:)

:)

I love hugs. I will give you good ones back.

Vids courtesy of Aaron Raccoon.

The best one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnXx.....p;feature=plcp

Sorry I don't reply to many especially if they are non specific, but I notice anyways and send you psychic hugs...

Sooo busy right now. I'm looking forward to Rainfurrest though.

I spent a whole day at a furry thing, where I talked to dozens and dozens of cool people. On the way out, I bumped into a friend who introduced me to an out of town visitor. We had a brief chat for 5 minutes while I was going, and I thought nothing of it until I got these texts. (Name left out to be nice.)

"(Name) here. Are you up for a snug on monday or a sleep over sunday or monday evening?"

Me: "Thanks for messages, sadly I'm overworked with a huge house move and my phone is blowing up with roommate ad callers. Not possible to hang, but have a great visit :)"

"Gr8, can I have a visit today?"

Me: "Aw sorry, going to be up all night loading truck."

"I'll help! I'm super strong"
"I'm throwing you random ideas"
"If you don't want help we can try tomorrow?"

I can't reply, and assume it's understood I'm busy. Next day, phone message: "Hey can I confirm if you can or can't hang out"

So I text: "Dude, boundaries... a nice fly-by chat isn't an invite to blow up my phone w messages, especially when they say it's a bad time. Also it's important not to come on too strong with sexy talk after knowing someone less than 10 minutes. Public service announcement for constructive help."

"NP"
"K well we won't hang out"

The sad part of this is, it's very rare that I say such things directly, or feel like there was anything off-putting about such an interaction. Even if nothing else happens, I like to be super easy with hugs and encourage people to make friends fast. It just takes a little finesse and no expectations to avoid creating a let down.

Here's a report about it.

“Patch Packrat” - Full Fursuit commission

He was originally imagined as a pack rat collector, wearing a vest full of buttons, and many pockets to hold odd things. In concept art, he became more of a gutter rat, and punk-ish (but not too tough.) He’s more of a lover than a fighter, and he always wants to be a free spirit, even if it gets him in trouble. Now his clothing is more for rock band patches and it’s stylishly ragged around the edges.

Concept art:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8152061/
http://www.furaffinity.net/full/8181157/
http://www.furaffinity.net/full/8181188/

Clothing/accessories
- Pierced ear and tail-tip (hmm, what kind of piercing?)
- Spiky wrist bands
- Punk vest, with metal studs and patches
- Necklace of cat bones
- Camo bandana
- Purple hair tuft
- Distressed edge shirt

A lot of these can be provided from me to help make the costume. (I'd happily pay for extra service to incorporate them :)
I want the clothes to be important for personality, more clothes than many costumes have.
I love toony, and will probably get that here, but I'd love if the clothes give some contrast to that.
This is hard to express, but I hope his attitude and personality comes through more than just "cute". Even if he is cute.

Reference-
For real punk style clothing, this is rough stuff but it has spirit,
http://crustypunks.blogspot.com/

Here's a rat costume I like a lot for design.
Ziggy Rat, by Arito:
http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/haal/
More of Arito’s work:
http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/arito/ - http://luskwood.org/costume/gallery
I especially like the shape of the head, brows and snout, the design of the tail, and the feet.
He seems to be a bit inspired by Remy from Pixar’s Ratatouille.

Here's a rat costume I like a lot for personality.
Duster Rat, by Jillcostumes:
http://mercurypale.com/jillcostumes.....ry/ratdone.jpg
And her mouse - http://mercurypale.com/jillcostumes.....siddydone1.jpg

I also like this one a lot for personality.
http://fuckyeahfursuiting.tumblr.co.....ge/34789827620

This rat costume also caught my eye. It's not toony and gives different design ideas.
Riptooth Rat, by One Fur All:
http://www.onefurall.com/gallery/th.....s.php?album=38
It looks like the maker has range and is detail oriented. I like the bristly-ness of the fur. Maybe a bit of his snarling roughness could influence this Patch Packrat character- not too much, but a bit more attitude than my drawings show. I'm open to work with the maker on this.

Some requests for the costume:
Close fit, not too baggy.
I appreciate if visible seam lines are minimized to best of makers ability.

For color, I'm thinking dark. Not black, but maybe dark grey for body, and light face for contrast. For type of fur and length, I'd love to see a sample. I'm open to work with the maker on this.

Like I mentioned, I love toony and cute, but I don't want this character to look too child-like. How about a mixed approach that includes some tougher features? (I would say Beetlecat does a good mixed style: http://beetlefursuits.tumblr.com/po.....r-uploaded-for )

Brows and snout should be shaped to stand out more than a totally soft look (see Ziggy.)
The eyes should look focused without being too startled- a bit of specific emotion expression could be good.
Abdomen should be a bit lower than a person’s, to help his proportions look longer, and more rat like.
At maker’s discretion, some stuffing could help the hip shape, (see Ziggy) but only to a modestly stylized extent.

A fan inside the head would be awesome.
How about roller shoes? Outdoor soles on the feet are good, too.

No.

Cool, I just got a flight and hotel. I arrive friday the 28th at noon and fly out monday the 1st at noon.

Funny thing... all of the hotel rooms were booked at con rate when I first checked prices. That sucks because it's 3 months away. I checked through the hotel's own website and did find some non-con prices but only for single bed rooms, and didn't book yet. I went back through the con website again, and magically got a con rate room. Maybe someone canceled and I grabbed the only one? Anyways, that was lucky and saved me a bunch. Just a note in case anyone else is considering... check now because rooms seem to be at very low availability.

Can't wait to see some of you great people there. Currently I have the room to myself but it's pretty likely I have at least one friend going. There may be room for one more. That would be about $140 to split 3 ways, but I would be fine with having it to myself, any way it works this will be fun.

A special warm fuzzies award goes to my new friend from Califur  GarionWolf, for being too cute for words and really fun to hug. I hope he makes it to more cons.

I want a button that says: "My other suit is a fursuit" and has the words over a design of a collar and tie, very classy-like... I could easily design it and hunt for a place that will make lots of buttons, but I'm busy so I'll just throw the idea out there and see if someone else wants to. Anyone? If you make it I want one!

Performance ideas wanted: A friend is in the hospital in critical condition after a motorcycle accident. They don't know if he will be able to make a full recovery. It sucks. He's not someone I know super well, but a great guy and very good friends/cousin of my good friends. I want to show up in fursuit and try to cheer him up. I think I have a buddy to bring in suit, too. He is on a ventilator and probably wouldn't be able to talk, and I don't know if I should talk in suit. Can you tell me any ideas for non-verbal, fun things I can do to entertain him?

I posted some stuff on Flayrah.

http://www.flayrah.com/4067/san-fra.....mon?16355839=1

Free for fursuiters.

http://sfunity.eventbrite.com/

Whee I like posting stuff

http://www.flayrah.com/4022/short-d.....d?1562231071=1

At 4:55, the short bowling clip. I didn't even know they were filming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbcnHx-BM2M

Joe Peacock is an author and has the world's biggest collection of art from the movie Akira. He wrote a really great, inspirational blog post about being weird and being yourself. It makes a small mention about how in high school, he was friends with famous furry cartoonist, Jay Naylor. He seems like a really nice guy!

:)

Story I posted on Flayrah, just for the hell of it.

http://www.flayrah.com/3967/science.....-furry-origins

This is random to post, but I work at home and these help keep me going with a good 45-60 min. of nonstop beats.

I did find out about this first one because DJ 5arah told me she DJ'ed at Fur Con a while back, and it was one of her best shows ever!

Altered Beats
http://alteredbeats.podbean.com/
http://www.facebook.com/DJ5arah
- Variety! From old school like Cabaret Voltaire, to ambient and noise, to dubstep, but keeping EBM beats as kind of the default style.

Real Synthetic Audio
http://synthetic.org/
- I just recently started listening, and it seems more consistently about dancy EBM club tunes, but high quality, without too much played out stuff.

Califur is June 1, AC is June 14, they're pretty close together. CF is close to me (probably drivable) and not so much effort. AC is more effort, but huge! I'm wondering if I should pick one, or take a bigger chunk of time to do both?

Also, yay... I just paid to commission feetpaws!

Offers/tips for who to ask?

http://www.flayrah.com/3923/five-hu.....overed-germany

Just for fun.

No comment.

http://brokeassstuart.com/blog/2012.....ead-that-right

Every few months it happens. Someone just got a hold of my business credit card and went on a shopping spree. $1500 in fraud charges came through at midnight. Of course I was up working so I caught it within 10 minutes, called the 24-hour line and blocked it. Now I just have to wait a few days for the new one to get here, and clean up the mess if it screws up my legit stuff. So annoying!

It was for $1500 in makeup. No sir I did not order that! I don't think you could even move with that much makeup on. What were they thinking? I wonder if they ordered a trowel with it?

Maybe my credit card got ripped off by a drag queen!

:)