Difficult Decisions

I feel as though I'm facing a lot of difficult decision in the next thirty days but one has occupied my thoughts more than any other. What sort of case will I buy to protect my iPad once I've gotten it?

SFBags/Waterfield Designs has a couple of great sleeves or protectors. However, these just protect the iPad for transit.

Hard Candy Cases has no less than five options. Each allows the case to remain on the iPad while it is in use. They are however very colorful and do little to disguise the device for what it is.

Long Live Books has a clever hard case that looks like a book with custom text options and so forth. Unfortunately it looks to have quite a bit of velcro, and it requires that the device be removed from the cover for use.

iLuv has several colorful options iHate.

Timbuk2 and Scosche are rumored to be putting together iPad cases but they have almost unnavigable websites. I can't tell if they have what I want or not.

BBP will likely have a sleeve, but not a case per se.

Belkin, Targus, Incase and the rest of the low-cost crew will also probably put out their own version but no one has what I want it seems.

I want something that:

1. Will open and close, closely resembling a regular book or notebad.

2. Allows me to use the iPad without removing it from the sleeve/cover.

3. Completely free of buttons, snaps, velcro, clasps, etc.

The only thing that's close is the case Apple is putting out. I guess I could do like I did with text books in Junior High and make my own out of a brown paper sack.

...sigh...

Mimes of Sophron

There is nothing wrong with the very natural feeling that is sorrow until it relents to despair.

Speaking to my friend "T" yesterday it became abundantly clear to me there are two kinds of creative people in this world:

1. People who have followed a singular dream since they were small, seeing everything they desired early, and have sought after it relentlessly throughout their lives. They made the choice about what they wanted long ago.

2. People who desire to have the greatest amount of agency available to them possible. They don't want one path, they want several. They want to make the choice about what they want every day.

I'm certainly fall into the first category while my friend T is firmly in the second. I think that both are admirable, romantic notions that have great potential to produce good works. Both notions of personal order grant a creative person tremendous power if it they understood with some degree of personal clarity.

"Life is growth; not to move forward, is to fall backward; life remains life, only so long as it advances." - Ayn Rand

The more I read her book, "The Virtue of Selfishness" the more tragic the world seems. Her words are stark, unrelenting, and lacking any sort of compromise. Aside from being a badass book, it is an excellent guide for anyone creative looking to become (or remain) an ethical creature outside the confines of organized religion. Old news.

"And with regard to moderation, courage, high-mindedness, and all the other parts of virtue, it is also important to distinguish the illegitimate from the legitimate, for when either a city or an individual doesn't know hot to do this, it is unwittingly employs the lame illegitimate as friends or rulers for whatever services it wants done." - From Plato Republic

I think this statement is equally true of our own endeavors. There are so many things I do on a daily basis that lead me no closer to my goals while there are things that head me down my road feet and yards. I think that to see these things as they truly are is almost impossible, but that there lies some merit in the task of the attempt. I've always looked at things as to whether they would produce a good or ill effect, while utterly failing to see the value of the path taken to get there.

Consider this:

[The Path taken to A] -> [Outcome A] [Bad Outcome]

[The Path taken to B] -> [Outcome B] [Good Outcome]

What if the path taken to A yielded a greater value than Outcome B? Exceeding even the benefits of the Path taken to B, and B itself? Sometimes it truly is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. Not that anyone should seek a bad outcome on the basis of the journey, but the path taken to any destination should be weighed just as much or more so than the primary desire.

My wife often seeks the greatest destinations while choosing somewhat self-destructive paths and roads to get there. I'm the opposite. I often look to the road without considering what might be at the end of it as carefully as I should. Most of the time we make a great team, and occasionally we sit at the center of a great personal debacle. Our first and last time rafting the Boise River stands out in my mind of such an occasion.

"Developing a strategic analysis and outlining a strategic plan for training forces of a country facing insurgency is not necessarily a long process." - The US Army/Marines Counterinsurgency Field Manual

Optimism tends to be the road I often walk without thinking about the destination. Hope truly is the first step on the road to disappointment if you cannot see the forest for the trees. Even now I remain pretty optimistic even in the face of overwhelming evidence, my extremely analytical and objective mind warning me that I should prepare not for 'the worst', but for at least 'the bad'. Overreaching our own sense of things isn't the best use of our faith, if there is a God, he gave us a mind and the ability to reason for a purpose. The irony is that people often put their reasoning mind aside in the worship of a Supreme Being that created us to do the contrary.

Regardless of what a person believes, uncertainty is something everyone deals with in varying degrees. Some people simply relinquish control and whatever agency they had to cope while others grasp in ironclad fashion to the few things they believe under his or her control. Trying to exist in a way that defies either classification requires constantly reevaluating your own reasons for doing everything.

Brutal Introspection.

Leaving Boise

It really hit me this morning as I walked through my home, taking my morning shower, and getting ready for my day. My wife has applied for two jobs with the city, both at the public library, jobs she needs to be considered for the Scholarship she's going for. If we don't get a call for an interview in the near future, our world could change drastically. She has to apply for that Scholarship in a couple of weeks and already having a job at a library gives you an edge with regard to receiving it.

Life is full of uncertainty.

Liz has looked for jobs around town too, spreading her resume and applications to several places. One rejection email so far, one interview for a part time position. The fruits of tirelessly looking for a job since December 09. If the job market in Boise really is that tight, one wonders if this is where we're meant to be. As I sit in my marvelous office writing this, I'm filled with a sense of terrible urgency. This isn't about money or surviving at its core, it's about finding my wife's place in the world.

I can go anywhere and do what I do.

My work requires very little office space and an internet connection. That's of little comfort when I think about all would we would leave behind. I have a large number of friends and family in Boise, a marvelous home, and a familiarity with the streets and buildings. This really has become my hometown, and the thought of moving somewhere else weighs heavily upon me. I enjoy relationship with a large number of people in Boise and have a good support structure, something that would be impossible to rebuild somewhere else.

Must all we sacrifice in the pursuit of our dreams be so precious?

I'd like to think we'd just be gone a couple of years, Liz working at a library elsewhere, finishing Grad school... then we'd move back. This isn't probably very realistic. The Federal Government has done little to make the economic situation better, and have probably made it worse postponing and inevitable rethink of world economics. It's pretty hard to get a job as a cashier, burger flip-it technician, or warehouse worker in Boise right now. People have little faith in the economy and in the power of our own people and Government to correct it. My own opinion is that this dry spell will take several years to work itself out.

The time we have on this earth is finite and irreplaceable.

I want to live well. I don't care if I have lots of money, a big house, or similar. I don't need the adoration of others, the approval of an employer, or the comfort of being 'apart of something'. I just want to live well and continue writing. In the wake of all other desire this has to be central to all I do. My wife's own ambitions are as simple, and I marvel at her tenacity. Being with someone more driven to something than yourself is humbling to say the least. Liz is a machine.

I hope and pray the Boise Public Library calls her for an interview soon, she gets the job, the scholarship, and we can continue living in our hometown. I have faith that if this does not happen, that for some reason, we are probably meant to dwell somewhere else besides Boise. Some people use Faith to comfort them but my own has never worked that way. Always, my Faith has led me to difficult but rewarding places, challenging me to be an ethical being.

I pray things go the way I would like, but accept whatever may come of the next two weeks.

Focused Fire

Apple COO Tim Cook -

"We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose. The table each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, yet Apple's revenue last year was $40 billion. I think any other company that could say that is an oil company. That's not just saying yes to the right products, it's saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones.

This statement, of everything Tim said, really made me think hard about everything I'm doing in my own realm of creation. I really do have too many projects and too many mediums I'm trying to work in at once. I love writing, drawing, taking pictures, working with different software, and everything related to each of those endeavors. Even with quitting my full time job, keeping a fairly rigid schedule, and working hard in each of these directions... it feels like too many directions.

I want to list everything I'm doing. Really analyze where my energy is going, and choose like three things to focus on strongly. Everything else needs to be set aside until I've conquered a few of my goals.

1. Dreams & Echoes and everything associated with it.

2. Dreamweaver CS4, out of all my Adobe software, I struggle with it the most.

3. SS 5th Edition - I've got 2000 play test hours on the system, it is time to lay that project to rest.

Those seem the things that challenge me the most right now.

Dreams Vivid

It was a busy day. I got up at 6:30, did some restructuring to my office, made breakfast, and hung out with my brother. Did a little work, got tired and decided to grab a nap. I had this dream...

I was a Guild Assassin, a character design from my cheesy Sci-fi setting I'd been messing with. I could feel wires running through my forearms and up into my head. It became clear quickly I'd been enhanced with a VR Chip. It would receive data wirelessly and render it in my mind using my optical nerves. I could see data incoming, but it was all in a sort of visual metaphor. Mission parameters would manifest like a house being built around me, the information springing up inside picture frames and as part of the flooring.

That's when I got attacked. It was a virus of some kind, nano-tech was my gut feeling. In my mind's eye, my VR chip rendered as a small 1-year-old baby. It started beating the hell out of me until I got past the fact it was a child. A cunning countermeasure against defense, making the virus appear as the most defenseless and innocent thing. Once subdued, the nano-tech nightmare baby gave me a razor blade kite which was a sort of missive, a veiled warning.

I went quickly to a dockside cafe, wandering through broken and dirty streets in a city so large it defied description. The cafe was by the ocean, perfect and blue. It was run by my wife Liz, but she acted like she didn't know me. My old friend Rob Sturgeon and Tara M were sitting waiting for me. I shuffled past the robots which were thinly veiled by holographic images making them look like waitstaff. The windows wavered with their own holographic images, mostly advertisements. Because I had a VR chip I could reach out and feel the programmed tactile data through the wires in my hands. I could literally feel the hardness of the rocks in the gravel service ad, and the little fuzzy bear and blanket in the fabric softener ad.

Tara and Rob told me the Corporate Conglomerate was cracking down and they had arranged to dredge the river inlet. My VR chip clicked on replaying ever mission I'd undertaken where I'd ditched weapons in the river. Each incident instantly replaying in my mind. I had to disrupt the dredging somehow so told my associates what I intended to do and left. Tara vanished from my view but I could still sense her and Rob through a satellite image coming through my VR chip, up to a certain range... then they were gone.

Decided I needed a car so I headed into a more residential area. Took a shot at a school teacher about to get into her car. She didn't scare but asked me if I needed a car. I nodded and stepped from cover... that's when she started shooting at me. All hell broke loose, and undercover Conglomerate Agents burst out of alleys and parked cars from all over the place. I dove into the back of a passing truck and was getting ready to commandeer it...

That's when Liz woke me up.

My next book project is born.

Waking Up Early

It's almost 7:00 AM, had some good sleep and I'm feeling confident after finally breaking through a barrier with my Dreamweaver Program yesterday. A friend pushed me to step outside my comfort zone and I got frustrated, elated, frustrated some more, and finally arrived. Learning new things is painful, almost like you're drilling new tunnels in your brain for the information to flow with everything else you're trying to do. I really do want to learn and understand all the new programs I've acquired over the last four months. Put them to good use.

Life is full of so many distractions. Some of them are worthy of us, while others only draw us from our life's work. Sorting these things out has been easier lately. My wife has been a slave to her ambition, tirelessly seeking out her goals. I'd be a lot further down the road if I had pushed myself similarly, but I utterly lack her mental stamina. Many of my friends are making large changes to their lives, positive and otherwise. Change is always good, it signals the arrival of consequences. Whether they are favorable or otherwise is a matter of Justice.

All of this really makes me want to simplify my life and minimize the pieces of my personal stewardship that I don't need. I miss renting sometimes because there was no yard or home maintenance to deal with. If something broke, I made a phone call and someone else came to fix it on their dime. I know more than a few people who would love to have their own home. While it was never something my wife and I actively sought, as an investment opportunity, it wasn't to be passed up. So many things have been possible because of that decision.

Think I'm gonna walk to Perkins, get me a small breakfast and make some more notes out of my books before I hit it hard today.

Brutal Retrospection

There is so much about being human that is simple chemistry.

Family gatherings seriously freak me out. It isn't that I don't love my family dearly, close, extended, or otherwise... but a big group of my own blood makes me anxious as hell. The notion kinda pisses me off. That isn't me. Not by a long shot. I remember my first stint getting called for jury duty. A criminal defense attorney singled me out of a crowd of nearly one hundred people and tried to tear me down.

Jack-Ass Attorney - "Mr. Walker, this case pits my client against the Boise Police Department alleging they used excessive force. Would being in the jury and in the position of ruling in my clients favor put you at odds with your Father? I imagine he would have certain... expectations."

Me - "My Father would expect me to do my civic duty as a member of the jury granting your client a fair and speedy trial. Nothing more."

A woman who's husband had been shot and killed by the BPD the year previous was in the jury pool. Neither she, or I was selected for the jury. That's not the point. I was as calm and articulate as if I'd rehearsed the interaction. Why is it when I get around my family I freak out?

I feel stupid for not realizing it sooner. Most of the time it's a holiday with lots of sweets and starches within easy reach. The very foods that I try to avoid because they make me anxious. I show up to the family gathering, eat stuff that's bad for me, get anxious, and that's the part I remember and associate with the gathering.

Bam. That stupidly simple.

I think back to when I seemed the most out of control in those situations... I'd literally just eaten a big plate of something bad for me. I clearly recall one of my own Birthdays where my immediate family and my wife ended up on the receiving end of me freaking out really badly. It was probably 4-5 years before my first panic attack. I'd just eaten three pieces of lasagna pie. Pasta, bread, and dairy... and who knows what I'd had for lunch because I was oblivious to the fact that certain foods make me anxious.

Makes me wonder how many other taciturn people I've met over the years that would have been different had they eaten something else for breakfast? Naturally, the whole thing has given me several ideas for a book I'd been considering writing. It's fiction, but the premise lies with so-called emotional memory and response. I think it is something people could read and relate to, seeing characters battling with the memories of emotions, even in the wake of amnesia or similar obfuscation of the truth. I'd been playing with the idea for awhile now and have seen a number of other creatives reach out to the notion lately with some success.

Watching virtually any movie by Christopher Nolan makes that apparent.

I should sleep now.

Chitterling Brave-Basher

I don't see anything in my mind when I think of these guys. Did a few concepts and sorta filled this out this one thinking it would help me get a clearer picture of what a Brave-Basher should look like. Somehow this guy is far too clean looking. I think of Brave-Bashers as being more like pit-fighters, or berserkers maybe.

Chitterlings would also never wear armor like this unless someone else made it for them.

This is all wrong. -_-

Chitterling Dig-Dugger

I had this really strong mental picture of the Dig-Dugger. They'd burrow along at Bugs Bunny speed, pop out of the ground, smile, and say "Oh Hai!"... or something like that. Dig-Dugs are friendly folks that spend a lot of time underground, so when they get to talk, boy-howdy! I wanted each one to have his or her own custom gear, pick-axes, armor, and so forth. Not that they are gear-centric creatures, but they'd have lots of time to let their imaginations run wild and only a limited number of creative outlets.

I'd be a Dig-Dug.

Chitterling Rag-Cutter

The didn't turn out too bad. I wanted most of what made the girls different to reside in the face, and how they attire themselves. Just need a Brave-Basher and a Dig-Dugger and I'll have concepts for all five types.

Update: Fixed some of the shading. It was ugly.

Furious Charge

I think the banality is getting to me today. Generally when I sit at the Vista Moxie it is full of weird, somewhat off-beat folks that quietly set about reading a book, surfing on their clunky laptops, or whispering to each other like the place was a church. Today it is full of regular work-a-day stiffs wearing their fresh from the mall clothes, armed with false laughter, and noisy as hell. Then the canned radio station coming over the loud speak starts up with the Counting Crows telling me how they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

If I had a time machine, one of the first things I would do is go back and kill that band. I'd run them down with a Big Yellow Taxi... hehe. I look around and I can almost see the whole room grooving to the song. I throw up a little bit in my mouth and despair. I put my headphones on and start up the most violent British Thrash I have on hand hoping to drown it out. What I hear is interesting. The tone of the Counting Crows seems to have the same pitch as the dirge of the norms squawking around me. They are one and the same, the anti-something to my everything.

America has officially lost all sense of itself.

I think about the books, music, media, art, movies, and fashion that seems to be popular and I'm filled with a sort of terror. It is like being strangled, and all you want to do is squeeze back. I look to all the people standing at the front of non-conformity and independent creative action and marvel at how tall their multi-million (billion) dollar corporate sponsors are. It makes me really respect the works of those people who do not sell out, compromise, or infringe the creative agency of other people.

The radio is dead.

Television deserves to be killed. MTV hasn't been on the air for more than 10 years.

The movies haven't been really cool since the 80s. (Dune, Outland, Goonies, etc)

Almost every book I pick up gets put down unfinished.

I will never buy another comic book from Marvel (may they die a fiery death).

Has something has gone terribly wrong? I've thought that maybe my own uncompromising nature is to blame. Maybe somehow this is just me being melodramatic. I have so few creative refuges.

Webcomics unfettered by anything save the creative force of one or two people.

Metal & Classical Music.

The 1% of TVs and Movies produced in the last fifteen years that I can actually stand to watch.

It makes me angry that people living in the US accept the tripe the entertainment industry foists on us. It's not like we don't know better? Then I stand in the checkout line at Winco and look at all the Gossip Rags while listening to people saying how good Avatar was and realize I am alone. By and large people don't care and that as long as you cater to their weaknesses and understand how to exploit them... you can get people to buy into anything.

Okay. I think I'm mad enough now to start writing for a few hours. I think if I wrote a book about writing, I'd call it "Berserker".

Trepidation's Curse

When I start getting to the end of a project I like to lay out the pages on the floor of my workshop. Sometimes I hang them up, fifty or so at a time, just so I can really get a sense of what I've done. This latest project has been good because it didn't signal the completion and recording of one idea alone.

- I want to do an early revision of my SS System.

- I want to compile all my world building works for D&E into a single tome.

- I want to write and draw a crappy but mildly amusing web comic.

Then there's the part of me that thinks I should disappear for three months and just write the first novel for D&E. I have a bunch of it already written, the world building is mostly finished, I could have a manuscript by my birthday. The act of writing the novel, and finishing the manuscript would put me into a sort of seclusion, I know myself well enough to see that happening.

The whole thing could be entertaining if I kept a photo or video journal of the process and posted regular updates 'from the cave', blurbs from the book, and other stuff. I could do a stop animation film of my patchy beard growing out over three months. Wow, my place in the Kingdom of Weird would certainly be assured.

Proposing the idea to my wife garnered me a barrage of incredulity and questions. *sigh*

Looking back at the floor, the idea of restructuring my world building system is really attractive. Like the way eating too much ice cream is attractive, or ordering cake after a seven course meal. The revisions would streamline what is a somewhat bulky and overweight system, but would put yet another set of rules in front of play-testers to learn all over again. Why people help me, I sometimes wonder.

Nerds Gloating

I remember vividly getting my first laptop back in 1999. It was nearly two grand, had a 200 mhz processor, and was running the shiny new Windows 98 operating system. It was a magnificent lemon which I returned to acquire a Toshiba with a 133mhz processor. It ran MS Word and Warcraft 2 like a champ. That particular device was stolen out of my car some time later, never to be recovered. Since that time I have acquired a string of technological devices, each more wondrous than the next, leading up to my Macbook Pro and iMac computers. These in the wake of a love affair with Asus Laptops that never quite cooled off... I love my G1 Asus Laptop.

I spend probably an hour a day searching the web for new devices and still maintain a high level of excitement for Apple's forthcoming iPad Tablet. I have never in my life seen something captivate the geek world with such powerful enthusiasm and loathing. Having spent the last ten years reading extensively about portable computing devices, I can safely say that people do not understand what the iPad stands to offer the market.

I don't see the benefit of such a device when I think about the hedge-fund buying, Subaru Outback driving, decaf skinny latte drinking neo-yuppys sitting at the coffee shops reading their copy of Day Trading for Dummies. Will these folks buy iPads? For sure.

I don't see the benefit of such a device when I think about all the people who already have and use smart phones, own laptops, and have jobs requiring something better than a virtualized Windows 7 Desktop. Will these folks buy iPads? A few will.

The true benefit of such a device didn't really come home until I watched little Rhys Goodman playing with his dad's iPhone. This kid is still in diapers and he is interacting with the interface, playing games, deleting things he's not supposed to, and so forth. I can recall the first computer our family owned... a Tandy 1000. I also remember thinking that I should be able to touch the screen as part of the interface, using my hands to connect with whatever I was trying to learn... like everything else in life.

I also wonder at the tablet's capabilities in the college classroom. It doesn't need to boot up like a netbook, lacks the obtrusive and distracting nature of a full laptop, and will likely allow people to purchase and store textbooks. One click, the thing snaps on, press a button and the textbook is open and ready to go. There will probably be an app that will allow you to work with a stylus so you can scribble in the margins.

Writing is quickly becoming my life, but I won't stay chained to a desk. I want to wander around, people watch, take pictures, listen, and record my observations in real time... out in the real world. My laptop is a good way of doing that if I'm in a place where it is socially compatible.

I felt inspiration on Black Friday, so I whipped out my laptop and cranked out a page. People stared at the man sitting on the bench in the mall typing. The genuine manner of their interaction melted away in the wake of my geekiness. It is my hope down the road that tablet PCs become so common place, and with 3G (and beyond) connectivity that they'll be a third or half as common as cell phones. In that way, I could melt quietly into the background to record what I see and observe.

I've read dozens of articles about the iPad and other tablet PCs and the comments left by the vocal opposition... all endlessly entertaining. That this device has largely offended mainstream Geekdom fills me with dark glee, ten times more than the last Indiana Jones Movie did.

The 1 in 5 comment written by someone excited by the iPad comes from someone working in the creative field. People with imagination. People who know it won't run Photoshop, but it will run Jaadu VNC using it to borrow the display of another computer and display it with a projector. People who want to quickly import photos from their camera and see them on a display larger than a matchbox without pulling out a bulky laptop. People who want to write on something easily disguised as a normal tablet of paper with the right cover.

It isn't often that I hope for something, get what I want, and garner the pleasure of seeing so many other people disappointed in the aftermath. It feels like Apple made the iPad for me, and me alone. It has everything I wanted and more, and nothing I didn't want. It feels like being at a MtG cold-starter tourney and I drew the only Shivan.

Nerds Gloating... sounds like a band name. What's the opposite of Emo?

Aftermath

I've had a really good time being out of town, roaming around, spending time away from my home/workplace. More than that, I'm really glad I brought my tablet. It has been everything I thought it would be. For anyone who draws they really are a boon.

Your hand is effectively invisible relative to what you're drawing on the screen so it doesn't get in your way. Also, for someone who draws right to left, right-handed, it cuts down on the clean up work associated with smudging your own drawing. It also illuminates the scanning it into your computer step. I've been using Sketchbook Pro exclusively so far, but I've got other options to try out.

The Modbook and Wacom Cintiq tablets are keen devices, but they wouldn't provide me the same benefits as my Intuos4 Tablet for hundreds of dollars less. Both of the Chitterling Drawings, as well as almost everything else I do, was done with my Wacom.

The first Chitterling I drew - two-armed no less.

I've probably written only a couple pages a day on average while I've been away, but the work feels good. I needed this Chitterling Book as much as I probably needed a vacation. The world building for the Creeps and Humans of Dreams & Echoes is important, even vital to the novels I've begun writing and doing the outlines for. The Chitterlings have always just been apart of the tapestry, something laying in the background.

In that, I envy them.

From the Chitterling Book:

Chitterling Terms and Language

Chitterlings generally communicate amongst themselves with clicks and whistles at an extremely fast rate of speed rarely making words. However, they do have a limited number of terms they use when in the presence of outsiders to make themselves understood. Because Chitterlings have a difficult time speaking other languages, most of what they say sounds something like baby-talk. This does nothing to dispel the illusion that they are simple and harmless creatures.

Arm-Arm - A weapon or other implement of war.

Basalta - A building, often used to describe Reliquaries or other structures.

Basher - A warrior or soldier.

Buggy - Used to describe something solid or reliable. Often used to describe someone who is tenacious or courageous.

Eatums - Good food or drink, often used while eyeing someone else’s covetously.

Eth-rells - This is what Chitterlings call Etherealites.

Gehrz-Gud - A machine or mechanical device that a chitterling can use.

Hexxorz - Members of the 6th House, Stygian Relics, or Marionettes.

Humies - The term Chitterlings use to refer to Humans.

Lurb-Low - A term used by Chitterlings meaning that someone is their enemy or that they do not like. Often the Chitterling will click angrily gesturing to whatever they dislike before employing this term.

Quee-Quee - Often uttered when a Chitterling is referring to a loved one. The term is frequently combined with a hug.

Numies - The term Chitterlings use to refer to Shades.

Tonks - A tool or contrivance of artifice.

Toobums - A tunnel or underground road used by Chitterlings.

Voichers - The term is used to refer to Void Chitterers or alternatively when referring to a Traitor.

Chitterling Wiz-Robe

This is closer to what I was after. I think I'll try a Rag-Cutter or a Brave-Basher next and leave the Dig-Dugger's for last. They're supposed to be the most personable so I'll need the practice.

Chitterling Tink-Tocker

Rougher looking than I wanted. It's hard to get a soft, somewhat benign, appearance from a race of creatures meant to resemble insects. Got lots of vacation left to draw, might as well make use of it.