Blogs

Ladies, gentlemen and those in between, it is again time for a new Featured Gallery! After the vote it was decided to let  Nope be the 'roo with the gallery!

Other than that, we have launched a new feature on the website (sorry it's taken this long) - the Shopping section now contains reviews, written by you! The first review is by  The Irate Fox and is about the Canadian internet shop Twist My Rubber Arm.

Anyone of you who wish to create a review, just follow the guide on the Shopping page and type away! Hope to need to make categories in there at some point, so go right ahead and make those reviews! ;)

Not much to say! Check the galleries for updated rubber news :P Picture's worth a thousand wods after all. But I have a job! Starting tommorrow; should be grand to have money again.

All has gone as well as could be hoped with the move! I'm here, feeling like I'm finally kinda home and only feeling MILD panic at not having a job and basically bleeding money until I can patch the employment wound. Speaking of bleeding money I've also decided I'm heading to FWA; I can afford it and I'm rather needing to see some friends who will be there; it's a personal thing I guess.

As for staunching the wound; if you need WELL paid help in TO gimme a call! or IM or email or whatever! It's all here :P Otherwise I might end up working at Tim's or something.

As you might have noticed, a lot of stuff has happened with the gallery and the site's software in general - for example you almost never see those horrible long URLs any more. This also means that it would be GREAT if you told the webslave about errors you find. So please, simply make comments on this news item if you find any weirdnesses around the site or simply email by clicking on  Your Dedicated Web-slave, going to the Contact tab and writing an email in the text field in the bottom.

Furthermore, the Story contest deadline has been extended to February 1st, because the software needed for it is not ready yet (exams, furmeets and things got in the way of that particular bit of work), so... You have longer to write your stories! Check the Stories page for further information on the contest.

Well; I move out on the 28th of December and in on the 29th, take a few days off starting the 31st to visit my Grandparents on my father's side before heading back and settling in to my new life. Should be quite the trip.

I'll fully admit that as of right now I'm only half-packed. I've got clothes; kitchen utensils and my computers to pack up but that's life. I PROMISE, though, that I'll have a new set of photos up by the 15th, if I can realistically do that. Events may show otherwise; we'll see.

I'm also going to take the time to offer my sincerest condolences to a friend of mine and his family for a horrible December and my hope... yes hope... that they'll find themselves better off in the new year. Any harsh words of anger I may have felt against them seem completely childish and immature in light of what's happened and were it in my power I would fix everything; even though it's not my fault... I guess I just roll that way.

There's a blog post I wrote before this one that I may someday hit "publish" on... but today is not that day. I'm not sure when that day will be; but I owe it to him to show my feelings because he gave me more than he will ever know.

Or less! I move to Toronto on the 28th, get there the 29th and promise I will have a new gallery up by the end of January; possibly even including a rubber fox-head! We'll see though!

This is basically a short little missive to note that w00t! did another ZG run! I got some new gauntlets to make it seem like I know what I'm doing and I got another 3000 or so rep with ZG closer to my Hakarri chestpiece; both very nice.

Otherwise, I simply need sleep. Things are progressing as I have forseen them... Just too slowly for my liking. Then again, that's life. Toodles!

I'm in Belleville writting this post; I won't say with who doing what... other than pizza and movies and left-over halloween numnums. It's been a nice weekend; not the greatest weekend ever but nice none the less quite nice.

And yes! I'm STILL looking for a job! If you're in Toronto and need a programmer for January, or a tech guy period, ASK ME! I build, diagnose and fix computers; I may not be able to do anything better than you can but I can damn well get that way if you pay me to! ;.;

What is community? What standard do we use to quantify the groups that collect both in the physical world and here, online? Is it simply a measure of interest or location? I think that's a bit difficult to pin down.

Certainly with an interest-based community; a guild in World of Warcraft or a fetish website, the level of dedication and skill or aptitude will almost certainly govern which of the many, or few, groups you fall into.

For my part I fall happily into Rubberfurs and Freelance. We're a fairly non-judgemental lot, nice, reasonable, and not particularely pig-headed about our fetish/kink. We're happy with it, we're happy to share it and keep things harmonious when possible. As for my guild, it's casual, with friendly people who are at least a bit competent and want to get better. We're not out to become uber at the expense of guildies but we're willing to be nice about things and work together most of the time. That said we're not a terribly "close" guild either, and you'll often find yourself on your own.

Given, though, the behaviour of some guilds and communities maybe that's not such a bad thing. There are guilds, former for the most part, that get swallowed and chewed through by bickering. My old guild, KoR, was one such guild. Chewed from the inside out by fractuous parties that never tried to keep things straight and only wanted their gear, not to just kick back and have a good time. Mind you we weren't a "hard-core" guild either; just pretty casual raiders. Most hard-core guilds have members who scream at each-other and get booted for not raiding 7-days a week. To put it bluntly, they are insane.

This goes with some SM communities too, and the list does go on. I'm lucky that that Rubberfurs was my first, and hopefully last, fetish related community. I'm happy here; and as long as it stays a supportinve and happy community I will stay.

Perhaps that is what community really is for me. A group of people that are wiling to get along and who share a common bond. And perhaps rubber is one of the best bonds to share, it's flexible, soft, and so diverse in use. It can snuggle you when you're lonely, hide you from sight and bind you down when need be. Maybe that's what my community is to me; something that keeps me grounded and happy, and something I'm willing to reciprocate with.

When I wrote this the first time I included a lot on how communities failed and succeeded based on how well they could work within themselves. A community cannot just be a face to the world, it must also be a forum for those inside it and it should also be realised that those inside it are not as monolithic as they seem either. Everyone has many facets, just as a community does. Recognizing them may prove just as successfull to keeping a community together as, for instance, just communicating or working together on projects. Talking with and knowing, whether on a physical of emotional or mental level, the people whom you share the common ground with is important to keeping that ground whole.

Regardless, there's a comment-box under this. Use it and take the time to think about what community is to you and jot it down.

Note: The login-monster swallowed yet another good post I was writting. Leinir, add about 2 hours to the auto-logout please, I don't feel like retyping 2 pages of text.

Well, trying to write the title was and oddity in and of itself this time. WTF is with that word? Twelfth? Some people SWEAR it doesn't have an F in it, yet Google and countless dictionaries say "Yes, yes it does." Ah well, that's the english language for ya. Like Helpful not having 2 L's, despite it ending in a "Full" sound.

Anyways, regardless of that events are prceeding to pace. I've still got some scraps of room to clean up but I've secured the car for part of this weekend. Zephy is... upset though. He's got insomnia and seems to have been dealing with friends and their problems a lot. People seem to forget that I don't read LiveJournal, I honestly rather talk with people to get information.

Mind you, this IS LJ after a fashion; it IS an online blog; just not with the moody styling and emoness attatched to LJ through years of tradition. Heck; aside from Leinir I'm about the only furson/person/squeak that actually posts regularely on here.

Anyways; my back's doing better as well minus the stiffness in the morning and after I've been sitting for a few hours, but meh. Otherwise, life is booring; WoW is mildly interesting except for the rep-grind of course, and I'm always hungry; both for knowledge and for numnums.

As a side note I checked out JG-Leathers again, her (?) site that is. I must say that I'm still intimidated by it but I recognize the contributions made to the "community". I still find the notion of community itself to be odd, because it implies unity but I'll talk about that next post. For now let me just say I am in Awe, to be perfectly honest, of both the creations and genius behind them.