Well, it's certainly been a few years yet again.

Hello! I'm slowly trickling in some art comms I've gotten over the last few years in an attempt to stay connected.

So, to all of you still visiting here, hello!

Greetings!

It's time for the random art uploading spree, as I've not uploaded anything in nearly 2 years.

So for those of you still lurking around here, enjoy!

I used to have one of these on here, but I deleted it for whatever reason past me came up with, so no time like the new year to start a fresh one.

This is just a reference for myself, so whenever I snag a slot from an artist I want to commission, I'm not panicking and scrambling for an idea.

Pilot Jayef and his aircraft of choice, complete with a pinup of Xavi on the nose, a la WWII era fighter pilots
A 3 scene sequence of Xavi and Chai pre-cub celebration before the impending arrival
Xavi and Red's Jamey, sporting appropriately themed lingerie in a dual pinup scene
Xavi and Chai taking Lily on the carousel. Possible cameo by Red
Peacock themed stuff
Deimos with Saffron

Not wanting to keep seeing the same journal from 2 years ago, I've created a new one.

So here it is! I've met people, I've been places, and I've done/acquired things. Want to know more? I'm on Twitter. :D

Hello there!

Eventually, spring will come. For us here in NY, the weather has taken a very irritating stance on the definition of spring; we've gone from just starting to thaw out back to deep freeze and snow over a 48 hour period. Mama dog and I are pretty over it. Speaking of, we just celebrated our second anniversary of when we started dating yesterday. It's been an amazing two years so far, and I can't wait to see what the future will bring us.

Speaking of the future, though she has already mentioned via submission, Chai and I are expecting our first cub in August, and we couldn't be happier. Having a family is something we've both wanted for a long time now, so we're very excited that it's finally happening. Thanks to some wonderful friends (who are also expecting a few days after us), we went to a 4D ultrasound facility for early gender determination, and I'm excited to announce that I will be relinquishing my title of princess to our little girl. (I will graciously accept the title of queen, or empress, FYI.)

Still busting my tail in the electrical field, I'm learning all I can from my boss, though he seems to want to push me in to a foreman position. Given my managerial experience, I'm fairly comfortable with it so long as it doesn't interfere with my progress. Some days are better than others, but I can honestly say that I enjoy the work. Definitely beats sitting in a store awaiting customers or phone calls.

With that, Happy St. Patrick's day to all! Chai has cooked up some traditional Irish dinner and even bought some Guinness for me. She really is the best wife ever.

Well hello! Happy holidays to all who read this. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and best wishes for the new year. It's been a long while since I've done anything here, and while I have some downtime, I thought I'd share some updates with anyone who may be interested in them.

Firstly, and most importantly,  spottedchai and I are officially married! That's definitely been the highlight of the year for me, and I'm really looking forward to what 2018 brings us.

I finally was able to change job fields. I lost my job in June, and was pretty bummed about it. I'd never left a job without another in line before. But, it opened the opportunity to explore new fields, and I was able to get a job in what I'm most interested in- electricity. I am now an electrical apprentice, working for a contractor close to home. My boss and I get along well, and I'm looking forward to learning all he knows.

Still living an internet-less existence at home, and unfortunately, that isn't likely to change anytime soon. But, it does provide a good reason to not waste hour after hour on YouTube, and to keep busy with the house. Managed to get a major project done recently with some help, and sure have a few more to keep me busy.

We're currently out visiting mama and papa spots for the holidays, and while I have internet, I may start to upload the backlog of art I've got stashed. But I do wonder if the effort is truly worth it- things seemed to have really died down here. And I'm not always the biggest sharer. So the anxiety kicks in, and I continue to not upload anything. So, maybe?

But yeah! So again, happy holidays, and happy new year to all. I know I'm looking forward to 2018 and all that will come with it, so I hope you do too.

So while I have internet access, I'm going to get working on that backlog of art I've built up for over a year now. Enjoy!

I will be attending the anthrocons from Saturday to Sunday. Plan on spending most of my time with the painted dog and friends. This will be my first con since MFF 2015, so I'm looking forward to it!

Today is my birthday! Another successful rotation around the sun.
Looking forward to spending the evening with my pretty painted dog and my family.

Hey there!

Been a little bit since I last updated. It's been a pretty warm summer up here, but things have been going really well! It's been two months since spottedchai moved in with me, and I have to say that it was easily the best thing to ever happen to me. It still feels strange being actually happy, and not trying to convince myself that I am. And it's crazy to think things are only going to get better from here on out. Really looking forward to the future these days.

I've been busting my tail on the house, most recently finishing a complete renovation of the living room in a little over a month. Friends that have seen it before and after can certainly attest to the improvement. Shortly after that, I re-wired the front section of my garage. No more crazy electrical in there. Next on the agenda is to finish a few drywall and paint repairs around the house, re-fit my doors to accommodate the new carpets, and replace the rear entry door. Then I'll be refinishing the den in the basement, which will involve rewiring the back two bedrooms and replacing the rear hose bib.

Aside from the gifts my love has done for me, I've not been getting any art. Money is much better spent on the house these days. That being said, I have a few ideas kicking around that I'd still like to get done. But to say that's on the back burner is an understatement.

Finally, my birthday is next month, so that's certainly a thing.

Anywho, thank you for reading!

The love of my life happens to be a traditional artist herself, but we lack a scanner/printer for our home.

She primarily works on regular letter size paper (8.5" x 11")

And I primarily use a printer for printing out commissions

What kind of machine do you use? What kinds would you recommend? What kinds to avoid? (I despise HP. If you like them, neato. I will not bring a new HP product in this house)

Thank you!

So, without naming names or events; last year, I pre-regestered for a con that was to take place in August on the east coast. A couple weeks before the con was to start, the head of the con announced it's cancellation, and stated pre-reg fees would be refunded within 90 days.

Okay, that's understandable. Surely a member of this great community wouldn't screw me over.

After not hearing anything by the close of 2015, I emailed to the address provided by this cancellation notice regarding the refund still owed - no response.

I noted the person in question directly here on FA, politely asking about my refund. No response, but I can see it's been read. (Nifty thing about notes.)

It's too far out for PayPal to do anything without contacting their fraud department, which I'm tempted to do so now out of sheer aggravation.

Not only have they not refunded my pre-reg fee, but they haven't refunded either of the two friends I was planning on attending the con with.

Anyone familiar or experiencing a similar issue with the con not being directly mentioned is more than welcome to signal boost this,

And if the person in question is reading this, feel free to contact me directly here, on Twitter, or reply to my email I sent in January. It's been well over 90 days.

If you're just getting back in, welcome back to FA! I was able to successfully recover both of my accounts without much hassle.

Longtime watchers of my account will notice that I have removed a large amount of submissions from my account. They aren't in scraps, they're gone. Either I didn't want them to represent me or my character, or I just rather not be associated with the other person involved in them. (And maybe if I recycle an idea, you won't notice.)

With that in mind, in the coming future, I'll be uploading art depicting elements of a life style I've wanted for some time now. A life that I am very excited about starting in less than a month now.

Granted, this will be pretty infrequent. I don't have internet at home, so I usually don't post anything unless I have an extra few minutes at work. And now that I'll be starting my life with my best friend, my commissioning budget has gone from a little bit to nothing. I used to love getting art, but at this point, there are so many far more important things to spend money on.

That being said, I can still afford to get a little something with friends on occasion. ^^

So, yeah! Exciting times in my life, for sure. Pretty happy that things are actually heading in the right direction for once. And the end of June can't come soon enough.

If you're using FN or Weasyl, links to my account are in the last journal.

Thank you for reading! And to my U.S. friends, enjoy your long weekend, and let us not forget what Memorial Day is for.

Hey there! How are you all? Hope you've been well.

I'm still living in an internet less state, and I have to say, once you get used to it, it's really not that bad. I only watch a few shows, and what I don't have on DVD, I've got stuff on my HDD that either myself or friends have... procured.. so to speak.

That, and the lack of not being able to dick around on the internet sure motivates you to find things to do. I've gotten more things done around my house in 6 months that some people don't accomplish in years. So there's that!

I won't go in to details just yet, but some pretty exciting stuff is staged in June this year. Every day it gets a little closer, and every day it's a little more exciting.

After mulling it over for a while, I've decided I'll be purging my gallery a bit. There are quite a few commissions in there that represent a past life at this point; a life that, honestly, would never have happened. I'm a little grumpy that I've wasted some great ideas on them, but you've gotta put your past behind you, right? Maybe I'll reuse some of those ideas. Who knows. My commissioning is pretty non-existent at this point; the last few experiences really left me wondering why I put myself through the expense and frustration. I will, however, look forward to working with a select list of artists whom I've always had great experiences with when I can.

I, like many people during the FA downtime made a Furry Network account. https://beta.furrynetwork.com/xaviera/

The site looks pretty nice, I look forward to checking it out some more when I have the time.

If you're on Weasyl, I am too! https://www.weasyl.com/~snowinthesavanna

I've actually put some work in to it, so it's not bare like my FN account is for now.

Regarding the FA outage, I'm a little impressed they were able to get the site back up as quickly as they did. Sure, it lost 6 days worth of data, but hey, you try backing up the most trafficked site daily. Things can be uploaded again. Things can be favorited again. Comments are lost forever, but let's be honest here, not many comments left on this site are pure gold anyway. Maybe now we'll see some changes here regarding coding and security. Or not. Who knows. I'm pretty convinced at this point that the only way FA would die would be like killing Cell in DBZ- unless every bit is vaporized, the most popular furry art site will return again. And again. And again. And even those who say they're leaving will come back. They almost always do.

A friend made a good joke about the failed migration to other sites again- just think of all those password reset emails gone to waste once FA came back online.

All in all, it may not be a great home. Or a functional one. Or easy to use on mobile. But it works. Most of the time. And it's home for a lot of us.

Spending time over at my parents, using one of their laptops to go through the near 900 submissions I've saved up since November to favorite and comment on.

4 hours later.

@.@

So if you got a spam of notifications from me, I apologize! Still no internet at home makes it hard to stay current!

Hey there! My computer at my desk at work is finally up and running, so I can do a little more online than just on my phone.

Frustratingly enough, I'm still battling with Time Warner for internet access at my house. Things are looking a little more promising than before, but I'm not about to get my hopes up.

As for me personally, as some of my closest friends know, I've ended my long-term relationship with Nikola. Ultimately, there were too many unresolved personal issues that would have led to an unhappy life. I tried to make the best of the situation as much as I could, yet things did not end anything like what I would define to be "well." Now that I have access from my desk, I've cleaned up my submissions and have placed all art involving or relating Nikola's character in my scraps. I still haven't decided whether or not to just remove it altogether, but that's a start for now.

Since the relationship came to an end, I've been a little surprised at how much happier I am. Looking back on things, this needed to happen for me to live a happier life. It took a close friend to help me realize that "okay enough, I guess" life really wasn't good enough, and maybe it was time to focus on myself for a change.

I've heard many times over that your significant other should be your best friend. And while I had ignored that in the past, I think it's about time I took that advice. Sometimes, the person you've always been looking for was a lot closer to you than you could see. Sometimes you realize just how much more compatible you are with someone else. Sometimes, you both feel the same way. (Which is always helpful.) During her visit, I had the honor of asking the wonderful  tsuhara to enter a relationship with me. (and she said yes!) I couldn't be happier with the direction my life has taken now. While things haven't been the easiest for either of us during this transitional period, the future I can see with her shines bright, and I can't wait to be with her every day.

In the meantime, I've been keeping busy with work and my house. Got plenty of things planned, just waiting for this cold weather to finally break! While I do not have internet, I do keep in touch via Twitter and Telegram, so if you're interested and don't already have that info,

Twitter: Lady_Xaviera
Telegram: Lady_Xaviera

Thank you for reading! I'll be trying to upload my backlog of commissioned art when I can. Hope you're all doing well!

Hello to all whom read this!

There's just something so exhilarating about logging on to FA when I'm at work.

Long story short, I still have no internet access at home. Which really sucks, if you've not experienced this before. No cable access, no DSL available, hell, not even dial-up. Blame sparse population and ancient infrastructure. If you're going to suggest satellite, you must not have ever looked in to it before.

Honestly, I've been thinking about starting a Gofundme to help cover the construction costs for Time Warner. Verizon isn't going to come out and fix their crappy old lines, so that's out of the question. (We tried. They laughed.) But I wouldn't feel right asking for donations, especially without some kind of proof of costs from TWC- and that's the thing- when they told me the cost, I asked for some sort of verification or document stating the costs. A work order, we would normally call it. Nope, they wont provide that. They're happy to mail me an invoice, of course.

They mentioned going door to door to ask for my neighbors to contribute.

I live in the rural country.
We're all armed. Don't let the pleasant demeanor fool you.

If I can get some sort of statement from them, I am heavily considering starting a fundraiser for it. The house needs more work, and I don't have a spare $12,300 to cover construction costs for a service that is becoming more and more of a basic necessity. Especially when it's available at both ends of my street. We're talking about extending service a little over a half mile here.

Otherwise, there's always option B-
Fix up the house, tart it up like a $3 whore, and sell it.

So to all the people I love talking with, but can't because of this, I do miss you all.

At least the lack of internet is motivation to get things done around the house? Mainly to keep busy so I don't lose it. I've thought about this a lot lately - I used to think people wouldn't want to come over if I didn't have internet. But after some thought, if someone wouldn't come over because of that, .... they're not much of a friend, are they? Hmm,

Anywho, for those of you going to FE, I hope you have a blast! I will not be making a return this year- still feeling the after effects of the experience at MFF- kind of turned me off of cons in general. Maybe next year, though.

First and foremost,  nikola and I bought a house together. So that's certainly a thing. Unfortunately, we were lied to by Verizon and Time Warner about internet service availability both before and after the purchase, so I haven't had internet for about two or so weeks now. Fun.

MFF 2015 was probably the most disappointing con I've been to. It seemed like there was nothing to do at the con, on top of the dealers den being almost exactly the same from last year. More and more it seems that cons are catered to fursuiters, and I'm not blowing that kind of money on a animal costume just to 'fit in'.

I did, however, spend the weekend with some great friends. We agreed there wasn't much for MFF to offer us, and I was pretty glad how Sunday turned out.

Also, FA's beta layout is terrible on mobile. I had to switch back to the old theme just to post a journal. And what's with all the pop up ads?

Hope you all have a merry Christmas, happy chaunukah, or which ever holiday greeting applies to you.

Sick of MFF journals? Here's another for you!

Yep, making my third trip out to the Chicago area for another MFF. No meme journal. Going with great friends. Planning on hanging out with more great friends. And drinking wine. Lots of it. See a dude in girls clothes/dresses? Holla back, youngin'.

Art badges proclaim "Xaviera"
Con badge will proclaim "Frillex"

Expanding on my previous journal, I think it's time for me to take a break from getting art.

This last experience that resulted in a cancelled commission really put things in to perspective for me. All of the frustration, long periods of waiting, and aggravation only result in bitterness and anger, which isn't healthy for anyone involved. While I've had numerous pleasant experiences over the 6 or so years I've been commissioning artwork for myself and others, there have been a select few awful events that have really left a bruise, and it seems over the last year or so, they've been more frequent.

Earlier this year, a YCH had popped up that I thought would be fun for Deimos, my lion character. Liking the artist's style, I immediately jumped on the opportunity. Little did I know the history on the artist themselves, and sparing details that would pinpoint this person with laser-precision accuracy, immediately started looking in to getting my money back. There was no way I was going to be adding to this person's ludicrous backlog. After attempting contact with the artist a handful of times, I grew tired of being ignored and turned to PayPal. I filed a dispute, and then tried contacting said person again; ignored. Escalated to a claim, contacted them again, no response. PayPal awarded me my refund given the ample amount of evidence I had for this case.

But the thing that really bothered me about it was the fact that this person did not care in the least. There was no relationship between the provider of the service and the client. So extreme that they chose to ignore me when I would politely inquire about the status of the commission I was told would be completed in less than a month, two months later. I get that it's not necessary for artists and their clients to have relationships. After all, this is essentially a business transaction that boils down to 'I pay you money, you give me art'.

One of my other 'favorite' terrible experiences was back when those themed iron artist challenges were a big thing. I signed up for a slot, talked with the artist, and we both seemed pretty excited about the commission. I was informed ahead of time that there would be a wait, so I knew I wouldn't see a quick turn-around. After 5 or so months had passed, I checked in with the artist. I got this nasty 'I told you that you'd be waiting' response. I swallowed my pride and apologized for 'bothering' them. 4 more months passed, and I checked in again. I got an even nastier response, followed by the most rushed, lazily done commission I've ever received. It wasn't even close to what we had originally discussed, so I requested a re-do after reminding them of our previous conversation. I got it, it was significantly better, but the experience was bad enough that it left a scar, and I un-watched that artist's gallery. If that's how they chose to conduct business, I sure wasn't going to be subjecting myself to that again.

Those are just some examples of the worst of the worst. Many other commissions have been significantly delayed, taking many months to complete lower quality works. There's just something not quite right about a colored sketch quality commission taking nearly a half year to complete, but that's just my opinion.

However, it's the artists who actively try to form relations with their clients that always stand out to me, and accordingly, I return to them for more business. Though lately, with a number of missed or completely undefined due dates, bad attitudes, and generally poor business etiquette, I've been left jaded by the artist community. This concept of 'Pay you money and maybe I'll do your commission if it's convenient for me and don't ask for updates' really doesn't sit well with me. Especially when I try to be as polite and considerate as possible when asking for updates, a sharp, snotty response is not what I want from someone I've hired to produce art for me.

This bitterness and anger essentially blinded me. Even the typical 2 month wait time seemed ridiculously long now, and the thought of waiting for a sub-par product upset me. Which, given the experiences I've had, seemed justified at this point. I'd go in to commissions expecting things to go poorly, expecting a ridiculous wait time, etc. Not a good way to start any transaction.

This recently came to a fever pitch, where anyone who follows my twitter (and actually pays attention) will know of my ranting, spiteful subtweets as of late. Like all subtweets, they were certainly aimed at someone in particular, though I had never thought anyone would actually see them, especially the person they were directed at. Imagine the embarrassment I felt when they mentioned that in their email regarding the cancellation of my commission. I'm pretty sure my face was bright red for at least a half hour after the fact. While yes, I was venting my frustrations on an anonymous front, the incredibly spiteful and mean-spirited things I was saying were definitely uncalled for, especially considering the person they were indirectly aimed at. My bitterness had me believe that they didn't care, even after they had found it all. So of course, my pride and anger pushed me over the line and I said more stupid things.

I was in the wrong. I said some pretty awful, unfair, unbecoming things. I should have contacted them directly regarding how I was feeling about the commission, but I didn't. I just assumed they didn't care and was brushing me off when I asked for status updates. Because that's how all artists are, right? Well, not quite. There are those that truly do care about their clients, and to make matters worse, I knew that about this person prior. Blinded by bitterness and rage, I had forgotten all about that. All I could think of is how this person is lying to me about completion times, brushing me off, and taking advantage of my patience and kindness. What's left of it, anyway.

My terrible behavior cost me my commission, and with how it affected the artist in question, I certainly understand. Additionally, that piece was to be a gift for a good friend, and it now it will never be. I don't have many regrets, but that will certainly be one for some time.

What it all comes down to is communication. I've worked with this person before and had great experiences before. I got my first of two pieces from them, and was eagerly awaiting the second. Little did I know, there were quite a few issues regarding my second commission that I was not made aware of, as well as an outstanding queue I was also not aware of. Without that knowledge, I was left only with promises of completion within a few days not met, and my bitterness. If I had known that the artist was struggling with my commission on a technical level, I would have been my usual, understanding self. But not knowing that, I lost trust and faith in this person for no real reason other than poor recent experiences with other artists, which was in no way fair to this person. And I took it out on them via indirect attacks on social media, which was wrong.

It's not like I felt good about making them, nor do I enjoy 'subtweeting' in general. It's fun to take little jabs at the fandom once in a while; it's important to be able to laugh at yourself now and then. It made me feel a little better at the time, though it was just a quick band aid, and definitely wasn't helpful in not being angry or upset. But insulting someone (in)directly regarding their personal and business etiquette on the basis of 'they'll never see it' is pretty uncalled for, and very unbecoming of a lady such as myself.

I know I'm a better person than that.

It is upsetting to know that this recent experience could have all been avoided with proper communication from both parties involved. I suppose this is a live and learn event, just with a bittersweet ending. While we seemingly reached an understanding and resolution, I still feel pretty terrible about it.

It's also upsetting knowing that this is not the first time something like this has happened. A similar situation occurred a couple years ago with another artist. I let my emotions get the best of me, and it all ended rather poorly for both parties involved. I was pretty brutal, and it was pretty uncalled for. After some time and personal reflection, I felt pretty shitty about what happened. So I reached out to them expressing my sincerest apologies. I am forever grateful and very fortunate that they forgave me for that incident, and coincidentally, we've since became great friends.

I know it's cliche to say things like 'they wouldn't accept my apology even if I said it', but that's such a passive-aggressive, insincere way to go about it.

I truly am sorry for what I said and how I handled the situation. That isn't who I am.
I may be a bitter, grumpy cat, but not in that sense.
I do hope that one day you can forgive me for my terrible actions.

With that, I think it's time to take a couple steps back from all of this. Perhaps if I'm fortunate, I'll be able to work with this artist again in the future. Possibly even ask them to complete that second piece. Wouldn't that be swell? I suppose only time will tell.

I'll likely be getting pieces here and there from friends when they're available, but nothing like the volume seen in the past.

Thank you for reading.

I was going to write a long, bitchy, indirect, ranting journal about the subject, but I can just yell at the wall. It requires fewer keystrokes. (And really, it wouldn't be fair to the artists I've greatly enjoyed dealing with in the past)

A good friend of mine shared this video with me this morning after I expressed my frustrations with commissioning art.

Watch the video,



Now watch it again, and replace any airport context with commissioning artwork in this fandom. It's not going to match up word for word, but you'll get the point, so long as you aren't thick as a brick smothered in molasses.

"I gave you money.... and you said you would draw me art...... we had a deal."

From now on, I'm strictly commissioning artists I've had repeat success with, and friends. This whole process has become far too cumbersome and stressful. And the worst is- I pay money to be subjected to this. Money I worked hard to have a little extra of to spend on myself and my friends, and I am not as much of a masochist as these reoccurring debacles are making me out to be.

So yeah. There's that.

One of those meme-y bits

Yoinked from  missy_da_dane

Conventions Name:
Furpocalypse, A.k.a. Furfright 2: Electric Boogalo
or Furfright 2: Son of Furfright

Website:
https://furpocalypse.org/

Transportation type:
Subaru Impossibru

Where are you traveling from:
Rochester, NY

Hotel you're staying at:
Which ever hotel is across the street from the main

Dates: Oct 29th-Nov 1st
Thursday - Sunday

Rooming with:  angstskunk

Gender:
Male

Orientation:
Bi

Relationship Status:
Taken

What do you look like
Either a dude, or a fancy dudette.

Fursuit(s):
lolno

Who you will be with a majority of the time:
I'm thinking with the skunk, and possibly a roo too.

Main purpose for attending:
**edit** Realizing I didn't change Missy's answer,
Having fun with friends, being fabulous



When you usually eat:
I'm one of those furries that forgets to sometimes.

Where do you eat?
I don't really remember the restaurants around there.

Parties:
Invite me, and I just might show up!

Fursuiting:
Nope

Daily activities:
I'll be wandering around the con, mostly. Attending panels if they interest me. Being fabulous.

Nightly Activities:
Being drunk and fabulous.

What time I usually go to bed and get up:
Late and late.

Do you talk out of suit:
Wait... what? Why would you not talk out of suit?

Do you talk in suit:
Why is fursuiting so important in these?

Rules of engagement out of suit:
No touchie. No touch. Unless I know you.

Rules of engagements in suit:
There is more to cons than fursuits, jfc.

How far is too far:
If I've made good on my threat to knock you out, you've gone too far.

Can I dance with you:
Absolutely. I love dancing. Trying to dance, anyway.

Can I take pictures with you:
Nope.

Can I buy you things:
Nope.

Best communication medium to reach you:
Most likely Twitter. I seldom give out my cell number.
@ Lady_Xaviera


Looking forward to having a good time!

Good evening!

I'm feeling a bit social tonight. Post a question and I'll answer it!

How is everyone doing?

Good morning, fuzzbutts!

Today I celebrate turning a quarter of a century old.
Hooray for car insurance and rental rate breaks!

Ahoy!

Ev'ry September 19th be Talk like a Pirate Day!

Have fun with it, mateys!