First

This last year had been...well...crazy, describes it pretty well. The slow season at work was so slow that I had to take a second job to fill in the income gaps.

The busy season has, so far, been not too busy, yet still stressful in the extreme.

And on top of that, my mother is now in the hospital, due to some dip-shit (actually what seems to be an average joe, but whom I prefer to refer to as a dip-shit). Details (rough, but rough for a reason, are here: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6242667/)

My intention with the  MewtwoFurs and  Hermfurs groups was to flesh out the pages a good bit, and make them more substantive. But the events of this last year both personally and FA-adminship related have made that very, very, very hard, if not impossible.

As a result, I am opening up control of both groups to a new owner. I have things I need to focus on IRL, and updating the group pages, as much as I enjoy them, do not fit into the priorities.

So  HermFurs and  MewtwoFurs are groups I'm willing to transfer ownership to, if other users are interested.

If you want to take control of the groups, NOTE me about it. I will allow some time for people to opt in, and I'll make a selection from those who respond (via Note).

Note me with a bit of your interest in either group, what you think you could offer as the group controller, and I will get back to you. I will make a public journal announcement for the transfer when a new owner is selected.

A severe one. My mother was hit by a car.

I'm going to be out of touch for a while, as things develop.

Thoughts are appreciated, though I don't know when I'll be able to respond to much extent.

I posted on the  MewtwoFurs account, but I'm so happy that I'm posting here too.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?featu.....csAqOz8xU[/yt]

Yes, he's not a member of the original cast. He's a bonus you get for purchasing both game versions, so he's a DLC/secret/unlockable character.

I don't like that aaaaaallllllllot, but I suppose that makes him even more desirable and valuable to a lot of players. He's something extra-special, in a sense (which Mewtwo would be regardless, of course).

Netflix is redoing it in a new series that'll be all-CGI, and be more sci-fi oriented than weirdly magical.

I'm torn a few ways about this.

1) I will love that The Magic Schoolbus is back again.
2) I really hope that they bring back Ms. Frizzle's voice actor.

But....I dunno if it'll be involving all the kooky transformation stuff that the original series did, since it'll be sci-fi based. The characters turning into everything from machines to I don't even remember how many different animals was one of the coolest parts of the show for me back then.

Yes indeedie. That day's come around again for me.

Nicely timed this year, falling on Memorial Day.

Does this factor into your art style when drawing anthro characters? Does species seem to effect this phenomena? And if yes/no, does it factor into whether you prefer to draw human characters or anthros?

I tagged a few people in messengers asking about this already, and got fairly positive response. But since a large number of writers in various fields watch me I wanted to open it up to a broader audience and see what got said.

Recently I downloaded an e-book of a fairly well received furry novel (up for an Ursa Major award). I like the themes, I like the characters, I like the setting, and gradually I'm looking forward to the plot developing more.

But the typos.

My god, the typos. Almost every page. Misplaced words in sentences. Misspelled words. Wrong punctuation which breaks the flow of things. Misused words which throw you for a momentary loop.

Majorly published books have small errors like these too. I've even seen them slip by in books by Stephen King. So it's nothing new. But they're small slips that are very few and very far between. They're not occurrences on every page. And in these furry works that hurts the reading experience sooooooooo bad! And it reduces the number of readers the story could attract, which hurts the publisher's bottom line, and it hurts the writer's recognition.

These are problems that could be reduced by having one or more editing passes done of the completed piece before having it published, but for a lot of stories that just doesn't happen. Self-published authors sometimes can't afford to bring in a professional editor. Publishers often charge for an editing service, and it's usually not a cheap fee.

I've done editing work for a number of authors on this site for a few years now, and I've done it for free, just to help spruce up the quality of work that gets showcased by them, and while reading this current story it came to mind that maaaaaaaybe something could be done about this recurring problem.

A 'Furry Editors' group, here on FA.

When I was first getting involved in actually participating in the furry community here and on the forums, I set-up a thread on the forums' Art Exchange titled 'The List of Request Accepting Artists and Writers'. The Art Exchange was essentially being flooded by people posting the same sorts of requests for free art, and I figured setting up a list where people could just pick out which active artists that would do the sorts of requests they were looking for would ease the problem. It'd cut down the number of threads being made, expose the artists a bit, help satisfy demand, and overall probably had some potential.

It ended up getting stickied, my inbox essentially got flooded by entries, and proved to be one of the most heavily viewed threads in the forums' art section. When I got promoted to being a site-admin I knew I wouldn't be able to handle everything, and had to pass it over to the other full-time forum mods.

But it worked. And I want to know if people think a group similar to that would work here on the main site for writers that want to have their material checked over.

Essentially the process would be like this:

-I set up the page with the profile displaying the relevant information and listing of users who want to do editing, based on subject-matter/themes.
-Users on the site who want to do the editing work for community members send me a note with their basic info: what stories and subjects they'd be up for, their size limits (not everyone is going to want to read and edit a full novel), their no-no subjects, the number of jobs they'll take at a time, an example piece of a story or work they've written or edited (of course I have to do a bit of quality checking, to be sure the pieces being produced do read correctly) and how to contact them.
-I keep that list updated on the profile page.
-When an editor hits their limit or no longer wants to do it, they just send me a note and I put an notation next to their entry that they're out of action and not to be contacted anymore, or if they want to be removed I just trim the name from the listing.


That's the editors side of things.

The writers' side of things would go more like:

-Writer checks over the listing for editors in the field they're writing something for after they've completed a draft (no 'could you edit this sometime in the future when it's done' requests)
-Writer contacts the editor directly. It's up to the editor and the writer to arrange the exchange of the documents, agree on editing procedure and limits (just fix the typos, no other feedback, or fix the typos and leave as much feedback otherwise as they want, etc).
-When the finished piece is posted, the writer should be sure to credit the editor, so they can get proper recognition for the help they offered.

Would this service be a professional editing venture? No. It'd be community members using their experience and wish to help others in action.

Thoughts, dear readers and writers?

Would you use the group? Would you put your name into the group as an editor? Any refinements to the process and arrangement you can think of?

I'm expecting the military furs who have me watched will key in on the title of this journal pretty quick, so to paint as clear a picture as possible and tell as clear a tale as can be told for something that was rather mundane, but also extremely significant, I'll give as much detail as I can. I hadn't thought to really do a journal about this since it happened, but the fact there are a lot of military members here on the site, some of them veterans themselves, jumped to mind. So I decided to do a bit of a write-up.

I'm an Iraqi Freedom veteran, having served on the USS Kittyhawk (CV-63) for her deployment into the Gulf during the Iraqi Freedom operation.

For the record, since the Kittyhawk (now decommissioned) was an aircraft carrier that was 40+ years old, the ship posed a greater war-time hazard to the sailors aboard it than the actions of a hostile force. The most threatening danger we faced from outside the hull was a small boat that made it through the surrounding fleet, and which didn't hold up well against the Kittyhawk's .50cals. The ship actually almost sunk herself when a critical fuel line broke deep in the bowels of the ship's guts, in close proximity to major steam and electrical lines (and surprised surprise, my repair locker was the one designated for emergency response in that section of the ship, so guess who got to suit up and head down towards potential firey/explodey death).

But as a veteran and general military type I did make it a point to not forget about my past, and not forget what decorations mean what, which led to one of the more moving and memorable moments of my hospitality career for Veteran's Day 2013. So here's the lay-out of events that led up to a very special surprise on what's now a more special day than it ever has been before.

I was scheduled to be the opening server that morning; meaning I had to come in very early, and the floor would be operated on a pretty skeleton staff for about an hour and a half until the rest of the staff arrived for the closing shift. So I set-up the restaurant's buffet like I normally would, and while I knew there were hotel VIPs in-house (it's a high-profile hotel, of course, and Veteran's Day, so of course there would be –some- special guests) the staff of the restaurant hadn't been given any names in specific. And for the most part the first bit of the morning shift was pretty bland and quiet (ie, good. Quiet and easy days are the best).

Business picked up a bit right around when the other staff were scheduled to clock in, which is just what's expected. But it wasn't anything that a single team of staff couldn't handle. The only catch came when a woman and her elderly Asian gentleman guest were being escorted up onto the restaurant's upper tier. The old man was in a wheelchair, so that meant a path had to be cleared through the tables and chairs on the floor for him to get pushed to his table by a window.

I didn't pay it much mind. Going by the timing, I knew I'd probably be greeting them, since the other server hadn't gotten totally set up yet, but I'd probably pass that table to the on-coming staff member, since it was in his section. And the hostess had the table arrangement pretty well under control, and didn't need any help there. So I focused on getting another order taken care of, clearing one more table, dropping a check, and when those were done I saw that the new arrivals had been situated.

So I did the usual. Went over, smiled, said good morning, asked what they'd like to drink…

And did that without letting my eyebrows shoot off my head or hinting that my heart had suffered a mini-seizure when I'd turned to the old gentleman.

Wheelchair bound and wearing a kinda faded suit or not, something I hadn't expected to see had caught my eye: a blue ribbon hung around his neck, studded with white stars, and with a gold star medallion held over his chest.

There were military guys on the floor, sure. But I'd just found myself greeting and speaking with an awardee of the Congressional Medal of Honor for Valor. And going by the obvious fact the man had to be in his 90's, the odds were this was a Medal of Honor awardee who'd served in World War 2.

This is, as I said before, a high end and professional hotel. So staff can't go goo-goo-ga-ga over VIP guests. After I got the order for the MoH awardee and his guest, likely his daughter, I stepped away, put the order into the system (making sure to type onto the ticket that this was a Medal of Honor winner, so they'd better not fuck up the man's pancakes) and told the on-coming front server that he could have the rest of his section, but that table was –mine-, and that no one else should even approach it. I pretty much banned everyone except the manager from coming close to that corner of the restaurant.

Why?

No one else but I even knew what that ribbon represented. I asked at least three other staff members if they knew what that ribbon was, and no one had a clue. He was just another guest with an interesting taste in fashion to everyone else on the floor. So as far as I was concerned no one else should be getting near the table.

Thankfully the kitchen sent the food out pretty quick, and they timed it well enough that I could take time away from my section to place it on the table, rather than the back-server running from the kitchen to the floor. And after they thanked me for the food the service went fairly smoothly, with just an occasional touch-up of their drinks (coffee and OJ, of course).

After the plates had been cleared and the drinks topped up for the last time the gentleman's daughter asked for the check.

My response caught her by surprise, since I'd been the professional and quiet waiter up to that point; "Ma'am, I can't give a check to a table with someone wearing that ribbon. I'm a veteran too."

Both of them looked almost taken aback, but it was a surprise that had a bit of a smile to it. I've always kept my hair cut short and held onto my somewhat military gait, and I suspected they'd already picked up on it. So they took the refusal to allow them to pay their bill in good stride, and both of them asked me to come back while they sipped on their drinks to talk a bit.

When I had a chance, of course I did just that. I'd already closed the check out under my own debit card, so it was taken care of, as far as the hotel's system was concerned.

The MoH awardee told me a great little tale, from when he'd been (briefly) on an American submarine, and during downtime in his berthing had decided to try to make a ring for himself when there was nothing else to do. He'd gotten a little piece of scrap metal, a punch, and a hammer, been gradually working the piece into a circle, and was then working on driving the punch through the piece to form the hole for his finger by giving the punch some solid smacks with the hammer.

Some of you who have been on subs, or know of sub procedure, probably know what happened next.

The sub went to General Quarters, because a German destroyer homed in on the sound of his hammer striking metal, and started depth-charging them! He'd nearly gotten his sub sunk! And they were barely able to escape.

Admitedly, I didn't have any stories that really compared to that, and I wasn't really inclined to try to match it. I laughed, told a small bit about the fuel leak the Kittyhawk had suffered, a bit about standing guard, but I got the feeling that for him being able to tell me the tale was amusement in itself, and getting into an experience contest with a MoH awardee would pretty much be sacrilegious. So all three of us had a laugh over the memory, and I left the table feeling happy enough that he'd warmed up to me enough to share that bit of his life, and I hoped he felt happy enough to have shared it.

I'd woefully underestimated how much my professionalism and camaraderie had won the man over.

When their table looked pretty much clear, and it seemed they weren't going to drink anything else, I went over to clear off the cups and glasses I saw something else on the table. A coin, made of brass, with a few insignia I couldn't make out on its face.

The man's daughter cued him a bit, because he had somewhat forgotten that he'd put it on the tabletop (really, he was 90+. Not something I'd hold against him). Somewhat snapping-to, he picked the coin up from the table, slipped his hand into his pocket, and said to me that he wanted to shake my hand.

Alright, so the secret-handshake was slightly less than secret at that point. Do you really think I cared?

We shook hands, and the coin dropped into my palm, and I pocketed it without anyone else seeing the exchange, and both of us were left smiling afterward.

My time in the military was done in 2005, so it had been roughly eight years since I'd been passed a coin of any sort, much less from a Medal of Honor awardee. It's not a lie to say that as I stepped away from the table I almost had tears in my eyes.

So who was the man? He hadn't given a name when coming in with the host, and neither had his daughter.

Fortunately the coin had his name, his rank, and where he'd earned his medal formed into its face.

Private (yes, Private) George S. Sakato, the last surviving Japanese-American to have been awarded a Medal of Honor, for his actions on Hill 617 in France, World War 2.

He'd enlisted (not been drafted, he'd enlisted) during the last year of the war, and gone into France. Hill 617 had been essentially surrounded by German ranks, but his unit had not only driven forward, they'd actually breached the German lines there, Sakato himself killing 4 German troops. They'd entrenched themselves for a time, at which point his platoon's commander was shot. Sakato, a mere Private with less than a year's combat experience, had then lead a charge against enemy infantry, not only getting shot in the process, but personally killing 13 enemy soldiers, and assisting in the capture of over 40 more.

He'd actually been denied getting a MoH due to rather rampant racism against Japanese, until the Clinton administration ordered a redressing of military actions, and determined that his efforts should have earned him a Medal of Honor for Valor.

Which was why he was in Washington DC that day, to attend a speech with President Obama for Veteran's Day 2013.

When they left the restaurant I was actually amused (and pleased) to see that another very obviously military guest in the restaurant (about my age, but clearly still active duty) saw the daughter wheeling him along. He got up, and without waiting for restaurant staff to assist, pushed any impeding tables and chairs out of the way, and shook Mr. Sakato's hand as they departed.

And I'm happy to say that when they came back the next day they actually requested me by name to serve their table, even though it was again not in my assigned section. And of course I did. I even made sure to be prepared for them, and had printed out some material to give them a bit of a laugh. Skippy's List and How to Simulate Life in the Navy. And both he and his daughter found each listing absolutely hilarious.

In some ways it's just service being as service is supposed to be in a good restaurant in a good hotel. The guest makes a connection with the server, and the server makes a connection with the guest, and as a result the experience is engaging and memorable.

But in the deeper ways, it's moving, and it's incredibly memorable. It's an interaction that I consider a privilege, and one of the memories I will treasure for years to come.

Don't believe me? Check it, bitches.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d.....psacab33c2.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d.....psf564fa94.jpg

It starts at 1900 EST. I'll probably be watching it and updating this journal with my thoughts as it progresses.

Anyone else going to watch?

PS: I'm watching on debatelive.org.

So if anyone else is there, gimme a shout!

Edits: (1901) And here we go with the intros!

(1905) Correction Ken: Scientists can be creationists, and creationists can be scientists. But their degrees of expertise in fields don't change fact that nothing in science supports creation.

(1907) Wrong Ken: The words used in scientific text books are there because the ideas they convey have been repeatedly tested and confirmed. Not as a conspiracy to change their meaning.

(1912) Aside from CSI being ficticious, it's a good approach to drive home that we base our scientific decisions and declarations on testing and observation to draw facts from. Good segue Bill.

(1914) That was a rather diplomatic was for Bill to say that not only do the ideas Ken is putting forward not add up, but that they could also prove very harmful to national progress. If it's a political audience, that might not have occurred to them. So good on making it clear without being a scaremonger.

(1916) Damn straight they'd be afraid to voice their opinions like that.

They're -free- to voice their thoughts on the origins of life. But when they voice that opinion they need to be defended, not just put forward and taken for granted to be right.

(1916) It wasn't by God's grace that you invented your contribution to medical progress, you fart. It was your effort, research, and build-up of knowledge.

(1928) (delayed due to talking with a site member) Ken, the -scientific observation- that you say should be used to prove the kind of genetic decent you're proposing says that the genetic lines you are proposing is -absolutely fucking impossible-.

(1933) 'It's just a switch that get's turned on and off. There's not any new information there.'

Are you shitting me!?! A confirmed mutation that gives the population an edge which came about due to repeated generations genetically mutating and adapting based on which was the most fit isn't something new? If it was an ability that was there the entire time then it would have been observed from the start, not after thousands and thousands of generations, twit.

(1936) Students aren't being indoctrinated to ignore the biblical view, Ken. They're being taught how to test things accurately. And the testing and discoveries that are being made don't indicate your fantasy.

If you're saying that we can't 'see' the past, then what's the proof you've got for The Garden? It's not observable now, and no one knows where it once was.

(1940) OH GOD! HE ACTUALLY DID SAY THAT BABEL WAS THE CAUSE OF DIFFERENT LANGUAGES!

Ken, language history -can be traced-. We know where it originated from, all the way back to cave men and homo-sapiens.

(1942) Ken, you do realize that (and a lot of the creationists pushing for creationist content in textbooks don't seem to realize this themselves) that if you want to include creationist content in a scientific textbook based on religious freedoms you open the door to -ALL RELIGIOUS ORIGIN STORIES-, right? Like wiccan as well? And Zeus.

(1944) Yes Ken, kids suddenly thinking the world was perfect but then marred by sin would indeed have a big impact on how they'd view things like diseases and research.

It would utterly fuck up all possible progress.

(1946) DO IT BILL! DO IT!

(1953) I'm exceptionally curious to see what Ken's response will be towards species dissemination around the world. Or if he'll just gloss right over it.

(2000) Don't overstress one random fantastic element of the Bible that shouldn't be believed Bil. That's important, sure. The Arc doesn't make a lick of sense, sure. But stress to the audience how it was determined that these things aren't possible, and why they should be thinking critically about them.

(2001) That's a bit better. Issues of things like food management on the Arc are simply untenable, so they shouldn't be believed.

But don't slack on saying flat out 'But that doesn't mean you can just slot in 'God did it', because that's what the audience will do. Ken will, at the very least.

(2003) Bingo, Bill. Science made observations, made predictions, and those predictions came through to be proven accurate, and fit the model of the world being billions of years old.

(2007) Bringing up the Big Bang model might be a double edged sword, but you know what? Better that Bill gets the first word in on it, and lays down the known facts in a way that the audience can understand -before- Ken can lay down a load of crap about it.

(2017) Yes Ken, we observe things like radioactive decay. Then those observations are tested. If there are errors, those errors are accounted for and adjusted for.

You, good sir, are already treading on ground you know is damned thin.

(2020) Ken, you are LISTING OFF TO YOUR AUDIENCE REASONS WHY THE BIBLE IS INACCURATE ON A LARGE NUMBER OF THINGS

And the only response you're offering to that is 'But I think God made it all possible'

So you're destroying yourself.

(2024) Bill, push your points harder. The stuff Ken brought up was actually stuff that shot him down. Lay that on him.

(2030) 'Just because an animal has sharp teeth doesn't mean it's a meat eater, it mean's it's got sharp teeth.'

True. Then you observe what it does with those teeth, the jaw structure, the guts, and how the animal behaves. And you draw the conclusion that LIONS DON'T FUCKING EAT VEGGIES!

(2032) Yes Bill, that's more like it. Drive home the falsehoods in Ken's response, and don't leave any doubt about them being fantasy.

(2044) Ken, you fail. And I hope Bill asks 'Where did God come from then?'

I wished I'd started watching this series sooner. Only started just a few days ago, and I am hopelessly addicted now.

The animation is gorgeous.

The characters are fantastic, not just in their general concept, but also in just how emotionally they're conveyed and develop.

And the world is fantastic. It's a grim setting. Humanity is fighting against incredible odds, easily outmatched. And there are far more losses than there are victories, so the victories that are won are incredibly powerful.

It's also a study in anatomy and artwork that I have to believe a lot of members here in the fandom would find fascinating. We did basic artistic and anatomy skills back in my high-school (I passed with a C, and never picked up a brush again). But if the teacher had seen the portrayal of the human form the way AoT demonstrates it, they would have been left simply stunned. It's an incredible blend of inspirations, from sheer horror and disfigurement, Greek-inspired perfection of form, and breathtaking motion.

And the soundtrack is gorgeous. Better than any anime score I've heard in years, possibly since Evangelion got rebooted.

And it ranks as one of my favorites! Gotta love the determination and brutal grit at the end.

Not only is the computer back in operation, but the Mercedes dealership let me know that my car has been completely built, and it's due to be shipped soon. I might even get it before December at this rate!

Just as the title says, the Alienware is up and running at full steam!

I ended up having to pay for and download a driver utility called DriverMax, but it was quickly apparent that I was going to get my back to its full capability with something like it. Lots of the old sites and automated driver sources for the equipment installed in the computer just don't exist anymore, or are long broken.

The shift in performance has been rather stunning. When I did a restore before (about a year or so ago) it was a full AlienRespawn, which clears the comp out and returns it to exactly the way it was when it was shipped to you. In Alienware's custom builds, that includes a lot of software that they install by default. This time it was a true restore, clearing out everything and putting on just Windows. After it completed the only things that were installed were the programs I wanted or needed.

Gotta say, it's made a massive difference. The driver trouble was annoying, but kinda unavoidable. The CD/DVD drive dying in the midst of the restoration was damn maddening, but there had been no way to see that coming. The quick speed of the system now though is wonderful.

I'm installing all of my required programs now (AIM, Skype, mIRC, Steam, Office, etc). After those are done I'll be done with all the bother.

As a follow-up to: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5202758/

I ordered a replacemend disk drive on ebay and it arrived a day early, and installation was just a quick hot-swap. Same model, just not busted.

Reinstallation of windows went relatively smoothly, with the exception of all the updates and now...

Pretty much all of the drivers.

That's the huge kicker right now. The laptop does work, but it's at the absolute bare minimum of functionality. So now begins the grind.

I did all of the required Windows updates, so that's done. now I'm doing clean-up, defrag, and then I'm going to ma-config the system to track down just what drivers are needed.

Why aren't they on the Alienware site, you ask?

After Dell bought Alienware the 'My Hive' section of the site was closed down, and a lot of their model information was removed, including a lot of the profiles of older custom computer sales. So they didn't keep their driver database for old sales. I have to use ma-config just to get accurate hardware profiles, and trace their required drivers and any other software.

A plus to this sort of bare-bones reinstall is that at least any unwanted software won't find its way onto the comp. The only stuff that'll be installed is what I install.

I started the Alienware Respawn process by putting in the Alienware boot CD.

That worked fine.

When the Ghost screen came up, signalling you need to put in the Alienware Image CD, I did.

And heard a weird grinding sound coming from the CDrom.

The plastic retaining clip that holds CDs steady in the drive had popped loose, so a disk couldn't be held securely, and the Respawn process couldn't be completed.

As frustrating as it is, it looks like I might be stuck contacting Alienware and sending the whole laptop in for service. That's going to seriously suck if it turns out to be expensive.

Edit: Thursday I will instead just take out the CD/DVD drive, and see if I can get that specific model ordered. If it's the exact model the drivers shouldn't be a problem, and I should be able to do the restore after popping it in.

Edit 2: Agents of SHIELD is a repeat tonight, so I popped the drive out and looked up its model, just to see if it could be found cheaply online.

Found it on ebay for $16 (used).

I'm rolling the dice on the used product and I just purchased it. Should be here by Saturday.

Well, nothing's worked, so my only option left now is to pop in the recovery CD that Alienware included with my system and completely reinstall Windows.

Bugger

The system gave me notice that old files on the system would be preserved in an archive. So  Sanmer, after I get done with the slew of updates and such and getting all my peripherals properly situated I will do a check to locate your in-progress commission. If it doesn't get copied over, like if the program just finds it unimportant, I'll redo it and resume work from scratch.

This'll mean a bit of down-time, but not being totally off the net. Most of my critical information is on the external drive, and backed up on my back-up laptop, and also backed up on another external drive kept in a fire-safe. I hadn't copied over Sanmer's WIP, but almost everything else is intact. Once my back-up laptop is set-up fully I can even keep up with my adminship duties. And my Steam game files are saved in the Steam Cloud, so game progress isn't affected much (I can't really play anything good on the back-up laptop, since it doesn't have the power of the main comp, but at least the data isn't gone).

I'll post another update here when the comp's up and running again, or if anything noteworthy comes up.

So I was watching The Walking Dead on Netflix a bit ago.

The screen froze, and no menu buttons would respond, so I did a restart just to kick things back in place, since not even ctrl-alt-delete would work.

A screen I'd never encountered before came up when the computer started up again, a loonnnnng list of 'Retrieving orphaned files'.

I didn't think my system could be that fragmented or broken up. I do defrags regularly, clean-ups regularly, and Norton 360 tune-up both regularly and automatically.

After a time the list finished, and it was revealed to be a chkdisk operation when it was done.

The system started running again...and booted to the Black Screen of Death. A blank black screen with a movable cursor in the middle, and nothing else. No keys work, no mouse actions work. Doing a hard restart brings it back to the same result.

I really don't want to have to do a drive reformat/restore. My files and such are on an external drive, so it wouldn't kill my work. But it'd be 2-3 days of updating and tweaking, which would be a real pain in the ass.

Right now I'm on my tablet, but I'll set-up my backup laptop shortly. If anyone knows of solutions to this problem that do not involve reformats/reinstalls of the system, please do lemme know.

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

That sure didn't take long!

Current Status

Requests: Closed
Trades: Closed
Commissions: Open on a per-interest basis. See guidelines.

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Commission Info and Guidelines are here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11469790/

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Commission In-Progress: *insert title here* for  Sanmer (Planning)

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Completed Commissions

Collecting Curious Curios for  DigitalPotato

Yesterday I'm happy to say that I made the down-payment on my first car.

For those of you who haven't seen my prior photograph submissions or journals, this is what I drive as my year-round vehicle right now: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5488178/

It's been upgraded since this picture was taken, so there's some other equipment on it. But the Piaggio MP3 500 has been my main ride for about 3 years.

I've also been hit twice on it by idiots who weren't paying attention to what the fuck was going on around them, or driving like jackasses (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2879836/)

No real injuries from either hit. My ankle was bruised from the first one, and the second one just damaged the bike.

So before winter really hits the east coast I wanted to get something that's got a bit more protection for me, is small enough that I won't worry about scraping the front/rear ends against anything, reasonable on fuel, good for city commuting, and has lots of customization options.

The Smart Passion Coupe

Got this in an all silver paint-job for visibility, and added onto it essentially every option they offered, including the Brabus tuning upgrade. It should be ready by December, or maybe a bit earlier if I'm lucky.

You know the one, right?

http://www.demotivationalposters.ne.....ers-54204.html

No, not that feeling (though this is FA, so someone's character probably does know that one).

The feeling you get when your commissioner says you nailed it?

Yeah, I got that feeling right now.

I'm very happy to say that  DigitalPotato did a read-through and gave the piece an overall thumbs up! I'm doing one more pass to make any adjustments he'd like and see if I can snipe down any last errors that slipped through, and it'll hopefully be posted today.

And of course, still taking ideas for new story commissions!

Details here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4988837/

I'm fairly certain that a number of the Mewtwo fans who have me watched probably already are in the  MewtwoFurs group, so if you've seen the journal updates from there you know this already.

For those that are not: I'm the new group owner! So swing on by it and tag the group with a watch if you're so inclined. Over the next couple weeks I'm going to be working on giving that group and the others I'm modding a good brushing up.

My priority right now is finishing up the remainder of  DigitalPotato's commission, which is moving a steady pace and turning out pretty nicely. Then while I wait to see if any other commission ideas are sent my way before selecting a new one to work on I'll be working on sprucing up the group pages.

Commission info you say? Oh, right here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4988837/