User:SmackJackal

SmackJackal has been associated with the furry fandom since the late 1980’s, having been introduced to it while a freshman in high school. He quickly found his way to the larger on-line Furry community through the use of dial-up computer systems such as the Tiger's Den BBS and the Internet under the handle/nickname of Farix. He also became active with local furry groups, such as those associated with the Prancing Skiltaire, and helped out as a staff member at the ConFurence 4 through ConFurence 7 conventions held in Orange County, California.

In 1994, SmackJackal moved to the Silicon Valley to begin a career in systems administration and systems engineering. He has recently gone back to college part-time to complete his degree in computer science.

= Hobbies = SmackJackal is an avid motorcyclist, sport compact car fiend, armature photographer/videographer and fairly serious gamer. He has also taken up the study of Kung Fu San Soo, a fighting art in which he currently holds the rank of green belt. When not working on cars or motorcycles, gaming, studying martial arts, or furthering his education SmackJackal enjoys taking up new personal challenges and hobbies.

From time to time SmackJackal has been known to pick up a pencil in the act of drawing or writing though he does not pursue either interest with a great amount of dedication or passion, they are primarily diversions to consume slack space in his busy schedule. SmackJackal was an early member and contributor to the Furthest North Crew APA and provided artwork that became the cover of first issue of Anthropomorphine. He has not sought wide notoriety through his artistic efforts with drawing or writing, however.

As a result of a personal challenge to create and present a half-way decent looking fursuit, SmackJackal completed construction of a partial fursuit named Rong-Wei in December, 2007. Rong-Wei is a white tiger created as a compliment the theme of Further Confusion 2008, The Fur East. In much the same way that SmackJackal does not refer to himself as an artist or a writer, he also does not refer to himself as a fursuiter even though he enjoy aspects of fursuit construction and performance.

As an amature videographer, SmackJackal's primary interest is in recording and depicting individuals having fun and enjoying themselves within the context of fandom. Starting with Anthrocon 2006 he began to edit his convention footage together into short montages set to music as his personal expression of the standard 'con report', making those videos available through YouTube.

= Other Fan Names and Characters = SmackJackal does not lay claim to any particular concept as a fursona or personal furry though he does generally identify most closely with canine animals, most obviously jackals, coyotes, and foxes. The fursuit character Rong-Wei is a representation of SmackJackal’s Chinese astrological sign but holds no deeper significance than that.

SmackJackal prefers to be addressed by either his real name, SmackJackal or Jackal. Close friends occasionally refer to him as Fox for various reasons.

Rong-Wei
Rong-Wei is the character name of a partial fursuit created by SmackJackal for Further Confusion 2008 as a compliment to the convention's theme, The Fur East. The character's concept is that of white tiger of Chinese ancestory versed in at least one form of fighting art. The character's specicies, tiger, is the actual Chinese astrological sign of the suit's creator.

Rong-Wei was constructed as a partial fursuit to afford his wearer better freedom of movement when performing martial arts sets in costume. Rong-Wei wears either a traditional kung fu uniform or a white Chinese long coat and wields a Flying Guillotine, a prop created by DustyKat.

His name was chosen quite intentionally as a play on words between English and Chinese. The words rong and wei roughly translates to 'martial' and 'strong' and reflect the character's martial arts skills. When spoken quickly the name sounds like "wrong way" in English which leads to many natural jokes.

ScrewDriver
ScrewDriver is a full fursuit constructed and worn by SmackJackal for the DrinkFoxes costuming group. The inspiration for ScrewDriver comes from the alcoholic beverage of the same name. Somewhat in keeping with the theme for Further Confusion 2009, the character concept for ScrewDriver is that of a burnt out beach combing ex-surfer fox who stumbles around looking for the next party or hang out.

Farix
SmackJackal's original BBS handle was Farix, the name of an ancillary character in a series of short stories he wrote as junior in high school. The name followed SmackJackal online becoming the default name of his primary character on several MUDs, including Furry Muck. The character, however, does not represent his fursona and he has never been comfortable being addressed by that name in real life.

The present online character of Farix is that of a female arctic fox who dresses somewhat punkishly. The character is not a personal furry of its creator/player, SmackJackal.

= External Links =


 * SmackJackal on Flickr.
 * SmackJackal on YouTube.
 * Mad Rantings - SmackJackal on LiveJournal.
 * Anthropomorphine #1
 * The Jimmy H. Woo Kung Fu San Soo Association