Once again I find myself at Nightmare Nights here in Addison Texas. Absolutely love this convention and it is some of the most fun I have. I’ll be posting updates as I can and just a reminder I have my panel at noon tomorrow.
If any of you are out there come by and see me, say hi. I would love to meet any of you.
#hugapony my friend
I have just received two more of my “My Little Pony” Build a Bear stuffed ponies. They will be added to an ever growing collection. The two new ponies are from the MLP movie. When I get them stuffed and ready, I will share a picture of this collection.
I have gotten more than a few strange looks these last 7 years over my love of the “My Little Pony” show. I have gotten even more strange looks from being in the furry fandom for over 20 years. I have weathered them all with an understanding of being different. I have never felt the need to change. Why should I change what I like and enjoy because you are uncomfortable with what I like and enjoy. I don’t shove my fandoms in people’s faces so you are free to ignore me. I would rather you ask questions and try and understand.
I would have to say I have been an ambassador to those fandoms for a long time. Quite a few people have come to me with questions or to seek my opinion on my fandoms. I have never backed down from answering honest questions. I feel privileged that people trust me enough to ask about them. It gives me great joy seeing others who knew nothing about these fandoms show interest. If not interest, at least the understanding of why i, and others, enjoy them.
Stuffed therapy is also in that vein of being weird. I have been a proud advocate for this self therapy that I have seen help others. I have work panels, sat privately with people, even started a blog on trying to help people. Having something big or small, round or thin, fuzzy and soft near you when you need it. That little totem that grounds you.
Your stuffed little therapy.
And mine as well.
Find things that make you happy. Share that happiness with others. Improve yourself and then help others improve themselves. Share your love and passions.
#hugapony my friends.
I have just come back from working yet another convention. I am tired. This one I worked guest relations. I hung out with so many great people. They inspired me to do more with my blog and even encouraged me to do more to help others. A few even made it to my disabilities panel. Here are the amazing people I had the pleasure of working with.
Caleb Hyles is a Youtube star with singing power that leaves me in awe. I had the oppurtunity to sit down with him and his wife and share life stories and other craziness. If you haven’t checked him out, do so at: https://www.youtube.com/user/CalebsCovers/featured
Gareth West is an up and coming anime super star! He is an extremely talented voice actor who has an amazing passion for his fans. Hanging out with Gareth was so much fun this weekend and made me so happy. Check out his Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/gareth.west.90
Cherami Leigh is a complete sweetheart. She has a resume that baffles the mind as to how much work she has done. As always, she brought her mom out to the show with her. Cherami is one that the fans love and adore. More on her bellow. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0473873/
Double feature with Kristen McGuire and Chuck Huber.
Kristen is a crazy awesome person who cannot stop drawing on people’s plushies. Her voice work and her art is a one, two combo to make you want to love her more. I am still waiting on her Cat Girl #2 comic. Her info is http://kriscomics.com/
Chuck works so hard to be there for his fans. Even when he is not supposed to be somewhere, he will pop out of nowhere and surprise everyone. A long time, hard working actor who puts in time with his fans was a crowd favorite. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0399321/
Aaron Roberts. My pony brother from another mother. I need to buy him more pony stuff. He was one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave. His panels were packed with good information and audience pleasing fun. Check him out at http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Aaron-Roberts/
Greg Ayres is another one of those hard working folks that has a huge laundry list of projects with his name in them. From working on anime to fighting bootleg items in the dealer rooms, it is amazing that he has even more to give with crazy nighttime club DJ hits. His list of amazing feats are here: http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/greg-ayres/
So that was my weekend. It was long hours and hard work but it all paid off to be with such amazing people. I wanted to shout out to my staff who helped me, Star, Foxx, and AJ along with Sarah who kept guests happy in the green room. I am going to go sleep now for a week.
#hugaplushie my friends (just keep them away from Kristen)
I had a short day today. People outside the convention needed my help and I was never able to make it back to the show. I will be back tomorrow (fingers crossed) and I will post more pictures!
Jenn Blake artwork for a Friend!!
Badge!!
This will probably be one of many as life has taken a turn for the busy.
I have started a new retail job (yay?) and it is an overnight position. It makes it fun when you come home to everyone sleeping in the morning. This has taken more of my time than I care to admit.
The new job has also taken a toll on the body. I am in more pain than usual and it is harder to keep up with my writing. I have to fight to just get up and walk around some days. I can force myself at work to keep going and I have always had a tremendous work ethic so I am having to learn to pace myself more and more. It is hard because I fight my brain on being lazy.
I have been given a newer perspective on life during this. I have been forced to stop and think before I speak. While my writing has always been a better outlet for composing my thoughts (I highly recommend that if you want to focus your mind better, writing things down clears the head), I am now forced to think before speaking. This is partly in due to the medication and symptom (mind fog) that makes it incredibly hard to get words out.
I want to thank my dear wife and wonderful kids on being patient with me and repeating themselves several times over so I can acknowledge what they are saying.
I hope to continue to write as an encouragement to you, dear reader. I hope that you find strength and hope in what I write. I love you all.
#hugapony my friends.
I have been part of the furry fandom for a long time now. It started back in the 90’s. When I was a teenager, I would go around and wear a rubber dog nose and sometimes act like a dog. I would hold out my hands like paws, scratch my head, stick out my tongue, and pant. Why did I do this? Two reasons.
Because it was fun.
Because it made people laugh.
I loved going to Wal-Mart and walking around with my mom and sisters and have them watch peoples reactions. My favorite was the laughter or the smiles on people’s faces. Seeing very rarely act or respond back with saying “Such a good boy” or “Oh my goodness”. The children who just laughed and thought I was the greatest, funniest thing they have ever seen. I enjoyed making people smile.
Unfortunately, there where others.
There were parents who saw their kids laughing or smiling, and yanked on there hand and pulled the child away telling them not to look at me. I had a few grandmothers who looked at me in disgust and say how shameful I was. One came up to my mother and told her to get me ” help” because I was acting out. It was a sad but very real reaction to some of the people we share this planet with.
Fast forward to more recent.
I still enjoy wearing crazy things. I have a wonderful hat (as can be seen on my video blog) that has crazy fluffy ears that are so much fun. I still get the same reactions from people, good and bad, though this time I have my kids around. My daughters have grown up with me and my ears or even sometimes tails that I wear in public and they think that is just normal for dad to wear. My youngest has started wearing a few things herself. The looks from parents are scalding to the touch. I see the hate about how not only am I that weird person buy now I am corrupting my child with this nonsense.
Now, people know furries from two places. The first is from a CSI episode that appeared over a decade ago. The episode (“Fur and Loathing“) show grown adults who are out of control in a sexual orgy. Great representation of furries. The second place is the Internet. Again, a few quick pictures and the main thing that pops out is the sexual deviant behavior that appears. I have often wondered why is this the first thing people see.
Well, sex sells.
From these two places, the rest of the world now looks upon those who wear ears and tails or even have a full fursuit (a full body suits) as these sexually depraved people that are to be shunned.
This makes me sad.
I know this is only my perspective and point of view but I am someone from the community. I feel I can speak for it.
Is there aspects of the community that are less than sunshine and rainbows? Absolutely. This is true in most aspects of life. I recall to mind the “50 Shades of Grey” phenomenon that came from the Twilight craze. Somehow, that was accepted by many and made into a best selling book and movie series. Again sexual deviant, but this time widely accepted.
To me, this doesn’t seem fair.
I have been accepted by my family and friends in what I like. I enjoy making people laugh. One of my close friends say it’s me getting in touch with my shamanistic Native American side of my. I smile to see her rationalize my behavior. My sister drew me a wonderful depiction of my “fursona” (the furry representation of my persona).
Another friend for my birthday had a badge for me to were at conventions.
Adorable and brought in my brony side as well.
I hope the tides are changing. I just recently saw the new Disney movie Zootopia. It is an anthromophic (animals portrayed acting as in human manner) cop buddy story. I went and saw it (with ears on of course) and I saw the furry connection everywhere. There were many jokes to the furry community. Disney seems to be a solid source of positive furry promotion. From movies like Oliver and Company and Robin Hood, there is plenty of material to support furries.
I also had an article sent to me about Syrian refugees who ended up at the same hotel as a furry convention. It seemed like a clash made for the ages.
But it ended up way different than anyone expected.
The children loved it. The parents were in shock but we’re happy for the kids. A wonderful representation of who the community is supposed to represent.
I have never been ashamed to say it. I am proud to be a furry. Yes, there are aspects of the community that are less than desirable, at least for me, but please don’t brand us all as terrible people. We just want to make the world smile by being silly. We feel safer hiding behind fur and ears and tails. It helps us control the anxiety or depression we might be suffering from. It gives us a chance to act or be someone different.
I am a furry Internet. I expect your rage and resentment. Bring it on.
#hugafurry my friends.
I love my friends. They come across something My Little Pony related and they send it my way. I absolutely love being that guy.
Today, a friend sent me this awesome post:
Mom blogger HerBadMother writes about her son and his love of My Little Pony.
I can absolutely relate when HerBadMother says “This is why we have Girls Who Code (which is great) but not Boys Who Nurture.” As a stay at home day dad, I understand the struggles and they are real. Being the homemaker as a male is not very well accepted. Telling people that I hold down the home while my wife works gets me looks that make me feel less than OK.
And then there is me being a brony as well.
I remember when I worked at Gamestop (I have worked even if I don’t now), a little boy, about 9, came up to the cash register. He had 2 ponies attached to his belt loop. I asked him about it and the boy’s father started making excuses for the boy saying they were his sisters. The boy had a flash of pride and told his dad the ponies were his. I got down on one knee, looked him in the eye, and asked who his favorite pony was, “Twilight”, he said. “Mine is Fluttershy,” I responded. I then told him he was awesome for liking ponies.
“It’s totally understandable, to Jasper and his friends,” HerBadMother writes “why girls like Star Wars. There are spaceships, and light saber battles, and the one princess in the series is actually a general who wears pants. But My Little Pony? That’s all about sparkle and unicorns and kindness; it’s a world full of puffy clouds and rainbows and friendship, where the character’s powers are signified by ‘cutie marks.’ It’s the very definition of girly.”
The land of Equestria (Where My Little Pony is set) is filled with rainbows and cutie marks and lots of pink. There are lessons on friendship and how to be kind to others. And then there’s a raging demon tearing up the country side. Ponies get sucked into a comic book and have to fight Avengers style. They have a dragon just coming into manhood and being picked on for not being manly enough. There’s epic battles in the sky that rival Star Wars … OK that is a stretch but the comparison has been made by more than just me.
There are whole conventions dedicated to My Little Pony, where fans of all ages and genders go to have fun and enjoy the fandom. Even Cosmopolitan agrees!. http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a36628/i-went-to-a-brony-con-on-valentines-day-and-fell-in-love/
My most recent birthday party was pink and rainbows.
I want to say, HerBadMother, thank you. Let your son know that there are plenty of boys and men who like My Little Pony such as myself.
We are out there and there is no shame.
Don’t be so quick to dismiss the Bronies!
#Hugapony
Yes this is the reveal trailer. I will tell all in my new blog post!!!! Just include $19.99 in three easy payments plus shipping. The most talked about secrets will be yours right here right now!
OK so not really but I have an announcement.
I have a panel at a convention.
Actually, I have two panels at 2 different conventions.
Excited yet?
The first panel is this Thursday in Dallas, Tx and Akon 26 (http://www.a-kon.com/). I will be joining Three friends of mine, Nick Mangieri (Knightengale Music Advising). Ronin Jasso (twitch.tv/thegigalounge) and Ray Batts (Sickhead Games) for an awesome time of fun with fandoms and games! We just wrapped up a pre-launch Podcast that is here:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqNUoBjTcc
“>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqNUoBjTcc
Check it out and leave a comment or better yet, come see us in person!!!! This will be first offical panel with My Stuffed Little Therapy and I cannot contain the excitement that I have. It will be great!
The second panel I will be flying solo at Anime North Texas (http://animenorthtexas.com/). I will have main stage for this one and I hope to have a great turnout. Here is the purposed listing.
Daniel “Codefreak” Permenter, avid blogger and possibly the world’s biggest Brony shares the means and hows on surviving fandoms both at conventions and in the real world. He will share his feelings and knowledge of blogging and the secret of “Stuffed Therapy”. He will also share his personal insight on family cosplaying and raising the next generation of anime/convention lovers! Check out his personal blog at https://mystuffedlittletherapy.wordpress.com/
I cannot wait to see what happens.
I ask all of you a big favor. Spread the word!!!! I hope to have a great turnout. If you know people who would want to come see me let them know about it!!! I will be promoting these as much as I can without being annoying. Well, too annoying.
Hug a pony my Friends!!!
So, I got some news. Some interesting news. Some crazy, awesome, interesting, I can’t believe its not butter news. I know you want me to share it and I am just typing more of this to get the satisfaction of you reading it and having to wait just a bit longer to find out what it is.
Sadistic? Yes.
I was talking to a friend about an up and coming convention that is happening. If I hadn’t shared this on here before (I don’t believe) I will share it now. I work quite a few anime/fandom conventions. I do Security work, Troubleshooting, Moral staffing and more. Most of it is volunteer work but I enjoy it and help others enjoy their fandoms safely. I have been doing it for almost 8 years now. Crazy.
So I was talking to a friend about my blog and we were talking shop about upcoming events and I also commented on my blog (which he has been know to read and I will say Hi here to him). I also mentioned that I would love to go to a bigger audience and show more love and caring and do more to help people. He made mention that I should do a panel (a 30 min to 2 hour event where people ask questions and get to know you).
I was not sure about it as I put “who would give me a panel?” He told me he would help me.
Now, as of this writing I am still not sure about the idea of doing this but the thought has entered my mind and is rattling around in the brainpan. The thought excites me and scares the daylights out of me. I know I am a good public speaker as I have done it before and I am in a sales job. I am just wondering if this would help people because if it does, I would be remiss to not do this.
I will keep you guys posted if this happens as you are my first audience and you guys are awesome. I think I will get an outline of how it will go and Ill go from there.
Hug a pony my friends. I have NINE to hug now!!!!
This is a Fandom post for me so forgive me if I seem to geek out over this because I really am.
I have been to Build a Bear for their wonderful collection of My Little Ponies. I have posted one picture (without my face being shown) but today I received even more ponies!
I now have a few nine ponies taking up a shelf. For some reason this makes me REALLY happy! I also am waiting on a another I ordered that was discontinued. I am now missing just the new three that were released (Luna, Shining Armor, Cadence) Spike (he is the one on order), and the three cutie mark crusaders though my daughters have 2 of them (Applebloom and Sweetie Bell) and the third one was discontinued and is IMPOSSIBLE to find (Scootaloo). Scootaloo I have only seen on Ebay AU and it was 40+ dollars for the doll and 40+ dollars for shipping. 80 is not in price range. I will have to wait on her.
The other item I got surprised me. Someone, somewhere, somehow got my address and shipped me the following Item.
I have an idea who it was but I am not sure. I am truely touched. Gifts are very special to me and make me feel very happy. No, not because of me getting stuff. Its more of “someone thought of me”
It warms my heart.
Hug a pony my friends. I invite you to join a fandom or a hobby or something that you enjoy and can enjoy with other people. Spread the love my friends.
My Stuffed Little Therapy 