Hey everybody! I love separating my journals into sections by topic.

New York Trip!
So, as I mentioned in my last journal, I went to New York for the first time! I had a lot of fun and saw some cool stuff. I think my favourite was getting to randomly see a zombie walk of about 4-5 people at around 11pm outside a meatball restaurant. It was so unexpected and neat. Even though I knew stuff like that happens, seeing people that look like zombies tailing you at night is actually pretty scary. Or maybe that's just the horror movies programmed into my brain talking. We saw They Might Be Giants live, I got to finally visit a Kinokuniya and buy some lovely books, ate a bunch of delicious and expensive foods, and I even bought some Japanese Royal Milk Tea <3 Overall, the city is very big. Cool to visit, but I would never want to live there.

Fostering a Dog!!
Our housemate is involved with dog training and rescue, and we offered to foster a dog if one ever needed it. That day finally happened, the next day we got back from our trip. So for around a month, Toby and I are fostering a 2 year old little pibble, who was on the list to be put down. She's incredibly lovable, non-aggressive, and just generally really sweet. However, she's also untrained, and pumped full of energy with the strong muscles to back it up. It's only been a couple days since she went from being in a cage for 6 weeks to being in a house with rules in it, so it's understandable she's pretty wild right now. Buuuut, this does mean that until she gets some basic manners down, work is going to be slowed down a bit. I'll do my best to work when I'm able, but streams might be scarce for the next week.

Name Change?!
Changing my online handle/furry name/what have you, has been on my to-do list for years. When I first got into the furry fandom in 2009, I picked the name "Spix" out of thin air; I wanted something short, cute, and easy to spell, nothing more. I googled it, as I had spelled it, just to make sure it didn't already mean anything, and all I pulled up was Spix's Macaw. Sharing the name with the dude who discovered a bird was totes okay with me, so on I went. I had already been using the name on FA and at furmeets in my area for 2 years when I learned about the word with the same pronunciation, different spelling (link to racist word here). I never planned on being a full time artist, or to have any real presence in the fandom, so I decided to leave it be and rely on the different spelling of the word to be enough. However, once I started going to conventions, where staffers would loudly call out badge names so people could pick theirs up, I realized that this was going to be a problem. I was still stubborn though, especially since I'd made many accounts under the name, and was hesitant to do the work to change it. I started having people use the name "Spixy", to help distance the sound of the name further, but even that isn't really a solution. I showed up to a live stream at one point, and the artist hesitated to say my name when they started to greet me over mic, because they were uncomfortable. That was kind of my last push to think, "Okay, enough is enough, I need to take care of this." I'm tired of cringing when this name is used out loud, and of wondering if I'm offending people by having it.

I want something that has at least a little personal significance to me this time, that's still easy to spell/remember, and is also more gender neutral, to better reflect more recent changes in how I identify as a person. I made a character around two years ago, back on deviantart, that I named Malachyte Eye, and I ended up using that for my Steam name, among other things here and there. Friends outside of the furry fandom have taken to calling me Mal, or Mala, and I rather liked it. So, instead of making up a new name altogether, I think it would be nice to just use more of this name, all around. It's going to take time to switch over my galleries, social media accounts, and most of all, you guys, to this new name, so the change is going to be sorta gradual. FA will be the hardest move, since you literally can't change your name there unless you make a new gallery completely :/

Now, I completely understand that this is a change that will take getting used to, for myself as well as all of you. Let me be clear; I will not get mad when you slip up on names, and I will not get mad if you bring the name up later. It's not something I'm trying to hide or forget. So please, don't feel like you're walking on eggshells about this topic or anything like that.

Some of you may not like the name as much, some of you may think it's unnecessary. I know I've rolled my eyes a few times when I see users moving accounts or switching names left and right. But I really do think this is an important change to make, since it's not just effecting myself. I hope all of you can respect that, and keep your comments about this civil.

What About Your Fursona?
This part will kind of take some trial and error, I think. I'm still a red panda, and I'm not gonna change my overall look. But at the same time, when I look at Spix Panda, I see... well, Spix. Same with Ms. Spixy, I can't even imagine changing her name, so I really don't think I will be, there. The best solution I can see is to keep going with my style of drawing Spix in whatever way fits the situation. I've got a toony version of her, a childish one, a cub one, long hair, short hair, androgynous, chubby... the list goes on. I've always drawn her however I saw fit, because that's part of how I see myself; never the same twice. I have a version of her I've called "IRL Spix", and that one is the closest in design to looking exactly as I do in real life. I think what I might do, is take that design, and possibly pieces of the design of the aforementioned "Malachyte" character, and mix them up just a tad, to make Mal. IRL Spix already looks pretty distinct from the rest, since she has glasses and is the most androgynous, so it should be a pretty easy thing to morph. I'll still tag art of the other red pandas as "Spix", but for me personally, the artist behind the drawings, I won't be going by that name.

TL;DR
New York is pretty cool and has zombies in it.
I'm fostering a high energy dog and it's mildly disruptive, as well as adorable.
I'm changing my personal, online name to Malachyte (Mal or Mala for short).
Fursona is essentially unchanged.