Stolen from bobbuffalo

[ ] You own over 10 bottles of nail polish
[ ] You own a designer purse
[ ] You own perfume that cost over $60
[ ] You had/have fake nails
[ ] You have more hair products and body products than you can use
[ ] Your pet is a Chihuahua/Pomeranian/Yorkshire Terrier(mix)/Siamese/Shih Tzu/mini anything
[ ] you have clothes/shoes/accessories for your pet
[ ] You have enough clothes to cover an entire refugee camp
[ ] you have enough pictures to create your own wallpaper
[ ] A pink comforter, carpeting, walls or sheets
Total So Far: 0

Do you:
[ ] Spend more time at the mall than you do at homework
[ ] Have had a hair color that is not natural
[ ] Have "blonde moments" at least once a day
[ ] Buy stuff because it's awesome and then never wear/use it
[ ] Constantly keep your phone at your side
[ ] Dance around in your room when nobody else is home
[ ] Have a name for your car
[ ] Know what celebrity is dating who and who broke up this week
[ ] Refuse to go out in public without makeup
[ ] Prefer to be called "princess"
Total So Far: 0

Do you love:
[ ] Makeup
[ ] Glitter
[ ] The color Pink
[ ] Jewelry
[ ] Mirrors
[ ] Chick flicks
[ ] Shoes
[ ] Rainbows
[ ] Unicorns
[x] Disney Movies
[ ] Flowers
[ ] Stuffed Animals
[ ] Purses
Total So Far: 1

Do you shop at:
[ ] Coach
[ ] Forever 21
[ ] Victoria's Secret
[ ] Guess
[ ] Claire's
[ ] Express
[ ] Delia's
[ ] Hollister
[ ] American Eagle
[ ] Abercrombie Fitch
[ ] Aeropostale
Total So Far: 1

Do you say:
[x] Whatever
[ ] Oh my god
[ ] Hun
[ ] Fugly
[ ] That's hot
[ ] Dunzo
[ ] Darling
[ ] Bff
[ ] Cutie
[ ] Hottie
[ ] Skank
[ ] Totally
[ ] For Sure
[ ] Fabulous
Total So Far: 2

Do you read:
[ ] Cosmopolitan
[ ] Glamour
[ ] Marie Claire
[ ] Elle Girl
[ ] Teen Vogue
[ ] People
[ ] Us Weekly
[ ] Star
[ ] Self
[ ] PerezHilton.com
[ ] Dlisted.com
[ ] Seventeen
[ ] people.com
[ ] usmagazine.com
[ ] popsugar.com
[ ] Pink Is The New Blog.com
Total So Far: 2

Do you love these:
[ ] Legally Blonde
[ ] Elizabethtown
[ ] Mean Girls
[ ] Now & Then
[ ] The Notebook
[ ] A Walk to Remember
[ ] Sweet Home Alabama
[ ] Where the Heart is
[ ] Just my luck
[ ] John Tucker Must Die
[ ] Center stage
[x] Bring it On
[ ] How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
[ ] Mona Lisa Smile
[ ] My Girl
[ ] Wedding Date
[ ] 10 Things I Hate About You
Total So Far: 3

Do you really enjoy:
[ ] America's Next Top Model
[ ] Project Runway
[ ] Desperate Housewives
[ ] The Simple Life
[ ] 8th & Ocean
[ ] Sex & the City
[ ] Grey's Anatomy
[ ] The O.C.
[ ] The City
[ ] Nip/Tuck
[ ] Gilmore Girls
[ ] Degrassi

Total: 3

TREMBLE IN THE PRESENCE OF MY MANLINESS! RAWRRRRRRR!!!

AM I POPULAR NOW OR DO I HAVE TO AND COMPLAIN ABOUT HOW POPULAR ARTISTS WONT TALK TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEE?



*curls up in a ball and mews sadly*

Also...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOq_F0fI8bE

Video games need more yeti boxing in them. All video games. Every single one.

... are fun to draw.

That is all.

And I'm spending it on here.

With you.

D'AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Let's try this again.

Name: Jayford "Scruffy" Saskatoon (Or just "Jay")
Species: Coyote
Age: 32
Height/Weight: 6'3" 206 lbs
Occupation: Architect, part-time painter and novelist

Likes: Open-minded people, Southern style barbecue, Sports. Practical jokes
Dislikes: Snobs, Lima beans, Cold weather

---

I'd say I'm going to miss AnthroCon but thinking on it more, I'd rather not run the risk of getting "scritched", "huggled" or "gromped" by complete strangers. Actually I'd rather not run the risk of having it done by anyone.

---

Illustration Academy runs from now until June 26. No art 'til then. I barely have any free time - studio sessions run from 9 AM til 9 PM six days a week.

So you'll have to find something else to fap to for the time being.

Stolen from dineegla
By the way, Din, the Cubs still suck.

10 Things I wish I could say to people:
• No, you're not that good. Get the fuck over yourself.
• Stop blaming other people for your problems.
• If you miss talking to me so much, why don't you just talk to me? I'm not mad, but it just feels like you go *ka-poof* every single time we talk and it's a bit unnerving.
• I still can't believe you actually spend the time to listen to what I have to say. I feel like I just go on and on for ages. Thank you.
• Learn anatomy. PLEASE learn anatomy.
• You got what you deserved. See, that's why so many furry "artists" avoid real art classes like the plague. They get their fragile little egos shattered to bits. The truth hurts. Maybe next time you'll think twice before waving your e-penis around like your art is a triumph of humanity.
• lol Lane Kiffin...
• I wish you made some art that wasn't all smut and porn. You have skills, for sure, but that's not what people see when they look at the stuff you have on this site.
• I really, really wish you would realize that I am who I am, and that trying to "change" me into something more "loveable", "huggable", "sweet", and "cute" would be like asking me to bleach my skin and get a sex change.
• I read that Journal you wrote. That "counter-journal" to the Journal I wrote about "furry popularity". And I have to say you completely missed the mark on that one.

9 Thing about myself:
• I am overly cynical because I would rather not be overly gullible.
• I do not like sharing personal details to strangers.
• I take way too many things as personal attacks.
• I can't stand people who feel sorry for themselves instead of making an effort to make things better.
• I have perfect pitch.
• I have only been studying art seriously for the past three years.
• I can remember the most trivial details, but have trouble remembering important things like names and dates.
• I do not shy away from telling people what I think.
• I can't stand people who are two-faced and manipulative.


8 Ways to win my heart:
• Be assertive and take responsibility for yourself.
• Don't start a conversation with "*grabs your crotch* :3"
• Have passion for what you do.
• Be honest.
• Give back.
• Know the importance of humility.
• Laugh with me, not at me.
• Take care of yourself as well as others.


7 Things that cross my mind a lot:
• "Don't screw this up!"
• "I could really go for some good barbecue right now..."
• "You know what this picture could use? A good glaze of Quinacridone Gold."
• "I suck at anatomy. I should have taken that Figure Drawing class last year."
• "How the hell do I manage to feel lonely at a school with 32,000 students?!"
• "What will I be doing one month after I graduate?"
• "zzzzzzzz"


6 Things I do before I fall asleep:
• Undress (No, I won't do a UStream of that)
• Put on my 'jammies
• Brush my teeth
• Get in bed
• Take off my glasses
• Make sure I know what time to get up the next day

5 Places I want to visit:
• London, England
• New York City, NY
• Los Angeles, CA
• Tokyo, Japan
• Boston, MA


4 Things I'm wearing right now:
• A blanket
• Blue jeans
• A vintage "Underdog" shirt
• My VCU ball cap (Radrab can hate all he wants.)


3 Musical artists I listen to often:
• Hoobastank
• Skindred
• Jay-Z

2 Things I want to do before I die:
• Publish a book that wins a Caldecott award (for Childrens' Book Illustration)
• Travel the world


1 Confession:
• Sometimes I converse with people just to humor them.

• Where are you staying?
In My Apartment

• What day are you getting there?
May 27

• Who will you be with?
 gh-mongo

• Do you do free art?
Fuuuuuuck no

• Do you do trades?
lol are you serious?

• Do you do commissions?
Not for you.

• What is your gender?
Why do you have to ask?

• How old are you?
23

• Can I talk to you?
No. Go away.

• Can I touch you?
Can I break your fingers?

• Can I hang out with you?
Only if you like sports.

• How can I find you?
1) Go to Richmond, VA. 2) Go to Illustration Academy during the month of June. 3) Look for the black guy in the VCU ball cap.

• Can I buy you drinks?
I don't drink. Shoo!

---

Because I'm a trendwhore, but I'm not going to AC.

Also you all seem to take "hypothetical" pretty damn seriously in regards to a "hypothetical fursona".

I laughed am still laughing at some of the reactions I got to that Journal. As I figured, some of you were disappointed that I wasn't something else (i.e. something more "murr-worthy"). I guess it's hard(er) to fap to an animal that is better known for scavenging through people's garbage than majestically striding through the jungle.

I wonder what the reaction would have been if I had said my fursona was a 7-foot-tall lion bodybuilder who just so happens to be particularly well-endowed? Forget it, I already know what the reaction would have been.

I still choose to remain non-affiliated with the fandom. I'm not a "furry", never have been, and probably never will be, despite all the pressure from people who just presume that I have already donned the mantle of a (as of yet hypothetical) fursona. There are just too many issues I have with the fandom as a whole, issues I just cannot get myself past. Many of those I have already shared here (much to the chagrin of many of my watchers), but there are others still that simply get on my nerves to the point where the thought of fully immersing myself in "furry culture" makes me grimace.

So yeah, that's where I am at. Stop speculating. Go read a book or something.

Why do I even bother?

Because kwipper said I should make one, and dineegla won't believe me when I tell him Shamus is not my fursona. Also dineegla thinks this Journal is just me bitching about things I don't like in the fandom, so he'll probably bitch at me about it before he actually reads it, just like he did with my last Journal.

lol.

Anyway, If I had a fursona, he would be a coyote. Tall, athletically built (like a swimmer or distance runner), in his early 30s. He'd be quite wise for his age but still very much a prankster, with a scathing wit and a keen eye for detail. He might be a bit clumsy and absent-minded as well, but attentive to things that are important to him.

He'd be more of a loner, choosing to have a few close friends over lots of acquaintances. Generally he would be pleasant company but wouldn't let anyone get too close emotionally. He would tend to make a lot of mistakes in life, and as such others tend to keep their distance until they really get to know him on a deeper level. Such mistakes do not trouble him too much, and are soon passed off as simply part of living. Events that are to be learned from and laughed at profusely.

As much as everyone would like me to be a bull or a bear or a lion (or a burly red-bearded dwarf), they simply don't fit me. (Guess you all can't go fap to my furry visage now. How sad.) I have a character sort of like this, Rocko the Gnoll, for those of you who follow me over on dA.

Yeah that's it.

lol dineegla still thinks I'm bitching about the fandom. Go laugh at him.

Part of me wanted to stream me painting "Smashmouth" when I got back to Richmond.

Then part of me remembered what happened the last time I tried streaming and posting the link here. (Hint: radrab got a good schooling in how bad Delaware's basketball team is. By the way, radrab, it's not too late to jump on the VCU bandwagon. We're going dancing next year. Bank it.)

So yeah, if there's interested I might do it again. Even though I said I wouldn't. Because I'm a fucking attention whore. Not because any of you want to see how I work or learn about my approach to colors or anything like that.

Nope.

FUCK!

"Hey Mongo how do you get better at anatomy?"
"Take a life drawing class."
"Um..."

Unless you live out on a farm or something, you should be able to find life drawing sessions, if not classes, someplace nearby. Really, it's as simple as life drawing.

But of course, it seems self-proclaimed "furfags" get so offended by female genitalia that even something as harmless as life drawing gets passed over because "omg BOOBS do not want!" And male models would just turn into 30 minutes of fapping or drawing pen0r. Or both.

If you want to improve your (human) anatomy, it makes sense to start drawing humans. Why? Because 11-foot-tall dragon-fox-angel-wolf-demon-koopa hybrids with 6-foot-long penises don't exist, and since they don't exist, you can't draw them from life.

There is my "The More You Know" moment for the day. Draw with your eyes, not your penis. And not your brain, because chances are if you fit the description above, your brain is filled with penis too.

I'm here to talk about something many furries hold dear and beloved. No, I'm not talking about pandering for worthless flattery, questing for self-importance or divulging too much information about their lives in public in the vain hope that people out there care about that zit growing on the broad side of their backside...

Rather, I'm talking about Yu-Gi-Oh, the card game.

It sucks.

I know a lot of people who watch me play that pitiful excuse for a Trading Card Game, and I know a lot of those people will probably get offended by my saying that Yu-Gi-Oh is a pitiful excuse for a Trading Card Game. I don't care. I have to tell the truth on this matter.

"Well have you actually played the card game? I'm not talking about watching the anime!"

Yes. Yes I have. I started back in Legend of Blue Eyes and stopped sometime in 2005. I used to play competitively. You know, going to tournaments and stuff, not just hanging around the school cafeteria and playing the game with people who didn't really know what they were doing (though I did my fair share of that as well).

The fact of the matter is that Yu-Gi-Oh is a fundamentally broken game. There clearly was no attention paid to designing the game, since they just modeled the card game after the TV show. There are a few reasons why I say it is fundamentally broken, but the first has to do with a complete lack of a progressive resource system.

I'll compare Yu-Gi-Oh to Magic: the Gathering to demonstrate my point (I am also a very experienced Magic player). In Magic, most spells cost mana. Mana usually comes from land, and since you can only play one land per turn, it means more expensive (and ergo more powerful) spells can't be cast until much later in the game. Some cards in Magic allow you to gain extra mana (Dark Ritual, for example), but come at a cost of the card in your hand and the initial cost to cast.

In Yu-Gi-Oh, there is none of that. You can play any number of cards from your hand provided that they don't have some other cost associated with them (usually Life Points or cards in hand, but since those are diminishing resources rather than progressive, you could easily play something with a high life cost on your first turn) Of course, that gets pretty ridiculous at a certain point (Rageki says "kill all your opponent's monsters for free"; the equivalent card in M:tG is Plague Wind, which normally wouldn't be able to be played until turn 9!), so those cards are often banned or restricted to one each. Whatever the Tournament Committee decides on any given day. The "forbidden" list seems to change every three hours (or allegedly with each new set introduction... more on that in a bit).

Monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh are also rather arbitrary. Some are just plain underpowered, others are pointless. You can summon a monster with up to four stars for no cost, regardless of its "type" or element... so why would you ever summon a one, two or three star monster? (To avoid Four Starred Ladybug of Doom, of course!) Since Attack points are all that matter usually, the idea would be to stuff a deck full of monsters with high attack points (which exists in M:tG as well, but usually decks like that only send creatures. I'll elaborate on that presently.)

The elemental system is busted too. Anyone can play any kind of Magic or Trap cards they want to. It's all about putting the best cards in a deck. 75% of every tournament-caliber Yu-Gi-Oh deck consists of the same overpowered cards that just so happen to have not been "forbidden" yet (Jinzo, Rageki, Sangan, Witch of the Black Forest, Monster Reborn, Pot of Greed, Dark Hole, Heavy Storm, Mirror Force, to name a few. But I'm sure someone will correct me or inform me that one of those cards has been "forbidden" completely or some nonsense). There aren't formats in Yu-Gi-Oh other than "forbidden" or "open", which doesn't follow the "forbidden" card restrictions. So you could play the same deck over and over and over again...

That is, until a new set comes out three weeks later. Yu-Gi-Oh sets come out erratically, and there are too many to name. With the lack of formats, the card pool becomes insanely large and it becomes nearly impossible to keep up with everything. As a result, cards get banned or un-banned frequently. I've had times where I have gone to a tournament after looking up the "forbidden" list a week earlier and was informed that four of the cards in my deck had just been added to the list.

Finally, I have to say the monster concepts for Yu-Gi-Oh are all over the place, and not in a good way like some TCGs out there. "Battle Footballer"? "Rescue Cat"? "Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive"? "Mind Haxorz"? "Cyber Tutu"? "The Unhappy Girl"? What the fuck is this game?!

Anyway, Yu-Gi-Oh sucks. Stop playing it.

So I like Blood Bowl. It doesn't like me back (my most important players always seem to die), but I still like it. Ah well... I've been playing a Chaos team so far, and I've named my Orc team after Fox News. Surprisingly I'm not a big fan of the dwarf team in Blood Bowl. It just doesn't suit my playing style. They're too slow for my taste and absolutely one-dimensional. Also they're seen as a "noob team" by some because you can suck with them and still win games just because your starting players have more skills than other starting players.

There needs to be a Gnoll team in Blood Bowl. Because I said so.

---

Scruffpaw (0-16) 60k
7,3,3,7 Catch
Agi, Gen, Str (double), Pass (double)

Snaggletooth (0-6) 70k
6,3,3,8 Block
Str, Gen, Agi (double), Pass (double)

Re-Rolls 60k

Everyone has Strength 3 and Agility 3, making the whole team very versatile. Snaggletooths can bash, Scruffpaws can run, but they can switch roles in a pinch. Nobody has access to pass abilities except on doubles rolls, so their offense relies more on running and hand-offs like Dark Elves, but passing here is strictly for emergencies when the cage breaks down.

Early on this team will suffer against other bashy teams, but should be able to knock around some of the weaker agility teams like wood elves. This team will also see its fair share of casualties with all the AV7 and AV8. Gnolls can't go toe to toe with Orcs or Dwarves because they will just be outbashed at low TV. At high TV, though, the versatility starts to show and the ability to specialize even the most basic units goes a long way.

One important note is that since you'll have at least 5 players on the pitch with Catch, it can drive passing teams up a wall with all of the possibilities for interceptions this team can create. Zone defense can leave Scruffpaws open to blitzes (and that AV7 makes them particularly appealing targets), but it also shuts down passing lanes that elves need for their offense.

---

dineegla's jokes still aren't funny. That in and of itself is funny.

Rules:
NO RULES BABY!

1. Barbecue spare ribs

2. Twinrocker watercolor paper

3. Bugbears

4. Pokemon (before Gold/Silver)

5. Kolinsky sable brushes

6. Scenic train rides

7. The Washington Redskins

8. Hot showers

9. Hot chocolate

10. Jalapeno peppers

11. Comfortable slippers

12. Soul Calibur IV

13. Cool breezes in summer

14. Fried chicken (of course)

15. Swat Kats

16. Nerf Blasters

17. Dodgeball (the game)

18. Dodgeball (the movie)

19. DDR Extreme

20. Long walks in the woods

21. Model rockets

22. Magic the Gathering before Time Spiral block

23. Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance

24. Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance II

25. Maurice Sendak

26. Kettle corn

27. VCU Basketball

28. Making fun of how dineegla's jokes aren't funny

29. Gnolls

30. The History Channel

31. Hot and sour soup

32. Classical music

33. Fireworks

34. Riding in a wagon downhill

35. Decaf Mocha Frappachinos

36. Watercolor painting

37. The (now discontinued) Ride On Route 127

38. Sushi

39. The Smithsonian National Zoo

40. Dwarves

41. The Air Force Academy football team

42. Postum

43. Gak

44. Heathcliff

45. WWF No Mercy

46. Korean instant ramen noodles

47. Second-hand book stores

48. Making a difference

49. Sleeping in late on Saturdays

50. That sense of accomplishment I get when I solve a problem in a picture that has been nagging me for ages

51. Trader Joe's Sweet n' Spicy Pecans

52. Herbal tea

53. March Madness Bracketology

54. Laughing at Cowboys fans whenever their team loses in the playoffs

55. San Diego Comic Con

56. Seagulls

57. Fish tacos

58. Helping people improve their artwork

59. Dancing bass lines

60. Aardman animation

61. Barack Obama

62. Underdog

63. The color brown

64. NHL Hitz 2002

65. Fruit Roll-Ups

66. Roasting marshmallows

67. NASCAR

68. UP

69. WetCanvas.com

70. Locally owned businesses

71. Farmers markets

72. Richmond Main Street Station

73. Buffalo wings

74. Dave Chapelle

75. House

76. Rocky and Bullwinkle

77. Chocolate milkshakes

78. Ogres

79. Washington DC Metrobus Route 79

80. Sully from Monsters, Inc.

81. The few people on FA who I feel I can converse with one-on-one without having a stroke.

82. Sour Apple Blow Pops

83. Classic hip-hop

84. Reading a good book

85. Sticking it to The Man

86. Persevering

87. Peanut brittle

88. Thrift stores

89. Post Honey Comb cereal

90. FMA Brotherhood

91. Maryland Renaissance Festival

92. Jet Set Radio Future

93. Orcs

94. Artists who push themselves beyond their comfort zone

95. Cream soda

96. Blooming onions

97. Steak

98. Classic 2D animation

99. Walruses

100. Proving people wrong

I tag  gh-mongo. He's so awesome. I wish I could draw like him. I also want to have his babies.

I also tag  gh-mongo

Stolen from  konanarillah.

-Post a minimum of 5 things you hate
-Post as Many as you'd like above 5 if you want!
-Tag 2 people

1. People who "pop" their gum when they chew.

2. "I could care less"

3. Running late

4. Pointless classes

5. The Dallas Cowboys

6. Fred Durst

7. Fox "News"

8. Not living up to my own expectations

9. Overuse of the emote

10. "*purrs and huggles* :3" instead of "Hello"

11. People posting streaming video of themselves flexing, masturbating, or showering

12. People whining about other people being better at art then they are

13. People on this site not being able to tell when I actually put effort into something

14. radrab talking smack about VCU's basketball team

15. Tyler Perry movies (they're all exactly the same)

16. "Convenience Mixtures" in watercolor paint

17. Mike Krzyzywski

18. The lack of intelligent conversation and discourse on FurAffinity

19. People who say "less" instead of "fewer"

20. Micron pigment liners

21. Freezing Rain

22. The state of Utah

23. Airport security frisking me for no reason

24. Cartoon Network's "CN Real"

25. Notre Dame Lame football

26. How few sports fans there are on this site

27. People who prod into my private life as if it were somehow their concern

28. Artistic conservatism

29. Peas

30. Rush Limbaugh

31. Artistic helplessness - people expecting others to teach them how to become better artists instead of learning things for themselves

32. The lack of Amtrak service to Richmond's Main Street Station

33. Internet Explorer

34. Trying to find shoes that fit (Size 13 US)

35. Erasers that leave streaks on the paper

36. Pork rinds

37. Internet-ers not knowing a troll when they see one

38. "That's yiffy"

39. People I've never met online asking me to meet them in person

40. Requests (with a few exceptions)

41. Getting up early

42. Daylight Savings

43. People who post close-up pictures of their fursona's penis and calling it "art".

44. New Kids on the Block

45. The proud shamelessness of the Furry Fandom

46. Links to .pdf files not being labeled as .pdf links

47. Ridiculous prices for prescription drugs

48. Nintendo fans thinking any game for the Wii is good just because it's on the Wii

49. People who get offended at people who don't share their "kinks"

50. Gumballs

51. Pollen

52. Richmond, VA weather in August

53. The "N" word

54. Ignorance and intolerance being passed off as "a matter of pride"

55. What passes for "critique" on this site

56. Horse racing

57. American Idol

58. People assuming I can't draw anything but _________

59. The general lack of ambition or initiative within the Furry Fandom

60. Those "I'm a Mac" commercials

61. Cole slaw that has raisins in it

62. Running out of laundry detergent

63. Internet Tough Guys (ITGs)

64. People who "poof" during online conversations

65. People who don't hold the door open even though they see you are right behind them

66. "Hot Sauce" that isn't hot

67. Ja Rule

68. The series finale of Malcolm in the Middle

69. Being talked down to

70. Those "cool kids" shoutout headers in people's Journals

71. People who don't use their turn signals

72. Washington DC's lack of good Chinese food restaurants

73. Paintbrushes that shed bristles

74. Twitter

75. Socks that get holes in them after wearing them once or twice

76. Fake sympathy or concern

77. People who justify not putting any effort into spelling or grammar because they are on the Internet.

78. Being broke

79. People who spend $300 on a commission of their character acting like a prostitute

80. Losing my bus pass

81. YouTube Poop

82. Excessive blabbering

83. People sending me photos of their genitals over Instant Messenger

84. Flimsy plastic flatware

85. People who forget my birthday even when I remind them two days in advance

86. Having my name misspelled constantly (2 Rs and 2 Ns in Darrenn)

87. Pokemon

88. Nutella

89. Not being able to find a mp3 of video game music that is stuck in my head

90. Static electricity shocks

91. Being in college for the past six years

92. Bus drivers who miss my stop

93. Windows Vista

94. "Did you draw that yourself?"

95. Not being able to fall asleep

96. My own procrastination

97. Art elitists

98. French dip sandwiches with no au jus

99. Arizona's Immigration law

100. Inchworms

That's it. I tag nobody. And by nobody I mean  gh-mongo. I tag that guy. He's a bum and a hack and he smells funny.

I also tag  gh-mongo.

At 4 AM Eastern I will be folding my laundry, then re-organizing the items on my bathroom sink. Feel free to tune in and watch me perform mundane tasks that have absolutely nothing to do with my artwork.

Wait, that's what you all like to watch, right?

The final countdown...

to the worst song ever.

I can't decide between Achy Breaky Heart and Rollin'.

You all seem to have it.

I'm not a nice person. Stop calling me "nice".

"Nice" would be hosting a UStream session again. People keep asking me to do it, but I won't. I'm sick of having people ask.

"But we want to see how you work!"

No you don't. And that's not me saying it, it's you. You all don't want to see me work because the last time I did one of those stream session things, it ended up turning into a chat room with me making fun of radrab for saying Delaware was going to beat VCU in the CAA Tournament.

And though I have nothing against making fun of radrab for thinking Delaware could ever beat VCU in Richmond, I do have something against shameless self-promotion and waving my e-penis around for no other reason than to stroke my ego. And I have a major something about begging my more popular friends to post Journals with the sole purpose of getting more people into said e-penis-waving exhibitions. If I ever host another stream, I will make sure to mute the entire audience. If someone has a question about my methods they can find another way to contact me and ask it.

Hell, if you want a chat room with a "demonstration" of art by someone too distracted by the chat to put any sort of thought or effort into what he was drawing, you can find someone else who is streaming. I'm sure of it. You can find people claiming they know everything they need to know about anatomy and color theory though they seem incapable of putting them to use in the pieces they are currently drawing. You can find people more concerned with e-circle jerks than actually answering questions from people who want to know about the artwork being drawn. You can even get free stuff for being as obnoxious, pushy and insensitive as possible. Lord only knows the lengths to which the Furry Fandom goes to create a sense of self-importance for itself.

So the next time someone feels like asking "You know what would be nice? If you hosted a UStream", go find someone else who is already being "nice" and attention-whoring on a nightly basis. And leave me the fuck alone.

That would be nice.

Seriously, this pisses me off.

Some people make thumbnails for their porn. That's fine. Maybe some people don't like seeing certain things and it's more respectful to those people.

But honestly, why would you make a thumbnail for your porn when that thumbnail is just a close-up of the penis? There are about half-a-dozen people I've seen do that on this site. First, it says "the focal point of my artwork is the PENIS!". So yeah, it's a penis. You've seen those before, right? I guess the penis is more important than anything else (and believe me, in some of these pictures I can tell where the artist put all of his or her time and effort: the penis. Especially when that part of the anatomy is planned, measured and rendered in intricate detail whereas the rest of the body was kludged together.)

The thumbnail says nothing that the red "Adult" outline didn't say to begin with. Explicit artwork is pretty "beat you over the head" as it is, do we really need a thumbnail that removes all context and slaps us in the face with the fact that there is a penis in the picture?

TL;DR? "The character is not important. The setting is not important. The context is not important. The composition is not important. All that is important is the fact that there is a penis in this picture. Click it."

And someone always does.

nerissa is right. FA came about because SheezyArt.com decided to disallow pornographic images, and FA grew after Y! Gallery decided to disallow furry art. This is a site founded on the principles of pr0nz. But that's not a surprise. What is a surprise is that somehow, some way I'm still here writing this Journal to you.

I'm not "back", and I'm not "here". Consider me "distantly connected".

Also I laugh at everyone who watched me just because of that one pic of Brox that I did titled "Breakout". Of all those watchers, only one person to date has favorited anything else in my gallery that wasn't labeled Mature or Adult. For the record, that stuff represents my half-assed attempts at doing mature-themed artwork, and it is rather disappointing to know that the only way my work will be recognized by a wide audience is if it has gratuitous amounts of pen0r.

I'm rambling again. Shoo.

As the topic says, I shouldn't be here.

I shouldn't be taking up your valuable time with my grievances with the community, the feeling of disgust and disdain I feel whenever I log in here and see what all goes on. I've gone on and on about it before, so I really see no reason to bring it up again.

As much as some people would say that they'd want me to stay here, I really can't say I agree with them. At some point I have to put my foot down and make a decision for myself. I'm tired of proving to people that I can do mature artwork. I'm tired of trying to appease a "fanbase" here that seems like it only responds with "moar!" and ":love:". I'm tired of feeling that I don't fit into a community that says that it accepts everyone.

Maybe it's not this community. Maybe it's me.

The last 6 months have been a mixed bag. There has been more frustration for me than at any other point during the three and a half years I've been here. Some people tell me they wish I could go back to my "2008 self", when I just used to use this site as an art dump and didn't really do any sort of interaction with anybody. The more I think on it, the more I agree with them.

So yes, FA, you won. Congratulations. You made me realize that I am a bitter talentless hack whose general discomfort with the fandom has led to countless journals expressing said discomfort with the fandom. Does that make me the bad guy? I don't know. That's for you all to decide. But I'm sick of trying to fit in. and that's why I shouldn't be here.

Why are people so two-faced?

Seriously, seriously two-faced. Acting nice one minute then being bitter the next. And yes, the word choice there is important. "Acting" nice. Every time I see people comment on how "nice" someone is I have to take it with a grain of salt. It's easier to act "nice" behind a keyboard and a monitor than it is to be "nice" when it really matters.

Anyway, it seems two people can't have a disagreement without both people taking offense and being irrationally bitter. It seems two people can't have a disagreement without both people taking his or her grievances to everyone he or she can find and making a spectacle of it. It seems that "fandom" turns to "disappointment" turns to "immature response" more often than I'd care to think about.

As I told one friend of mine, I don't get gift art on this site, but the trade-off is that I don't get the drama that comes along with having a bunch of people who are always on my nuts about the artwork and the characters that I create. Nobody wants to put Shamus in a story, so nobody will get their little feelings hurt when I tell them I'd prefer them not to do it. Nobody tries to put Hagler in a big orgy fanart drawing, so I don't have to worry about the backlash when I ask them to edit him out. It's a trade-off I am certainly happy with. I don't have time to deal with the personal grievances of people who take things to the extreme for no reason other than to try and justify their own self-importance and stroke their own egos.

I've stopped trying to get anything or anyone to change. People here are going to be what they are - immature and irrational whenever someone presents them with a disagreement. That's the sort of mentality that breeds contempt and overshadows the artwork that is posted here, which is why I have to ask if this really is an "art community" when a submission gets more comments about personal feuds than it does about the actual artwork.

Seriously. Out of all the songs available to you on an Ultramix DDR machine, you just HAVE to play Xepher. That song was cool like three years ago.

Also last good arcade mix of DDR was Extreme. Everything afterwards was garbage.

So I downloaded Blood Bowl a couple days ago.

It's fun. Lots of fun. It's sort of like Final Fantasy Tactics meets DotA, but with a lot more randomness. And I mean "randomness" in that the dice rolls determine more than either of those games ever did. And since everything is based off of the D6, margin for error goes in increments of 17%. Even a "very probable" outcome has a 1-in-6 chance to fail.

Since it's based on the Warhammer Fantasy universe, you have your typical Warhammer Fantasy races - Human, Ork, Dwarf, Skaven, Chaos, Elves, Lizards, Dark Elves, and Goblins. The races are all pretty evenly matched; each race has its strengths and weaknesses, so each race has its good matchups and its bad ones.

Of course, I picked up Dwarf right off the bat. Those guys are tough as nails but slow as sloths on valium covered in molasses. I think of them as the Baltimore Ravens of Blood Bowl, where the final score is usually 1-0 (either you win 1-0 or you lose 1-0). I tried all the other races too; I kind of like Lizardmen because they're fast and strong and you can do a lot of nifty things with them (Incidentally I play Lizardman on Soul Calibur). Elves are irritating; all they do is dance and flip around and annoy the snot out of you when you try to tackle them.

Anyway, anyone else here play? I hear it's a fairly popular table top game.

So I was thinking to myself, "why doesn't the furry fandom like sports? I mean, sports logos and mascots are often animals - they're practically fursuiters (without the flaps for convenient penis release or buttsecks access, of course).

Maybe that's why.

Anyway, since my thoughts on this subject are more readable than my gripes with this site and its populace, I thought I'd share (even though I know nobody except Hysterium and Radrab will care, and Radrab will only care because he'll see a different logo on the scoreboard when he watches William and Mary beat his Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens.)

William and Mary's Griffin

Seriously, that has to be the worst griffin logo I have ever seen. Green rarely works when talking about colorization on animals (Binghamton is one of the few that does; more often than not the critter ends up like he's radioactive, like Baylor used to.)

(Baylor had a history of bad logo choices for its color scheme, using the "Lemonade Bear" for 16 years before switching to "Radiation Bear". Now they use "Contact Lens Bear". They managed to achieve depth and incorporate the school's colors in the scheme without making the bear look like a Ringling Brothers cast-off.)

Back to W&M.

The colors look flat, and that's probably because the four-color print scheme they used included tan for his lower body and "dark green" to differentiate between outline and the "fill-in" green. "Tribe" seems tacked onto the bottom as an afterthought; the yellow outline is a bad choice especially in the places where it crosses over the tan. The heavy emphasis of line around the legs creates a depth-of-field issue with the type in front of it, as well as draws attention away from the mascot's head and raised finger (both of which would have been far stronger design choices to emphasize. The way it is composed now just screams "Hey look! I don't have any pants on!"

(In before "oh murrrr")

The flatness also kills the "wing" element. Making the wing two separate colors was a poor choice, especially when the green lines are so similar to the green of the body. The curve of the wing isn't visible, so it reads more like a cape, or if you really stretch your imagination, the most ridiculous patch of armpit hair (feathers?) in recorded history.

W&M should have taken a page from the American Hockey League's Grand Rapids Griffins when coming up with their design. The wing is clearly emphasized as the point of interest, and line weight consistently establishes a visual hierarchy. The details don't get lost in the lines because the color scheme was clearly established from the beginning to avoid conflict of hue and value, and the type is cleanly and seamlessly integrated into the image.

They could have also done something like what Loyola Marymount did. LMU's established school colors were tougher to work with (maroon and navy are both relatively low-saturation, low value colors) but they worked their way around the issue and created a dynamic logo that uses line weight efficiently and effectively to create depth of field. The type is clearly a part of the overall design from the beginning.

W&M's color scheme was pretty easy to work with (one dark value - green, paired with one light value - gold) but somehow they managed to botch their logo to the point where I just shake my head and wonder why they don't just stick to the stylized type.

So I am calling a "fail" on W&M's new griffin logo. Not quite an epic fail (That dubious distinction is reserved for logos that truly give me cancer of the soul, like the QMJHL's Lewistown Maineiacs or the ECHL's Grrreenville Grrrowl), but a fail nonetheless.

(Seriously, who the fuck names their team the "Grrrowl"?!)