Hello. I am temporarily without net access due to my landlord's crazy girlfriend stealing my wireless modem. I owe money to one artist, and a bunch of likes and favorites to artists that I have met while I was there at Furlandia. Most of them I did not know till the con. I am typing this from the library computer, and hope to have a new wireless modem within a few days. Aside from a guy nearly ruining it by running around in nothing but his underwear, it was a blast. I am looking forward to see what is going to be done next year. See you all then!

So here is a link to my livejournal with all the pictures of the incident.

http://winterbeast.livejournal.com/27222.html

We are allowed on picture of our human selves here, or so I thought.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12376881/

it seems the nicer you are, the more bad stuff happens to you.

Weekend of Nov 23-24 was a blast for me. Not only did I see the launch of MLP:FiM S4, but the following day I got to see a screening of The Last Unicorn With Peter S Beagle in attendance and selling books and videos. I was glad to see it, and bought the book and movie. got a signed by him postcard which I will not post here till I figure out if the arcane rules for posting stuff that isn't yours will let me.

It's been great reading the book again, and when I am done, there is a sequel, Two Hearts, in an anthology of short stories he had done called The Line Between. I am looking all forward to that part of it.

Peter told me that he loved visiting Portland, biggest reasons? Books and Beer! We have lots of both!
Hope to see him again. I liked the new video, and will have to look into what he wrote as a travelog.
Seems the Original Last Unicorn had a far different cast. A Two Headed Demon that had been kicked out of Hell, and a Dragon that was whining that the police were ticketing him for being an over-sized vehicle without a license, and the Unicorn. I wonder what the story would have been like with that cast.
kinda makes me want to brainstorm ideas myself. I will see what my noggin comes up with

Thought I would share. be on the look out for the Last Unicorn Tour. I think he's going to Georgia and Florida next. Be there or be Square.

To my great surprise, I received a Gift today from a friend for the passage into old-man-hood.
A brand new in the box Crock Pot, a crock-pot cookbook, and two Patrick McManus novels, The Good Samaritan strikes again, and Whatchagot Stew. I think I will read the novels before I open the cookbook.

How should one celebrate when you turn 50?

When I was very young, it was the style of kid's entertainment shows to have a live host and short cartoon segments within the show. I never forgot one of them, a bit called Hercules, with one in particular featuring a Unicorn that could shoot it's horn like a missile. I finally googled it and found it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3nf.....B&index=38

The bad guy here, is calling the Unicorn a certain type. I can't quite make out what he is saying. This is the only example of this I have ever heard of, or seen. Has anyone else heard of such a thing?

As if I did not have enough troubles, I get this from my landlord:
I am going to to get out of this place by end of oct ok please start looking I will give you and george a good reference

I make less now than when I moved in. this will be difficult, but made slightly less problematic by not having my cat anymore.

I went to Portland's first Furry Convention, Furlandia. I attended all three days, and had a marvelous time in spite of the minor shortcomings of the convention staff. I liked the introductory price, and did not like the high price of parking. (spent $33 on parking alone) Met up with Coffeehouse Dog, Door into summer, Acton Rand, Flinters, Grontalis and met new to me furs, Etuix and Special Bats, and many others who's names I have forgotten.

Friday, they seemed to have problems getting registration getting up and going. I inadvertently cut in line, but paid the full convention price at their till. The did not have receipt software going, and they need to fix that. I stayed till about ten at night, and had to leave to get sleep for work the next day.

One thing that definitely upset me was to see cameras there. We as furs have been made fun of by Vanity Fair, CSI, and many others, so we don't need yet another media point ragging on us. It does not matter if they intend to just look at us as a documentary view, someone else will take those images without permission and make fun of us yet again.

Saturday, went to con after work, (4pm) hit the dealers room first. Met Flinters in person, bought the Roomies collected and the art CD. noted a few artists that were there, they were doing pay for sketches, and I didn't know any of them save Flinters. If I can get any of the other local furs to come to the restaurant meets, I will have them put art in my old art books. Haven't looked at the books in ages, and it was great to see them again. Kinda odd to know that I have sketches from '88, and those images were older than some of the attendees. Stayed till 11.

Sunday. Went back to the dealers room, picked up a patch, which seemed to be the only con related item for sale. Feel sorry for the two furs of OpaqueFox, who prepped for the con, Drove here from Denver, and had forgotten a box of stuff they had intended to sell here. was going to pick up a small fox plush, but the dealer had already gone home. It was at that point Flinters decided to pack and go, and left a curse on the con. Said he should have stayed home. I am sorry he did not make the money he wanted, but he knew this was gonna be a small con, and to say that, really really hurts.
Went to the Hisses and Purrs panel/Closing Ceremonies, bitched about the parking costs.

I wandered around the con as it shut down, I am not a dancer in any way, so the dead dog dance did not appeal to me in the slightest. I was able to get into the staff room party, where Pancakes were made and passed out to all. A movie based on a fighting game was playing, that I thought was silly.
Stayed till 11, when at last everything had been packed away and nothing was left.

My thoughts? they should have had their pre-reg badges all ready to go, printed, put in holders and boxed up for distribution. but it turns out they did not plan ahead far enough. only 4 months of planning went into it. They will know better next year, and won't make any noob mistakes there.
They could not help the hotel double booking them, so that was not their fault. Looking forward to the after action reports from their ends.

I can only remember the names of Triss, Steve and Chase, and there were at least 4-5 more constaff there, To all of which I give my whole-hearted congratulations, and will happily volunteer to help them next year if they should decide to make Furlandia 2 a go. Thank you, Constaff. see you next year!

Mayday! Maypole! Cinco de Mayonnaise!

I have commissioned two artists whose work I love, Vicky Wyman ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vickywyman/ ) and Flinters (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/flinters/ )
both images, This one from Vicky: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9990521/
and this one from Flinters: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10132163/
have safely made it home.
It took longer than it should have because I tried to do things the old fashioned way by sending money orders to both artists. the USPS mangled the one sent to Vicky, though she tells me they did make good on the value of the money order, and the one sent to Flinters was outrightly returned as undeliverable. I re-sent that one certified mail, and it got through.
I don't like paypal, but I do have to use it occasionally. I fear one day they will declare furry art to fall under their pornography ban and ban it all, and fine sellers and buyers $500 for each picture bought or sold.

Vicky took great care in her package, in which the picture was rolled and bound with regular paper and tape, with plastic shopping bags as protection. (I have food lion bags now, and there are no food lions closer than ten states away)

Flinters used the USPS flat rate mailing envelope, and included two advertising postcards, a book mark, and a company invoice. The picture itself was in a not-water tight plastic bag, much like a comic protector.

End result? I am greatly pleased with both artists, and both pictures. I will purchase from them both again.

Today is a great day of sadness. My cat, Missy, has finally died from what ever sickness she had. I have cried many tears over this day, knowing that it was coming. It is finally here and I don't know what to do next. can't afford cremation, and would not have space for the ashes, anyway. I will not adopt another pet as I was not able to take this one to the vet when it could have saved her. Now I am alone more than ever, and the only good of it is that the landlord will complain less about the smell.
And all this on the part of the week when I am scheduled to have the car picked up and repaired.

Mission Accomplished, Country Saved! Oh, the Feelings I am experiencing now. Like the start of Paradise City. Like a Dragster spooling up for pre-staging. (they briefly hit full power to get the tires sticky before the full race) More poor people may be saved from DEATH for the victory of this President.
If only we had taken the House, we could save the nation with ease. Now we will have to work harder to get around the Republican crazy train, Paul Lucas said in his journal: I shudder to think of the damage that would be done by the bunch of hardcore teabaggers and Randites and birthers and frothing neocons that currently dominate the Republican party. Todd "Legitimate Rape" Akin and Richard "Gift From God Rape" Mourdock both lost their elections in the Senate. Is anyone surprised? If you're going to support a crime against women, don't be surprised when women don't vote for you!

I suppose that having the house in hostile hands is important, because saving America should not be easy. Nothing worth having is ever easy. This will make the job more difficult, but the sense of accomplishment that much greater if we are able to do it. Perhaps we will be able to show the rabid of both parties the door and return to the Sanity that we used to have.

I think it would be just deserts if Grover Norquest had to be rescued from Hurricane Sandy's remaining floodwaters by a FEMA rescue helicopter.

"As for the Republicans, how can one regard seriously a frightened, greedy, nostalgic huddle of tradesmen and lucky idlers who shut their eyes to history and science, steel their emotions against decent human sympathy, cling to sordid and provincial ideals exalting sheer acquisitiveness and condoning artificial hardship for the non-materially-shrewd, dwell smugly and sentimentally in a distorted dream-cosmos of outmoded phrases and principles... Intellectually, the Republican idea deserves the tolerance and respect one gives to the dead."

This on a t-shirt. and I agree.

Last night. My beloved Volkswagen blew it's transmission linkage and perhaps other things and has left me car-less. the mechanic can probably find one for $350, but it will be a while before I can manage that much money. I am thinking probably my tax return. it has put me "Back on my feet again".

The upgrade has been a success so far. Windows 7 Home Premium is now my new Operating System.
The hard drive has been upgraded to 1.5T. the video card is a nvidia something or other with 1gig video memory. Office 2010 is online. New Monitor. slightly smaller. (a 19 instead of a 20) Car still down, but I will take my victories when I can get them. still, takes a bit of time to get used to the design and user operbility of the new OS. All this to play Mechwarrior Online.

My main home system has suffered a Monitor loss. the thing is dead. I will try to see if goodwill has a replacement, if they don't I'm offline till payday...

I have acquired by fair means W7PRO. and for my b-day, I acquired a 1.5TB HD. I am about to put them in as a fresh install, but then I pondered, how do I save stuff and bring it over? I will have to figure out how to export my bookmarks file, Re-download some really large games, (world of tanks) and re-set a lot of cookies to remember me. Does anyone have a checklist of things you should do when upgrading your system?

Sometimes, Older cars need help. My older car is a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle. I had to do a lot of work on it over the past two days, repairing the main brake line that runs from the master cylinder to the back wheels. I thought it would be easy, but no such luck. I had the parts alright, but no job is ever easy and everything takes longer than expected. So. to get the job done, I had to take out the driver's seat and the back bench seat, and unbolt the gas tank to get at the master cylinder. Okay. with everything exposed, I unhook the main line from the master cylinder at the front of the car, Jack it up, then crawl underneath to unhook the "T" that splits the line to the rear wheels. Well. Try to, anyway. The thing would not budge. No room to swing a wrench more than a single hex-side, and for that, it started slipping.
I ended up going to the volkswagen parts store, buying another fitting, and hacksawing the stuck part out. had to cut the main line, and the passenger side line, and I got lucky with the drivers side line, it broke free and I did not have to cut it. In went the new main line. teflon taping all connections, I put the new tee in, and put the new line over to the passenger side in place. Then I secured the main line though the passenger compartments, bent it around the pedal cluster, and out through the front firewall.
I made the last bend, to make the last connection to the master cylinder, and then Murphy comes by with sword and dagger just to make my life miserable. the last fitting wouldn't. it would not seat. (the threads would not screw in) I ended up getting out the spare master cylinder and fitting that in just to have a better set of threads. Didn't help. I ended up using a small length of line that would fit in the master cylinder to connect to the main line. so instead of turning straight in to the master cylinder, my brake line does a loop-de-loop before going in. Yikes. all that work for a simple job. made changing the oil and the fuel filters easy by comparison. I then had to bleed the brake lines, as they were full of air.
I found an old large syringe, and used a small length of tubing to fill the lines with brake fluid.
(open the bleeder valve, depress plunger, close valve, refill syringe. repeat till line is full)
it's all you can do when you're doing the job yourself. So. There you have it. a full two days work of chasing parts and hacking away at the only ride I have. and now? it stops. not perfectly, but it stops. which is all I wanted from it.

Now I am sore and still a little dirty from all the work. and now I go to my night job.
but at least I get to drive there.

Where is the section that tells you how to Block people from posting on your account or responding to your comments?

and she's running a raffle

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3518545/

I love looking at glass sculptures

Since my last journal, Things have gotten better. I did not lose the job, though I had feared I would.
I did lose the car I had at the time, and have gotten a better one. (though the loss of that one was traumatic, too, a car fire) I consider it a miracle that I have the car in question. Atheists may just say "You got Lucky". I don't believe it in the slightest. Luck has limits. God does not. I received a huge gift of money from my parents, $1,000 to go to the next car. I scrapped the remains of the last car, and received a donation from my church. I told my Mechanic, a man who goes by the nick of Bigfoot, what I had to spend on a new car, told him about one I had found, and he bid me wait a week or so.
That proved to be the biggest right decision I've ever made. he found a car, and flipped it to me.
took all the money I had, and it was a charity to me to sell it to me. He could have gotten a $1000 more for the car, considering the shape it is in. The car itself is a Red 1972 Volkswagen Standard Beetle. with dual port heads. it's got several features and differences than the 1970 beetle that had burned up, and drives vastly different, in fact, it's taking some getting used to for things that work.
I am keeping the car immaculate, not letting clutter gather and even going so far as washing the car.
What bothers me is that I am going stupid with it, buying little things to go with it, so long as they are red. Red is the color of the bad guys, the Republicans. Woe is me. I also have a red bicycle. Why is it that Red is bad in Politics, (republicans and communists) yet Good in Cars? Red Corvettes, Red barchettas, (from Rush's song) and the car from the beach boys "Little old lady from Pasadena"?

It is three thirty in the morning as I type this. I had started the night intending to do a 12 hour shift at trucking company. that shift was cut by 9 hours, and I left for home at 1am.
I drove home, and at the juncture where 217 splits off highway 26, My car caught on fire.
I pulled over to the side and saved what I could. my laptop, some tools, my lunchbox. a plush toy. The police responded, the fire truck did too, much later. the police called a AAA tow truck for me, and AAA lived up to their standard of care. the tow truck deposited me and my car at my residence, and I will have to call the insurance company later in the morning.

Lord, I know you mean for good things for me, but the way I am being separated from the old things hurts. Please make events not hurt so much. Amen.

This has been a terribly bad week. On Monday Morning I break a very expensive item at work, and they want to take it out of my check. I manned up for that, but now I am no longer at that site. Seems I chipped someone's paint by lowering the gate bar too early, and they want recompense. I am adjudged too dangerous to keep at that site, so I am there no longer.
I don't know if I am going to still have a job, most likely not. And it will be fired for cause, and therefore I will be denied unemployment. So. First things to do. Check with Workforce Oregon to see what I will need to do. Get my past ten years running in order, jobs and addresses, and get ready to fill out a ton of applications.
On Monday night I blew a tire and had to ride it in to work, destroyed the turn signal lamp on that side, now replaced, unhooked the headlight on that side, (re-hooked) and the wipers won't work and it's raining. Tuesday and Wednesday I have the day off, and Today, Thursday, I loose my jobsite and probably the job as well. Then the boss calls and sends me to a 4 hour shift tonight and tomorrow... Don't know what to think...

If anyone locally to me can help me find a job, I would appreciate it.

Today, Missy is complaining because she has licked all the aspic from the can of super supper I laid down for her this morning and wants more. I am not sure, but I can be pretty sure that vocalizing is a sign she's not so sick.