Pittsburgh is like the west side of Chicago with a few skyscrapers dropped in. It's a workin’ folks town. That lends itself to certain types of food establishments. Memories of this are probably why I was delighted to walk by this hole in the wall. This sort of place does not, and probably will never exist in San Francisco. The ill-fated Carousel Dog came close, but it had too much of a "surfer" air. That, and California municipalities are always so concerned with "health codes" and mandatory display of "grades" like "A" or "100%" so that customers can feel safe. I don't want to know what the grade of this place is. I’d wager that, in some fluorescent-faded corners, there's still greasy residue of the first batch of fries that was submerged in 1965. This is the culinary equivalent of a classic carnival ride.

The menu is sparse, consisting mainly of sausages and punctuated by "Large Fish Sandwich"–apparently a specialty. Had I no dinner plans tonight, I might’ve braved that particular monster. Given that I was just passing by, I had their daily special: two natural skin hot dogs with "all the trimmings" and a lemonade. Oh, they were nummy! The stove grilled dogs had a nice snap to them, and noticeable spices, made all the better by the mustard and raw onions slathered between the fresh buns. It was fortunate I had picked up some Altoids at my previous stop. Also good that I was on the go too as there are no seats in this place, just a counter that runs down a mirrored wall.

I enjoy a good greasy spot like this sometimes. I thought I had found a couple near where I work in downtown SF, but eating east of the Mississippi illustrates that they have nothing on the coronary-inducing power of cities like Chicago or Pittsburgh.

Things are slowing down at work finally, past beta stage and just doing testing now. Whee. Timing couldn't be better, because I'm moving to the Fremont/Union City area.

Tilton and I found a nice four-bedroom place that's five minutes from 84 and also BART. It's going to cut my commute to SF down more than half. Woot! We sign the papers, give the checks, and pick up the keys on Friday. Good thing work hasn't been busy, since the walkthrough of my current place is Saturday. :) Gonna be driving all over the area this weekend.

There are times I feel I'm caught between two worlds, and it's become more pronounced as of late. One is a world of of geekery and the fandom, which is fun. I have a great time at conventions like Further Confusion, hanging out with furry friends. The other is that of regular adult in a metropolitan area, where careers and "typical" socialization happens. I can blend into either, but as I get deeper into each, it's harder to keep them separate. Sort of like one bubble expanding out of another. Either its going to rebound back into itself or split off.

I'm not going to go too much into my furry side, as most reading this are familiar with it. In "real life" I work for a sports company. This tends to attract a certain type of employee. We have subsidized fitness club memberships, for example, and the CEO competes in triathalons. Golfing is common. Another part of the culture is going out for drinks after work regularly. This is not unusual, but since we're in downtown San Francisco, there's quite a choice of places.

It all just hit me a few days ago when I was watching TV, and some liquor ad came on, one of those where people are goofing off in some metro bar. I blinked, shook my head and was like, "Thats precisely what I was in the other night." Car ads advertise the model I drive. I'm becoming more aware about my daily clothing, forming "sets" to pluck from the hangars. I've slipped into a precise marketing demographic. More amusing is that I work for an advertising company. I could just as easily pop fully into that life and be Mr. Typical Career Dude, and succeed well at it.

Coworkers have been urging me to get an apartment up in San Francisco proper. I feel like Luke in Star Wars, confronting the Emperor. "Do it, and your transformation to the dark side will be complete." See? Geekery. Right there.

I feel like I'm at odds with that lifestyle, holding it back at arm's length, lest it take over.

All said, however, it's totally more fun to be a silly dragon.

Quite possibly the biggest failing of my "adult" life is my complete lack of time comprehension. I don't get time. It's arbitrary and seems static. Not even the Sun or Moon and their timeless cycles deter me.

I have three modes of timekeeping: This has happened, this is happening, and it will happen at some point. Everything that I'm not presently working on gets lumped into "the future." This causes a lot of last-minute "OMG OMG I gotta get this done!" moments from working on the thing that could be done nine months from now rather than the one that needs to be done nine hours from now.

On one hand, this is a curse. This is something I'm working on using all means at my disposal. Calendars, day-planners, PDAs that have multiple beeping alarms, to-do lists with due dates, etc. I've been moderately successful. I still cannot comprehend longer term time blocks, which causes problems when I have projects that span many months.

However, I'm also apprehensive about completely fixing this problem. One of the redeeming factors of youth is a lack of time. Everything has existed and always will. There is no "older" and death is as remote as aliens landing and starting a planetwide party. Actually, the latter probably is more plausible at that age. In a roundabout way, my problems with time help keep me youthful, in mind if not body. In short, a part of me doesn't want to submit to time.

But, I can trace a lot of problems to this, primarily my career path and just doing what I want to with my life. It's always been a game of keep-up, and while I'm successful at it, I want to shift gears.

So, in what is probably one of the most "adult" resolutions I've ever made, I'm plucking some projects and goals that I am going to put into the timeframe of "this year:"

• Keep my job all year (this is 95% dependent on me)


• Produce a 1-hour stage play, including use of animatronics


• Get 6 minutes of fully-produced animation done. Doesn't have to be all one chunk


• Redesign ArtSpots


• Help finish a social web project

Anything else I do all year is considered a bonus. I know a couple of those seem like "big" projects, but believe me, this is a vast paring down of the entire list of "in the future" ideas I have. At least now I can have a little bit of focus.

When I'm not daydreaming of new projects and stories to tackle, of course.

Over the last month, I've gotten a fair number of emails, and several people in and out of FC asking, "What happened to Iron Artist!? It's not on the schedule!"

No, no it is not. It is gone, hopefully never to return.

"But, it was one of the more successful and/or my favorite events at FC."

Yes. Yes it was, wasn't it?

"What's replacing it?" That's a good question, no? ;)

Iron Artist was part of the con routine, and a lot of people got accustomed to it. It was rehearsed enough and was comfortable for the performers as well as the audience. It was the first Iron Artist on the "furry con circuit," and the best produced.

Which is all the more reason it needed to end. I don't like the status quo. I don't like routine. It is antithetical to my core beliefs. Iron Artist became part of the status quo. It is longer unique to FC.

So, what do you do when you have a prime time main stage slot at one of the biggest furry cons? Come up with something a bit more original!

A few years ago, I wanted to end Iron Artist, but I didn't have any idea of what to replace it with other than something that wasn't a parody, self-referential, or an adaptation.

Between then and now, ArtSpots happened. Now there was an entire cast to play with, instead of just a mute character that wasn't really a character at all, but a semi-satirical mimic of another personality.

So, this last year, back on my feet, I thought of replacing it again, but this time there was a replacement for Seurat as host…



Gogh, the black cheetah. Thus Artpocalypse is ushered in.

It's different (and change is good!) But, it also allows us to address several deficiencies in the format of Iron Artist. The audience will have a more active part, instead of being passive for the whole show. No lineage of champions to retain con-to-con, which was becoming increasingly difficult. Faster pace - no single 30 minute challenge, but several shorter, more intense ones - and more drawing time. More new artists rather than only being able to choose three each year. No more trying to keep a secret medium under wraps until the show. And, as there's no single point of failure for an artist, the ability to be more devious and entertaining.

With luck, Iron Artist will seem like a quaalude in comparison.

Welcome to the Black Parade ;)
(MP3, makes noise)

Friday, 7:30pm, main stage.

“Wanting things. Lots of people give that up when they get older...But taking a risk—doing things where you actually have a chance to fail—that’s what being young is.”

-Ira Glass, This American Life, “Growth Spurt”

Hey folks! I know there's a few people here who fursuit. (I know, just a few..) I'd like to know if you or someone you can point me to fits these criteria:

1. Will be at FC.
2. Is a decent to good actor. (Not a good fursuit performer--an actor.)
3. Is ~5' 10" or under.
4. Isn't afraid to speak in costume/on stage. Ability to do a couple voices a plus.
5. Is available for an event on Friday late afternoon/night of FC.

Any references, you or otherwise, would be appreciated. :)

Thanks to torrle for pointing this out.

I find it amusing how people get upset at Twitter.

A bit of history. I've known Twitter's existed for awhile, just had no interest in using it because I didn't quite get it. It wasn't until recently, using at work amongst teammates, that I finally grokked the concept. It's one of those things you need to see in action to truly "get it."

Even more recently, there's been a furry influx into Twitter, at least among people I know. So I created a personal account for me and hopped in.

It's fun, keeping a pulse on what friends are doing. What their current status is. Those are the key words there: "doing" and "status." That is what it was designed for, somewhat of an ongoing SMS volley amongst a group.

It affects social life, too, in a positive way. If someone posts from a nearby location, you can give them a call for an impromptu meetup, or just go say hi if it's a coffee shop. If several post they're going to some gathering later, you can steer your plans towards that. It's also fun seeing thoughts that wouldn't make a good blog post. Twitter is meant to be spontaneous.

So I can see why people get upset at things like LoudTwitter. Twitter isn't meant as a substitute for blogging. Never was. But then they carry their perturbed attitudes towards to Twitter itself.

Watching my friends list, I think it's just the feeling of being left out and not wanting to learn a new thingamajig to get in with the Twitter clique. "They're posting their thoughts on Twitter, where I have to get an account and pay attention to another thing. Why don't they just post to LJ?!"

Twitter works not because of the site itself. It would have gone away awhile back if it was just that. It's because of it's API and things like Twitterrific where it truly shines. You can keep an unobtrusive window open on your desktop and watch tweets scroll by. It keeps you feeling connected with your friends in real-time while otherwise stuck at work or going about our busy lives.

http://twitter.com/HigginsDragon

Yeah, after long last, ArtSpots has messaging. This is what should've been there from the start, but that I didn't include because being the old fogey I am, thought email was fine enough. ;)

But now, here it is. I've been working on this for awhile and decided to kick it out the door today into the cold, heartless Internet. If you're familiar with GMail, you're familiar with how it works.



More is going to tie into this, such as commissions and forums, but at least it's out the door now.

Way back when, in 1999, I got a Palm Pilot. Since I have a difficult time comprehending, well, time, it proved to be very useful for reminding me of to-dos and appointments—basically when and where I had to be. On top of this it provided contacts, notes, and the ability to run apps, like Pocket Quicken, which allowed me to keep track of my bank account on the fly. I really never needed more than what the original Palm Pilot provided, the rest was just niceties.

Basically, I bought it because it beeped.

Fast forward to today. I had gone through about 4 Palm Pilots since then, usually purchased used on eBay or from friends getting rid of theirs. I kept them in my wallet, as I never forget my wallet in the mornings. It's no use to have something that beeps if you don't keep it with you. Well, late last year, my last Palm, a Tungsten E2, died. I was getting pretty fed up with Palm at this point, and they're basically going down the tubes as a company.

I admit, I've been a bit lost without a PDA to keep track of things. Scheduling, finance, etc. have kinda disappeared and I'm back to how I was in the 90's: Disorganized. So, as part of the "Have Higgins get his crap together" stuff I'm working on, I got an iPod Touch last week. Not for it's iPod-ness, but because it's probably the best darned PDA I've ever used. Sure, the least expensive model is a little more than an iPhone, but I'm not saddled with a two-year contract. Plus, wi-fi hotspots are everywhere. It's not like I'm going to need net-anywhere ability much. Heck, I don't really need it at all.

It's got a calendar, contacts, notes, and a checkbook register app. And it beeps. That's all I really need, the rest is overkill. Nice overkill, mind you, but way more than I need.

This past Sunday, I came into possession of a 2007 Honda Civic.



It has power steering. And brakes. And four wheels that all point forward. At that point, anything else is icing compared to my old car. And there’s a lotta icing.

Had fun yesterday driving down the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to Monterey, I suppose “officially” breaking it in.

Yesterday, I asked, “Out of all the people trying for this job, why do you want me?”

Felt good, being able to ask that. I’m going to keep it in my repertoire, since it catches folks off-guard in a good way.

Friend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4fmJlbd7YY (Prime furry bait)
Friend: I was debating whether or not its an innocent childen's story
Friend: Or its FURRY PROPAGANDA
Me: This is part of the furry media machine, yes.
Friend: You BASTARDS
Me: There's like a minimum of three or four fetishes in that one clip. ;)
Friend: D:
Friend: Now I'm afraid to go and watch it to figure it out
Me: I think that's what us insiders call a "fetish incubator" ;)
Friend: If/when I have kids, I'm going to be real careful about that. "Daddy daddy I like the fox character!" "GO TO YOUR FUCKING ROOM. THE ONLY APPROVED CARTOON MEDIA IS GI JOE"
Friend: "THERE ARE NO TALKING ANIMALS IN GI JOE"
Me: I am truly laughing out loud. :)

If Discovery channel personalities Bear Grylls (Man vs. Wild) and Les Stroud (Survivorman) were stranded together, how long would it take before Les cannibalizes Bear for sustenance?

“There is a chance that firebreathing dragons will be produced by the LHC.”


(Some pretty pictures of the most complex machine ever made.)

Buttersafe

I have no idea, knowing the people I do, why I haven't heard of this comic before. It strikes my funny bone just right.

Some of my choice selections:

Steve
Rock and Roll
Dragons (of course)
Conservation of Mass
Spider Flakes

I posted the artspotsrecents feed before the huge influx of people from the FA outage, and after the merge. It also filled up my friends list too. Needless to say, this is taken care of, and artspotsrecents, at least the LJ feed, will be of the "Compagnon" artists, i.e. the ones who have passed the review.

You can browse recent furry art in your LJ.

artspotsrecents

Might as well stood for AwesomeCon, because that's what it was.