Known as Forbes Magazine:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhar.....and-investing/

Just a little something for the more conservative folks to consider.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/st.....l#.U69ENPldWSo

Ayn Rand missed half the conversation that Carnegie started. Self-interest isn't the key to making Capitalism thrive. Enlightened self-interest is.

Osamu Tezuka, father of anime, evidently produced a secret stash of furry pinups!

I got linked by  adamleisemann, my bro, earlier this morning. Thought it might be of interest!

http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/03/.....urce=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

So the next time you're at an anime con, and get spat upon for "furry porn," point out that Tezuka made some too. Just be sure to have an umbrella, so you don't get splattered with the grey matter from when heads asplode. :3

Hey folks, I've got a new story up!

Sadly, since I think the content pushes the local rules just a li'l bit, I've had to post it over on SoFurry instead.

http://www.sofurry.com/page/310210/

Go there, and enjoy! A nice, sweet, smutty little Thanksgiving piece, I like to think.

If so, and you want to find out what it looks like to see yourself as a member of the opposite gender without committing funds, give a look at Ashwolves' journal over here! He's offering up a little raffle, where the price of your ticket is just a journal and a reference pic!

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2237971/

Okay folks, here it is - I'm home from Horror Hound and writing up the ol' con report! Now, first off. I already subjected the folks on my writing list to the reviews of the films I caught. And I'm going to subject the folks I live with to the same. So if you *want* to hear my lengthier discussions of Absentia and Frankenstein Syndrome, ask for them, but otherwise I'm not going to recap them here except to cover them in bullet point form.

Absentia: Good, atmospheric film. Has a good 'family drama' or 'very special episode of' feel to it at first, with some added creepiness - and when things get better, they rapidly get *much* creepier at the very same time. Strong recommend, and the website is here! http://absentiamovie.com/

Frankenstein Syndrome: Painfully preachy take on the Frankenstein story (and that's compared to the original!) I probably wouldn't mind it so much if they hadn't painted the entire field of embryonic stem cell research with a very broad, very undeserved brush. If you're interested in the link though... here it is. https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-.....53367781371272 Maybe you'll like it better than I did. I *will* say that, due to malfunctions at the screening, it may have left a worse impression than it deserved, and I'll probably try to catch the DVD from Netflix to give it more of a fair review. If you just watch it as a horror film without looking at its portrayal of folks in the medical research field, you might like it. It *does* get rave reviews, but I just found it increasingly painful and silly.

Tucker & Dale vs The Evil. Sadly, can't say much about this one because my knee forced me to 'chicken out' before seeing it. But oh, do I ever want to see this one when it hits on DVD. It's Reverse Massacre - a group of college kids come across Tucker & Dale at their favorite fishing hole up in the mountains, and decide that the two hillbillies are rejects from Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Wrong Turn/Deliverance, who need to be taken out before they can turn them into down home cooking. Tucker & Dale proceed to defend themselves. http://www.tuckeranddale.com/ I really think that T&D could have dethroned Absentia as my best film of the con, but we'll have to see when it comes out more widely.

Now, for my con report proper... the short version is that I attended, and I became one of the best customers of the booth in the back corner of the "separate but equal" dealer's room that was selling DVD's of obscure films. Even got some holiday shopping cleared out of the way, which is always a nice bonus.

I left for Indianapolis a bit after 9:00 on Thursday morning, having gotten the whole day off due to a slight miscommunication with my boss. Arrived in Indy about 4:30 local time, after a 6-ish hour drive (Indy is Eastern time, WI is Central). I got to settle in and recover from the drive, and had plenty of time on Friday to relax prior to the convention proper. As for the convention proper... well, here's some free advice to the folks running Horror Hound, or *any* convention. If people sign up and pre-register for your convention, they're doing it for *their* convenience as much as, if not more than, yours. They're doing it because they don't want to wait in line for hours. This is even more the case when they pay extra for the privilege of entering the convention area an hour before anybody else!

They do this because, when the tickets they receive say "admittance at 4:00 for early admission," they expect to show up at, say, 3:45, maybe wait briefly in a line of other people who bought early admission tickets, and go inside. They don't expect to be sent to the back of the hour-long line that all the people who pre-registered for standard admission - and the people who didn't pre-register - are waiting in. And I wasn't the only person bitching about this during the wait.

So I showed up a little bit early, as mentioned. Found a parking spot that was miraculously not a huge hike from the hotel, and went inside, carrying the walking stick I brought along because my knee's screwed up and I don't handle standing/walking for long periods of time well. I ask the nice man in the 'con staff' t-shirt if the line that I see *doubled back around two hallways and back into the lobby* is the early admission line, somewhat surprised that so many people would have purchased the early admission. He looks at me quizzically, and says "are you getting a gold membership?"

"No, but I did pre-pay for the early admission tickets; I've got them right here."

"Yeah, you're in this line."

All of this stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And, admittedly, *maybe* it is in the horror convention world. Maybe it is in the comic convention world. I honestly don't know. What I *do* know is that this isn't normal at the conventions that I am familiar with - mostly furry conventions. Now, in my experience, furs are renowned for having the organizational skills of ferrets on methamphetamines. But when you've got a furry convention, the folks running them are usually those with at least a modicum of improved organizational ability. They need it, in order to *set up a convention* and get the minor celebrities of the furry fandom into the con and set up. They also know that, frankly, people who are pre-registering for the con want to get into the con faster than those who show up unannounced. So at a furcon, there will be one of two things: A pre-reg line, where you show up, show your ID, they have you on the list, and they hand you your badge, any swag you have coming, and send you happily on your way. Alternately, they send you your badge in advance, and you can cut the line to pick up your swag, if any, or they've even got the swag set up elsewhere so you can pick it up when-the-heck ever.

In short, they give you a good reason to pay early. They *want* you to pre-reg, so they set this line up to give you an added incentive to do so. And Horror Hound did too... if you signed up for the package that cost almost three times what the base package did. Now, I understand that the gold membership also came with a lot of swag, perks, and guaranteed seating in the front two rows of any screenings you attend. But when I pay extra for early admission, only to be told I'm spending my extra hour in line and actually getting my registration after not just the people who only paid for a regular ticket, but after the people who didn't pre-register *at all*... yeah, that ticks me off. As evidenced by my spending so much time bitching about it! All of which could have been avoided by *including the wristband with the damn tickets they mailed me*. I mentioned this to somebody on staff, and he sort of looked around, shrugged, and said "I don't think they knew what colors the wristbands were going to be until today."

Which doesn't actually surprise me, honestly, because they also didn't have maps of the convention, or a con programming guide - they literally put up what films would be screened and where *the day the convention was going to start* on their website. Of course, they had their list of celeb's up months in advance - which tells me exactly what they think about at this con. The celebs they can get in will bring people in the door, so that's what's important. Nothing else really matters to our attendees, right? Well, in my case, wrong. The celebs are the last thing I'm interested in, since I'm not an autograph hound. Now, I'd like to *talk* to some of the celebs, but that's not going to happen at these events. I'd *love* to sit down at a bar and chat with Tom Atkins about his films, me with my ginger ale and him with whatever particular beer or mixed drink he favors. Hell, I'd probably even cover a couple rounds for the privilege, just to hear him reminisce. But I'm not gonna shell out $20 to talk with him for a couple minutes and get his signature on a poster or DVD cover. And that goes double for Corey Feldman (who, frankly, probably wouldn't get the offer of a beer either.)

At any rate, I collected my wristband (finally), and went in to do some shopping. Here was where the lack of a map came back to bite me - I actually accidentally found my way into Mask Fest, which was where they had people showing off their latex mask skills (sorry, no pictures - wasn't sure if they'd appreciate that or not, and I forgot my camera the first night anyway). Mask Fest was *also* the "they don't have an A-list celebrity with them, so we're going to put them over *here*" dealer's tables. Ironically, I didn't even *find* the main dealer's area that first night, though I *was* thinking "gee, there aren't that many dealers here." In the end, I ended up doing all my business at one table, the folks selling the super-obscure films. Though I did get a chance to meet Robert Kurtzmann and say that I, at least, enjoyed The Rage (warning: Seriously a 'it is what it is' film, don't watch it if you're not ready for super-cheesiness.)

I also found the room where they were keeping the podcasters and the horror hosts, though I didn't spend too much time in there.

Anywho, after my initial shopping, I headed back to the hotel to get dinner and rest up. As an aside, the Red Roof Inn on Valparaiso Court is small, but the rooms are reasonably well kept. I *would* recommend trying to get a ground floor room if you have more than one bag though. Hauling my desktop up the stairs was *not* fun, nor hauling it down this morning. However, I found that Chang Fu (the Chinese takeout place next door) was pretty good, and it became a mainstay of my diet while I was there. Good eggrolls, great fried dumplings, and they cook up everything fast.

Spent a lot of time chatting with folks and working on my own projects, but it was a good chance to do just that without having to worry about everything else going on around me.

Saturday, I went in mostly to watch the screenings. I *was* able to take advantage of my early admission ticket on Saturday, which let me do some follow-up shopping (and find the main dealer's room) prior to the screening of Absentia. Didn't buy anything in the main dealer's room, but I did get a few pictures today, as I promised some folks I would! You see, on one of the lists, I mentioned that I'd try to get pics of cute cosplayers, and I did my best to remain true to my word! It was a little tricky though, because there actually weren't as many cosplayers here as I'd expected after Famous Monsters. Still, I did my best. First, I found a couple of guys who looked like they knew a thing or two about finding people. Heck, the guy on the left has been finding cute chicks in the middle of the freakin' *woods* for over thirty years now, so if anybody could help me, I knew it was him!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5481849/

Well, after a couple minor misunderstandings involving asking for help hunting up some cute cosplayers, they agreed to help me find one with some great melons. Which led to my meeting the lovely lady below!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5481875/

I didn't have the heart to tell them that, technically, pumpkins are squash, not melons.

Well, okay, I had the heart, just not the nerve. Not sure why the picture came out so blurry - maybe it's a supernatural creature thing.

At any rate, after this I had to go catch the screening of Absentia. My 'review' is mentioned above, but in short, I loved it. Frankenstein Syndrome was right afterwards, so I caught what I did of that too... didn't love it so much. There *was* some audience heckling when the disk started skipping, but for once I wasn't involved in it. Best part of the screening before I left through.

At any rate, having exhausted my attempts to find *cute* cosplayers, I instead settled for finding the most horrifying monsters I could! And boy, did I *ever* succeed!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5481916/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5481929/

Bask in the horror of fursuiters! Bwahahahahahaha! Seriously, these guys were all there, having fun, and I give them credit for having the cojones to come out to a horror convention - where absolutely everybody just loved them. There was a lot of gawking, but it wasn't horrified. Rather, it was folks who were all clearly amused/interested in the unusual costumers, and getting just as many pictures as I was. Hell, it was hard for me to get a group shot, with everybody draping themselves off the Panda and Wolf! I'm trying to figure out who exactly they were, but in the meantime I dub them the *true* Horror Hounds (and Bear!)

Anywho, it was about another 3 hours until the screening of Tucker & Dale at this point, but my leg was screaming at me, so I had to head back to the hotel and get some lunch. By this point I'd done a little more shopping too, so my goals for the con - watch any interesting films, and buy a bunch of stuff - were met. Spent the rest of the day, and Sunday, resting up, watching some of my purchases, and prepping for my trip home today. This morning, I packed up, drove home, and here I am!

So, there's the general gist of my weekend - hopefully, this'll keep me from having to repost it to a dozen different people. ;)

If the creator of a world is its chief and primary God or Goddess...

I have got to have a word with my natives about the depressingly low frequency of their sacrifices of gold and virgins.

Interesting little shot at getting into some M/M art, particularly if you've got a dommy char to play with. Just for kicks, I'm tossing Jay Spiritbear into the mix - he can do dommy, after all.

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2055262/

I've got a story that, for various reasons, can't be posted here. If y'want to read it, on SoFurry, under "Scarecrow 1: Swing Low." I've got other stories there too, which aren't quite as nasty, and are also posted here.

http://wolfemann.sofurry.com/stories

Scarecrow 1 is inspired by a couple of different things - slasher movies like Pumpkinhead, and shocksploitation films like I Spit On Your Grave, or Last House on the Left (the original was much, much more brutal than the remake.)

However, it was also based on real life cases. There's an event that directly references the real-life case that inspired I Spit On Your Grave. And the critical scene - and, more importantly to the AUP, the general ages of the characters - reference a real-life case that took place in Conway, South Carolina.

This is not a particularly nice story, and it involves older teens. If you're asking yourself if you should be reading it, ask yourself how you feel about horror movies, because that's where this is going to go in the future. Further chapters in the story will be less brutal, but also only posted over on SoFurry.

Saw this at Cracker Barrel a few weeks ago.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images.....500_AA300_.jpg

The best part? The nails are glitter-rainbow colors!

It's like a gay pride parade threw up all over the poor thing....

Well, it seems to be fashionable at the moment for everybody with an opinion on the latest change in the AUP to go ahead and state it, so why should I be the only one to stay out of things?

*looks through the giant list of reasons, shrugs, and moves along*

Put simply - I understand their reason for initiating the ban, and I'm not going to be ridiculous and claim that it was intentional in any way on the part of the mods. I am going to say that I suspect AlertPay turned the baleful eyes of their lawyers towards the site because one of the folks championing the ban pointed them this way and said "sic 'em," but that's neither here nor there. I am going to say that basic research of AlertPay indicates that they'd have found *something* as soon as the amount in the accounts they could lay claim to reached a certain critical level

What I would like to speak to are the people who are dancing on the proverbial entrails of all those artists who drew all that icky adult cub art. And what I'd like to say is this:

You, ladies and gentlemen, are symptoms of one of our society's greatest issues. The victimless crime.

For all of you out there who claim that adult cub art = child porn, allow me to make one simple point.

Child porn is, rather tautologically, pornography of children. Actual children. As in, when child porn is created, there is an actual child who is being exploited for the purposes of creating it.

On the other hand, adult cub art (and representations of human fictional characters who are underage) do not involve any actual, real people. In other words, when some furry artist draws a picture of a Girl Scout Cat getting banged by a big Wolf who decided he wanted to get some nookie instead of cookies, there is no actual victim. And not in the "hey, the bitch came, proves she wanted it" sense, but in the "none of these people exist outside the realm of the imagination" sense.

Now, if I pressed charges against Matt Groenig for any of the murders that take place in The Simpson's Treehouse of Terror episodes, I'd be laughed out of the courtroom before I even finished talking about it. Hell, Groenig might even get a free restraining order out of it, since I'm so obviously insanely obsessed with the man's characters and what happens to them. To equate the murder of a fictional character to the murder of a real person is rightly considered hideously absurd.

But! Under our current legal setup - and the society that lauds these decisions - as soon somebody draws a picture of Lisa Simpson having sex without magically making her a full adult first, he or she becomes a child pornographer.

The justification for this, of course, is what it always is - "pedophiles always start out by looking at pictures, before they begin acting on the urges in real life."

What you're saying is that we have to convict people for victimless crimes because other people might commit crimes with victims in the future. Because the victims of those crimes are children and, therefore, we have a greater duty to protect them than we do to protect any rights of the people who aren't committing a crime with actual victims.

Of course, Ted Bundy famously claimed that he was encouraged to commit his crimes by horror comics. Serial killers always start out by fantasizing and looking at artwork that trips their triggers, before they actually begin acting on the urges in real life. Therefore, shouldn't we be banning depictions of violence in porn too? Or bondage? And shouldn't we be banning anything that *might* titillate a pedophile, instead of just actual children?

Yeah, I know, that's the slippery slope fallacy. Problem is, it's also the logic that's actually in effect in several other nations. England has a ban on "violent pornography." Australia censors websites that show pictures of perfectly legal women who have small busts. So the slippery slope fallacy is actually turning into how things actually work. Indonesia justifies its bans on pornography in the name of protecting women from the urges that the pornography stokes in men.

But I think there's a better parallel for this. Sex ed.

Comprehensive sex ed is fought on the basis of "if you teach them how to have sex safely, they'll be encouraged to go out and have sex. If you tell them there is no safe way to have sex, they'll be discouraged from having sex."

Well, one study after another has proven this stance to be... the exact opposite of objective reality.

What I'm getting at is this - criminalizing adult images of underaged characters who don't exist isn't going to do a damn thing to the rates of child abuse. What it's going to do at best is create another "Capone law" - something that law enforcement can use when they want to arrest somebody, but don't have any other legitimate charge they can make stick. What it's going to do at worst - and this seems to be demonstrably the way things go - is create another piece of legal precedent legitimizing thought crimes as chargeable offenses.

tl;dr version:

I don't blame FA for putting the ban in place. From a legal liability standpoint and, more importantly, a financial one, they don't really have a choice in the matter, and I don't think that they *want* to put the ban in place (at least not on the top levels of the administration - Dragoneer and such.) I don't think that FA or AlertPay is infringing on anybody's constitutional rights. What I think *is* true is that our society has taken such a swing into the insecurity state that we're sitting back and praising people for eroding our freedoms, as long as it doesn't affect us - not realizing that one of these days, it will affect us.

And the people who are celebrating the ban are, to a large extent, part of the problem.

So I noticed this in my list of unread Journals and figured... eh, what the Hell, why not? If anybody has dearly-desired stories, maybe I can oblige them myself....

Xmas Meme
STEP ONE
# Make a post to your journal. The post should contain your list of ten holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV"). The important thing is to make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
# If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) can get in touch with you. Your home address is not required!
# Make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your journal, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

STEP TWO
# Surf around your friends list (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now, here's the important part...
# If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes one person's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use - or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free - do it.
# You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf - to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not - it's your call. There are no guarantees with this project, and no strings attached. Just... wish, and it might come true. Give and you might receive. You'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

1: A relatively small Wimshurst machine. For those of you who haven't studied Mad Science 101, that's this cool little hand-cranked generator that you can find in assorted science shops, or even build yourself. One of these days, I'll probably just build my own, but if somebody happened to have one lying around they didn't need anymore... could you adopt me? :3 I have plans for building lightning guns and such that you could help me with! :3

(In case anybody's wondering what they look like - http://www.sci-supply.com/closeup.a.....1&offset=0 )

2: A good hat. My favored styles are the Stetson or (short-built) Fedora, preferably in black, dark grey, or brown, but beggars can't be choosers, right? The problem is that my head size is about an 8, 8 1-/4, or XXXL - 25 1/4" head circumference. And therein lay the tricky part of finding a good hat. The only one I *do* have looks like it belongs on Indiana Jones, and... well, my inner Harrison Ford is warring with my inner John Rhys Davies. And we're not talking the newer, thinner John Rhys Davies.

3: Pictures are always nice. I always feel awkward about asking folks for commissions and such, and it'd be kinda cool if somebody had a lead on some good artists for some of my char's. Aside from my vast array of RPG characters, I happen to have two in particular I'd like to get done up. One's Doruth Parn, a Panther ex-Jedi who dresses more like Han Solo than Obi-Wan, and the other is Megan Pierson, a Corgi dominatrix with Corgi-esque proportions.

Yes, that basically means she's a living chibi leather goddess. That's what makes her (and her giant leather paddles) so much fun. :3

4: Any art featuring oddball characters. Sexy armadillo morph? I'd love to see that! :D

5: Magically losing significant amounts of body weight. That would make fittings vastly easier.

6: Furoticon cards. *guilty grin*

7: Obscure horror movies that don't focus on gore! Love these things, serious or campy. :3

8: Recording equipment for my podcast! (Hey, it beats the new car they suggested, right? :-P)

9: Cheesy 80's cartoons! In particular, Centurions, Galtar and the Golden Lance, and Pirates of Dark Water are all guilty pleasures of mine.

10: Hmm... well, another big one, I'd kinda like to get my hands on the Metroid Prime collection and Metroid: Other M one of these days. Hoping to get a Wii this year, but I'm saving for that one myself, so don't count in on this list unless you've given up on your own for some reason and want it to have a good home.

To many of you who get this in your Watch lists, you won't really care about it (or may even be happy to read it, who knows?) To most of you who read this because I link you to it, it's gonna be kinda sucky news.

The short version is, I'm cutting my online RP'ing down to pretty much squat.

The long version is, I'm cutting my online RP'ing down to pretty much squat so that I can work on other projects more.

Here's the thing. Take a look at my FA Gallery. See how long it's been since I published anything? And that was something I wrote over three years ago.

I was starting to make some progress for a while, but then I made the mistake of finding F-List. Y'see, here's the problem. Like most creative folks, I have a hard time with little ideas popping up in the back of my brain and demanding attention NOWNOWNOWNOWNOW! F-List was a handy way for these little ideas to get attention, or at least some of them. I'd put up a profile, poke around for a few folks who were interested in playing with them, and then give the muses the attention they wanted.

The problem is that I also have a very difficult time telling people 'no.' It literally stems back to childhood issues that nobody wants to hear about, so I won't go into it - suffice it to say that, despite being pagan, I give the Catholics a run for their money in the "feeling guilty about every little thing" department. As a result... I've tended to take on more folks to RP with than I can handle. Turns out some folks really *like* the little monstrosities that pop out of my head, sometimes more than I do!

Flattering, but potentially dangerous.

Add to that the fact that I feel guilty at any but the most obviously joking pouting or protest when I say that I really don't have *time* to play, and things quickly start to get out of hand. As a result, I've really gotten virtually nothing done except in short spurts and bursts, and even that amounts to about half a page of writing (except for those bursts where I had the help of some of my particularly understanding RP partners who enjoyed co-writing the scenes.)

I'm quietly going nuts over here, on the productivity level. I've gotten to the point where I don't expect to get anything done except on vacations or weekends... and then my vacations and weekends get taken up by more RP's that I've been putting off through the week because I need some freakin' sleep and relaxation after work. My RL hobbies (few as they are) and podcast fill in what little time is left, pretty well overwhelming me.

So I'm running into an old philosophy of mine, which I've never really had problems with before, but that I have told others to use. "When your online RP's start to feel more like work than like fun... you're doing it wrong."

As a result, I'm paring back. Heavily. Basically, unless it's something I really, really want to do, I'm probably going to be saying 'no' to online RP's. This will not affect my online play-by-post games - they give me enough time around responses that I can keep working around them. IM RP's are the main thing that's gonna get nailed (and I'll avoid adding new PBP games.)

Now, a few of what I expect may be FAQ's about this....

"Don't you like me anymore?"

It's literally got nothing to do with who I do or don't like - that's why I'm doing this as a broad-based thing, at least part of the reason. Though, generally, I don't RP with people I don't like. Just sayin'.

"But this doesn't mean *our* RP, does it?"

Yes, yes it probably does. If it doesn't, I'll say so separately. More importantly... if it doesn't, it may after our next RP session, or until I come back to it. Just because I'm backing off on our RP, doesn't mean it'll never happen again. What it does mean is that it's going to be less likely, and only when my brain is really, really eager for whatever we're looking at. Short-term RP's are most likely during this, because then I don't have to worry about coming back to it in the future.

"So, what, you're just deleting your contact lists?"

No, I'm not. For one thing, I'm still game for things like... oh... chatting and socializing, without the expectation of RP?

For another thing, I do want to get back to assorted bits eventually... just under much more controlled quantities.

I really wish I didn't have to do this, but... well... I'm goin' nuts over here, and when I say things directly, it almost always ends in unintentional guilt trips that I have a hard time resisting, even though the people sending me on them aren't trying to. It's not your fault... it's my father's.

But that's a story for another time.

I work in Madison, WI. Today, on my way home from work, I noticed six dump trucks, empty, parked along the side of the major artery that leads out of the city. As this was causing a little bit of extra congestion, I was wondering what the heck was going on.

Okay, I wasn't using language that polite, but allow for a *little* poetic license, please? This is a family-friendly post, after all.

Then I remembered the six (six!) police cars parked off the road at the end of the block near my workplace, which is the major route leading from that traffic artery to the capitol.

And the three parked at the entrance/exit ramps to that route. And the indicators of even more parked closer and closer to the capitol.

And then I remembered the folks are work talking about the President coming to give a speech at that capitol building. And it all became perfectly clear!

They figured they'd need the six dump trucks to haul off the bullshit when he was done! It all makes sense!

I keed, I keed... sort of.

Before anybody accuses me of being a Republican stooge, allow me to say that I plan on voting for at least one Democrat in the coming election, assuming he doesn't say something that royally screws up my respect for him before then. And that'd take a lot, since we're talking about the respect earned by being the only person who stood up to the PATRIOT Act, something I've covered before.

http://dttaboos.wordpress.com/2009/.....an-early-rant/

I'll also probably end up voting for a Republican or two, though I tend to vote Libertarian when I have the chance....

No, not librarian, Libertarian. You know, the people who profess to believe that the Founding Fathers did a pretty good job when they wrote that 10th Amendment thing, and that the government should stay the Hell out of peoples' lives unless they give the government a reason to get involved, like actively hurting somebody else.

At least that's my interpretation of the ideology.

Now, back to the topic... Obama's visit to Wisconsin!

He had a few interesting things to say, didn't he?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama_campaigning

Yeah... I guess he did!

That's right.

The liberals? They're not demotivated because they voted for Hope and Change, only to find out that apparently change meant "more state secrets privileges, more wiretaps, the CIA can assassinate US citizens, and expanded Special Rendition privileges," and that hope meant "hope you don't notice all of that."

They're not demotivated because they gave the Democrats a majority that could pass whatever they wanted with the mere requirement of having to listen to the Republicans bitch until their lungs got sore (and hey, most of them are old - how long could it take?!?) only to see them not stand up for a single significant issue.

They're not demotivated because they somehow thought that electing a superstar Chicago politician would mean an end to business as usual politics - only to find that Chicago politicians practically taught Washington what business as usual was.

They're not demotivated because they've seen the administration waste its time trying to affect massive changes, only to settle for relatively tiny ones after wasting large amounts of political capital, while ignoring the smaller changes that could lead up to the bigger ones later on.

They're not demotivated because they've seen the world swooning over a man who hasn't done a danged thing, giving away one of the most prestigious awards out there to that same man for the mere accomplishment of saying he wants to do great things.

They're not demotivated by being told that the economy's going to get better - but only if we stop digging our national fiscal grave with a shovel, and start digging it with expensive mining equipment.

They're demotivated because they wanted too much.

And the Independent voters who made that massive "mandate" possible? They don't really count, now do they?

Guess what, Dem's - and Obama in particular - they do count. And they, along with the liberals you count on to make sure you get to keep filling the pork barrels, aren't deserting you because they expected miracles, and they're not getting them.

They're deserting you because they expected things would be different - and they're seeing that just because you turn the board around, you haven't changed the game.

Take heart though. There's at least some chance (one I'm praying for) that this won't actually benefit the Republicans too much either - because I'm hoping that enough people out there will realize that putting the Repub's back in power would only be turning the board back around yet again.

Of course, I also realize that that's the absolute last thing you want to see happen. You'd rather see the House and Senate both go under Republican control than see the rise of the third parties.

Because as long as the same people are always the only ones playing the game, you know that nobody's going to try and change the goal - lining your pockets and running the nation the way you see fit, Constitutional limits be damned.

As soon as a third, or even a fourth or fifth player starts to be involved, then you start having to worry that maybe somebody's going to start calling shenanigans when you try to run roughshod over the nation. And they might start getting more popular than you are when the next elections come around.

And then you might have to actually come to terms with the one choice that makes you lay in bed awake at night.

Govern in the nation's best interests, under the limitations presented in the Constitution, and let people run their own lives?

Or actually have to get a real job?

Well, this weekend I went to the movies again.

TWICE!

I'm going to blame HorrorEtc for that - go pay them a visit at www.horroretc.com to heap shame and praise upon them for all they have done.

Now, what would drag me out to the theatre again, a mere TWO MONTHS after I went out to see Splice in mid/late June?

Well, that would be The Last Exorcism.

What would drag me out again, a mere TWO DAYS after that?

That would be Piranha 3D.

One of these films was great! The other... was Piranha 3D.

Y'see, I generally *really* like two types of film. I like well-acted horror movies that build tension and keep you wondering what's going to end up happening. And I like stupid, goofy films that you have to see to disbelieve. Don't believe me? Paranormal Activity was the first film I saw in theatres that ended a decade-long drought (I've raved about it before), and I publicly admit to LIKING Street Fighter: The Movie.

And not just for Raul Julia's final performance, either (I also liked Zangief.)

Now, based on this, one might think that I had a pair of winners going here. Last Exorcism was indeed well-acted, well-written, built tension, and kept me wondering what's going to end up happening (for reference - the entire movie looks like it's about to have a powerful, yet happy ending. Then they talk to the kid at the diner....)

The Last Exorcism is a film about an evangelical preacher helping film an expose of exorcism. He doesn't want any more exorcists wrapping paper bags around the heads of their patients - he believes it does have legitimate therapeutic value, but the people who'll kill the subject to "save their soul" terrify and sicken him, so he's planning to blow the whole powder keg. The problem is, he's got a real hard-core True Believer for this last exorcism, and when things don't go well, shotguns start getting waved around. If you're not up for scary movies? Try this one, and walk out before they go to talk to Logan at the diner.

Or stick around, and see why I had a grin plastered across my face until the credits were over and the ushers were poking me with brooms and irritable expressions.

As for Piranha 3D, it sounds like it ought to be a stupid, goofy film that you have to see to disbelieve. And, indeed, it was stupid and goofy. The problem was, it was more stupid than goofy (and I think I've got mild eye strain from the totally unnecessary 3D glasses).

Here, your plot is that an earthquake (apparently caused by a bottle of beer - not joking) opens up an underwater lake that contains a huge school of prehistoric piranhas, during spring break. Piranha who, I swear, caused a whirlpool to suck Richard Dreyfuss down to be eaten.

The frolickers and soft-core pornstars at the lake proceed to be menaced (and eaten) by evil fish, until somebody blows them up. Soft-core porn director gets hisself et multiple times, setting up one of the most unnecessary gags in the film, and the day is saved.

OR IS IT?!?

Actually, no, it isn't - because they've already announced Pirahna 3D 2 to come out in 2012.

This one, I walked out of as soon as the credits started up, and not *just* because my brother was feeling mildly nauseous at the gore. I wasn't bothered too much by it, but gore doesn't bother me, as I've said many a time before.

The problem was, it really was a film that could have been goofy fun (and has been for many people, to judge by what I've heard about it). But for me, it was just... eh. The violence was extreme, but that doesn't do too much for me, and there were too many "goddamn dumb" bits for me to even start counting... but allow me to cite one in particular.

EXTENSION CORDS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!!!

This movie was an exercise in juvenile stupidity, nudity, gore, and missed opportunities. The problem is that it was aimed not only at frat boys, but the ones who were actively *using* the beer bongs, the nudity wasn't particularly sexy (Riley Steele, Kelly Brooke, don't take offense - I'm sure you're perfectly lovely ladies in person, but this movie did *not* make me want to find out), the gore was too realistic for the rest of the tone of the movie, and the missed opportunities were totally missed.

For example: You have Eli Roth in a movie about killer pirahna. He's a character who was Born To Die (rather like Jerry O'Connell, who not only got et, but got et TWICE). He's standing on a floating platform that's slowly being driven down into the lake by the frantic and panicked swimmers climbing onto it. You've established that the pirahna can jump short distances out of the water.

And you do NOT have him die by having a pair of pirahna leap out of the water, latching onto his Achille's tendons and severing them, sending him falling helplessly into the lake?!? What sort of referential horror movie are you, Piranha3D?!?

As far as this movie goes, if you do see it, do it for one of two reasons. Do it because you're fond of watching Hollywood desperately try to make fun of soft core porn that's actually marginally more competent than most mainstream music videos, or do it because you want to see Ving Rhames brandishing a motherfu@#ing outboard motor like a chainsaw. That was the one truly awesome moment in this film, in my opinion, and Ving, I salute you.

So, in summary? Go watch Last Exorcism. Go watch it now. If another showing had been going, I'd have taken my brother, snuck out of Pirahna, and gone over to catch that - and I only watched it 2 days ago. When it comes out on DVD, buy it, because it's not the sort of film that relies on special effects to make worthwhile. As a matter of fact, it would've almost been a blast to not hear about it as a film until it was run *as* a documentary of some sort - I'd have loved to see this given the Blair Witch treatment that way. And prove to Hollywood that we are willing to watch smart, well-written films.

Otherwise, next year, we're just going to get Saw 8 - Revenge of the Jigsaw. And nobody wants to watch the Jigsaw Killer being defeated by Ewoks.

Yoinked from Fluffball...

~MOVIES~

Top 3 Science Fiction
1: Forbidden Planet
2: The Thing from Another World
3: The Thing (Carpenter)

Top 3 Fantasy
1: Clash of the Titans (the original!!!)
2: In the Mouth of Madness (Fantasy, horror - the line is a thin one)
3: Legend

Top 3 Comedy
1: Young Frankenstein
2: Transylvania Twist
3: Street Fighter: The Movie

Top 3 Drama
1: The Maltese Falcon
2: Spiral
3: Session 9 (It's a drama as much as a horror movie!)

Top 3 Animated
1: The Secret of Nimh
2: The Great Mouse Detective (I'm a horrible Sherlock Holmes geek, and this only makes it worse!)
3: Rankin Bass' Return of the King ("Where there's a whip, there's a way!")

Top 3 Horror
1: Legend of Hell House (God I love Roddy!)
2: Paranormal Activity
3: The Mummy (The Original)

Really, I could extend this to about 20 or so....

Top 3 Action
1: Predator
2: Lethal Weapon
3: Die Hard

~TV SHOWS~

Science Fiction

1: Star Trek: The Original Series
2: Eureka
3: SeaQuest/DSV (who remembers this one?). XD

Fantasy

1. Highlander
2. Pirates of Dark Water
3. Galtar and the Golden Lance

Comedy

1. Tom & Jerry
2. Looney Tunes
3. Mythbusters (And yes, I *am* calling those first two comedy, and not putting them under animated! So there!)

Drama

1. Assorted Forensics Shows (no better place to put them)
2. Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes shows
3. Cadfael

Animated

1. SWAT Kats
2. Centurions
3. Thundarr, the Barbarian!

(Could stretch this out to at least 20, again....)

Horror

1. Kolchak, the Night Stalker
2. Poltergeist: The Legacy
3. Friday the 13th, The Series

Action
1: Mission: Impossible!
2: Samurai Jack
3: Kung Fu: The Legend Continues

What the Hell, why not? I like the girly boi look myself, might as well see if I fit it....

[ ] You own over 10 bottles of nail polish
[ ] You own a designer purse
[ ] You own perfume that cost over $60
[ ] You had/have fake nails (pretty - but hate the way they make your natural nails feel when the acrylics fall off).
[ ] You have more hair products and body products than you can use (I hate fussing over my hair).
[ ] Your pet is a Chihuahua/Pomeranian/Yorkshire Terrier(mix)/Siamese/Shih Tzu/mini anything
(If guinea pigs count, this fits, but I don't have them anymore - and we raised them for show. The rabbits count even less, they were meat sources....)
[ ] You have clothes/shoes/accessories for your pet (personally, I think anything outside of a collar looks ridiculous on a pet).
[ ] You have enough clothes to cover an entire refugee camp
[ ] You have enough pictures to create your own wallpaper
[ ] A pink comforter, carpeting, walls or sheets
Total So Far: 0

Do you:
[ ] Spend more time at the mall than you do at homework (Doesn't count - don't have homework anymore.)
[ ] Have had a hair color that is not natural (I'm currently growing out red streaks).
[ ] Have "blonde moments" at least once a day
[x] Buy stuff because it's awesome and then never wear/use it
[ ] Constantly keep your phone at your side
[ ] Dance around in your room when nobody else is home
[x] Have a name for your car
[ ] Know what celebrity is dating who and who broke up this week
[ ] Refuse to go out in public without makeup
[ ] Prefer to be called "princess"
Total So Far: 2! Houston, we have ignition!

Do you love:
[ ] Makeup
[ ] Glitter
[ ] The color Pink
[ ] Jewelry
[ ] Mirrors
[ ] Chick flicks (I despise these with a burning passion!)
[ ] Shoes
[ ] Rainbows
[x] Unicorns (In my defense, I prefer the butch, menacing ones of true legend....)
[x] Disney Movies (Dude - Robin Hood and Great Mouse Detective. Could I be a furry if I didn't?)
[ ] Flowers (HAYFEVER!!! o_o)
[x] Stuffed Animals (Don't ask how many. Seriously, just don't.)
[ ] Purses
Total So Far: 5

Do you shop at:
[ ] Coach (Where?)
[ ] Forever 21 (Uhm... again?)
[ ] Victoria's Secret (HEY! I KNOW WHAT THIS ONE IS! YAY ME! Don't shop there though.)
[ ] Guess
[ ] Claire's
[ ] Express
[ ] Delia's
[ ] Hollister
[ ] American Eagle
[ ] Abercrombie Fitch
[ ] Aeropostale
Total So Far: 5 (I Don't Do Designers.)

Do you say:
[ ] Whatever
[x] Oh my god
[x] Hun
[ ] Fugly
[ ] That's hot
[ ] Dunzo
[ ] Darling
[ ] Bff
[ ] Cutie
[ ] Hottie
[ ] Skank
[ ] Totally
[ ] For Sure
[ ] Fabulous
Total So Far: 7 (I use some of them, but only when it's grammatically correct and/or ironic.)

Do you read:
[ ] Cosmopolitan
[ ] Glamour
[ ] Marie Claire
[ ] Elle Girl
[ ] Teen Vogue
[ ] People
[ ] Us Weekly
[ ] Star
[ ] Self
[ ] PerezHilton.com
[ ] Dlisted.com
[ ] Seventeen
[ ] people.com
[ ] usmagazine.com
[ ] popsugar.com
[ ] Pink Is The New Blog.com
Total So Far: 7 (BURN BURN BURN BURN BUUUUUURN!!!!)

Do you love these:
[ ] Legally Blonde
[ ] Elizabethtown
[ ] Mean Girls
[ ] Now & Then
[ ] The Notebook
[ ] A Walk to Remember
[ ] Sweet Home Alabama
[ ] Where the Heart is
[ ] Just My luck
[ ] John Tucker Must Die
[ ] Center stage
[ ] Bring it On
[ ] How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
[ ] Mona Lisa Smile
[ ] My Girl
[ ] The Wedding Date
[ ] 10 Things I Hate About You
Total So Far: 7 (All of these movies would be improved immensely by the addition of Cthulhu, I'm just sayin'....)

Do you really enjoy:
[ ] America's Next Top Model
[ ] Project Runway
[ ] Desperate Housewives
[ ] The Simple Life
[ ] 8th & Ocean
[ ] Sex & the City
[ ] Grey's Anatomy
[ ] The O.C.
[ ] The City
[x] Nip/Tuck (but seriously - does it count if I liked it for the Carver storyline?)
[ ] Gilmore Girls
[ ] Degrassi
Total: 8


Take your total and multiply it by 2. Then repost this as "I am #% Girly." With the number you got as the percent of course.

16% Girly. And many of those are kinda debatable.

I'd be more worried if I wasn't actually male, and *not* a wannabe-twink. :-P But hey, now I've actually done one of these things!

Long post! But it's a con report, whaddaya expect? Short version - it rocked, and I'm eagerly looking forward to next year.

Well, this was it - one of the biggest, most complicated con weekends in the furry fandom. Why?

Because not one, not two, but THREE conventions went on during it!

FA:U, RCFM... and Nakamacon. New Jersey, Alabama, and Wisconsin respectively. All we would've needed would be for, oh, RMFC or Rainfurest to move to this weekend, and we'd have had the four quadrants pinned off! Fortunately, that didn't happen.

Well, being a Wisconsin fur, I made the obvious choice to go to Nakamacon. Nakamacon is the odd-one-out in that group of three - not only was it a first-year con, but it was a mix of Anime, Furry, and Steampunk. Which, it turns out, are three great tastes that go great together!

Nakamacon was run by a guy who's an old pro at conventions, but new to anime/furcons. Fortunately, he had a great staff - including the Groats, who some of you out there may remember as the people responsible for such mainstays as Red Shetland and West Corner of the Park! People attending ranged from the Groats themselves (I got to sit two tables down from Rabbi Tom's table in the dealer's room, and give him a good portion of my con funds), to Dragon Drawer, to Joe Suggs (who you may know as part of the animation department on projects ranging from Cool World to Timon & Pumbaa), to Heather Luca, and well beyond. I was particularly gratified to meet  tremaine (and apologize profusely for getting him mixed up with Mayfurr) and the lovely  thetiedtigress,  Onai, and Wolf in the Walls (who you can find on DA at http://wolf-in-the-walls.deviantart.com/).

There were others, of course, but their names are the ones I remember best - except for  moiracoon and  mocha_mephooki, whose combination of art and steampunk jewelry was striking, and who I *definitely* would have commissioned for one of their new dual-badges in vintage brass locket had I had the funding (dammit! Why does the human body need to eat - or at least why does *mine*? It has enough extra pounds to last a few weeks!)

Ah well. Suffice it to say that a blast was had by all in my family. My brother scored many a commission, which he'll be uploading to FA as soon as he figures out how to scan them properly (go figure - his sketchbook is 11x20 or something obscene like that), Mom got to see (and hug) her first fursuiters, as well as give a little gift to Onai from the jewelry she's working on. We didn't sell any of the ears or tails we had with us, so those may be hitting FurBid or some such soon (speaking of which - does anybody want a feline tail and ears? We've got 'em in pink leopard, cheetah, black cat, and golden-brown with glitter....)

The charms and such that we brought went over pretty well though, as well as some of the smaller jewelry pieces. It would have been nice to sell a bit more, but we didn't expect to sell out - it was our first convention, at a first-year convention, during a bad economic stretch. And really, the sales were the only way this felt like a first-year con. The rest of the convention went very well, from the panels to the dance to everybody actually getting along and nobody setting the hotel on fire! I heard they actually had more trouble with a wedding party that was there than they did with the con-goers, and it was pretty fun watching the restaurant/bar/room service staff taking trays around in ears and tail of their own.

As for the panels... sadly, I missed the Rule 34 panel - after a long day in the Den, I wasn't about to tell my ride home that I wanted to stick around for another 2 hours to go see a 2 hour panel on horrifically wrong porn, meaning that none of us would get home to sleep until after midnight, and I'd probably be curled up in the corner going 'can't sleep, Street Fighter body fluids porn will get me!' Which may have saved my brain from being scarred for life, but I'll fix that next year if I can get a room at the hotel. Sounds like it was a popular panel though, so that's definitely cool.

The panels that I did attend started on Friday with Chef Rena's "Food in Gaming," a look into just what the Hell an Iron Ration really is, and some other thoughts into how food should work into created worlds.

Here's a tip - iron rations were not granola bars. As they were historically defined, iron rations were either about two pounds of crap (PER DAY) that you carried around in a wagon and tried to keep from becoming vermin-infested - and that's not counting the milk or cookware to go with it - or they were three small bars of chocolate, some water, and three bars of dried beef boullion mixed with flour. And it's a wonder that the troops in WWI (who had to eat that stuff) developed a taste for Velveeta.

This, of course, was after my brother attended Fur Films - a screening of Disney's Robin Hood and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, along with a commentary/discussion of the films and Disney's role in the fandom with Joe Suggs - and Explaining the Fandom to Non Furs, which I think should become part of the standard curriculum before you get your raised fox or husky tail. I managed to record the Food in Gaming panel, with Chef Rena's gracious permission, and will try to do something with it eventually!

Before the panel, I did get my hands on the three posters that the Con had available - one of Professor Todd, the cute Fox with the look that's half way between steampunk and Doctor Who - one of Starscream, and one of Hot Rod. Then I went and told a friend of mine online about them, and had to go back the next day to pick up another Starscream and Hot Rod for her. But, then, that's half of why I told her (I like excuses to get out of the Dealer's Den and socialize!)

Saturday, it started with Wolf in the Walls' "Mary Sues" panel - which covered how to define, recognize, and slaughter the prissy little bitches where-ever they may pop up. Special props to her for not coming over the table at the girl in the audience whose own tendencies to write them became painfully obvious as things went along. :) Oh, and for recognizing that the key to any Mary Sue is the writing - so many beloved fictional characters are the dreaded Mary Sue (Holmes, anyone? Guts from Berserk?), but because they're written well they get away with it.

From there, it was on over to watch the BBC's most recent adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray - this movie isn't actually available as Region 1 yet, so it was the American premier to the best of our knowledge! The movie was actually a surprisingly true adaptation - it's very hard for film to handle such an introspective, philosophical book, and they actually got more of Lord Harry's philosophy in than I'd thought they would, though they did parse it out a bit more.

There were some obvious changes - for example, Dorian got rid of the body himself, they make it clear that he was indeed bisexual (rather than merely implying it, as Wilde has to), they moved a pivotal scene to the subway from the wilderness, and the ending was vastly more dramatic than in the novel. But, all in all, it was well-done - and I credit them for pretty decent use of CGI in making the painting all the more freaky in its behavior, actually changing before Dorian's eyes sometimes. I look forward to this one coming to the US, so I can add it to my collection. I do wish they'd dropped the child abuse subplot though - there was no hint of it in the original that I remember, and it was utterly unnecessary.

After that, I spent most of the day in the Dealer's Den, though we did stay late Saturday so we could attend the Masquerade. There were some very interesting costumes all across the board, and I do have partial video of the fursuit dance that happened on-stage.

I also give great credit to the anime fan in the audience who, on hearing two other anime B-tards bitching about "eww, furries" behind him, turned around and told them to have a big, steaming cup of STFU. See? Fandoms can mix and collide in new and wonderful ways!

Sunday was the big day for me. Not because of the dance at night (I respect my fellow man, woman, furry, whatever entirely too much to subject them to what passes for me dancing), but because I was actually hosting a panel.

They sandwiched me between penguin launching and the gun enthusiasts. Really, I couldn't have asked for a better slot, except for one thing I'll get to later!

So, Eric took everybody who wanted to outside to see who could launch the stuffed penguin the farthest in the parking lot, with judging on both style and distance (I vote that next year, they launch a stuffed octopus!) Couldn't make it to that one because I was busy hyperventilating about my own panel, and trying to foist off CD's of my podcast onto those passing by (speaking of which - if anybody's interested in a copy of Darkly Lit, I've got the first 17 episodes on MP3 CD and they're yours for shipping costs! Or you could just listen for free at http://darklylit.wordpress.com </shameless shill>)

My own panel was on how to play the bad guy in your gaming group and get away with it - from convincing the GM to let you play one, to convincing your fellow PC's not to put you down like the dog you are 5 minutes into the game, to convincing your fellow players not to put you down like the dog you are 5 minutes after you betray them to Yog-Sothoth and unleash the Great Old Ones from their eternal prisons to hasten the age of darkness that was foretold in the Necronomicon.

Pro-tip - playing an evil character is not something you do because you want to be able to do whatever the fuck you want. It's something you do because you want to take on a more challenging RP experience, and your fellow players are mature enough that it sincerely doesn't matter that one of them pays half your rent when you have to pick out sacrificial lambs. Forget this at your own peril.

The panel actually went very well. We had a little hang-up because of a miscommunication between my fellow panelist and I about the schedule, but I was able to keep things going until he arrived and picked up right where I was rapidly starting to run out of notes! Sadly, I didn't get the audio of this - my recorder died three minutes into it. Memo to self - next year, bring a recorder that isn't a glorified digi-cam.

Also, see if I can talk Eric into letting me run my "so, you want to play a serial killer?" panel as a companion piece. This one went over so well, I can only imagine what they'll do when I pull out an industrial roll of plastic wrap!

Unfortunately, we ended up running into the beginning of the "The Armed Fur" panel, and since I didn't particularly want to argue scheduling with the gun enthusiasts, we wrapped up and moved along. Would've enjoyed going to that panel, but by this point I needed to go check if Mom needed a little bathroom break, so off I went.

My only complaint about my time slot is that it conflicted with another panel I would've loved to go to - creating steampunk weaponry. It would've been a lovely opening to the Creating a Steampunk Persona panel that I also wanted to go to... but, since the Den was closing up and I really didn't want to tell my ride home that they had to stick around for 2 hours so I could learn how to get the right details to tell somebody that I'm a dirigible captain, I figured it was best to head home and get something to eat.

(Hey - this was 2 days of working the Dealer's Den after my cowardice regarding the Rule 34 panel, the bar had been lowered!)

At any rate - we went in today, did a little selling, attended closing ceremonies, and here we are at home. Nakamacon was a rousing success, with over twice the attendees that the chairman expected (he planned on 165 - current numbers are 375 and counting, since they don't have final figures yet!) Three fandoms met and cross-pollinated, reducing the inbreeding that is entirely too common amongst fans, and my love of steampunk got a jolt of lightning from the blue, rather like Frankenstein's creation. With any luck, my occasionally western themed fursona will pick up a slightly more steampunk-ish bent in time for Teslacon in November - or, at least, I'll pick up the outfit to go with it in time, so I can experience the first full-immersion convention I've ever heard of.

And, of course, I fully plan to attend Nakamacon 2 - won't you join me, when the time comes?

That's right - another Nakamacon journal post. Why? 'Cause I'm goin' there, so you're gonna hear me ramble about it, that's why! :-P

I just found out today that Nakamacon - Wisconsin's first furcon - will be held the same weekend as Bratfest - the World's Largest Brat Festival.

For those of you who aren't in Wisconsin or Germany, a brat refers not to obnoxious children, but to bratwurst, or delicious sausage, which tastes excellent when grilled.

That's right.

A furcon.

Being held at the same time as one of the world's largest sausage festivals.

Get all the puns out of your systems now, folks. I know I'm still working on it.

Hey all! See those ads on the side of your page?

Have you seen the one for Nakamacon?

If not, refresh a few times until you do - if so, want more information?

Here y'go!

http://wolfemann.wordpress.com/2010.....aaaaan-part-2/

Hmm... well, here it goes.

I like horror films. Just about everybody I know realizes that. Well, the particular flavors that I like can vary... which is one reason I like the Anthology Film. Ranging from "Dead of Night" to "Trick 'r Treat," the anthology film gives you a lot of room for variety and, better yet, multiple stories built into one 'frame.' Multiple takes on one concept, if you're lucky. Which is where this idea came from.

Wolves.

The small town of Colton is used to rough winters. A mining town with a dead mine, now a farming town with mediocre farming, the people who live there do so out of a mix of tradition, desperation, and fatalism. Often, they've been in the area for generations... though there is some new blood, hoping to revive the small town.

Then, one winter, an ice storm hits beyond anything in recent memory. The entire city is snowed in, the small roads in and out of town blocked off, the power lines taken down by snow and ice, cell phones and radios *sometimes* able to make contact - but to no real good, since the entire region was hit hard and Colton isn't exactly high priority. Still, most of the people have generators and *some* supplies... as long as supplies hold out and help gets there in a day or two, they should be okay.

But as days turn into a week or more, what will happen? Without the comforts of civilization that even a small, rural town has, how long will civilization last?

Especially as the wolves begin to howl in the night, coming closer and closer to the town that has been weakening for so long?

That's the concept. The idea is to write several stories within that setting, building them into the framework of the 'framing story' and basically putting together a series of short stories built around this isolated town trying to survive the winter.

Cannibalistic inbred survivors of the mine's collapsing coming out for food?

A serial killer in town, preying on people and blaming it on the wolves?

A sexual deviant who, having lost his internet and all possible outlets for his kinks, snaps and takes advantage of this chance to act them out in real life?

A family slowly breaking down under cabin fever?

A tech geek quietly going mad now that he doesn't have the internet?

The townsfolk turning against a survivalist on the edge of the city who actually isn't suffering through this, but rather thriving, as much as anybody can, because he was better prepared?

All of these and more might be possible.

So - any interest in seeing the project happen? Anybody care to contribute?

Honest, despite the lack of postage so far, I’m not dead. As a matter of fact, I just got back from seeing a new film for y’all!

So, what film was it? What film is currently in theaters that could possibly have convinced me to leave work early, go to a theater expecting to spend the next 99 minutes sitting in a too-tight seat with a soda bought at 4 times the sane market price, and pay at least a quarter of the price of the DVD for the privilege of the seeing the movie a month or two earlier?

Paranormal Activity. And, despite what you might be hearing in reviews, it was totally worth it.

For the most part, the charitable reviews I’ve been seeing say that you need to see the film in a packed theater, at a midnight showing, in order to really get any impact out of it. Bull. All you need to be willing to do is to pack your expectations of a thrill-a-minute ride up. This isn’t [Rec], this isn’t Cloverfield, this isn’t Saw or Prom Night or any of the other roller coaster films that have been making up the horror genre for the last decade or so (not coincidentally, about the last time I went into a theater without a date attached to the trip).

Paranormal Activity isn’t the sort of movie that was designed to appeal to that type of audience. It’s not a mystery either – they make it clear pretty early on that it’s not a haunted house, it’s a haunted person, and that the haunting is ‘demonic’ in nature (ie, not a human spirit). It’s a character study, built to focus on two people dealing with the strange things happening around them. And, as that, it’s an excellent film.

I've got more details on my review, along with some semi-spoilers - if you want to see the whole thing, please take a look at my review at http://wolfemann.wordpress.com/2009...../not-dead-yet/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JZKHflCIck

How the Hell does this gal *not* get more attention from the fandom? Really. I know that Great Mouse Detective isn't the most popular of Disney films (though really, they've made a *lot* worse that's been a *lot* more popular), but you'd think the furry community would've glommed on to a sexy Mousette burlesque dancer, wouldn't you?

Seriously, I'm not that far gone. However, I'm heading into some dental trouble, and as a part of that, the docs have me on the (not-so) little white pill, Vicodin! So I might be less coherent than usual for a while.

Though it oughta make AMV editing... interesting.