Con Badge Business
Journal Entry: Sat Jul 5, 2008, 5:45 PMFurAffinity is down
It's not very often that I write in the journal here at DeviantArt, but since my favorite art site at FurAffinity is down for the forseeable future, I'm going to have to do most of my work here.
I really miss FurAffinity. It gave you instant gratification. Within minutes up uploading a piece of art, people would favorite it or comment on my pieces.
But this speed does have its downside, too. You can also get instant attention from the FA faithful by leading your botnet in a distributed denial of service attack on their servers, too. Not that that has happened this time. This time, FA is down due to a hardware failure. But it still happens. I've never known dA to go down.
Things just don't happen quite as fast here in DeviantArt.
Con Badge business
Just about image you can turn into a JPEG file can be uploaded to certain photo sites such as the CVS Photo Center and turned into glossy prints and even mailed to any address on the map for a small fee. I'm surprised not many artists have thought of this. Well, I've just uploaded an example of what I can put on that glossy Kodak paper and have sent out to you. It's in my Featured Submission section. I can do you one for $20.00.
Think about it.
- Mood:
Content - Eating: Cream of mushroom soup
Clash of the Geeks
Journal Entry: Wed May 7, 2008, 9:04 PMIts all going to be about chessplayers and furries sharing the same Holiday Inn just one weekend from now.
I am involved in both of these subcultures. First, let me tell you about the more innocent of the two pursuits. I have the link to the Mulligan Chess Club site, an informal club that sets up and plays every Saturday morning at 9:00 AM. I’d have to call myself the weakest player there, but my love for the game is unabated. Well, about 1½ months ago, our head honcho of nearly national master strength, Alan Casden, told the membership about a team tournament being held at the Holiday Inn Worthington on May 17-18, the Midwest Open Team Festival.
That happens to be the same time and the same place as a furry convention called Morphicon. That’s the other subculture that I happen to be involved in. Yes, they do have a taste for porn, the graphic kind, but the thing about the sex in the animal costumes? That’s largely a myth propagated by nationwide chains of television stations to boost ratings during Sweeps Week. Matter of fact, we’re just about due for another one of their fabricated fursuit sex scandals right about now.
Well, as soon as I heard about the chess tournament, I passed the word on to the furries about to attend Morphicon. While the theme of this year’s convention is “Hooray for Furrywood”, they were quite intrigued about sharing the building that weekend with lots of chessplayers, and have arranged in their honor a big chess match with live furries playing the 32 pieces. I offered to direct one of the two armies, but there’s no word back on whether I get to.
Why is it that every time I try to introduce chess to the furry fandom, they want to do something dumb like this?
Conversely, I kept mum to the chessplayers about the furry convention. The best kind of practical joke is one where you need not do any work to set it up. When the chessplayers get their first up close and personal look at the furry fandom, well, the looks on their dumbfounded faces are going to be priceless.
I am sooo taking along my digital camera!
- Mood: Content
- Drinking: Coffee
God's very best
Journal Entry: Mon Apr 7, 2008, 12:05 PMHe asked me, “Do you think it’s wrong to ask God to give you His very best?”
When he said that, I could definitely feel the Holy Spirit in my heart hopping up and down and bouncing all over the place, yelling, “Hear the man! He’s saying what I’m saying!” There’s nothing I can say against it. It’s got a basis in scripture:
If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! — Matthew 7:11
I walked out of that Bible study knowing that I had learned the Lesson of the Week. And I was determined to start praying it.
But it’s not as easy as saying, “Lord, I would like to receive the very best You have to offer me.” My heart rebels, saying, “I’m not ready for it.”
Why the heck not?
My heart balked, failing to give an explanation. It’s getting really easy to tell the lies from the truth anymore. The lies come into my heart, feel good and sensible, but when pressed for an explanation, fail to give one. False guilt, for instance, says I should be ashamed of myself, and my gullible heart always falls for it, but it never gives an explanation why.
I guess the first thing I need to ask God for is boldness, to remind me that I am His child and therefore entitled to ask Him for stuff, including “His very best.”
- Mood: Content
- Eating: Spaghetti
- Drinking: Coffee
I surrender...
Journal Entry: Wed Sep 12, 2007, 11:55 PMYou know that oversize chess set that I have, and have taken it to such furry events as Anthrocon and Morphicon. I've decided to take the white king from that set and display it prominently on a shelf next to the burglar alarm that I have to disarm upon coming home. I display the king lying on its side.
Laying the king on its side is the chessplayer's way of surrendering when he is losing badly and can see checkmate only a matter of a few moves away. Laying my king on its side is my way of saying, "You win, God. I'm tired of playing a losing game. I'm not the grandmaster I thought I was. I resign."
It will also be my way of reminding myself of the need to surrender to God. I can't think my way out of the situation He has me in at this moment, and the sooner I realize that, the better.
- Mood:
Regretful
Lack of faith
Journal Entry: Sun Sep 9, 2007, 12:41 PMI'm experiencing a lack of faith right now. I'm not convinced totally that the Crime Victim's Fund really works. I have read from the web site about how it's established to help the innocent victims of violent crime, but doubts have entered my head. Evil ideas enter my head about how investigations into my life will reveal an excuse to refuse me aid from the Crime Victim's Fund. Evil ideas enter my head about how I'll be left holding the $13,000 bag.
Evil ideas enter my head about what the law is. Who has the legal right to punish other people in this world? Do the police and judges have it, or do street gangs have it?
Jesus Himself told Pilate, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above." (John 19:11) Who gave that gang power over me?
Gangs punish way out of proportion to the offense, punishing with death a single word of disrespect. Gangs punish without telling the "guilty" party what he has done. Gangs will punish Person A for what Person B has done. There is no fairness to it at all.
Evil ideas in my head say, "It's commonly done all the time, so it's therefore right."
Who, or what, is going to fight these evil ideas?
- Mood: Content
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