For those of you who are fleeing to Furry Network, my account there is https://beta.furrynetwork.com/wolfkidd/ . I can't say I'm moving there: it's so very much a beta that I can't say I like it, but then again it's a *beta*. Still and all, it's a little too much a Twitter-like site yet, where it's just endless "streams" of stuff that'll only appeal to the folks who're inclined to watch such things constantly.
However this whole thing with the code and the hacks is making me *very* nervous, I *will* be using the import tool to copy over everything here to FN once they get it working again. I'm not getting onto the whole "FA is dying!" thing, it's come back from all sorts of crap before bespite all the gleeful chanting of the doomsayers. It's just that getting your *entire* code put out public is some pretty serious crap, and waking up some morning to "Oh, well, it's dead, it's been fun, all your srtuff is gone, bye!" is not something I wanna deal with.

I have managed to survive another year! Although yesterday managed to feel like that was in question. I'm taking today off, fortunately. I'm planning on getting chores done so I can spend the weekend relaxing! People have given me some awesome gifts already, books and sculptures, high-end video game controller - I really appreciate this, my family doesn't really do gifts anymore so birthdays tend to usually be a bit of a non-event unless I do my usual trip to hang with folks in California. So thank you all!

Bumping the old Journal out of the way.
Ask me questions, I shall attempt to answer them. Validity, sensibility and actuality of responses in no way guaranteed.

Anyone who knows me or has attended my streams is probably familiar with Redneck Heaven, a legendary local bar frequented by myself and MrHappy1987. It is with a heavy heart that I must speak of it's passing into mere mediocrity.

A little while back the state began expanding Highway 35 in our area and the new service-road and exit ramp are much closer to the bar. As a result they opted to move the entrance to the back of the building. At the same time, Happy suspects that the money from the sale of the right-of-way for the roadwork was used to "improve" the bar ... and improve it right out of what it was. The place was originally done up "redneck kitsch", signs and artwork that were very tongue-in-cheek (the faux-windmill in the middle of the bar was festooned with signs that read "No climbing the windmill! That's a dumb redneck!"). The atmosphere was great, the service was great, the girls were pretty and friendly and the food was awesome.

We hadn't been in a while. The last time we went they were starting the renovations and the place was already rather cold and empty feeling, much of the decor had been removed and much of the charm with it. So while Cougr and LisaLynx were here we decided to give it a try, thinking maybe now that the renovations were done it'd be back to what it was. It wasn't. It's just a sports-bar now, with a slightly southern theme; not much atmosphere to speak of, the service was okay, but nothing special. The girls were still pretty but the banter and friendliness was gone. And the food was just okay.

It was like everything had been dialed back, and all the things that made the place fun and awesome weren't there anymore, like the life just got sucked out of the place. We are very bummed, Happy and me, twice-over because now we have to try and find an alternative. Anyone know a good bar/grill in the North Dallas area?

I know this has been like this forever but it's bugging me for some reason, lately:
Why is the theme "General Furry Art" listed under "Fetish/Furry Specialty"?
It seems misplaced since if it's "General" then it's not a specialty, and it seems to me like listing "General Furry Art" under Fetish is presenting a bad image (and anyone inclined to comment "but furry *is* a fetish!", please, save the trolling and immaturity for lulz.net).
Since this is a furry site, wouldn't it be better in most regards to move "General Furry Art" to the top of the Theme list as a semi-default, or at least into the top section? Presumably, the majority of artistic efforts on a furry site would be "general furry art" by default, and then subjectively other themes.

-Wolf

So some time in the early hours yesterday some sad-sack broke into my truck.
This isn't a new story, this apartment complex has been going downhill steadily over the years. As a result I never leave anything of value in the truck, so what it means is that they toss the contents of the console and glove-box all over the front seat, but don't take anything because none of it is worth anything.
However it does mean they tend to leave the glove-box and door open, which means the dome light and foot;lights are on, and it runs down the battery.
Usually, I used to just let MrHappy1987 know, and whenever he was free, he'd come over and jump the truck, and it'd be fine. But he works nights now, so that's not as convenient as it once was, so I called the towing company the complex uses to come and jump the truck. They charged me $60 for the guy to drive over, plug the jumper cables in, hook them up and have me start the truck.
I don't travel much so I don't have triple-A, but I'm thinking maybe I should!

Is MrPerson mailing you over a quarter kilo of fine European chocolate, 70% cocoa and up.
Now I need to figure out where to hide it so I don't eat it all immediately....

I don't usually pay much heed to "celebrity" deaths, but it's come to my attention that David Bowie passed away yesterday, age 69, from cancer. Bowie was one of those musicians whose music has always resonated with me, from the psychedelia to the pop to the hard-rock, Bowie was always very definitely and recognizably Bowie. Him passing away is, for me, one of those moments when a figure that's always been there your whole life, suddenly isn't. So-long Ziggy, we won't soon forget you!

It's currently 10:00 PM December 24th as I write this, I'm at my folk's house in the wilds of Canada, where there's no snow and it was 60-something degrees today. So not traditionally Christmassy, but still great to be with family! Here's wishing you all a happy season, whichever one you celebrate, and may your next year be better than your last!

I find myself in the peculiar position of wondering if I should or should not attend Texas Furry Fiesta, despite it basically being in the same city as I am.

I tend to go to conventions as a sort of 50/50 mix of business and socializing, where I get a dealer's table, I sell some stuff and do art for people, and use the table as a centralized location where people can find me and I have a place to sit. Selling the art and books doesn't make a *huge* pile of money but it pays for the table and convention fees and usually pays for the food and such, so I can take people out to dinner.

However, for the first time ever, this year it looks like I didn't make it into the Dealer's Den - I'm wait-listed, but I haven't heard anything beyond that, so at this point I kinda have to assume that I didn't get in.

I honestly don't do anything else at conventions, particularly now: I don't fursuit, I don't game, I'm disinclined to spend a lot of time watching videos and movies, I'm not really a writer so I don't go to writing SIGs, I most certainly don't dance. I generally don't buy much in the dealer's room, myself (particularly while I'm saving money for a house), and I really don't do the room-hopping-room-party thing. I just chill, draw, socialize and sell my wares.

I realize there's the option of the "Artist's Alley", but to be brutally frank, every Artist's Alley *I* have ever seen at a con tends to have a very "Kid's Table" feel to it, very noisy and disorganized and unprofessional (in terms of the general participants, not the convention's setup).

So I really don't know at this point: I love seeing everybody at the convention, it's pretty much *why* I go to conventions. But I really just can't see myself spending days aimlessly wandering the halls of a hotel/convention center.

-Wolf

Figured to drop a buncha art on folks as a "thank you" for your kind appreciation and attention over the years. Hopefully I'll be back to posting soon, but in the meantime enjoy a bunch of stuff I've done up over the months, have a great day!

Once again I proceed to thoroughly date myself, but ... long story short, I am utterly boggled and baffled, practically giddy, that Leslie Fish friended me on Facebook. (insert goggle-eyed wolf here)

For you young'uns and the uninitiated, Leslie Fish is one of the original sci-fi/fantasy musicians (AKA "filkers")

Back in the early days, when "furry" was just another special-interest-group in science-fiction fandom, filking was a major part of both. Filking is basically sci-fi/fantasy's take on the ancient art of the bard, writing songs or re-writing existing songs so that they're topical to current themes and interests (it's called "filk" because way back when, someone typoed "folk", and like any good nerds, the typo became official). If you've ever made up funny furry, sci-fi, or fantasy lyrics to a song, you're filking!

Leslie's is the kind of music you can only get in sci-fi/fantasy/furry; a cockamamie blend of anarchistic, socialistic, speculative, fannish, original, fantastical, sarcastic, political, hopeful, fatalistic, idealistic, optimistic everything-in-a-blender. I've loved her stuff since I was but a wee pup of a sci-fi fan. If you want a bit of a giggle and a smile, look her up on YouTube: be warned it's an acquired taste ,many of these albums only ever existed on 4-track cassette so the quality is sometimes sketchy, and Leslie's voice is the sort of gravelly, and raucous you get with folk-singers sometimes. If you want something in a similar vein but more melodious, fantasy-based and generally a bit better production values, try Heather Alexander/Alexander James Adams!

I think I should make this official at this point;
I'm on hiatus from doing art - no new postings,, no streams, for a while. I'm not sure why, but I'm really not feeling very inspired or creative lately. I've gone on hiatus from MegaMorphics as well. Just plain old taking a break entirely from the whole art scene, try and recharge the creative batteries.

Hopefully over the next while I'll be putting up a lot more finished art than I have been over the past six months-year.
The issue was that I was being very ADD and had a habit of sketching stuff out and putting it aside mostly-finished...and then losing it in the sea of other unfinished art. It was reaching the point where nothing was getting completed because just *finding* it was becoming an essay in frustration.
So the other week (playing mild hooky from work, since I work from home), I arranged it all out on a flat surface and started sorting as "Definitely" "Probably" and "No".
Interestingly, without even trying, the first two ended up as similarly sized piles with the "No" pile about 50% larger than either of the first two. Stacked all together it's about 3.5 inches of paper (nearly 9 cm's). No idea what I'll do with the "no" pile, except file it away with the rest of the unfinished sketches.

Bumping the previous Journal off the front page.
Ask me anything and I'll try and answer! I can't promise the answers will always be useful or make sense.
And just to forestall the usual flurry:
No, not taking commissions at this time.
No, not taking commissions soon.
Sorry, don't know if/when I will be taking commissions.
If it's anything to do with me taking commissions, just save it for some other time.

Okay, I'm almost *certain* I posted an adult-rated pic of a mouse in bondage yesterday, but it ain't there today. I only thought about it this morning because I was wondering why nobody was commenting on it. I did see a bunch of stuff unfaved in one fell swoop yesterday not too long after I posted the various images, and I'm beginning to think for some reason a mod just upped and deleted it. Does anyone else remember seeing a pic of a kneeling mouse in rubber with "SQKE TOI" across her chest?

Addendum: According to a number of folks the only thing they saw me post yesterday was the pic of Molly poledancing, but I also posted http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17625372/ as well. Did people not notice it because no big sheep boobs, or is FA doing that thing again where it's not sending out notices again, or it's queuing up the notices and sending them out in batches? It'd be really nice if we didn't have a Classic Meltdown again, thanksplease.

I hadn't really paid attention to it until just a moment ago, but my little posting spree yesterday garnered over 1700 faves in 24 hour, and I'm pretty sure that's some kind of record for me! I'm sure there are folks out there that make that look paltry, but *I* couldn't be more pleased!
I really do appreciate that I can make people happy and that they enjoy my silly pencil and paper scribblings!

This is probably a question for the younger of my watchers out there; what does it mean, more or less, when people ask you if you "want to RP"? Because I have the distinct feeling that it doesn't mean what *I* think it means.

Roleplaying, to me, is either something involving a game, or somethjing you're doing with characters in an established milieu (so like SecondLife, FurryMUCK, Tapestries, etc.). At its loosest, it's established characters chatting and role-playing in a chat session. But as you can see here, there's always a grounding factor, an agreed-upon place or characters. So what does it mean when someone randomly asks you if you "want to RP"?

I get such requests on a semi-frequent basis and so far I have always declined, because what they're asking doesn't quite make sense to me; how can I "role-play" with someone who I've only just encountered, I have no reference for their character(s) and no established background or milieu?

I swear, if we're ever attacked by a race of sentient plain-paper desktop printers, the human race is doomed, about half of my calls as a technical-support person revolve around people's inability to cope with these apparently infernal devices - my amazing techno-wizardry involves things like selecting the correct printer, selecting the correct labels, installing drivers, correcting settings, clearing backlogged print queues, and of course, the classic having them turn the printer on.

If it weren't for technical-support, I'd suspect that printer would once again become majorly defined as a career, instead of an object, so that the general populace could get their hard-copies without being mercilessly slain by heartless LED-eyed machines, slaves to the Brother-hood* of Printers.


* Brother printers! Oh I slay me sometimes!

Any time I see someone in the fandom talk about someone, or a group of people, committing some sort of social faux-pas, or generally just being stupid or socially-inept, the responses always includes a flurry of "Ugh, furries!", "LOL, furries!" etc.

Call it a fandom, a community, a culture, a subculture, a life-style, whatever, people need to get the fuck over it, and themselves.

I've been a member of the sci-fi community, the anime fandom, historical re-enacting, and a scad of other social communities and I can tell you right here and right now, all the things that you think are so grievously unique to "furries", are not.

Even this pathetic, gleeful self-loathing isn't unique to furries, it's just the usual lazy internet self-image technique; why improve your situation when it's way easier to put down other people? "At least I'm not covered in the shit I threw at them!"

The only thing unique about furry is the community itself, beyond that it's all entirely subjective, each person brings their own take on it, and painting everyone else with the same brush is just plain ignorant and foolish. It's stereotyping and prejudice.

Anyone insisting on vilifying furries in this fashion (or any other group, for that matter) should really be taking a good long hard look in the mirror; when it comes time to point a finger at who really has the problem, there's only one person to point at.

You should be!
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17282825/

I've always been a huge fan of Chipotle's writing (under various of her guises): as long as you like well written fantasy fiction with liberal dashes of humor, romance, action and adventure, and the occasional foray into horror and erotica , you just cannot go wrong with her stuff!

A commissioned piece by  lewded that Cougr got, I cannot not bump this, good and hard! http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17154502/

Yeah I'm still around. It's just been one of "those" periods, where between work and the Texas summer heat and house-hunting and guests, and a general sort of malaise, I haven't posted much of anything.

The funny thing is that it's not like I haven't been drawing, in fact I've been drawing *huge* volumes of stuff: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17101000/ is a sampling of stuff that I've done in the last *week* perhaps. The trouble is that I seem to be completely distracted artistically and I can't *complete* anything. I get stuff up to a certain point and then another idea comes along and clubs me upside the head to get done.

It *has* given me the opportunity to do some fun collabo stuff with Cougr, like http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17085429/ where he bushwhacked me and ran off with the art to turn into something sexy, fun and colored, and a bunch of other pieces he asked me for that he may play with in the future.

But I still feel kinda lame for not posting more. Hopefully I'll put my big-boy pants on soon and start actually finishing stuff again.

But I ain't making no promises.

This sort of ties into my previous post on Subculture and Furry Fandom. This is an anecdote related to me by SueDeer at a dinner at an Anthrocon many years ago, but I thought it was pretty interesting and telling, in regards to our fandom.

---

A couple of professional writer guests of Anthrocon were hanging out together at one point during the convention, discussing the convention and fandom going on around them. At one point, one of the authors asked the other "But what are they fans of?"

The reply he got was something along the lines of "As far as I can tell, they're basically fans of each other, there's no single binding element or medium aside from "furries", which makes them kind of unusual compared to other fandoms."

---

That anecdote has stuck with me all this time, because the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was true; I am or have been involved in a lot of fandoms, and I'm hard-pressed to think of any one of them where the majority of the content the fandom was about, did not come from an outside source. Furry seems to be pretty unique in that the majority of what the fandom is about, the fandom produces itself. Certainly the fandom *started* with outside sources, but it seems like it evolved pretty rapidly to the point where it was its own resource.

The how and why of *that* evolution, I'll leave to brighter minds and a different time!

JakeRabbit linked me this analysis of subcultures the other evening: http://meaningness.com/metablog/gee.....ops-sociopaths and I find it really interesting, faintly disturbing, and very though-provoking; the furry fandom fits and doesn't fit within the criteria of the idea presented, you can see how and where it does match up with some of the progression described, how it can be applied to things other than subcultures (like FA). So I figured it might interest other folks as well.
Let me say right here: I don't think the fandom is doomed; like I said, as far as I can tell there are certain areas where furry fandom doesn't match up with the author's described progression. Of course that brought up the question, if Furry fails the criteria of a subculture as described, does that mean it's a nascent or full-fledged culture? The idea that we might be the subject of cultural-studies at some point in the future is pretty amusing.

Oh and just to clear things up; the author explains in a foot-note (but you really should explain such a pervasively used term early on) that the term "mop" (he uses it both all upper-case and all lower-case) stands for Members Of the Public, which he initially calls "muggles" - I'm not sure either term is particularly apt, but he's trying to describe a somewhat nebulous grouping for which there's no real term.


* with apologies to Arthur Miller