http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14711120/

The pool is fine and the water clean. =D Sometimes you gotta chill out after battle.

 brulee is amazing. Needed to share.

Looks like mid-November I'll be moving (again!). This time for a much longer period of time. Been kind of struggling to keep up with rent, but... got a new (nice!) place that'll definitely give Sciggles and I a lot of room to grow. Rather happy about that. Stressed, but happy.

I decree October "Draw a Digimon Month". Every last one of you need to hit the books and get drawing some 'mon. Charizards are also acceptable.

MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Two furries have designs up with WeLoveFine's design/art contest for new t-shirt designs. Both designs kick ass, and deserve your vote.

I... am... vote!

silverfox5213
Design: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14612482/
Rate it here: https://contest.welovefine.com/vote.....d_submit=35267

emptyset
Design: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14609555/
Rate it here: https://contest.welovefine.com/vote.....d_submit=35852

http://drafthouse.com/movies/ACTION.....thern_virginia

Shaun of the Dead Quote Along is playing at the Alamo Drafthouse on October 13th, and you get a FREE FOAM CRICKET BAT TO WHACK YOUR FRIENDS WITH!

Join us!

Selling a Samsung Galaxy Note II (Sprint) for $150. Phone is in near mint condition (some minor wear and tear on the back cover), but the screen is pristine, no scratches and is updated to Android 4.4 S-Pen and charger included (and a case!).

I'm asking for $150. =3

Make an offer!

Also, Sciggles has a Squishable/art auction for sale!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14558638/

Go check it out!

Doing an AMA on FA!

The Rules:
#1 - Leave drama at the door.
#2 - Duck sized horses.

Other than that, pretty much any question is fair game!

I often ponder what my survivability rate would be were there to be an actual zombie apocalypse. Provided the contagion isn't airborne and the zombies follow the Romero rules I'd like to think I'd have a decent chance.

The downside of being fat is I'm a hell of a slower and tire more than others, but the upside is I could probably go without food for a much longer period of time. Problem is, living in a metropolitan area, the chances of going by unnoticed would be marginal at best.

If I were at my parent's house in the country it'd be a lot easier. Less walker traffic, less chance of an encounter.

Problem is, I don't own any weapons real weapons, so I feel like I'd be screwed either way with a long term strategy. I'd make it a few months... maybe.

Then again, city streets are always flooded with the infected in movies and games, but how many of those zombies would actually be out in the streets -vs- being stuck in a high rise building? Zombies can't exactly use elevators.

TL;DR I am a juicy zombie snack.

SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK! SURGE IS BACK!

http://www.amazon.com/Surge-12-16-F.....ds=surge+drink
http://www.amazon.com/Surge-12-16-F.....ds=surge+drink
http://www.amazon.com/Surge-12-16-F.....ds=surge+drink
http://www.amazon.com/Surge-12-16-F.....ds=surge+drink
http://www.amazon.com/Surge-12-16-F.....ds=surge+drink

SUUUUUURGEoremgaoemgfoeam...

*ASPLODES WITH HAPPY!*

*make horrible impromptu bro-love to  vang for informing him*

Still working towards the open beta for the UI. Progress is going, and a lot of things have been tweaked, updated, changed, tweaked and twerked. I've had to go back and re-do a lot of things as I found several more efficient ways to handle things (reducing some pages by upwards of 75% in file size).

http://www.furaffinity.net/img/submission_view.png

http://www.furaffinity.net/img/site_settings.png

More to share soon.

I've been seeing a lot of fussing over Patreon these past few weeks, so I'd like to chime in with an official statement on the matter: Who cares?

If artists are trying to make rent, buy food or pay bills from their work is it REALLY that bad? If artists want to pursue their dreams of doing art for a living and be able to actually have that chance or have a hope or prayer to have nice things... is it really THAT much of an inconvenience for you?

In short: take a deep breath. Patreon is not the end of the art world. It will give give artists you like the chance to actually get support to do the things they (AND YOU) love so damn much.

Thank you.

For those looking for controversy in this post I present you this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpkSejI8OQE

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2605.....ed-online.html

5 million gmail usernames and passwords have been leaked online. While this may not affect you, it's an important reminder NOT to use the same password on multiple sites as it can come back to bite you in the rear

I've got a bunch of spiffy stuff up for sale. =3

http://www.ebay.com/sch/preyfar/m.h.....pg=&_from=

---

Asus EEE Slate B121 Drawing Tablet (Wacom Penabled)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-EEE-Sl...../151406621611?

Necomimi Animatronic Ears
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140658823.....84.m1555.l2649

Artistic Visions: The Art of Herbie Hamill (Art Book)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140660158.....84.m1555.l2649

Doctor Who Talking TARDIS
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140658158.....84.m1555.l2649

Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver Pen
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140658439.....84.m1555.l2649

Doctor Who Fob Watch
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140658288.....84.m1555.l2649

Tamagotchi (Blue, Japanese Edition)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140659039.....84.m1555.l2649

Valve Presents Vol. 1: The Sacrifice (Book)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140659090.....84.m1555.l2649

Halo Encyclopedia (Book)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140659131.....84.m1555.l2649

Thunder Lizards (Art Book)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140659200.....84.m1555.l2649

Wolf: Spirit of the Wild
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140659684.....84.m1555.l2649

Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing (Art Book)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/15140659818.....84.m1555.l2649

Have you posted an awesome tutorial to FA on how to draw, write or create something? Do you want to share that with other people to help them improve art, offer advice and suggestions or even get your tutorial seen?

Share it here! I'll be picking some of the most helpful, unique or just out-right spiffy ones to share with a community news post. =3

For the past three weeks, I've pretty much been working from the moment I wake up 'til the moment I go to bed. 16+ hours a day, every day, for the past three weeks. 300+ hours logged. Some of it at my day job (hurro, paycheck!) and the rest on FA (unpaid, answering over 200+ tickets, notes and UI revisions).

I'm exhausted, but... in a good way. Since FAU, I've felt motivated and rejuvenated. Inspired. To the point I want to turn my life, my goals and everything around.

Over the past few months we've been working to "right the wrongs" on a lot of aspects of FA -- fixing the Terms of Service, Code of Conduct, AUP and some other behind-the-scenes things. Getting our act together.

It's going to take time (I'm throwing science at the wall to see what sticks) but I feel I've finally gotten things back on track.

And it feels frakin' great!

Spike is life. <3

I often see comments and responses on pictures which begin with "I don't understand how..." and point out that, in reality, this would never be possible. Is that character inflating? IMPOSSIBROO! Vore? That's murder! That lizard has giant breasts! There's not enough blood in the body to fill that, let alone that lizards aren't mammals! I don't understand how...

*ahem*

Artists exist in an alternate layer of reality where oxygen is replaced by coffee and cupcakes give advice. Artists don't see colors, they see Pantones. They live on a passion and need to create and show their work off to other people, feeding upon reactions and smiles (and sometimes shock!) like little creativity vampires with Dyson-like suction.

Normality is a divide which artists leap over like track and field runners.

Stop trying to bring logic to art. The moment pen touches paper, a brush canvas or a digitizer lands on screen reality stops existing. Everything you think you know has been replaced by Wonkavision.

Don't think about it. Just accept it. You don't have to like it, but bringing logic to art is like trying to catch a butterfly in a hurricane. It'll cause you far, far more harm than good.

In short: if you throw random words into a hat an artist can bring whatever you pull out to life. They're muse gods capable of bringing life and chaos to imagination.

We have recently learned James Hardiman, one of the fandom's originals and most well known artists, has passed. You were one of the originals, man. One of the people I'd consider "founders".

You will be missed.

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/skunkworks
http://www.barnesfamilyfunerals.com.....aries/view/304

 skunkworks

In 1999 I was a student at the University of Maryland (Turley Campus, Germany). I'd been doodling off and on for a few years, and was just starting to get serious about learning to draw. Classes were opening, and I threw myself like an Angry Bird towards every available art class UMUC offered.

Day one, I enter the art class not knowing what to expect. I had my little skechbook, pens, pencils. I was ready! And before the professor even introduced herself, she hands out her first assignment. Write an essay about art. Not just art in general, but one specific piece that she brought to class. A painting.

Our task: write a short one paragraph essay about what the picture represented. What story it told. What it was about. What emotions it evoked.

The painting looked like somebody farted paint onto a canvas, threw it down a flight of stairs before an angry throng of paint-splattered weasels war-danced across the canvas in a drunken frenzy.

In short: freakin' awful.

She then asked each student to read their tiny snippets aloud, describing the work in great detail. Finally, it was my turn. Prior to me, I'd heard students regal tales about how the work evoked emotions of war, conflict, depression, rage... everything short of "it represents the folly of man."

Were these people looking at the same thing I was?

I had no idea in hell what I'm looking at, and that's exactly what I told her. The painting didn't evoke anything other than that I though the picture was awful. What was it? Random, splattered nonsense and had no discernible meaning whatsoever. She looked at me, smiled and told me "I made this painting."

OHFUCKOHFUCKOHFUCKOHF...

That's about the time where you go "Whelp, let me just grab my things and go." and run out of the class like the Flash with diarrhea. But then she said... I was right.

Wait, what?

The painting was the result of an accident. The night before she had been setting up to paint, had all her supplies out... and one of her kids managed to knock everything over before ultimately getting sick on it.

I was literally looking at a puke'n'paint.

And therein lay the lesson: art is what you make of it. It's what you want it to be. What you see it as. It's interpreted how you want to see it. There's no right or wrong answer but your own.

I'll never forget that class. <3

Just wanted to give an update. Still working on the UI, fixing, tweaking, improving. Making a ton of improvements and compatibility across the board. I still expect to have this on a public beta by end of the month. =3

http://www.furaffinity.net/img/ui_rev_mobile.png
http://www.furaffinity.net/img/ui_rev_desktop.png

(Note: These are WIPs, and I am aware of some of the quirks like minor overlap).

To help those who like using custom CSS or greasemonkey to mod the look of site. I've also changed how CSS handles themes for the site.

.theme_eg1{background-color:#example}
.theme_eg2{background-color:#example}
.theme_eg3{background-color:#example}

Anything using background-color is controlled by one of those classes making it ultra-simple to modify or change things as you need (and for us to introduce themes 50X easier). Simplicity is the end goal in this. For those asking, yes, I'm keeping transitions and any new JavaScript down to the bare minimum.

Still much to do!

NOTE: This is JUST an interface. Code tweaks (and the full recode) are still in the works and are coming later.

Last night I had a rather odd dream FA changed the way we handled IP banning. The site was being flooded with attackers, but in order for me to stop the attack, I had to make a fresh pot of rice for each account... and then write out the IP using said rice, then load the Rice IP™ into a tube and "screenshot it" into FA. Thing pneumatic tubing and you get the idea.

The IP would have to be surrounded by three lil pillars of rice, ultimately looking something like ||| 123.456.789.000 ||| as I lined them up back to back. We ultimately had to put the site into read-only mode as I couldn't keep up with the rice fast enough to stop the attack. I was scrambling, panicked to get the attack under control while furiously making little rice letters in the shapes of numbers.

Then I woke up, and just kind of stared. All I remember is just going "What?!" because I couldn't figure out how the hell my brain associated rice to ANYTHING admin related.

<____<

TL;DR: I may hate rice now.

There. I said it. As a game, its pretty bad. There's no depth to it, it's shallow and ultimately little more than one trick pony. And that's a GOOD thing.

"But wait, you just said..."

Seems contradicting, right? But that's why it works. It's a cheap game which focuses on one thing and does that one thing REALLY well. It's doesn't try to be more than what it is. Wrap all that up in a tortilla of ambiance and you've got a hit.

The game's eerie, ESPECIALLY if you were a child of the late 70's and 80's. Growing up with ShowBiz Pizza / Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, the damn mascots take a secondary creepiness all their own. Chuck E. Cheese's animatronics have always been disturbing, but the 80's creep factor that came with the Rock-afire Explosion... *shudder*

I'll take Foxy's hook over that damn gorilla any day.

I've been hard at work busting my ass to get major improvements to the UI done (coming mid to late September!). I've got almost every major page done, plus a few other tweaks and changes I'm making.

I'm insanely optimistic and happy with how this has come out. I've actually not been this giddy in some time, actually.

First, a disclosure:
The UI update is *NOT* Phoenix. Phoenix is still in active development, and this is SOLELY an update to the UI (desktop first, mobile site coming after). There will be some minor changes to the back end to make improvements, but for the most part, this is a massive quality-of-life improvement.

UI updates have been a running a joke on FA for quite some time (read: years), and I take full responsibility for those faults. I'd like to offer a brief rundown of why every previous attempt failed: they sucked. That's the long and the short of it.

There have been over a dozen attempts to spruce up the site and redo the UI. Not re-invent the wheel, but just make it better. I genuinely think the concept of FA's simplistic nav is well laid out and is one of the best there is (personal opinion, but I do believe it). But it's old and crusty, outdated and just in need of a makeover. The "box within a box within a box" design has always -- ALWAYS -- irked me, too.

I tried to make it better, but every time I did... it was an improvement, but in the end it ultimately came down to "It's better, but it's not what the site needs. It's just not 'there'." I'd get discouraged and scrap the project. A few months would go by, and I'd reboot it. The UI had been redone almost completely several times, but each time, it'd end with the same result. It's better, but it's not what we need.

Until now!

I finally got my act together, have a solid design that's coming along smoothly. It's also easy as pie to convert it to a mobile layout. There's still a lot of tweaks/fixes/changes being made, and we should be able to announce a public test within the next few weeks.

Why share this? Because we're trying to be more open, more communicative and better relay what's going on to the community. And... well, that I'm sorry. I'm sorry it took so long to get to this point, but my goal is making FA the site deserves to be. Hence why we've re-written the rules from the ground up, why we've been restructuring things.

More info coming in the next week or two.

WIP Screenshot:
http://www.frostdragon.net/fa/fa_su.....onview_wip.png

Vore is _________.

Awesome? Awesome? Amazing? Awesome? Fantastic? The best thing ever?

Discuss.