And What Alice Found There

“It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that whatever you say to them, they always purr.” - Through the Looking Glass

So, I've been hesitant about actually making a 'journal' here on Blue Moon. The whole idea seemed a little ludicrous at first, since I'm hesitant about spilling my real world ramblings out on to the internet, but I figured, what the hell. It gives me a place to bitch and think, since I seem to organize my thoughts better when I type, all the while giving some people insight in to... well, me.

As you could probably tell already, I'm a bit of a quote and lyric freak. There always seems to be one that describes how you are feeling, what you are thinking, or (in the instances above) things that happened that day. I think I might make it a staple of this thing.

Anyways, today was a good day and besides feeling sleepy and unmotivated, reminded me why I (mostly) love my life.

Today, Ariana had her Fairytale play at school. Normally, the last thing I want to do after getting only thirty minutes of sleep over more than a twenty-four hour period is get up and go deal with kids. I couldn't miss my Cat in Hey Diddle Diddle. Her only line was "meow meow" and paw at a cardboard fiddle that looked more like a guitar. It was still cute though. It does remind me, however, all the hell I'm going to have to go through next week when her dance recital comes around.

So, we got home and after awhile I laid down to take a nap. Naki, our youngest kitty intruder, was curled up under the covers happily. This isn't weird for her. She always gets under the covers if I'm in the bed since I shoo her away from sitting on my lap if I'm on my compie. However, she curled up under there last night, was still content there this morning, and hadn't moved from under the blankets when I laid down. I acquiesced to her persistence and took my nap curled up in to ball. I'd stretch out in my sleep, only to feel her bite my toes, bringing me back to fetal position. I awoke, hours later, with a kitten crawling up my leg. o.o

I knew she was pregnant, but she had been for a really long time for a cat. We had talked about taking her to vet, since when we found her, she near death, covered in fleas, and malnourished. We didn't get her fixed quick enough and she got out of the house. You know what happened next. I was worried that something happened and she just wasn't, or couldn't, have the kittens.

Four orange tabbies. Just like their mom. Hopefully there will be a female in there. They're supposed to be uncommon to rare, but we'll see. Keeping in the family tradition, they were all named after demons. My cat Akasha was named after the infamous Vampire and her nickname, Kasha, is also a demonic cat in Japanese folklore. Naki is short for Anunnaki who are the seven judges of hell in Mesopotamian cultures. Anyways, going off topic. So Amon, Bael, Charun, and Daeva are going to be part of the house for awhile.

Their birth brought up a few of the most dreaded topics for parents. Ariana already knew where babies really live and how they come out. She didn't know how they were made. She knew that girls have breasts, and both sexes have nipples but she didn't know what they were for. I about laughed my ass off when she asked if daddies made milk too.

With my other forums dead, I got to play more on here. I fixed up some issues in my Request Thread. Got tired of people asking about canon characters, so I stuck that in there. Came up with a system to keep my RPs from getting crazy, insanely unorganized and put a place up for future plots.

That being said, this idea I had years ago that I revisited to try to work in to a plot device on here is beating me in the head again to become a full blown story of its own. I figure I might test out interest here, and see if it is something that would actually stand alone well on its own and go from there.

It doesn't help that I was helping my friend with his short story collection and got to reading it. It sucks when you have all these ideas in your head, but can't get them out in to something better. A lot of people have gotten to the point of when I bounce an idea off them that I have for a story, they tell me to put up or shut up. So now, off I go to work on that. xD

Random Bitching:
Anyways, so the other night me and a friend of mine were talking. About furries. This is a subject I tend to get burned on a lot on because there doesn't seem to be any clear cut definition. I mean, don't get me wrong. I know the term 'anthro' encompasses a lot of stuff. Machines can be anthropomorphic, in which case they get called Androids.

Anthropomorphic
adjective
1. ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human, especially to a deity.
2. resembling or made to resemble a human form

Furry
adjective
1. consisting of or resembling fur
2. covered with fur; wearing fur
3. obstructed or coated as if with fur

Anyways, she showed me things that she considered being 'furry', which to me my first idea was 'anthro'. This brought up a couple of new terminologies for me to play around with: Gijinka, Kemonomimi, and Kemono.

These basically equate down to
Kemono: Literally means 'beast' in Japanese. It also refers to a genre of Japanese art and character design that prominently features fictional anthropomorphic or sentient animal characters in human-like settings and situations. Bodies are generally more animalistic, but with a higher intelligence than an animal.

Kemonomimi: Literally means 'animal ears'.A humanoid fictional character who possesses animal-like features. More often these are just the ears and the tail. So, technically a catgirl or kitsune is more a less a Mimi. The body and actions more closely resembles humans.

Gijinka: Japanese for personification. This usually takes from a deity or idea rather than an animal. It comes up a lot in Pokemon fanfics a lot. I think primarily because even though Pokemon are 'animals', their corporeal forms are still embodiments of powers and other forces of nature which is what Gijinka seems to focus on: the power aspects. This has the mostly widely varied body type, allowing for pretty much anything but if applied to an animal, gives more than a few characteristics like Mimi do.

Using the term Anthro, tends to get me burned a lot because it is such a loose and encompassing term. So, finally, what I've come to my own definition of an Anthro: a pretty much even 50/50 split of whatever it is, but with a more humanoid body and mindset. Lycanthropes and other were- or transformy creatures also fall in to this category but get a little more wiggle room on this because of their ability to change forms. They can be completely human one minute and, if they so chose, completely animal the next but still retain a higher intelligence. So, if I say I'm okay with a werewolf character, but would prefer at mimum an Anthro form, don't be surprised when I get pissy if you put them in Furry or full wolf.

Which leads me to my definition of a Furry. Which is really more like Kemono in characteristics... maybe more of a 60/40 or even 70/30. These are the furries I'm still okay with playing with. Pretty much where they will snout, sharp teeth, claws, instead of hands and feet that have paws, and will either have disproportionate limbs and might even do the all fours thing. But once you get in to the more animal like furries is where I start to draw a line of uncomfortableness. This mostly applies to female furs having multiple sets of mammary glands or pouches and male furs having musk glands... all of which they intend to use.

Then you have the full out animals, which I don't think should be lumped in to the furry category, because... well, they're not. No human like intelligence, or features. They are driven mostly on instinct, or in a domesticated case, the desire to please.

Anyways, I'm getting in to waaay too much stuff here for it to be so late. Pretty much, what I'm boiling it down to is this. Lines everywhere are drawn on what constitutes as what. To me, in roleplaying, it isn't so much the creature itself as more of what one tends to do with it, and how it is RPed. I don't know what the point of this was. Maybe to clear things up to myself or continue on a one-sided argument that ended in an 'agree to disagree' a few hours ago. Regardless, someone else will find it useful one day. If nothing else because you learn some new words.


**Edit: So, after further talking with my friend, she force fed me my own words. RPing is about opening yourself up to new experiences, and should focus on the writing, the story, and character interactions. This has made me a little less 'no furries' than I was previously. It wasn't even an option; now I'm a little more open to them.

Hee hee. So, my post in the Rule Update: Account Cap thread got me thinking. A lot of people really have no freaking idea how much can be found out about a person with certain given information. I actually had my identity stolen from things I put out online that at the time, I thought to be completely inconsequential. I've been stalked by a creeper from Facebook, who I didn't even know, thanks to things they were able to pull about me online. I even had a friend who was kidnapped and had horrible thing happen to her because of... guess what, shit people found online. However, she was also rescued and the people prosecuted because of things that could be found online and access to her computer.

The things I'm about to provide is not intended to be used in a malicious manner in against someone else but more educational purposes on just what can be found and how you can be tracked. Because of this, I'm hoping you'll use your own information, accounts, etc.

What is in a Username?
This is probably the least effective method of finding out who a person is, but can still be pretty damn scary. Pipl, PeekYou, and Wink are awesome. You can enter a username and come up with a lot of possible results. The more someone knows about you: sex, round about age, a general location, can be used to refine their searches for (sometimes) better results.
Pipl: I just put in main username I use online (No, not Halo and Horns). 8 pages of results came. 74 hits: 59 profiles and 15 web results. One of two of these accounts were mine. However, when I tried to refine my search by age (which has a gap of 10 year spans), those accounts were eliminated.
PeekYou: The one of the most accurate places for looking up usernames that I've found. My twitter account was the second result. Though, again, when I tried to refine my search with just my first name or just my last name, things got muddled.
Wink: By FAR the absolute best. My username picked up 20 hits; when I put in the state I lived in, it brought up 2. The top one was mine. This was an old Myspace account that I deleted years ago, but there my picture (from 5 years ago) was.
KnowEm: This site is a better example of being able to track someone by a username. It is supposed to be for business purposes and brand marketing. It lets you know if domain names are taken, if it is a registered trademark, and places where a username is available. It also shows you which ones are unavailable. Then it is just a matter of hopping on a place that is unavailable and looking for the username to get more information to be used.

What's in an Email?
Almost everything. There are many reverse e-mail searches that are free. If you have sent an e-mail to a person or site from that address (a lot of sites require verification e-mails so this is pretty inevitable) makes it even better.
Pipl: Again, this is a damn good site. My e-mail pulled only me up, but registered on a Myspace account that was supposed to be deleted. This is a good example of things ALWAYS being on the internet.
Spokeo: Okay, so this is something that you have to pay for but at a piddly $4 for a six month membership that allows name, username, e-mail, phone, and address searches if someone really wants this information, it is worth it. And yes, the information is accurate though can bring back a lot of results.
In an e-mail that is sent out, a person can use advanced headers to grab your IP address and/or city, state, zip code information. So even signing up with a throw away address, can get you found.

Your Name?
Well, everyone knows how dangerous but also inaccurate this can be. It is easy to give false information. However, I bet you didn't know that even with a real first name and a state, you can still find a person. As people become friends, this is usually given or just mentioned in passing. Thing is though, when it is somewhere on a public place, anyone can get it.
Wink: My first name and my state brought up 178 results. I do have an uncommon name though. However, it only shows a few of them, and I was on the first page.
Intelius: This one... you need a last name for. It will pull up several results, but you can see their ages, city/states, and close relatives who have probably listed you on their tax information at one time. For a full report, it's $40 but it includes EVERYTHING. Criminal check, e-mail addresses associated with the name, list of social media, credit information, even a list of relatives, roomies, and freaking neighbors. Your home information and maps. I've used this for background checks on hiring people and what comes back in the reports is extremely comprehensive. Usually at least 3 pages worth of stuff. I think the longest I got back was 16 pages.

IP Address:
There is actually a lot of conflicting opinions when it comes from what can be found by tracking an IP. Using just an IP, you won't get much. But your IP address coupled with other information can be damning.
An IP actually tracks back to your service provider. The location that comes up is generally the location of an equipment where the signal is coming from. It can also give people some pretty spiffy tools like the OS and Browser.

Static IP Addresses do not change and are most often used in places where security isn't too big a factor. Dynamic IP Addresses change when connecting to a network and used for basic browsing, downloads, mails, etc. Again, your average person isn't going to be able to find out much with just this. But then you have the people who know what they're doing, how to manipulate things, and want to screw with you and they will do it.
Four programs/software that are bitches: Sub7, RATs, Webscarab, and Nmapper

A lot of people think Proxies are a lot safer. Bad thing about proxies, they store all of your information. Sometimes more so than a static IP. Most proxy sites are actually on the shady side. The fact that you have to register a screen name does make them traceable, and hackable. Even so called anonymous ones store information to some extent. Your best bet, if you still have any idea what I'm talking about, is to use a transparent proxy and various programs to create a chain of other proxies. Even this isn't foolproof, but it certainly will piss off people who are trying to locate you. <3

Best advice for staying safe? Find out more about hacking. Download tools and software and test it out on your own stuff. This is how I learned; besides having a paranoid ass husband. Though, the catch is you need to have an intermediate knowledge of computers to do this. Again, I can do a lot and I'm pretty new. The other option, Find a nice hacker. Those two words may seem contradictory, but there are people out there who will try hack/track your comp and let you know what they got, how they got it, and what you can do to prevent it. Alternately you could look for a security control tech, but they usually want you to pay pretty big.

So yeah, there you have it.

Today... I beat my Photobucket Account I R Proud.

For those of you who don't know, I'm talking about my 'character' photobucket account. It had over 2.1k in pictures when I started today. I've been grumbly working on this thing for a week. Today I sat down and just decided to plow through it all. I deleted images that would never be used, or I had saved long ago whenever my tastes were different. I tried to get things organized, but I think I might end up having to break some picture links somewhere as my 'Other Stuff' folder is just a dumping ground for all sorts of things.

Besides being OCD about things, I decided to do this because among many things I want to get back to, GFXing is a major one on my list. Before when I had lots of money and no life (because I was working 60+ hours a week), it was one of my pastimes. I had the most awesome computer with a ton of room. GIMP, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, Ulead (I don't care what you say, it was/is awesome) and a variety of others I probably didn't need but had anyways. One good gig dedicated to nothing but brushes and backgrounds, and another pushing on a gig of fonts and effects. I had this awesome little thing that let you edit the most minute details (this was back before touch screens and stuff got big and it was common place)

And then the nightmare of every person who has ever had a shit ton of important stuff on their computer happened. It died. Well, struck by lightening and caught on fire is more accurate. So it died two times over. Nothing was able to be saved.

ANYWAYS!

So yeah, it took me six hours... but it is done!

Now to download more brushes and shit. Another six hours.

If anyone is reading this and wants me to play around with a sig and/or ava set, shoot me a PM. I need to brush up my skills again :x

You have to love Xbox live. They're all trolls.

Husband goes to play some game and is talking with this one kid.

"How old do you think I am?" Laughter ensues. "Fifteen? I'll take that as a compliment."

I go to play, and yes. I do sort of fit the sucky game girl stereotype, but I'm not horrible; I am a button masher though and the bane of many fighting game people. I just have a life outside of video games and I don't spend hours of my free time obsessively staring at a television, giving myself carpal tunnel. Anyways, I get on to play. I'm not doing great, but I'm not really helping much. Some little punk comes on...

"Fucking man up you idiot! Why are you playing a cleric anyways?"

"I'm a chick; shut up and protect the castle. I'll come heal your ass when you're about to die."

"You sound like an eleven year old, prepubescent kid. Shouldn't you be in school?"

"It's summer, dick head."

He proceeds to almost die. I go over and begrudgingly go to heal him up.

"Don't you fucking come near me kid! I've got the balls to die like a man. Maybe you should grow a pair and stop running around building shit and turning people in to flowers."

"I don't have balls, damn it!"

"I know! That's why I told you to grow some you tween mother fucker."

So I beat him to death with my Candy Mace. I wonder which is worse to him: being killed by a teammate, being killed by a girl, or being killed by an eleven year old boy.