Blackthorn's LJ

Yay birthday :P

Yes I'm still alive. I work at Oil Changers now (sweet). Usually have weekends off.
Cell phone is turned off permanently. Don't need it anymore.
Landline is available. 613-228-4814.

Truly,
Lexx

Going camping for a week. Should be back on Saturday.

I've heard there's some rumours about me being unpopular going around.

Like that local furs don't like me, don't talk to me, etc.

I'd like to set some of that straight.

As for furs not liking me.

I tried to count before, I think maybe throught of about a dozen or two that didn't like me.

Reason why is because I came on this livejournal before talking about how some of them were insulting other furs, shunning them, abusing their powers as forum moderators to persecute people the didn't like and making things generally uncomfortable to them to the point of driving some away from participating in local furry activities--and then trying to cover it up and act like they didn't do it.

Quite understandably they didn't like someone saying what they were up to that they wanted to keep hidden. Hence I have them, and a number of their friends not liking me.

As for furs that like me, I have maybe around 600 that talk to me about things and don't have any problems with me.

About 500 of those are in Ontario.

About 100 of them are around the Toronto area.

I personally have invited 470 furs to Ki's furmeet, and got about 120 interested in attending... After talking to me.

Just look at the web site I run to help furs find each other and see how many are willing to work with me on it.

http://www.furnation.com/toronto/members/

So I would say, this idea of Dan Skunk being hated and unpopular is fairly exagerated.

All that's happening is these one or two little cliques of furs in Toronto, which includes about 6 furs that like to trash and spread rumours and stick up to them, are trying to discredit me for calling these furs out on what they're doing to the local furs here. While a very small number, they do talk a *lot* of shit about people, so the stories they tell about me have gotten around too.

Like... No one wanting to live with me... I've had about 4 furs wanting me to move in with them in the last few months.

Being out for power... Yeah, I delt with that idea here before.

Raping my neighbours dog... I don't think so.

Not having any friends outside of furry... I actually have several I've had for years that I spend time with regularly.

Not being able to keep friends... I even have a lot of furry friends that I've been with for years as well.

Only new furs that don't know what a menace I've been to the local fur group like me... New furs, and many furs that have been around long before I was that don't believe the rumours people are spreading. If I've been a menace at all, it's just by not putting up with furs that want to put others down and shun and ridicule them for no good reason--obviously they don't want me ruining their fun. Thankfully the nice furs around here greatly outnumber the mean one's and the people that suck up to the mean ones.

That I'm creepy... I admit I have a pretty dark sense of humour, but most of my close friends appreciate it. I try to tone it down though now.

Being obsessed with furry... I've made a lot of friends and been helped a lot from other furries. Since I have lots of spare time because I can't work, why not spend a lot of that working on helping other furs enjoy furry more by introducing them and helping run meets and conventions. Like really, putting me down for wanting to help people? Some people really can't stand anyone being more popular and more liked than them. Most of these furs spreading rumours are completely unknown outside of their little cliques, while I'm known by hundreds of furs all over the world. I don't sit around trashing other furs all day, I get out and meet new people and do things, that's why people know and like me. I have all kinds of furs all the time thanking me for helping them meet new furs near them, helping them make new friends and find new mates, and helping them get their local furries active. Like, I just recently had someone thanking me for introducing them to other Chatham furries and they're just having their very first furmeet there now. I've also helped get a number of furs together in Guelph, Peterborough, Ottawa, North Bay, and Oshawa to name a few.

That I'm a slut... I'm not hard to get, but I certainly don't go around looking for sex all the time. I don't hardly have that many partners and usually don't do anything at all at conventions and meets. I'm really not even all that interested in that. And what business of anyone elses is that anyway?

That I'm psychotic... I've had some problems with being depressed, mostly due to being sick and not able to work, and having to deal with these people trying to make things suck for me in furry, but I'm not delusional. I don't deal with things the way some people would like or do things some people would like, but no one else does either. I like to be open and honest and don't see why I should want to lie to people to get along with them.

That I have trouble getting along with people and working with people... I have trouble working with people that want to insult and put down others, that want to spread vicious rumours, that want to lie about things and get me to lie about them too. I'm happy to talk to everyone and help everyone regardless of what I feel about them or if I disagree with them on a few things. I'll even work with these people spreading rumours about me. Now if I'm having trouble getting along with people, it's because others are choosing not to get along. Not me.

That I'm faking being sick to get a free ride on disability and don't want to work... I still get fatigued fairly easily and am in a lot of pain sometimes. I'm on lots of strong medication to try to deal with my illness which also makes me sick. I've looked for work anyway when I'm feeling better, but there's not a lot of jobs for people that need to take random breaks and might have a lot of sick days. I have tons of documentation from doctors that have examined me and seen the damage cause by my illness. I'm not faking anything.

I don't like saying things like this about people, but what a pile of crap; some people just can't be happy without having someone else to put down.

I hate to sound like I'm bragging to people about being popular and stuff, but there *is* another side to these stories. I feel a little retarded telling it, but I want to let people know the other side.

I usually avoid these but...

Seeing rexxwolfe and branwyn use it, I bit.

My question is, how do they know?

How to make a Dan Skunk

Ingredients: 3 parts pride 1 part crazyiness 1 part leadership

Method: Blend at a low speed for 30 seconds. Top it off with a sprinkle of emotion and enjoy!

Starting to look like we could could have 100 furs at that meet.

43 confirmed their attendence and there's 69 maybes for 112 total.

And that doesn't count a number of others that are just going to wait and see before they say anything.

I few I've talked to said it was really great that someone was finally doing something in Toronto.

They're coming from pretty far away as well, all accross the province.

Oshawa, Etobicoke, Newmarket, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Hagarsville, North Bay, Norwood, Peterborough, Oakville, Hamilton, Scarborough, Toronto, Barrie, Huntsville, Chatham, Milton, Thorn Hill, Ottawa, Brampton, Niagara Falls and Alliston are all confirmed to be represented. :)

This is really an Ontario furmeet now. :)

I've put out invitations to most of the furs in Ontario I know of. Around 470. Took all week to do that. That's probably more than enough promotion so I think we can just let people respond now and start working more on what events we want to have there.

Some interesting stuff from a conversation I started on furry.ca.

http://www.furry.ca/forum/index.php/topic,572.0.html

WalkingTiger:

Dan Skunk:

I might not be a skunk, but being a human definately gives me more power to speak for skunks than I could do as a skunk. So while I might feel I'm something different than I am, I can still live out a pretty meaningful existence because of it. Actually, being this way is something that creates meaning in my life. If give me a different perspective on the world than most people and something I can share with them to help them see things from a different perspective and may understand the world just a little better. Thinking of it that way, being a skunk in a human body is something that can be seen as a good thing, not something to be depressed about.

I feel the same way. I feel blessed to be who I am and see it as a great opportunity to do some good for the tigers I feel so connected with. If I really was a tiger, what could I accomplish? Aside from breeding, not too much. Being who I am allows me to become something more powerful...something that could change the course of the tiger's future. I don't take this opportunity lightly and my achievements will bring me closer to the species I care so much for.

This really makes me proud seeing people taking this connection we have with other species, that could otherwise be very depressing, and turning into something really positive that can do some real good for the world.

This is actually exactly what I envisioned when I furs encountered the furry fandom. I had a dream where animals were being born in human bodies so they could help teach humans about these animals and help these animals and learn to respect them as equals and live in harmony with them, but that they'd forget these things after being re-incarnated and just be left dispairing being in the wrong body instead.

It's feels good to see one's dreams come true.

Of course, we can't know if there is such a thing as reincarnation or even if there is life after death, but it doesn't really matter. Whatever the reasons for our feelings, we're taking them and making something positive with them.

Aaeden:

GID is as much of a biological / spiritual / psychological problem as any hypothetical SID. I should know.

I was kinda curious about if there really was such a thing as, "species identity disorder," so I tried some searching on it.

It seemed to me to be rather deminishing of those that experience it to call it, "hypothetical," but I see that what's happening is that it's not an officially recognize disorder yet. A more common term, that just describes the feeling rather than trying to classify it as a disorder, is, "species dysphoria," which I see being used more.

Dr. Kathy Gerbasi, a Social Psychologist and Anthrozoologist, has been studying furries through surveys at Anthrocon for the last 3 years and she proposed the idea of a species identity disorder in a report she wrote on the 2006 study called Furries from A to Z that was accepted to be published in the journal Society & Animals.

She created a lj to let us see the progress of the study.

http://drg-kcgerbasi.livejournal.com/

I'm also now thinking that calling something a disorder, which people fine strength from, doesn't seem to give the right impression, but one can also interpret that as being something that's just different from the norm, which is ok. There are those with disabilities, as well, that turn their perspective on things into something positive.

http://acegreco.livejournal.com/340018.html

Me:

Deliberately hiding parts of it is still deceptive, but then there's also a question of communicating what is relevant too. One's sexual habits are not particularly relevent to most business.

acegreco:

Oh. My. God.

So what. You think the only thing I hide is my sexual lifestyle? You're deluding yourself.

Maybe I bitch about my job in here. Oh, I'm sure that looks brilliant to my CURRENT employer, nevermind people I'm applying to.

Maybe I make comments about personal political beliefs that don't jive with what a single person involved in a decision making process that will nix me from possible employment.

And you accuse me of being DECEPTIVE!?

You know what? Get the fuck off my journal. You have no right to tell me the 'consequences of my actions' because they're my bloody actions.

I've tried to be tolerant with you on a number of occasions, but you have this innate desire to PUSH things past the point of being acceptable.

Seriously, don't bother.

And now I'm banned from that journal.

I should have ended that with, "...for example," actually, but anyway, I don't know what's in that journal at all so I have no reason to make assumptions about it. Just a typo. Thinking past what I was writing.

What everyone does in response to an action is a consequence of it (including saying what the other consequences might be). The only thing you don't have a right to do is to control those consequences.

Just an interesting conversation I'm having with someone that's made his lj friends only:

Some people will judge your suitability for a job, not on your ability to do it, but also by whether they agree with your personal beliefs.

We can choose to fight that intolerance, or we can choose to submit to it. Both choices have their consequences though.

To fight it, is to find yourself sometimes ridiculed and shunned by those that submit to it.

To submit to it, is to find yourself living two seperate lives. The true one that you show a select few, and the lie that you show everyone else.

Just working away all day asking all the local furs I know if they want to come. :)

...which takes a while when there's 500 of them. :s

http://www.furnation.com/toronto/furmeet/

Damnit... I just want to have group chats local furs and they're splitting up again. Why does everyone have to go insulting other people for disagreeing with them instead of listening and compromizing.

I've got people disagreeing on where to go for an alternative to #toronto-furry now, #canadianfurs, #toronfurs, and me starting a new channel are the candidates. :(

[12:27] (DanSkunk) Yeah, What's up, you've got people working on making new toronto channels now and stuff.
[12:28] (Drake-afk) all cause they lost there ops
[12:28] (Drake-afk) dear god.
[12:28] (DanSkunk) Well, you had no justification to take them away.
[12:28] (DanSkunk) I've had people ask me to make one too.
[12:28] (Drake-afk) the justification is the fact that we had 15 ops in a room
[12:29] (Drake-afk) with no point
[12:29] (DanSkunk) Well, people liked doing things that way.
[12:29] (Drake-afk) its like putting 15 people in a room, giving them guns and telling them, no you can't fire them.
[12:29] (Drake-afk) cause they all gotta feel special
[12:30] (DanSkunk) No... It's like making everyone feel equal. Gving them to only a select few makes people feel special.
[12:30] (Drake) not everything is equal in life, you can't always have your pie and eat it too
[12:30] (DanSkunk) That's not a good attitude to tell people.
[12:30] (DanSkunk) It *was* equal.
[12:31] (Drake) it is cause a lot of people need to grow up
[12:31] (DanSkunk) You can't talk to people like that.
[12:32] (DanSkunk) That's like being arrogant and condescending. People don't like that.
[12:32] (Drake) its the true of the toronto fandom
[12:32] (Drake) a lot of people need to grow the hell up, sure i'll change things back to you all having ops
[12:33] (DanSkunk) Well, it's true of you right now. you should be better than that.
[12:33] (Drake) I am better than that.
[12:33] (Drake) because I know what i'm doing and its right, people are equal no matter what the voice, op, sop or shit.
[12:34] (Drake) people are equal because they can voice there opinion and be heard
[12:34] (DanSkunk) Yeah, well if they're equal, why not let them have a say in how things are done rather than deciding yourself?
[12:35] (Drake) Oh and Dan don't put shit in my mouth please, I saw your email last night and what you told Ringtail
[12:35] (Drake) I did not say I was going to merge with #torfur
[12:36] (Drake) there telling me how it is, and there complaining cause they don't have ops like its something special
[12:37] (DanSkunk) That's just what I heard going around.
[12:38] (Drake) ya and i'm tiger woods.
[12:38] (DanSkunk) I was just waiting to see how things worked out and warning you that would be a bad idea, just in case.
[12:39] (Drake) You know what dan, just stop trying to tell me how to do my job
[12:39] (DanSkunk) Wait, you're calling me a lyer now?
[12:39] (Drake) I never told you how to do your job.
[12:39] (DanSkunk) Everyone told me how to do things. part of the job is listening to people telling you what you want.
[12:39] (Drake) I am listening to people
[12:39] (Drake) but the way your telling me things is like your telling me what to do
[12:39] (DanSkunk) Well, you don't tell them not to then.
[12:40] (Drake) I like listening to people, not being told I should do this right now.
[12:40] (DanSkunk) Yeah, I am telling you what to do. So?
[12:41] (DanSkunk) Hey... What did you tell Blackthorn, he just left now.
[12:42] (Drake) I told him stuff, it doesn't matter what I told him dan that's between me and him
[12:42] (DanSkunk) You him and the channel--which affects me now.
[12:42] (Drake) it doesn't affect you
[12:42] (Drake) you don't run the channel
[12:42] (Drake) I do now.
[12:43] (Drake) so stop trying to act like its all your responsibility
[12:43] (Drake) go out
[12:43] (DanSkunk) It does so if I can't talk to him there anymore.
[12:43] (Drake) do shit
[12:43] (Drake) get off the computer
[12:43] (Drake) get him on msn, aim, yahoo messenger
[12:43] (Drake) not that hard
[12:43] (DanSkunk) I'm off the computer ... Hey... Getting off the channel if I don't like things isn't a solution...
[12:44] (Drake) Dan you need to get out and get a job seriously, have a little real life then you'l see things.
[12:45] (DanSkunk) I've been in out and out of bed sick and in pain all week. I can't do a job like that... This is no way to deal with user issues.
[12:45] (DanSkunk) You don't tell people to get a job either.
[12:45] (Drake) Dan you've been up in my face
[12:45] (Drake) since i've started this job
[12:46] (Drake) and frankly i'm tired of it
[12:46] (DanSkunk) Well that's too bad, deal with it.
[12:46] (Drake) this isn't your channel now
[12:46] (Drake) i'm not going to be your lamb and do everything how you wanna do it.
[12:46] (Drake) I'll do things how I do things.
[12:46] (Drake) I am going to deal with it
[12:46] (DanSkunk) No. but you're treating people pretty crappy like.
[12:47] (Drake) Really i'm not there's not super unjustice or anything, its obvious there isn't need for a channel with a shitload of ops.
[12:48] (DanSkunk) It's obvious there is if people want it and are leaving 'cause you're changing things to things they don't like.
[12:48] (Drake) because having ops is oh so important?
[12:48] (Drake) seriously like what the hell.
[12:48] (DanSkunk) Doesn't matter what you think. You're there to do what the users want.
[12:50] (DanSkunk) Your opinion should mean nothing.

As per the consensus at the Toronto Furry Breakfast last month after I left.

No, I'm not. I don't think I've done anything to make myself more powerful.

In fact, I don't like power and have a tendance to delegate it or give it away.

Like when I was owner of #torfur, I was trying really hard to find someone else to take over the torfur web site since I didn't think someone should have too much power. Was actually trying to encourage Shivers to do it mostly.

I only took the web site after I gave darqhild #torfur.

I only started #toronto-furry so I could talk to some friends that wouldn't go on either #torfur cause darqhild was insulting their friends and I didn't agree with people being allowed to insult each other on #toronto_furry and thought I'd have trouble bringing some friends there if they might get put down and stuff. I tried really hard to get people to work appologize for being crappy to each other and get along again though.

Since I was running #toronto-furry, when Karma wanted to make a new torfur web site, I offered to move all the info from the old one to it for him, and had all the info extracted for him when he shut it down, then brought it back up and didn't want to work together anymore--leaving me stuck with two resources.

And I eventually gave #toronto-furry to Scani because he seemed really fair and impartial and I was having some personal issues to deal with... And still didn't really think one person should have too much power.

And I've certainly not been going around saying things to people to make them like me or support me. In fact I've been pretty merciless to some members I felt were causing problems for the community.

The discussions I was leading on the mailing list. I was really just doing that 'cause I was interested in hearing stories form other furs and encouraging them to share them with each other.

The furmeet, it's not even my meet, I'm just trying to help get furs together for it to hopefully enjoy some furry stuff together and I'm certainly not trying to take any kind of credit for that. Like, I'm just inviting furs, they're responsible for making things fun.

The spaghetti factory meet is mostly so I can go visit morgan with some other furs every month. Was all Morgan's idea to do that, he just wanted me to post about it and invite people.

Really, I'm not trying to climb any social ladder, and I'm certainly not going after some kind of "power" since . I'm just really interested in furry and want to help other furs enjoy it together.

...And yes, I'm feeling kinda retarded writing this too, but really, this kind of thing shouldn't even be happening. It shouldn't matter who's more popular or who gets the "leadership" positions, and we shouldn't be looking for ways to put each other down. We're all just here to enjoy furry.

And like really, with how unpopular furries are, what's the point of being a popular fur in the first place? Outside of furry, almost no one will know who you are, and those that do will think you're weird.

( some old logs someone was looking for )

Just thought this was kinda ammusing.

http://rexxwolfe.livejournal.com/260999.html

Drama furs
Mmm * eats more popcorn*

Just read FAs latest announcement told yah so losers;) Its run for free by Furries whad you expect.. Likely goingto be 30 pagesof whining debate on this delay. Already at 12

Just laughing at the patheticness of this all really both sides I'm so amused. Furry deserves the bad press the negativity it gets sometimes we cant even get along with one another. How the fuck do we expect the general population to view us.. Just hilarious keep whining bitches your tears and bitching fuel my engines. I feed on your so called drama


* just watches the furry world tear itself apart and laughs.*

You see the power of porn compels you.

My response was:

Here you are being a furry and whining and bitching and not getting along with other furries while calling furries pathetic losers for whining and bitching and not getting along.

I think you just inadvertantly called yourself pathetic and a loser there. ;)

I'm not upset or anything, just ammused. ;)

I think I know what you really meant though. We all deserve to suffer because we do it to ourselves by fighting over trivial details instead of uniting under our common goals.

I've kinda given up on trying to be nice to everyone by not telling them when I think they're doing something wrong. I think a lot more truth is what we need and a lot less bullshit.

Truthfully we all want the same thing and we all need each other to get it. Well, the real furries anyway. Not the one's just hanging around to be social or have people that are easy to pick on.

Mew mew.

Had 7 of us show for the Spaghetti Factory eventually...

Me, Ki, Morgan, Bungee, DeFuret. Then later on, Peromyscus, and Dred Wolf. :)

I came back with Ki so I could give him money for our camping trip next week.

Just sitting here waiting for him to wake up now...

...

Got 80 furs interested in the furmeet now.

http://www.furnation.com/toronto/furmeet/

Still a lot not knowing what their schedules will be and stuff, but there's some furs from Ottawa trying to organize ride and room shares. I've still not asked everyone yet, but I think we're pretty sure to at least double our previous attendance. We have enough room though. :D

If not... I've been looking at the cost of getting bigger rooms would be... So far they're kinda expensive....

One hotel was $1200 for a 100 person room for a day.

Since we might have people staying over, I thought maybe doing 2 days would be better. Checked one place for $2300 for Saturday through to Sunday.

Don't need that yet. Don't have enough people. *rambles*

Someone needs to wake up. I'm hungry.... And getting kinda bored now too... I'm on LiveJournal.