The Peanut Gallery

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4th Pic
So yeah I did some 4th-o-july art, but I dont know weather to posts it now or posts it later for more effect :P

Current Mood: weird

52 icons.

lollobrigida's sweet charity goodies. heroes. mysterious skin. firefly.

teaser:

here @

tragic_radiance.

Psycho Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Current Music: "Stop Making Sense" - Talking Heads

QUICK POST
Yay I am going to be fursuiting in the town parade tomorrow! I'm hanging out with the group at the end of the parade promoting recycling, anti-littering and also the equine 4H group. I'm bringing my tin can prop to *munch* on ;)

The day after AC I bought $5 crocs to start my next fursuit -so it's official again -the day after a convention is becoming a special day to me now -a day to remember, a day to make a statement to myself and step off on the right foot -after all, that is how Scape began -joining the Fursuit list the day after FWA06 and starting construction the day after FWA07 =)

Last bit... Oryx is now my new wallpaper -he's so Kyoooot! I've got a pretty big monitor so his fuzzy nose is actually close to life size lol

Current Mood: caffeinated

Things to make your tail crawl inside:
Hearing the screeching of brakes and squealing of tires as you sit motionless at a stop sign, minding your own business, and bent down because you've been rumaging around in the grocery bag for the chocolate bar that you just purchased from the store...

Looking up to see debris flying at you, and the combined collision vectors of two vehicles heading right for you...

Having the first thought in your mind being... oh god... its coming right for us... screw you South Park, BTW...

Feeling the slight clitter-clatter of tiny hard plastic shards striking your car door, and seeing everything suddenly stop...

Realizing you've just been inches away from being T-boned... you and your car are perfectly fine... the struck car is moving off to the side of the road, and the impact car is not moving... yet, but the person behind the driver's seat is.

I PHOOKING LOVE inches right now!!!!!!!!!

I'm mentally exhausted... going to bed... wake me if the world starts to erupt, or something.

Current Mood: relieved

*faceplant*
Oy vey, what a week. Even today, in an effort to extend the suck just a little more, the CFH [1] decided at 2:30 to make programmatic changes to their site — "Oh, and we'd really like it to go up today."

Between the database gal and myself, we managed to get it done in a fraction of the reasonable time and get out of there, but my boss (who had wanted to go home and relax a bit before his upcoming birthday) ended up stuck there having yet another meeting about it all, and he may still be there for all I know.

No way to run a railroad.

But! That's all over now, and it's officially a long weekend! A long weekend, I might add, with no plans to go anywhere I don't want to go, do anything I don't want to do, work on anything I don't want to work on, or anything else of the sort! Three blissful days of FREEDOM, that rarest of opportunities!

Which is not to say that I'm not going to go places, do things, or work on anything. As a matter of fact, I intend to do some art tonight and spend the weekend trying to get out from under various things that have piled up. But I'm going to take it all at my own pace, work when I feel like it, quit when I feel like it, and goof off totally guilt-free if the mood strikes me.

I need it!

And hopefully, by the end of it, I'll be rested, recharged, and back in good form again. :)

-The Gneech

[1] Client From Hell

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: some wallpaper on the classical station

Hey, ebbeebahdhee!
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Current Mood: blurgh

Gathering 2008 - Con Pics (part 1)

( part 1 )

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Gargoyles Theme

Gnurrrrgh....
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Current Mood: sleepy

Interview with Max Brooks Author of World War Z
This is mostly for my zombie fan friends.
Looks like Mr Brooks is going to be putting out a graphic novel based on the historial attacks in the Zombie Survival Guide...MUST HAVE!
Also, the World War Z movie is in the works. They hired one of the main writers from Babylon 5 to tackle the screenplay. I really hope they consider doing the movie in documentry format.
Anyways, interresting read.:)
http://www.comicmix.com/news/2008/06/29/wwc-interview-world-war-z-writer-max-brooks/

Current Mood: intrigued

Workin out Day 3! - Treadmills
So yeah, being totally out of shape and starting an intense exercise program is kinda challenging. Today was all pouring sweat and people looking at me like I'm crazy. Basically in the 5 miniute cardio warm up I tried running the last 2 minutes... on a treadmill. Even though the building is air conditioned the air doesnt move a lot where the treadmills are so I wasnt getting my air flow. Anyway after that I was working on strength oriented weight training, you know 70-80% capacity and whatnot, so I stayed hot, and since everyone else was doing maintenance/toning stuff and I was constantly looking like I was about to die I got a lot of sidelong "you crazy" glances. :P

Anyway I tried using the treadmill instead of the track today, and I walked exactly 1.62 miles. It sort of entertained me though since there were presets on the treadmill for like walk, jog, run, which were 2mph, 4 mph, and 6 mph respectively. I found this funny because I'm so tall that 4 mph is a brisk walk for me and my out of shape huffy running was 7.2 mph so whenever I would look over at other people's settings who are jogging and I'm walking faster :P

Current Mood: exhausted

Since I am a whore

If you got any pictures of the downs dog on the left plz forward. I'll repay you with Woody's sweet anus.

(Pic courtesy of

yukonwolf)

Current Mood: cranky

Little-bada-boom!
Cross-posted to WTP... but for those of you that don't watch my comic there... and if so, why not? Oh... right... I REALLY need to draw more comics soon...

( Happy 4th of July... early!!! )

Current Mood: bouncy

Yes, it is true
It is

theferrett's birthday!

Current Mood: awake

Open Canvas 1.1 vs. PhotoShop
So I've been using Open Canvas 1.1 for a couple weeks now, I mostly started using it because the nifty ancient network art stuff is all the rage right now. It's actually pretty cool to do art with people online, it's just a little wonky to set up because it's old.

Anyway OC 1.1 isnt that powerful of an art program, although what it does do it does very well. It's pretty good for that water color look. But photoshop always has the upper hand in doing all kinds of nifty graphics, I even tried the newer version of OC and it also doesn't really stand up to photoshop in terms of the amount of sheer crazy cool stuff you can do with it.

But there is one feature in OC that seemed almost insignificant at first but as soon as I realized the convenience of it it totally makes me love OC for doing line work. And that feature is rotating the canvas at will without changing the picture, just rotating the actual canvas. Photoshop doesn't do this to my knowledge, you can transform rotate but then it changes it and re-renders it and blah blah. OC you can turn the thing any which way which makes line work a lot more ergonomically correct when using the tablet.

So yeah I'm currently experimenting with doing the line work for a pic in OC and then doing nicer coloring in PS.

Current Mood: amused

Gu'Dans Debut Visit at the Hospital [Belated Posting]
For the month of June, it was Gu'Dans' debut at the hospital. For his first time, it was a positive experience, and no one was terrified of the goat. Under the cut are further details in bullet-form of the day. The visit took place on June 14th. Enjoy!

( Click here for details... )

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: music in my head

Furst Friday for June [Belated Posting]
The weekend of June 6 to 8 was spent up in the Winston-Salem area, for another Furst Friday weekend. We invaded Dave's (

dave_t_wolfe) place during the weekend, which was pretty much laid-back and took our time. Below are further details of the weekend.

( Click here for details... )

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: snickers from Spike's video

Weekend Visiting Scape [Belated Posting]
The weekend of May 31st and June 1st was devoted to visiting Scape and Shadowstar Scape and I have planned several months ago to visit the Farmers' Market in Boone after I get the ram done. With Gu'Dans finally done and Scape having a free weekend, it seemed very appropriate for me to make a visit. So I did!

Below are further details of the weekend. Enjoy!

( BEGIN CUT )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: miscellaneous quiet

Gu'Dans Goat Declared "Presentable" [Belated Posting]
On May 25th, I can declare Gu'Dans Goat to be "presentable". During the year, I was naturally hoping to get Gu'Dans complete for Glen Echo, debut at the hospital in May, the Atlanta trip, or even Animazement during Memorial Day weekend. In the process of getting there, the week of May 19th was VERY BUSY in the evenings after work getting the body patterns adjusted, drawn onto the final fur, cut out and stitched. Unfortunately, Monday of that week I ended up developing a serious headache during the day and into the evening. Thinking it may have been dehydration, I drank tons of fluids that day and evening. However, I believe it may have been some kind of food poisoning or simply something that did not agree with me. Leading up to the weekend of that week, the idea of debuting Gu'Dans for Animazement took a turn. Based on where I was with the body by Thursday, I phoned Leo saying that I will need Saturday to do some more work on the costume, causing me to bow out. Also, the idea of debuting Gu'Dans on May 25th would be more meaningful to me, since this is my anniversary date of my adoption.

For Sunday the 25th, I teased the idea of strolling around the state Fairgrounds Flea market. In the commercial building at the Fairgrounds, there is a tea shop where I have gotten teas in the past and asked for special formulation. Back in March, I stopped by there to inquire the status for the search for the replacement formula for the Provence tea I have. I was already on the Fairgrounds searching for sheets of leather to help build the ram's hoof-tips. I later abandoned the leather for the black plush fur. I showed the tea lady my rough draft of the hand and feet hooves and the concept sketch of Gu'Dans. She was quite impressed with what I have so far. I asked if she would not mind me stopping by her shop when I get the costume done and wondered if the Fairgrounds would think it would be a problem. She welcomed the idea and did not think it would be a problem. So the weekend finally arrived. I met up with Paradise Pink Boxer at the Fairgrounds, and the tea-lady was there. I announced the ram is done and headed to the car to don Gu'Dans. The previous day, I phoned the number on the tea lady's card, but got a message saying that she would be out of the office until Wednesday that week. So I was pleasantly surprised to see the tea-lady at the Fairgrounds and will not need to show up in the middle of the week after work. I donned Gu'Dans at my car. While I was at the Fairgrounds, I was on a mission to purchase a cow-bell. I prepared a strapping with buckle along with a sign that says "Cowbell goes here!" After I donned Gu'Dans, I headed to the tea shop. While heading there, I was stopped by several folks, including a family that was eating lunch in the shade. The shade definitely felt good. I eventually reached the tea shop, and the tea-lady was thoroughly impressed. I am not sure as to how far her bottom jaw reached the floor. While at the tea shop, several folks and kids were gathering to see the ram. The most common comment I got was "I bet that is warm", which did not surprise me, since it was hot that day. Interactions with folks were typical, including high fives, stacked hands, bunny ears, and of course hugs. I bet it was interesting for the folks getting a hug, since the costume was fluffy and BRAND NEW! There was one stand that was selling porch furniture, and there was a chair with a leg rest under an umbrella. That assembly was VERY comfortable, and I could have sat there for an hour, kind of like the hammock in Fort Collins, CO. I ran into one stand where there was a cow bell, but no ringer inside, so I had to pass on that one. Another stand had one, but the salesman was not there yet. Others as well waiting, so we in-line. When the gentleman showed up, I offered $2 for the bell, and he agreed. Paradise Pink Boxer removed the cowbell sign and installed the cowbell to the strapping. After she installed it, I got excited and jumped a couple of times to make some noise. The bell sounded great, and got enthused to stay in costume for a while more. Pink Boxer needed to move on to a baby-sitting job, so I asked if she could drop my bag through the partly-opened car windows, so the bag will be in the car. She agreed, but needed to work a bit to find my car. Thank-you boxer for tagging along with me on Gu'Dans' first romp and taking care of the bag. :-) As I continued strolling around, a family noticed and praised that the ram now has a bell! It is almost like I was in a fable with the ram finding his bell. While in the commercial, I was stopped by a Security officer and was asked some questions as to why I was here, what am I selling, etc. While she radioed her supervisor, I continued my conversation with one of the commercial sales lady in one of the stalls there. We both thought that me being there was no big deal, but security was doing their job. I was granted to be allowed there, as long as I was not selling or soliciting, of which I was not. I stopped by the tea shop once again in costume and announced that I found my bell. I exchanged greetings and then headed off to my car to doff Gu'Dans. After the ram was doffed, I headed back inside to get a cup of tea, and ended up getting a minty green tea, which went down well.

================
As an afternote, since this portion was typed after Anthrocon '08, I was planning to have the ram be a secret; however, the method of secrecy was far different than expected. I have planned on building the goat for a number of years. In fact, I even snapped some photos at the Denver Zoo of a long-horned ram as concept photos while visiting Nevermint (

nevermint) back in 2006. Since in the Bible, goats are referenced as something as negative, I hesitated quite a bit to commit to building a goat. I was introduced to Scape (

scape_the_goat) through Kofu (

kofu) online and a shared photo. My first reaction to when I saw the photo of Scape's goat was "so much for me building my goat", since I thought and still think Scape's goat is awesome. After meeting Scape in person, was a motivation to build Gu'Dans. Also, the fact that it has been over three years since I had a new costume was another motivation. For a while, Scape was the ONLY one who knew I was building the goat. The construction design was going to be different with making the whole mask out of Wonderflex and using a form-fitting body pattern. While building Leo's body and the LED harness, I kept the mechanism of fastening the horns to the mask on my mind. After FWA, I decided to go the status-quo route with copper wire 'n paper mache, since I did not think the Wonderflex would support the horns effectively. During that time, I began sharing with folks what I have been up to, even my parents. Sharing the info about the ram was still low-keyed, and wanted the ram to be a secret for Kofu and Norby (

morbid_hound000), to give him a taste of his "own medicine". With the computer being for the most part out of my possession for over a month, talking about and sharing progress photos of Gu'Dans publicly was hindered.

I will say this when I get the AC-08 report typed out, but I will say it here too. I am grateful for how well Gu'Dans was received at AC. Thanks! :-)

Current Mood: bouncy
Current Music: cowbell polishing and ringing

Trip to Atlanta for business and fun [Belated Posting]
This is another belated posting from some time ago, with the lack of computer to post this entry.
Enjoy and hope this stirs up some memories for those who were involved. Cheers!

During the week of May 12, my work colleague and I traveled to Atlanta for work training on our distributed control system for our process equipment. This is the second course in a pair of classes to be taken. We left Raleigh around 1:15pm and arrived around 7:15pm. With my colleague not in the mood to find some place for dinner, I was left to my own devices. I was invited to join a local fur group for dinner, but left it as "no" to keep it open for my colleague and I dine along the way over to Atlanta. Still at the hotel, I phoned Luman (

lu_man) and Shadlep (

shadlep) leaving a message saying that I was in town, now available for the dinner outing, and gave them my phone numbers. I fired up my computer and found the YIM message mentioning the Chinese buffet for that Sunday. I phoned the contact number and got through the second time. I was mentioned that the restaurant changed to the one across the street. After looking at Mapquest, I had a rough idea as to where it was. As it turned out after getting off the exit from I-285, the road was another freeway that I would need to get off to access the restaurant. While still on I-285, I got a phone call from Luman and I stated where I was. After I believe where I missed the exit to get off for the restaurant, I then was headed in the direction to where Luman and Shadlep live, so I targeted their place. We also ended up at a Chinese buffet as well, but when we timed it, we were their last customers that day. My favorite item on the buffet was the grilled pork chops, which had a great flavor and were tender. After dinner, we headed back to Luman and Shadlep's place to hang out for a bit. I also sought the opportunity to show my progress on Gu'Dans off and wear him as a partial. Luman grabbed some photos, and I got a chance to see them. After about 11pm, I was ready to head back to the hotel in preparation for class the next morning.

On all the days of the week, breakfast was at the hotel. Choices include eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, cereal, fruit, yogurt, waffles, toast, and juice. When I had waffles, I added pecans to them, even though they were intended for the provide oatmeal. Everyday, I pretty much had yogurt, 2 cups of orange juice and an apple. On Friday, the basket was out of apples, so I missed out on that. The apples were consumed in the afternoons. Every weekday, classes began at 8:30am and lasted to about 4:30pm. The class pretty much involved lecture on various topic with labwork on the hardware we have available to each student. For the most part, my equipment was behaving itself, unlike the last time where the equipment seemed to have an attitude problem.

Tuesday evening involved bowling and dinner with the Atlanta furs. After class, I headed on over to Luman and Shadlep's place. Since the event will not happen until later on in the evening, I took a snooze while Shadlep was getting ready, that way I can make up some sleep that I will miss out by expecting to be up late that night. When it was time to head on up to the bowling event, some folks were already there and some were familiar, so we exchanged greetings. When I arrived, the "mascot" changing room was being worked out, so in the meantime we gathered in the area where we are going to bowl. Twizzler had his collection of glow strings, and offered me some. I replied thanks and will not be needed the glow sticks since I brought something else. It was funny that the folks there knew that I was talking about me LED harness. The glowstrings were packaged in some sturdy straws, and Santa Fox and I were drumming ideas for uses for the straws, including mascot drinking straws, which I will have to remember whenever I get some glow strings. When the changing room became available, I moved my stuff to the room and claimed some space. The bowling was $5, which seemed like a good price, and I WAS ALLOWED TO BOWL WITH MY COSTUME FEET! ...AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "THE MAGIC"! Unfortunately, that evening I was not feeling 100% well. I figured it was something I ate earlier that day that did not agree with me. Also, for some odd reason, my mask lenses would not line up, which made my vision a little difficult. But still, it is not an excuse for my 35 score. I guess I can blame my fingernails for getting in the way! :-P While there, and between frames, I pretty much interacted with folks inside and outside our group. All 'n all, I had a good time. :-) After the bwoling, we met up at the Marietta Diner. For the late dinner, I had an open-face turkey sandwich, with iced tea. One of the diner's staple is the "spinach pie", so I was willing to try it. It was good! When dinner was complete, Dingo was planning to have some of us greet the birthday folks in costume, so I donned my partial-Gu'Dans and headed inside. Since my birthday was the week prior, the group was willing to sing "Happy Birthday" and offered me a slice of Oreo cake, which turned out to be my "official" birthday cake. When dinner was complete, I took Shadlep back to her place and I headed back to the hotel. Lights out for that night was 2am, and I did not feel it as much as I expected the next day.

Wednesday evening after class was spent gathering video and photos for a project Shadlep was dreaming up. the concept is that Nova Zax and Shadlep were going on a date, with the background song "Feeling Groovy" by Simon and Garfunkel. We collected video of Zax picking her up, dropping her off, and the rest of the time was devoted to the goings of in-between. After Luman arrived from work, we headed off to the plaza Shadlep wanted to go to. Twizzler joined us with his fox character, while Dag was romping with Shadlep's Holly Fox character. With the weather uncertain, we decided not to involve the greenway. We posed for video at the movie theater, Starbucks, and Barnes & Nobel. The PetSmart would have been nice, but it was quite a distance away. We got into a good conversation with a gentleman on his laptop at the Starbucks. He is involved with promoting a group-operated vehicle for one of his friends, and wondered if the furry characters would be a good way to promote it. Shadlep and the gentleman exchanged contact information and anticipate to plan on something. He was very impressed with the mascot characters before him. I later on let him "off the hook" when I wanted to purchase an iced-mocha after we were done romping. Fortunately, we was still there to show what I look like, "shaved". For dinner we ended up at Ruby Tuesday, after making an attempt to go to Pizza Hut, but they were closed. For dinner, I got a soup and salad bar, which went down easy. I was going to do some napkin drawings, but later declined since I was exhausted. After dinner, we headed back to Luman and Shadlep's place, and I headed back to the hotel to prepare for class on Thursday.

For Thursday dinner, I was targeting The Feed Store. However, the weather was stormy and the traffic was backed up. With the expected long drive to the restaurant, my colleague and I agreed to stay local for dinner. We went to a steakhouse not far from the hotel. Friday, we hit the road around 1pm. We stopped by a Cracker Barrell on the way back for dinner. My colleague did some driving on the way back as well. I got back around 7pm, after returning the rental car.

Thanks to the Atlanta furs for giving me the hospitality that week!

Current Mood: thankful
Current Music: was there music that day? Hummmm

Invited to participate in a local park event for the hospital [Belated posting]
Due to the lack of computer, this posting was delayed. The hospital visit for May took place on May 10th.

It was up to Wally Wolf to handle the day, and he worked out well that day. Back in February, I was invited to participate in a family day event at a local carousel park for kids with asthma. This was through the hospital I volunteer with, and I was honored to be invited to join in the event. From what I understand, this was the first time they did this event. In the afternoon, I was at the hospital emergency area with my usual routine.

Below the rest of the posting will be in bullet-form. Click on the cut below for more details. Enjoy!

( Click HERE for details... )

Current Mood: content
Current Music: errrr...don't remember that far back

Where I have been...
Forgive the swarm of postings, but it is really a backlog of postings for the past couple of months. Yes, 2 months. My computer was in the hands of HP most of that time trying to diagnose why my computer keyboard does not seem to put all of the letters I type on the keyboard to the screen. I have been fighting this since mid-March of this year. They have not been able to see the problem and I am able to produce three video clips with me typing every key in sequence and showing missing letters on each line. Note that it is not a specific key that is malfunctioning, as I have seen in the past, but random.

Yesterday (Wednesday) while I was running the computer to pull in video and backing them up on DVDs from AC-08, I changed the computer battery to work the charge on that one. For some odd reason, it seems the keyboard works now. Does it make sense that the battery would affect the keyboard? I am planning to phone tech support and ask them this. I already have a phone call lined up to talk with a case manager, but I suppose now it may not be needed. I HATE to bring out my "unfriendly" personality to folks. I will be amazed that HP would be so clueless about the effects of a battery or spent-battery on the computer. All this time I thought it was the motherboard. Could still be? Like I said, I will need a chat.

I will post my AC-08 report and video clips in due time. Cheers!

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: computer humming normally

My Day Isn't Complete Without A Call From India
It's a hazard of working for a call center.

Anyhow, it's the 3rd of July and as every American knows (and a few Canadians only because we're so bloody close you can't help but hear the hullabaloo - but for that matter, Tuesday was a bit noisy up your way!) it's the last workday (for most) before a 3 day weekend that in large involves gross amounts of food and explosives.

Sounds like a winner of a weekend, ne?

It should be interesting. It's pouring down rain today, and we've had hundreds of lightning flashes (no "strikes" that I know of), which is VERY unusual. Our office is having our celebratory "picnic", and

breimh is here to act as short-order cook. I'm the "waitress", taking orders so he can cook things up before the individual heads to lunch. :)

Tomorrow we'll have Legend up to our apartment for our first 4th, and if the weather improves (maybe even not), we have a good chance to be able to watch fireworks from our living room. We'll have to see. I'm optimistic about it. :)

Last night

breimh and I played on IMVU, getting more pictures. Have I said how much I enjoy doing the dressup and picture taking? Hrm, not obvious, am I? Maybe over 500 shots isn't a clear enough indicator. ;) Anyhow, of my 3 "Trek" characters we did photoshoots on, I'm happiest with the shots of Karyn, the med tech from NX Era (ST: Enterprise). I've posted two from each of the photoshoots, but here's an easy look at my favorite of Karyn.

Current Mood: accomplished