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Updates, and More Fursuit Synth Videos!
General | Posted 5 years agoHey everyone, hope you all are well! I figured I'd pop in and update my journal as I do what, like once a year now? Anyway, being stuck inside over the quarantine has given me plenty of time to make several more videos of me playing various songs I enjoy on the Moog Voyager that I use. So here you go, enjoy!
Brian Eno's "I'll Come Running" (As Throttle):
https://youtu.be/ejKy4E5YKIk
Brian Eno's "On Some Faraway Beach" (As Throttle):
https://youtu.be/ibtO9Xw-Mq8
Neon Indian's "Local Joke" (As Throttle):
https://youtu.be/jYmN5K3KynY
The B52's "Planet Claire" (As Triad):
https://youtu.be/X1YAFHFioY4
Brian Eno's "Back in Judy's Jungle" (As Triad):
https://youtu.be/N263Iq9J1xU
In addition, I'm proofreading and getting the next novel for the Anasian Universe (my furry sci-fi universe) edited. Also working on various art, music and writing projects, as usual, while trying to stay sane these days. Stay tuned! ;3
Brian Eno's "I'll Come Running" (As Throttle):
https://youtu.be/ejKy4E5YKIk
Brian Eno's "On Some Faraway Beach" (As Throttle):
https://youtu.be/ibtO9Xw-Mq8
Neon Indian's "Local Joke" (As Throttle):
https://youtu.be/jYmN5K3KynY
The B52's "Planet Claire" (As Triad):
https://youtu.be/X1YAFHFioY4
Brian Eno's "Back in Judy's Jungle" (As Triad):
https://youtu.be/N263Iq9J1xU
In addition, I'm proofreading and getting the next novel for the Anasian Universe (my furry sci-fi universe) edited. Also working on various art, music and writing projects, as usual, while trying to stay sane these days. Stay tuned! ;3
The Rukus Movie
General | Posted 6 years agoThe Rukus movie…
This has been a topic that has been on my mind for some time, and has certainly been an intense, glorious fastball that the Universe threw at me nearly two years ago. Back then, at my previous job at a computer lab in a local community college, my friend and co-worker (also a furry), asked me a simple, innocuous question as I was returning from my smoke break. The interaction went something like this:
Friend: “Hey, have you heard about this new furry documentary that they’re making?”
Me: “Like the Fursonas one?”
Friend: “No, it’s about this furry named Rukus.”
Me, after a very long pause: “How is that spelled?” There’s a furry artist named Rukis, and I wasn’t sure if it was about them.
Friend: “R-U-K-U-S.”
Me: …
I just stared at him dead eyed for a minute.
Him, literally: “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Me: “Um, well…”
I then proceeded to tell him a very, very condensed version of how I and my partner knew Rukus, how he was a good friend of ours from back in the day on the long-defunct lolfurries.org forums that we used to hang out on. How we hung out at a few cons back east, and used to talk on AIM a lot, and how he fought really hard at the end against Scientology, who was tailing him with P.I.’s at FWA 2008 the last time I saw him. He informed me about the movie, and told me there was a trailer out. So, naturally, I went home and watched it after work.
This changed my life. Aside from talking about our shared enthusiasm of cannabis, furry drama, psychedelics, and our love of drawing unusual furry art, we talked extensively about our furry science fiction universes. We both had created, from childhood, these massive, intricate furry worlds and stories that we used to escape from whatever traumas we were experiencing. I’m sure many others in the fandom can relate, which is one of the reasons this movie is so good. More on that later.
Back then, we also thought that no one in the fandom would ever care about our weird art or worlds outside of our offbeat circle of friends. I certainly didn’t. I spent years living in mine, much to chagrin of my federal worker parents and the Fairfax County Public School system, who sent me to therapists, alternative schools, and fundamentalist Christian group homes to get me to focus on normal things like TV, the GOP, George W Bush, Jesus and Football. The post 9-11 Washington, DC area was not a fun place to be if you were an LGBT furry, or any other person who was an aberration from the norm. After years of that, I didn’t talk about it with much of anyone, except for a single friend of mine in Virginia, and Rukus.
Once I saw the trailer, I decided to actually begin to work on my world again. When I heard in one of the reviews that part of the world that he created was going to be in the movie, it got to me in an intense way. His death was something that I was not able to fully process at the time back in 2008, as my father had died a few months prior, and I was in the middle of managing that. What a feeling to be unexpectedly mourning a friend who tragically left us a decade ago. The only thing I could do was to keep my own universe going, and to start producing material for it as some odd way of keeping his memory alive though his support of my universe. If my work ever gets published, you will see his name at the front in every dedication, I promise.
But this essay isn’t about me, or my own creative works. In reality, it’s mostly a way for me to process a movie that, even if I hadn’t have been friends with the subject of the film, still would have had me thinking about the things in life that led me to being a furry. Plus all of the serious struggles I had growing up on the edge of the southeastern US as one in an era where furry is not as widespread as it is today. That, I think, is the power that this movie has. You don’t really know what to expect at first as the director sets everything up. Is this a movie about Rukus? Is this a movie about him? What’s going on here, exactly?
I feel that the movie is about us outsiders as a whole. Juxtaposing the two stories opens up a door that allows us to reflect on ourselves through what is happening to the people in both sides of the film. Coming of age is difficult no matter whom you are, and for some of us, it’s damn near impossible to get though without some scars, it we even do at all. A good friend of mine once said something to me at one of the cons back in the Rukus days that has always stuck with me about being a furry. “None of us get into this who haven’t had something bad happen while we were growing up that brought us here.” While certainly this is not the case for everyone, it definitely was for a lot of us. It was for me, and, as the movie touches upon, it was for Rukus too.
But back to the movie. As someone who also grew up at the edge of the south (I refer to Northern Virginia as the “Diet South”), watching the director and his friend smoking joints, drinking MD 40/40, getting 40’s of OE from the only convenience store in the neighborhood that doesn’t ID and going to punk house parties was very nostalgic for me, except replace the punk houses with death metal ones. Weaving that narrative into Rukus’ takes a little time to set up, but it does so in a way that I personally identified with on both fronts. Plus, the toes-in-the-nose scene is the perfect combo of adorable and gross, and I loved it! The extremely awkward dramas that we all go through while growing up managing our mental health in a world which doesn’t understand it, were played out very well here, painfully so in some cases.
In addition, the way that the actors were used to substitute Rukus’ characters in a meaningful and symbolic way was done very well. Those parts probably pulled at my heartstrings the most, for reasons that I won’t get into here. I had one qualm with the last scene toward the end, where they break the fourth wall and throw you out of the emotional buildup that the scene is producing. However, that qualm was quickly quashed when the rest of the final scenes of the movie played out, especially the animated sequence at the end.
For me, that made the movie. I was already having a ton of emotions spewing out of me after seeing and hearing Rukus’ voice again after a decade, as well as everyone else from those days that I remember, like Sable. But seeing both animations of his universe play out got me more than anything. When I got the news back in November of 2008 about Rukus, after the shock and numbness wore off, it hit me that he would never be able to finish his graphic novel, which added to my sadness. But instead, his universe, which was well informed with quite a bit of heavy esoteric and philosophical concepts (you see the Gnostic concept of the Pleroma come up in one of the drawings early in the film, for example), is now animated, and in a movie that will live on indefinitely in the public domain!
For that, I personally want to thank Brett Hanover, who was kind enough to reach out to me to inform me that the movie was out. You have ensured that our friend’s memory and work will continue to be a part of the furry fandom, and I am very grateful for that. I was also informed that there was video material on the cutting room floor of Rukus and I at a con, where either him or I was holding up one of my old weird psychedelic furry drawings with Rukus saying that it was the best art you’d see all day. I can’t put into words what hearing that meant to me. This whole thing has been an emotional rollercoaster for me, but in a good way.
As Rukus says in the movie, “Everyone misses me, but no one is with me.” Yeah, well, whether you know it or not buddy, we may miss you, and we aren’t there with you, but there’s a lot of you that’s still here with us, and thanks to this movie, it’s not going away anytime soon. I’m sure you’d also admonish me for being so damn sappy about the whole thing, but it can’t be helped!
A lot of furry documentaries seems to me to acknowledge but gloss over the harsher realities of why some of us are here, and that’s okay! We don’t need to be reminded of it all the time, hence the fantasy worlds we build. But sometimes we do, to help us remember and understand that furry is something more than just a fandom, and it’s something more than just an escape from a “normie” world that grows more abusive and toxic each day. What we are doing is nothing short of creating our own world for ourselves. If politicians, corporations and public figures can lie all day long and try to gaslight us into accepting their realities as real for their profit, why shouldn’t we create our own as an alternative?
This is why Rukus and Brett have inspired me to take my own childhood escape from the psychologically damaging aspects of my early life and teens, and turn it into something that everyone can enjoy, contribute to, and escape in. I hope that this movie and story is able to do the same for others. We all have dreams, we all have our stories to tell, and we as furries are in a unique place in that we are part of one of the few subcultures that creates itself as it goes along. Our own cons, events, art, music, books and shows. I feel that this thing is far more important that we realize, and sometimes it takes someone from outside of the fandom to create something that reminds us of this, as Brett Hanover has.
Rukus was one of those people who, looking back on it, was a force of nature. I have so many fond and crazy memories of him. Him dancing euphorically around in that red tail at my first con at AC 2006 (where I ended the con carrying his inebriated ass across the streets of Pittsburgh), venturing into hyperspace with him and Sable (who I always remember having just the best personality around) at FWA 2007, and ominously, him informing us of the Scientology P.I. that was tailing him inside FWA 2008, which was, sadly the last time I saw him. But I will always remember our talks, the fun times we had when I was venturing out into the fandom in person for the first times, and, most importantly, his stories.
At the end of the day, the level of weird synchronicities that have happened to me around this movie has been high, from hearing about it at work of all places, to my friend Khyber Kitsune informing me that he was in it, to Brett Hanover reaching out to me, to the fact that I would have been at the con in the movie if I had moved to Arizona a week later, and everything else, it makes me feel like Rukus is still around, looking out after us as he ventures through the Other World.
Considering the things we talked about back in the day, and what Sable mentions toward the end, he believed in a collective unconsciousness, and I do too. Matter and energy cannot be destroyed, it can only change form. The ones that we lose may be lost in body, but somehow, somewhere, the spirt still lives on.
Thank you again, Brett, for ensuring that our friend and his world continues to be remembered.
Watch the movie at http://www.rukusmovie.com
This has been a topic that has been on my mind for some time, and has certainly been an intense, glorious fastball that the Universe threw at me nearly two years ago. Back then, at my previous job at a computer lab in a local community college, my friend and co-worker (also a furry), asked me a simple, innocuous question as I was returning from my smoke break. The interaction went something like this:
Friend: “Hey, have you heard about this new furry documentary that they’re making?”
Me: “Like the Fursonas one?”
Friend: “No, it’s about this furry named Rukus.”
Me, after a very long pause: “How is that spelled?” There’s a furry artist named Rukis, and I wasn’t sure if it was about them.
Friend: “R-U-K-U-S.”
Me: …
I just stared at him dead eyed for a minute.
Him, literally: “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Me: “Um, well…”
I then proceeded to tell him a very, very condensed version of how I and my partner knew Rukus, how he was a good friend of ours from back in the day on the long-defunct lolfurries.org forums that we used to hang out on. How we hung out at a few cons back east, and used to talk on AIM a lot, and how he fought really hard at the end against Scientology, who was tailing him with P.I.’s at FWA 2008 the last time I saw him. He informed me about the movie, and told me there was a trailer out. So, naturally, I went home and watched it after work.
This changed my life. Aside from talking about our shared enthusiasm of cannabis, furry drama, psychedelics, and our love of drawing unusual furry art, we talked extensively about our furry science fiction universes. We both had created, from childhood, these massive, intricate furry worlds and stories that we used to escape from whatever traumas we were experiencing. I’m sure many others in the fandom can relate, which is one of the reasons this movie is so good. More on that later.
Back then, we also thought that no one in the fandom would ever care about our weird art or worlds outside of our offbeat circle of friends. I certainly didn’t. I spent years living in mine, much to chagrin of my federal worker parents and the Fairfax County Public School system, who sent me to therapists, alternative schools, and fundamentalist Christian group homes to get me to focus on normal things like TV, the GOP, George W Bush, Jesus and Football. The post 9-11 Washington, DC area was not a fun place to be if you were an LGBT furry, or any other person who was an aberration from the norm. After years of that, I didn’t talk about it with much of anyone, except for a single friend of mine in Virginia, and Rukus.
Once I saw the trailer, I decided to actually begin to work on my world again. When I heard in one of the reviews that part of the world that he created was going to be in the movie, it got to me in an intense way. His death was something that I was not able to fully process at the time back in 2008, as my father had died a few months prior, and I was in the middle of managing that. What a feeling to be unexpectedly mourning a friend who tragically left us a decade ago. The only thing I could do was to keep my own universe going, and to start producing material for it as some odd way of keeping his memory alive though his support of my universe. If my work ever gets published, you will see his name at the front in every dedication, I promise.
But this essay isn’t about me, or my own creative works. In reality, it’s mostly a way for me to process a movie that, even if I hadn’t have been friends with the subject of the film, still would have had me thinking about the things in life that led me to being a furry. Plus all of the serious struggles I had growing up on the edge of the southeastern US as one in an era where furry is not as widespread as it is today. That, I think, is the power that this movie has. You don’t really know what to expect at first as the director sets everything up. Is this a movie about Rukus? Is this a movie about him? What’s going on here, exactly?
I feel that the movie is about us outsiders as a whole. Juxtaposing the two stories opens up a door that allows us to reflect on ourselves through what is happening to the people in both sides of the film. Coming of age is difficult no matter whom you are, and for some of us, it’s damn near impossible to get though without some scars, it we even do at all. A good friend of mine once said something to me at one of the cons back in the Rukus days that has always stuck with me about being a furry. “None of us get into this who haven’t had something bad happen while we were growing up that brought us here.” While certainly this is not the case for everyone, it definitely was for a lot of us. It was for me, and, as the movie touches upon, it was for Rukus too.
But back to the movie. As someone who also grew up at the edge of the south (I refer to Northern Virginia as the “Diet South”), watching the director and his friend smoking joints, drinking MD 40/40, getting 40’s of OE from the only convenience store in the neighborhood that doesn’t ID and going to punk house parties was very nostalgic for me, except replace the punk houses with death metal ones. Weaving that narrative into Rukus’ takes a little time to set up, but it does so in a way that I personally identified with on both fronts. Plus, the toes-in-the-nose scene is the perfect combo of adorable and gross, and I loved it! The extremely awkward dramas that we all go through while growing up managing our mental health in a world which doesn’t understand it, were played out very well here, painfully so in some cases.
In addition, the way that the actors were used to substitute Rukus’ characters in a meaningful and symbolic way was done very well. Those parts probably pulled at my heartstrings the most, for reasons that I won’t get into here. I had one qualm with the last scene toward the end, where they break the fourth wall and throw you out of the emotional buildup that the scene is producing. However, that qualm was quickly quashed when the rest of the final scenes of the movie played out, especially the animated sequence at the end.
For me, that made the movie. I was already having a ton of emotions spewing out of me after seeing and hearing Rukus’ voice again after a decade, as well as everyone else from those days that I remember, like Sable. But seeing both animations of his universe play out got me more than anything. When I got the news back in November of 2008 about Rukus, after the shock and numbness wore off, it hit me that he would never be able to finish his graphic novel, which added to my sadness. But instead, his universe, which was well informed with quite a bit of heavy esoteric and philosophical concepts (you see the Gnostic concept of the Pleroma come up in one of the drawings early in the film, for example), is now animated, and in a movie that will live on indefinitely in the public domain!
For that, I personally want to thank Brett Hanover, who was kind enough to reach out to me to inform me that the movie was out. You have ensured that our friend’s memory and work will continue to be a part of the furry fandom, and I am very grateful for that. I was also informed that there was video material on the cutting room floor of Rukus and I at a con, where either him or I was holding up one of my old weird psychedelic furry drawings with Rukus saying that it was the best art you’d see all day. I can’t put into words what hearing that meant to me. This whole thing has been an emotional rollercoaster for me, but in a good way.
As Rukus says in the movie, “Everyone misses me, but no one is with me.” Yeah, well, whether you know it or not buddy, we may miss you, and we aren’t there with you, but there’s a lot of you that’s still here with us, and thanks to this movie, it’s not going away anytime soon. I’m sure you’d also admonish me for being so damn sappy about the whole thing, but it can’t be helped!
A lot of furry documentaries seems to me to acknowledge but gloss over the harsher realities of why some of us are here, and that’s okay! We don’t need to be reminded of it all the time, hence the fantasy worlds we build. But sometimes we do, to help us remember and understand that furry is something more than just a fandom, and it’s something more than just an escape from a “normie” world that grows more abusive and toxic each day. What we are doing is nothing short of creating our own world for ourselves. If politicians, corporations and public figures can lie all day long and try to gaslight us into accepting their realities as real for their profit, why shouldn’t we create our own as an alternative?
This is why Rukus and Brett have inspired me to take my own childhood escape from the psychologically damaging aspects of my early life and teens, and turn it into something that everyone can enjoy, contribute to, and escape in. I hope that this movie and story is able to do the same for others. We all have dreams, we all have our stories to tell, and we as furries are in a unique place in that we are part of one of the few subcultures that creates itself as it goes along. Our own cons, events, art, music, books and shows. I feel that this thing is far more important that we realize, and sometimes it takes someone from outside of the fandom to create something that reminds us of this, as Brett Hanover has.
Rukus was one of those people who, looking back on it, was a force of nature. I have so many fond and crazy memories of him. Him dancing euphorically around in that red tail at my first con at AC 2006 (where I ended the con carrying his inebriated ass across the streets of Pittsburgh), venturing into hyperspace with him and Sable (who I always remember having just the best personality around) at FWA 2007, and ominously, him informing us of the Scientology P.I. that was tailing him inside FWA 2008, which was, sadly the last time I saw him. But I will always remember our talks, the fun times we had when I was venturing out into the fandom in person for the first times, and, most importantly, his stories.
At the end of the day, the level of weird synchronicities that have happened to me around this movie has been high, from hearing about it at work of all places, to my friend Khyber Kitsune informing me that he was in it, to Brett Hanover reaching out to me, to the fact that I would have been at the con in the movie if I had moved to Arizona a week later, and everything else, it makes me feel like Rukus is still around, looking out after us as he ventures through the Other World.
Considering the things we talked about back in the day, and what Sable mentions toward the end, he believed in a collective unconsciousness, and I do too. Matter and energy cannot be destroyed, it can only change form. The ones that we lose may be lost in body, but somehow, somewhere, the spirt still lives on.
Thank you again, Brett, for ensuring that our friend and his world continues to be remembered.
Watch the movie at http://www.rukusmovie.com
New Fursuit/Synth Videos! Eno, Herbie Hancock, and Gorillaz
General | Posted 6 years agoMade a few more videos over the last few months of me playing various songs I like on the Moog while in fursuit:
Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach, by The Gorillaz:
https://youtu.be/XBmJRTz-b2Q
Rockit, by Herbie Hancock:
https://youtu.be/4HwVRXHOY6k
Here Come the Warm Jets, by Brian Eno:
https://youtu.be/qgFgIApRN6Y
Have fun!
Also, the reason you haven't seen much art lately is that I'm focusing on writing another short story/novella/whatever for the Anasian Universe (titled "The Winds of Altaura", keep an eye out soon!), which has been taking most of what little creative energy my job leaves me with at the end of the week. Once I get that done, I plan on working on more art for you all. ;3
Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach, by The Gorillaz:
https://youtu.be/XBmJRTz-b2Q
Rockit, by Herbie Hancock:
https://youtu.be/4HwVRXHOY6k
Here Come the Warm Jets, by Brian Eno:
https://youtu.be/qgFgIApRN6Y
Have fun!
Also, the reason you haven't seen much art lately is that I'm focusing on writing another short story/novella/whatever for the Anasian Universe (titled "The Winds of Altaura", keep an eye out soon!), which has been taking most of what little creative energy my job leaves me with at the end of the week. Once I get that done, I plan on working on more art for you all. ;3
New Fursuit/Synth video to Have a Cigar by Pink Floyd!
General | Posted 7 years agoSo recently I got around to making another video with the fursuit and the synths. Since it seemed appropriate at this point in history, I did "Have a Cigar" by Pink Floyd:
https://youtu.be/Lpfd1fOXVDg
>;3
https://youtu.be/Lpfd1fOXVDg
>;3
Plans and updates for the sci-fi universe and comic!
General | Posted 7 years agoHey everyone, I know I haven't posted a real journal in a while, but I figured that now's the time, since I have a lot of creative projects in store for the near-future. Since the "real" world is currently a pretty horrible place right now, I figured that I'd help by providing plenty of material for people to use to get away from it for a while. Which is why I've been putting a lot of time and energy into my furry sci-fi universe (with the help of 
anjel of course, who is also writing for the universe). I just finished a long, 61-page story for the Anasian Universe, "Invasion", with at least seven or more short stories in the works. I'm also going to be recording an audiobook soon for "A Movable Fortress", the second story in the Anasian Universe.
And for the fans of Outfoxing The 5-0, don't worry, I'm still working on it. In fact, (spoiler alert) it is currently in the process of being incorporated into the sci-fi universe as a (I know, I know) parallel universe. So there will be plenty more of that to come as well, with me working on a few more pages soon, and eventually writing future stories that tie it into the sci-fi universe.
I should have the new story, "Invasion" uploaded very soon, and the audiobook to follow over the next few months. The next story that I'm writing for the Anasian Universe involves the Phalanaxian War that you hear about in the previous three stories. We are are currently working to create enough short stories to create an anthology novel for the universe. In addition, I'll soon be re-working my Patreon to center around the sci-fi universe as well.
There are a lot of fun things on the horizon with all of this, so stay tuned! :D
anjel of course, who is also writing for the universe). I just finished a long, 61-page story for the Anasian Universe, "Invasion", with at least seven or more short stories in the works. I'm also going to be recording an audiobook soon for "A Movable Fortress", the second story in the Anasian Universe. And for the fans of Outfoxing The 5-0, don't worry, I'm still working on it. In fact, (spoiler alert) it is currently in the process of being incorporated into the sci-fi universe as a (I know, I know) parallel universe. So there will be plenty more of that to come as well, with me working on a few more pages soon, and eventually writing future stories that tie it into the sci-fi universe.
I should have the new story, "Invasion" uploaded very soon, and the audiobook to follow over the next few months. The next story that I'm writing for the Anasian Universe involves the Phalanaxian War that you hear about in the previous three stories. We are are currently working to create enough short stories to create an anthology novel for the universe. In addition, I'll soon be re-working my Patreon to center around the sci-fi universe as well.
There are a lot of fun things on the horizon with all of this, so stay tuned! :D
Firm Findings in the Radio-Wastes
General | Posted 8 years agoJourneying across the flat brown wastes of upper Nebraska, I came across a strange man (or man-like being) who smelled of butyric acid and synthesized civet musk. Standing in the dilapidated ruins of a former Methodist Church (the Martydom of Memphis movement having wiped out most of the midwestern churches two years prior after the Burning of Omaha in 2156), this lump of a man lit a phosphorous beacon in the remnants of the steeple, signaling me to pull my electrogravitic van over.
I pulled up in the grainy, radio-dust coated field and flicked my hi-beams. You think I'm stupid enough to just waltz out of my vehicle well past the green-zone borders and wait for whatever these living tumors out here have in store for me? This ain't my first rodeo, cowboy. I zipped up my lead-lined jacket, strapped on the good ol' face-filter, powered up my D-E pistol and waited for the man. I wasn't supposed to meet my contact out here until I got to Casper, but the Syndicate has been known to move drop sites at the last minute. Besides, if he had what I think he had, it would all be worth it in the end. The holy grail to someone like me...
But first, two sharp taps on my window. The rotting smell of acrid hate. The man. He was very old, and had been in the wastes for quite some time, judging by the three large growths festering in the recesses where his cheeks should be. He wore an old military uniform from one of the old coastal city-states, with a gray wool blanket around him. He held himself up on an odd metal staff, and motioned me to pull my van under the awning next to the church. I did so, parked, and followed him inside.
We entered the remnants of the church, and I was happy to be out of the cutting chill of the wind. He removed the gray blanket and hobbled over to a table and chairs, where he motioned me to sit. Without saying a word, he pulled out a large box. Sweat began beading on my forehead as I watched him reach in. If this was the item I needed, then my people might have a life free of the dreariness of this late world. Of course, it could just as easily be a gun, waiting to dispatch me to another place. Anywhere was better than here.
No, instead, he pulled out a green and battered Asimina fruit, a knife, and a spoon. He halved the fruit, and began disgustingly devouring the pale-yellow flesh, black seeds dripping down his chin. I began suspecting that I had been lured in by another nutjob. No surprise there. Odd that such a wretch should have such a valuable item as a pawapaw fruit, especially since the majority of the eastern woodlands were vaporized in the conflict. I guess fresh fruit is one of the perks of Syndicate work.
"Whatever happened to midwestern hospitality?" I asked, "Aren't you going to share?"
The saliva coated yellow flesh of the odd fruit glistened off his teeth as he shot me a strange grin. Wordlessly, he reached into the box again. He nodded his malformed head as he pulled out an oddly shaped.... something.
"This was found by the Tweaker Horde under the atomic glass that covers the ruins of Phoenix." The man's voice was gravelly, and rasped with years of breathing the sandpaper air of the radio-wastes. "You know what it is?"
I reached my hand toward the artifact and felt it. It was unlike anything I had ever come across. It was shaped like; well, I don't know how to describe it. It was conical, and sat on some type of small attached pedestal. The feeling when I held it: firm, but soft, solid, but flexible. Made of an unknown material. It matched the description I was given. I had never seen anything like it in my life, but I knew that this was the item.
"How much?" I asked.
"A syndicate representative will contact your handlers when the time is right for payment." Came the reply. Quite a nebulous answer, even for the Syndicate. But I was just an errand boy, and that was none of my business. I held in my hands the salvation of my people, and I'd be damned if anything was going to stop me now.
"Old man, do you know what this is?" I had to assess the severity of the situation. If he or the Syndicate had any idea what this was...
He wiped the pawpaw grease from his face with the edge of the gray blanket. "Oh yes. And I know who you are."
I grabbed the artifact and whipped out the D-E pistol. "Then you know what this means to me, and what I'll do to ensure it's safe delivery to my people."
The cancerous old man got up, and hobbled his way over. Grabbing my pistol-hand and raising his face to mine, he allowed me to swim in his rank odorousness until my eyes started watering. "Kill me if you want, you'd be doing me a favor. Okay. You want to talk payment? Get me out of this place. Take me with you."
"What?"
"Take me with you. I hate Nebraska. I hate the Syndicate. The Interior is hell. I want to live out my last days with my people." He paused, "Who are also your people."
"What are you talking about?" I was fairly incredulous at this point, but who wouldn't be?
"I was one of you before the Martyrdom and the Burnings, and I got stuck here. My contacts in the southwest found the artifact, and I had you sent here. I want to frolic with my people once more before I die." He pointed a finger to his facial tumors. I felt a pang of sympathy for this wretched husk of a man. If he was being truthful, how I could I avoid assisting one of my own?
"Okay." I removed his hand from my wrist. "Grab your stuff quickly and let's go."
We took about a half an hour to round up his meager possessions, and then back to the van. You can imagine my shock when I felt the cool metal of his walking stick hit me hard in the left temple. Through the extreme pain and the stars in my eyes I saw the man grab the artifact and the keys to the van. He jumped up and down like some kind of deranged radioactive gnome and screamed at me as he entered my van.
"HA! YOU FOOL! I NOW HAVE THE FABLED DRAGON DILDO OF DESTINY AND WHEN I BRING IT BACK TO THE FANDOM THEY WILL HAIL ME AS THEIR KING! KING OF THE FURRIES! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He threw the other half of his civet-soaked pawpaw fruit at me as I lay in the dusty carpet of carcinogens. As the electrogravitic van lifted off into the putrid sky, I uttered my final phrase of this journal as I began to black out.
"Son of a bitch..."
I pulled up in the grainy, radio-dust coated field and flicked my hi-beams. You think I'm stupid enough to just waltz out of my vehicle well past the green-zone borders and wait for whatever these living tumors out here have in store for me? This ain't my first rodeo, cowboy. I zipped up my lead-lined jacket, strapped on the good ol' face-filter, powered up my D-E pistol and waited for the man. I wasn't supposed to meet my contact out here until I got to Casper, but the Syndicate has been known to move drop sites at the last minute. Besides, if he had what I think he had, it would all be worth it in the end. The holy grail to someone like me...
But first, two sharp taps on my window. The rotting smell of acrid hate. The man. He was very old, and had been in the wastes for quite some time, judging by the three large growths festering in the recesses where his cheeks should be. He wore an old military uniform from one of the old coastal city-states, with a gray wool blanket around him. He held himself up on an odd metal staff, and motioned me to pull my van under the awning next to the church. I did so, parked, and followed him inside.
We entered the remnants of the church, and I was happy to be out of the cutting chill of the wind. He removed the gray blanket and hobbled over to a table and chairs, where he motioned me to sit. Without saying a word, he pulled out a large box. Sweat began beading on my forehead as I watched him reach in. If this was the item I needed, then my people might have a life free of the dreariness of this late world. Of course, it could just as easily be a gun, waiting to dispatch me to another place. Anywhere was better than here.
No, instead, he pulled out a green and battered Asimina fruit, a knife, and a spoon. He halved the fruit, and began disgustingly devouring the pale-yellow flesh, black seeds dripping down his chin. I began suspecting that I had been lured in by another nutjob. No surprise there. Odd that such a wretch should have such a valuable item as a pawapaw fruit, especially since the majority of the eastern woodlands were vaporized in the conflict. I guess fresh fruit is one of the perks of Syndicate work.
"Whatever happened to midwestern hospitality?" I asked, "Aren't you going to share?"
The saliva coated yellow flesh of the odd fruit glistened off his teeth as he shot me a strange grin. Wordlessly, he reached into the box again. He nodded his malformed head as he pulled out an oddly shaped.... something.
"This was found by the Tweaker Horde under the atomic glass that covers the ruins of Phoenix." The man's voice was gravelly, and rasped with years of breathing the sandpaper air of the radio-wastes. "You know what it is?"
I reached my hand toward the artifact and felt it. It was unlike anything I had ever come across. It was shaped like; well, I don't know how to describe it. It was conical, and sat on some type of small attached pedestal. The feeling when I held it: firm, but soft, solid, but flexible. Made of an unknown material. It matched the description I was given. I had never seen anything like it in my life, but I knew that this was the item.
"How much?" I asked.
"A syndicate representative will contact your handlers when the time is right for payment." Came the reply. Quite a nebulous answer, even for the Syndicate. But I was just an errand boy, and that was none of my business. I held in my hands the salvation of my people, and I'd be damned if anything was going to stop me now.
"Old man, do you know what this is?" I had to assess the severity of the situation. If he or the Syndicate had any idea what this was...
He wiped the pawpaw grease from his face with the edge of the gray blanket. "Oh yes. And I know who you are."
I grabbed the artifact and whipped out the D-E pistol. "Then you know what this means to me, and what I'll do to ensure it's safe delivery to my people."
The cancerous old man got up, and hobbled his way over. Grabbing my pistol-hand and raising his face to mine, he allowed me to swim in his rank odorousness until my eyes started watering. "Kill me if you want, you'd be doing me a favor. Okay. You want to talk payment? Get me out of this place. Take me with you."
"What?"
"Take me with you. I hate Nebraska. I hate the Syndicate. The Interior is hell. I want to live out my last days with my people." He paused, "Who are also your people."
"What are you talking about?" I was fairly incredulous at this point, but who wouldn't be?
"I was one of you before the Martyrdom and the Burnings, and I got stuck here. My contacts in the southwest found the artifact, and I had you sent here. I want to frolic with my people once more before I die." He pointed a finger to his facial tumors. I felt a pang of sympathy for this wretched husk of a man. If he was being truthful, how I could I avoid assisting one of my own?
"Okay." I removed his hand from my wrist. "Grab your stuff quickly and let's go."
We took about a half an hour to round up his meager possessions, and then back to the van. You can imagine my shock when I felt the cool metal of his walking stick hit me hard in the left temple. Through the extreme pain and the stars in my eyes I saw the man grab the artifact and the keys to the van. He jumped up and down like some kind of deranged radioactive gnome and screamed at me as he entered my van.
"HA! YOU FOOL! I NOW HAVE THE FABLED DRAGON DILDO OF DESTINY AND WHEN I BRING IT BACK TO THE FANDOM THEY WILL HAIL ME AS THEIR KING! KING OF THE FURRIES! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He threw the other half of his civet-soaked pawpaw fruit at me as I lay in the dusty carpet of carcinogens. As the electrogravitic van lifted off into the putrid sky, I uttered my final phrase of this journal as I began to black out.
"Son of a bitch..."
JOURNAL #XQ12-R
General | Posted 8 years agoHey everyone, figured I'd post a semi-serious journal for a change. Got a lot of stuff going on these days, but it's all good. Finally starting to do what I went to school for, and hoping to get a better job soon. Aside from that, I've been working on the next few pages of the comic, and Anjel and I have hashed out enough narrative for it to create a decade's worth of material. There's a lot coming up, I just have a keep working on it. ;3
Also, and even more cool, is the fact that we finally got our furry incense company, Anthro Esoterica, off the ground a few weeks ago. If anyone saw the Furluminati booth at past AZFCs, this is the stuff we were selling incense-wise. To those who don't know yet, we are making furry-themed blends of various incense resins, such as Foxy Frankincense, Oh Myrrh!, and Pleasant Pine Marten Resin. We will also be creating more blends and other products as time goes on, so be sure to check it out here: http://http://anthroesoterica.com/
So, other than that, I'm just trying to keep on making art and music when I can, and hopefully getting back into being more active in the fandom again, since it's a far superior alternative to the mess that is the "Real World" these days. See you around! ;3
Also, and even more cool, is the fact that we finally got our furry incense company, Anthro Esoterica, off the ground a few weeks ago. If anyone saw the Furluminati booth at past AZFCs, this is the stuff we were selling incense-wise. To those who don't know yet, we are making furry-themed blends of various incense resins, such as Foxy Frankincense, Oh Myrrh!, and Pleasant Pine Marten Resin. We will also be creating more blends and other products as time goes on, so be sure to check it out here: http://http://anthroesoterica.com/
So, other than that, I'm just trying to keep on making art and music when I can, and hopefully getting back into being more active in the fandom again, since it's a far superior alternative to the mess that is the "Real World" these days. See you around! ;3
NEW FURSUIT VIDEOS HOLY CRAP!!!!!
General | Posted 8 years agoHAY GUIZ I WANNA BE A FURY TOOOOOOOOOOO! ==================^__________________________________^==================
https://youtu.be/OjVX0PJVoUE
https://youtu.be/lvlPtyNODao
https://youtu.be/0FUXdqzt6E0
https://youtu.be/Ot3LdMAocKA
https://youtu.be/YXMR27y6sLs
https://youtu.be/H4alAuD_NC4
And some old ones I've probably posted before:
https://youtu.be/fKviWp8Os_I
https://youtu.be/46hNtVJJpdI
>;3
https://youtu.be/OjVX0PJVoUE
https://youtu.be/lvlPtyNODao
https://youtu.be/0FUXdqzt6E0
https://youtu.be/Ot3LdMAocKA
https://youtu.be/YXMR27y6sLs
https://youtu.be/H4alAuD_NC4
And some old ones I've probably posted before:
https://youtu.be/fKviWp8Os_I
https://youtu.be/46hNtVJJpdI
>;3
Like looking into the eye of God... (Solar Eclipse)
General | Posted 8 years agoOh man, where to begin?
So, last week, I left for Oregon, to see Anjel, and also a TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE! Yes, you know the one... Now, I've been a lifelong astronomy buff, and since I was a little kid, I've always made it a point to catch as many awesome astronomical events as I can. Comets Hale Bop and Hyakutake, that crazy green comet that blew up about ten years ago and became the largest object in the solar system for a bit, numerous lunar eclipses, a few partial solar eclipses and even the annular solar eclipse and final Venus transit in 2012 (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3484762/ ). But nothing, not all of those experiences (except maybe the annular), nor all the drugs or mystical/esoteric systems in the world could compare to seeing the totality of a solar eclipse. It was literally the most profound experience of my life. If you don't believe me, here's a video of me "totally" losing my shit as totality hits and Double-Rainbowing like never before in my life:
https://youtu.be/nGT4Y5qrKuA
(There's also a song our band did right before I left inspired by the whole thing: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24589743/ )
Of course, the bizarre and uncomfortably intense Kabbalistic and YHVH-themed acid trip I was coming down off of from the night before had nothing to do with that, and I would have had that same reaction while stone-sober. I've been waiting literally three decades to experience that, and now I'm hooked. Since the vast majority of pictures do not capture even 5% of what you actually see, I've found a couple that get close:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DHzpYE3V0AA8BdE.jpg
And especially: https://visitidaho.org/content/uplo.....12/Eclipse.png
As I learned in 2012 during the annular eclipse, about five minutes before the sun is covered (generally after three-quarters of it is gone), you start having an intense and uncontrollable feeling of anxiety and awe, as your mind knows what is happening, but your body doesn't. However, it stopped there during the annular, and went a step further with the total. Instead of watching the fiery ring take and then lose shape, the last sliver of sun fades as the Diamond Ring Effect and Bailey's Beads pop in for a few seconds. Of course, if you're smart (and not the President), you have your little cardboard glasses on, so you don't see them. That doesn't matter though, as you take them off when they turn black.
Then you find yourself completely unprepared for what you see. None of the pictures you've seen even come close, except maybe the two I posted above. No comparison. However, instead of pure white, the corona and photosphere shine with an ethereal light blue and yellow color that you've never seen before. Not only that, the streamers shoot across the sky, a considerable distance from the sun. You see every wispy detail of the million-degree plasma flooding into space, making a loose shape of an eye in this case. In the middle, an almost-dark moon, illuminated just enough by the Earth's albedo to make out the mares and little else.
Finally, the most impressive display occurs at the end, as the gravity of the moon (I assume) bends the light along the leading and trailing edges of the lunar disk into the one of the few visible examples of the Doppler Effect (and General Relativity?) you can perceive with your naked eye. The leading edge is coated with a thin but bright blue light, while the trailing edge has the red light. In this red light then appear the prominences, equally red, followed by the Bailey's Beads shining through the valleys on the moon. These give way to the Diamond Ring again, and then the crescent sun. If you're lucky (like me, though not recommended), you didn't put your glasses back on until the Diamond Ring, and saw it all for a split-second. If you're also like me, it will be one of, if not the most profound and beautiful thing you will ever see in your life, and if you DON'T come out of it as a changed person, then I'm sorry. That really sucks for you. (I'm looking at you, Neil DeGrasse "Oh it was only a solar eclipse, I don't see what everyone's getting so excited about, they happen every two years!" Tyson. If you can't feel excitement at something like this you need to turn in your Astronomer Card and become an accountant or something!)
We are now planning subsequent trips to chase future eclipses. We are already looking into a ranch near Waco for the 2024 Texas total eclipse, and there's another annular one going by that area, I think, in 2023? After that I'm also thinking about northern Spain for 2026 and Barcelona or Gibraltar for 2027. Maybe Chile too in 2024 or 2027. I've already chased two of these, and I have to catch more...
What other fun details were there? Anjel got to take temperature measurements for NASA during the two hour process (more on that here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8382262/) Oh yes, we got to see Venus come out just after one of the planes that was trailing the eclipse flew past. I didn't see the waves on the ground (since I was on a farm in the grass), but the bees went away, some flowers closed in the dark. Our furry friend in AZ DuBois stopped by for totality with his partner and took some awesome pictures. Afterwards, in an almost ridiculously patriotic display only suitable for the "Great American Eclipse", a good near-dozen bald eagles filled the skies above us, and I got to see them in the wild for the first time. Make of that what you will... ;3
At least until I flew back to Phoenix (more on that later), I felt that all of the personal and terrestrial hardships that we all have to face right now on this planet are very small and insignificant in the greater scheme of the universe (not that they aren't a legitimately big deal to us, of course). We live on a planet that has a moon that is almost exactly 400 times smaller, but 400 times closer than our sun. Moreover, our planet is not considered to be massive enough to have attracted an object with as much mass as the Moon, and the general consensus is that an asteroid plowed into the Earth, and the debris coalesced into an object that can perfectly occult the Sun, giving the domesticated primates on the planet the occasional view into the inner workings of the original God of humanity, the Sun, as he is joined with the original Goddess, the Moon. This was one of those times when the impressive scientific facts combined with the intensely spiritual nature of the actual experience came together in such a way as to completely prove the science vs. religion folks to all be a bunch of sophomoric assholes who can't comprehend how little we actually know about things. But we can learn, and this eclipse has given humanity just that, just when it needs it the most.
Heh heh, anyway... It was the peak of a great and exhausting weekend. We got to visit the Oregon Coast, as well as an awesome tall waterfall (one of many I hear) in the currently dry semi-rainforest in the coastal mountains near Tillamook, where all your semi-fancy cheese comes from. In addition to seeing a lot of the tall trees (and identifying a few potential incense-resin bearing trees, such as the Incense Cedar, and many, many sticky conifers), we saw what was probably the best Pink Floyd cover act on the night before the eclipse. Naturally, they played Dark Side of the Moon, but after that, they played all the good older stuff, especially a lot of the Live at Pompeii stuff, which fucking thrilled me, having never heard them live. We also helped a friend out who was so dedicated to seeing the eclipse with us that he drove up from nor-cal with a baseball-sized brown recluse bite and ensuing staph infection on his ankle. Thankfully, he got to the hospital and got on meds before we went out for the eclipse. I also managed to get great pics of Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Mt. Rainier and some Cascade volcanoes on the flight in. A whole bunch of other things happened that were mentioned in Anjel's journal (once again, here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8382262/ ), which I'll let her recap, since I haven't written anything this long since I finished college. :D
Oh yes, how can I forget the return trip? So the day that I flew back, the traffic was horribly congested around the Portland area, so I was really worried that I'd miss my flight which was due out of Portland at 2, and getting back to Phoenix around 5: 30. Fortunately, I missed my flight, and round up taking a later one and hanging out with Anjel for a bit. This was fortunate, as I come to find out when I'm getting on my flight, that the Asshole-in-Chief has decided to sully Phoenix with his presence, and had just landed right has my previous flight would have. Apparently, the flight I missed was stuck on the tarmac for an hour while that shitsmear landed. However, Phoenix Police were still gassing people downtown by the time I got back, and I was remarking to myself that the only other major western leader in modern times that still held rallies after they gained power was another diminutive and flatulent little sociopath who also had a gas-fetish...
Fortunately, the high from a total solar eclipse is not one that fades quickly, and I've found it easier to re-integrate myself into this increasingly fucked up society at the brink of civil and nuclear war. I've looked directly into the eye of the Divine, or God, or whatever you want to call it, and even if everything goes up in a thermonuclear cloud, I will die happy, imagining the Sun's glorious corona one last time as the technological equivalent wipes my atoms from existence...
https://youtu.be/W3ZE4NgagYU
...But since that's pretty fucking depressing and morbid, even for me, I'll leave it on the optimistic side of things. We live in a vast and immensely fascinating universe that far dwarfs us all. In it is new stuff to learn every day. This species in general needs to overcome this terrestrial primate herd mentality of "Everyone but my group isn't human and should be treated like filth or destroyed", and realize that once we manage to overcome the fascistic push to extremes in the sociopolitical sphere, and come to a place where everyone can be equal, we can finally evolve. Not just one group, but all of us, together. Once we overcome things like poverty and hatred, we can finally reach our true potential as a spacefaring species, no longer limited to only our, as a good friend once put it, gorgeous sphere. It's important that we work on this immediately to ensure the future of our species. Otherwise, this glorious sight shared by me and millions of others across the country might never be seen and appreciated by human eyes again.
That can not be allowed.
So, last week, I left for Oregon, to see Anjel, and also a TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE! Yes, you know the one... Now, I've been a lifelong astronomy buff, and since I was a little kid, I've always made it a point to catch as many awesome astronomical events as I can. Comets Hale Bop and Hyakutake, that crazy green comet that blew up about ten years ago and became the largest object in the solar system for a bit, numerous lunar eclipses, a few partial solar eclipses and even the annular solar eclipse and final Venus transit in 2012 (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3484762/ ). But nothing, not all of those experiences (except maybe the annular), nor all the drugs or mystical/esoteric systems in the world could compare to seeing the totality of a solar eclipse. It was literally the most profound experience of my life. If you don't believe me, here's a video of me "totally" losing my shit as totality hits and Double-Rainbowing like never before in my life:
https://youtu.be/nGT4Y5qrKuA
(There's also a song our band did right before I left inspired by the whole thing: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24589743/ )
Of course, the bizarre and uncomfortably intense Kabbalistic and YHVH-themed acid trip I was coming down off of from the night before had nothing to do with that, and I would have had that same reaction while stone-sober. I've been waiting literally three decades to experience that, and now I'm hooked. Since the vast majority of pictures do not capture even 5% of what you actually see, I've found a couple that get close:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DHzpYE3V0AA8BdE.jpg
And especially: https://visitidaho.org/content/uplo.....12/Eclipse.png
As I learned in 2012 during the annular eclipse, about five minutes before the sun is covered (generally after three-quarters of it is gone), you start having an intense and uncontrollable feeling of anxiety and awe, as your mind knows what is happening, but your body doesn't. However, it stopped there during the annular, and went a step further with the total. Instead of watching the fiery ring take and then lose shape, the last sliver of sun fades as the Diamond Ring Effect and Bailey's Beads pop in for a few seconds. Of course, if you're smart (and not the President), you have your little cardboard glasses on, so you don't see them. That doesn't matter though, as you take them off when they turn black.
Then you find yourself completely unprepared for what you see. None of the pictures you've seen even come close, except maybe the two I posted above. No comparison. However, instead of pure white, the corona and photosphere shine with an ethereal light blue and yellow color that you've never seen before. Not only that, the streamers shoot across the sky, a considerable distance from the sun. You see every wispy detail of the million-degree plasma flooding into space, making a loose shape of an eye in this case. In the middle, an almost-dark moon, illuminated just enough by the Earth's albedo to make out the mares and little else.
Finally, the most impressive display occurs at the end, as the gravity of the moon (I assume) bends the light along the leading and trailing edges of the lunar disk into the one of the few visible examples of the Doppler Effect (and General Relativity?) you can perceive with your naked eye. The leading edge is coated with a thin but bright blue light, while the trailing edge has the red light. In this red light then appear the prominences, equally red, followed by the Bailey's Beads shining through the valleys on the moon. These give way to the Diamond Ring again, and then the crescent sun. If you're lucky (like me, though not recommended), you didn't put your glasses back on until the Diamond Ring, and saw it all for a split-second. If you're also like me, it will be one of, if not the most profound and beautiful thing you will ever see in your life, and if you DON'T come out of it as a changed person, then I'm sorry. That really sucks for you. (I'm looking at you, Neil DeGrasse "Oh it was only a solar eclipse, I don't see what everyone's getting so excited about, they happen every two years!" Tyson. If you can't feel excitement at something like this you need to turn in your Astronomer Card and become an accountant or something!)
We are now planning subsequent trips to chase future eclipses. We are already looking into a ranch near Waco for the 2024 Texas total eclipse, and there's another annular one going by that area, I think, in 2023? After that I'm also thinking about northern Spain for 2026 and Barcelona or Gibraltar for 2027. Maybe Chile too in 2024 or 2027. I've already chased two of these, and I have to catch more...
What other fun details were there? Anjel got to take temperature measurements for NASA during the two hour process (more on that here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8382262/) Oh yes, we got to see Venus come out just after one of the planes that was trailing the eclipse flew past. I didn't see the waves on the ground (since I was on a farm in the grass), but the bees went away, some flowers closed in the dark. Our furry friend in AZ DuBois stopped by for totality with his partner and took some awesome pictures. Afterwards, in an almost ridiculously patriotic display only suitable for the "Great American Eclipse", a good near-dozen bald eagles filled the skies above us, and I got to see them in the wild for the first time. Make of that what you will... ;3
At least until I flew back to Phoenix (more on that later), I felt that all of the personal and terrestrial hardships that we all have to face right now on this planet are very small and insignificant in the greater scheme of the universe (not that they aren't a legitimately big deal to us, of course). We live on a planet that has a moon that is almost exactly 400 times smaller, but 400 times closer than our sun. Moreover, our planet is not considered to be massive enough to have attracted an object with as much mass as the Moon, and the general consensus is that an asteroid plowed into the Earth, and the debris coalesced into an object that can perfectly occult the Sun, giving the domesticated primates on the planet the occasional view into the inner workings of the original God of humanity, the Sun, as he is joined with the original Goddess, the Moon. This was one of those times when the impressive scientific facts combined with the intensely spiritual nature of the actual experience came together in such a way as to completely prove the science vs. religion folks to all be a bunch of sophomoric assholes who can't comprehend how little we actually know about things. But we can learn, and this eclipse has given humanity just that, just when it needs it the most.
Heh heh, anyway... It was the peak of a great and exhausting weekend. We got to visit the Oregon Coast, as well as an awesome tall waterfall (one of many I hear) in the currently dry semi-rainforest in the coastal mountains near Tillamook, where all your semi-fancy cheese comes from. In addition to seeing a lot of the tall trees (and identifying a few potential incense-resin bearing trees, such as the Incense Cedar, and many, many sticky conifers), we saw what was probably the best Pink Floyd cover act on the night before the eclipse. Naturally, they played Dark Side of the Moon, but after that, they played all the good older stuff, especially a lot of the Live at Pompeii stuff, which fucking thrilled me, having never heard them live. We also helped a friend out who was so dedicated to seeing the eclipse with us that he drove up from nor-cal with a baseball-sized brown recluse bite and ensuing staph infection on his ankle. Thankfully, he got to the hospital and got on meds before we went out for the eclipse. I also managed to get great pics of Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Mt. Rainier and some Cascade volcanoes on the flight in. A whole bunch of other things happened that were mentioned in Anjel's journal (once again, here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8382262/ ), which I'll let her recap, since I haven't written anything this long since I finished college. :D
Oh yes, how can I forget the return trip? So the day that I flew back, the traffic was horribly congested around the Portland area, so I was really worried that I'd miss my flight which was due out of Portland at 2, and getting back to Phoenix around 5: 30. Fortunately, I missed my flight, and round up taking a later one and hanging out with Anjel for a bit. This was fortunate, as I come to find out when I'm getting on my flight, that the Asshole-in-Chief has decided to sully Phoenix with his presence, and had just landed right has my previous flight would have. Apparently, the flight I missed was stuck on the tarmac for an hour while that shitsmear landed. However, Phoenix Police were still gassing people downtown by the time I got back, and I was remarking to myself that the only other major western leader in modern times that still held rallies after they gained power was another diminutive and flatulent little sociopath who also had a gas-fetish...
Fortunately, the high from a total solar eclipse is not one that fades quickly, and I've found it easier to re-integrate myself into this increasingly fucked up society at the brink of civil and nuclear war. I've looked directly into the eye of the Divine, or God, or whatever you want to call it, and even if everything goes up in a thermonuclear cloud, I will die happy, imagining the Sun's glorious corona one last time as the technological equivalent wipes my atoms from existence...
https://youtu.be/W3ZE4NgagYU
...But since that's pretty fucking depressing and morbid, even for me, I'll leave it on the optimistic side of things. We live in a vast and immensely fascinating universe that far dwarfs us all. In it is new stuff to learn every day. This species in general needs to overcome this terrestrial primate herd mentality of "Everyone but my group isn't human and should be treated like filth or destroyed", and realize that once we manage to overcome the fascistic push to extremes in the sociopolitical sphere, and come to a place where everyone can be equal, we can finally evolve. Not just one group, but all of us, together. Once we overcome things like poverty and hatred, we can finally reach our true potential as a spacefaring species, no longer limited to only our, as a good friend once put it, gorgeous sphere. It's important that we work on this immediately to ensure the future of our species. Otherwise, this glorious sight shared by me and millions of others across the country might never be seen and appreciated by human eyes again.
That can not be allowed.
Getting back into art mode for the summer
General | Posted 8 years agoNow that my out of state cons are done for the year, and since it's going to be at least 120F/near 49C degrees here in a couple of days, I've decided that it's time to hole myself up inside and finally get back to work on some art and music stuff, since it's been several months and I finally don't have too much to do irl.
We got started yesterday evening by seeing if I could play the Moog with a fursuit head on, in the dark, without my glasses:
https://youtu.be/46hNtVJJpdI
Hey, if Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder can Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, then I have no excuse... ;3
Now that that's out of the way, I'm planning on working on the comic today, and maybe even a redraw of some old ass shit I drew in 1999 that some friends want me to do. After that, maybe music. We'll see. ;3
Since music and cannabis are to me what spinach is to Popeye, I'll post a bunch of the music that I'm going to be using to get my ass in gear. Both for my convenience, and hopefully your enjoyment. Yes, I'm a little obsessed.
https://youtu.be/0zuRQc-AE9M
https://youtu.be/aHNQCdWOfdM
https://youtu.be/JV3QOPsCgXg
https://youtu.be/TMt1Oy5uQ0w
https://youtu.be/wbIMx2MYNXk
https://youtu.be/H75ivqdjgCg
https://youtu.be/iR02brvoPRA
https://youtu.be/YitVQuOBuLc
https://youtu.be/pN9u6qf3yKY
https://youtu.be/IrF00Hjhutk
https://youtu.be/k96zk09uyjU
https://youtu.be/O8OE4gedQuc
https://youtu.be/yteZ0DupPNA
https://youtu.be/48PJGVf4xqk
https://youtu.be/yai4bier1oM
https://youtu.be/4DaSh7KoJgE
https://youtu.be/HEluoeMLTCI
https://youtu.be/dAK2j27fwO0
And away we go...
We got started yesterday evening by seeing if I could play the Moog with a fursuit head on, in the dark, without my glasses:
https://youtu.be/46hNtVJJpdI
Hey, if Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder can Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, then I have no excuse... ;3
Now that that's out of the way, I'm planning on working on the comic today, and maybe even a redraw of some old ass shit I drew in 1999 that some friends want me to do. After that, maybe music. We'll see. ;3
Since music and cannabis are to me what spinach is to Popeye, I'll post a bunch of the music that I'm going to be using to get my ass in gear. Both for my convenience, and hopefully your enjoyment. Yes, I'm a little obsessed.
https://youtu.be/0zuRQc-AE9M
https://youtu.be/aHNQCdWOfdM
https://youtu.be/JV3QOPsCgXg
https://youtu.be/TMt1Oy5uQ0w
https://youtu.be/wbIMx2MYNXk
https://youtu.be/H75ivqdjgCg
https://youtu.be/iR02brvoPRA
https://youtu.be/YitVQuOBuLc
https://youtu.be/pN9u6qf3yKY
https://youtu.be/IrF00Hjhutk
https://youtu.be/k96zk09uyjU
https://youtu.be/O8OE4gedQuc
https://youtu.be/yteZ0DupPNA
https://youtu.be/48PJGVf4xqk
https://youtu.be/yai4bier1oM
https://youtu.be/4DaSh7KoJgE
https://youtu.be/HEluoeMLTCI
https://youtu.be/dAK2j27fwO0
And away we go...
BLFC was also a blast!
General | Posted 8 years agoBLFC this year was great, and huge. I guess it's like, the third largest con now? Not bad. Considering it's location inside a giant building that is psychologically designed to keep you inside and disconnected from the real world, it's a good choice of venue. And, unlike last year, I didn't get punched in the back by some drunk casino-goer, which is always good. What was even better was the fact that Nevada accepted my AZ medical card, and I was able to stay pretty high and functional, considering that I get pretty debilitating hip and back problems at cons after the second day or so.
But the best part, of course, was seeing and hanging out with lots of old friends, and a few awesome new ones. It was great seeing people i hadn't seen in years after dropping out of being active in the fandom irl for a bit. We also got to help out TonyaSong get ready for her show with PepperCoyote, made some silly videos of me in my fursuit "singing" some of the songs I like (that you will never hear played at furry cons), ate a bunch of gut-churning casino food, took fursuit pics around 9000 feet in the Sierras in the snow in June, smoked a J on the beach at a members-only yuppie-warren on the shores of Lake Tahoe, watched a bunch of normos on acid walk into the casino and start screaming at me and everyone else when their fear and loathing vacation got real, the mystery of what the hell a Dutch Angel Dragon was (and why it was Dutch, since there were no windmills, wooden shoes, or pot), and the even more bizarre and indecipherable answer when we finally asked one, plus a bunch of other fun things. Oh yeah, and babyfurs clad only in diapers and the inability to handle their hallucinogens screaming down my goddamn hallway at 5 am... not so fun. But yes, overall, a full and fun con. Crazy, but not in an FWA 2007 or final Rainfurrest way, if you catch my drift. ;3
I'll post some pics here, and here are those videos. They are furry, silly, kinda stupid and were a lot of fun. The next videos will hopefully be in landscape orientation too, so they'll be easier to watch (if anyone actually does! :D)
https://youtu.be/toNbPd7Bn7g
https://youtu.be/HEWWWzoZjdI Phone's battery died at the best part of the song....
https://youtu.be/ul6aWYlAS9c
And now that that's all said and done, it's summer here in the Phoenix area, which is the perfect time to stay inside and work on art and music, which I have been really, really behind on, what with taking care of real life shit like an IRS audit immediately before and after the con. Thanks real world! Protip: Fuck doing your own taxes. You'll pay for it later one way or another.
Anyway, since I don't have to go to boring-ass work until tomorrow, I'm going out with some music that absolutely nobody asked for! :D
https://youtu.be/g0v_P-Z-lSU
https://youtu.be/55HvpAPdbug
https://youtu.be/4WWqQCCzItc
https://youtu.be/ujLS3pM47FY
Someone finally uploaded full albums of this.... Ah, there is hope for the world yet! :D
But the best part, of course, was seeing and hanging out with lots of old friends, and a few awesome new ones. It was great seeing people i hadn't seen in years after dropping out of being active in the fandom irl for a bit. We also got to help out TonyaSong get ready for her show with PepperCoyote, made some silly videos of me in my fursuit "singing" some of the songs I like (that you will never hear played at furry cons), ate a bunch of gut-churning casino food, took fursuit pics around 9000 feet in the Sierras in the snow in June, smoked a J on the beach at a members-only yuppie-warren on the shores of Lake Tahoe, watched a bunch of normos on acid walk into the casino and start screaming at me and everyone else when their fear and loathing vacation got real, the mystery of what the hell a Dutch Angel Dragon was (and why it was Dutch, since there were no windmills, wooden shoes, or pot), and the even more bizarre and indecipherable answer when we finally asked one, plus a bunch of other fun things. Oh yeah, and babyfurs clad only in diapers and the inability to handle their hallucinogens screaming down my goddamn hallway at 5 am... not so fun. But yes, overall, a full and fun con. Crazy, but not in an FWA 2007 or final Rainfurrest way, if you catch my drift. ;3
I'll post some pics here, and here are those videos. They are furry, silly, kinda stupid and were a lot of fun. The next videos will hopefully be in landscape orientation too, so they'll be easier to watch (if anyone actually does! :D)
https://youtu.be/toNbPd7Bn7g
https://youtu.be/HEWWWzoZjdI Phone's battery died at the best part of the song....
https://youtu.be/ul6aWYlAS9c
And now that that's all said and done, it's summer here in the Phoenix area, which is the perfect time to stay inside and work on art and music, which I have been really, really behind on, what with taking care of real life shit like an IRS audit immediately before and after the con. Thanks real world! Protip: Fuck doing your own taxes. You'll pay for it later one way or another.
Anyway, since I don't have to go to boring-ass work until tomorrow, I'm going out with some music that absolutely nobody asked for! :D
https://youtu.be/g0v_P-Z-lSU
https://youtu.be/55HvpAPdbug
https://youtu.be/4WWqQCCzItc
https://youtu.be/ujLS3pM47FY
Someone finally uploaded full albums of this.... Ah, there is hope for the world yet! :D
ESCAPISM 2017!
General | Posted 8 years agoWell, 2017's in full swing. My mate is in another state, the political situation is unspeakable, and the world is sitting on the edge of their seats for the first time since, what, '84 or '86, waiting for the billowing mushroom clouds of our collective future (or lack thereof) to start rising. And furries are even having their cons shut down by... ahem, MLP Nazis, lol. My. Little. Pony. Nazis. Oh, but what a world we live in, eh? >;3
But your pal Triad who occasionally drops by the internet and refers to himself in the third person, is trying not to stress it all. As my man Robert Anton Wilson puts it:
https://youtu.be/llLY9VUKpRM
So I've been taking that advice to heart. Thankfully, since my last journal, I got myself on medical weed finally, since AZ decided not to fully legalize it. So, in the last couple months, I've been enjoying all that that lovely market has to offer. Now, after finally getting toward the end of years of real life shit to deal with, I've been getting good and medicated and trying to force the old "creativity" or whatever out. So, after getting (slightly) tired of the same old stuff I've been listening to lately, I decide to get nostalgic and go find some of the old stuff I listened to. So, for the sake of getting high and leaving the world for a bit, here's a bunch of random ass shit I've been listening to lately. Hopefully it can get me motivated to get my ass going on some music and more art again, and give you something to listen to for a bit. :3
So a month or to ago I was looking for some Moog stuff to get me going on my synths again:
https://youtu.be/uWqw0DQLEm0
https://youtu.be/StlGAIOywLY
https://youtu.be/PC7k_IKnbAs
Somehow this reminded me of the first source of my love of synthesizers, funk, and of course, furry stuff. This of course was my 90's upbringing of loads of ritalin, adderall, and the old Sonic games. And while I am still scratching my head decades later at what happened to that franchise and fandom post '97 (though I worked for Sega long enough to know about Sammy and the Yakuza), I will still say that the music and art style from the first five or so games was glorious, and I haven't touched a console game since. In addition, I finally found a link between the music of Sonic CD and George Clinton that I always suspected existed.
This song by Xaiver features George Clinton (in full coke-mode), Boosty Collins and the gang, including Sir Nose:
https://youtu.be/0dpU5suqksY
Great, right? Well, apparently it got sampled into the boss music for the Japan/Europe version of Sonic CD, which I never heard as a kid since I live in the US:
https://youtu.be/Vjb2asrjv-o
Also in line with the whole 80's synth things with me lately, I also discovered the original version of the Sonic 3 Ice Cap Zone song:
https://youtu.be/H2OWC5Hosv8
But no one wants to hear me geek out on that shit. So here's a long list of Triad's stoned music for the first quarter of this bizarre year. Hail escapism!
https://youtu.be/z9nkzaOPP6g
https://youtu.be/BDhJU_cNCZE Oh that Moog bass.... ;3
https://youtu.be/NNjrBUzXDJk dat vocoder...
https://youtu.be/DRCgueckAXE Oh man, speaking of vocoders, the end of this is great, Paul McCartney aside... ;3
https://youtu.be/GpGEeneO-t0 You know the first song you get high to? Yup. ;3
https://youtu.be/0S13mP_pfEc EARLY synthesizer
https://youtu.be/nwSA0Tckwbk What is Psychedelic Rock? "It's where the pyramid meets the eye" - Roky Erickson, >;3
https://youtu.be/Ntk7Ec9PeW8
https://youtu.be/PH5JvU19_YQ
https://youtu.be/z7nZwFEeS0A Figured out the synth part to this one pretty quick.
https://youtu.be/mnBwWFulRwM
https://youtu.be/4mugz8sjCDs
https://youtu.be/kEUX9k0npgA
https://youtu.be/3GE-sfEbJ7I This song has one of my favorite synth effects.
https://youtu.be/pBk20ujrZZU Gonna fursuit to this at cons. >;3
https://youtu.be/dFtLONl4cNc This one too. :3
https://youtu.be/wGVog6wUG9s
https://youtu.be/BZhfFXEMMI4
https://youtu.be/NRweyGHJ3bc Every time someone mentions nazis to me these days.
https://youtu.be/DVVVhmMtM38 Speaking of the Residents...
https://youtu.be/VXa9tXcMhXQ Speaking of Kraftwerk :p
https://youtu.be/cEfS98F89Ho Wow, I still get flashbacks on this one...
Oh and there's so much more, but, like all furry journals, few will read this, so I'll stop here. But if I'm wrong, I figure I'll also let you all know that I'm gonna be at BLFC with Anjel in a few weeks, doing shit like this around the con:
https://youtu.be/fKviWp8Os_I
See you there. >;3
But your pal Triad who occasionally drops by the internet and refers to himself in the third person, is trying not to stress it all. As my man Robert Anton Wilson puts it:
https://youtu.be/llLY9VUKpRM
So I've been taking that advice to heart. Thankfully, since my last journal, I got myself on medical weed finally, since AZ decided not to fully legalize it. So, in the last couple months, I've been enjoying all that that lovely market has to offer. Now, after finally getting toward the end of years of real life shit to deal with, I've been getting good and medicated and trying to force the old "creativity" or whatever out. So, after getting (slightly) tired of the same old stuff I've been listening to lately, I decide to get nostalgic and go find some of the old stuff I listened to. So, for the sake of getting high and leaving the world for a bit, here's a bunch of random ass shit I've been listening to lately. Hopefully it can get me motivated to get my ass going on some music and more art again, and give you something to listen to for a bit. :3
So a month or to ago I was looking for some Moog stuff to get me going on my synths again:
https://youtu.be/uWqw0DQLEm0
https://youtu.be/StlGAIOywLY
https://youtu.be/PC7k_IKnbAs
Somehow this reminded me of the first source of my love of synthesizers, funk, and of course, furry stuff. This of course was my 90's upbringing of loads of ritalin, adderall, and the old Sonic games. And while I am still scratching my head decades later at what happened to that franchise and fandom post '97 (though I worked for Sega long enough to know about Sammy and the Yakuza), I will still say that the music and art style from the first five or so games was glorious, and I haven't touched a console game since. In addition, I finally found a link between the music of Sonic CD and George Clinton that I always suspected existed.
This song by Xaiver features George Clinton (in full coke-mode), Boosty Collins and the gang, including Sir Nose:
https://youtu.be/0dpU5suqksY
Great, right? Well, apparently it got sampled into the boss music for the Japan/Europe version of Sonic CD, which I never heard as a kid since I live in the US:
https://youtu.be/Vjb2asrjv-o
Also in line with the whole 80's synth things with me lately, I also discovered the original version of the Sonic 3 Ice Cap Zone song:
https://youtu.be/H2OWC5Hosv8
But no one wants to hear me geek out on that shit. So here's a long list of Triad's stoned music for the first quarter of this bizarre year. Hail escapism!
https://youtu.be/z9nkzaOPP6g
https://youtu.be/BDhJU_cNCZE Oh that Moog bass.... ;3
https://youtu.be/NNjrBUzXDJk dat vocoder...
https://youtu.be/DRCgueckAXE Oh man, speaking of vocoders, the end of this is great, Paul McCartney aside... ;3
https://youtu.be/GpGEeneO-t0 You know the first song you get high to? Yup. ;3
https://youtu.be/0S13mP_pfEc EARLY synthesizer
https://youtu.be/nwSA0Tckwbk What is Psychedelic Rock? "It's where the pyramid meets the eye" - Roky Erickson, >;3
https://youtu.be/Ntk7Ec9PeW8
https://youtu.be/PH5JvU19_YQ
https://youtu.be/z7nZwFEeS0A Figured out the synth part to this one pretty quick.
https://youtu.be/mnBwWFulRwM
https://youtu.be/4mugz8sjCDs
https://youtu.be/kEUX9k0npgA
https://youtu.be/3GE-sfEbJ7I This song has one of my favorite synth effects.
https://youtu.be/pBk20ujrZZU Gonna fursuit to this at cons. >;3
https://youtu.be/dFtLONl4cNc This one too. :3
https://youtu.be/wGVog6wUG9s
https://youtu.be/BZhfFXEMMI4
https://youtu.be/NRweyGHJ3bc Every time someone mentions nazis to me these days.
https://youtu.be/DVVVhmMtM38 Speaking of the Residents...
https://youtu.be/VXa9tXcMhXQ Speaking of Kraftwerk :p
https://youtu.be/cEfS98F89Ho Wow, I still get flashbacks on this one...
Oh and there's so much more, but, like all furry journals, few will read this, so I'll stop here. But if I'm wrong, I figure I'll also let you all know that I'm gonna be at BLFC with Anjel in a few weeks, doing shit like this around the con:
https://youtu.be/fKviWp8Os_I
See you there. >;3
ESCAPISM 2017!
General | Posted 8 years agoWell, 2017's in full swing. My mate is in another state, the political situation is unspeakable, and the world is sitting on the edge of their seats for the first time since, what, '84 or '86, waiting for the billowing mushroom clouds of our collective future (or lack thereof) to start rising. And furries are even having their cons shut down by... ahem, MLP Nazis, lol. My. Little. Pony. Nazis. Oh, but what a world we live in, eh? >;3
But your pal Triad who occasionally drops by the internet and refers to himself in the third person, is trying not to stress it all. As my man Robert Anton Wilson puts it:
https://youtu.be/llLY9VUKpRM
So I've been taking that advice to heart. Thankfully, since my last journal, I got myself on medical weed finally, since AZ decided not to fully legalize it. So, in the last couple months, I've been enjoying all that that lovely market has to offer. Now, after finally getting toward the end of years of real life shit to deal with, I've been getting good and medicated and trying to force the old "creativity" or whatever out. So, after getting (slightly) tired of the same old stuff I've been listening to lately, I decide to get nostalgic and go find some of the old stuff I listened to. So, for the sake of getting high and leaving the world for a bit, here's a bunch of random ass shit I've been listening to lately. Hopefully it can get me motivated to get my ass going on some music and more art again, and give you something to listen to for a bit. :3
So a month or to ago I was looking for some Moog stuff to get me going on my synths again:
https://youtu.be/uWqw0DQLEm0
https://youtu.be/StlGAIOywLY
https://youtu.be/PC7k_IKnbAs
Somehow this reminded me of the first source of my love of synthesizers, funk, and of course, furry stuff. This of course was my 90's upbringing of loads of ritalin, adderall, and the old Sonic games. And while I am still scratching my head decades later at what happened to that franchise and fandom post '97 (though I worked for Sega long enough to know about Sammy and the Yakuza), I will still say that the music and art style from the first five or so games was glorious, and I haven't touched a console game since. In addition, I finally found a link between the music of Sonic CD and George Clinton that I always suspected existed.
This song by Xaiver features George Clinton (in full coke-mode), Boosty Collins and the gang, including Sir Nose:
https://youtu.be/0dpU5suqksY
Great, right? Well, apparently it got sampled into the boss music for the Japan/Europe version of Sonic CD, which I never heard as a kid since I live in the US:
https://youtu.be/Vjb2asrjv-o
Also in line with the whole 80's synth things with me lately, I also discovered the original version of the Sonic 3 Ice Cap Zone song:
https://youtu.be/H2OWC5Hosv8
But no one wants to hear me geek out on that shit. So here's a long list of Triad's stoned music for the first quarter of this bizarre year. Hail escapism!
https://youtu.be/z9nkzaOPP6g
https://youtu.be/BDhJU_cNCZE Oh that Moog bass.... ;3
https://youtu.be/NNjrBUzXDJk dat vocoder...
https://youtu.be/GpGEeneO-t0 You know the first song you get high to? Yup. ;3
https://youtu.be/0S13mP_pfEc EARLY synthesizer
https://youtu.be/nwSA0Tckwbk
https://youtu.be/Ntk7Ec9PeW8
https://youtu.be/z7nZwFEeS0A Figured out the synth part to this one pretty quick.
https://youtu.be/mnBwWFulRwM
https://youtu.be/4mugz8sjCDs
https://youtu.be/kEUX9k0npgA
https://youtu.be/3GE-sfEbJ7I This song has one of my favorite synth effects.
https://youtu.be/pBk20ujrZZU Gonna fursuit to this at cons. >;3
https://youtu.be/dFtLONl4cNc This one too. :3
https://youtu.be/wGVog6wUG9s
https://youtu.be/BZhfFXEMMI4
https://youtu.be/NRweyGHJ3bc Every time someone mentions nazis to me these days.
https://youtu.be/cEfS98F89Ho Wow, I still get flashbacks on this one...
Oh and there's so much more, but, like all furry journals, few will read this, so I'll stop here. But if I'm wrong, I figure I'll also let you all know that I'm gonna be at BLFC with Anjel in a few weeks, doing shit like this around the con:
https://youtu.be/fKviWp8Os_I
See you there. >;3
But your pal Triad who occasionally drops by the internet and refers to himself in the third person, is trying not to stress it all. As my man Robert Anton Wilson puts it:
https://youtu.be/llLY9VUKpRM
So I've been taking that advice to heart. Thankfully, since my last journal, I got myself on medical weed finally, since AZ decided not to fully legalize it. So, in the last couple months, I've been enjoying all that that lovely market has to offer. Now, after finally getting toward the end of years of real life shit to deal with, I've been getting good and medicated and trying to force the old "creativity" or whatever out. So, after getting (slightly) tired of the same old stuff I've been listening to lately, I decide to get nostalgic and go find some of the old stuff I listened to. So, for the sake of getting high and leaving the world for a bit, here's a bunch of random ass shit I've been listening to lately. Hopefully it can get me motivated to get my ass going on some music and more art again, and give you something to listen to for a bit. :3
So a month or to ago I was looking for some Moog stuff to get me going on my synths again:
https://youtu.be/uWqw0DQLEm0
https://youtu.be/StlGAIOywLY
https://youtu.be/PC7k_IKnbAs
Somehow this reminded me of the first source of my love of synthesizers, funk, and of course, furry stuff. This of course was my 90's upbringing of loads of ritalin, adderall, and the old Sonic games. And while I am still scratching my head decades later at what happened to that franchise and fandom post '97 (though I worked for Sega long enough to know about Sammy and the Yakuza), I will still say that the music and art style from the first five or so games was glorious, and I haven't touched a console game since. In addition, I finally found a link between the music of Sonic CD and George Clinton that I always suspected existed.
This song by Xaiver features George Clinton (in full coke-mode), Boosty Collins and the gang, including Sir Nose:
https://youtu.be/0dpU5suqksY
Great, right? Well, apparently it got sampled into the boss music for the Japan/Europe version of Sonic CD, which I never heard as a kid since I live in the US:
https://youtu.be/Vjb2asrjv-o
Also in line with the whole 80's synth things with me lately, I also discovered the original version of the Sonic 3 Ice Cap Zone song:
https://youtu.be/H2OWC5Hosv8
But no one wants to hear me geek out on that shit. So here's a long list of Triad's stoned music for the first quarter of this bizarre year. Hail escapism!
https://youtu.be/z9nkzaOPP6g
https://youtu.be/BDhJU_cNCZE Oh that Moog bass.... ;3
https://youtu.be/NNjrBUzXDJk dat vocoder...
https://youtu.be/GpGEeneO-t0 You know the first song you get high to? Yup. ;3
https://youtu.be/0S13mP_pfEc EARLY synthesizer
https://youtu.be/nwSA0Tckwbk
https://youtu.be/Ntk7Ec9PeW8
https://youtu.be/z7nZwFEeS0A Figured out the synth part to this one pretty quick.
https://youtu.be/mnBwWFulRwM
https://youtu.be/4mugz8sjCDs
https://youtu.be/kEUX9k0npgA
https://youtu.be/3GE-sfEbJ7I This song has one of my favorite synth effects.
https://youtu.be/pBk20ujrZZU Gonna fursuit to this at cons. >;3
https://youtu.be/dFtLONl4cNc This one too. :3
https://youtu.be/wGVog6wUG9s
https://youtu.be/BZhfFXEMMI4
https://youtu.be/NRweyGHJ3bc Every time someone mentions nazis to me these days.
https://youtu.be/cEfS98F89Ho Wow, I still get flashbacks on this one...
Oh and there's so much more, but, like all furry journals, few will read this, so I'll stop here. But if I'm wrong, I figure I'll also let you all know that I'm gonna be at BLFC with Anjel in a few weeks, doing shit like this around the con:
https://youtu.be/fKviWp8Os_I
See you there. >;3
FC 2017 was a blast! ;3
General | Posted 9 years agoSo, after seven years, I finally made my way back up to the bay area with Anjel for FC 2017. It was an amazing trip, where to begin?
We met up with an old friend of Anjel's whom we roomed with and who was super awesome enough to drive us around to see a bunch of awesome stuff in the area. The last time I made it to FC in 2010 we only stuck around San Jose, which was really fun and cool enough. But this time, oh man...
So, right after we get off the plane we discover that the hotel we were at was having power outages, so instead of lingering around to wait, we decide to go to a rainforest an hour away to hang out with some coastal redwoods. It had been raining hard for a few days prior to our arrival, so the forest was all wet and primeval, with all kinds of moss, bromeliads, and fungus everywhere. In addition to the awesomeness of the redwoods themselves, the place was full of mushrooms (and banana slugs!). The idea of being in a desert in the morning and a rainforest a few hours later was definitely cool too. I also remembered from my various research on certain things that there were Psilocybe mushrooms that were native to the environment. And, after looking around for a bit, I finally was able to make my first Psilocybe mushroom identification in the wild, with Anjel's help (either azurescens, or cyanescens I suspect). And no, I didn't eat any. Sorry to disappoint. We did, however, eat a Sushirito afterwards, which was this California-as-fuck combination of sushi and a burrito that was deceptively amazing, despite being located in the most painfully ritzy shopping mall I've ever been to in my life. But, Silicon Valley is Silicon Valley, so what can you do, right? :D
We also wound up going to San Francisco a couple of days later, which was completely awesome (aside from killing the lower half of myself on the crazy hills). It was also my first time, and I've been wanting to go there my whole life. Between Star Trek, my dad being in California in the Navy in the 70's, and my fascination with 60's counterculture, it's definitely been on my list for, hell, decades at this point. Anyway, we start the day in SF in Japantown where I had to get Kitsune Udon (because of course I did...), and then we wind up walking to Golden Gate Park and eventually (and best of all) Haight-Ashbury, where I had more people try to sell me weed, acid, and mushrooms than ever before (I also didn't get any, because no one should trust street acid these days, among many other more logical reasons). It was awesome, and I felt about as at home there as I did at the con, ha ha. The Haight was great, and I most certainly will be back!
Anyway, as for the con, it was really fun, as I remember FC being back in the day. Between the space, the people, and the really professional and friendly staff (the con chair made a fantastic effort to talk to us a few times in order to get feedback on making the con better, among other things), it was great. We went to
TonyaSong's really informative panel on Native American cultures. We also caught both of her, PepperCoyote, and Fox Amore's shows, which, as a furry who is dabbling in music, I certainly appreciate, even though I play a different style. It's nice to see that there is a big place in furry for music these days, and it inspires me to keep working on my own stuff too. Plus, the 18+ show of theirs was really fun too. You always can tell a good furry party by how soon it takes for someone to start swinging around a 3-foot rubber horse cock. In this case, it was after about an hour. ;3
And, since this was probably the most fun aspect for me, I can't forget to mention that Anjel, after two years of work, was able to finish my Triad fursuit head (aside from a few more slight finishing touches). Literally, finished the night before the con. And, after years and years and years of getting stoned and fantasizing about this while I listen to my favorite music, I can finally do weird things like:
This (song NSFW):
https://youtu.be/fKviWp8Os_I
And this:
https://youtu.be/LYuYIo3GnCQ
And, yes, even:
https://youtu.be/_kPE6WoVh98
As to the running theme of "going down" in those videos, well, you might have to consult Freud on that, lol...
The first (Zappa) one was a homage to the awesome time I had back at FC in 2010 when we all got fucked up and recorded me singing that outside the hotel not long after I got my first tail at a con. Anyway, I assume that this is going to be my thing at cons now, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this in the future, ha ha. I also wound up doing it to P-Funk in the fursuit parade, which was fun as hell, and, corny as it sounds, a dream come true.
Anyway, the whole con was great, and hanging out in San Jose and the Bay Area with a bunch of furries after graduating with my Bachelor's in a tech field was pretty inspiring too. So, now that I'm back, I've gotta get down to business finishing this comic, getting back in touch with the fandom, and doing my web dev shit so I can pay those bills and go to more cons. Oh, and also, work on my Patreon (shameless plug: https://www.patreon.com/triadfox) too.
Anyway, thanks FC and Nor-Cal for a great con, and I'll be seeing you again next year, with any luck. ;3
We met up with an old friend of Anjel's whom we roomed with and who was super awesome enough to drive us around to see a bunch of awesome stuff in the area. The last time I made it to FC in 2010 we only stuck around San Jose, which was really fun and cool enough. But this time, oh man...
So, right after we get off the plane we discover that the hotel we were at was having power outages, so instead of lingering around to wait, we decide to go to a rainforest an hour away to hang out with some coastal redwoods. It had been raining hard for a few days prior to our arrival, so the forest was all wet and primeval, with all kinds of moss, bromeliads, and fungus everywhere. In addition to the awesomeness of the redwoods themselves, the place was full of mushrooms (and banana slugs!). The idea of being in a desert in the morning and a rainforest a few hours later was definitely cool too. I also remembered from my various research on certain things that there were Psilocybe mushrooms that were native to the environment. And, after looking around for a bit, I finally was able to make my first Psilocybe mushroom identification in the wild, with Anjel's help (either azurescens, or cyanescens I suspect). And no, I didn't eat any. Sorry to disappoint. We did, however, eat a Sushirito afterwards, which was this California-as-fuck combination of sushi and a burrito that was deceptively amazing, despite being located in the most painfully ritzy shopping mall I've ever been to in my life. But, Silicon Valley is Silicon Valley, so what can you do, right? :D
We also wound up going to San Francisco a couple of days later, which was completely awesome (aside from killing the lower half of myself on the crazy hills). It was also my first time, and I've been wanting to go there my whole life. Between Star Trek, my dad being in California in the Navy in the 70's, and my fascination with 60's counterculture, it's definitely been on my list for, hell, decades at this point. Anyway, we start the day in SF in Japantown where I had to get Kitsune Udon (because of course I did...), and then we wind up walking to Golden Gate Park and eventually (and best of all) Haight-Ashbury, where I had more people try to sell me weed, acid, and mushrooms than ever before (I also didn't get any, because no one should trust street acid these days, among many other more logical reasons). It was awesome, and I felt about as at home there as I did at the con, ha ha. The Haight was great, and I most certainly will be back!
Anyway, as for the con, it was really fun, as I remember FC being back in the day. Between the space, the people, and the really professional and friendly staff (the con chair made a fantastic effort to talk to us a few times in order to get feedback on making the con better, among other things), it was great. We went to
TonyaSong's really informative panel on Native American cultures. We also caught both of her, PepperCoyote, and Fox Amore's shows, which, as a furry who is dabbling in music, I certainly appreciate, even though I play a different style. It's nice to see that there is a big place in furry for music these days, and it inspires me to keep working on my own stuff too. Plus, the 18+ show of theirs was really fun too. You always can tell a good furry party by how soon it takes for someone to start swinging around a 3-foot rubber horse cock. In this case, it was after about an hour. ;3And, since this was probably the most fun aspect for me, I can't forget to mention that Anjel, after two years of work, was able to finish my Triad fursuit head (aside from a few more slight finishing touches). Literally, finished the night before the con. And, after years and years and years of getting stoned and fantasizing about this while I listen to my favorite music, I can finally do weird things like:
This (song NSFW):
https://youtu.be/fKviWp8Os_I
And this:
https://youtu.be/LYuYIo3GnCQ
And, yes, even:
https://youtu.be/_kPE6WoVh98
As to the running theme of "going down" in those videos, well, you might have to consult Freud on that, lol...
The first (Zappa) one was a homage to the awesome time I had back at FC in 2010 when we all got fucked up and recorded me singing that outside the hotel not long after I got my first tail at a con. Anyway, I assume that this is going to be my thing at cons now, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this in the future, ha ha. I also wound up doing it to P-Funk in the fursuit parade, which was fun as hell, and, corny as it sounds, a dream come true.
Anyway, the whole con was great, and hanging out in San Jose and the Bay Area with a bunch of furries after graduating with my Bachelor's in a tech field was pretty inspiring too. So, now that I'm back, I've gotta get down to business finishing this comic, getting back in touch with the fandom, and doing my web dev shit so I can pay those bills and go to more cons. Oh, and also, work on my Patreon (shameless plug: https://www.patreon.com/triadfox) too.
Anyway, thanks FC and Nor-Cal for a great con, and I'll be seeing you again next year, with any luck. ;3
Hopefully 2017 ain't as bad: My Patreon, FC, etc...
General | Posted 9 years agoHey everyone. Now that 2016 is out of the way and we can at least try to move on to better things, I figure I'll give everyone an update here on stuff.
So, if you're a fan of my art or comics or whatever, I'm sure it's frustrated you to no end that I rarely post anything on a regular basis. That was mostly due to years of work, college, and other life issues that kept me from pursuing one of my true callings, which is drawing psychedelic furry porn comics for you fine furfags out there. Well, now that I've graduated from ASU, I'm finally going to have time after all these years to catch up on art, and to finally get Outfoxing the 5-0 finished, among other things.
Well, if that's been the case, then your prayers are answered, because I now have a Patreon up right here: https://www.patreon.com/triadfox
If you want to see more art from me more frequently, please go and support me on Patreon. I figure that this will finally give me the motivation to keep up on the art regularly. In addition, I'm looking forward to doing the whole Patreon thing, it seems fun, and if you're a fan of my stuff, any assistance through it would be much appreciated. I have several different sponsor levels and goals, and if you are interested, it would help me produce more. Hell, if enough of you help out, I can start taking commissions, and even quit my job and draw porn and furry stuff all day for a living.... Ah, a fox can dream, can't he? ;3
Anjel and I are also going to Further Confusion this year in San Jose. It'll be my first time back there since 2010, so that'll be fun. Also, Anjel should be done with my red fox partial suit for Triad by then, so if you see a tall fox walking around the con, jaw-synching to Frank Zappa and P-Funk (among other things), that would be me. Say hi. ;3
And, um, I think that's it for now.
So, if you're a fan of my art or comics or whatever, I'm sure it's frustrated you to no end that I rarely post anything on a regular basis. That was mostly due to years of work, college, and other life issues that kept me from pursuing one of my true callings, which is drawing psychedelic furry porn comics for you fine furfags out there. Well, now that I've graduated from ASU, I'm finally going to have time after all these years to catch up on art, and to finally get Outfoxing the 5-0 finished, among other things.
Well, if that's been the case, then your prayers are answered, because I now have a Patreon up right here: https://www.patreon.com/triadfox
If you want to see more art from me more frequently, please go and support me on Patreon. I figure that this will finally give me the motivation to keep up on the art regularly. In addition, I'm looking forward to doing the whole Patreon thing, it seems fun, and if you're a fan of my stuff, any assistance through it would be much appreciated. I have several different sponsor levels and goals, and if you are interested, it would help me produce more. Hell, if enough of you help out, I can start taking commissions, and even quit my job and draw porn and furry stuff all day for a living.... Ah, a fox can dream, can't he? ;3
Anjel and I are also going to Further Confusion this year in San Jose. It'll be my first time back there since 2010, so that'll be fun. Also, Anjel should be done with my red fox partial suit for Triad by then, so if you see a tall fox walking around the con, jaw-synching to Frank Zappa and P-Funk (among other things), that would be me. Say hi. ;3
And, um, I think that's it for now.
State of the Triad 2016
General | Posted 9 years agoAh, where to begin? Well, since the US decided to destroy itself last Tuesday, I've been trying to overcome that disgusting, creeping feeling of witnessing the early, pre-purge/holocaust phase of a fascist dictatorship and not being able to do much about it. But then again, haven't we all? So, in lieu of adding yet another overly verbose essay about how awful things are to the internet, I'll just talk about other things, like upcoming furry porn projects and other shit. Because if there is anything we will need over the next four years, it's some fantasy and distractions. At least until we can get our collective shit together and resist the Trump Reich. And hey, furry porn is pretty much diametrically opposed to the culture that assholes like them are a part of anyway, so the more crazy animal-people porn, the better! :D
Aside from staying stoned and kratomed most of the time I'm not at work to keep my spirits up in the brave (read: terrible) new era of Cheeto-Hitler and his frothing hordes of middle-management nazis, I'm literally about three weeks away from being done with my Bachelor's at ASU, which will be nice, since after all of these years, I'll finally have a sizable amount of free time to do art, music, and online stuff again. I can also get the comic done, work on music, and get our incense resin company off the ground. And having more time to be social is definitely something to look forward to as well. Additionally, several people have told me that I should get a Patreon and see if I should get on there with some of the comic and art stuff. I don't know if people would pay me to keep the comic and art going more frequently, but it wouldn't hurt to try and find out.
So... On the topic of furry porn oriented distractions, Anjel and I have decided to collaborate on a couple of comics of our own. Since the world has uncannily been turning into the non-porn parts of the 5-0 comic over the last few years (and especially lately), I figure that working on something else in addition to it will keep me sane as the world provides a ton of material for my sexy, horrible little dystopia. So, what to do until then?
Well, after about two decades of remission, Anjel re-enabled a long-latent Pokemon addiction in me with that damn Pokemon Go game over the summer (lvl. 31, lol) and it's been a great distraction and source of sanity/exercise/memberberries for a stressful few months. So, in our more, um, intimate and imaginative moments, we have been coming up with a few ideas and sketches for various comics, the first of which (in progress!) is, heh heh, Pokemon themed. Because no one is expecting that of me, and after drawing the same comic and psychedelic shit for years, a little hot Ninetales action is just the thing I need to switch it up. Awwwwwww yeeeeeaaaaahhh.... >:3
And don't worry, I'll still be working on everything else too. The 5-0 comic is about to get all Gnostic and weird too, so stay tuned, and good luck in your dealings with the real world...
Oh yes, and here's some Zappa to help. Been playing this one a lot lately:
https://youtu.be/Q8mL8gSXsQI
Aside from staying stoned and kratomed most of the time I'm not at work to keep my spirits up in the brave (read: terrible) new era of Cheeto-Hitler and his frothing hordes of middle-management nazis, I'm literally about three weeks away from being done with my Bachelor's at ASU, which will be nice, since after all of these years, I'll finally have a sizable amount of free time to do art, music, and online stuff again. I can also get the comic done, work on music, and get our incense resin company off the ground. And having more time to be social is definitely something to look forward to as well. Additionally, several people have told me that I should get a Patreon and see if I should get on there with some of the comic and art stuff. I don't know if people would pay me to keep the comic and art going more frequently, but it wouldn't hurt to try and find out.
So... On the topic of furry porn oriented distractions, Anjel and I have decided to collaborate on a couple of comics of our own. Since the world has uncannily been turning into the non-porn parts of the 5-0 comic over the last few years (and especially lately), I figure that working on something else in addition to it will keep me sane as the world provides a ton of material for my sexy, horrible little dystopia. So, what to do until then?
Well, after about two decades of remission, Anjel re-enabled a long-latent Pokemon addiction in me with that damn Pokemon Go game over the summer (lvl. 31, lol) and it's been a great distraction and source of sanity/exercise/memberberries for a stressful few months. So, in our more, um, intimate and imaginative moments, we have been coming up with a few ideas and sketches for various comics, the first of which (in progress!) is, heh heh, Pokemon themed. Because no one is expecting that of me, and after drawing the same comic and psychedelic shit for years, a little hot Ninetales action is just the thing I need to switch it up. Awwwwwww yeeeeeaaaaahhh.... >:3
And don't worry, I'll still be working on everything else too. The 5-0 comic is about to get all Gnostic and weird too, so stay tuned, and good luck in your dealings with the real world...
Oh yes, and here's some Zappa to help. Been playing this one a lot lately:
https://youtu.be/Q8mL8gSXsQI
RIP Bernie...
General | Posted 9 years ago...Worrell. So, as unfortunately I'm sure very little of you know, Bernie Worrell (Of P-Funk/Talking Heads/a lot of other things) died recently. There was very little media coverage, which is sad, because the man was a legend and a genius, and I personally blame him for me getting into all of my synthesizer stuff, specifically the Moogs. I will say this. If you like any music with a synthesized bass (electronic, electrofunk, hip-hop, and even early video game music among others), you have him to thank, because none of that could have existed without his Minimoog bass line in Flashlight:
https://youtu.be/fatP7thewQM
I could go on and on about how awesome Bernie Worrell was, and how much he's influenced me (aside from my spending thousands of dollars on Moog synthesizers for my weird music, a good chunk of my art that you might love or hate was drawn under the influence of his transcendent funkiness, and once my fursuit is finished you can expect to see me funking around cons with this stuff playing to combat the epidemic of obnoxious furry dance music at these things...), I'll just post a few songs with him in it, because the world needs the funk now more than ever.
https://youtu.be/-7kL1j_3C0o
https://youtu.be/obAtn6I5rbY
https://youtu.be/6WXyEwZaiTo
https://youtu.be/SkBHwY5xVCc
https://youtu.be/Qp4aTmZeoAo (If you hear this a a con coming out of a fox, that'd be me. ;3)
https://youtu.be/2Scj3TjzRKI
And I'll end this one with Bernie Worrell, Rick Wakeman from Yes, and Boob Moog talking about the sexual/mystical aspects of playing a (moog) synthesizer. :
https://youtu.be/GlOSWaLUBXI
RIP Bernie, you were a god among men... <3
(I'll bet you thought this journal was about something else ;3)
https://youtu.be/fatP7thewQM
I could go on and on about how awesome Bernie Worrell was, and how much he's influenced me (aside from my spending thousands of dollars on Moog synthesizers for my weird music, a good chunk of my art that you might love or hate was drawn under the influence of his transcendent funkiness, and once my fursuit is finished you can expect to see me funking around cons with this stuff playing to combat the epidemic of obnoxious furry dance music at these things...), I'll just post a few songs with him in it, because the world needs the funk now more than ever.
https://youtu.be/-7kL1j_3C0o
https://youtu.be/obAtn6I5rbY
https://youtu.be/6WXyEwZaiTo
https://youtu.be/SkBHwY5xVCc
https://youtu.be/Qp4aTmZeoAo (If you hear this a a con coming out of a fox, that'd be me. ;3)
https://youtu.be/2Scj3TjzRKI
And I'll end this one with Bernie Worrell, Rick Wakeman from Yes, and Boob Moog talking about the sexual/mystical aspects of playing a (moog) synthesizer. :
https://youtu.be/GlOSWaLUBXI
RIP Bernie, you were a god among men... <3
(I'll bet you thought this journal was about something else ;3)
NEW JOURNAL THAT NO ONE WILL READ! :D
General | Posted 9 years agoBecause FA is, um, FA, and everyone is on the other sites (as am I), I figure this is the best place to put a long, rambling piece of me venting about shit in the world that everyone is tired of hearing about and dealing with, myself included. So for the two or three of you that will read this, um, enjoy I guess?
So, as we are all well aware, the whole world is going to shit, as it always is. It's an election year in the US which means that everyone has their heads lodged so far up their own asses about people who are not qualified enough to clean my fucking toilet, much less run a country with enough arms to destroy this planet several times over. The racists and bigots are back with a vengeance across the "western" world I can't even smoke any weed right now to ignore the constant reminders that mainstream human societies are like, the worst fucking thing ever, as are the people who are complacent and participate in it. I guess that includes me as well...
We have the goddamned NYPD, one of the more discriminatory police forces in this country, painting goddamned rainbows on their cop cars in a fake show of solidarity to a group of people they targeted up until the point where it took 49 people getting murdered before the US decided that it was "cool" to finally support people who like to fuck people who don't conform to the culture's gender norms. Unfortunately, in a few months when everyone skulks back into their internet echo chambers, living only among people who agree with them on everything, the establishment can put the rainbow flag back in the closet and continue to oppress LGBT people, and everyone else who doesn't conform. Don't you just love how all of the people who have been saying that queer people have no rights and are less than human suddenly throw rainbows on everything in a media-influenced show of pseudo-solidarity so they can rake in that sweet, sweet, LGBT money...
And don't even get me started about these assholes who are running for president. Or Brexit, Or any of that shit. The western world's right-wingers are going full on idiot-fascist, and the "left" in the United States has no organization, and is currently represented under the auspices of what is in reality an, at best, center-right party, the Democrats. While the right in this country is running the worst person who has run in this country since I've been alive, the "left" is running another crap candidate solely on the platform that they aren't that other asshole. Let's get a hyper-secretive, "post 9-11" warmonger to run with Elizabeth Warren so that we can keep pretending that we give a fuck about social issues. Everyone knows the VP is a position for people who are viewed by the political machine as either laughingstocks (Biden, Gore), or dangerous sociopaths (Cheney). Yes please, let's pigeonhole the real progressives into positions that are a considered a farce. And the only major candidate who actually seemed to give a fuck about the people of the US and the world was screwed out of this race by none other than the Democratic Party itself, who obviously cannot actually run a real left-winger for president.
I criticize the left in the US the most because I agree with them on many things and I want to see them actually do what they say when it comes to lessening the wealth inequality gap, racial inequalities, and all of the other increasingly important issues that we absolutely need to deal with in a productive way. What do we get instead? A sad little "sit-in" about "gun control". Where was the sit-in for LGBT rights? Rights for people of color? Rights for refugees? Lessening the inequalities that the democrats claim to care about? Better services and care for people with mental health issues, drug addiction issues, and the homeless? Jobs going overseas? Kicking Wall Street in the ass? Making sure that the people of this nation don't keep falling through the cracks? Nope, just the same old token issues that these people can use to further their careers at the expense of the victims of the National Tragedy of the Week. While I agree that most civilians have no need to have "assault" rifles (no matter how fun they are to shoot at random shit in the desert ;3), this is just another way for these political assholes to use a token issue to further their careers. The only fuck they give about you is getting your vote and your money. Fuck them all.
Let's also not forget that the main reason that (T)rump is doing so well is all of the complaining that those of us on the left have done. If you all don't want this vile son of a bitch getting elected then you (and I, of course) should have ignored him, instead of giving him all of the free press that he could want. My god, the Democrats and left-wing media sources did more campaigning for him that he could have ever done on his own (judging by his current campaign finances). And now, because people always forget the cliche that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, we have racists like David Duke getting mentioned in the press again and some of the most horrible bigoted shit coming out of the mouth of the far-right wing candidate. And believe me, the reactionaries of the world are totally taking advantage of the drive for social change and coming out of the woodwork to subvert it. Doesn't it seem like a completely different lifetime ago when GWB came out and said the worst part of his presidency (to him) was when Kayne West called him a racist, because he didn't think that he was a racist (despite many of the policies of his administration)? Back when these people at least pretended that they weren't all of these things that (T)rump represents? God, I never thought I'd think of the post 9-11 Bush years as the "Good ol' days", but goddamn, it's starting to look that way. I'd say let's just amend the constitution to give Obama another term, but he's too smart to want that, and I don't blame him.
Ah, but anyway, enough of my bitching. I am now firmly convinced that the western world is going to be up shit creek here for a while, as the culture starts to swing back to a reactionary, right-wing, fascistic frame of mind. Five years ago I would have been saying "Take it to the streets!", but this time my suggestion is to hunker down for a little while, smoke weed or consume whatever life-lubricant that works for you, and hide out for a few months on this shit. Street protests do not work anymore, and the establishment is counting on you to do it so they can suppress you. So, for a little while at least, just stay home, immerse yourself in your furry or video game fantasy world and just say fuck it for a while. This election is only going to get worse, and I will bet good money that one of the political conventions (probably the one in Cleveland) is going to get really violent, like the DNC in '68. I have a feeling that people are going to get hurt or killed, and I hope to whatever higher power is out there that I am wrong about that. It's no longer about forcing change, it's about survival. Sure, vote and all, but otherwise, hunker down until this clusterfuck is over. As for my political opinion for the time being? Jill, not Hill. :D
And finally, I'd be a monstrous dick if I didn't end my bi-yearly political rant on a somewhat optimistic note. What we have here is a series of situations that, while godawful as fuck, present an unprecedented opportunity for growth, both on a societal level and a personal one. As they say, crisis is just another word for opportunity. Admittedly, it is pretty overly-idealistic to believe that world power structures are going to change for the better simply because it is the right thing to do. But the absolute worst part is that we always expect our leaders to make all of the changes that we want. That way, we don't ever have to make them in ourselves. Taking responsibility is as important as it is difficult. Which is to say, a lot. But part of growing up is taking responsibility for yourself and your actions. If we are to grow up as a species, we need to not only do this on individual levels, but on a wide-scale level too. It's the only way to ensure that the inescapable power structures of the world do not fully do us in.
Gather 'round kids, and let me tell you a little something about how the human race and it's relationship with power. Do you know why the people in power always seem kind of shitty at best? Because they have to be. Power requires a certain level of nastiness to deal with. By the time people get into positions of real power in government, business, or whatever societal structure that they exist in, only the people who are either "psychopaths" or are capable of suppressing some of the more positive human elements of themselves make it to the top. Also, no person is perfect, and all of us have skeletons in our closet, or have done things that we aren't proud of. The human race is still evolving from monkey to domesticated primate, to something much higher than that. But we aren't there yet. We need crises to grow, and evolution will not occur in this world without them. But if we continue to rely on others to do it for us, then we will always be slaves to cruel authoritarian social structures and states.
Until we take responsibility for our own attitudes, actions, lives and ideals, then this shit is going to keep happening. Like James Joyce wrote in Ulysses, "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken." We each have to evolve as individuals, and hope that the critical mass of enough "awakened" people (and no, the people who use the word "sheeple" on the internet are not usually among them) will tip the scales in a more humanistic direction. It has been happening for a while, but it usually occurs too slowly for most modern people's infinitesimally short attention spans to note. But it is happening, and there will always, ALWAYS be a large quantity of good people, smart people, and people who are passionate about positive social change (and not just in a ego-based "SJW" sense, but a real one) in EVERY country, culture, society, political party, walk of life and group in general. And that's the dirty little secret that the mainstream, alternative medias, and fearmongers of the world don't want you to know. The Real Conspiracy. There are always far more of these people out there than the others. The mostly decent people are actually the majority, and once they stop letting themselves get influenced by the bullshit peddlers out there, then I think we'll make it. We've made it through much, much worse.
So I'd advise taking a break on the "real world" for a while, and everyone work on themselves and their lives, and don't let the nastiness of the world get to you if possible. And now, if I can take my own goddamned advice too, I think I'll be good. At least I only have three classes left before I finish school and can have a far less stressful life again. I should get back to work on that. Take it easy you all. ;3
</rant>
So, as we are all well aware, the whole world is going to shit, as it always is. It's an election year in the US which means that everyone has their heads lodged so far up their own asses about people who are not qualified enough to clean my fucking toilet, much less run a country with enough arms to destroy this planet several times over. The racists and bigots are back with a vengeance across the "western" world I can't even smoke any weed right now to ignore the constant reminders that mainstream human societies are like, the worst fucking thing ever, as are the people who are complacent and participate in it. I guess that includes me as well...
We have the goddamned NYPD, one of the more discriminatory police forces in this country, painting goddamned rainbows on their cop cars in a fake show of solidarity to a group of people they targeted up until the point where it took 49 people getting murdered before the US decided that it was "cool" to finally support people who like to fuck people who don't conform to the culture's gender norms. Unfortunately, in a few months when everyone skulks back into their internet echo chambers, living only among people who agree with them on everything, the establishment can put the rainbow flag back in the closet and continue to oppress LGBT people, and everyone else who doesn't conform. Don't you just love how all of the people who have been saying that queer people have no rights and are less than human suddenly throw rainbows on everything in a media-influenced show of pseudo-solidarity so they can rake in that sweet, sweet, LGBT money...
And don't even get me started about these assholes who are running for president. Or Brexit, Or any of that shit. The western world's right-wingers are going full on idiot-fascist, and the "left" in the United States has no organization, and is currently represented under the auspices of what is in reality an, at best, center-right party, the Democrats. While the right in this country is running the worst person who has run in this country since I've been alive, the "left" is running another crap candidate solely on the platform that they aren't that other asshole. Let's get a hyper-secretive, "post 9-11" warmonger to run with Elizabeth Warren so that we can keep pretending that we give a fuck about social issues. Everyone knows the VP is a position for people who are viewed by the political machine as either laughingstocks (Biden, Gore), or dangerous sociopaths (Cheney). Yes please, let's pigeonhole the real progressives into positions that are a considered a farce. And the only major candidate who actually seemed to give a fuck about the people of the US and the world was screwed out of this race by none other than the Democratic Party itself, who obviously cannot actually run a real left-winger for president.
I criticize the left in the US the most because I agree with them on many things and I want to see them actually do what they say when it comes to lessening the wealth inequality gap, racial inequalities, and all of the other increasingly important issues that we absolutely need to deal with in a productive way. What do we get instead? A sad little "sit-in" about "gun control". Where was the sit-in for LGBT rights? Rights for people of color? Rights for refugees? Lessening the inequalities that the democrats claim to care about? Better services and care for people with mental health issues, drug addiction issues, and the homeless? Jobs going overseas? Kicking Wall Street in the ass? Making sure that the people of this nation don't keep falling through the cracks? Nope, just the same old token issues that these people can use to further their careers at the expense of the victims of the National Tragedy of the Week. While I agree that most civilians have no need to have "assault" rifles (no matter how fun they are to shoot at random shit in the desert ;3), this is just another way for these political assholes to use a token issue to further their careers. The only fuck they give about you is getting your vote and your money. Fuck them all.
Let's also not forget that the main reason that (T)rump is doing so well is all of the complaining that those of us on the left have done. If you all don't want this vile son of a bitch getting elected then you (and I, of course) should have ignored him, instead of giving him all of the free press that he could want. My god, the Democrats and left-wing media sources did more campaigning for him that he could have ever done on his own (judging by his current campaign finances). And now, because people always forget the cliche that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, we have racists like David Duke getting mentioned in the press again and some of the most horrible bigoted shit coming out of the mouth of the far-right wing candidate. And believe me, the reactionaries of the world are totally taking advantage of the drive for social change and coming out of the woodwork to subvert it. Doesn't it seem like a completely different lifetime ago when GWB came out and said the worst part of his presidency (to him) was when Kayne West called him a racist, because he didn't think that he was a racist (despite many of the policies of his administration)? Back when these people at least pretended that they weren't all of these things that (T)rump represents? God, I never thought I'd think of the post 9-11 Bush years as the "Good ol' days", but goddamn, it's starting to look that way. I'd say let's just amend the constitution to give Obama another term, but he's too smart to want that, and I don't blame him.
Ah, but anyway, enough of my bitching. I am now firmly convinced that the western world is going to be up shit creek here for a while, as the culture starts to swing back to a reactionary, right-wing, fascistic frame of mind. Five years ago I would have been saying "Take it to the streets!", but this time my suggestion is to hunker down for a little while, smoke weed or consume whatever life-lubricant that works for you, and hide out for a few months on this shit. Street protests do not work anymore, and the establishment is counting on you to do it so they can suppress you. So, for a little while at least, just stay home, immerse yourself in your furry or video game fantasy world and just say fuck it for a while. This election is only going to get worse, and I will bet good money that one of the political conventions (probably the one in Cleveland) is going to get really violent, like the DNC in '68. I have a feeling that people are going to get hurt or killed, and I hope to whatever higher power is out there that I am wrong about that. It's no longer about forcing change, it's about survival. Sure, vote and all, but otherwise, hunker down until this clusterfuck is over. As for my political opinion for the time being? Jill, not Hill. :D
And finally, I'd be a monstrous dick if I didn't end my bi-yearly political rant on a somewhat optimistic note. What we have here is a series of situations that, while godawful as fuck, present an unprecedented opportunity for growth, both on a societal level and a personal one. As they say, crisis is just another word for opportunity. Admittedly, it is pretty overly-idealistic to believe that world power structures are going to change for the better simply because it is the right thing to do. But the absolute worst part is that we always expect our leaders to make all of the changes that we want. That way, we don't ever have to make them in ourselves. Taking responsibility is as important as it is difficult. Which is to say, a lot. But part of growing up is taking responsibility for yourself and your actions. If we are to grow up as a species, we need to not only do this on individual levels, but on a wide-scale level too. It's the only way to ensure that the inescapable power structures of the world do not fully do us in.
Gather 'round kids, and let me tell you a little something about how the human race and it's relationship with power. Do you know why the people in power always seem kind of shitty at best? Because they have to be. Power requires a certain level of nastiness to deal with. By the time people get into positions of real power in government, business, or whatever societal structure that they exist in, only the people who are either "psychopaths" or are capable of suppressing some of the more positive human elements of themselves make it to the top. Also, no person is perfect, and all of us have skeletons in our closet, or have done things that we aren't proud of. The human race is still evolving from monkey to domesticated primate, to something much higher than that. But we aren't there yet. We need crises to grow, and evolution will not occur in this world without them. But if we continue to rely on others to do it for us, then we will always be slaves to cruel authoritarian social structures and states.
Until we take responsibility for our own attitudes, actions, lives and ideals, then this shit is going to keep happening. Like James Joyce wrote in Ulysses, "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken." We each have to evolve as individuals, and hope that the critical mass of enough "awakened" people (and no, the people who use the word "sheeple" on the internet are not usually among them) will tip the scales in a more humanistic direction. It has been happening for a while, but it usually occurs too slowly for most modern people's infinitesimally short attention spans to note. But it is happening, and there will always, ALWAYS be a large quantity of good people, smart people, and people who are passionate about positive social change (and not just in a ego-based "SJW" sense, but a real one) in EVERY country, culture, society, political party, walk of life and group in general. And that's the dirty little secret that the mainstream, alternative medias, and fearmongers of the world don't want you to know. The Real Conspiracy. There are always far more of these people out there than the others. The mostly decent people are actually the majority, and once they stop letting themselves get influenced by the bullshit peddlers out there, then I think we'll make it. We've made it through much, much worse.
So I'd advise taking a break on the "real world" for a while, and everyone work on themselves and their lives, and don't let the nastiness of the world get to you if possible. And now, if I can take my own goddamned advice too, I think I'll be good. At least I only have three classes left before I finish school and can have a far less stressful life again. I should get back to work on that. Take it easy you all. ;3
</rant>
BLFC, and other updates
General | Posted 9 years agoHey everyone. I figured I'd make a little journal here since I haven't done so since January, and despite my lack of being on the internet all the time, I'm still around. I've only got four more classes to go before I get my bachelor's in Internet/Web Development from ASU, and once that's done I'll probably be around more often, hopefully with more art.
Anyway, since this weekend is the last one before I start my probably ridiculously intense summer semester (cramming 14 week classes into 6 weeks, how fun...), Anjel, Commisar Pazyryk, and I are going to Reno for BLFC, and my first time going to Reno. We get to drive through the Extraterrestrial Highway and pass Area 51 (I've already passed Edwards AFB on the way to a con, so I'll now have covered two of the big experimental aircraft and "other" facilities, because YOLO... ;p
But it should be fun, it'll be nice to get a vacation after the constant work, school, avoidance of the election news for my sanity, news of people I know dying, and other obnoxious real-life shit that I need a break from. And, since the last con I went to was the ill-fated final Rainfurrest (with it's annoying strain of cult-like Pacific Northwest babyfurs trying to very unsuccessfully recruit all of the men who were there with women, the diaper deluge, wanton hotel destruction, and, on the other hand, the awesome legal weed), it'll be nice to go to a somewhat "normal" con again. Sadly, I didn't have time to make up a VLF costume and be the only loser there cosplaying out of my own comic, since it's a revolutionary themed con. Ah well, I'll have to pull together something similar to it if I can.
Aside from that, we are also going to have a table at the AZ Furcon in October again, where I'll have prints and such of my art, and all of that again. Additionally, Anjel and I are also getting together some incense resins (one of my recent obsessions that now has me growing several trees for incense resin at home, namely Mastic, Elephant trees and other Burseras, Frankincense, brittle bush, and Guggul, which is an Indian species of Myrrh that I named a song after: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16910896/ ). We're going to have a couple of furry-themed incense blends that we are working on right now. We should have these at the table in addition to the regular art and stuff. But that's October in AZ, we'll be going to BFLC to party and have a good time. So if anyone's going, you'll catch me around. :)
Also, before we leave for the con in a couple days, I'm hoping to finish the next page of the comic, and I also have a another song to master and upload that my friends who did the last three of the songs on here and I worked on after being inspired by Brian Eno's new ambient album, The Ship:
https://youtu.be/pn1riJSHhkY
Hopefully I'll get those two things up before I go and get wasted in Reno, and come back and try to keep pretending to be an overworked, "responsible" adult who is just as stressed and miserable as every other working adult in the United States! Huzzah! :D
Anyway, since this weekend is the last one before I start my probably ridiculously intense summer semester (cramming 14 week classes into 6 weeks, how fun...), Anjel, Commisar Pazyryk, and I are going to Reno for BLFC, and my first time going to Reno. We get to drive through the Extraterrestrial Highway and pass Area 51 (I've already passed Edwards AFB on the way to a con, so I'll now have covered two of the big experimental aircraft and "other" facilities, because YOLO... ;p
But it should be fun, it'll be nice to get a vacation after the constant work, school, avoidance of the election news for my sanity, news of people I know dying, and other obnoxious real-life shit that I need a break from. And, since the last con I went to was the ill-fated final Rainfurrest (with it's annoying strain of cult-like Pacific Northwest babyfurs trying to very unsuccessfully recruit all of the men who were there with women, the diaper deluge, wanton hotel destruction, and, on the other hand, the awesome legal weed), it'll be nice to go to a somewhat "normal" con again. Sadly, I didn't have time to make up a VLF costume and be the only loser there cosplaying out of my own comic, since it's a revolutionary themed con. Ah well, I'll have to pull together something similar to it if I can.
Aside from that, we are also going to have a table at the AZ Furcon in October again, where I'll have prints and such of my art, and all of that again. Additionally, Anjel and I are also getting together some incense resins (one of my recent obsessions that now has me growing several trees for incense resin at home, namely Mastic, Elephant trees and other Burseras, Frankincense, brittle bush, and Guggul, which is an Indian species of Myrrh that I named a song after: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16910896/ ). We're going to have a couple of furry-themed incense blends that we are working on right now. We should have these at the table in addition to the regular art and stuff. But that's October in AZ, we'll be going to BFLC to party and have a good time. So if anyone's going, you'll catch me around. :)
Also, before we leave for the con in a couple days, I'm hoping to finish the next page of the comic, and I also have a another song to master and upload that my friends who did the last three of the songs on here and I worked on after being inspired by Brian Eno's new ambient album, The Ship:
https://youtu.be/pn1riJSHhkY
Hopefully I'll get those two things up before I go and get wasted in Reno, and come back and try to keep pretending to be an overworked, "responsible" adult who is just as stressed and miserable as every other working adult in the United States! Huzzah! :D
Goodbye, Bowie...
General | Posted 10 years agoAfter an awesome night of having people over for an art day, I make the mistake of checking the news and finding out that David Bowie died today (Sunday), of cancer. Right after his new album came out too, and after he celebrated his birthday. Bowie's music has always been a big part of my life (and my art), and in honor of the Action Man, here the three greatest albums of the 1970's, which happen to also be Bowie albums:
https://youtu.be/WsELFp6s-lo
https://youtu.be/Fmw7gSDRnTA
https://youtu.be/KSl2g00AwCI
Also, his last video, which came out three days ago:
https://youtu.be/y-JqH1M4Ya8
Fuck. This one really hurts... :(
https://youtu.be/WsELFp6s-lo
https://youtu.be/Fmw7gSDRnTA
https://youtu.be/KSl2g00AwCI
Also, his last video, which came out three days ago:
https://youtu.be/y-JqH1M4Ya8
Fuck. This one really hurts... :(
So, back in high school...
General | Posted 10 years ago...People used to tell me I'd grow up and become Homer Simpson. I didn't believe them until I saw this tonight:
https://youtu.be/m8Kjz51rHw0
Now I think I'll hit the Moogs myself and work on this song I'd be doing in so cal this weekend if I didn't have a ton of real life shit to do. May as well take advantage of the couple of free hours I have before I have to do more stuff to get ready for the holidays. What a lucky man I is... ;3
(That was one of rock's first synthesizer solos, fyi. ;3)
https://youtu.be/m8Kjz51rHw0
Now I think I'll hit the Moogs myself and work on this song I'd be doing in so cal this weekend if I didn't have a ton of real life shit to do. May as well take advantage of the couple of free hours I have before I have to do more stuff to get ready for the holidays. What a lucky man I is... ;3
(That was one of rock's first synthesizer solos, fyi. ;3)
New Funkadelic album after 33 years!
General | Posted 10 years agoSo I finally finished a really stressful semester at school today. While decompressing tonight, stoned and on pain killers due to my back being jacked up again, I discovered that, after 33 years, Funkadeilc has a new album out. Since funk is one of the many things that are like a religion to me, I had to start listening to it. However, it's gonna be a bit before I finish, since it's a 3 album set with 33 tracks total. Not to mention my 3 year anniversary with my wonderful mate anjel on Sunday, which I also have to mention, of course.(http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7220827/). With all of these threes floating around, someone with a name like Triad could get a little weirded out by all the synchronicity... ;3
But I digress. Funkadelic has apparently had a new album out since last year, and it is just as amazing as the early stuff. It's really interesting to see the music that got hip-hop going get filtered through 33 years of hip-hop and electronic music. And, of course, as a bit of an obsessive when it comes to analog synths, the album is as full of that stuff as it was back in the day with Bernie on the Minimoog. ;3
So enough of my shit. Here's some of George Clinton's:
https://youtu.be/MdC57N0OfDA
https://youtu.be/otvFuCq1PWY
https://youtu.be/OHzXkr5Vtow
There's a bunch more, too. And, what could possibly be even better than a new Funkadelic album? There's also a new Parliament album in the works right now too. Life is good. ;3
Also, to Anjel: Happy anniversary! <3 And, also, hopefully expect more art and stuff from me soon now that I have free time again.
anjel on Sunday, which I also have to mention, of course.(http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7220827/). With all of these threes floating around, someone with a name like Triad could get a little weirded out by all the synchronicity... ;3But I digress. Funkadelic has apparently had a new album out since last year, and it is just as amazing as the early stuff. It's really interesting to see the music that got hip-hop going get filtered through 33 years of hip-hop and electronic music. And, of course, as a bit of an obsessive when it comes to analog synths, the album is as full of that stuff as it was back in the day with Bernie on the Minimoog. ;3
So enough of my shit. Here's some of George Clinton's:
https://youtu.be/MdC57N0OfDA
https://youtu.be/otvFuCq1PWY
https://youtu.be/OHzXkr5Vtow
There's a bunch more, too. And, what could possibly be even better than a new Funkadelic album? There's also a new Parliament album in the works right now too. Life is good. ;3
Also, to Anjel: Happy anniversary! <3 And, also, hopefully expect more art and stuff from me soon now that I have free time again.
HEMORRHOY ROGERS!
General | Posted 10 years agoWhile dicking around online after yet another day of work and school, I discovered that some awesome person has been posting Hemmorrhoy Rogers/Gland Puppies/etc. on YouTube. It's the perfect music to annoy the shit out of all of your square/uptight friends with, and since the site hosting all of the music disappeared a few years ago, and apparently came back in all of it's retarded glory at http://pingpongdingdong.com/, it's about time. And since the furry fandom still isn't weird enough in all the right ways, and only a couple of you will read this anyway, here's Hemorrhoy and the Rhoid Boys!
https://youtu.be/sv3dIaiuFiA
https://youtu.be/55HvpAPdbug
https://youtu.be/g0v_P-Z-lSU
https://youtu.be/YzG0ZVhJ58c
Try not to listen to this sober unless you're a masochist. ;3
https://youtu.be/sv3dIaiuFiA
https://youtu.be/55HvpAPdbug
https://youtu.be/g0v_P-Z-lSU
https://youtu.be/YzG0ZVhJ58c
Try not to listen to this sober unless you're a masochist. ;3
Furcons, Operation Mindfuck, and Triad goes to Washington(s)
General | Posted 10 years agoHey there everyone, I got some things to make a journal about again, and, for the first time, I'm gonna post this across all of my accounts (SoFurry, IB [don't judge, I'm just trying to get my art out...], and maybe Weasyl, since FA isn't the only player in town). First I'll spew some text your way about random stuff, furry and otherwise. First, the furry:
So next weekend, Anjel and I are going to be at Rainfurrest, which we're looking forward to a lot. I've also never been to the Northwest before, and I'm pretty stoked. Also, the part of me that gets the urge to get punny when I ingest certain plant material is certainly enjoying the fact that I'm going from one Washington to another Washington, all in less than a month.
Also, in three more weeks Anjel, Obonic and I will be running a table at the AZ Furcon, under the Furluminati banner. (http://www.furluminati.com/index). We will have some prints of our art, and various other goodies, including homemade orgonite that is curing outside right now. Since 2 and Kage and the annoying furry "Old-Guard" will be there, it goes without saying that the furry esoteric counterculture should be represented too. And since some of us may have, according to some, actual ties to certain illuminati front organizations, well.... >;3
...Check us out, if you're there. ;3
And now the Other:
So, aside from the usual work and school (which I will have at least another year or two's worth, since I got accepted into ASU's accelerated Master's program for Graphic Information Technology. However, after my current class, I still got 7 classes to go for my Bachelor's, so, you know...), I finally, after 7 years (since my dad passed) I went back to Washington, DC and Northern Virginia, the environment that produced me, in it's own oppressive way. Anyway, it was a great trip, we spent the first day getting high and wandering around all of my old woods and neighborhoods that I grew up in. You don't truly appreciate a lush, wet, green forest at the end of summer until you've lived in the desert for a good length of time.
In addition, we had an experience of the good old-fashioned NoVA/DC paranoid and "The Fear" when we decided to go to the local urban legend/cryptozoological/creepy place, Bunnyman Bridge, down in the ridiculous Clifton, VA, area. The legend of the Bunnyman, which, despite being hilariously furry, involves an axe-happy psychopath in a rabbit suit who likes to decapitate people down there, or a supernatural being, essentially, NoVa's twisted sociopath version of the Pookah of Irish (and Robert Anton Wilson) lore. How freaking appropriate. All synchronicities aside (as I've been reading tons of Wilson again after too many years as well), it was also the source of the rabbit-creature thing in Donnie Darko which, I hate to say, I only stupidly watched once while homeless and on the worst mushrooms I've ever had in my life. It not only left me with a shitty imprint that I had to work on later, but I also can't remember most of the movie. Oh well.
But you see, the real scary shit at Bunnyman bridge isn't the Bunnyman, or lack thereof. It's the neighbors. Clifton is an oddity in the otherwise forested but highly suburban area. It's the last part of Fairfax county that is semi rural (or likes to pretend it is, anyway). There are three parts, the town of Clifton, which is a charming little outpost of "real" Virginia (which had missile silos to urban-explore). There's the old half of Clifton, which is (or was, anyway), full of regular country Virginians. Then there's the rest of it. The rest of it is full of these sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes impressive, gigantic 100+ million dollar mansions, all hiding out in the middle of the woods. Look it up on Google Earth, and you'll see what I mean. These people are all of the hyper-rich assholes who have made their millions with the Military Industrial Complex. And Lobbying. Fucking lobbyists. Anyway, it is a gorgeous area full of the ugly people responsible for all or the wars and shit that lots of us are tired of. And the money here was predominantly made off of the blood of countless brown people and American soldiers.
And so, as we finished our blunt and took our pictures, we wound up getting stuck in the mud. Naturally. After a good fifteen minutes of doing our best to get the hell out of there (the local stoner legend is also that the place is super-hot, as in you're-gonna-get-busted hot. Which is true). Right as Anjel and I are about to give ourselves hernias pushing the car out, this guy in a polo shirt comes down the road walking his dogs. Shit, we all thought. Fortunately, we had just gotten the car unstuck, when he came over and looked up over the the most soulless eyes I've seen on a human being (since I left the DC area, of course). "This is Private Property, you can't be here, there are cameras everywhere, etc." he told us. The private property things was a lie, but the camera thing may have been true. Either way, I told him we were on our way, done with our pictures, etc. We got out, but due to the nature of the road, we had to pass him two more times.
My buddy who was with us commented, as we were leaving, that this was probably the kind of guy who had just gotten back from waterboarding some hostage at a CIA or Blackwater/XE/Whatever dark site somewhere in the Middle East or Eastern Europe, and now that he was done torturing people, he just wanted to relax and walk his goddamn dogs, and not see a bunch of weird people in their neighborhood. This was said sarcastically, of course. If we had stayed any longer (or had to wait for AAA), we would have most certainly have wound up in jail that night, or worse. Because fuck those people.
The next day we had a great day in DC, which was pretty chill, as the day before, a bunch of BLM and trans activists had to kick the KKK and other similar shithead groups out of the city. I will say this about DC. It is a place that lives really far up it's own ass, and only knows how to work and not to have a good time. It is also technologically and culturally (in some ways) at least two to four years behind the West Coast, as Spice was just making it's rounds and getting big on that coast (where we all learned several years ago how awful that stuff was), and everyone's nicotine vapes all still had tanks, and hadn't gotten to RDA's yet. People were fascinated by mine, which is out-of-date here. However, it is an insanely and wonderfully multicultural place, and in my experience from growing up there, bigotry is as useless as tits on a bull in a place where almost every major ethnic group is represented reasonably equally. White people may be the majority still, but not by very much. And that's totally alright, as we're all just people anyway. So the KKK had to go and they did.
When we got there, I noticed that the place had chilled out a bit since my days there before and six years after 9-11. When I left, there was still concrete barriers around everything, and they still had those SAMs hanging out openly in the parking lot of the Pentagon. Now, at least they had to good enough taste to hide the security apparatus better. You can't even catch glimpses of the snipers and missiles on top of the buildings around Layfaette Square anymore, and people can go on Segways right up to the White House fence. That made me happy. Watching DC turn into what it did after 9-11 and during the Bush years was tragic. What also made me happy was walking around DC with an awesome Trans woman who I met that day who hung out at the Museums with us. Back in the day, I'd wander around Downtown with my dad, a (thankfully not social) conservative, often gawking at the protest and street theatre while smoking cigars and messing with the Lyndon LaRouche people. This time, we got to talk all kinds of "outsider politics" while walking past some of the main seats of Power in the Western World. Then we went up to Dupont Circle, the gay/boho part of town, and ate at the best Greek restaurant I've been to in my life, Zorba's (named after the awesome book). I broke my "I don't eat pork" rule on the best sausage ever created (and I know my sausage >;3), Loukanikis(sp?). Opa!
It was good to go back, but it was also a nice reminder of how much I prefer it out here. The middle-east coast has some perks (and beautiful forests), but if you're a weirdo or someone who isn't a career-addicted robot, then it's not the best place. But, as I am from there, I think it's good if I got out there every couple of years for a couple of days to recharge my soul in those woods. But that's just my opinion, anyway.
BUT REGARDLESS OF ALL OF THAT:
When I got back, I figured that it would be wise, after getting ahead with schoolwork, to go back and start reading stuff that isn't textbooks again. In the 2.75 years since my mom died, and all of that stuff, I am finally starting to be able to have time to read stuff that is actually important to me. So I went out and got a ton of the books by Robert Anton Wilson that I was never able to find. I also got stuff by Israel Regardie, John Lilly, and a few people who have made meditative and other mind exercises centered around Leary and Wilson's 8 Circuit theory of Consciousness, which has always been a major ideological player in my own head for years. You'll se it in my early art if you know where to look...
In this time, I've read Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick, which, naturally, triggered a mini-VALIS type experience immediately afterwards where I got the rest of the plot of the comic (and it's successor that will come later) down, filling in gaps that I've had in it for years. I've also reread RAW's Cosmic Trigger 1 and 3, a series of books that changed my life years ago and are again. Since we are now at the part of the comic that I've been working four years to get to, it's been a good thing. I am also attempting an "experiment" in my free time to rebuild my connection with that higher source (or part of our brains) that goes by many names by many people. Whatever this thing is, it has given me a shit ton of my ideas, and my plan for years on the next part of this comic is to essentially get back into intense meditation and other practices, read books conductive to this process, and pretty much "channel" it in, like I did for the Mahatma series, several of my other drawings (Trip of Lord Hyperfox, The Vulpic Dialogue of the Magnetic Center [V.D.o.t.M.C], Apotheosis, and pretty much anything of mine that isn't a comic. The song Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh (Hebrew for "Holy, Holy, Holy") also came out of one of these experiences, this time initiated by my recording of a friend having a mystical experience. Over the next, um, indefinite period of time, I guess, I am going to be attempting, in addition to the Real Life shit I gotta do, slowly trying to get myself back to where I was (in some ways, but not others) when I did my best art, only now i'm in a much more stable part of my life since, like, forever. It should be interesting, and, with any luck, it will help me to produce newer and better art and music.
To finish this journal and to set the mood of the reality I am trying to create in my tiny corner of the world(that isn't run by anxiety, stress, and being way the fuck too busy, like it has been for a while for me, with my/our classic Overworked American Syndrome), I'll end this with a few videos from the individuals whom I am trying to (re-)acquaint myself with their work.
I^2 (Intelligence Squared) - Robert Anton Wilson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1ZqU3myVbk
https://youtu.be/e1ZqU3myVbk
Timothy Leary messing with Fundie Christians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpT31m_6jQs
https://youtu.be/PpT31m_6jQs
Leary tripping on something at a Neo-Pagan conference back in the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUtdgwf6s9s
https://youtu.be/WUtdgwf6s9s
I was not expecting the thing about the dolphins, and his outburst a little after 27 minutes in about followers was a delicious drug-fueled outburst.
And finally, a subject very near and dear to my heart (and my art), Operation Mindfuck, explained by Robert Anton Wilson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIs442IQR4U
https://youtu.be/oIs442IQR4U
Thanks, for reading, and I'll see you at Rainfurrest, the AZ Furcon, and, with any luck, maybe even the internet again! I always feel bad that I can never seem to stay in touch with my friends online in the fandom anymore. Part of it is me being busy, and part of it is me still recovering from one of the most intense, stressful, and transformative times in my life. For that I am truly sorry. I miss you guys, and if you're someone I know online who I haven't talked to in a bit, it, quite literally, is not you. It's me. Life is too short, and I promise that eventually, I will be more active again with the fandom, both online and off. I gotta be. Furries are my people, what can I say? :3
So next weekend, Anjel and I are going to be at Rainfurrest, which we're looking forward to a lot. I've also never been to the Northwest before, and I'm pretty stoked. Also, the part of me that gets the urge to get punny when I ingest certain plant material is certainly enjoying the fact that I'm going from one Washington to another Washington, all in less than a month.
Also, in three more weeks Anjel, Obonic and I will be running a table at the AZ Furcon, under the Furluminati banner. (http://www.furluminati.com/index). We will have some prints of our art, and various other goodies, including homemade orgonite that is curing outside right now. Since 2 and Kage and the annoying furry "Old-Guard" will be there, it goes without saying that the furry esoteric counterculture should be represented too. And since some of us may have, according to some, actual ties to certain illuminati front organizations, well.... >;3
...Check us out, if you're there. ;3
And now the Other:
So, aside from the usual work and school (which I will have at least another year or two's worth, since I got accepted into ASU's accelerated Master's program for Graphic Information Technology. However, after my current class, I still got 7 classes to go for my Bachelor's, so, you know...), I finally, after 7 years (since my dad passed) I went back to Washington, DC and Northern Virginia, the environment that produced me, in it's own oppressive way. Anyway, it was a great trip, we spent the first day getting high and wandering around all of my old woods and neighborhoods that I grew up in. You don't truly appreciate a lush, wet, green forest at the end of summer until you've lived in the desert for a good length of time.
In addition, we had an experience of the good old-fashioned NoVA/DC paranoid and "The Fear" when we decided to go to the local urban legend/cryptozoological/creepy place, Bunnyman Bridge, down in the ridiculous Clifton, VA, area. The legend of the Bunnyman, which, despite being hilariously furry, involves an axe-happy psychopath in a rabbit suit who likes to decapitate people down there, or a supernatural being, essentially, NoVa's twisted sociopath version of the Pookah of Irish (and Robert Anton Wilson) lore. How freaking appropriate. All synchronicities aside (as I've been reading tons of Wilson again after too many years as well), it was also the source of the rabbit-creature thing in Donnie Darko which, I hate to say, I only stupidly watched once while homeless and on the worst mushrooms I've ever had in my life. It not only left me with a shitty imprint that I had to work on later, but I also can't remember most of the movie. Oh well.
But you see, the real scary shit at Bunnyman bridge isn't the Bunnyman, or lack thereof. It's the neighbors. Clifton is an oddity in the otherwise forested but highly suburban area. It's the last part of Fairfax county that is semi rural (or likes to pretend it is, anyway). There are three parts, the town of Clifton, which is a charming little outpost of "real" Virginia (which had missile silos to urban-explore). There's the old half of Clifton, which is (or was, anyway), full of regular country Virginians. Then there's the rest of it. The rest of it is full of these sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes impressive, gigantic 100+ million dollar mansions, all hiding out in the middle of the woods. Look it up on Google Earth, and you'll see what I mean. These people are all of the hyper-rich assholes who have made their millions with the Military Industrial Complex. And Lobbying. Fucking lobbyists. Anyway, it is a gorgeous area full of the ugly people responsible for all or the wars and shit that lots of us are tired of. And the money here was predominantly made off of the blood of countless brown people and American soldiers.
And so, as we finished our blunt and took our pictures, we wound up getting stuck in the mud. Naturally. After a good fifteen minutes of doing our best to get the hell out of there (the local stoner legend is also that the place is super-hot, as in you're-gonna-get-busted hot. Which is true). Right as Anjel and I are about to give ourselves hernias pushing the car out, this guy in a polo shirt comes down the road walking his dogs. Shit, we all thought. Fortunately, we had just gotten the car unstuck, when he came over and looked up over the the most soulless eyes I've seen on a human being (since I left the DC area, of course). "This is Private Property, you can't be here, there are cameras everywhere, etc." he told us. The private property things was a lie, but the camera thing may have been true. Either way, I told him we were on our way, done with our pictures, etc. We got out, but due to the nature of the road, we had to pass him two more times.
My buddy who was with us commented, as we were leaving, that this was probably the kind of guy who had just gotten back from waterboarding some hostage at a CIA or Blackwater/XE/Whatever dark site somewhere in the Middle East or Eastern Europe, and now that he was done torturing people, he just wanted to relax and walk his goddamn dogs, and not see a bunch of weird people in their neighborhood. This was said sarcastically, of course. If we had stayed any longer (or had to wait for AAA), we would have most certainly have wound up in jail that night, or worse. Because fuck those people.
The next day we had a great day in DC, which was pretty chill, as the day before, a bunch of BLM and trans activists had to kick the KKK and other similar shithead groups out of the city. I will say this about DC. It is a place that lives really far up it's own ass, and only knows how to work and not to have a good time. It is also technologically and culturally (in some ways) at least two to four years behind the West Coast, as Spice was just making it's rounds and getting big on that coast (where we all learned several years ago how awful that stuff was), and everyone's nicotine vapes all still had tanks, and hadn't gotten to RDA's yet. People were fascinated by mine, which is out-of-date here. However, it is an insanely and wonderfully multicultural place, and in my experience from growing up there, bigotry is as useless as tits on a bull in a place where almost every major ethnic group is represented reasonably equally. White people may be the majority still, but not by very much. And that's totally alright, as we're all just people anyway. So the KKK had to go and they did.
When we got there, I noticed that the place had chilled out a bit since my days there before and six years after 9-11. When I left, there was still concrete barriers around everything, and they still had those SAMs hanging out openly in the parking lot of the Pentagon. Now, at least they had to good enough taste to hide the security apparatus better. You can't even catch glimpses of the snipers and missiles on top of the buildings around Layfaette Square anymore, and people can go on Segways right up to the White House fence. That made me happy. Watching DC turn into what it did after 9-11 and during the Bush years was tragic. What also made me happy was walking around DC with an awesome Trans woman who I met that day who hung out at the Museums with us. Back in the day, I'd wander around Downtown with my dad, a (thankfully not social) conservative, often gawking at the protest and street theatre while smoking cigars and messing with the Lyndon LaRouche people. This time, we got to talk all kinds of "outsider politics" while walking past some of the main seats of Power in the Western World. Then we went up to Dupont Circle, the gay/boho part of town, and ate at the best Greek restaurant I've been to in my life, Zorba's (named after the awesome book). I broke my "I don't eat pork" rule on the best sausage ever created (and I know my sausage >;3), Loukanikis(sp?). Opa!
It was good to go back, but it was also a nice reminder of how much I prefer it out here. The middle-east coast has some perks (and beautiful forests), but if you're a weirdo or someone who isn't a career-addicted robot, then it's not the best place. But, as I am from there, I think it's good if I got out there every couple of years for a couple of days to recharge my soul in those woods. But that's just my opinion, anyway.
BUT REGARDLESS OF ALL OF THAT:
When I got back, I figured that it would be wise, after getting ahead with schoolwork, to go back and start reading stuff that isn't textbooks again. In the 2.75 years since my mom died, and all of that stuff, I am finally starting to be able to have time to read stuff that is actually important to me. So I went out and got a ton of the books by Robert Anton Wilson that I was never able to find. I also got stuff by Israel Regardie, John Lilly, and a few people who have made meditative and other mind exercises centered around Leary and Wilson's 8 Circuit theory of Consciousness, which has always been a major ideological player in my own head for years. You'll se it in my early art if you know where to look...
In this time, I've read Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick, which, naturally, triggered a mini-VALIS type experience immediately afterwards where I got the rest of the plot of the comic (and it's successor that will come later) down, filling in gaps that I've had in it for years. I've also reread RAW's Cosmic Trigger 1 and 3, a series of books that changed my life years ago and are again. Since we are now at the part of the comic that I've been working four years to get to, it's been a good thing. I am also attempting an "experiment" in my free time to rebuild my connection with that higher source (or part of our brains) that goes by many names by many people. Whatever this thing is, it has given me a shit ton of my ideas, and my plan for years on the next part of this comic is to essentially get back into intense meditation and other practices, read books conductive to this process, and pretty much "channel" it in, like I did for the Mahatma series, several of my other drawings (Trip of Lord Hyperfox, The Vulpic Dialogue of the Magnetic Center [V.D.o.t.M.C], Apotheosis, and pretty much anything of mine that isn't a comic. The song Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh (Hebrew for "Holy, Holy, Holy") also came out of one of these experiences, this time initiated by my recording of a friend having a mystical experience. Over the next, um, indefinite period of time, I guess, I am going to be attempting, in addition to the Real Life shit I gotta do, slowly trying to get myself back to where I was (in some ways, but not others) when I did my best art, only now i'm in a much more stable part of my life since, like, forever. It should be interesting, and, with any luck, it will help me to produce newer and better art and music.
To finish this journal and to set the mood of the reality I am trying to create in my tiny corner of the world(that isn't run by anxiety, stress, and being way the fuck too busy, like it has been for a while for me, with my/our classic Overworked American Syndrome), I'll end this with a few videos from the individuals whom I am trying to (re-)acquaint myself with their work.
I^2 (Intelligence Squared) - Robert Anton Wilson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1ZqU3myVbk
https://youtu.be/e1ZqU3myVbk
Timothy Leary messing with Fundie Christians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpT31m_6jQs
https://youtu.be/PpT31m_6jQs
Leary tripping on something at a Neo-Pagan conference back in the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUtdgwf6s9s
https://youtu.be/WUtdgwf6s9s
I was not expecting the thing about the dolphins, and his outburst a little after 27 minutes in about followers was a delicious drug-fueled outburst.
And finally, a subject very near and dear to my heart (and my art), Operation Mindfuck, explained by Robert Anton Wilson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIs442IQR4U
https://youtu.be/oIs442IQR4U
Thanks, for reading, and I'll see you at Rainfurrest, the AZ Furcon, and, with any luck, maybe even the internet again! I always feel bad that I can never seem to stay in touch with my friends online in the fandom anymore. Part of it is me being busy, and part of it is me still recovering from one of the most intense, stressful, and transformative times in my life. For that I am truly sorry. I miss you guys, and if you're someone I know online who I haven't talked to in a bit, it, quite literally, is not you. It's me. Life is too short, and I promise that eventually, I will be more active again with the fandom, both online and off. I gotta be. Furries are my people, what can I say? :3
Triad plays some Eno
General | Posted 10 years agoSo after my last journal (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6911028/), we decided to do a quick little phone video of me breaking in the Moog. I am, of course, using a Brian Eno song to do it, because it seemed appropriate. I could have used to warm up more, but I did have pneumonia (and was also pretty stoned) when we did this. It was fun all the same. ;3
https://youtu.be/msWtN7jAKgY
You can get a bit of a view of the studio in this, at least the synthesizer stuff. That stuff is like audio crack. ;3
https://youtu.be/msWtN7jAKgY
You can get a bit of a view of the studio in this, at least the synthesizer stuff. That stuff is like audio crack. ;3
