I've built myself a separate LJ account to host my accounts and personal stuff in the future so that I can follow friends and professionals who are not in the fandom. Doing this made me realise that I am going to be juggling myself and my avatar as two different people in separate worlds. Next year I plan to visit comic cons and furry con(s) because I have to be out there to push my name in the sea to be picked up by customers and artists alike. Some day I will have to round up some cash to order two separate business cards as well. To me it feels like over doing it but I'm just hoping that I will reach a level of security, job wise, that I won't have t juggle anymore.

I will be sharing my alternate with a few but please realise that, I'm keeping them as separate from each other as much as I can. I have a blog holding my student works and I'm keeping them there and not where I post my other works for the same reason. As much as I like the subculture, it is just not safe right now for any future employer to look up my name and see certain connections are best left private.

I know I've been silent for a long time and this does seem pretty all of a sudden but I've been busy with work and life is going to keep that way or get worse if I screw things up.

... times this year I was scorekeeper for a LAFF Softball game. Missed out on the August game, and still don't have a scorecard to generate stats for it. Part of me does miss doing all the organizing, but I appreciate the less stress involved in dealing with having one special game each year.

Now this has been online since Friday, and those who knew how to search for it already found it, but now it's also officially out: Disneyland Halloween 2009!

Again, thanks a lot to Timduru for making this possible, and to all his helpers who did an awesome job at coordinating everything! And even if it's unlikely that they'll read it, a BIG thanks to Disneyland for the wonderful welcome.

So here it is, powered by Stroopwafels and Monster Energy Drink: Disneyland Halloween 2009!

Next up: Meerkat Manor Dance 8, followed by Road Trip 2009 and CFD 3/4 :)

Only five days left til MFF!

While studying this year's programming, I saw "Con Health 101" listed, talking about ways to stay healthy during (and after!) this year's con. That's an awesome idea for a panel! I remember coming down with some sort of bug from last year's con, and it almost seems inevitable, doesn't it?

My community's been hard hit by the H1N1 virus since fall started. I spent several days in bed with the worst flu I've had in years, and I'm eager to ensure no one has to endure this bug (or any of the others) as a result of being in close quarters with a big chunk of furry fandom for three or four days!

What precautions are you going to take to keep yourself healthy? Here's a few of mine:

-Avoid touching your face. Seriously. Eyes, nose, mouth, all will happily take in any germs on your hands that you've picked up from touching the same cool stuff everyone else has been touching

-Don't snack from a communal snack bowl. If you reach in for a handful of snacky goodness, you're touching a bunch of food that's not going to your mouth, and you're eating a bunch of food touched by someone else. Who's probably been licking their fingers. Mmmm.

-Wash your hands like you're five and your Mom is standing over you watching.
Warm water, soap, and lather/rinse for 20 seconds. That's how long it takes for the soap to be effective at killing the germs and/or dissolving the oils that the germs are clinging to. If you're finished washing your hands before you would finish the ABC song (at the regular speed you'd sing it with kids), you've not done it long enough. Get your cuticles and fingernails too: you've got lots of time. If you think you're too busy to wash for that long, try and decide if you have time to be in bed for three days, wondering why the painkillers and cough syrup don't seem to do anything. I'm not exaggerating.

-Dry your hands with paper towelling. Studies have shown that not only does bacteria growth on your fingers and palms increase after using an air dryer, but the air dryer itself can blow germs onto people nearby! Paper towelling also helps finish the job of removing germs from the skin, removing 77% of the bacteria left on the hands (air dryers can increase the bacteria left on your hands after washing by 254%) You know those new model jet dryers, with the high speed air and quick dry time? Those only increase bacteria by 40%. However, where the old dryer only blow bacteria a little ways from the user, the new machines can blast them up to 2 meters away (that's 6 feet for you non-Canadians :)

-Carry hand lotion to compensate for the extra hand washing you'll be doing. If your hands get dry and cracked, the germs can just get into your body directly, none of this waiting til they're near your face.

-Carry hand sanitizer for the times you can't wash your hands. The stuff is no substitute for soap and water, and won't make hands less dirty (only less germy) but it's a whole lot better than nothing at all. The stuff can be drying to the skin, so see above, re: hand lotion. You can get both in wee little travel bottles, convenient for pockets.

Tell me some of the things you'll be doing this year! Anything from coughing into your sleeve to not licking your roomies. You know, unless that's something you're all into. Consenting adults and all that. ;)

"When You're Cryin'"
a poem

If I had my vehicle down here with me I'd be laying siege to White Castle.

As it is, I'll have to settle for cold canned spaghetti. (the microwave oven is loud as hell, and my roommate is asleep.)
FSM forgive me.

Dear Internet,

Here is one for your late nighters.

Today, I was thinking about the recent outbreak of social networking websites. Livejournal. Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn.

They say that you can live in New York you're entire life and never meet your next door neighbor. I grew up in a small suburb, and you knew the name of everyone who lived around you: your neighbors, the teachers at the local schools, all the kids in the area, the name of the folks who sell you cigarettes, serve you food, take your groceries out to your car, and cut your hair. I still remember the name of the man who ran an arcade when I was 13.

Society's interactions have evolved from huts, to villages, to towns, to cities, to metropolises, and finally to the internet. With each progression leading to even less face to face contact with your fellow humans. In small towns with few people, you know the name of everyone. In large cities with hundreds of thousands of people, you cluster in small social groups.

With the advent of the internet, I believe that social networking websites are the result of a deep seeded need for community. Failing to know the name of the man who delivers your water, you default to reaching out to the online community in hope of satisfying the social interaction which everyone secretly craves. You make friends. You get to know their names, their likes, and their dislikes.

People begin to converge into online villages in a desperate attempt to reconnect with their lost sense of community. Even in the faceless virtual era, we cluster together in tight knit groups based on our hobbies and beliefs. We seek out like minded people because we cannot find them in our current setting.

We are the first generation which has embarked into a virtual space in order to find our community. Where as the previous generation dreamed of greener pastures in a different part of the world, we dream of a community which can never really exist.

Thoughts?

Truly,
Jorge Sidhu

It worked for the last person so I'm trying too.

Anyone want to split a cab? I get in to O'Hare at 5:42PM on Thursday.

Well went to a local con, Izumicon here in Midwest City area of OKC. It was a blast. We were like the only furs there and very well received. Matter of fact when they did their group photo of costume folks when Cascade (Keeganwolf) and myself walked out the door to see what was going on about 100 of them yelled of them yelled Furries!!!!! at the top of their lungs and encouraged us to join them. Talk about giving me a warm welcoming feeling.

Sadly there were a few exceptions so Calamity reminded of them of the hentai open sales in the Dealer Den. That and really nice sexy art, very revealing, in the dealer den also. Wow! there was a lot of worry of the cost of the con with it just being $25 for one day but I staying in the common area and the staff did not seem to care as we were costumed and entertaining. But was given a badge for the day so I got into
the other areas of the con and see those also.

Can you believe this guys do not have room parties? Wow how can their cons be successful? I hope to link some photos that were taken there but some talented folks like Tongo.

It was fun for the day at least.

Y'know it's getting to where if I'm digging through bins in my shop and I have to ask, "WTF is this thing?" then it's probably not something I'll be needing.

Or if it's something i haven't needed in 10 years but I've been saving because it's interesting or YNEVERKNOW... same answer.

So like a box of 7" monochrome VGA POS display? Time to go.

10x sets of the same screwdrivers? 9x go.

A heavy bag of butcher's glove chain mail? Pretty neat, but... time to go.

Every now and then I'm doing something down there and go AHA! and hack in some bit of crap I'd been saving for just that kind of thing and then go FUCK I'M BRILLIANT but in retrospect it's one of those "it had to happen someday, if you save enough shit" things.

I guess if you collect ENOUGH shit eventually some random bits will fall together into the shape of a robot death squad, but all I ever seem to wind up with huge bins of mismatch bolts. :/

Project Name: In Michael's Name
Word Count: 21,640/50,000
Percent Complete: 40%

Given how I've been feeling these last few days, I'm actually surprised I've made it this far. Sure, I'm still behind the curve by...oh...3360 words, but I'm fairly confident that I'll be at, if not damn near the halfway point tomorrow. 25,000 words. I'm not sure I've written anything that long.

Wait, lemme check... *attempts to open old files from a decade back* ...and they're not opening. Lovely.

So, no, I have no proof that I've ever written anything this long before.
It's an odd feeling, really. I don't know how to quantify it.

Then again, I also realize that, once November is over, I'm looking at a second project due on December 21st...this is gonna be fun.

I saw 2012 today, and it wasn't bad for what it was, an opportunity for special effects people to destroy nearly everything. It makes no secret that it's intended to be a roller coaster ride, with things coming at you and just missing. All the disaster movie tropes are there, deliberately and winkingly, including the dog that just makes it to safety. I can't be sure if the shoddy science was deliberate, though. To its credit, the movie doesn't really claim a planetary alignment was responsible, just showed crackpots claiming it. A different sort-of-scientific explanation was used to explain the global catastrophe, and I can live with it. What they don't explain is how technology we take for granted still works after the infrastructure should be destroyed, though given that the governments knew the end was coming and prepared for it, I suppose they calamity-proofed satellite and cellular communications. In the end, I think it was worth the admission.

When I got home and turned on the TV, it was on CNN and the next story was how NASA was having to reassure people that the movie is just a movie and not a documentary of things to come. Nor are there any rogue planets on a collision course for Earth in 2012, or any other of the doomsday scenarios that are working up the Internitwits. I don't think CNN helped much when while the NASA spokesman was telling people there's no reason to panic, they ran the line from the movie, "When they tell you not to panic, that's when you run."

( iTweet )
Furry4Life

Today, Sally had to work again so that gave me a chance to surprise her when she came home. I worked all day on putting the flooring down and although it goes on fast and easily, it was time consuming cutting around the island, and all the end or beginning sections because they had to be staggered. I wasted a few sections because I cut them wrong or had them turned around from right to left. After I got the hang of it, it went a lot easier.

So the wow factor was when she got home with KFC for dinner, I had almost the whole floor down. I had to move the refrigerator onto the new floor so I could finish where the area for that and had to put our table into the family room. Luckily I had just enough room with all our other kitchen foods and dishes in there. She walked in, stopped and said that the floor really does look nice, (we were wondering with all the wood plus the wood flooring,) but it just makes it look so kitcheny and more complete than having a blue floor. I also got the stove in with Sleepy's help. She didn't even notice the stove until I pointed it out. One, because a kitchen usually has a stove, but it just looked so good there, and two, the floor is just WOW!

I couldn't finish it as it got too dark out for me to cut any more sections, but I can finish putting it down tomorrow. Now it just needs quarter round along the edges and the special $40 sections that go by the sliding doors and where the carpet joins. I have to seal the quarter round first, but it dries quickly so I should be able to do that tomorrow too. If it is as nice outside as it has been for the past few days, it will dry even quicker.