Sometimes people throw things around too lightly... ideas, sayings.. using things to portray some sort of image of themselves they want others to perceive. Like going to a job interview and showing them what they want to see, regardless of whether or not its real.

Awhile ago, someone was asking me some questions, for some sort of profile on a poll about fursuits. They asked me what my favorite moment was. The answer came easy. Performing at Give Kids the World.

Why did I say that? It wasn't to throw something out there lightly. It wasn't to buff myself up, like "wowie, I've suited at a real theme park for charity, I R SPeshul!" It wasn't anything of the sort. It was an honest answer to a question. It was my favorite moment. But it can look so trite, so cut and dried when reduced to a single sentence on a profile.

The times I went there on my first visit to Florida.. The things I saw, and the kids I met, touched my heart more deeply than anything I have ever done or seen. I felt so in awe, so insignifigent, so overwhelmed and glad to play even the smallest part in their Wishes. They are memories that make me tear up even right now, thinking of them as I write this. They mean more to me than anyone's opinion, any possession, or any poll.

I'm not anything special. I'm not any kind of amazing performer or grand philanthropist. I'm lucky to have the friends I have, and to have been able to do half the things I've done.

Thank you. One and all.

Wow, been too long since I posted.
Whats happened, whats happened...
Been working lots, time has done its funny slip-into-high-speed thing where the days seem to melt by. Thats been good and bad.
sibir_lupus came up to visit, gave me a nice early birthday present, a MyBook back up hard drive, and is now back up again for the holiday weekend.
Speaking of holidays, happy birthday to me! ;D
Sadly I found out I don't get holiday pay at work until I've been there for a year. Awww.
Hope everyone had a great time at Anthrocon. Sad I couldn't make it this year, was a tough weekend for me, but thank you to all those that called, texted, and sent pictures from the con!

I'm trying to get back into LJ more.. got to start commenting more and replying to people's comments, catching up and reading things. To that end, I've noticed that there are a few people that have friended me that I haven't friended back yet. Most likely this is because I don't know who you are or why you've friended me, its entirely possible we met at some con or online and I just don't recognize or remember your name. So, if you're one of those people, please do leave a note with this post, introduce yourself, gets get acquainted and I'll see what I can do about friending ya back!

EDIT:
Wow, thank you everyone for saying Hello n' all! :) Nice to hear from ya!
I had ment this post mostly for people that have friended me that I haven't friended back yet because I don't know them. Sort of an LJ amnesty for the as yet unfriended people to say hello and introduce themselves. meep!

Well, I was trying to keep it a bit on the secret side until things were fully set and 100% ready to go. (Plus it would have been cool to drop in on people and surprise 'em, heh heh.) But, after my call-in on the Pawpet Show tonight I'm sure half the internet at least knows the news, so I might as well come clean.

If all goes according to plan, I will be moving down to Florida this spring, sometime around March. I'll be just outside the Orlando area (Claremont to be precise), rooming with lilibugg. So, I'm pretty excited! :D Things are falling into place nicely, so its looking like this may be my last snowy winter for awhile!

Gah.. I can tell I've been playing Second Life too much when I start having dreams about it. It seemed utterly realistic too. There I was, just minding my business when a pack of vixen griefers rolls in, wearing too many 'sparkly bling' objects, took control of my avatar, messed it up and made it look all funny, then crashed me. It was so frustrating I woke up and realized it was a dream. Damn. If I pinch myself, can I get back *into* a dream? I'd like to go Orbit the whole pack of 'em...

The weather up here on the mountain has been warming up over the last week or so, a lot of the snow is melting. Business has slowed after the Christmas vacation week, but thats okay by me. They'll pick up again in February.

But this bit of a premature spring thaw has me thinking, feeling philosophical. The winter landscape you see, is like a giant Photoshop document, a work in progress. Flakes of snow paint the landscape in layer after layer, each changing it ever so slightly, building up into a new work of art.

( And then along comes a little thaw like this... )

Time has been doing its funny fast-forward thing.. It seems like I just moved here, but its been almost three weeks already.. Been working since the day after Christmas, each day has turned into a blurr of wake-up, work, crash. Christmas vacation week is one of the busiest here and we've been doing a stupid number of people at the Bag and Kettle. The amount of pizzas, burgers, and beer that flows out of that place is epic some times. Had over 500 for dinner friday and saturday nights.. and lunch is usually busier, as thats the time when most of the ski people are in and out. It doesn't even feel like last night was New Years. Had a few people over and toasted the change of years with Ernest Hemmingway's "Death in the Afternoon" - Absinthe and champagne. Then right back to work today. At least I have Thursday off this week finally.

Bit of a late update. Traveled back down to the coast for Christmas with the family. Was rather low key and I was feeling a bit of the bah humbug - been a crazy last month or so and I haven't had time or means to do much for anyone as far as the holiday spirit goes. Heh, and I owe some of you now too! :D I got a few nice cards and presents from friends in the fandom as well as family.

( Read on, dear reader... )

Been a bit of an odd week, between semi-relocating to Stratton, Maine and getting a new job. I'm now living just a few miles from Sugarloaf, one of the larger ski resort areas in Maine. Things are not too busy yet, but after Christmas they will be humming right along. Staying with my old friends Jack and Mike for the present, and working with them at The Bag & Kettle, a pub-style restaurant and micro-brewery right on the mountain.

Haven't hit the slopes yet, but I will get around to that at some point. Have pub-crawled the mountain top to bottom a few times though! There is another brew-pub at the bottom too, whee. Anyways, hopefully things will settle down soon. Will be home for Christmas, my connectivity may be spotty through the holidays. Take care all!

Whoohoo! Surfing the net on broadband! :D Yeeah!
Sadly, not in my home, but on my computer at least. I've gone up to visit two friends in the Sugarloaf ski area. Scouting mission for better winter work. But, since I'll be here for a couple days at least, the lure of high speed internets was too much to resist. Just got the network up and running. Sweeeet... youtube and Orange Box, here I come!


EDIT: First up for download: BBF's AC 07 video which I have still yet to see. Second Life is being a pain atm, won't let me reclaim my good name :(

Belated con report.. I'm still like a week behind everyone hah hah! :D And driving my car again for the first time after that V-8 tank I took across country, wow! So light and responsive and so omg no foot room!

( On to the pictures and stuff )

Made it back home yesterday afternoon finally. Feels nice to have slept in my own bed after ten days on the road! Back just in time for the holiday too.

( So, just where the HELL have I been all this time??? )

Brief update: Attended MFF, had a blast. Ended up driving back again, long story. Just finished 23 hours of driving, now in Portland, Maine for the night. Will be a short hop home tomorrow.

Also, my very good friend Dex ( aceswild ) has had a very bad start to the holiday season after getting back from MFF, he could use some love. :(

Currently, I have been awake for 38 hours, 26 of those where spent on the road driving. In one day I've been through 9 states - Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvannia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. And this marks the halfway point..... Tomorrow will be fun :P

My best friend Alex and his wife needed some help moving to Missoula, Montana so rather spur of the moment I took off with them to help with the driving.

Hope all you down in Orlando are having fun and shaking a tail on the dancefloor tonight! I know I had a blast last year and wish I could of been there again this year. I still have a complete "Furloween" banner with the bat thats been laying in the bottom of my fursuit travel case. Its been to and from Florida several times since and even on a trip around the Carribbean with me!

Anyways, we had our Halloween party at work tonight. It had a decent turn out. Most Halloween events have been a bust for us, except last year, when the power went out and we were the only restaurant in town with a generator. Thankfully I was about 1500 miles away for that night, mwah!
So we danced, had karaoke, etc. Amoungst others, I spotted a Captain Jack Sparrow, Batman, a Star Trek officer (Original Series), and one guy dressed as a bag of nuts. yeeeeaaaaah.

Somehow I managed to win the costume contest! That was a surprise as I wasn't supposed to be in the running, being an employee. The MC was not to be dissuaded though and I came home with a little plastic trophy. Woohoo!

Made it through another crazy fun weekend of ghosts, goblins and fursuits! After the con I spent the rest of the week visiting friends and relatives in Connecticut, got back Thursday and today was the first day back at work (ugh).

Drove down last Thursday and picked up ramensnax and Spooky from New Haven before making our way to the new hotel in Waterbury where we were joined by aceswild. The new hotel is wow! Lots better than the last one, with a nice outdoorsy atrium that most of the rooms look out on and plenty of room.

I was surprised to see a lot of familiar faces from other cons, particularly some Florida Furs, like tilt_longtail and antimon. And of course it was just awesome getting to roam around with rivetace and hindpaws in and out of suit. Its been too damn long, a whole year since we saw them last! I'll have to get down their way sometime.

Knowing a lot more people this time around made it feel even more like home. Friday we had breakfast at a mom and pop diner, D's Owl Lunch, at which we promised we'd return the next day with suits in tow. Later on, got to meet the sketchiest clerk ever during a small booze run to a local store. fyrdawg got in Friday night, with plenty of Halloween goodies - my teeth'll be aching for weeks. And thanks especially for the personalized T-shirt! :D All I had to trade was some gum :(

Saturday, tilt_longtail, foxwell, kwisa and myself returned to D's Lunch in suit, along with Ramen, Spooky, Spike, Hindpaws, and a few others. The staff and most of the customers seemed to enjoy the visitation quite a bit! There was of course (there always is) the one old codger that tries his best to ignore your existence, but its all in fun. :) That was a long day too - I got in suit around 10 or so for breakfast and didn't get out until 1 AM after dancing mah stripes off.

Sunday had the Fursuit Massacre and loads of other fun. The Violent Pansies came in third place but I had so much fun I didn't mind at all, besides which, all the teams got neat little 'dog tags' for the occasion. Being at the games, I missed saying bye to Fyr and the missus, but was able to bid a sad goodbye to Dex and TriggerFox as they left Sunday night. Monday was all pack and clean as we cleared out.

Ended up spending Monday night and most of Tuesday hanging out in New Haven with Ramen and Spooky, reliving some good times! I miss the days when I used to room with them down there. Drove up to my Grandfather's Tuesday night and spent some time with him and my aunt, helped them out with some stuff around the house. He's getting old and health is failing sadly. Loaded me up with stuff that he expects to never use again. :(

That night, drove on out to the Boston area to spend the night with Dex. We went out for an awesome dinner at a Hibachi restaurant. I'm going to have to practice spinning n' flipping spatulas and such now that I've seen it.

Wow, crazy week! :D Packed full of loads of fun stuff, enough to keep me going through the lean winter months. Too much to go through even in a decent sized entry! Thanks to everyone!