Ringtail Mischief

Yea, I'm still around.

2008-06-20T04:32:34Z

It's been a while and I felt I couldn't leave this journal blank any longer.

I have lots to talk about but I don't want to bore folks with a long drawn out book so I'll just say I'm still alive. Life has had it's ups and downs and I'm not ignoring anyone. I've just been keeping a low profile the last 6 months.

Because I hate making a totally boring post. Here are a couple of pictures from the Fairyland Gala I attended a few weeks ago. Pictures are courtesy of Ultra-Gor. Fairyland is a non-profit organization which runs an amusement park for kids. Walt Disney used Fairyland to model Disneyland so the park is quite old. The gala is their once a year main fundraiser which I volunteered for. And for those wondering that's Crygus acting as pointer on the ship. heh

Take care everyone.

My New BMW

2007-12-02T05:09:07Z

Bought a new BMW R1150RT touring bike tonight. Radjin's been interested in bikes the last couple of months and I saw one I liked today....and I couldn't resist. Thought about it during the day and went back in the afternoon. Now I am officially poor but having fun. ;)

Now all I need is a decent set of leathers...but when I can afford it.

growlcoon @ 2007-11-14T11:10:00

2007-11-14T19:13:08Z

I wanted to write and let folks know that I won’t be at MFF as I had originally hoped. It’s probably for the best since I’m not really settled yet with the job, finances and vacation yet. I hope everyone going has a great time though. Knowing MFF as I have in the past I’m sure it’s going to be a blast.

I’ve been toying with the thought of getting another version of Growl done as a fursuit. I’m a bit torn right now though because my desire to fursuit has been waning a little recently. I am attributing a lot of it to my job. I find I’m burned out a lot because of both my job and the horrible commute involved in getting to it. Fursuits are really expensive also so …do I order a new one for next year or not? Tough question when it’s over 2K for the fursuit you want.

On another note. I’ve been working hard at making Dark Haven Castle a cool place for furs on SL. I know there are tons of places already but what the heck. I need a hobby too. ;)

Still in the works for the castle - I currently have a couple of large empty rooms which will be a virtual furry mall there soon and I’m hoping to have a DJ and stream for the club before too long. Ah..it’s fun to be king. ;)

Dark Haven Poll

2007-10-20T21:26:31Z

Thought I'd ask my friends what they thought of the names we came up with for the dance club at our castle. Oh, and please feel free to stop by if your online. We're located on Growl1. ^^

View Poll: Castle Dark Haven - Dance Club Name

Trip Day

2007-09-27T19:54:53Z

I'm at Chicago's O'hare airport atm waiting on a flight. I have a 6 hour layover. They cancelled my earlier flight which only had a 30 minute layover. Fun...but I've paid for airport wireless so I'm keeping amused with that. Just playing around on SL to kill the time.

Tonight I visit with my friends in Rochester and then tomorrow it's off to Canada eh. ;)

^^

2007-09-18T03:38:04Z

My mate radjin is home after almost a month away in Europe. I really missed him. It's been too long and we had fun catching up on things tonight. ^^

On another note I will be in Rochester, NY Thursday September 27th for the evening. It's been almost exactly 2 years since I left NY and came to California to live with my mate. I moved here on October 6th 2005. I'm looking forward to visiting with my good friends rorydedog and kumakehu and who ever else shows up. ;) I should be arriving around 4pm. Then on Friday around noon it's off to visit with family.

Current state – Lazy bum

2007-09-08T17:05:06Z

Oh man…. Sitting at the computer this Saturday morning kind of burned out. I really want to do something but have no motivation. Worked almost 60 hours last week and that does not include all my hours of driving. Every week at work is starting to be like that. I hope it eventually slows down a bit.

radjin is at Eurofurence having a good time and I’m really wishing I was with him. I really hate having to stay behind when he goes on his trips but that’s just the way life is. I’m happy to hear he’s enjoying himself though. He’s also been gone for two weeks now and I miss him. It will be another week and a half before I see him.

Okay, time for a stiff cup of coffee and a shower to kick me in gear. I can’t be a slug all day. ;)

Oh and Natasha says please rub my belly.

Still Alive...Barely.

2007-08-27T03:58:34Z

It’s been a long time since I updated my journal. Time these days is probably the biggest reason for it.

I’m still at my new job in San Ramon working in the IT field. Although I’m doing okay salary wise I’m finding that the 140 mile drive each day in bad traffic, the long hours at work and the stress of the job are really starting to burn me out. I find that when the weekends come I’m exhausted and just don’t feel like doing much. Oh, and I now have a warm appreciation for the crap IT people put up with. ;)

I’m presently working on finding a job closer to home. I don’t see that happening for a while though since Modesto isn’t as technology oriented as the bay area. I’m hopeful that something will become available in time though.

Other than local trips I haven’t gone anywhere in over a year. Again job related but such is life. I’m starting to miss that aspect of my life, that and I haven’t gone home in 2 years. I’m playing with the idea of flying home this fall for a weekend. I’ll have to see how things go.

On the furry side I'm hoping to attend MFF, and I’ll be at FC.

I’ve gone to a few fursuiting gigs. The one I had the most fun at was the fund raiser for Fairyland a few months ago. Ultragor caught a great picture of Waggs dancing there. Drunk happy people can be fun sometimes. ^^

Anyone live near San Ramon, Califonia

2007-05-11T04:35:14Z

I'm going to be working in that area for a while and I'm wondering if anyone has crash space nearby.

..and yea, I know. It's been a while. Time sure flies doesn't it. ;)

Nothing much to report though other than bunny kisses. Heh.

Furry Update - The Last 3 Months - Highlights

2007-01-28T17:21:57Z

Critter’s by the Bay Events

Radjin and I joined the Critters by the Bay Folks for a number of events and we had a lot of fun. We attended the San Jose Christmas parade, Christmas in the park and two Childrens Fairyland Christmas events. Being in the San Jose parade was a new experience and one I thoroughly enjoyed. I can't wait to do it again next year.

FC 2007

I had a great time at FC and it was great to see all my friends at the con. The only real annoyance was having a stalker this time around. I tolerated him more so than I should have and I will not be as kind at AC should he continue to be a nuisance to Radjin and I.

The first night of the con we were surprised when Kaffa Wolf pitched a fit for no apparent reason and closed down his fursuit database website. Yea. I know. Drama. ;) I won't say anymore about it in my post. If anyone wants to read a bit more about it feel free to check out Radjin's journal.

I would like to thank t_h_squirrel for bringing his fans again. It costs him a lot of money and time to do so and I know that a lot of fursuiters appreciate his effort. Thanks TH.

We weren't lucky enough this time to avoid con crud. Seems like a lot of folks we knew got it. Hopefully it will pass quickly though. Erf.

FC pictures that we all took can be found here.

Megaplex 2007

Radjin and I will not be at Megaplex this year. I have several reasons for not going. One, they’ve moved the con from a beautiful resort in Orlando to a standard boring hotel in Jacksonville. I personally enjoyed the resort atmosphere. Secondly I can no longer go to Funspot with a big group of fursuiters which was the highlight of attending the con for me. The con staff in the past has tried to dissuade the fursuiters from attending Funspot to begin with. Shame that. A lot of us looked forward to it. So, the bottom line is there isn’t any reason for me to attend now when they offer nothing more than any other con.

Radjin and I have our hotel room booked for AC but it’s a long ways off yet so we don’t know yet if we will be there or not.

The Fursuit Database

Oh and lastly, plug time. Radjin, Timduru and everyone who has been working on the database would really like to have it as comprehensive as possible. If you can please help out by listing your fursuits at http://fur-suit.org.

San Jose Parade

San Jose Parade Trolly

Wagg’s and a Friend – San Jose - Christmas in the Park

Kiteless and fuzzies – San Jose - Christmas in the Park

We attack our prey! – San Jose - Christmas in the Park

Childrens Fairyland Christmas Event

These too are up to no good. - Childrens Fairyland Christmas Event

FC - 2007

FC - 2007

Doggy needs to get to Florida

2006-12-09T00:59:47Z

I have a good fur friend who would like to provide a home for Griefer but he lives near Orlando Florida. Is anyone making the trip by car from California to Florida? We need to transport our German Shepherd there.

Time sure flies.

2006-12-02T19:38:37Z

It’s been about 2 months since I posted and kumakehu recently reminded me of that fact so here goes.

For Halloween Radjin and I headed to Fairyland to have fun with the kids there. Waggs is a great fursuit for kids so I wore that one to the park. Fairyland is an ancient not for profit amusement park with a nursery rhyme theme. We had a blast and were in suit almost all of the time there. We’re definitely looking forward to going back again before too long.

Tomorrow we plan on being in the San Jose Holiday Parade. It’s suppose to be a really cold day tomorrow so I’m happy I’m wearing a fursuit and not escorting. Sometimes wearing a fur coat works in your favor. Heh.

On the employment side of things, well, I’m employed. There isn’t much more I can say positively about the job. It wasn’t the job I thought it was when I was hired. I thought I would be doing more development work than factory assembly but that’s not the case. It’s a long monotonous day doing electrical assembly and I work for an irritating fat lady of privilege from India. I had to put her in her place again on Friday. I work my tail off and my work is accurate but I’m continually told I’m not fast enough to please her. She can eat my shorts. Needless to say, I’m continuing my search for better work.

We’re trying to find a good home for Greifer our 10 month old German Shepherd. He’s an active and wonderful dog but we’re not home enough with him, he sometimes plays too rough with Natasha who's old and less than half his size and we have a tiny backyard. He needs a good family and lots of running space. I hate giving him up but I think it’s for the best. We have someone who’s interested but hasn’t come to see him yet.

And that’s about it. I’ve put up some Christmas lights on our balcony along with a light up Christmas wreath. They look really nice. I’m not really in a big Christmas mood but I do love the blinkies. It must be the raccoon in me.

Well, that’s about all I can think of at the moment. I hope everyone has a great day. ^^

Employment! Yay!

2006-10-03T02:48:11Z

It seems my bad luck at finding a job has finally come to an end. After many months of searching and hundreds of applications I was offered an electrical position today with a local company at a decent starting pay. Thankfully it’s a day shift, no travel, and Monday through Friday. Yay! I get to keep my weekends. The people working there seem to be fairly happy too which is something I like to see.

On the furry side of things the next con for me will likely be FC. I was planning on attending MFF but I just couldn’t afford it this year.

Oh..almost forgot. I see a lot of my friends still haven’t added their fursuits to the database. Common guys, help us make this an awesome database for everyone in fandom. The website is located at http://fur-suit.org/

Well, that’s about it. Take care everyone. ^^

The "Original Fursuit Database" is up and running

2006-09-09T01:14:57Z

The first searchable Fursuit Database that I suggested in 2004 and opened on January 2nd 2005 by Radjin has been revamped by both radjin and timduru. This is a new and powerful database.

It was something that we sorely needed in the fursuiting community and I’ve known that for a long time. Radjin and Timduru did an excellent job and put in a lot of time on this project. It’s now ready for submissions and the link is http://fur-suit.org

Also, please feel free to post comments about the site to the fursuiting community that Radjin set up for the database.

FC Picnic

2006-08-14T05:33:38Z

radjin, mr_lean and I jumped into the explorer and headed over to Chabot Lake for the FC picnic last Saturday morning. We were the second ones to show up at 11am. Wow, late sleepers. ;)

The picnic was a blast. My thanks to everyone who contributed to it. I also want to thank Mr Lean for taking pictures for us and Liero for lending a helping hand.

Growl made an appearance this time and after a few minutes of goofing around the picnic area Radjin and I decided to take a cruise around the park. We appeared to be the only fursuiters who took a walk. I was surprised that most of the suiters didn’t seem interested in doing that. Ah well, more people to amuse for us. Heh

We have a lot of pictures of the picnic and they can be found here at Radjin’s website.

Another day another challenge

2006-08-03T02:41:52Z

Life continues along. Today I had another interview for a maintenance position with the local government and I left with the typical feeling that I didn’t do very well. It was a panel of 3 big managers administering an oral exam. In the last month I’ve written a number of employment tests and have gone to a number of interviews. I hope perseverance will eventually pay off.

The more I think about it the more I like the idea of general building maintenance. I’m good with electrical, plumbing and to a lesser degree carpentry and I like the challenge of constantly changing tasks. It will have to pay enough though.

After today’s interview though it finally dawned on me that it may be a long while before I get something decent so perhaps I should take something to get by like retail in the mean time. I need the money, need to get out of the house and I really need a break from the dog which is driving me nuts.

I’m torn between doing it now or after my brother visits in 2 weeks. I haven’t seen him in 2 years and he’s never been here before. It would really put a damper on my time with him. I’ll have to give it some thought.

Last Saturday mr_lean stopped by and we hit up the local 50 year old A&W fast food place. It’s a city landmark and they still serve you by bringing the food on roller skates. Afterwards we hit up the Modesto Museum which is rinky-dink but fun and from there to the local bowling alley. Mr Lean kicked my butt on the arcade machines but I beat him on bowling so I guess we’re even. Thanks again for visiting and making my day fun Mr.Lean. ^^

Couldn’t find a picture of the local A&W Drive-in so here’s one from the movie American Graffiti which was based on Modesto, California where I live. I like pictures, what can I say? ;)

Entertaining Asshatery

2006-07-29T17:54:10Z

Nope, this isn’t a rant. Just an observation and a little entertainment for my friends and fellow fursuiters.

I was checking out Fchan this morning for fun and ran across this little gem of a picture. Gotta love the asshats who come up with this stuff. Seemed a lot of people on Fchan decided to chime in with the asshat as well. That makes them no better in my opinion. The admins took the thread down about 20 minutes after I saw it which was decent of them. Luckily I had already gotten a copy for myself just for the heck of it.

Insult me all you want you jealous bastard. I don't care. I love being a fursuiter. ;)

Not only do we have lives but fursuits aren’t cheap and you have to work your ass off to afford one. Something this ass doesn’t seem to understand.

And for the record I love all my fursuiting buddies. You guys are awesome. You’re the ones who make the cons and fandom fun. ^^

I wasn’t going to post this to LJ until I read what Wookiee had to say to the Fchan crowd. It's funny and true. Heh. Kudo’s to you Wookiee. ^^

Wookiee#Artist 06/07/29(Sat)11:19 No.12040 [Report] [PostFocus]
>>12020
Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black? You make fun of the fursuiters yet you come to fchan to wack off to cartoon animal porn. Some of those people in the fursuits have decent, well paying careers and homes and lives that are anything but faliers. If you are going to poke fun at them you may as well be critisizing the entiure fandom. Regardless how bad some fursuits may seem, the fact is Fursuiting is 'FUN'.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Later all! ^^

Beach Bum ^^

2006-07-25T02:05:05Z

It’s been about 3 weeks since my last update. I suck at LJ updates. Heh.

Lets see. Two weekends ago I went to the Red, White and Blue beach with Radjin. It’s a clothing optional beach and I had never been to one before. This might sound strange but I’ve always wanted to try it so when we got there I stripped down and wandered naked for about 3 or so hours. It was liberating and kind of fun but whoa….that sun can be brutal. It only burned my back a bit so I was lucky.

Last weekend crygusfoxdragon and reptile came over for a visit along with mr_lean. We had a nice visit. MrLean suggested going to see the Taming of the Shrew being performed by the local university actors outside in the park. We all quickly changed our minds when the temperature hit 109 degrees that night. Still it was a fun time.

Seems with the hot temperature I’ve been spending a lot of time indoors. Air conditioning is my friend.

Radjin bought a whole island on Second Life and we shut down our old property. Just do a search for Radjin under properties if you’re on Second life and want to visit. Oh, and we do have property available for rent for anyone interested.

Next weekend radjin is going to be away on a trip to Colorado touring the state with nevermint. I’m contemplating several things to do while he’s away. I’m not sure yet but I have some ideas. Sitting at home the whole weekend is not an option.

Well, dats all folks. Take care everyone. ^^

Birthday Raccoon

2006-07-08T00:21:46Z

Okay, long post this time! Beware! Heh.

I want to thank all the people who wished me a happy birthday today. Thanks everyone!

My mate radjin, lord_shodows, bradhound, bloodwolves,perro, dayna_otter, tygercowboy, stevefox, neouka, rorydedog, kumakehu, twilighthalcyon, furahi, tonyringtail, kathrishali, nevermint, reptyle, whyttgrgrl, marauderosu, xaviervonrottie, kamadragon, mr_lean, jugularjaguar, kiallamraptor, darkblaze, freakylynx, magnusdiridian, wildwolf4paws, chakawolf, and winterwolf319. If I missed anyone let me know okay? ;)

It’s been a long day. Wrote an employment test today, drafted up and dropped off an application form, and spoke with another perspective employer. Busy. Bleh. I’m finally getting to sit and relax for a few. mr_lean is here and we’re about to have cake. I’m happy that he stopped over. Company is nice when your mate can’t be there.

I got a birthday card today from my mother. My mother and I are very close. She’s always had this gift for picking out cards that fit the moment. Here are a few verses for fun. Feel free to skip them if you don’t like sappiness. ;)

Love yourself.
Accept who you are and make peace with where you are at this moment in time.
Don’t wait for the world’s approval.
Be happy now.

Try.
Take chances.
Trust yourself even if you make mistakes.
Life can be messy and confusing, but it can also be surprising.

I also got a card from my father but I wish I could read it. Greifer ate most of the card along with the letter that was written on it. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. There’s was probably money in it too from the little bit I could read but what was more important to me was to read the card. I don’t typically get birthday cards from my father so I wanted this one. Ah well. Guess I’ll have to write to him and find out what he said.

Pictures from this special day. ^^

The Birthday Card Eater!! Bad dog! ;)

Mmmm…the cake I bought. Yea, I couldn’t resist. ;)

Mmmm…cake! Thanks Aladasian. ^^

Anthrocon

2006-06-26T17:17:06Z

I’m a little late at posting this but that’s about typical for me. I had a great time at AC and it was wonderful meeting up with so many of you there. Yes, I know I should post a massive list of names but I’m lazy. You know who you are though. ;)

I’d like to thank tonyringtail for helping out both Wild Wolf and my mate radjin when they weren’t feeling well, and mrianti for being kind enough to ship our fursuits back to us. I was also lucky enough to have wildwolf4paws for a roomie at the con which was great. You were awesome company my friend.

One of the highlights of the con for me was watching foxbunny_ace not only having a great time at his first con but discovering how much fun fursuiting is thanks to the generosity of Wild Wolf.

I found this new location for the con interesting. Most of the restaurants and stores closed their doors by about 5pm which sucked. The area was also somewhat dangerous at night. Radjin and I were accosted by a number of bums and witnessed a number of unsavory characters at night. In my opinion it wasn’t really the nicest part of town but I guess the downtown area of most big cities isn’t great.

Huge best describes the convention space. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in fursuit to get to places before. I didn’t find anything special about the hotel other than the shower. I fell in love with the double shower nozzles. And of course the elevators… Luckily we were on the lower levels and we were able to use the stairs without too much trouble. It seems that no matter were we go AC’s tradition seems to be to book hotels where the bottleneck is always the elevators.

Hmmmm….other than that the weekend was kind of a blurr. Lots of fursuiting, lots of silly crap and conversation. Heh.

Oh, and thanks reptile for hanging with us and taking those cool pictures. ^^

foxbunny_ace mentioned this video link in his journal. A few suiters will see themselves in it. I was amused when I saw the “headless” joke I performed in the headless lounge for crosscheck_fox included in it. Here’s the link for anyone interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzqbHbqq2Zo

Not much going on since I got home. I spent the week getting myself sorted away and back into my routine. One thing I’ve discovered this week though is that Modesto, California can get pretty damn hot compared to Rochester, NY. ;)

Radjin, Ditto (Wild Wolf), Waggs (Growl), Rakket (Ace)

Edit: Here's a picture for my sexy bunny friend nevermint. I just found this one. I had forgotten that this picture had been taken by Tugrik. ;)

AC

2006-06-13T16:08:08Z

I want to thank carol_kitty and sabotlours for inviting Radjin and I out to their fur party a couple of weekends back. We had a great time and the fursuit bowling was awesome even if I did only score a measly 54. ;)

I’m off to AC tomorrow with Radjin. We will be arriving at the hotel on Wednesday night. I’m only bringing one fursuit this time and it will be Waggs. He won’t be any less mischievous than Growl is though.

I hope everyone going has a safe trip. See you there! ^^

Waggs – Fursuit Bowling in Albuquerque – June 3rd </center

Canadian Government stupidity....sheesh

2006-05-10T00:03:40Z

Okay...what's up with this? I took some money out of a small retirement plan I had in Canada. The Canadian government charged bigtime tax on it and I paid it. End of story right? Sadly no.

I just got a notice from Taxation Canada that I owe them 67 cents. Not only that but it says but I must pay it immediately. The kicker is that it also says they don't send bills for any amount owning which is less than 2 dollars. What are they smoking up there?!?

Governments being what they are I mailed them 67 cents to avoid a hassle.

Anyone want to guess how much effort and money was wasted on both our parts for a lousy 67 cents? ;)

AC here I come!

2006-05-09T02:41:05Z

To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all. (Peter McWilliams, Life 101)

Interesting quote but I’d be much happier if I made better decisions. I don’t seem to be very good at making them lately but I’m trying to improve.

Well, originally I thought that taking an HVAC course was a good idea. Although I did really well in the classes for the first couple of weeks I should never have signed up for it. The realization hit me that I couldn’t afford a 10K tuition loss on top of 8 months out of work only to get a job that paid what I can probably get without that schooling. I ended up leaving the school and I am now looking for employment.

I have electrical, mechanical and computer skills now I just need a job. I have a few leads I’m going to follow up on and hopefully something will come up soon. I’ve been feeling stressed about all of this so the sooner I get settled into something the better.

Puppy stress. Not him, me. Yea, like I needed more right now. Erf… Duraflame fire logs… The friggin dog chewed through a box and ate part of one today. Those are the chemical wood fiber fire logs you burn in your fireplace. Luckily they aren’t poisonous. I caught him chewing on the leather furniture this morning too. I’ve been on his butt constantly. I know. I should have seen that one coming when we got him. He’s got lots of chew toys. Now if I can only get him to chew just those. Thank dog he’s at least mostly potty trained now. Calgon take me away! ;)

Oh, on the con front. I will be joining my mate Radjin at AC for fursuiting craziness. I’ll likely bring Waggs. I might bring another fursuit. I don’t know. Maybe my grey coonie. No one has seen him for a few years now. And socializing... It’s been too long since I socialized with all my friends. It will good to see you all again.

New Puppy

2006-04-03T04:55:54Z

Radjin and I got a new German Shepherd puppy on Saturday. ^^

He’s 8 weeks old and pretty smart. He’s already figured out the doggy doors and where a lot of stuff is. Our feet and slippers aren’t safe though. He’s attacked them several times. Man those little teeth are sharp.

Anyways, I want to have a little fun and set up a pole. We’re thinking about calling him Greifer (pronounced - gryfer) after one of tilt_longtail's fursuits. We think the name is unique and interesting. What do you think? Any suggestions for other names?

View Poll: Puppys Name

Back to School

2006-03-29T17:26:12Z

I’ve spend the last couple of months cruising the papers and online websites for decent full time work to no avail. It’s not any big surprise to me that the jobs I’m interested in are far and few between and the competition for them is fierce. You would think though with a computer and electrical background that you’d be able to easily find work but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I’ve been really fortunate to have a mate who has not minded supporting me during all of this. There comes a point though when you really need to do something to help your mate out financially as well as increase your own self esteem by being productive.

So, I’ve decided that instead of having to fight for a job I’m going to let companies fight to get me. There’s demand for HVAC technicians everywhere in the US and I’ve signed up for an 8 month HVAC program at a local school. My program starts next week. It gives me all of the certifications and training I need to get started. HVAC is a tough job but its available work and work that can pay pretty decently once you’re trained.

That’s the good. The bad is that I may not be able to attend any cons this year which sucks. Sometimes you have to make a few sacrifices though to get ahead in life.

And no, I’m not wearing a damn bow tie when I start working in the field. Geesh…how geeky do you think I am? ;)