Altivo

Succeeded in getting two old/slow SD cards to work with the Kobo eReaders, so putting one in Gary's reader and one in mine. This makes it really easy to swap or share non-DRMed content, and easy to keep our Calibre loaded stuff out of the way of the Kobo internal SQL database.

I gather from veiled comments I've seen that it is possible to strip off the DRM on .azw and .epub files, but no one tells you how to do it in the open for fear of legal or other reprisals. Boo. Sue me for giving away illegal copies, sure. But don't sue me for wanting to remove the pointless shackles you tried to attach to something I have purchased legitimately and want to be able to backup or move from one device to another.

Got time off work for Indy Fur Con (Aug. 9-13) and registered online for the con. This year's theme is "Furs in Space." So wondering how to make Argos look "spacier" than he already is. Not so easy to do, I think.

As promised back in November, here's a photo from the library's Family Reading Roundup presentation last November 15. Although dozens of photos were taken that night, most were portraits of children posing with me and I dare not post them without signed releases from parents. So here I am with Library director Harriet.

There are a few more photos here.

It's snowing again. They say another two to four inches tonight, but at least it won't be as cold as last night when we went down to -5°F/-20°C. Just a light dusting at the moment, but the radar looks like it will be getting heavier soon. All the usual stuff, snow advisory, hazardous weather outlook, etc. Tess was grumpy with me because I didn't take her out to the pasture this afternoon. I just couldn't get her to understand that all the grass is buried under six inches of white cold stuff right now.

Argos' bracelet arrived in today's mail. That was less than ten days from when it was sent from Hong Kong, which surprised me a bit. It wasn't charged anything in customs, which surprised me even more. Perhaps that's because the customs label was in Chinese and the only thing written on it in English was "gift". It was packed very nicely in a hollowed out space between two blocks of plastic foam. The bracelet itself was inside a pretty little silk brocade bag with drawstrings. Terrific gift presentation, indeed. It's a little lighter than I expected, but for the price I can't complain. The figures on either side of the stone are very Asian looking dragons. It does indeed bend easily to adjust the size, so should be no problem to wear over a fursuit. One little part of the costume is taken care of. :)

I've settled on which furs from the samples I want to get. Now I just have to decide how much of each to order. One is a long, almost 3 inch pile with a few black tipped hairs. That will be for a shoulder ruff and a narrow strip down the spine, as well as the upper surface of the tail. The other two are almost pure white, one longer than the other. The short one will go on the face, belly and underside of arms and paws, while the longer one will be used for back, legs, top of arms and paws, and top and back of the head I think. The long white is "white fox" while the shorter one is "white mink". I need to collect some photos of real white wolves and make some character sketches now.

Pause in the writing to go over the storyline and make notes of discrepancies and inconsistencies, of which there are quite a few. No surprise given that it was written in NaNo style, pressing forward without looking back. There are some timeline issues and other things that must be fixed in the end, though I'm not going back to edit yet. I also have a story exchange to write, and two short story submission deadlines I hope to make this month. Don't worry, Argos will keep moving, just more slowly. I've outlined the sequence of events to the end now, and settled on pretty much the way it will fall together. There are several fun twists and surprises, I think. At least, I think they'll be surprises.

Gary's making supper, he came back from Chicago early rather than risk getting caught in the snowstorm. I'd better go help.

Tomorrow I have to put in what amounts to a full day at the gallery, demonstrating and just watching. But then I'm done until the last day when we have to pick up our entries and help break down the show.

So far only two responses to my invitation for other fursuiters to join me at the library on November 15 (the eve of MFF) to help entertain at a family reading night party. Neither seems able to make it in time, alas. For anyone on my friends list who plans to arrive at the Hyatt on Thursday before 4pm or so, my boss is offering dinner to you if you are willing to make a fursuit appearance that evening from 6:30 to about 8 pm. I am willing to run shuttle from the Hyatt up to Harvard for the event, and then return you to Schaumburg after.

Hee. I've made it onto the top page of rankings for returns to the us_furries team on WCG/BOINC. Look out, cabcat, I'm creeping up on you from below. But... I'm probably slowing down. The Pentium III machines I've been running are just not reliable enough. For some reason, the BOINC software tends to stall on them. It doesn't lose results, but it can lose hours of time until I notice and restart them. I'm not interested in constantly riding herd on these machines, so the most troublesome ones are going to be dropped once they finish the result sets they currently hold. The most reliable pluggers are the two Alpha processors, which may be slower but they never quit or stall. They just keep chugging along like the tortoise in that famous race... The largest point counts come from the two Pentium 4 class machines, of course, but they require more fiddling as well to keep them going.

Send for the exterminator now!
( From the Woodstock Independent )

Good grief, that's only nine miles away from here. And I thought I was the only furry in the county...

Tokyo's Ueno Zoo held a mock earthquake drill on Tuesday, including a staffer in a gorilla fursuit who pretended to be an escaped gorilla that needed to be recaptured. Story and photo here.

Back home safely, happy, tired, wish it were longer even though I know I'd have been completely overcome by it then.
[EDIT November 21 to add some details omitted first time.]

( Longish MFF con report under cut )