We had a portrait day. Go ahead, take a look.



On a side note, I had a lot of fun taking the shots, so if you ever want portraits taken (including fursuit portraits) let me know.

So, with thanks to tsuyoto for his tweet, I found this priceless collection of reviews. The item in question is an SIFS (a Standard-Issue Furry Shirt), which we've all seen, and which I've avoided just because you can't walk two steps without bumping into one at FC (or Chicken, usually).

Anyway, I found some other items with priceless review material, so read these if you're bored. I tried to put the funnier ones higher up.

Wolf Shirt: http://www.amazon.com/Three-Official-T-Shirt-Cotton-Sleeve/dp/B000NZW3IY

Uranium Ore: http://www.amazon.com/Uranium-Ore/dp/B000796XXM/ref=pd_sbs_a_4

Tuscan Whole Milk: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00032G1S0/ref=nosim/0sil8

The Story about Ping: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670672238/ref=nosim/0sil8

Zubaz Pants: http://www.amazon.com/Zubaz-Pants/dp/B000WVXM0W/ref=pd_sbs_a_3

Sea Cows Shirt: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mountain-Sea-Cows-T-Shirt/dp/B000OG4ENO/ref=pd_sbs_a_1

Joe the Plumber: http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Plumber-Fighting-American-Dream/dp/0976974037/ref=pd_sbs_a_7

So, I've finally been doing some crazy stuff, despite work being really annoying this week. It helps that my mom had/has generously offered me the use of her car from June 15 through July 4, so I can get to things I wouldn't otherwise get to. By the way, she's healing well, so that's good news.

( Read more... )

So, a random recap of socialness:

THURSDAY I went to Chicken with guests Meph (gibbet) and Mal (Maldavius), who came back and spent the night at my apartment.

SATURDAY Ari and I went to the Egyptian Museum, and also stopped off at Weirdstuff Warehouse (lost my Weirdstuff virginity) and HSC (my first time at the Sunnyvale one). Then we went and hung out with Skant, Jace, and jaelyn, and played a lot of Pain, which I suck at. Ooch!

SUNDAY Ari and I went to a party with some friends from dancing, and we all watched Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Very entertaining company and movie, and it was good being with Ari. Let's just hope that next time we don't sit RIGHT next to the screen...

TUESDAY I went to Fremont Naughm after work, because work is halfway there anyway. Saw aatheus, foofers, and a bunch of other folks. Saw some new faces too, like Krominof.

WEDNESDAY I headed over to Leo's for a fursuit construction night. The next one might end up being at my place, which would be awesome.

FRIDAY I finally met up with Kriti, a friend who I "met" five years ago when she was fangirling my webcomic (her words). We've been talking online ever since, but since she was in India, it was rather hard to meet. Then she moved to Oberlin (where she almost took a class by my aforementioned ex-girlfriend and her fiancee that bears ridiculous resemblance to me).

SATURDAY I headed back from Santa Cruz (via Weirdstuff and HSC again) to Leo's barbecue, where I spent a lot of time in the pool, saw a lot of great people, met a lot of great people, and then headed afterwards to drink with them at the afterparty. Wasn't driving home at night, so I finally exposed myself to one of Zero's drinks (Tsukaza)...damn that was good.

TODAY I'm just recovering from the weekend, then off to my manager's engagement reception in Sausalito. It would be easy to get to, except I was going to meet up with my co-worker Julie at Union Square around 4, and then yesterday I suddenly remembered that the pride parade is Sunday afternoon. Eep!

I still have a bunch of photos to post, but right now I've got to "finish" that stupid project...and by "finish" I mean "hit the deadline I was supposed to hit on Friday". Le sigh.

So last night, in a caffeinated frenzy, I challenged illudiumphosdex to a short story writing contest, with a catch. Here's mine:

( 685 words )

It's the first thing I've written in a very long time. What do you think? And can you spot the "catch"?

So, ichi_black rides horses. So I took some photos of her Open Barn last weekend, and just got around to uploading them.



For all 424 photos, go here.

For all 684 photos, stalk me.

Soon to be on to vacation recap.

Maker Faire was pretty awesome. Ran into a lot of people I know--many furries, one friend from high school, my ex-girlfriend Rachel and her boyfriend (the doppelganger I mentioned a few posts back)--and met a few more too.

I have a ton of pictures/video to post, but while that all gets processed and such, I'll just share with you one of my favorite pics.

( A fox taking a knot )

At Chicken on a dying battery, after an awesome vacation. Short writeup here; pics to follow.

So.

Friday: Went to Fanime from 8am to 11am. Drove back to Berkeley, and sat in my cap and gown at the University-wide convocation with guest speaker, Mr.-Pursuit-of-Happyness himself, Chris Gardner. Then headed back down to Fanime.

Saturday: Spent the whole day at Fanime. Saw the stand-up comedy in the evening, then watched a friend embarrass himself at Yaoi Bingo. Not that he was bad-looking, or did anything wrong; we'll just enjoy the footage in a decade or two. Took video of the skit with Groggy's new head, and the the epic Pokémon dance of epicness.



Sunday: Left Fanime in the morning to go and graduate. Graduated. Traveled back home.

Monday: Farted around with nothing to do, for the first day in a long long time.

Tuesday: Headed out to Berkeley, then to Monterey, for the first vacation in a long time (conventions excluded). Stayed at the Spindrift Inn, which is a bit expensive, but worth it for a nice big room right on the beach.

Wednesday: Took a fuckton of pictures at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, then walked around Monterey for a bit and had my first four-course meal in a long time (if ever).

Thursday: Checked out, went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, then headed to Chicken...which brings us to right now.

Lots of pictures to process/search, from both Fanime and Monterey, but I'll post later. Because I'm sure you'd *love* to see pictures of my vacation. (sarcasm)

1) Who are you?
2) Are we friends?
3) When and how did we meet?
4) Would you kiss me?
5) Give me a nickname and explain why.
6) Describe me in a few words:
7) What was your first impression of me?
8) Do you still think the same?
9) What reminds you of me?
10) If you could give me anything, what would it be?
11) How well do you know me?
12) Would you meet up with me?

Ichi stole it from Nevermint, and now I pass it along. Fill it in, if you're bored enough.

Poll #1392701 What do you think of these movies?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Fantastic Mr Fox

Hannah Montana, the movie

Cloudy, with a Chance of Meatballs

And yes, Fantastic Mr Fox is stop motion, by the same animators who did Corpse Bride. Woot!

p.s.> I left off "Up" because it's in a league of its own. I think I'm going to try to see it opening night in Santa Rosa.

I don't know, I guess I just don't feel like I made all that much out of my college experience. At least, it hasn't been like people say they should go.

I found out today that I dropped the ball and forgot to get commencement tickets for the big ceremony. (I do have tickets to the little computer science ceremony, though.) So I won't have my name read in the 6,000 person Greek Theater, so I won't put that graduation program in my little manila folder to look back on 25 years from now. I may still be able to attend--if there are tickets left--but no guarantees.

I guess it brings me back to thinking that somehow I didn't get everything I should have, out of my college experience.

I got a lot of stereotypical late nights, tons and tons of swing dancing (including some great routines, that I learned and taught). I got life in the dorms, I napped a few times on Memorial Glade, I built a popular website that's still getting tons of traffic... I took a lot of courses, many computer onces, some science ones, quite a few liberal arts ones. I dropped a class, I crammed for midterms, I pulled all nighters...

But at the same time, I didn't really hang out with my peers. I don't consider myself someone who parties really hard, or someone who goes out with random people and does crazy things. I didn't join any frats, or join the CS undergrads association, or accept my invitation to computer science honors frat Upsilon Pi Epsilon. I guess I just counted myself too busy for that. Too busy working, which paid for a lot of fun things, but that will dominate the next forty-odd years of my life.

I don't attribute it to anyone, or anything, but myself. I didn't make friends with the guys on my floor, but I happened to be the misfit in the hall of sports-crazy stoners. While I didn't get to experiment romantically, I traded it for four wonderful years with a lovely girl, who (hopefully) will not keep our long-distance relationship long. I didn't live with a roommate, but now I've got a good friend with whom I'll be rooming this coming year, so at least I'll have some semblance of that. I may not have made a ton of friends who would just call me up to see a movie, but I've made many friends through furry, and maybe I do have a lot of friends and just take them for granted. (Or unsuccessfully try and split my time between groups.)

I've always been a regretful person, even when I shouldn't. And maybe this is just a nostalgic whine for the years that people claim they wish they could live again. I'll try to buck up, because that's what I do.

But still, something about me wishes that I could have done better.

So, the Mountain View parade yesterday was really a blast.

While Kuro and Kin actually premiered at the 2007 Mountain View Spring Parade, I decided to take the year off from the parade portion, and Ari's riding obligations kept her in Santa Rosa. Instead, I took pictures--200 or so, with Groggy (groggyfox) taking another 50. We couldn't stay for dinner afterwords, but I really had a blast anyway.



If you wanna see some shots, look at the best-composed 50 shots, or the full selection of 240.

Now, all that's left is graduation....

So we went to the Cherry Blossom Festival with Karin (se'kar), Aaron, and Ari (Ichi). Tons of fun, even if I got burned to a crisp (surprisingly).

Much less surprisingly, the furries won. Second place went to a fullsuit Teto from Nausicaa, and a Qarrazel-built cat partial; grand prize went to Beastcub (Lilleah West) and her Wolf Link (with her sister as Midna).



I took at least 252 pictures (5.5GB RAW), and posted them to my Flickr.

Time to sleep...and heal my burns. >_<

Apparently there was a Hayao Miyazaki TV series called "Sherlock Hound", airing in 1984, which has just made it to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/show?p=K162qI1LPF8

Cherry Blossom Festival was awesome, I'm processing and uploading the pictures now, so expect an update out of me soon.

This is making the rounds. It deserves it...good job CH guys.



Sorry if you've seen this already, or you don't like videos in feeds...let's just say that anyone who's made it though a YouTube comment thread can appreciate this video.

Version from crocodile (borrowed, revised and modified a bit from kinkyturtle )

X what you saw
O what you haven't finished/saw sizable portions
Red font for what you disliked/hated
Orange font for what you liked
Green font for what you loved
- Underline if own
- Leave unchanged if neutral

( the whole list )

Phew.

After a full day of moving with the help of Tom, John, and Kristen, and then a $500 IKEA splurge, all of my furniture is built and in the new place, and most of everything else is in there too. I'm going to spend the next few months unpacking, but I have that luxury, so I'm going to enjoy it.

The new apartment is huge, sunny, beautiful, and only $200 more than the apartment I was moving from (which also means it's ~$400 less when future roommate Tom moves in to the second bedroom, compared to the cramped 1bd that I had before). It's about a mile further away from campus, but it's the same (or closer) to BART (just North Berkeley BART instead of Downtown Berkeley BART) so it's all the same to me.

Why did a cramped dark 1bd apartment cost $1100, and why'd I take so long to move out of it, I hear you ask. Because it was 1 block from campus, 10 minutes from BART, and I had a roommate when I moved in. Then she moved out. But we're still together. <3

Comparison pics coming as soon as I'm done getting the place in order. For now, I keep unpacking...and then do homework...then sleep.

I'm alive, but dreading the big move coming up this weekend. I like the new place, but it's just a game of figuring out how I can manage school, work, homework, "outside work" (old consulting gigs that need maintenance), impending dance performances, and now packing and moving.

I'll see what I can do about a better post soon. Right now, I sleep.

This may be all I ever talk about here, but I guess my identity weighs heavy on my mind.

From Jimmy's journal: "I'm curious, for the folks on my list with fursuits whose name they also go by, are they actually your "fursona" or are they different?" I thought my answer was insane enough to share here.

For me? I don't know. Dax is as much a manifestation of me as I think I could ever create.

A week ago, we had an impromptu furmeet up in the Berkeley Hills, and I told a story about how when I went dancing in fursuit, my friends couldn't recognize me until I danced with them, when they would instantly greet me with "Oh hi, Jeff."

"Jeff?" my friends asked. I hadn't realized that "Jeff" might not be a name they recognize. They had assumed that my given name was Dax.

Likewise, just a few hours ago I told a couple of friends from high school about my pseudonym "Dax". They scratched their heads and looked at me like I was from another planet. In their presence, I came to the realization that the same number of people might know me as Dax, versus Jeff. Maybe not, but it feels that way sometimes.

I guess I see Dax as a malleable version of myself. It's not as though Dax is another person (wolf?), he's just...me the way I'd like to be, I guess. Suit or no suit. Two sides of the same being, each a blueprint for the other.

===

In unrelated news, tomorrow I'll be at Chicken with my lovely girl, on Friday I'll sign for a new apartment and start moving things into it, and by the weekend I should be entirely crazy.