mwalimu's stories

It was the spring of 1998 when I first became a fan of Light on Shattered Water by Greg Howell, an era when stories were uploaded with hard line breaks. It was becoming increasingly evident that my interest in Lion King fandom had run its course and probably wouldn't stick with me much longer. But the interest wasn't so much dying off as morphing into an interest in furry fandom in general, particularly works of literature. I asked for suggestions of works of furry literature that would be good to read, both published and online. Light on Shattered Water, which at the time had recently been completed, came highly recommended to me. I began reading and quickly became immersed in this story.

And now, fourteen years later, Light on Shattered Water (Life of Riley, Book 1) is available in a Kindle edition. (June 2012, ASIN B008GASFDA, $4.99)

Michael Riley, a digital graphics specialist, was encouraged to spend some time away from his job. While hiking in the mountains near Montpelier, Vermont, he is knocked unconscious by a nearby lightning strike. Upon awakening, he finds all of his possessions intact, including most notably a laptop computer (with a solar recharging unit), but his GPS isn't working, many of the landmarks he had relied upon are mysteriously absent, and his maps seem to be wrong. After hiking for days, he finally discovers a village where everything appears to be oddly primitive. But the biggest shock of all comes when he first sees its inhabitants.

Earth Eternal, which was billed by some as a furry MMORPG, and which went offline in September 2010, is about to be relaunched in North America under its new ownership. Formerly run by SparkPlay, the new version, described as revived and revamped, will be operated by Outblaze and TurnOut Ventures. Although rumors have abounded for months that a relaunch might be forthcoming, it was only recently that there has been a more definitive announcement that a beta would be launching shortly.

The new game will have some differences from the old. Only twelve of the twenty-two character races from the original will be available. There will no longer be a browser version, and a Facebook account will be required. The changes to the game made it impossible to preserve characters from the original, so all players will need to start over (and according to their website, characters created for the beta release will be deleted at the end of the beta period).

Some have already been playing the Japanese version, and report that the character models have been somewhat altered to a more Japanese styling. Despite some differences, the overall look and feel and the gameplay are much like the earlier incarnation of the game.

(Vikie Foxfang assisted in writing this article.)

According to a recent story on NPR, a large number of coyotes roam the streets and parks of Chicago. The 60 mentioned in the article are those monitored via tracking collars; there are many more uncollared ones. The tracking is part of research by The Cook County, Illinois, Coyote Project.

A recent Reuters story reports that biologists in Guatemala rely on Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men to attract jaguars for tracking and research purposes.

Use of the cologne stems from research done by The Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo, where researchers tested the effect of numerous scents on cheetahs. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, it was discovered that out of 24 scents tested, Obsession for Men was the favorite, with Nina Ricci's L'Air du Temps coming in second. Others fared much worse, such as Estée Lauder's Beautiful and Revlon's Charlie.