WikiFur - User contributions [en]

Wolfie Rankin

2012-08-22T15:59:11Z

Wolfie Rankin: /* Logo and Character */

{{cleanup}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Wolfie Rankin
| realname =
| othernames = Wolfie!
| image = [[Image:Wolfie's Avatar.png|256px]]
| caption = Wolfie's Avatar
| caption = Wolfies Second Life Avatar
| born = 1965
| profession = DJ
| species = Werewolf
| url =
* [http://www.facebook.com/people/Wolfie_Rankin/1267874303 Wolfie Rankin] on [[Facebook]]
* [http://wolfiesworld-oz.blogspot.com/ Wolfie Rankin] on [[Wolfie's World]] Archive
* [http://wolfiesrockit.blogspot.com/ Wolfie Rankin] on [[Rockit]] Archive
* [http://abcisland.blogspot.com/ Wolfie Rankin] on [[ABC Island Blog]]
* [http://www.formspring.me/WolfieRankin Wolfie Rankin] on [[Formspring]]
* [http://www.twitter.com/Wolfie_Rankin @Wolfie_Rankin on Twitter]
* [http://wolfiesworld.wordpress.com Wolfie Rankin on Wordpress] Current
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/WolfieRankin Wolfie Rankin on YouTube]
* [http://www.vimeo.com/user1689194 Wolfie Rankin on Vimeo]
}}
'''Wolfie Rankin''' (born 1965) is a [[werewolf]] ([[therianthrope]]) from [[Wikipedia:Melbourne|Melbourne]], Victoria, Australia. He is usually called '''Wolfie!''', having used that name as early as 1986, and had been formerly known for his activities on the [[Second Life]] simulation, but there's a lot more to his story.

== The Radio Wolf ==

After leaving High School in 1985, Wolfie briefly studied at [http://www.saemelbourne.com/ The School of Audio Engineering] in St. Kilda, Victoria.
although that was a slight error as He wanted to be in radio, but did take some knowledge from there which came in handy later.

"The Radio Works", A School for Radio Announcers, in South Melbourne, was the next port of call, where he studied the basics of working as a DJ.

Upon leaving, He joined a community radio station in Melton, Victoria called [http://www.979fm.net/ 3 RIM-FM] (Now known as 979FM) Where he presented a music program called "Something Wild" twice a week which consisted of 80's music (it was the 80s).
and He also wrote and produced various recorded work for the station.

He continued for three years until illness overtook him and he had to quit in 1989.

"When I started radio, I was full of enthusiasm, I loved Kenny Everett a British DJ, and wanted to emulate him, but after about two years of radio I found that my energy was sliding and I wasn't sure why. I remember one listener ringing and asking if I took drugs, I hadn't... I had also noticed stomach cramps and nausea with the lethargy. One day I had an argument with the boss, and just quit there and then... but it wasn't the stations fault, or the fault of my boss, something was wrong with my health. But I really couldn't see that I was that bad at the time."

== Life in the slow lane ==

As He slowly recovered, Wolfie began to feel the need to do something new.

He had always been interested in herbs and natural medicine, so joined the Australian Shiatsu College in Fitzroy,
This was mostly taken up because he needed something slow and quiet to do.

Wolfie calls that stage of his life, his "new age, crystal wearing hippy days" which was around 1995.

He had embraced Yoga and meditation, and messed around with American Indian philosophy, He felt it
helped bring him out of his shell a little more, especially as bodies had to be touched directly and for
quite some time.

Wolfie had been bullied badly at school and had become very introverted as a result, but Radio and Shiatsu
had helped him a lot, The Internet would also go a long way in allowing him to open up and talk to people.

Wolfie does not see natural medicine as a genuine treatment for anything, however admits that the Yoga, Meditation
and physical contact (Including practice massage by other students on his own body) had helped a lot, and in some
ways he was healthier for it.

==Logo and Character==

The original sketch was drawn by Wolfie in 1989, in black biro, and Wolfie still has the original picture.

The picture was shown to Lyceus/Lobocursor who re-created the image in his own style.

It was then released to the public on the internet.

Furry artist [[Poop]] did a quick sketch of it in 2003 and the image was cleaned up by Second Life artist Quadrapop Lane in 2007.

Although Wolfie says his inner wolf is brown even though the logo is of a white wolf,
This is because the brown one always looked too dark on screen, so Wolfie remains white.

[[File:Grean_cream_twitter_closeup_copyright_copy.png|278px|right|thumb|Current Wolfie Avatar]]
[[File:Wolfie_science_nine_copy.png|278px|right|thumb|Radio Wolf Avatar]]

== Fearsome Beast of Legend ==

Wolfie is a Werewolf, However there's no curse, no wars with Vampires, no changing shape under the moonlight.

"None of the old Werewolf legends or stories mentioned anything about moonlight, that was something dreamt up
for "The Wolfman" (Original) and has persisted ever since."

Wolfie feels the most accurate film about Werewolves, is Teen Wolf, The Michael J Fox Movie.

"Here's a fellow who suddenly finds that he's different to others, that's all it is, but it's beautiful. I think it's a shame that
people feel the need to ruin a story with violence, for shock value. Can't a werewolf be kind, warm, friendly or sexy?"

Real Werewolves, according to Wolfie, are not offended by Hollywoods distortion of the facts, and still enjoy a good Werewolf story,
However the movies would all be filed under "Comedy".

Wolfie is not the least bit aggressive and often suggests that he's far too domestic to go hunting.

"I don't like raw meat, I'd rather cook a nice chicken pie and share some of it with my dog."

However he likes to put on an act by suggesting he "eats babies" and takes part in various revolting activities like rolling in dead things or licking up his own vomit, if only for a chuckle.

Wolfie's nature is gentle, fun loving and protective... and friends suggest he has a little [[Coyote (species)|coyote]] thrown in for good measure (The Prankster).

Wolfie thinks the wolf gene was from his Dads side, but nobody knows for sure.

==Second Life==
Although having been persuaded by others to use Second Life, Wolfie! was not interested until he saw an episode about the subject on the science/technology journal ''[[Wikipedia:Beyond 2000|Beyond Tomorrow]]'', screened on Australia's [[Wikipedia:Seven Network|Channel Seven]]. The episode was interesting as it even showed [[furries]] in Secondlife having a passionate kiss in public.

It was almost impossible to join Second Life that night, as so many Australians were logging in for the very first time. Help Island was "popping out" about three avatars a second. Once Wolfie managed to enter Second Life, He found he could not get off Help Island as the second help island was full, and getting to the mainland was impossible unless someone in-world teleported him there. This eventually happened when Glenny (an American friend who Wolfie had met via a Harry Potter Yahoogroup a couple of years earlier) teleported him to an Elven area within SL, and Wolfie lived there for a week or so, sleeping in the bushes, as he had no land at the time.

Wolfie's first avatar was the basic human who wore tie-dyed pants and got no respect from
anyone.

His first real avatar was a free white Secondlife wolf given to Wolfie by Patch Fuhr

Wolfie's usual Second Life avatar is usually a gold "Werehouse" [[wolf]] or a "Werehouse werewolf".

When Second life began to use sculpties and talking jaws, Wolfie upgraded to a "fox coloured"
Instinct Wolf... although that didn't really last.

===Eragon and Wolfie's pub===
When Ryu joined Second Life, Ryu was so enthusiastic about it that he planned to buy an Island. Although Wolfie tried to disuade him, Ryu ultimately bought Eragon. (He named it after [[Wikipedia:Eragon|the books]]

After Eragon was created, Wolfie was invited to Share it with Ryu, The offer was extended to
Kath McGill also.

After weeks of trying to decide what to do, Wolfie came up with the idea for the Kookaburra Pub. Which would sit "in the old gum tree". [[Wikipedia:Kookaburra (song)|As in the song]],

The original plan was to buy a pre-fabricated building from Caledon, but
then Ryu decided to try his hand at building. After looking at some photos of Aussie pubs on Flickr, Ryu constructed the pub and the Bar. Wolfie did not consider himself a builder, and therefore didn't contribute much to the building.

Surprisingly, Ryu offered his hand to Kath, first in Second Life and then in Real Life,
She accepted both times, and the two then went to Australia on their Honeymoon to stay
with Wolfie!.

===ABC Island===
{{main|ABC Island}}
One night, Jaggpro McCann visited Wolfie and asked if he would like to have him play at the Pub. Wolfie agreed to that and wanted to let others know this would be happening.

Lowell Cremone suggested that an advertisement be placed on his forum, Metaverse Journal,
and it was here that Wolfie discovered that Abi Goldflake was trying to get [[Wikipedia:Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]] Island up and running in Second Life.

After getting ABC Island set up, Abi asked Franko, Lowell and Wolfie to join her on the new island. The Island was left open and Wolfie took some advantage of this, inviting friends over for a mock takeover while he wore a vest with the Union Jack emblazoned on it. He also took several risque photos of himself as Dr. Frankenfurter from ''The Rocky Horror Show''.

Soon after, the Island was closed and built on by Gary Hazlitt, who had also built Big Pond for Telstra. On the opening day, there was a big party and during that week Abi chose her first ABC Friends Administrators. Wolfie Rankin was chosen, along with Diag Anzac, Lowell Cremone, Evangeline Wind, Esmeralda Vernon, Rails Bailey, and Skribe Forti.

ABC Island is notable in that although it is a "commercial sim", it is furry friendly,
and quite a few of the ABC Friends Admin are furries themselves. This is hardly surprising since the ABC are highly supportive of cultural diversity.

===Rockit===
{{main|Rockit}}
Wolfie saw potential in ABC Island having live programs just like they do on their TV and Radio networks.

However, Wolfie was against pre-programmed questions, feeling that if everything on Second Life was pre-programmed then you may as well simply just have a webpage, so Rockit was to be a live program, hosted weekly.

The show is run like several ABC gameshows, where people play for fun but don't win
anything as they are extra-low-budget productions, and this also convinced Wolfie that
such a show would work, providing it was entertaining enough.

Although Rockit was popular, it was difficult to produce, often taking days to write questions, now most people in Second Life don't watch television, wishing to remain in world and do whatever they do, Wolfie was no exception, but it was also difficult to draw players to the show, Rockit was wrapped up for good (partially due to an accident which damaged Wolfies hearing in 2009).

=== Leaving Second Life ===

Increasingly Wolfie was of the opinion that Second Life had nothing more to offer, He felt that although it had potential, convincing others to try it proved to be difficult.

Not everyone wanted to try it, or could try it, feeling that it was simply a game rather than a social network, or their computers were too slow, or their internet was not capable of providing a fast enough connection. It wasn't the easiest thing to use either, some who were not computer savvy found it too hard to use.

"Eragon" which had been Wolfies home in Second life, had been sold off by it's owners due to the expense of running it.

"I always felt more like a people person, a helper, and I was happy to do that, and at first I did a lot of that and really enjoyed it, but as the shine wore off
Second Life, there were much fewer opportunities to do that.

I began to feel that people went to Second Life to hide, People in SL lived in a kind of bubble, and were not always aware of particular news happening outside,
While Twitter was generally right on the ball, often breaking news before it happened.

I could wait for an hour to talk to someone on SL, while Twitter was sometimes hard to keep up with.
I was a broadcaster by nature and Twitter was full of media people, that was where I should have been, so I left SL"

== Documentary ==

Wolfie has been in a documentary about Second Life sub-cultures, called Alter Ego, which
also features a musician [[Alfonzo]] and [[Marko the Rat]], a long time friend and fursuiter.

The Documentary was made by [http://www.decemberfilms.com.au/ December Films] and went to air on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Broadcasting_Service SBS] in 2009.

It's directed by [http://www.sbs.com.au/blogarticle/108073/meet-wolfie-rankin Shelley Matulick] who also created the short [http://www21.sbs.com.au/podlove/index.php?pid=episode&cid=216 Our Brilliant Second Life] which was seen on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Broadcasting_Service SBS] in 2006.

The Documentary is available to buy directly from December Films.

As an additional furry connection, the company Shelley's sister works for created the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck14LKBI9GM Orangina commercial] with the dancing furries which can be seen on YouTube.

[https://vimeo.com/8750931 "Marko and Wolfie"]

== Beautiful Kate ==

Wolfie is seen briefly in the new [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Ward Rachel Ward] movie [http://www.beautifulkatemovie.com.au/ "Beautiful Kate"] Which premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2009. The movie stars [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Brown Bryan Brown], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Griffiths Rachel Griffiths], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Mendelsohn Ben Mendelsohn], Maeve Dermody and Sophie Lowe. The film was released, to a wider audience, in Australia, in August 2009.

"They wanted Rachels character to use Second Life in the evenings, as she was alone in the bush, looking after a sick Dad, and had no way to socialise. A dance scene had been set up on a Second Life island, and the scene was filmed... if you squint, you can just make out my character. I heard on the grapevine that Rachel Ward said that my character was cute. I was paid $20 for the twenty seconds which I was on screen for, which you have to admit, is bloody good money. Alas my real name appeared in the credits and nobody knew that it was me."

== Cancer Survivor ==

In 2005, Wolfie had just lost his first Alaskan Malamute to cancer, and just two weeks later had noticed blood loss while in the toilet.

An examination revealed that he had bowel cancer, and an operation to remove the tumour was quickly arranged at The Royal Melbourne Hospital.
this was followed up by months of chemotherapy and radiation which made him terribly sick.

Wolfie can be seen having a cat scan in the documentary "Alter Ego"

"My Mother had been looking after me while I was at home, I could barely eat because the chemo had affected my sense of taste, it was like someone had mixed tobacco, gym socks and batter acid together and stuffed it in my mouth. The taste would last most of the week and would generally pass before saturday, which was when I could eat something fairly solid... but would then return on the sunday and just be about clear by wednesday when I'd get another dose... One day I woke up and was just watching from my bed as Mum walked past over and over, which I felt was really strange, and Then I asked her what she was doing, and she spoke quietly "I thought you were dead"... It was a horrible year for me and I'm extremely sympathetic towards anyone who has to deal with it."

Wolfie had been left with an ileostomy (similar to a colostomy) a bag for collecting waste, and although it should have been there for about three months, it remained for five years. This was because Wolfie had been too sick to be operated on, and then had had enough of hospitals, so simply decided to keep things as they were.

But as the bags tended to leak at the worst time, Wolfie decided to have the operation in 2010, and now functions almost as good as before.

Wolfie lost his Mother, possibly to cancer, in 2006. She died before a clear diagnosis was made.

Wolfie then lost his older Sister to Ovarian Cancer in 2010

His Dad died of cancer in 1998.

As of 2012 Wolfie is still alive and well.

== Life at Home ==

Wolfie has always been a home body, so doesn't feel stuck at home, and is quite happy.

He makes friends all around the World via social media, and loves to meet them face to face whenever he can.

Wolfie lives with his Alaskan Malamute "Katie" (Katherine) and his cat "Vicky" (Victoria)

== Copyright ==

Wolfie!, Wolfie Rankin, The Wolfie Logo, Air Digital (Including "Thunderbolt" logo] are Copyright PWTS, 1986-2011, All rights reserved.

"Wolfie Rankin - The Werewolf of Melbourne"

==External links==
{{Contributor}}
* [http://www.facebook.com/people/Wolfie_Rankin/1267874303 Wolfie Rankin] on [[Facebook]]
* [http://wolfiesworld-oz.blogspot.com/ Wolfie Rankin] on [[Wolfie's World]] Archive
* [http://wolfiesrockit.blogspot.com/ Wolfie Rankin] on [[Rockit]] Archive
* [http://abcisland.blogspot.com/ Wolfie Rankin] on [[ABC Island Blog]]
* [http://www.formspring.me/WolfieRankin Wolfie Rankin] on [[Formspring]]
* [http://www.twitter.com/Wolfie_Rankin @Wolfie_Rankin on Twitter]
* [http://wolfiesworld.wordpress.com Wolfie Rankin on Wordpress] Current
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/WolfieRankin Wolfie Rankin on YouTube]
* [http://www.vimeo.com/user1689194 Wolfie Rankin on Vimeo]

[[Category:People]]
[[Category:Therians]]
[[Category:Werewolf characters]]
[[Category:Second Life characters]]
[[Category:Victoria]]
[[Category:1965 births]]

2009-06-15T07:08:20Z

Wolfie Rankin: /* Documentary */

Wolfie Rankin

2009-03-11T00:49:44Z

Wolfie Rankin: /* Documentary */

User talk:Kasarn

2009-03-05T07:15:18Z

Wolfie Rankin: /* Thankyou */ new section

Welcome to [[WikiFur]]! Thank you for registering an account - we look forward to working with you. [[Forum:Help desk|Let us know]] if you need any [[Help:Contents|help]] not already provided. If you would like help creating an article or just editing it, don't hesitate to consult the [[Help:Furry Book of Style|Furry Book of Style]] or just contact an [[WikiFur:Administrator|administrator]]. Have a nice day! :-) --[[User:Higgs Raccoon|Higgs Raccoon]] 11:17, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

== Thankyou ==

Thankyou for updating my ABC Island Page, I appreciate it.
However Syncere Talon, Listed as an Admin, is from the US.

I haven't been here for a while and am forgetting how to
operate wiki, it's so much harder than Facebook for example.

--[[User:Wolfie Rankin|Wolfie Rankin]] 07:15, 5 March 2009 (UTC) Wolfie Rankin

Wolfie Rankin

2009-02-24T07:28:39Z

Wolfie Rankin: /* External links */

2008-08-15T01:51:52Z

Wolfie Rankin:

{{merge|ABC Island}}
'''Rockit''' is a music related gameshow which was invented for [[ABC Island]].
It was created by Air Digital a company owned by Wolfie Rankin and Ryu Darragh.
[[Wolfie Rankin]] is the host and Evangeline Wind is the Hostess.
Scoring is done by CaptainCrunch Hax.

[[Image:Rockit_ABC_Birthday_Special.png|256px|right|thumb|Crash prior to backup]]

Poster for the "Rockit on the Moon" special, for [[ABC Island]].
with the Host [[Wolfie Rankin]], the Rockit Logo and the Air Digital
logo... called the "Thunderbolt".

==Model==
Rockit was modelled on a combination of several real quiz shows, [[http://www.abc.net.au/tv/spicksandspecks/ Spicks and Specks]]
on ABC, [[http://www.rockwiz.tv/ Rockwiz]] on [[http://www.sbs.com.au/ SBS]] and [[http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/section.aspx?sectionid=2187&sectionname=temptation Sale of the Century/Temptation]] on [[http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/section.aspx?sectionid=2187&sectionname=temptation Nine]].

The questions are based on music trivia from 50s to the early 90s as most of the people in Secondlife
fall in that demographic, though most of the questions are about music and bands from the 80s.

== How to Play ==

To begin, the Host will ask the audience a series of very easy music questions.
When a correct answer is typed out, by an audience member, then they are asked to come up
to the stage and sit on one of the eight sitting positions on the desk.

The desk is split so that four people sit on each side, effectively forming the two teams.

Once eight players are seated, the game begins.

Five rounds follow, most of the rounds have ten questions, but at least one round generally
has just five.

Five points are awarded for correct answers.

The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Rounds can include:

"Local and/or General" a simple general music knowledge round,
often played twice during the game, the first will be easy, the last is difficult.

"Anagrammus Logicus" The players have to try and decipher band names out of anagrams.
the round is difficult and usually consists of no more than five anagrams.

"The Shroom of Doom" One player is asked to sit on a mushroom and have to recall as many
items associated with a group, record company, era etc as possible within one minute.
eg: "Songs by Abba".

==Procedure==
There's one audience round of eight questions where eight players are selected to form
two teams.

What follows are five rounds, with most having ten questions each, through occasionly
one or two will only have five questions.

The show is played via text chat only, for several reasons.

Not everyone has voice capability on their machines.

Voice can be choppy, laggy or drop out altogether.

If everyone used voice, including players, there would be confusion as it's hard to tell
who's voice is who's, especially with new players turning up each week.

Text provides a record which can be checked incase there's a dispute over who said what first.

Voice over a stream does not work either, although fine for a club DJ, it's not suitable
for a fast paced quiz show, as the voice takes up to fifteen seconds to get to the audience.

The program is usually run as a series of five, with one show played live at 8:30pm AEST
[this is roughly 3:30am Secondlife time, which changes due to Daylight Savings] at either Eragon or ABC Island... with guest appearances on other Islands including "Five O'Clock Somewhere" Run by Shai Khalifa and Quadrapop Tree Island, Run By Quadrapop Lane and CaptainCrunch Hax.

== Rockit Men and Women (Cast and Players) ==

The Cast include:

* [[Wolfie Rankin]] - Writer and Host
* Evangeline Wind - Hostess
* Captaincrunch Hax - Scoring
* Dustin Veron and Vermus Dryke - Security
* Betlog Hax and Ryu Darragh - Scripting

Best players include:

* Roget Quinan,
* Kalliee Tomsen,
* Kookie Hax,
* Lyndell McMillan,
* Samohung Johin,
* and Nankeen Heron.

== Set ==

The Set was constructed and designed by Wolfie, except for the Audience chairs,
created by Wolfie's Secondlife Partner, Evangeline Wind.

== Copyright ==

* Rockit and the Rockit logo are Copyright Air Digital 2008.
* Air Digital and Thunderbolt Logo (c) PWTS 2008,
* Wolfie! (c) PWTS 1986 - 2008.

[[Category:Second Life events]]