Well, as the subject says, AC'2006 was a blast. I've never been to such a big furry event in my life, and it was absolutely amazing to see so many like-minded folks running around, so much art, and to meet folks I've talked to only online until that point.

At various points through the con, I ran into Tugrik, Posi_Cat, Taxus, Jessup, Revar, TaniDaReal (a favorite artist of mine), and many other folks I've chatted with on and off over the years. I also got to meet Misha the bunny, whom I've been RPing with for months, and found some new friends as well.

I scored some artwork; namely Winter's Beauty by XianJaguar (whom I also met), a really cool print of a lynx painted onto a feather, a print of a cute cheetah lying down from Caribou, and a few other random thingies. Sadly, my usual favorite artists didn't have anything I was particularly interested in, which is sad, because I wanted to support them. Especially Tani DaReal.

Overall, a successful con. To all of you whom I've met, it was nice meeting you! To those whom I didn't meet... there's always next time!

Up next, Further Confusion 2007, most likely. That oughta be a blast; there's a few people I'm looking forward to meeting; you know who you are.

-Zorin the Lynx, mischievous kitty at large

So on Saturday I got a call from a friend saying there were lynx cubs coming to Vanishing Species. I nearly fell over right there; afterall, I've loved lynxes for 11 years now and have roleplayed as one online for just as long, yet had never touched one in person. The closest I came to a lynx was a wildlife show at Further Confusion 1999, and California law didn't allow the general public to touch her, so all I could is watch.

Well, apparently dreams come true. Two four-week old lynx cubs, as of yet unnamed, are at VSW! So today I went out there and saw them. It turns out that various things are true afterall. First, They really are the most adorable creatures in the known universe, bar-none. Second, they are even softer than they look. Especially the ears! And they also make the most adorable sounds. Sorta like little chirps; not as cute as cheetah-chirps but close!

It almost felt like a spiritual experience. I am definitely going to be going back every couple of weeks at least, for I must see those adorable sweeties grow up. Plus, the sanctuary needs help because they are currently moving to another facility and still recovering from hurricane damage. So if you care about wild cats in general Vanishing Species could certainly use your donations!

Today's Photos

Short video of the two lynxies being cute

Yours truly, being mauled by two tiger cubs. Okay, not mauled, but close enough. }:)

Was looking through one of my external disks and found some raw DV footage from VSW that I hadn't released. So I figured I'd release some of it.

Here's Sierra when she was still a cub on 3/6/2005. (Quicktime 7 plays it best) She's adorable! She's not very playful in this video, sadly, but you can see her sniffing around and trying to eat some plants; it's kind of funny.

I may encode more if I have time. Sadly I didn't take much DV when I was at VSW. Wish I had taken more, especially of Shoshauna and Taj.

Here's how I use my Macbook Pro when I'm at my desk at home. You will note I have a small stand for it, which holds it up so the screen is at eye level, and so that I can store things underneath so space isn't wasted.

Those of us who are old-school geeks will also notice that this stand is also an Apple product; it was used so you could place an Apple Monitor /// on top of an Apple IIe and have it look nice.

So, an Apple product from 1981... Still useful today in holding up an Apple product from 2006.

Gotta love technology!

Having grown up in the Nintendo generation, I couldn't help but find this to be incredibly amusing:

Now you're playing with power!

Of course, the game on the screen is Capcom's Chip & Dale's Rescue Rangers! I loved that game, especially because you could piss off your friend in two player mode by picking him up and throwing him into enemies and pits. }:)

And damnit, I wasn't as rad as him. {:(

Just an update on some things, since I haven't posted seriously in a while...

Anthrocon 2006 is coming soon. I shall be there! If anyone who knows me and wants to say hi is also going, let me know beforehand! Anthrocon is HUGE, it is unlikely that we'll run into each other by pure chance. I already have a few folks' numbers but just want to make sure I see everyone who wants to see me.

Lion King Caption Zaniness is no more. Sorry folks, but I got tired of folks posting obscene materials and being asshats in general. If there is any demand, I'll bring it up in read-only mode, but unless anyone asks about it, it will stay down. It actually WAS down for a couple of weeks since I upgraded my server, and no one complained, so it doesn't seem to be missed much.

This server was upgraded. I doubt anyone cares, but it's faster now.

I'm extremely happy with my Macbook Pro. Since my last post, I got Boot Camp going on it, and have been playing Oblivion and other games on the XP side quite nicely. This machine truly is the ultimate laptop ever constructed; it's the best of both worlds! Mind-blowing.

Also, Teekay has apparently found a home. What a cutie; I hope she has a good kitty life!

That's it for now, later folks!

This loveable kitten is up for adoption. If you're in South Florida (or are willing to drive there), consider bringing this bundle of cuteness into your life. She's incredibly playful and sweet, and is quite adorable too!

If you're interested, comment my journal; the owner of the kitten (who is not me; I just took the photos) will be reading.

Update 5/12/2006: We found someone to adopt her! I'm leaving this post up so you can awwww at the pictures some more, though. }:)

Came across this a couple days ago....

Pi

Way cool, and gets stuck in your head pretty good, too!

So, quite a few things have happened lately, and I haven't updated in a while, so I might as well.

I got back from Megaplex in Orlando, FL, and it was lots of fun. Got to meet some new people and pretty much goofed off the entire weekend. Quite a few folks liked the badge I commissioned from Tani DaReal, and getting to hang out with folks I hadn't seen in a while was a real treat.

I went insane and purchased a MacBook Pro. 2GHz Intel Core Duo, 1GB of RAM and 100GB hard drive. This is the fastest laptop I've ever seen! I'm amazed by how snappy MacOS X is on it; Apple finally redeemed the years of stagnation in their notebook line with this one. The downside is waiting for Universal binary versions of various applications to come out! Hurry up and recompile, folks!

On top of that, now that I have a fast enough machine, I went ahead and checked out Second Life. Ho-boy, I hope I don't become addicted to this. My name on there is "Zorin Frobozz" if you'd like to say hi. Sadly, there was no lynx avatar available, so I took a grey tabby-cat and added ear-tufts! Close enough for now. The game universe is entirely user created and you can create all sorts of wacky objects with this funky scripting language. I'm still learning about it, but who knows what I might come up with once I figure it all out. Whoo!

Anyway... That's all folks!