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27 Things I Noticed During Ushicon 8

Ushicon 8 took place this past weekend. It is different in that it is the only 18+ anime con in Texas, as well as the first one I’ve ever attended. On with the list!

I didn’t know this year’s Ushicon was number 8 until I saw it on the t-shirt.
Yeah, that’s not terribly important, but if you’ve been around for awhile, you should crow a little, you know?
Worst thing that I noticed: Why does the men’s room on the first floor smell like mushrooms?
Round Rock has the screwiest parking lots I’ve ever driven through.
The maid cafe had the same large parfait on the menu listed as the “Lover’s Parfait” or “Forever Alone.” Clever.
Given that Valentine’s day is this week I was tempted to get a “Forever Alone” one but I think it contained enough sugar to put a horse into diabetic shock.
The Dairy Queen near the hotel has to be the fastest one I have ever been to. After placing my order, I filled my soda, sat down, started to chat with Chris, and BAM. Done.
The hotel did everything in their power to piss me off before and during check-in.
Wow, I can actually talk with fellow attendees about anime from the 80’s like Dirty Pair and even Robot Carnival!
No Rock Band in the video game room? WEAK.
It could have totally fit in the middle where nobody was playing table-top games.
Being an 18+ con meant swearing was okay. ***k yeah.
That said, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a con that was this well behaved.
Which, I guess, is kind of 0the point of the whole thing.
The panels were pretty interesting, or at least the ones I could enter because Panel Room 2 was too damn small for anything.
Meanwhile there were plenty of empty chairs in the video rooms…just sayin’
The cosplay show was cool; no judges or drama, just lots of folks showing off their cool costumes.
Holding up my iPad mini for 20 minutes to record it was not, guess I’ll stick with my camera.
Actually Panel Room 2 did work well for an improvised “Artist Meetup” on Saturday night 🙂
There were a few fellow furries present, w00t.
The number of bronies present (or at least the ones that were wearing t-shirts) could be counted on one hand. AWESOME.
The only time things got loud was when it got late and folks started drinking, you know, like at every other fan convention.
Went to a “Project Meeting” panel on Sunday to offer feedback. I sat around for about 10 minutes being ignored and left. They could have at least asked me to introduce myself.
Okay, not completely ignored, one guy was decent enough to offer me a doughnut.
There was a gap of ‘nothing interesting happening’ on Sunday long enough for me to make a quick sojourn to Fry’s Electronics.
Fry’s still has a anime section!
I made the mistake of going to the maid cafe to chill out during Yaoi Tea Time. It was like I was listening to a Spanish novela, and occasionally seeing…well, I’d rather not go there.

Books, BUSINESS, CREATIVE, JUST SAYING, RANDOMIZER9.COM, The Rules of Tech Support, WHATS GOING ON, Writing

Off To Binary Heaven

square cover

I have been on a bit of a ‘simplify things’ kick lately, as evidenced by the fact that I am no longer a video game website editor, a drummer in a band, or involved in any conventions outside of being an attendee or panelist. I cut back on my side projects and decided to devote the majority of my time to writing and getting the word out about my e-books.

Case in point: therulesoftechsupport.com (don’t bother, the site is kaputski and I still own the domain). It was intended to be a ‘companion’ to my second e-book, Things being what they are, I didn’t get around to updating it as much as I could have, partially due to the aforementioned side projects, and also because of all the other writing I do.

So its no wonder that there weren’t very many visitors to the site. The year of hosting I had prepaid for was coming due, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to pay for a site that I didn’t have the time to keep up with and that wasn’t being visited. So I shut down the site.

While I took the liberty of grabbing all of the articles and pictures from the site prior to shutting it down, I feel a little sad over pulling the plug. Granted, I’ve had other websites that have gone off to binary heaven for one reason or another, but for what its worth, this one was mine.

COMICS, CREATIVE, FURRY, RANDOMIZER9.COM, WORDS, Writing

The Laws of the Furry Webcomic Jungle

One of the awesome things about the Internet is that you can find a webcomic that deals with pretty much any subject you can think of. As many furries are artistically inclined, there are naturally a number of furry comics out there on the tubes. Since ‘anything goes’ on the Web, there are a few that allow the predator/prey relationship to exist even though they otherwise take place in a ‘civilized world.’ I’ll be talking about two in particular that take contrasting approaches to their ‘dog eat dog’ worlds.

“Kevin and Kell” by Bill Holbrook is a comedy strip that takes place in a furry world and focuses on the mixed marriage of the title characters (a rabbit and wolf) and their family. “Doc Rat” by Jenner is a furry humor strip about a rat physician who has a clinic in what could be called furry Australia. If the two strips were movies, Kevin and Kell would be given a ‘G’ rating compared to Doc Rat’s ‘PG.’

Both comics take place in worlds that are similar to our present-day one, but for the fact that the “civilized world” is populated by anthropomorphic animals instead of humans. While on the surface that is nothing new, the fact that predators can devour prey makes for some interesting reading. Holbrook and Jenner handle the relationship in different ways, which makes sense given that the different tones that their respective strips possess.

“Kevin and Kell” April 23, 1997

Kevin and Kell is a comedy strip which takes place in a world where social classes are defined by whether a person is a carnivore, herbivore, nocturnal, avian and so on and so forth. Despite this, many, if not all of the lead characters in the strip defy their roles. Kevin is a rabbit. While lurking in a carnivore forum, he meets Kell and falls in love with her. Unbeknownst to him, Kell is a wolf. Of course, love conquers all, and so they are married despite the fact that their relationship is not the norm in their world. Even more iconoclasts are introduced into the cast as it progresses, and one would be hard-pressed to find many ‘normal’ characters.

In Kevin and Kell, the predator/prey relationship is mostly played for laughs. Indeed, many of the jokes in the strip involve animals. An early running gag involved Kell’s brother Ralph (and Kevin’s brother-in-law) constantly trying to eat Kevin. As Kevin is an usually large rabbit, he is able to easily repulse Ralph’s attempts. While one-off characters are constantly eaten for laughs, members of the main cast that are prey species have occasionally come under attack from predators. Like any good sitcom, though, everything ends up being okay in the end, and life goes on. Thus, in the grand scheme of things, predation really isn’t that a big of a deal.

“Doc Rat” March 8, 2011

Doc Rat is also a humor strip, but it has a more serious tone than Kevin and Kell, and so its treatment of the predator/prey relationship is also more serious. In the world of Doc Rat, predators can eat prey, but there are limits. In instances where this has happened, the characters will often speak about the kill ‘being legal’ and in one instance the eating of prey species is referred to as ‘cultural tradition.’ Incidentally, a wolf and a rabbit are also married in Doc Rat (curiously enough, the roles are reversed in that strip) but the topic of the predator having to eat meat is treated in a more sober manner.

SPOILER ALERT

In a recent story arc (that begins with this strip) a venomous snake bites someone with the intent of eating them, but the victim gets away to the hospital. The victim has a sixty-hour window to (I presume) ‘get away’ before the predator comes to claim the ‘wild meat’ as he is now referred to. The legalese is little tricky for me, because the author’s experience is with the Australian legal system as opposed to the USA’s. As near as I can figure out, once a predator decides to hunt, they file paperwork of some sort and can then begin to hunt their intended prey. Children are also not protected either, as happened in this arc.

END SPOILER

For all the talk of legality, the ‘law of the jungle’ is a part of life in the world of Doc Rat, prey characters refer to victims of predators as ‘being taken’ or ‘becoming meat.’ The titular character’s role as a doctor also exposes him to aspects of predation that most members of their society probably don’t have to deal with. In one strip, the lead character and a fellow doctor muse over having to prepare a patient to be eaten: “Not the most fun part of being a doctor, mate.” Unlike Kevin and Kell, predation in Doc Rat is a very serious matter and has impacted the lives of some of the characters.

Kevin and Kell and Doc Rat take markedly different approaches to predation in their furry worlds, and they both work because they match the tone used in their respective strips: Kevin and Kell plays it up for laughs whereas Doc Rat treats it in a more serious manner. Indeed, both comics are highly enjoyable reads whether you are looking for sitcom-esque laughs or the story of a doctor and his patients…who just happen to be animals.

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Don’t Make It Worse

What about hot water heaters, Fate?

Its not quite a Rule of Tech Support (I’ll have to check the list to make sure) but a good rule to follow whenever you’re fixing something is “don’t make it worse.” If you can’t fix something at least try to get back to where you were when you started, it just makes life easier down the road, even if it is for the next guy that’s going to be looking at whatever it is you’re trying to fix. If its someone else’s thing you’re fixing, be up front and honest about what is happening.

The poor handling of an unfortunate situation is one common thread that I see over and over again whenever someone takes to the Internet to air a legitimate grievance, like the musician who recently had a guitar damaged by incompetent baggage handlers after he was denied the right to carry it onto the plane with him. Something unfortunate happens, the person seeks remedy from the company that wronged them, and the company completely blows the opportunity to prove they’re really all about the customer. Instead they blow them off, or insult them with a feeble attempt at compensation and look like a bunch of non-caring jerks.

I wouldn’t have been so riled up about the recent hot water outage in my apartment but for the way the staff handled the situation. The first time it happened, I was upset, but the email I received after the fact offered an apology and explained the situation. I read it and was satisfied to know that the problem was being taken care of. If they had sent a properly worded email the second time it happened, I probably wouldn’t have gone onto this blog to open up a can of Internet Wrath™.

Stuff happens, and I believe that most people are willing to accept that stuff happens as long as you don’t insult their intelligence by ignoring them, insulting their intellgence or being condescending. Own the problem, let your customers know that things are being attended to, and most folks will accept that. Don’t make it worse.

In any event, the hot water is back, so its time for a bath. I ain’t dipping my big toe in that tub until its good and ready, though!

BUSINESS, JUST SAYING, RANDOMIZER9.COM, WHISKEY-TANGO-FOXTROT

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Click to see what awaited me after work.

Click to see the good news and poor comma usage.

Final Update: 1/9, 1030PM: Looks like the hot water’s back, w00t.

2nd Update: 1/9, 620PM: Still nothing, purchased a “Homer Bucket” from Home Depot to assist with bathing. Not bad for two-fifty or so, though I wish they had tops for them.

UPDATE 1/8, 430PM: After sending a link to this blog to the regional manager via Venterra Realty’s website, I got a call from the complex at about 4PM. I was unable to answer because I was busy at work. They left a message essentially saying they’re really sorry (again) but they don’t have an ETA for a fix. Whoopee. I called back but got a message saying they’re weren’t available. They called me back again and apparently the entire boiler went kerplotz, so they need to get a new one…yeah, I think that’s going to be awhile.

If you’ve lived in an apartment for any decent amount of time, it’s a question that you get to ask yourself every year or so. As the day your lease ends gets closer, you think it over and think it over until finally the ‘renew your lease’ letter drops into your mailbox or gets left on your door. If you’re lucky, your rent stays the same, or only goes up a few bucks, so assuming things haven’t been too crazy, you re-up, and stand pat for another year or so.

If you aren’t lucky, your rent goes up just enough to make you think over whether you want to pay more to stay in a place that you are not completely happy living in. My renewal letter came in the mail about a week ago. I opened it to learn that my rent is going to be going up $50 a month. Crap.

I initially had a few issues with my current apartment complex after I moved in. The buildings are a bit on the older side and so it seemed that the maintenance guys were coming in at least once a month to fix or do something or other. I also had problems with the office hours not being consistent, I would occasionally have to go to the office to pay my rent during my lunch break to find it closed. Things did seem to be getting a little bit better as time went on, but still I winced when I saw that fifty dollar increase and thus began the internal debate.

Then last Saturday the hot water went out. On a 40-degree morning.

After making that discovery and stewing in my own juices for an hour, I boiled a bunch of water, took a hot bath, and life went on. I received an email later that day containing the management’s apology for the outage. It also said that there was a temporary fix in place and that the boiler would be fully repaired on Monday.

I think to myself: “Okay. These guys have got a handle on this. The boiler will be fixed on Monday. Awesome.’

I spoke too soon. I got home to find the lovely e-mail above waiting for me in my inbox. I turned on the tap, and of course, no hot water. No telling when its going to be fixed, either. All I have is a poorly-written message about ‘a part that needs to be ordered’ that I’m sure was hurriedly banged out by someone before they got out of Dodge.

Last straw, meet camel’s back.

ANIME, ANTHROCON, Books, CAMPING, CONS, FURRY, FURRY FIESTA, IKKICON, MIZUUMICON, Oklacon, RANDOM STOPS, RANDOMIZER9.COM, SAN JAPAN, TEXAS COMICCON

2013 Convention Schedule

Photobomb by Amanda Rogers of mural-magic.com

Another year means another bunch of conventions to attend and enjoy! Unlike previous years, where I was either just an attendee or assisting with other folks’ tables, I will be peddling my wares at some of these events. Buy or die!

While this isn’t a convention per se, I plan on showing up and selling my books at the St. Phillip’s Anime Club Anime Show held every weekend at Bubblehead Tea just south of downtown San Antonio on the first Friday of nearly every month. I don’t know that I’ll have a table every month, but its a fun free event to go to and hang out at.

Ushicon, Feb 8-10, Round Rock, TX – Ushicon is an 18+ only anime convention, this will be the first time that I am attending, so I’ll be curious to see how different it will be without the usual Pocky and Ramune-fueled teenagers running around everywhere.

Furry Fiesta 2013, Feb 22-24, Addison, TX – After gushing over Furry Fiesta last year, coming back is a no-brainer, but this time I’m hoping to do a panel on e-book publishing, maybe sit around in Artist Alley for a day or so and have fun.

Mizuumi-Con 6, March 23, San Antonio, TX – San Antonio’s second biggest anime con should be loads of fun again, hopefully the gym won’t become a sauna like it did last year. I plan on having a table at this one also.

Wild Nights, April 25-29, Robber’s Cave State Park – Despite Oklacon being an ‘okay’ event and not a ‘knock my socks off’ one, I am eager to try another outdoor convention. Wild Nights takes place in a different part of Oklahoma and as there aren’t very many other furcons near Texas, let’s give it a shot!

Texas ComicCon 2013 June 21-23, San Antonio, TX – I like Texas Comic-Con, and I want to like it more, but its venue is a dump and the show has become the ‘same thing every year’ for me, so I’ll probably go just for a day to hang out with friends.

Anthrocon 2013, July 4-7, Pittsburgh PA – Anthrocon is the world’s largest furcon, and something I’d really like to go to, but I’m on the fence on making the trip because of the money involved. Stupid car payment and rent going up.

San Japan 6, Aug 16-18, San Antonio, TX – The 500-lb gorilla in San Antonio, San Japan is a blast. I’m not 100% sure of my plans for it right now, but I’m fairly certain I won’t have a table so I’ll get to actually have fun.

As most of these conventions take place in the first half of 2013, I may add another event late in the year, money permitting of course. Hope to see you somewhere!

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RANDOM REVIEW: 2012

2012 was an interesting year for me. I got into my first car accident, purchased a new vehicle, and started going camping again. Needless to say, ‘interesting’ doesn’t always mean ‘good.’

After a year of experimenting with e-publishing my first e-book: “One Sheet Stories.” I finally completed “The Rules of Tech Support.” It has been doing fairly well. I have also published “Seven Super-Short Sci-Fi Stories” and “Con Fluff 1” since then, so things are coming along nicely on the writing front. Curiously enough, I am now moving from the digital realm to the physical one: 2013 will see me showing up at conventions to sell paper copies of my books and hand out business cards and flyers to get the word out about my writing. In all honesty, I’m looking forward to going out and talking to people, pressing some flesh, and then reaching for the hand sanitizer. 🙂

In February, I went to Furry Fiesta to see what the whole ‘furry’ thing was about. There, I discovered a bunch of cool creative people and decided to venture further down the rabbit hole (ba-doom, tissh) when I got back. I went to some local meets, made some friends, and even went to a second furcon, Oklacon, in October. While Oklacon wasn’t quite as knock-my-socks-off as Furry Fiesta was, I still had a good time. In addition, furry conventions have provided me with a plethora of themes to write for, culminating in my first furry e-book: “Con Fluff.”

Somewhere around August, I got the feeling that my ‘side projects’ were getting in the way of my own. Being the drummer in a band, the editor for a video game website and helping out with a new convention that was starting up in town was just taking up too much of my time, so I quit everything. Indeed, as the last few hours of 2012 tick away and 2013 approaches, I am now just a writer of stories, podcasts and blogs.

I’m looking forward to 2013, it should be a fun year full of conventions, stories, new people to meet and of course, furries!

Happy New Year, y’all!

Some of my favorite posts from 2012:

“I am a furry”

“You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight, and you don’t bring human art to a furry con.”

“This reminds me of an episode of My Little Pony!”

“There’s just something about seeing your name on paper.”

“I think Dust has restored some of my faith in gaming.”

“I know darn well there’s no signal, but I keep checking my phone. I may have a problem.”

This one is from Dec. 2011, but its too good to not revist: ‘and then came the fishnets’

CREATIVE, JUST SAYING, RANDOMIZER9.COM, WHATS GOING ON, WORDS, Writing

A “Special Delivery”

I constantly see artist friends posting their art up on various places out on the tubes, and every so often I’ll just browse a friend’s DeviantArt or Furaffinity account to pass the time and to be amazed by their abilities. As can be evidenced by my book covers, I have ZERO design sense when it comes to anything visual.

I happened to be looking at Amanda Coronado’s artwork on DeviantArt and came across a picture titled “Birds of Hermes.” To me, the picture showed two brothers having a cute moment; the younger not wanting to go somewhere or do something his elder was making him do. The smaller one just has that ‘do we HAVE to’ look about him. As the youngest of three brothers, I could easily see myself in that spot.

Of course, a ‘moment’ does not make a story, so the tale begins just before the picture. The two brothers have their moment, but also have a task to accomplish, and from then on it becomes ‘my’ story, which means that hilarity ensues. I titled the story “Special Delivery” and you can read it here.

It just goes to show that you never know where inspiration where come from. I guess I need to go fishing for inspiration in my friends’ artwork a little more often.

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Headlines and Butterflies

Must be a country music fan…

I don’t have a family of my own as of yet, so I spend Thanksgiving with my parents. I drive down to my hometown, catch up with friends, bake a pie or two, eat lots of Mom’s good food, watch football and maybe do a little shopping. I also make it a point to read the town newspaper. I saw the article pictured at right and chuckled to myself, thinking: ‘yeah, its amateur night.’ It also made me think about the time I had applied for a job at that same newspaper years ago.

I didn’t get the gig because I didn’t have any writing samples on me at the time. I remember being irritated about that after the fact because I have two college degrees and this wasn’t exactly The Washington Post I was applying to. “How hard is it to write about honor rolls, City Council meetings and the occasional tractor accident?” I probably thought to myself at the time.

I got over it, life went on and I would eventually go on to write other things: short stories, video game reviews, podcasts and this blog. I never again thought about the snub until I saw that poorly written headline. As people are oft to do, I started to think about ‘what might have been.’ I quickly dismissed those thoughts to the back recesses of my mind, because I had better things for it to do, like get to work on the two short stories I need to have done by the end of next week.

Among other things, I subscribe to what is called the “Butterfly Effect.” Simply put, it states that a small change can ultimately have a much larger impact at a later point in time. “Does the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas,” and all that. You see the theory mentioned a lot in science fiction, especially where time travel is concerned, and it is also the title of a movie that I’ve never bothered to see.

Thus, I believe that if you are truly happy in your current situation, you cannot have any regrets at all. Even the smallest decision or event from years ago may have significantly altered your destiny. So don’t waste your time wistfully thinking about ‘what might have been.’ If you are not happy with your situation, do something about it, even if it is a small step. Small steps can eventually lead to something bigger and doing something is always better than doing nothing. On the other hand:

If you are content with your life…

Be happy,

Be thankful,

but most of all, be you.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

JUST SAYING, Nintendo, RANDOMIZER9.COM, TECH, Videogames

Has Nintendo Jumped The Shark?

Detractors of certain games, genres, and even systems often complain that “all they do is make the same game over and over again.” As much as I hate to admit it, I’m starting to feel that way about Nintendo.

I first got this vibe when Super Mario Galaxy 2 was released. I still haven’t picked it up and don’t really have any desire to. The New Thing in that game was the addition of Yoshi. Yay. New Super Mario Bros. 2 was announced and I reacted to the whole “COLLECT A BAJILLION COINS!” thing with a great big “whoop-dee-doo.”

Its not just what some call “sequelitis,” either. Indeed, the Big N is almost expected to drop new Mario or Zelda games every so often, its what they do. To their credit, Nintendo has kept their franchises fresh by evolving and adding to their gameplay over the years, but I now find myself unexcited and uninterested in Mario’s latest adventures. It also doesn’t help that the one franchise I wouldn’t mind seeing them drag into the ground (StarFox) hasn’t seen a new game since 2006.

The Wii U is now here and its not even on my radar; I find myself more interested in hunting down an iPad mini. As much as I hate to admit it, it’s going to take more than just another Mario or Zelda game to get me to drop the cash for a Wii U.

They just aren’t special to me anymore, and there’s something sad about that.

Eduardo Soliz

IT Guy, short story author, podcaster, and furry!

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