In the next couple of months sometime, and I say that because I forget the actual date, Blender is going to be updated to 2.8 - and with it will come a whole new interface.

I'm eagerly looking forward to this, because I spent over a decade learning 3D Studio Max (which is getting to be a bit of a dinosaur these days (and not in the sexy way)) and all of my past attempts to try previous versions of Blender out resulted in the same progression:

I downloaded, I installed, I ran the program, I found no way to make the program do anything, I pulled out hair, cursed a lot, and finally uninstalled it and went back to doing what worked.

Now however, Blender is supposedly not just fixed, but adds a ton of new features that are supposed to make it ideal for the kinds of things I want to do. There is a beta version out that demonstartes this, but as yet I haven't downloaded it or tried it out for two big reasons:

1) It's beta, and the final version will probably have some differences. It's going to be enough of a struggle to learn a new program, without having to do it twice, because somebody came in and moved a bunch of stuff.

2) I really shouldn't put the time or effort needed for that in until I've finished up these commissions I owe people.

So, I'm sitting, and I'm waiting for the official final release. However, and in the meantime.....

Is anybody out there using Blender 2.8? Anyone with experience of non-blender 3D programs, who might have some insight into exactly how much more (or less) likely a non-blender user is likely to find the software usable? Anyone tried out the new features? The new 2d Stuff?

I'd like to get a feel for what other people think of it.

So.... Blender 2.8 anybody?

Comment away!

A long time ago, back when such things were still a marketable commodity, I did a series of art CDs for Furnation. Unfortunately, going thru my old art archives today, I realized that I had cataloged all of them except one: Wild Blue Yonder. That's the one with the UFO on the cover.

If anyone has a copy of my old Wild Blue Yonder CD, would you be willing to rip me a copy of the contents, art/music/animations and all?

Thankye.


UPDATE: I have received a copy of Wild Blue Yonder, containing an images and a music folder. No Animations. I have no idea what actually was on the disc though, so I don't remember if there were supposed to be animations or if I simply left them off.

UPDATE II: I now have a complete copy of the disc. There were no animations, but there was a brief sci-fi story I had written as an easter egg. So, thanks to everyone who contributed :) My files are now slightly more complete.

I just deactivated my twitter account.

After 117 postings, I finally got fed up.

In truth, I didn't actually want a twitter account. I only created the account because it was my only way to stay in contact with one certain person, who then went on to have their account suspended.

The other person I signed up to talk to I actually tend to talk to more here on FA. (Hi Cliff!)

What finally pushed me over the edge was the recent redesign. it is utter shit. It's such a design failure that every single mention of it on twitter was a complaint. A viral link to opt out of the design made the rounds and I happily used it to revert the changes they had made.

...and then they took that option away, and force-fed everybody the new design.

So I left them a final fuck you via their feedback link, and killed the account.

The great twitter experiment is over, and they failed it.

Just a bit of signal boost:

For those of you who haven't been watching,  samadhir has been writing a number of sexy short stories based on some of the images he's commissioned from me:

Cobalt's Mom Has Got It Going On
Silver, Moonmist & Cinnamon
M/M/F / first time / MILF / Bisexual / threesome / teaching
Part1: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24796709/
Part2: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24849457/
Part3: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24887884/
Part4: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24978475/
Part5: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/25044601/
Part6: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/25087945/

Toy Bears:
Silver & Honeyblush
F/F / lesbian / MILF / vibrators / double-penetration
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29587297/

Three Bares:
Silver, Honeyblush & Snowberry
M/F/F / bisexual / MILF / threeway / pegging / strap-on
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/29775435/

Double Stuff:
Moonmist, Honeyblush & Yam
M/M/F / bisexual / threeway / double-penetration
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/30768252/

Tight Fitting:
Moonmist, Daisy & Butterscotch
M/F/F / no sex / teasing
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/30307193/

Direct Deposit:
Silver, Cinnamon, Tropic Foozle, Fanta Foozle
M/machine / cum milking / public sex / public nudity / aphrodisiac
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/30563926/

Summer Of Love:
Enwood, Germaine & Rockweed
M/M/F / bisexual / threeway / married couple +1
(Enwood and Germaine appear courtesy of their creators)
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/27472532/


I think that's all of them.

Give him a watch if you enjoyed those, as there will, no doubt, be more to cum in the future.

It's April 16 again.
I'm 49.

Well folks, it's that time again.

And while it's been a while since I needed to do this, the fact is that things are extra tight this year, and I can already tell I won't have enough money banked to cover what I'm going to owe the government.

So I'm opening commission slots.

These will be specifically for color @ $25 per character, same as before.
However, I'm going to do things just slightly differently than I have been.

This time, each slot will represent one character, so you can buy multiple slots if you want multiple characters:

01.  trajan DONE
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/31184044/

02.  trajan DONE
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/31184094/

03.  netreek

04.  Foxxie_Softpaws

05.  winkin

06.  winkin

07.  winkin

08.  winkin

09.  YurY

10.  YurY

11.  YurY

12.  YurY

Again, my standard content limitations apply.
Send me a note here on FA to request slots.
Try to keep your requests brief and to the point.
Payment will be in advance, via Paypal.

And if you need a content suggestion, I reccomend Foozles.
Can't go wrong with Foozles.

If you're feeling extra kind-hearted, you can also throw cash into my tip jar at Ko-Fi:
https://ko-fi.com/A1112F18

Cheers, all.

So, about that new DC tv series DOOM PATROL.

Good God does it suck.

DC should give up and just have the Arrowverse guys handle all their live-action projects. Between this and that Teen Titans trainwreck, they've demonstrated that they have no idea how to make good TV.

And they still haven't figured out that grimdark is over.

After much heel-dragging, I've finally been assimilated into the twitsphere:
https://twitter.com/chrissutor2

I haven't done much with the account, apart from repost a few things, and insult president dumbass - but since I only have three followers, and one of them doesn't have internet access, I figured I might as well mention here that you folks can watch me make a public idiot of myself if you care to.

Oh, and I did a snazzy header graphic. If I gotta do it, I might as well look good while doing it.

Oh, and a reminder: The Johnny appleseed of the east coast furry fandom, Ray Rooney, still needs just over a thousand dollars in donations to stave off homelessness. Please donate if you haven't already:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9020479/

And for some historical context, see this:
www.furaffinity.net/view/3010774/

Ray Rooney, sometimes also known by his artist's monniker RUNE', and one of the founders of the fandom we all know and enjoy is in some rather dire need of assistance. The house he lives in has been sold to developers, and he has been told to clear out so that it can be torn down and replaced with a trendy condo complex.

He's living on social security, and he needs help to scrape together the funds needed to move himself and his cat:
https://www.gofundme.com/ze2t2-save.....m-homelessness

For those of you who don't know who he is, he ran what were known as Furry Parties, at the local science fiction convention PHILCON, in the Adam's Mark hotel in PA. These room parties acted as ground zero for a group of furs which grew year after year, until they became the founding core of the group that went on to populate and run ANTHROCON, in the same hotel.

So basically, ANTHROCON exists because of this guy.

One of his room parties was also where I discovered the fandom, way back in the late 80's. One of his posters was the first piece of true furry art I'd ever seen. I don't know if I'd even be here if not for him doing what he did.

So, throw him whatever you can afford, because really... you owe him.

We all do.

Just found out about this and figured I should do a shout-out.

The Funday Pawpet Show, that much beloved haven of frivolity and fuzziness has returned from the grave.

And they're trying to get people to subscribe to their youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq.....MdJwcOsy0FN9Tw

SIGN UP!

Once upon a time there was a TV show.

It was about two investigators who worked for a government agency. They were tasked with solving cases which involved mysteries of the unexplained. One was a skeptic, but the other was a true believer, having witnessed something beyond extraordinary earlier in life.

Actually, tell a lie: I've just described two different TV series.

Obviously, one is The X-Files.
The other, is the slightly more obscure Project: UFO.

Project: UFO was a 70's series from the creator of Dragnet, and it followed much the same format. However, instead of investigating mundane robberies, murders and other staples of the Police Procedural, the show centered around the case-files of Project Bluebook, an actual investigation into flying saucer sightings that the US Government had once undertaken.

Well, now we can add a third show to this list, and premiering this week on The History Channel, of all places: PROJECT BLUEBOOK.

Ostensibly presented as a true story, the series instead blends elements of both it's predecessors into a delightfully tense work of science fiction, or possibly not. It is built around the cases of Project Bluebook, but mixes in an ample quantity of X-Files style conspiracy mythos, so that you're never really quite sure exactly where you stand in regards to genre.

Executive producer on the series is Robert Zemeckis, of Back To The Future, Roger Rabbit, and Forrest Gump fame.

So far, I'm liking what I'm seeing. I am eager to see where this little drama goes over the next nine episodes of it's ten episode season.

Fans of The X-FIles who were somewhat let down by the bullshit it descended into recently will probably find Project Bluebook to be the perfect antidote to that frustration.

Well worth a look-in though whatever service you use to watch your TV.

My family owns something like five copies of this album.

My dad bought the first one, way back in 1968 when it was new, and me and my brother have picked up other copies of it over the years as we find them randomly throughout our travels through the used record bins of the world. Why? because records eventually wear out, and it just wouldn't be Christmas without this album being played at least once, all the way through.

So from me to you, here's Christmas:

Since I’m just hanging around at my brother’s place, and I’ve already read the entire internet, just for my own amusement - I’m gonna ask:

How many of you have gotten off to the things that I post here?

And if you have, are there any submissions which you have gotten off to more than once?

Let’s see a show of (sticky) hands.

...was it Furry Pleasures that had a cumcounter for each submission? FA should bring that back as one of the stats they collect.

Incidentally, Fucking is also the name of Boink's capital city.

So, next time you're in the spacial vicinity, be sure to stop in and visit the Fucking Town Hall, the Fucking Library, or the Fucking Mall to buy a Fucking T-Shirt which reads, and I quote: "I ♥ Fucking."

There's plenty of Fucking parking.

And remember, as always, Fucking is clothing optional.

As some of you regular viewers may recall, three months ago I embarked on an experiment, by way of signing up for DistroKid: a website that promised to promote my music to places all over the web:
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8854311/

I have just poked my nose into the site to see how things were going, and to my surprise, someone has actually paid for my music. I have a running total of $2.81 in sales.

Okay, so I'm not going to be living the rock star lifestyle at this rate - but it means I've qualified as a professional musician. I have made money selling music, and as it's over a dollar total, that makes it legal and official and stuff.

I have officially gone pro.

Somebody throw a groupie at me.

So, as you might have heard, Tumblr has decided to go out of business.

The manner in which they have decided to do this, is by banning the only content that anyone ever actually goes to Tumblr for anymore: the porn.

This is likely to be about as good idea as Playboy getting rid of the centerfold, revealing just how big a lie "I read it for the articles, really" was.

I'm wondering just how long this decision will last, once the exodus begins.

On that note, If you have ever possessed a Tumblr account, and whether you still use it or not, I would invite you to visit the site at least one more time: to go into your account settings, scroll all the way to the bottom, locate the DELETE ACCOUNT button, and click it.

You're free to sing a chorus or two of "The Internet Is For Porn" as you do this, but it's not mandatory.

Addendum: the shutoff date for the porn is the 17th of December.
So, if you want to really drive the point home, that's probably the best day to pull the eject lever.

I have now solved so many of these bloody recaptcha puzzles, that Google has decided I must be a robot, and won't let me use recaptcha anymore. Which means every website which now uses this system for login is locked away from me until such time as Google decides to declare me human again.

Google's help page for the problem (meaning it's happened to enough people that it qualified for its own help page) lists a multitude of variations on "Have you tried turning it off and then on again" and the additional unhelpful advice "Try to act more like a human."

Recaptcha needs to be banned from the internet.

I'm fed up with it. It doesn't stop bots, it just annoys users, and there's no way to fix it when it goes wrong.

In the distant future, on a distant planet, the very rich lived inside skyscrapers outfitted with protective energy shields known as Slow Time Fields.

These devices caused time to pass at a different rate inside the field than outside.

Inside the field an entire week may pass, while outside the field, only a day would have elapsed.

And the amazing thing is, that due to the engineering of the field, those inside it would age at the rate outside it. So, if you spent that week inside that field, and emerged to find that only a day had passed, you would also discover that you had aged only that single day.

The fields could only be pushed so far though, before they would become unstable. It wasn't possible to push them to the point that time would stop. To bypass this shortcoming, it became commonplace for fields to be erected inside fields, in layers, like an onion. The further up the corporate ladder you would go, the further inside the layers of the onion, the more distant you would be from the standard rate of time, and the longer life would become for you.

At the very center of the corporate structure, where the most powerful elite lived, time was practically infinite. Seconds outside in the real world could stretch for decades, which meant the rich literally had all the time in the world, with nearly infinite life, infinite youth and infinite power.

Falling from grace, and being kicked down the corporate ladder, was therefore seen as a rather strict punishment, as it was practically a death sentence. You would age more rapidly, and die sooner, under the burdensome weight unfolding time.

The number of layers of time field between you and the outside world became then, not just a status symbol, but a class system, with those deeper inside the fields, living further and faster from standard time seen as better than those living slower further out, and the rich competed to construct more and more layers of time between themselves and the outside world, with those furthest buried inside the most layers being able to more rapidly act and counteract the movements of each other in the cut-throat world of corporate intrigue.

The power requirements for all this were, of course, enormous.

Because of this, a good portion of the money and power possessed by anyone rich enough to even build one of these was used just to maintain the fields. Entire worlds were ransacked for their natural resources just to power and maintain these fields, and prop up the empires of the timelocked rich.

And it would have continued practically forever, if one engineering hyper-mega-quadrazillionaire hadn't tasked his science division with finding a way to sabotage the fields of his corporate rivals. This science team developed an energy wave that would penetrate the fields, and eliminate their timeless ability: The energy from this wave would cause those inside the field to age at the rate of the field itself, not that rate outside of the field.

The intent had been to use this weapon to slowly age the competition off the game board of corporate politics. A little at a time, so nobody would notice.

...but they had underestimated the power the wave would have.

...and the first time they switched it on to test it, the rich and powerful elite across the entire world were wiped out in an instant, aged to dust in the blink of an eye as time finally caught up with them all.

Though their society eventually recovered from the resulting market crash, the technology of the Slow Time fields would be all but abandoned afterward, and its story would pass into history as a legend, and a warning.

Go vote.

Like, now.

https://webaudio.prototyping.bbc.co.uk/wobbulator/

For decades, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop at Television Center turned out sound effects from the mundane to the freaky - including all of the ones used on Doctor Who.

And one of the primary pieces of kit they used was The WOBBULATOR!

Here, for the first time, is an authentic recreation of this device that you can wobble to your heart's content. Set it low to generate TARDIS background hums, pitch it up and set it to a higher frequency for sonic screwdrivers, and alien mind control rays.

And after you've had your fill of that, be sure to investigate the other links across the bottom of the page to fiddle with some other bits of kit, including the ring modulator used to create DALEK voices.

Apple have done it again.

When iOS was first introduced, it was fairly primitive. Through the next five revisions, up through version six, the OS grew and matured into a serious piece of work. It wasn't just a highly polished piece of technology straight out of science fiction, it looked and felt like a high priced luxury item. Stylish, sophisticated, All gleaming chrome and polished wood. It was like a Rolls Royce you carried around in your pocket.

And then came iOS 7 which threw all of that in the garbage. Here was an ugly, stunted excuse for an interface, designed by a moron, that looked and felt cheap, plasticky and unfinished. It was a demo. The space where an interface should go, but one hadn't been fitted yet. Text on a white screen, like a blank HTML page from the early days of the web.

And over the next five revisions, Apple has slowly been sticking band-aids onto it, slowly undoing some of the worst design offenses it inflicted upon the software. But underlying all that, is still the fact that it's just patches on top of a failure. However, it had matured enough that it was starting to actually become useable again. I was actually starting to like it again.

And then I upgraded to iOS12. And once again, Apple has decided to demonstrate that it's successes are all in the past.

The two big mistakes that show this off the most are, to my mind, the clock and the control center.

What's wrong with the clock? It's not centered. It's shoved way off to the side of the screen for no goddamn reason. After eleven version with the clock right there in the center of the screen, with everything nicely balanced and readable, it's now crammed into a corner, way off on the edge.

Yes, I know Apple has embraced "the notch" on their phones, necessitating this kind of idiotic feature cramming, but my iPad doesn't have a fucking notch. There's no goddamn reason for my clock to be shoved off to one side. And there's no way to put it back where it belongs, in the middle of the screen. Because we're Apple and Fuck You, that's why. We made a piss-poor design choice and we're going to force-feed it to you whether your hardware includes it or not.

Seriously, the notch is a fucking dumb idea. Apple wanted a full screen iPhone, but forgot they actually have bits of hardware that needed to go on the front of the phone, so they half-assed it. Say hello to the notch.

The problem with the control center is this: it used to be accessible on the app switcher: double-tap the home button and there it is. Easy peasy. All the controls you need right there in easy reach whenever you need them. Only some genius decided no, let's stick it off on it's own in a hidden location where nobody will have any idea it even exists anymore, accessible only if you know the secret swipe command to make it appear.

Oh, and when it is called up, let's have it be a huge empty screen made up almost entirely of unused dead space, with the actual controls shoved off into a corner. Because iOS is all about wasted screen space. Embrace our bad design!

Steve Jobs would have kicked every ass at Apple over this.

So, we're now six versions in again. Which means the time may be ripe for another complete re-do of the interface.

They're going to fuck it up, guaranteed.

...and I'm waiting for a Jailbreak for 12, and hoping that someone has once again written hacks to undo all of Apple's mistakes.

Fingers crossed.

If one goes to the Fur Affinity forums, and types "mp4" into the search box thereupon, the result is this error message:

Fur Affinity Forums - Error
The search could not be completed because the search keywords were too short, too long, or too common.

By using Google however, and it's site: function, one can find any number of discussions on the subject, including requests from site members for MP4 to be added as an upload format going back rather a long way.

Here's one from last may:
http://forums.furaffinity.net/threa.....pport.1647171/

Here's one from 2007:
http://forums.furaffinity.net/threa.....support.11199/

...so FA have been dragging their heels on this request for quite a long time, sticking with Flash as the only upload format for animation, games or video.

Their time is just about up.:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/25/.....f-support-2020

We're into the fourth quarter of 2018, so in slightly over a year from now, Flash will be dead. It's already becoming difficult to even get it to work in modern web browsers, as practically every browser on the web has already begun the process of phasing Flash out and moving on.

It's time for FA to start planning for the end of Flash, as well.

The programming aspects and game-making capabilities of the software can now be handled by the Free As In Beer Unity engine. It would be nice to see FA incorporate some sort of Unity player so games can be run on FA without needing to be downloaded.

But, for the video side of things MP4 seems like a fitting replacement. It's already in wide use across the web. IMGUR has even taken the step of re-encoding animated GIF images uploaded there into MP4 and then sticking the tag GIFV on them, with a bit of code to make them loop, because it saves on bandwidth and storage space:
https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/art.....-What-is-GIFV-

That's right, compared to MP4, animated GIF images are bloated bandwidth hogs. Think about that.

In any event, the end of Flash is coming and FA needs to prepare. It's badly outdated, and progress has moved along.

This is a discussion that needs to be had with the staff of the site. That does not mean that anyone should make a nuisance of themselves over it. Harassing people is not a great way to bring them around to your point of view. So let's not have any of that.

But the topic needs to be discussed. The future is coming, and it isn't far off.

So let's discuss this.

Just stumbled over this by accident...

CARtoons Magazine, the automotive humor rag first published in the 1950s, and running right up until the 1990s.... is BACK:

https://cartoonsmag.com/

An all new run, starting over from Issue #0 and available in digital format at reduced cost. Tho digital issues only go back to #13 at the moment. (Current issue is #16)

George Trosley is also back, with new toons and new how-to-draw segments, tho without Krass & Bernie, who are probably tied up in some legal wrangle as they were last seen in print in CAR CRAFT.

But hey! It's back. This is indeed a cause for celebrating.

It's official. I'm On Tha YooToobz:



Evil Twin (above)

Skatepunk Summer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkg-GGY1088

and Happy Dave:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJb9O9xsF3Y

Edit: Car Tune just showed up in search!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qwKyCCUEws


I also got a bunch of emails letting me know they're also available elsewhere:
iTunes
Amazon
Napster
Spotify
Pandora
iHeartRadio
..and some places I've never heard of such as:
Tidal
Saavn
KKBox
ClaroMusica
Deezer
MediaNet
AngHami

So, if you use any of those, go ahead and look the band up.
We're there. Give us a spin.

Yes, it's true. I've surrendered to THE MAN, and am now officially whoring myself out as a musician.

What this means, is I just signed up (and dropped the $20 fee) for a year of DistroKid. They're an organisation that acts like a record promoter to push your songs across a broad spectrum of platforms. So you'll soon find Cobalt And The Aquabears on places like iTunes, Pandora, Amazon and Spotify. Ask for them by name.

I doubt I'll really make any money from this, but it means that I am now a Professional Rock God.

Throw groupies at me.