OK first off:

I do not hate this guy. I feel sorry for him because he is being dicked by his insurance company, which is very crappy. And I have chatted with him before and enjoyed it. And i realise this has colored his perception of the issue right now.

That being said: His journal: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1026649

Down towards the bottom, someone said something about they were thinking of moving here. That is the only part of this entire post that is pertinent (that sub thread). He comments why the hell someone would want to move to America.

I replied that basically, becuase its a good country. (I did not use great, perfect, et cetera, just good).

His reply, basically, was that America is a third World Country and the only reason we are listed as NOT a third world country is we say so, and have the nukes to back it up (oh yeah, and the reason I think America is decent is because of the brainwashing from the American education system, the only thing they did well, according to him).

So my rant is such:

WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE AMERICA BASHING!?!?! Yes, I know (to save you these comments) there are idiots like GWB and the right wing, and I KNOW IT IS NOT PERFECT (so spare me that comment line).

and I am not talking the 2-Gryphon "america" rant (which was fairly spot on) which details problems but also points out not everyone is like that. I am talking the hard core "nothing good about America exists" thinking that seems to start showing up.

But to say we are a third world country, and the only reason we are listed as first is propaganda and the nukes to back it up is utter BULLSHIT.

He listed Education (will give him that one that its lower than many first world, but WAY HIGHER than any third world by leaps and bounds)

Crime (where if you look at strictly overall crime, yes, but understand, that includes EVERY crime, from a petty misdemeanor to big stuff, and I would be part of that, having a petty misdemeanor, and when it comes to rape and murder, two BIG crimes, we are not in 3rd word territory, and in fact have half the rape rate per capita of Canada). and even the site says it shows a bit of an unfair skew becuase americans are far more likely (73%) to report the crime, compared to most countries. In fact, in per capita Crimes, ENGLAND has more.
Heck, us being gun happy people, even murders with FIREARMS we are nowhere close to the level of the top 3. (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/c.....-with-firearms ) we rank 4, but at approximately 9000 per year, we are at HALF of #3 (Thailand at 20,000) and WAY below South Africa (31,000), and we have a metric FUCKTON of guns here (hell, I have 2; a shotgun and a pistol).

GDP (highest in the word. Second only to a union of countries, by that technicality its a group of countries),

Health Care: Well this is a bit complicated. We talking average lifespan (ranked #47 at 78.14 years), Infant Mortality (6.37 deaths/1,000 which ranks us about Italy, or roughly #146-150), or Public funding on Healthcare (#3 at $2,051.00 per capita. More than Canada even). I could go along with all the stats I find all day.

So almost everything he puts forward have no merit.
I have been to Mexico Border towns. THAT is third world. As I so indelicately put, Juarez is a squalid pisshole in comparison to a US city. Does it mean all of Mexico is? No. But i have not been to all of Mexico, and it is considered a third world country. (what I have read of other cities there, even Mexico city, is it is still crowded, dingy and dirty. Its the bit resort towns that are nice and clean).

My point is, DON'T BASH the USA if you are full of shit. Because I will call you out. America needs a good amount of work, and my cynical side says we are sliding ever towards a less free country that is slowly getting the Big Brother society. We have things to work on (like a public health care system).

that being said, we are NOT a third world country. And however fashionable it is to bash America, I would suggest taking a hard look at yourself if you plan it, especially if you LIVE here. You could live in Swaziland, or any other place that really IS third world (you know, where clean water is a luxury).

Nothing to see here ^_^

When it comes to your sexual kinks, on public forums, keep your PRIVATE life private, and if you fail to follow that, DON'T mention any group you are associated with when failing to keep it private. To make a point:

"I/we am/are into having sex in fursuit"

vs

"I/we am/are a furry and like having sex in fursuit"

One is a person fetish. The other is dragging the fandom into it by proxy. That is where they showed a lack of judgment. And the posts Chewfox had ahead of time (announcing the show) on how she wanted to "represent the fandom" shows me one thing:

She wanted 15 minutes of fame, at the fandoms expense.

http://vimeo.com/6619090

Tyra should just STFU...seriously. Furries =/= sex in fursuit you STUPID BITCH....

*breathes deep*

What is it with shows picking some of the oddest characters.

Wait... nevermind, rhetorical question.

Great. Ate some delicious homemade baked penne pasta with cheese and ham.

And a molar broke, about a third of it broke off. Got it bagged right now, brushed my teeth right after it happen. Want to keep the area clean.


*grrrr* unemployed and tooth issues. this SUCKS

I swear, life has it out for my BF and me.

We found out Thursday our house is being forclosed on.

Now we are RENTERS, and have been paying our rent the last 5 or so years we have been here. So that means the asshole who owns the hhouse has not been paying the mortgage.

House goes on sale October 20-something (don't have the letter in front of me).

So now Kahuki and I are sort of scrambling to figure out WHAT we are gonna do. We don't exactly ahve enough credit to buy a house (We foudn one we like, but we dont have the credit) and we do not exactly have 2k lying aroudn to do a deposit and first months rent on a house like EVERYONE wants around here.


*grrrrs*

Well at least I guess, iI can look on the bright side. This house is a sh*thole anyways. WE have been wanting to move out. Just on our own terms would have been preferrable.

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pool singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

=============================

This poem is one of my favorites. Mostly for the short story attached to it. And I hear it is referenced in Fallout 3

I got asked one to explain how I balance being Christian, yiffy, and bisexual/gay.

The short answer is: It's hard

...


Oh Oh I see, you want the LONG answer. Tough. But will give you a medium one:

I have to balance personal beliefs in God and Christ with the decidedly humanist bent I take the world in, and reconcile them.

I have distilled my view of Christian beliefs down to believing in God and Jesus, that I have been saved, and should try to lead a life of helping others as much as I can.

Just the other night Kahuki and I took someone into our house so they had a place to stay for the night. No payment expected. Just a good deed. Seems simple? Well it is. That's what i feel no Christian is doing anymore. They will try to attach strings to it.

*smirks* It is also probably why we have had people leech off us before, but hey, charity only goes so far.

Christianity shapes the compassion part of my morals.

As for the rest of them? well that is where the humanist bent comes in. ;-)

I think after the whole "Jesus on a cross" thing, God is leaving us the hell alone to do as we will. He gave us the out. He doesn't need Miracles or Prophets anymore. Which is why I despise televangelists.

Now notice I say humanist bent, not humanist. Becuase well...I am not really, per se, a humanist. But I take the view to heart when looking at things. I do believe in a higher power. Kinda excludes being a full on Humanist ;-)

But back to the rest of my morals.


Primarily: I see nothing wrong with sex. In a country that is so torn between trying to bat down sensuality/sexuality wherever it can and at the same time overselling it, it's amazing to me how often Christians are such the assholes about this.

Sex is not bad. Sex is not some "only for matrimony" thing. Sex CAN be overdone and you get burnt out on it, so sex carefully ^_^ But Two people wanting to have sex? Let them.

Ones 15 and ones 23? Big deal

Ones 13 and ones 18-19? Big whoop. I would have done it at 13 (and was looking for it at that age with older guys).

Ages 5 and ones 30? Umm HOLD THE TRAIN THERE. According to human sexuality studies, an interest in sex with others doesn't really start till the 10-13 age range. Something is amiss there.

See I DO have morals on this. It boils down to this: Everything must be consentual between two parties. And i don't mean "well if I gag her she can't say no" consent. I mean knowing, willing consent In anything that happens. Which could get pretty damned kinky and dangerous, but if they consent to it WILLINGLY, with FULL KNOWLEDGE, then it's two consenting people and the Morality Police butting their puritanistic (as in having puritanical traits) head into it.

the old Testament was about Control in a situation for survival. People were a small group, and in a hard desert environment. Don't be gay, because you can't have offspring. Makes LOGICAL sense. Food laws were the same: Don't eat pig, had parasites.


Nowdays we have overpopulation. Survival? Not so much an issue in that respect.

Food is safer nowadays.

And this is tangenting....dammit. *smacks head*


So yes, I balance them because I don't see a conflict. I know some of you will accuse me of pick-and-choosing Christianity. WELL DUUUUHHH!! Current Christianity is far worse at it than me, at least I admit I choose how to view my faith, instead of trying to lie about inconsistencies.


So there you have it, the Medium Reply. I may get to the long one at some point. It is just very difficult to get personal moral views written down while trying to explain EVERY nuance without it making you look like some wierdo... (oops, too late ;-))

My BF found out from his blood test that he has diabetes.

DOn't know how to take it, hes very depressed and I can't seem to comfort him, so i am receding into a shell.

From across the cluttered desk of the con-chair...

There have been a lot of rumors floating around about the convention. Rumors about debt, about the life and stability of RMFC. This will, I hope address those concerns and give people improved confidence in RMFC.




“The convention is drowning in debt” While it is true the convention is in debt, the situation is not bad and well under control. Thanks to some sizable donations by a few locals furs, the convention has paid off ALL of it's debts but one and made a sizable impact in the conventions one remaining debt.

“I don't want to register cause the convention will take my registration to pay off debts and close up” This is 100% not true, every penny we receive from registrations, dealers, and art show panels is going directly into the convention. NO EXCEPTIONS.

“Why should I attend, the convention might not be around next year” Also not true. We have been in negotiations with the hotel for convention dates in 2010 and 2011 and are confident that we will have these dates signed soon. The convention is going to be around for the future, all of my staff are dedicated to this fact.




While hesitance in these hard economic times is understandable I want to stress to every one that RMFC is here to stay, and we have some great plans for the future of our convention. The only thing we need now is your trust and support. We have some great guests of honor this year, Scribblefox and Terry Smith, and a wonderful events track. We are not going away, but we are going places, and we want you along for a great ride!




Thank you!




Sorin, the Excited RMFC Chairman

chairman@rockymountainfurcon.org

P.S.

My door is open to anyone with questions, concerns or comments about the convention. Don't hesitate to write me, I would love to hear from you.

=========================

Let me make this clear for you folks:

RMFC WILL ONLY FAIL is YOU DO NOT GO. So get yer butts goin and have some fun. we have the BEST con for Fursuiting (we have an entire pedestrian mall to run along).

Ok yes i know this is vanity.

Kahuki went to a cosmetic surgeon to get an evaluation done on getting liposuction to reduce his gut.

They told him they can't do it. He doesn't have the soft, fluffy fat you can suck out at essentially skin level(subcutaneous), his is the denser, thicker fat deeper in the cavity (visceral fat). The stuff they cannot remove. Not only that, it is the more dangerous fat.

He is very down about that, he has become more self conscious about his belly as of late, and dieting, while getting him down to 200lbs in weight, hasn't decreased the belly any.

Wish i had some way of cheering him up.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/16/apple-confirms-presence-of-proprietary-chip-in-shuffle-headphone/

So they design a new shuffle with no controls on the pod itself, but inline on the headphones (Sony has done the inline controls before, ne MiniDisc).

But then they make it so you can only buy THEIR headphones, so your nice, expensive cans you would use to listen to music you are unable to use.

They could have just make a short cable with control on it, but with a standard jack at the end so that. Nope.

So what prevents them from doing this for ALL the iPod line? (requiring proprietary headphones)?

A message I got in response to being polite and explaining why I deleted his comment.
=====================
--- ivanotter wrote:
> Your second comment, which was more inflammatory, has been deleted. I will leave the first one since it was not inflammatory. Any further inflammatory replies to my livejournal will be removed.
>
> I don't care what you may think is right or wrong, but being a blatantly disrespectful troll is not allowed on my journal.

Oh, I'm not a troll, I really did not like the guy. Inflamatory maybe, but its the goddamn truth. So fuck you, hope you die in a similar way.
=====================

So, Poll. Should I ban him?

Oh yes, and the Poll doesn't matter, I have already made up my mind. :)

I don't care if you disagree with me, even a bit on the asshole side when you do it.


Be a troll, like poly was on my journal, and I will delete your comments. Multiple times, And i will ban you from posting on it. By default, anon cannot post on my journal, so don't think that will get around it.

userid: ivanotter

http://englishrussia.com/?p=381

Luxury APC

I WANT ;-)

http://englishrussia.com/?p=330

And a copy of the Hummer I like (especially the military ones down near the bottom)

http://englishrussia.com/?p=392

I don't know what this is, but I want it ^_^

Ok, bitchy otter time!

Furp is dead. I never knew him, by the sound of it, we shared humor styles and he sounds like one of those rare, true "hero" types.

If you don't know who he is, well look at Kage's journal, @'s, or any major furry in the fandom. Ten to one, they knew him well. Me? I'm not a major fandom person, just a minor, opinionated,(currently very angry) tech otter with wings.

BUT....Oh boy.... he died by a drunk driver. Run over on his Motorbike.


Listen, you dimwitted, thrice-imbred, brainess fuckwads out there, and listen well. If you contemplate, think, decide to, or even HINT in your brain you are going to try to drive even the tiniest bit intoxicated? Please, JUST KILL YOURSELF NOW!! Thats right, take whatever death implement of choice you want, be it a bat, shotgun, cyanide, pistol, The Almighty Thor(TM) shoved sideways up your ASS (courtesy of ZooFur.com) or hell, come my way, I'll do it for you, free of charge. You can take the .45 express straight into the great beyond. Becuase I would happily go to jail knowing I saved people lives by booting your pathetic ass OUT of the gene pool with much prejudice

It's better your loser ass dies than someone like Furp, or hell ANYONE other than you. Becuase you can't use the god given sense to go "Oh wait, I can barely walk, the world is spinning while i stand still, maybe I should call a cab" you cost people their lives!

That Marine that killed him (oh yeah, did I mention it was a drunk MARINE) should be dishonorably discharged, and becuase just throwing the book at him isn't enough, have the book launched at him with whatever secret, high speed mega-cannon rail gun the military is working on straight into his SKULL!!!. Maybe, just MAYBE then he will get the clue!

As you all know, I am a pretty live and let live kind of guy. Seriously, I think after a max of 3 or 4 years, a persons criminal record should not be brought up unless its job related SPECIFICALLY (as in, if you robbed a bank, no bank job for you, THAT kind of specific). This sword of Damacles effect we have over people is just NOT kosher.

But killing unwilling people through ignorance and malice? Oh That's the big exception.

Ranting otter OUT.

Lost my Job Tuesday before last. Not a good week. Damned Economy

Well....
I had a BLAST!!!!

Seriously I did. And it was very very weird running into artists that I had watched for years and finally meeting them.

and Jace the artist (Brian Harp) is actually a really neat guy. And I bought his art...prolly spent more than I should have LOL.

Only minor downsides: Ollie Canal wasn't there. Asked Jace about it, and he says he never gets a table. And when he comes he doesn't often socialise.
And somewhere along the line, I never did find K-9 (Scott Fabinek). I had wanted to meet him

Oh well.

And my mate kahukilairu had a birthday the 23rd, during the con. This trip was kind of his BD present ^_^.

probably more to come, but in an actual pretty snappy mood.

Oh yeah, and Selkit Diller is weird, but in a good way ^_^. He's definitely a little arrogant, but not near as much as rumors would like you to believe. And we had fun eating out with him and his wife/gf (I honestly didn't ask if they were married or not). Her brother though (the one who drove us) got on my nerves a little, but some do.

I am running across some really strange Linux issues as of late with my EeePC.


Ok first off, it is the UbuntuEEE distro (netbook remix ofUbuntu with drivers specifically for the EeePC and a snappy interface)

The minor problem I have is i cant find a "bump" setting for the touchpad (a bump guard, like you can find in Windows, that allows it to realise you are not actually meaning to touch it, and prevents accidental selection and such, which has happened several times this post by me seeming to just BREATHE on it)

the bigger one, and most goddamned frustrating though, is it randomly decides it will not mount any USB based volumes.

Let me explain:

I have a USB stick, a SD card reader built in, and a mSD card reader built into my 3gModem (which was a pain in the ass to set up, BTW, compared to windows).

The built in SD reader? Works every time. Flawlessly.

The other ones, which interface through the USB ports. half the time give me the message "you are not authorised to mount this device".

EVEN WHEN I LOG INTO ROOT. I mean how much more authorised do you get than Root?

Half the time, the mSD works fine. I can't get a USB stick to work with my netbook anymore.


The frustrations are starting to make me want to load XP on this netbook and say the hell with it.

And suggestions/Help?