My latest Livejournal is up. Also, for those that haven't heard, I will be a Saberdad in about five months from now!

:D

It's almost been a year since I last posted any journal on this FA-account. I'm bad with updates on this site, mostly because I never took FA that seriously. Livejournal is down for the count, and I should put something up here so people know I'm alive.

Furry, in general, has played a less serious role in my life over the past year. Though I'm far from leaving the community (my wife's business keeps me tied intimately to it anyway), we have a lot going on. We've *had* a lot going on.

Most of everything that's happened this year has related to work, and lots of it. Beetle has been working steady long-hours to tackle commissions. I got a new promotion and position which involves significantly more responsibility. It keeps me on the go, constantly.

In addition to work, we've done lots of travel all over the world, for one. I won't summarize all the trips here, but 2012 involved travel to Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland...all so much fun seeing new places. All with the gal of my dreams ( beetlecat). There was an adventure to the Channel Islands in there, too, but  Mattpanther and  streakthetiger can talk more about that.

We did a few conventions (some non-furry), though not lots. Hard to believe there was a time in my life that involved traveling to eight furry-conventions a year. FC (last year), Califur, Calgary Comic Expo, and Rainfurrest. Many of the pictures from the experiences we had were posted here already, and we had all the usual ups-and-downs you'd expect from these experiences.

We are also in the midst of buying our first house. The place is nice...it has a lot of rooms for family and visitors. A workroom and garage (for Beetle's business), a pool and nice backyard; some expansion potential. We are in the final stages of seeing the process through; buying your first house is certainly a stressful process. I can't wait for it to be over.

There's other big news on the horizon, but first comes my favorite of all convetions: Further Confusion. We did a special video for the occasion, which will be played during FC: Unleashed! Should be a great time; I can't wait until the awesomeness of this convention, once again. If I see ya' there, come by and say hello!
The year 2012. The year everything changed.

~FaR~

Still my favorite con, ever.

- Great parties
- Great events
- Great people
- Great location
....did I mention the people?

Yeah, I've always loved this con, and I've been going for the past seven years. What I'm happy to see is that the feeling that was once had at the Doubletree seems to have been re-born here at the new venue. I didn't think that was possible; least of all at a convention-center. But it seems to be; they did it right and the con was epic. Or at least had that epic feel to it...

I dunno...it was a great time, and I can't say anything other than I wish it was next year so we could go again.

Also: I got a promotion! Moving up the chain at work; I can't tell you how happy I am about this. So much epic this month, so little time. I <3 January! :)

~FaR~

Further Confusion has always been one of my favorite cons, and I wouldn't miss it for the world. Will be there Thursday, leaving Monday!

Epicness shall ensue. No real plans, though always interested in good times and whoopin' it up. Will be rocking Django (mostly) and Far Outhere. :)

See you in a few days...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/150705367089

Ever dreamed of having that perfect character for Further Confusion? Now's your chance! Only a little over two-hours left to go....

:)

~FaR~

(More at my Livejournal: farraptor.livejournal.com)

Things have more or less reached a point of steadiness now, and life has somewhat returned back to normal. It's been really quite wonderful; the weekends relatively low of stress. We've had lots of time to get caught up on things as well as work on personal projects.

 Beetlecat's business has been turning out critter parts (and critters) at full-bore. The workroom is full of materials and all the fancy gizmos she needs to get the job done.

Work on my end has also been great. I'm getting ready to interview for an epic promotion and a new position with another department.

Despite cutbacks in government, there seems to be no shortage of opportunities for growth and new projects. I've been sitting in on a lot of executive board meetings as part of my leadership training. Participating in these meetings and business-office projects has afforded me a chance to learn the names and faces of all the folks in upper management.

While I'm happy where I'm at, I think I've gotten comfortable. There are some seriously cool opportunities in other parts of the command that I'd love to be a part of. Willingness to move to a new division also comes with an opportunity for promotion, which is always a good thing.

Suffice it to say, I've spared no effort in polishing my resume and getting everything ready for this new opportunity. I believe I'm the best one suited for this new position, but I have to attack it with everything I can in order to land the job. There will be some stiff competition, but I'm confident it'll work out.

I'm also getting ready to sell my old character, Redondo. It's a sad shame to see him go, but he's just not going to get the visibility and wear that he once did with the new critters around. Also, we need money for a house! Expect to see him up on Ebay in short order. The newest critter I'll be rocking at FC is a guy made by  beetlecat in her new "toony" style.

His name is Django...

It's been another long while since I've posted on here (see my eljay for details on what's been going on in my life). Overall, things have been great!

We are cleaning out our closet of old critters and I found found this guy stowed neatly in a box.

We modified his hair to make him different than the other wolf I auctioned not too long ago. If you're interested, feel free to take a look:

http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1026873.html

He was an excellent character for many years. Very well taken care-of, and built in  fursuiting's original style.

He was also in several FNL variety shows:

FNL 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkZogOo-6i4
FNL 2008: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkgiJH_Tz4g

Feel free to bid if you're interested! No reserve. :)

~FaR~

Just letting folks know that I still check FA and other online social stuff on a semi-daily basis. Haven't posted much mainly because I've been so damn busy!

Life is real good here, though. Super busy, but good. Vastly overdue eljay post going up on my livejournal soon.

~FaR~

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. Life has been incredibly busy, but good!  Beetlecat is all moved in down here in California, and we've been getting life straightened out step by step!

Two important updates:

First: I'm selling my old favorite character, Far Wolf (Version 2). I really can't say enough good about this critter (made by Lacy & Nick at  fursuiting). Dashing, sharp and a pleasure to wear, he'd make a fantastic suit for anyone looking to jam into the fursuiting scene.

Check him out at:

http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1022882.html

http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1022882.html

http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1022882.html

http://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1022882.html

Second: I now have a twitter account that I regularly update, for anyone interested in my day-to-day going's on.

Twitter is: FarrOuthere

Yes! It's true, it has been released. For those of you who may not have been able to make the debut at FC, I shall link it for you here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/FailPandaPro

Main cast of characters:

Killer (self)
Mindy:  midwestcougar
Fred:  Skroy
Steve:  streakthetiger
Mike:  Yippee
Ray:  Croc

Lots of extras and additional help are mentioned in the credits. Special thanks goes to:

 beetlecat For doing Mindy's voice and her undying love and support
 Furball2K For all his logistical, editing, and moral support
and Midwest Fur Fest for their support.

Also are a few other folks that I don't think have FA-accounts (all in the credits)

This was a lot of fun to do. Seriously, it was a great creative collaboration of many folks; put together on *extremely* short notice (all shooting was done in a single weekend at MFF).

More than anything, this video was a lesson-learned for several of us who had never so much as edited any visual media in our life. It was a tremendous learning experience; next time we shall do even better. While this video is far from anything I'd call "professional", it was a good step forward for a bunch of friends that had never done anything like it before. Everyone enjoyed their death-scenes...it was a truly great time and a spoof on the mad-slasher genre.

Enjoy!

I won't re-post Livejournals here, since a lot of the content is somewhat personal and non-furry. I shall, however, summarize thusly:

- Spent a lot of time with an amazing girl of my dreams (aka:  beetlecat)
- Had a ton of fun along the way
- Work has kept me inconceivably busy. Also got into a very-special executive development program for the government.

All in all, things are going great!

I will be attending MFF in a few weeks, though I will be crashing at my buddy  Furball2k's place for the duration of the con. Most of my time at the con will actually be spent directing a certain horror film project, though I will do my best to chill with the friends there. We do need extras for the film (fursuiters only); if you're interested in participating, drop me a note! All I can tell you at this point is that it will be EPIC. :D

I shall let you fuzzies get back to it.

~FaR~

.. Otherwise known as the "story of my life." Business has kept things plenty interesting over the last month. Work has been very, very busy. I’ve become one of those dweebs with several phones (literally) strapped to his belt, running from place to place with no time to deal with anything not already on my schedule.

Through all of this I have come to realize a handful of new and important life lessons. Mostly that I manage stress with comedy...for some reason I tend to take life seriously when stuff starts really hitting the fan, and somehow, things seem to work out better when that happens.

Politics at work due to the catastrophic equipment failure mentioned in a previous journal entry has significantly drove up the amount of stress up in my life. Lots of people are desperate to find a cause and a place to lay some serious blame...I’ve been trying to keep things in order so my people and I don’t get the lion’s share of it.

Popularity, personality conflicts, relationships and sexual drama…I read a lot about that sort of stuff in the furry community. It’s kind of a hobby reading about it, really; perhaps a throwback to my old Portal of Evil days.

It’s hard not to just smile and wave at the stuff I see. Impossible though it is to convey this fact without experience, its important to keep things in perspective. Feel fortunate that life, death, and millions of dollars aren’t at stake. That, my friends, is some serious life drama.

The middle of the month offered me a pause and a fantastic trip to Canada to see my gal. I had a really, really awesome time. Holy crap, it was just what I needed. Not too crazy, not too slow. Just the right amount of chilling, enjoying the fun and seeing the beautiful green countryside of Canada.

She and I hit a big Bar-B-Q put on by  Lucifur there in Calgary. Great people, great venue, and lots of sunshine...all in all: a perfect day. It was awesome meeting everyone in her neck of the woods. After that, we hit up some of the Fringe Festival in Edmonton, and chilled at her house. She got me hooked on the new version of Dr. Who while we worked on a few of her cool client projects.

Still the perfect girl in all ways; I can’t wait to see her again in October. This time for several weeks! :D

I *finally* made it to Florida (West Palm Beach, kinda down near Miami). I really only had time for some very long and unpleasant meetings...no sightseeing sadly. The beaches were really nice, though! Got to walk and splash around a little, though there was no surf at all to speak of. And the humidity...dear god, how do you people stand it there?

Last was an epic weekend at my bro’s place in Pismo. Just drinking, Bar-B-Q, Nazi-Zombies and some Rifftrax of ”New Moon.” Man I miss the old MST3K days...those guys are so goddamn funny.

That’s about all I’ll bore you with this week. This month is due to be another doozy. More offshore fun, and a handful of very high-profile presentations that will hopefully -END- this ridiculous drama at work. Heading up to Reno to see [info]nikko0711 this weekend…I truly can’t wait to see him and Gayle again. Working on some FNL—er, Unleashed! Fun.

Stay cool out in all that summer heat!

*Literally rolls in the front door, fresh off the plane* Ugh, it's been yet another blazing crash of a month. I can't believe it's already august. Guess it's about time I give a little update before the month goes entirely by.

Overall, July has been a hell of a lot of work. I've been working crazy amounts of overtime (just last night, for example, I was up working until 3AM), and I've barely had any time to really sit and do nothing, much less go crazy.

Nah...that's what the month of August will be for.

For right now, it's been a lot of work and making money while the time is good. Despite its incredibly frantic pace, work is going very well. It's good to be busy and needed for things, and this pace won't keep up for very long. Soon the year will be over and the regular schedule will be back to to the status quo. I do like the paychecks too; nothing's better in my business compensation-wise than working offshore for a bit.

I can't really put into words all the stuff that has happened this month: offshore, on-shore, midshore demobilization, meetings, reviews, management games and crazy-massive equipment all at the end--and that's just the stuff I'm allowed to talk about. Moods on the boat have been good despite the catastrophic failure that occurred at the end of last month (see previous eljay post for that). Stuff is working again, and despite the material setback, we got the job done on time. The quantity of meetings has grown astronomically, though; I can barely find the time needed to really do anything productive at the office. It seems all i've been doing is sitting in on meetings.

Sometimes when the day is really long and I need a pick-me up, I watch a video of  beetlecat's cat Beetle purring on my Droid phone. Amazing what a teleconferenced purring cat will do put you back in gear again.

Things between her and I are still excellent. Yes the long distance sucks, but we shorten the struggle with lots and lots of texting and talking every week. I'll be heading up to visit her again in two weeks; I really need to get away for a bit and not think about anything work-related. I truly can't wait to see her again.

In the meantime I've got another old buddy of mine coming down for a visit next weekend. My place is a bit messy, so I'll need to give everything a good scrub before he arrives. I've also stepped up my training for October: some friends and I are going to tackle Mount Whitney. It'll be a little late in the season (and COLD too), but I think I'm ready for it.

Nikko and I do have plans for our next FNL fiasco, though we aren't sure if we'll be able to pull things together in time for the big event this January. If so, great! If not: ah well, it's all about the fun! We'll be all the more ready for next year. The Masquerade Party plans are in full swing, of course. More details to come!

Stay cool out there in all that heat. The surf's up too...I think I need to catch a little sun and wave-action!

~FaR~

X-Posted to Livejournal; More pictures there too!

Home, at last. What a week. What a month!

This will be a short entry, as I’m fairly exhausted from all the travel and adventure of the last week. I still have a lot of stuff to clean up and put away from Anthrocon.

So what all has happened the last month? Man, I can’t even remember. Some good, some bad, some out of this world, really, I can’t describe it all.

Lets start with the best of the good, since that’s how I roll. Girlfriend,  beetlecat I love her. And I think my Triangle is finally complete. Great line, I know…very romantic. Sorta-like saying "I love you like my first muscle-car." Kind of an understatement.

Work has been a mixture of insanely busy and a tolerably paced frenzy. I spent about two weeks offshore at the start of this month…it was a good trip, though the weather was rough the first few days. The decks were awash, and a few of the guys weren’t holding up well with all the pitching and rolling of the boat.

A few of the waves that crashed by were scary, but we managed to get our stuff done without anyone getting killed. I was very tired at the end of that ordeal; we steamed in closer to shore where weather was nice and found some very old relics of the World War II naval research era. Fascinating stuff produced by the Civil Engineering lab (the past version of where I now work), floating down there in the dark. It felt like the ghosts of all the (now dead) engineers who ran them were watching us explore with our deep-sea robots.

The equipment was working very well, all the way up through part of Anthrocon weekend. Then a catastrophic failure occurred that put everyone on edge and in crisis mode. I had to come back early from travel in Texas this week because of it, and I fear how everyone will be holding up now that their single vacation week for the next few months is now gone. Texas was a bit of a fiasco, as I flew there from Anthrocon with all my critters in tow. Unfortunately, American Airlines promptly lost both my suits in transit, and canceled all my flights through Dallas Fort Worth due to the thunderstorms.

I ended up driving from DFW three hours through a stormy Texas night to get to my destination in College Station. It was surreal, driving in the pitch black, surrounded by patches of lightning and thunder. Beautiful but crazy…and a very long day.

After claiming several times they didn’t know where my critters were, the suits finally turned up at the last second, and were delivered to my hotel the following morning at 3AM. Just in time for me to pick them up, air them out a bit, and leave again for home.

Which leads us to Anthrocon, which was another terrific highlight at the end of the month. It was a truly fantastic time. Good friends, good parties, and lots of time spent with my gal dancing. I can’t really complain.

...Though the absence of a few friends in particular (in addition to the bad news about stuff going down at work) put a bit of a pall on the event. I don’t know...it just didn’t have the energy of FC, which still holds fast as my favorite con. AC was cool, but nothing terribly special.  beetlecat was really what made it extra-special for me.

Finally, I have an interview next week with a few higher-ups regarding the Navy’s premiere executive leadership program. I put my application in a few weeks ago not expecting to hear back, but it looks like I made the first cut. Here’s hoping I get into it! It’ll be another nice fat feather in the hat.

There’s a lot more, but I think that’s all the news I will bore you all with at this time. Stay cool out there, fuzzies. Sorry for the day-late post!

~FaR~

(X-Posted in my Livejournal; more pictures there)

I’m finally at home, sipping coffee, chatting a bit with the girl. Nice and easy right now, I am exhausted.

The last month was considerably more chaotic than any of the previous ones so far. Lots of work on the boat, getting ready to go offshore, and way more travel than usual. For the first time: overseas! There are too many wonderful experiences to list, though there were a few bad ones to put in there too. Mostly good, though.

Lets start with the good. The best, in fact, since it has to do with  beetlecat and her visit at the start of the month. I won’t go into lots of details, but her trip out was wonderful. Fairly laid back: lots of movies and cool trips to places like the climbing gym. She met the family, and we saw more of sunny California. The weather was perfect!

She’s beautiful. Did I mention that? :)

The rest of the month was awesome as well. First, a new visitor arrived. No longer is the house dominated by a total feline presence. Far Redondo, the evil Dire Wolf of ancient origins, arrived near the middle of the month from Mixedcandy, ready to party.

 latinvixen did a phenomenal job on him. The fit is perfect! He’ll be debuting at Anthrocon in a few weeks.

The last two weeks, however, were chocked full of new experiences, as it was my very first European vacation. It was a truly wonderful experience, as I had the pleasure of traveling with my two best friends: my brother, and my old college friend, Chris.

We puddle-jumped everywhere, hitting France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands in a quick series of multi-day adventures. I’m truly sorry I didn’t have an opportunity to meet up with anyone while I was out there; I appreciate all the offers of places to stay and things to do.

We were always on the go, seeing everything we could in the short time we had via train, plane, automobile and foot. We hit all the major sights in Paris (Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Pompidou, and several other museums), before moving on to the west coast of the UK to visit an old friend of mine from work.

We stayed in Exeter, which was as beautiful and green as it was quaint, before moving on to Koln (pronounced Cologne), Germany, to see the Dom cathedral and the plethora of awesome museums in that ancient city. Finally, we ended in Amsterdam, where we walked and biked the entire city several times over.

All the places were unique and beautiful in their own right, and the people everywhere (except Paris) were very pleasant and friendly. The best highlights of the trip were probably Exeter and Koln, who had the perfect blend of cool stuff to look at and very nice people to talk to.

The lowest point was Paris, I’m afraid. While we had several awesome experiences there, we found the people rude and only interested only in taking your money. The city was dirty, too...I’m glad I saw all the major points, though. If I go back, I’ll see other parts of France. I’m sure people away from the city are a lot more pleasant.

Well, that’s about all the major stuff I had for this month. The offshore season has already begun; hard to believe I have to go back to work tomorrow. At least Califur is close (next weekend). I’ll do my best to make it there; I’ll probably be down Saturday and depart Sunday, like I did last year. A lot of it depends on what happens at work this week, though.

Stay cool; summer is here at last!

~FaR~

My first journal at Fur Affinity!

This month has been a storm of busy...

Barely home at all for the last few weeks, I’ve been running from one place to the next in support of nearly all things work-related. A few seminars on management training in sunny and beautiful San Diego, then out D.C. for meetings. Finally out to Reno to visit Nikko. Back home again in just enough time to dump my dirty clothes and hit the road again.

Overall, life has been good. Mostly there were a lot of hard lessons learned in effective business communication. The course I took was several days long and very difficult, all about how to handle things like disciplining problematic employees and mediating conflict. Hard fricken’ stuff to learn properly. It’ll take a lot of time to master, I think. I need to do more on this and get better at it.

Anyway, I returned home just in time to start planning the next biggest trip of my life: Europe! I’ve always wanted to go, and this will finally afford me the opportunity to take the plunge and start seeing places off the North American continent. I’ll be going with my brother [info]01 and another old friend from college. The plan is Amsterdam, Paris, and the UK. After that, I head offshore to support operations this summer once again.

Best of all, my girlfriend,  beetlecat, will be out here again in two days. I truly can’t wait to see her again. The trip should be both relaxing and chill, to say the least. Among other more-exciting things, I plan to get her in touch with her inner Na’Vi (cause’ I know she has one—it’s probably right next to her Inner Targh) and watch some Avatar. :P

In other news,  latinvixen is nearly done with my newest critter, Far Redondo. I’ve only seen a handful of work in progress pictures, all of which were excellent. It’s really exciting to see him come to life, though I’ll save the rest of the surprise for you folks as he will likely be ready to go in a few days time. He’ll be debuting at some big con in the near future!

Well, I need to finish my laundry and complete installing new stuff on my Web-Book (I recently purchased an ASUS Eee PC to take with me on travel. I love this little guy!)

Stay cool out there, fuzzies!

~FaR~