After avoiding it for years, I've finally decided to modify all applications that are part of Lupinia (Gallery and Wordpress, mostly) to respond to the same colour scheme settings as the rest of the site. This might not sound like a big deal, but both applications are very difficult to perform this modification on, and both of them have highly complicated CSS. But, with a few days of work, I've performed the modification on both of them, and everything works fine. I also adjusted the appearance of both applications (mostly the gallery) to make them match the layout of the rest of Lupinia.

I also had to make a modification to Wordpress so it would work correctly with a multiple-domain site, which was far more complicated that it needed to be. It was easy to solve the problem, just a two-line fix, but finding where to insert those two lines took over two hours.

My next project involves some XML (first time :-P ), followed by a module for my front page, and then I'll be ready to unveil the new-and-improved Lupinia Studios :-)

Hi everyone! A friend of mine has launched a new forum for all you furs with military backgrounds, Military Furries. So, if you're currently in the military (in any country), or used to be, join up to meet your fellow servicefurs! :-D

This site is proudly hosted by the Lupinia Hosting Community, and I personally had a lot of fun setting this one up. So, enjoy!

...I just set Firefox as my default browser.

For those who are just tuning in, I've been avoiding using Firefox for a very long time now, and I've always preferred IE 6 as my primary browser. This was due to several reasons:

1. The fanboy-factor and zealotry surrounding FF was, and still is, a massive turn-off. It's just a browser, you fuckwits, shut up about it already.
2. I loathe tabbed interfaces. My taskbar is 1920px wide for a reason.
3. Firefox has a very slow initial start time compared to IE6, even with no extensions
4. Firefox has a few irritating rendering bugs, which I mostly had to deal with while designing.
5. I don't jump on new technology simply because it's new; I prefer to adopt new software/devices only if they're a genuine upgrade/improvement to my existing ways of doing things.

With version 3 of Firefox, item #4 has been resolved, and in my boredom last night, I researched some settings and tweaks to resolve #3 (which was one of the biggest things keeping me from using FF more often) and #2.

Combined with the fact that large Javascript-intensive sites I use regularly, like MyFursona and DeviantArt, are starting to actively say "fuck you" to IE 6 users (a design philosphy I view as lazy, offensive, and premature, since IE6 still has more usage than Opera or Safari), it seemed logical to at least explore the option of switching. I started using FF as a secondary browser a couple weeks ago, in addition to my use of it for web design purposes, and using two browsers side-by-side started to seem a bit silly.

I've spent most of the day tweaking settings to my liking (I spent many years learning IE customization, so getting something else to feel less alien is a major endeavour), as well as some minor interface adjustments (why the hell does the Bookmarks menu have so much extra crap?). And, after doing all that work, FF is finally starting to feel comfortable for me and my apparently unusual usage style.

So, yeah. The long-time Firefox hater uses Firefox now. Laugh it up, or whatever. I still intend to continue strong support for IE6 in all my website designs, because designs that work natively in IE6 and adhere to all standards tend to work well in all other major browsers, in my experience.

About Extensions
Extensions are an interesting concept, but certainly not a new one. IE4 even had them, they're called ActiveX controls (it just didn't get a handy interface to manage them until IE6sp2). This is not a revolutionary concept, Firefox just has a larger and less malicious developer base for them.

Personally, I feel that a browser should be a single-purpose tool for reading and navigating web-based documents/media. And, I strongly value efficiency and low resource usage. So, I have just four extensions (two that are closely linked, one other major one, and a very small one), with a very small selection of search engines, and I plan to keep it that way. Therefore, if you're going to recommend your favourite extensions to me, here's what I'm going to ask:

1. Does it have anything to do with tabs?
2. Does it do something/add a feature that isn't directly related to viewing/navigating websites?
3. Does it make a primarily cosmetic change?
4. Does it increase the initial load time or overall memory/processor usage of the application?

If the answer to any of those is "yes", I'm not interested. Thanks.

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

Note: I drafted this awhile ago, and while re-reading it just now, I realize I probably come across as a bit of an asshole. Well, tough cookies, I'm not changing it, and here's why. For years, ever since Firefox came out, I've had to listen to the entire internet and all my RL friends talk endlessly about how FF is the most awesome browser ever, and only lobotomized orangutans use IE, and so forth. The elitism of Firefox fans is everywhere (even on every page of the admin console of my Wordpress journal), and combined with my inherent repulsion at being constantly told that my way of doing things is wrong when it's not, the whole subject has stayed very bitter for me.

My response to this, for years, has been "I'll find a new browser when I'm ready, leave me the f*** alone until then". So, now I'm ready, and I've switched. But, you know what? I still loathe the elitism surrouding Firefox. I don't want to hear it. And I fear that, now that I'm "one of the club" to those who enjoy that sort of thing, I'm going to hear even more of it.

So, I guess the point of this post is that you people no longer need to try to convert me, I'm already here. But I don't want to hear the verbal high-fiving that surrounds this particular browser, either. Just let me surf in peace, please. Thanks.

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

Edit: Relating to my comment about AdBlock below, does anyone know how to prevent FF from displaying "Failed to Connect" errors when ads are blocked? They're not particularly irritating, but they're more intrusive in FF than in IE. Google has not been able to help me :-\

Since DA is increasing in popularity among furs due to FA being down, I figured I'd go ahead and post my username again. My DA account is felixlockhart, and I post photos there :-)

I also +fav and give comments and stuff on furry art, because DA needs more of it :-)

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting really, REALLY fucking tired of hearing "I have new art/photos/writings/whatevers to show off, but FA is down, so I can't". I see this on LJ, on forums (including one with an integrated image gallery o.O), on IRC, and in IM conversations. I can't turn around without hearing someone whine about FA being down, and claiming that they can't share media on the internet without it.

Here's a bit of a newsflash, people: This is the internet! It was built for exactly this purpose! There are literally thousands of websites out there designed solely to help you share your media, whatever format it happens to be in. Some of them have communities surrounding them, some of them don't. Some of them like furries, some of them don't. Some of them have as piss-poor reliability as FA, but the vast majority are more stable. But, they're out there, and the selection is overwhelming.

Plus, if you can't find a site out there to your liking, you can even make your own! It's easy, really, and there's no complicated licensing or anything. Just decide whether you want to pay for this or not, find a host that doesn't suck (hint: if it's not AOL, Geocities, Tripod, or Freewebs, it probably doesn't suck), and throw together a basic website in the application of your choice. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can build a website; it might not be the greatest, but it's better than whining about FA and doing nothing.

Or, if you must have social networking feedback on your media, there's plenty of those sites too! And almost all of them have ways of sharing text, images, and audio. They come in many flavours, with varying degrees of suck, but they're out there and easy to find.

Even LJ (where you're probably reading this) has a rudimentary, poorly-designed gallery that, while difficult for random people to navigate, will allow you insert your images into LJ posts.

In any case, there are infinite solutions to this problem that are more productive than whining about FA. So, find one you like, use it, and stop whining! You can always go back to FA if/when it comes back; this is the internet, it's not like you need a passport to go from one site to another. But in the meantime, if you do something productive, you'll still be able to share your work (or your commissions; I should clarify that most of the people I hear this bullshit from are not artists themselves), and your internet life will continue. And, who knows, you might even find a new social group to interact with, or you might find that you really like running your own website. Just stop whining about it, ok?

This was posted by maikujaku, and I'm reposting it because, not only do I really hate FA for precisely these reasons, but someone sang it in our room one night at AC and I've been trying to find some evidence of the song since :-P

Sung to the tune of "Still Alive" from Portal.

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

This was a failure
I'm making a note here EPIC CRASH
It's hard to keep the servers up and running
Amateur Coders
The searches are down because we suck
Donations you sent to us We don't know where they have gone.
But there's no sense crying over every mistake
Fur Affinity's searching Has turned out to be fake.
And you gave us a ton
So our systems all could run
But the searches were all Just a lie

I bet you're all angry,
Cause everything's 404 not found
It's visitors not DOS attacks That killed me
My website's in pieces
The servers all run like they're on fire
As you wait it hurts because We don't know what we can do
We just made a website Without planning it well
We had no idea we'd be going through hell
So we asked for your cash to buy servers that would crash
Seems donations were all just a lie

So how long is 'shortly'?
Been looking at this dumb fox for days
Maybe you'll find someone else to host you
Maybe FURNATION
That was a joke HA HA Don't leave
Hardware in a cardboard box Was just a figure of speech
Look at me still singing while the site is offline
Maybe all the donations Should buy bandwidth next time
But I got a new car And some drinks down at the bar
While the servers are all still offline
FurNations running and We are offline
And so is VCL but We're offline
We'll be back shortly but now We're offline
We're up an hour but now We're offline
We should all give up and just Stay offline
We're online! Back offline!

The Site Is A Lie (c) Joey Porter/Corsi Mousehold

I really, really appreciate all the mentions and thank-yous in some of your Anthrocon posts. Things like that really made this my best AC ever. However, I'd like to point out that the "J" in my LJ username isn't really part of my name. It's a middle initial that I don't use nearly as often as I did when I created this account (over five year ago, before I was a fur), if at all. So, unless you're making an <lj user=""> tag, I'd appreciate it if y'all would drop the J. My full fur name (Felix Softpaw) is specific enough, or just "Felix" works in certain contexts.

Not a big deal, of course, just a little note. Thanks :-)

Real con posts tomorrow when I'm less tired.

I am afraid of....

[ ] the dark
[ x ] staying single forever
[ x ] being a parent
[ ] giving birth
[ x ] being myself in front of others
[ ] open spaces
[ x ] closed spaces
[ x ] heights (Unless I feel safely protected from falling)
[ ] dogs
[ x ] birds
[ ] fish
[ x ] spiders (And other insects)
[ ] flowers or other plants

Total so far: 7

[ ] being touched
[ ] fire
[ x ] deep water
[ ] snakes
[ ] silk
[ ] the ocean
[ x ] failure
[ ] success
[ ] thunder/lightning
[ ] frogs/toads
[ ] my boyfriends/girlfriends dad
[ ] boyfriends/girlfriends mom
[ ] rats
[ x ] jumping from high places
[ ] snow

Total so far: 10

[ ] rain
[ ] wind
[ x ] crossing hanging bridges
[ x ] death
[ ] heaven
[ ] being robbed
[ ] falling
[ ] clowns
[ ] dolls
[ ] large crowds of people
[ ] men
[ ] women
[ x ] having great responsibilities
[ ] doctors, including dentists
[ x ] tornadoes

Total so far: 14

[ x ] hurricanes
[ x ] incurable diseases
[ x ] sharks
[ ] Friday the 13th
[ ] ghosts
[ x ] poverty
[ ] Halloween
[ ] school
[ ] trains
[ ] odd numbers
[ ] even numbers
[ ] being alone
[ x ] becoming blind
[ x ] becoming deaf
[ ] growing up

Total so far: 20

[ ] creepy noises in the night
[ x ] bee stings (I'm severely allergic, so...)
[ x ] not accomplishing my dreams/goals
[ x ] needles
[ ] blood
[ ] dinosaurs
[ ] the welcome mat
[ ] high speed
[ ] throwing up
[ ] falling in love
[ ] super secrets

Final Total: 23

... if you wish to post this in your journal, it's been requested that you title it "I'm afraid of _ out of 72 common fears"

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

I'm such a wuss...

EDIT: Just a note, for those who get this from me, the comments in parenthesis are my own personal comments, they're not part of the meme.

For many years, despite not doing much pen-on-paper writing, I've always had a fondness for fountain pens. I guess it's partially my fetish for uniqueness, but something about the beauty and precision of a fountain nib just feels nice to use.

Several months ago, fox_cub started making pens on his lathe, and he made me an absolutely beautiful purple and gold fountain pen. Not only is purple my favourite colour, but the pen he made for me looks and feels much, much nicer than the black-and-gold Cross pen I paid $50 for in high school. It came with blue ink, which is ok, but having a purple-bodied pen gave me a great idea. In high school, I had one of those Pilot gel pens with purple ink, and I loved it. I haven't been able to find them in recent years, and the ones I had have long since dried out (and not refillable, of course). So, since fountain pens are readily refillable, I decided to try to find purple ink for my new one.

The idea remained just an idea for a long time, mostly due to the limited amount of writing I actually do. But, with AC coming up fast, I decided to look around and see what I could find. I went to the local art supply shop, and picked up a container of purple acrylic ink, based on the uncertainty of the lady working there as to whether it would work or not. I figured it was worth a try due to a lack of other options, and the fact that my Cross pen kinda sucks (so I could test with it), and if I caused any permanent damage to my nice hand-made pen, the nib could be easily replaced (though not exactly cheap).

Well, the results were less than stellar in the old pen. It worked great as long as I was actively using it, but once I capped it and set it aside for awhile, it needed a little help from the cleaning fluid I bought to get going again. However, that pen has always had flow issues, for reasons unknown to me, while my nice new one has shown itself to be much more shelf-stable. So, I tried the new ink in the new pen. The results were much more promising, but it still tends to dry out a bit quickly. I tried diluting the ink with a small amount of cleaning fluid, which seemed to help a bit, but I didn't want to thin it out too much, at the risk of having an entire 2oz bottle of unusably thin ink. Plus, I'm not sure it's chemically possible to change the properties of acrylic ink without turning it into coloured alcohol (or whatever that stuff's made of).

So, does anyone with experience in pens have any recommendations of how to have purple ink in mine?

EDIT: While typing this post, I also did some searching, and found a very high-end brand of ink with a ton of colours (including several shades of purple) that lists Weldin's as a supplier. If I'm not mistaken, that's one of the nice art supply shops near the convention center in downtown Pittsburgh, right? I can just drop by on Wednesday before I head to Fox's house :-)

EDIT 2: Right after posting this, gravity and physics decided to gang up on me for daring to have pretty pen ink, and spontaneously knocked over the container of cleaning fluid that my pen parts were soaking in, spilling purple-tinted mystery solvent all over my desk. Thankfully, nothing major was damaged; I lost a cheap notepad and the entire $5 bottle of cleaner. Somehow, the ink reservoir for my old pen managed to get cleaning fluid behind the plunger, and there's no way to get it out that I can see (how'd it get there in the first place? o.o). Considering the weird semi-sticky sensation this stuff leaves behind, and what it does to acrylic ink, I don't dare use it for water-based ink in that condition. So, if I want to use anything other than the crappy blue-black cartridges that Staples sells, I'll have to find a new reservoir (or get another awesome Foxie-made pen from fox_cub for black ink).

Over the last couple of weeks, I've received two bits of very disappointing news from two different European car brands, and I haven't posted in awhile, so I figured I'd share.

First off, Volkswagen, the hallmark of affordable, yet brilliant, German engineering, doesn't seem follow the "make a car better every year" philosophy that every other brand does.

Given the recent engine/transmission problems of my Crown Vic, the fact that it's still not back to 100%, and its utterly abysmal fuel economy (normally not a factor in vehicle purchases, nor do I plan for it to be, but damn, < 12mpg hurts), I've started idly thinking about replacing it. And, since I'm still working on/hoping for a real-paying job, I've been toying with the idea of making my next vehicle the first brand-new car anyone in my family has had in almost 20 years. Problem is, I'm probably the pickiest person ever when it comes to cars, and my biggest factor when buying a car is uniqueness; whether that comes from distinctive features, interesting history, or just general rarity. Basically, if I see a car more than once every couple of days, I don't want it, because a car is a LOT more than just a transportation tool for me, and I want something I'm going to take pride in driving. Other factors include comfort, appearance/design (another area where I have peculiar tastes), performance (the definition of this depends on what the vehicle is built to do), and reliability, in that order.

So, I've been looking at the Volkswagen Eos. It's a cute little two-door convertible, with a hard-top, and a huge sunroof. It's very distinctive, I've never seen one in person, it looks very beautiful both inside and out (in my opinion), and it looks like it'd be lots of fun to drive, without being uncomfortably tiny like a Miata or Z3. Now, the Eos currently comes with two different engines. The base engine is a 2.0L turbo that has oil burning problems after 5,000-15,000 miles, and has very notable turbo lag, causing it to feel very underpowered at low RPM. Oh, and it requires 93 octane gas at an absolute minimum, which is very hard to find around here. Then, there's the 3.2L V6 that's naturally aspirated, used on several Audi models, less picky about fuel, more powerful, and nearly identical in fuel economy (19/30 for the 2.0, 19/26 for the 3.2, both a significant improvement over what I have now). It doesn't burn oil, it doesn't have the complexity of factory turbos, and it's an overall superior engine that's better suited to the car.

Now, for the disappointing part. For the 2009 model year, VW is making some significant changes to the Eos. They're phasing out the 3.2L engine entirely, replacing the 2.0 with a different 2.0 turbo that's only marginally improved (if at all), removing fog lights (WTF?), and removing some wheel options. The only positive improvements they're making are to make the fancy-schmancy adaptive HID headlights available as an option on all packages, and upgrading the navigation system. I can understand changing the options around, because the V6 model had a ton of exclusive options that weren't available on the others, but phasing out the engine entirely is just unacceptable to me, and the alleged reason they did it (improve average fuel mileage numbers across all models) seems rather ridiculous, considering the miniscule difference between the two.

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

Disappointment #2 comes from Ford, or more specifically, their recent plans to sell Jaguar and Land Rover. This doesn't affect me directly, since any Rover I get would be too old to matter, but I've always really liked both brands, and the rich history/prestige associated with them. Unfortunately, neither company has been particularly profitable, so they tend to get bought and sold a lot.

When Ford acquired Jaguar, and then Land Rover, I wasn't overly thrilled, since Ford isn't exactly the pinnacle of luxury (I couldn't think of a non-offensive analogy to illustrate this, so use your imagination). But, they've been around for over a century, and they at least have half a clue about how to build a nice car (see: Lincoln Towncar), so I figured they'd be able to do some good things with both nameplates.

Well, just a couple years after buying Land Rover, Ford is now selling both it and Jaguar. Unfortunately, neither company has shown significant improvement since the Ford acquisition, so all of the corporations higher on the "ladder" than Ford aren't interested. Who does that leave? The trashiest car company big enough to afford it: Tata Motors.

This company is based in India, and their primary markets cover the middle east, southeast asia, and parts of africa. They sell a large volume of heavy-hauler trucks, and apparently those don't suck nearly as bad as their passenger models, which list "low fuel indicator" as a feature, and airbags are a luxury option. Now, I admit, there's nothing inherently wrong with selling dirt-cheap cars that rival the Yugo in "features", developing countries need that niche to be filled, and a lot of people in the US and Europe would buy a car that falls apart after 100,000 miles if it was $6,000 new. But, this is not the kind of company that should be making $80,000 luxury cars and SUVs, even if it's indirect. I shudder to think what will happen to engineering masterpieces like the Jaguar XK-R with the brand under the control of a company that can't even keep up with other current-year econoboxes. Tata's current-year 4-door sedan (the nicest of their passenger cars) isn't even equipped comparably to a late-90s Honda Civic, let alone something currently on the market.

Sad.

After working on the Lupinia Hosting website off and on since mid-March, the site is finally 100% complete, and the new user registration form is open and working!

So, if you need website, file, or email hosting, check out the Lupinia Hosting Community!

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

In other news, this was the last site I needed to complete to polish off my portfolio (definitely wanted to include this site due to its unique structure and complex forms), which means I can finally take a shot at getting employed by a real company! Yay!

So, if anyone has any awesome advice on how to impress a prospective employer, now would be the time to share :-D

I apologize for spamming everyone with this again, but the actual election is now open for the LJ Advisory Board. As many of you remember from earlier this month, I'm strongly in support of tango for this position, he's a great leader, long-time member of LJ's support department, and a great guy all around. To keep this announcement concise, I'll link to a post in Tango's LJ where he explains more about his qualifications and so forth.

What's important in this election is making everyone's voice heard, and electing someone who will best represent the views of the entire LJ userbase (or at least the majority of it). So, everyone, please vote in the election.

The poll is being held instant-runoff style, where everyone selects their three favourite candidates, and the two winners receive a position on the board. Obviously, I support tango, but voting for just one person in all three spots doesn't make just sense. Personally, I also support vichan and rm, but there's a full list of candidates and links to their position statements available in news, so you can review the candidates and choose your favourites.

Please Vote In The Election!