more an hour more than I am making now (and I just got a dollar raise), full time, with benefits, my favorite hours (3-midnight). I wouldn't be able to be online then but I'm not complaining, I'd be all set for my MFF trip, and also to start saving hardcore for my trip with Wolfmonkey.

Yep, looks like that actually could be a very real possibility! I sent him a bunch of mock-up travel plans so he could pick the kind of road trip he'd like to do (PALEONTOLOGY TRIP!) and right now it looks like we'd be either going one of two ways:

1.) San Diego - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - Moab, UT - Denver, CO - Omaha, NE - my home

or

2.) San Diego - Las Vegas - Salt Lake City - Yellowstone - Black Hills - Home

However, he's also shown interest in some other things too, so we'll have to see. Could be the Smithsonion, maybe go up into Canada . . . who knows?

In other news, I am now the proud owner of a collection of  johnnyblanco originals. He surprised me by pulling my address off an envelope and sending me not only the pics he did of tensik, but also some other pictures, so I now have the originals of:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/562634/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/542209/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/533696/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/524830/

as well as:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/472680/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/411332/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/261265/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/201805/

Which means I now offically have to get a binder for fur art. Ze collection is growing! *hugs johnny*

http://www.funnyordie.com/v1/view_v.....4c7d2583be6925

Kinda NSFW due to language

I've been looking for this song for ages and FINALLY found it last night, as I had no idea the soundtrack had ever been released over here. Anyway, evidently the song is now being used at Space Mountain in Disneyland Paris of all places as part of the cue music! It's actually Ride of the Fire Mares by James Horner from the Krull soundtrack, and I think it's my favorite piece from a movie ever. Link to a (long) clip:

http://www.soundofmagic.com/sounds/.....eFiremares.mp3

So anyway, what's yours?

Today I officially kick off my job hunt by going to the career center to take a typing test. I hate these things . . . I'm a mediocre typer when it comes to narrative or transcribing a paragraph, but when it comes to actual data entry I'm lightning fast once I know what the parameters are and such. The test is needed for a data entry job but the test of course is just copying a paragraph. *rolls eyes* I doubt I'll get a high enough score to apply for data entry, but I should score high enough for a research position at the same company (though I'd really prefer the data entry side of things; it's night shift and no hassle and pays more). There's also an opening at one of the printers in town, which of course COULD be a match made in heaven, but I'm very rusty in Quark and don't know Illustrator at all. Not to metion they have an odd habit of having that position open every two months. I'll have to find out why.

Thanks for all the fav's on Saraya's pic! Since I switched over to the Red Swampwulf Philosophy of Creation ("NO STRESS!") I've been a LOT more productive and I think it was a huge dose of what I needed . . . I've been doing practically nothing but straight commissions for a year now and so I've either been drawing for someone else, or felling insanely guilty that I was drawing for me. Now, I can draw for me again, which will still mean a lot of gift art for other people, but it also means it's fun. I need fun right now. So, I've got two pics going: the last commission on my plate (Red's adult piece) and another g-rated piece. It is the latter that I needed the answer on car permissions on, so thanks to everyone for that! I switched it to a 1967 Ford Mustang convertable, which I then modified a little bit to be a Furd Howler.

Got a weigh-in topic for you! Okay, now in doing the car in this pic, I cheated. I traced the car and then did the modifications. I could have drawn it and brushed off my technical drawing skills, but this was a.) easier and b.) less time consuming and c.) I never leave lines in so the final art appearance would still be mine in the long run anyway. Even so it's still a matter of "grr, there's tracing here . . . . " Then this morning I was flipping through some pics and realized how many people - big names - computer generate their backgrounds, or take photos and blur them to hell, or any variant of not truely using their own hand to produce the art (I'm not talking about render artists, I'm talking about "traditional" digital artists who imput a large amount of generated imagry into their piece). Personally I'd lump fan art where the style must be copied EXACTLY into this same category as that is not the individual's personal way of drawing. Thinking of this I didn't feel so bad for tracing some lines that wouldn't be in the finished piece anyway, but where do you draw the line? At what point should the artist be able to take credit for the piece (or a part of the piece) and at what point would you say "that's not your work"?

I can't find the answer to this one anywhere. :/

Does anyone know how a car design works in using it in art? For example, I know that I can't do a drawing of a Camaro, have the Chevy logo and Camaro name on there prominently, sell it under the brand name, etc. But legally can you draw a car that is recognizably a Camaro, leave off the logos, have it be a major part of the picture (but not the only part of the picture, in this case it would be people in a car), and sell the picture as a print without getting nailed for violations? If you can't, does anyone have any sort of idea of how much variance you'd need before car manufactuerers wouldn't get pissed?

Thanks to everyone for your notes of support recently, it's appreciated more than you could know. I just needed to appologize to everyone for not replying individually, and also for basically not being here at all for the past while. I know I've been neglecting a lot of people but hopefully things will settle down soon and I'll be back to my normal obnoxious self. I say that a lot, don't I? maybe it'll happen someday.

Ratsmith dropped by and hung around with me in the studio for a couple of hours, and nothing like having a good friend around to cheer you right up. After he left I realized I'd never drawn him, and within half an hour I realized . . . I can't draw rats. at all. No, seriously, I REALLY SUCK at rats. XD Any tips? :)

Well, I thought life had been going bad before, but it took a serious backslide even further yesterday: my car got seized by the sherriff's department. Trying to keep an extremely long story short, my identity is seriously mixed up with my sister in law, as we have the exact same name and overlapped addresses at one point. Every once in a while I get collections letters on her accounts, and learned long ago that the best thing to do is keep my mouth shut and wait for the collections agency to figure out they have the wrong person; if I respond, they think I'm lying and they just get harrassing.

So this winter I got yet another one, and as always I ignored it. Then about a month ago I get a letter saying that there was a judgement against me in a court for this credit card that wasn't mine. Whaaaa? Okay, so I send off a letter stating that I never got a notice to appear in court, and that I was requesting no action until I got a court date that I could appear at. I screwed up and sent it to the law office that owned the account, not the court that ruled the judgement, so it was null and void. I never heard anything though, so I thought it was good, until yesterday the cops show up and take my car. Yup, in South Dakota they can do stuff like this without you ever appearing in court, evidently.

Cost of sister-in-law's credit card bill: $2500.00
Cost of lawyer to appear in court to dispute judgement against me and prove the bill isn't mine: $2300.00 (during which time my car would be held in storage until I could prove I should get it back)

So, I paid her bill so I could get my car back. We are now officially brokebrokebroke until the end of the month (luckily we had just paid all the bills and filled the fridge, so we'll live and be fine) and I'm back down to $5 saved up toward MFF, when I'd had all the cash saved and set aside. I'll still be able to take my trip, as I know I can make the money back in time, but it still sucks that the commissions and those 50 hour work weeks just got thrown out the window, effectively, for something that wasn't my problem.

And no, sis-in-law won't pay me back.

I need hugs and a vacation from bad things. :(

The station broke down on Thursday. Something is wrong with the tower, I have no idea what (and neither do they, apparently). This means that with the tower out, no broadcast, and with no broadcast, no DJ, and no money. Since I'm part time, I don't get paid for downtime or holidays, so I'm a week down on pay as it is, and no saying when the tower will be back online. I'd love to say "hey! commissions! it'll make me money!" but right now I need to job hunt because we're just going broke over here. Since I don't know where that will lead, even if somehow I can convince my boss to put me on salary, I think it's best to just say to the folks who had taken the ink ones that because I can't guarantee that I can uphold the timeline and as no one (but red, who is getting a refund on the ink one, I'll finish the color) has paid yet as sketches were not done yet, that I'm going to have to cancel. Sorry. :(

. . . Star Wars Tamagotchi?

So I still get the SWG newsletter, even though I haven't played the game in forever. I was NUTS about this game for a long time, but it had . . . issues. Putting it lightly. XD Sony made a great game, 350,000 subscribed, that wasn't enough for Lucasarts, they demaded more, (CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT), half-assed crap got added with no game issues being fixed, they overloaded everything with godmode because being powerful was fun (one-hit killing Rancors was pretty stupid though). The players got fed up with not being listened to that all they wanted was a game that WORKED and all left for Warcraft. Sony/Lucas's solution? Take everything that was FUN out of the game and dumb it down beyond ridiculousness, let everyone still be god-powerful, and hope that eight year olds were stupid enough to ignore the glaring problems. In doing so, they broke it down from 37 classes to nine, one of which was Jedi. Guess what everyone became?

In nixing classes and making everything (SWG fans, I'm going to use it, the dreaded "I" word, cover your ears) "iconic", they took out one of the best classes of the game: Creature Handler. People were PIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSED, even the non-creature handlers. there's just something about seeing someone walk around on a gi-freakin-normous savage humbaba (think butt-ugly giant camel) to make you a happy camper.

Now, they're bringing it back, in the form of Beast Master. Anyone can be a beast master (ie. now scale each class appropriately instead of just one - *roars laughing about how they never learn* ) and you can collect and trade and you have to keep them happy or they might turn mean. Oy vey. 150 different animals to play with (I think we had something like 350), though I do like that they finally put in pet trading on the Bazaar. other than that, it's just chaos waiting to happen all over again . . . doctors, anyone?

If anyone hears of a pre-CU server opperating on the sly anywhere . . . can you drop me a line? Please? I'm begging here, I have a hair-bug Wook that needs to go back to the REAL SWG.

It's minor good news, but a big relief to me. As it said in my profile I'm slowly moving a ton of my stuff off of here; what will remain is just art that's of import to the FA community in some way (ie. art of, for, or about people here). The rest of it is going up on my own site exclusively from now on. But, one thing that kind of bothered me is that the TOS on the provider I'm using said no obscenety, but that adult stuff needed to be somehow marked off. I hemmed and hawed over how to handle this and put up an 18+ agreement page and ultimately ended up fuzzing out the naughty bits as I posted the adult pieces up.

Well today I get a phone call from the service and of course I'm thinking "that's it, no more tensik.com". Nope, they just wanted to check and make sure I was good with everything, make sure that I had no issues with the features, and all that. While I had the rep on the phone I asked them if how I was handling the adult content was okay and they said "yep, more than okay, you don't have to do anything more than the 18+ page as long as it's legal." WOOHOO! The fuzzed pics come down, the good stuff goes up from now on (no, I haven't changed that yet, but I will). I'd felt like such a snot having to fuzz that stuff out, but I thought they were going to require it.

I also wanted to reach through the phone and hug the rep because she said "It's all legal, right? As in you do have the rights to publish and display the work?" I DID ask for her supervisor and gave her a glowing commendation for asking that, I hope it pays off for her.

Update on the baby, he will be fine. He had surgery on Thursday and is going home tomorrow; I can't remember what the name of the problem was exactly, but it was a fairly common surgery for a birth defect in his throat, and he will make a full recovery. So FINGERS CROSSED, I'll from now on be on normal shift and able to work as usual.

I'm also happy to say I am just a short ways off from having all my con cash, and that will be in hand when the inks are done. I'm sad to say (well, happy for me, but sorry to any hopefuls) that I do NOT plan to offer any more commissions between now and MFF in November. I need some "me" art time next in a bad way. I do though have to thank the folks who did commission me (or who will be upon sketch approval) who made it possible for me to attend my first con. There's no way I could have done it without you. *bows thankfully*

So NOOOOOOOOWWWWWW . . . where I left off, I will finally be shhhhhhhhhhh quiet(er) while everyone's work gets done.