State of the Fennec 2011.02.02
State of the Fennec
2011.02.02
I got laid offIf it weren't for that last word, that phrase would be a good thing.
Yes - unfortunately the big news is that I am no longer employed. This is going to put a serious hurt on my furry lifestyle for the coming year. Even if I get a new job soon, addressing the debt that is slowly massing while my unemployment paperwork goes through will likely cut severely into my budgets for conventions and commissions. So if any of you were thinking about getting/making me some Jaspian gift art O:) now would be a good time.
To be quite honest about it, its made me extremely depressed, and that's why I haven't been posting anything to FA or any new State Of The Fennec reports here. I kinda didn't want furs to know that I had lost my job out of shame. But I figured folks would learn eventually, I might as well just come out and say it.
So really I shouldn't have even been surprised at this. My company was not profitable, and it had been almost a year since their last successful round of funding. In hushed whispers we'd been talking about fact that if new money didn't come into the company soon, there would be more layoffs, but there's a big difference between talking about it and actually seeing your prediction come to pass. In some strange way I guess I felt immune to the possibility of layoff, since this was their 4th round of layoffs since I joined the company, and I'd survived all of the previous ones.... but not this one.
Anyway, I guess there's not much more to be said. If you or your company is looking for a software engineer (java/js/php/sql/as3) in the Boston area or have a job in which he can telecommute, please send me an email at: jaspianfox[at]gmail[dot]com. And thanks!
I fought the law and *I* won
So back in one of my previous journals I posted about a completely bullshit traffic citation that was inflicted on me by a lying sleezebag cop and how I was going to fight it on every front. I then posted about my victory over the cop when I filed an official complaint about the incident with the chief of police, who agreed to have a cruiser cam installed in the officer's vehicle. Naturally I also contested the citation and took it to court. I knew that I was going to win because the cop had eveyrthing stacked against him. I have a nearly photographic memory for conversations and could quote the entire exchange. I also brought a copy of the citation, and a copy of the PD's ciration log, which showed that the time and date of the citation were wrong. It also had the obfuscated signiture and incorrect vehicle model on it, which I believe he did intentionally to disrupt any attempt at a complaint filed or court case. I brought my own driving record, which hadn't had a citation against it since 2003. But none of this was really necessary. When I came in, I told about the first 20% of the story, the Magestrate looked to the court officer and asked "Who was the officer in question?" and the look was very meaningful. When the officer responded the Magestrate simply nodded and canceled the citation. Clearly, this officer has given out a lot of bullshit tickets that get overturned.
And so, I won on everything. Unfortunately its a bit of a hollow victory, since fighting the police department, even of you win on all-counts, doesn't really mean anything except that you've received less of a penalty. I will not get back the time that I had committed to fighting this, nor be able to erase the stress that it caused. In the end, even though I won, I lost. I think that this illustrates the injustice of the police state that is becoming part of the American way of life - that police can abuse the public and even when the innocent get off, they manage to waste hours and hours of our time... time that should have gone to much more productive uses. There's an inherent conflict of interests involved when traffic citations go to fund the municipal governement - it incentivizes police to prey on the people they're supposed to protect, and that's part of the reason why police are dispised by the public at large today. We need to stop rewarding the bullies in blue for picking on us. Citation payments should go to private charity, and not one cent should go to the government.
I will be talking to my Libertarian friends to see what kind of support this notion would have as a ballot initiative for the Massachusetts 2012 elections. Maybe we can rid ourselves of this injustice once and for all, and perhaps the rest of the counrty will see the wisdom in this and follow suit.
New (repost) Jaspi Arts Up On FA
So, as usual for my State of the Fennec, new Jaspi arts are up on FA. Click on the banner at the top of the page or on HERE to see the full image. It is NSFW though - be warned! The image was commissioned by Fuzzwolf in response to an image I'd commissioned for him earlier, and was done by Bonk. For more details check out the posting comments of FA.
Bioshock image has surpassed 200 faves! (and more art-related stuff)
This is a minor milestone for me. I'm sorry if you think its silly and all, but I am very happy that my image "Welcome to Rapture" (NSFW) being the first furry pr0n image that I've uploaded to FA has passed the 200-faves mark. If you haven't seen it, click HERE or on the image to the left.
I am working on some other art now (pr0n0graphic) as well as some contributions of Morphicon. For the first-time-ever, I have decided to put together an image for a convention T-shirt contest. I think its winnable. Morphicon has a small enough attendance that I'm probably among the best artists who go there, and besides I had a really funny idea. It does involve Jaspian and Soron, however, because I wanted to make it so that even if the image is not chosen, I will still be able to use it for something (Frozen Oasis at Morphicon) rather than having put in all that effort for nothing.
Hopefully that will not disqualify that artwork for consideration. Anyway - wish me luck :)
I am also spending some of my free time working on learning how to use some animation software that I bought a license for like a million years ago but never got around to actually learning. Initially I plan to make a music video for a song that I am about to (finally) finish up. After that, I'll look at doing some more interesting stuff with it. I'll keep you all posted. :P
Anyway - that's it for now. Thanks for reading!
-jaspi