Pardon to those who care to bother with my oft-times boring journals, but it seems yet again I fear I must tread upon well-trodden ground. Yet again, as happens every once in a while, I find I need to explain in detail something that should be painfully obvious, but in the current sociopolitical climate that we are surrounded in sadly seems to somehow find itself lost to obscurity.

This ground is the following: one can, thoroughly and completely, enjoy a fictional character who is a "bad guy". The antagonist is there to be, ideally, as compelling a character as any protagonist; to present to you, the reader or viewer, a view that one may even be sympathetic towards, and in doing so thus make their reason for being the antagonist feel real and present, to make sense, and to even make the moral standpoint they have seem compelling (even if wrong).

Enjoying such a character, participating in them, finding even partially something in them one agrees with, even if on the whole they're actions are disagreeable, doe NOT, I will say again, NOT in any way, manner, shape or form mean that YOU, the viewer/reader, in some way support the behavior shown (or indeed any depravities the character may commit) IN THE REAL WORLD!!!

I say this once again because, as seems to often be the case, one of the people I know, and, indirectly, myself, have come recently under fire from parties whom shall remain nameless for enjoying villain characters in stories and video. In such, the mere fact that we found these characters enjoyable, even in some cases having redeeming qualities, apparently means to many a person that of course WE, the viewers and readers, must somehow endorse, even outright desire, to be part of such villainy.

I can not stress it enough - fiction, ALL fiction, is there for storytelling. It is not a guide, not an instruction manual, not a list of how to perform morally reprehensible acts, nor is enjoying it, in all its' aspects, somehow some sort of indicator that the reader or viewer wants to be like that.

Reading about, viewing, and LIKING a villain does NOT make YOU a villain. It does not make the reader morally bankrupt, hateful, or in agreement with the villain's philosophy. It doesn't mean one IS or ENJOYS these things IRL, and it is, by no means or stretch of the imagination, some form of admission, guilty or otherwise, of being this kind of person, endorsing it in others, or the like.

One can like fiction for what it is. Most sane, stable folk can differentiate fantasy from reality. It seems that this fact is increasingly forgotten in this day and age.

And on this note, I'm done.

P.S. - No, I shall not, here or in private, name names. There are those who will understand this, there are many who will sympathize with this, and this is as pointed and specific as I shall go. Thank you all for respecting that aforehand.

Yours all,
Mika

To those who contacted me and assisted me in my need as mentioned in my last journal, I owe you all a huge debt of thanks. Were it not for all of you, I would not have made rent. Thanks to a bit of overage, I am also thankfully well positioned for this coming month, and the relief it has provided will practically guarantee to me the respite I need to get fully on my feet again (and hopefully avoid any further need to ever ask such again).

Again, a debt of gratitude and a truly near-infinite load of thanks to my friends!

Well, it finally happened. Thanks to light hours and bills, I'm finally tapped out to the point where every time I try to save, it takes a further dip. I'm at the point where my friends have had to cover my electric bill now for three months straight, and for the fourth time this year I'm going to end up shy on my rent and have to fall on them to cover me.

While in the past I've asked a small number of close friends for emergency help, I'm at the point where I owe them, too, a sizable chunk of cash (for me). I'm in bad straits here, my friends. So, I'm having to fall upon folks' compassion. I need to get together around $200 minimum. Anything over that which I get would go to paying off my debts. I can't promise to be able to pay any of this back at this point. It's literally charity, and I HATE having to beg for it, but I'm also not so proud as to drown in my problems.

To those who desire to give, hit me up in a note for my email for PayPal. I'm at my rope's end on this one.

With a million thanks for anything including well-wishes and good thoughts,
Mika

So, there are some folk whom are aware that I have been in a now 18 year long fight to re-acquire a valid photo ID, whether non-driver's ID or a drivers license. There's a long story about the hows and whys of my not having one, but those are neither here nor there. Suffice it said I've been struggling to rectify this, and the end is somewhat in sight, one hopes, depending highly upon the fickle vagaries of the local and federal bureaucracy.

As we are all perhaps aware, the COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out here in the United States and my home state of New York in particular, and they are rolling out fast and furious. While I can cast aspersions upon various points of the recent past, regardless of this things are moving into full swing, a matter which I laud as a necessary humane act.

This would be all fine and good, were it not for the fact that I have just been told in three different locations that without said IDs, I am not allowed in any way to get vaccinated. In fact, I cannot even go so far as to making an appointment, to the point where i have been turned away face-to-face. This despite the various health web sites, sponsored by the federal, state, and city governments loudly and proudly touting the fact that I, by all rights, even with my lack, should be able to easily get such an appointment made. I have been told three times by three different groups in three different locations that the web site is in fact utterly untrue, and without a current valid photo ID, whether a passport, a drivers license, or a non-driver's ID I am 100% ineligible to even so much as be considered.

In short, I have just been told by my beloved city, state, and country that, without a valid photo ID, I do not deserve to live.

Needless to say I am furious! Worse, it is that unenviable form of furious that is equally utterly impotent, a rage there is no satisfying because the things you want to hit and tear bite, maim, kill, rip, shred, and elsewise destroy are so diffuse that there is absolutely nothing one can do about it.

So, there you have it, ladies and gentlefurs one and all: without an ID I am not human enough to warrant consideration for my life.

I am a VERY pissed-off vixen at this moment.

OK, so. This is likely going to lose me a few folks, which I kind of expect. Nonetheless, I'd be remiss if I didn't touch on this matter as something that bothers me terribly.

Now, allow me to preface the latter part of this little commentary by saying I am, and always have been, for the need for someone to be responsible and held accountable for their words and their deeds, the latter more especially than most. Especially in this time, it's important. To be called to task for something harmful done, or harsh words needlessly spoken, should be a given, and the anonymity and faceless nature of the internet notwithstanding in that. I think this is reasonable, and a proper extension of manners.

This having been said, I rail against the idea that because someone was complete shit, utterly amoral, a horrific excuse of a failure as a human being, and even a criminal of the highest order that somehow this makes it that everything they may have done prior, regardless of its' quality, value, etc., needs to be thoroughly and completely reviled and absolutely rejected without exception, buried utterly, erased from all existence and never again acknowledged as having existed, let alone given the slightest bit of praise.

Yet this is a trend i am seeing commonly extolled, indeed trumpeted as utterly virtuous, an utter and complete absolute social requirement, and that, as seems to be the case in the last decade, that not doing so brands one immediately, unforgivably, permanently and completely not merely as a horrible criminal and piss-poor shit-faced excuse as a human being worthy only of deletion without memory from this fertile earth, but also labels one as enabling the person in some way.

I am admittedly the product of a prior generation, so perhaps this might not strike a chord within folks, but do ask yourselves, if I may be so bold as to be marginally confrontational: is anyone here willing to forego the reams of medical knowledge that have bettered our lives these past 80 or so years in the fields of heredity and disease, many of which are based, sometimes QUITE directly, upon the horrifying, torturous, indeed viciously sociopathic and criminal "experiments" of Josef Mengele? Should we logically, by the reasoning above, reject what good has come, derived from his horror? Most would say no. Equally, does this by any means we should forgive this monster for their horrific acts? Again, utterly and absolutely NO, without fail nor exception.

To this same field I thus say - yes, an individual may be horrible, worthy of the utmost unmitigated and complete contempt, hatred, censure, rejection, and persecution. This, though, should never be used to make it so the good of anything they have contributed should be buried, whether art or science. They should be remembered for having produced the work, possibly work at odds with their mindset and actions. They should not be forgiven MERELY upon the fact they have produced this work! But equally, the work itself, if it has harmed none (or, in some cases after the fact even if it has, see my example above), should not be treated as if it were the guilty party themselves. Place the guilt and the blame not upon the work but upon the PERSON whom might so richly deserve it.

I recognize that, in this day and age, my opinion upon this is likely to earn me no friends, gain me no small amount of enmity, and brand me as a sympathizer towards such horrible people, regardless of my protests to the contrary. I expect I shan't emerge unscathed for this. However, I can't sit idly by and leave this uncommented-upon.

Thank you.

A pleasant good day to you watchers one and all. Hopefully this journal finds you all well and in good seeming. As apparently there are some few concerned as to my health and well-being in these trying times, I feel perhaps it's a time to put up one of my rare journals as to the matter.

Currently, I, and my small household, are all doing well. No-one is sick nor in any way debilitated, nor is anyone here in any position where such is terribly likely. I myself have been and remain in good health as far as matters are concerned, and seem to not be overly bothered.

As to my economic situation, I find myself in a temporary layoff brought about by the ill-fortunes of New York City, my lovely but currently beleaguered home. for at least 90 days, I'm without the responsibilities of work and its' demands upon my time. While onerous, it is something I can and shall weather through.

As to the matter of quarantine and distancing, I find that this has changed nearly nothing in my life. I was already a bit of a solitary vixen, not prone to going outside nor frolicking overmuch, and I'm not the sort for long excursions of unnecessary purpose prior nor current. Thus, there has been next to no change in my lifestyle, nor has this caused me undue stress. I am safe and comfortable within my den, and feel no need nor desire to venture forth.

Hopefully this clears up folks' concerns as to my condition. The Kyubi is in good spirits, comfortable, and catching up upon the last two decades of lost sleep. May thanks to you, one and all, for your quiet concern. The thoughts, well-wishes, and inquiries are appreciated deeply for the care which they show.

With much love to you all,
Mika

One of the many artists I follow,  Silvador, has used my character of Violet, my most recent raccoon avatar from Second Life, as a practice to learn to draw! I'm absolutely tickled pink by this! So, here's a link to their drawing! do go and show appreciation for it, thanks!

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/34682332/

I'm really happy!

Just started watching them and I rather like their style. They're new here, and offering free art as a raffle. I've decided to see about entering myself, and figure I should spread the good word.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/33027178/

Do go and see! I think they're worth it.

Mika Kyubi began life as a dare on Furcadia. I had done several science fiction characters already, and one of my close friends, named MysticalMelody, challenged me to create a fantasy/magic based character, knowing I tend to not like it (I usually saw it as a more blatant excuse for unreality than sci-fi usually is, an opinion that has since changed). The name itself came from Mika Akitaka, the creator of the mecha-musume (mecha girl) phenomenon known as "Gundam Girls" and the word "Kyubi" meaning "Nine Tails", which the character had. This decided upon, I settled in.

I took my love for anime and looked into mythology, and found Kitsune, something I'd never been into prior. From this, I started with two sources: the character of Sakura Bokuseiinmonzeninari from the anime and manga Hyper Police, and the main character whose name I have since forgotten from Alan Kitchen's story "My Tutor Has Six Tails", now a group of interrelated, connected stories, and tossed the ideas into a blender, coming up with a nine-tailed Kitsune. I went a bit fetishy in making her both highly athletic and rather intimidatingly (indeed ridiculously) busty. It was this that I first plunked down, with little to no back-story, onto Furcadia.

As time went on, aside from playing the character on Furcadia, I later got her involved, for an amazingly short time, in a real-world dice-and-paper Marvel Super Heroes game run by the artist Wyldsyde, a long-time friend of mine, set in Japan with an anime theme. This character rebuild forced me to rethink Mika's then-nebulous powers into a clear and defined power set and to work on her background and story more. It was also here that I decided to rip off a little bit of the movie "Highlander" and make her rich due to historical objects being sold. This fed back in to her Furcadia portrayal, and refined that further.

Around this time I also delved fairly deeply into the actual folklore and culture around Kitsune. While Foxtrot's Page of Kitsune Lore served as a small jumping-off point, it felt highly inaccurate. Thus began a short letter writing campaign to several temples to Inari in Japan, along with serious sociological research and study of some Japanese plays and literature, especially focusing on Kitsune. The answers from there were fused into Mika.

This version is what I laid down more or less on FurryMUCK, where I spent a fair bit of time relishing the fact I could now write long descriptions. Eventually, I left FM and moved the character part and parcel into Second Life, as well as began using her extensively on IRC, and this version remained for multiple years.

I finally stopped using Mika as a character and instead semi-retired her, using just the name as my own, after several highly unpleasant incidents. This is where such lies now, some close to 20 years down the line.

OK, folks. This one's been building for the better part of 3 - 4 years' time. Never reached a peak until recently. Here's the deal.

I respect everyone's rights and options to be as they are, I well and truly do. I've never ever said anything bad or actually disparaging about any religion, race, creed, belief set, group, etc. This, however, has never stopped me from making jokes and such about them. I just do, because as I was raised, there was such a thing as being too sensitive.

That time, I have slowly but surely, has long since come to an end. Now, it's not enough to be offended or bothered for ones' self, but now it must be that YOU are offended for everyone else, too, at slights they may or may not take offense to, so you can all be offended together, in this strange show of odd solidarity. It's become insufficient for it simply to be known that you support someone, now it must be hung on the sleeve for all to see and all the gods above forbid that you don't SHOW it in a timely manner.

This tendency, ranging in subject matter from soup to nuts, has made it so it is considered (and I apologize for this term, yes I do, but the connotations are EXACTLY right) "bad groupthink" to not have these responses. It's reached the point where the idea of a "safe place" means no-one can REALLY speak, all humor must be vetted by committee or is wrong, and speaking ones' mind, even worded as politely as possible has become an open and active threat to those around.

Over the last five years or so I've felt like, with more and more people, I need to walk on eggshells. I need to watch every word, look it over for hidden (and especially unintended) meanings, that they must be delivered with near-surgical precision, and the topics to be avoided grows wider and wider and wider with each passing day. I fear sending my friends into uncontrollable, unreasoning funks, I fear sending others into places so dark they can't pull themselves up out of them even with help, all for what, to me, is a completely innocent comment or statement.

It's become not enough for those around me to know I hold no hate or prejudice in my heart, and it's become insufficient to show it. I have reached the point where, simply, I feel it is unsafe, for me and for others, to deal with my rather antiquated sense of humor, because there's nothing I can do to convince folk it's NOT meant offensively.

I cannot and will not force others to feel unsafe, and I myself don't want to have to feel like I'm living in a place where the thought police are right around the corner to punish me for wrongthink.

I'm done. Plain and simple, I'm done. It's beyond my patience and creativity to deal with it.

Be well, folks. Be well. Ciao.

Well, I haven't dropped a journal in quite some time, and something finally bothered me enough for me to write something about it.

As some of my watchers may know, I am a lover of good (and sometimes really really bad) science fiction. One thing frequently crops up in that writing though that makes me want to scream. Why? Because it's garbage science, a phrase that's a holdover from bad writing back when science fiction was a dirty word not to be uttered from the mouths of respectable writers. What is this?

"Pure energy". Oooh, how I hate that phrase. It makes my skin crawl and all my tails twitch. "What's wrong with it?" You ask? In a word, everything .

Energy is defined pretty simply: it's the ability to do work. Nothing more, nothing less. There is no "pure" form of this. It comes in many forms Heat, motion, the potential to do work, electromagnetics (spanning a vast swath of things and including visible light and heat and microwaves and ultraviolet and more).
Thus, there is no such thing as pure energy, it has to come from something, and that something defines how we use it.
This brings us to two of the most misused forms of energy: the often incorrectly referenced atomic and nuclear, which an AWFUL lot of folks assume are different and indeed energy. No, my friends, the distinction between the two comes to us not from science but from the government: atomic frequently referred to fission weapons, while nuclear referred to fission-fusion weapons, also called thermonuclear.
Energy without defining where it comes from is useless. Since it is only the ABILITY to do work, not the work itself, nor how to get work out of it, the "pure" part makes no sense. It is, at best, pointless, at worst misleading, leaving folk to mistakenly assume that there's a strange form they can't define out there. It's sloppy, poor writing when used, and points to an unwillingness to work out details. It doesn't take much to slap on a definition and dump the word "pure" out of there.

So, some few of you know that I am a pleasant, usually tolerant sort. I happily and openly acknowledge that folks have a wide variety of sexual interests, and that, as furries, we, as a community, are more open to a wider variety than most other fandoms and communities. This, mind you all, I find a laudable and indeed wonderful thing. This being said, I also must of needs acknowledge that everyone will, perforce, have widely differing likes and dislikes, turn-ons and turn-offs, again a natural thing.

This all being said, however, the point of this ranty, venting journal is aimed squarely at those in this oft-wonderful community whom can't seem to get the idea that we all like different things and whom grow obnoxiously insistent that I share in their personal turn-ons to a hyper-inclusive, ultra-enthusiastic degree. To put it bluntly and possibly offensively, while I can acknowledge at an aesthetic level the appeal of intersexed individuals and/or herms, I am not sexually attracted to such, and no possible degree of waving such in my proverbial face is going to change that. Regardless of how much the other party thinks that such is the single sole most amazing stupendous incredible and awesome thing since the advent of sliced bread, this fact remains, and I for one am heartily sick and tired of the intolerant bags of walking bloody excrement who keep insisting that I must be attracted to such, hungry for constant intercourse from such, and cannot be a part of this fandom without being deeply into such, thank you very much!

Yes, for the umpteenth time I have again been bitched at, griped at, and had scorn heaped upon me for politely expressing my sexual disinterest in such in general, this time ending in a comment that I'm, and I quote, "not a furry at all." if I don't find such attractive. Apparently, alongside that, I have yet again been bitched at for my general lack of sexual interest on the whole, as if a desperately defining characteristic of being furry requires me to be obnoxiously horny all the time and interested in anything with a heartbeat and likely a few things without.

Ladies and gentlefurs, I'm closing in on my wit's end with all this. I want to, at this moment, kick a large number of folks rather unpleasantly hard in their nether regions until they bleed from the nose! So, please pardon my rant, and my apologies if it offends, but if I didn't vent this here I likely would have committed some form of hostile physical indiscretion upon an unsuspecting passer-by.

Well, a full day late on this one, mostly because yesterday I was far far too sick to even go so far as to turn on my computer.

At some point on Thursday or early Friday, I ate something that didn't agree with me, and indeed didn't agree with me quite violently. By 10 PM Friday night I was shivering, shaking, nearly delirious, unable to maintain coherency, nauseous, and had GI issues. This culminated in me going up and down repeatedly throughout the night to either worship at the porcelain altar (read puke my guts up for those of you not up on the more delicate ways of phrasing this) and pressure-washing the toilet with the contents of my intestines. By Saturday morning, I was essentially dead. I slept 95% of the day, until waking at 10:20 to turn on my computer, where I sit now typing up this journal.

At the moment, the worst seems to have passed, though I'm not absolutely sure. I'm still getting intermittent chills, though how much of that is dehydration and lack of food I can't at the moment be sure.

So, here's hoping for better days ahead.

To all out there, my love and thanks for your presence and support,
Mika Kyubi
Kitsune-at-Large
(oft-times VERY large...)

Alright, one rather annoyed kyubi Kitsune here, ladies and gentlefurs. Once again, I find myself having to explain something that should be common sense to most individuals with the mental faculties of a small defenseless animal, let alone the glorious and wonderful sapient beings I surround myself with and meet daily...

So, let me be absolutely clear, because apparently folk (you folk out there know whom you are) can't apply a little discernment and common sense to anything in their chosen beloved fandom, or if not this than are willfully fight-mongering.

A) Yes, I rather adore huge gigantic improbable impossible enormous globe-shaking boobs.

B) No, I ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY UTTERLY DO NOT, SAY AGAIN NOT endorse such sizes on anyone or anything remotely REAL. They are a health hazard IRL, they are UNCOMFORTABLE IRL, and would represent an unacceptable imposition on anyone, unless they themselves, on their own accord and recognizance, after being made aware of all the negatives choose to do so.

C) Just because someone, ANYONE, likes a FANTASY, this BY NO MEANS, IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM IMAGINABLE NOW, IMAGINABLE IN THE PAST, OR AS YET TO BE IMAGINED IN THE FUTURE somehow endorses the same fantasy IRL. Please, if you believe in the absolute fallacy of Slippery Slope, please, I implore you who have the will and reason to do so, please review WHY it is considered a FALLACY. No matter WHAT popular reasoning by the common man is about this, please look it up and understand this.

All this is in response to, once again, receiving a private and nigh-unending tirade on how I must have evil horrible nasty dangerous thoughts and ill-wishes about all women real or imagined, since after all, I adore huge boobs. To said folk, I apparently must also endorse having these proportions on all girls of all possible legal and illegal age ranges, inequality, women's slavery to male ideals (whatever THOSE in particular may be, seeing as how they have traditionally varied from culture to culture, region to region, and era to era, thank you so damn very much), the objectification of women IRL and imaginary, etc., etc., etc. One may tack on as many other offenses as one pleases in there, but I'm sure those of you with the wherewithal to read this far have the idea by now.

I receive things like this anywhere between 2 and 10 times in a year, thanks to my preferred (ONLINE!) proportions, and those of other characters I've created.

Also, to make things clear, yet again: When in Second Life, I AM AN ANIMATED 3D MODEL, IN A VIRTUAL WORLD WHERE PEOPLE CAN FLY AND BE WALKING TALKING FOX PEOPLE (AMONG OTHER FORMS). THUS I DO NOT SUFFER BACK PROBLEMS, SHOULDER PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS SLEEPING, PROBLEMS WALKING, PROBLEMS REMAINING UPRIGHT, PROBLEMS BREATHING, OR PROBLEMS SEEING AROUND MYSELF. When drawn, I'm a 2D IMAGE ON A PAGE!!! Deal with it!

Please pardon, rant done.

This is beginning to wear upon me. Last Thursday I caught myself what seemed like a minor sore throat. It seems to have blossomed to a complete upper respiratory tract illness, with me hacking, coughing, spitting phlegm, and general malaise to an insane degree. First time in YEARS I've has a sick last a full week. I'm not happy, no, not at all. Banged out from work for the second time in a week, and can barely, just BARELY, work up the energy to journal this.

Well, I'm going back to bed. The Kyubi needs her rest to try to get well. Ciao, all.

Well, the last days of the year have managed to make this vixen sick as can be. Sniffling, snorting, shivering, coughing, body aches, malaise, headache, the works. Parting gift of crud from the year of crap. Maybe in the next two this will work itself out so that I'll not feel like drek for Tuesday when I go back to work.

Well, rare that it happens, but something got to me. I think it's mild food poisoning. Tummy is in knots, I've puked twice, I have the shivers REAL bad, and diarrhea. All the signs of mild food poisoning, and it has ruined my night, possibly me last work day (tomorrow), and hopefully NOT the weekend. If you don't hear from me, assume I got better within the next 72 hours (this since I suck at journaling)

1:38 AM update: just barfed my brains out three more times in a row. I never thought I could contain this bloody much vomit. In between I was incoherently moaning, groaning, and sniffling. This was just the most recent of my body's eruptions, as it seems my body has determined it shall turn itself inside-out in THE messiest way possible without the use of explosives. Hopefully I can get a little sleep.

4:40 AM update: slept VERY fitfully, not at all restful, and have woken feeling that strong nausea again. I'm pretty sure I'm up for another worship session at the foot of the porcelain deity. Nose has already begun to run in anticipation, means the salivating and drooling won't be far behind. I'm calling in sick today, cancelling all plans, and sleeping if I can. I suspect my day upcoming will be misery.

10:39 AM update: Not a whole lot of sleep, but some, thank the gods. Woke with a headache, and amazingly managed to choke down a pair of aspirin, so they're working on that right now. I'm still queasy, but not at the "I'm gonna barf NOW!" stage. Hopefully the worst is over.

8:29 PM update: Well, feeling a lot less like dying now. Sleep from roughly 11 AM until now did a fantastic job. I get the feeling I'm decently recovered, and I hope this is so.

My friends,

I do believe that I shall likely be taking myself a significantly long vacation from most of my online venues. Things in my life have come to something of a head (no, nothing bad, merely some deep self-inspection / introspection) and I have come to realize that I need to focus, for a time, on things IRL. I will perhaps be on, spottily, here and there, and will be contactable, as always, through email. As my friends, you folk deserve a heads-up on this matter.

Always with love for you all,
Mika

Good morning, afternoon, or evening, ladies, gentlefurs, all. It's been a while since I felt strongly enough to journal about something, as I luckily live a quiet, uneventful life with little to journal about. However, this one, this one touches on a topic that may very well be hair-trigger, and most assuredly is flame-bait and troll food. This matter is character/story ideology vs. author ideology.

Very recently, friends of mine, several, who write various stories; some contemporary, some science fiction, some fantasy, and some mixes of these, have come under some heated, vicious, nasty fire. And this fire pertains to them creating, using, and displaying groups, individuals, or governments who make use of reprehensible, nasty, vicious methods. Some of these are simply authoritarianism, others full-out fascism (not necessarily Nazism, note!), whilst some others are simply groups whose methodologies we find amoral, vicious, nasty, contrary, or reprehensible.

In literature, this is called making your antagonists interesting, giving them a REASON for those of us with conventional, generally Western/European morals, to be hated, to be enemies, to give us a reason to dislike them. In some cases, the story's PROtagonist is part of these regimes, making them have conflicts, issues, or indeed even making them genuinely unlikeable.

However, the flame part that creeps in here has been accusations flying fast and furious like swarms of nuclear-rocket-propelled bats is that by portraying these groups, somehow, illogically, the author must themselves somehow subscribe to and indeed support, maybe even enthusiastically, these ideals and methods. That, in order to portray fascists, one must somehow illogically agree with, even support fascism in the real world. Same for any of the other less than pleasant venues mentioned above. Sometimes, recently, I've seen this extend to specific practices, where for example an individual resorts to horrific torture, and somehow this is being equated that the author / writer somehow agrees and supports this use of force.

Authors, like artists, are often the makers of fragile dreams: houses of cards that rise at an inspiration and fall at a strong breath. They fly or sink with the author's confidence. Being compared to or accused of believing in these controversial, negative beliefs has two effects: one - it erodes and destroys the author's confidence in their decisions and themselves, and in their story, and two - it removes from an author the power to use these as contrasts: to criticize the pitfalls of an individual, government, group, or society. It puts an iceberg firmly in the path of the ability to criticize, and yes, like the Titanic, the iceberg WILL sink that ship.

Ladies and gentlefurs, friends and watchers all, while most if not all of you are firm rationalists, folk who can separate the author from their work, I am decently sure you know or have run into individuals, perhaps friends, relatives, or closer acquaintances, all of whom may share this view: that somehow the author is accountable and responsible and indeed CONNECTED to the story in such a way that they must, somehow, contradictorily, believe in these things, and that they need to be brought to heel and to task for daring the heinous act of writing about it and thus supporting and espousing this view, indeed even reveling in it. I've seen this mindset cause untold pain amongst several friends of mine recently, and indeed, I've watched these friends taken to task, screamed at, railed at, cursed at, called horrible names about it, and the hits sometimes keep on coming. I urge you all to please, if you believe at all that you can do so, to spread the word on how the reality works: that author and story are NOT one and the same, and that the author may have to use horrible, painful things as contrasts to make the good look all the better, or to draw the attention to some real-world ongoing issue.

This lone Kitsune, and undoubtedly a fair few friends, thank you for hearing me out on this matter, and, hopefully, slowing the spread of this horrible behavior.

With ultimate and heartfelt thanks to you all,
Mika Kyubi
Kitsune-at-Large

I rarely post, and rarely journal, but this submission, from someone I'd not known, caught both my eye and my heart enough I felt it right to share.

To all,

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17319064/

And, if you've the mind and heart to do so, please echo this to any and all.

My thanks to all,
Mika

Well, let's see... About 2 - 3 months ago, I was given a gift of a 240 GB Solid State Drive. Note that this was a major upgrade from my 128 GB SSD that I'd had installed. So, I basically copied my old SSD into the new one, and blam, had a functioning machine.

Fast forward to Thursday, the 11th of December, and my SSD quite suddenly flakes out, refusing to load Windows twice, then it ups and gives up the ghost completely. Three months and a small and light brick of a drive. Won't read up at all, isn't even detected. Perhaps the most annoying thing was the loss of a fair bit of notes and writing not backed up elsewhere, and a LOT of collected art from the last few months.

Honestly, I'm not angry, not even badly upset, just mildly frustrated and annoyed.

*begins this one with a sigh of exasperation*

Alrighty, my friends, I'm not a prude, and I think all of you who've seen me anywhere know and understand this. One doesn't bill ones' self as a prude and walk around with russet and white helium hooters like mine without being a hypocrite. This being said, though...

I would love to believe that for the most part the folk around me have a semblance and basic understanding of convention and custom. Even those who watch me and read these journals who desperately believe they are not human or feel most human mores make little to no sense and should be ignored still tend to keep to a fair degree to the modern sentiments of propriety and politeness, if for no other reason than to avoid persecution and humiliation.

Still, it seems nowhere BUT in this beloved fandom of mine is "Hey, hi there. Can we fuck?" considered a greeting that is reasonable. I don't get it. I'm a nice person, I'd like to think that my various alts and appearance are physically appealing to a fair number of folk. Despite this, for someone I've never met to amble on over and ask that as casually as you might wander up to someone and go "Hey, bub, got the time?" is a distressing and disturbing thing to my relative calm and propriety.

For those of you who might read this, please, has this happened to you, and, more importantly, what was your reaction to it? My own was to explain my position as a means of calming the seething star-hot rage that burned in my chest and to type out this journal, so as to avoid continuing to wish for the divine ability to face-punch someone HARD over TCP/IP.

While not a rant per se, this little journal is basically me venting a little ire and a vast ocean of dejected weariness about the subject of powergaming. Now, in this, I am not referring to such simple things as overriding another person's posted actions, ignoring them, or the slightly less forgivable insult of indeed deciding on the other person's course of action. These are all something many of us have, at one point or another, been guilt of to some degree, oft-times to our later chagrin and sometimes deep regret.

No, in this I am referring to the seemingly overwhelmingly vast quantity of character profiles which include phrases like (and please pardon the paraphrase here, it's done to avoid insulting folks):

"My character wields the ubermegaforce. This force is impossible to stop, halt, alter, modify, or resist in any way shape or form because it resides outside of all universes yet permeates all universes and realities. Because of this, its' incredible power overwhelms and overrides all other powers, including but not limited to magic of all varieties, sources, flavors and types; the Force; psionics of all sorts; superpowers; Chi of all forms including Dragon Chi; Elemental effects; Holy and Unholy effects; cybernetics; nanotech; all forms of technology; deific powers. This force can only be halted, impeded, or altered by another user of the same force. There ARE no other users of this same force because my character was/is the only one possibly ever born with the innate ability to wield it, determined by the ubermegaforce itself. It will not allow anyone else to wield it in any way, shape, or form whatsoever."

I don't know about the rest of you folks, but honestly, are folk so terrified of losing even the slightest of quarrels, fights, etc., that they REALLY feel the need for such things? I mean, sure I can understand powergaming to some degree, but this kind of stuff seems frighteningly common both in furry fandom and outside it (and especially true in anime fandom).

On a similar and semi-related note in this rambling rant: what is it with folk who engage in something they call a sparring match then lash out full-force with killing-level maneuvers, and clearly expect their so-called sparring partner to do the same? This is another thing I don't get. The point of sparring is practice. Just as one doesn't go into a martial arts school with the intent of killing all the other students, or a boxing ring with the intent to beat the opponent to death, why would one practice, ostensibly with a friend, and then engage full-force and full-out with maximum force and lethality? I have this vague notion that this, too, is related to the aforementioned fear of losing, but nonetheless, the logic, or illogic of it, slips my mind and eludes all sense of reason that I can bring to bear.

Again, my friends, thank you for your patience in listening to me ramble and rant on these matters. It's a rare thing for me to feel this vexed, but more and more, I find myself having thoughts on these matters recently, usually due to encountering for the nth time someone guilty of such affronts to logic and reason.

Yours all, though slightly vexed,
Mika,
Your friendly neighborhood nine-tailed Kitsune.

Well, folks, go figure. For the new year it seems nature herself has chosen to gift me with the flu. Currently at work (though I'd prefer to be home, but bills and such need money to be thrown at them), feeling achey, nose running, coughing, feverish, and a little off-kilter. The coughs make me feel positively nauseous, and needless to say I am far far from my best. More annoyingly, this is going to affect my chances at seeing 47 Ronin tomorrow, something I was dearly looking forward to. Blech.

Well, ladies and gentlefurs, I have just seen The Desolation of Smaug, and have been rampantly disappointed. I could go on at length about the hows and whys, but that would be dignifying the decimation I witnessed beyond its' due. Suffice it said that I was not in the least happy, and am glad that I am not the one who paid for the ticket (though I feel sorry that the friend who DID pay for it lost said cash).