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submitted by elyshotapaws
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There's been a lot of attention and traffic building around Weasyl in the last week, and there's a good chance that will continue, so let's use this thread to exchange Weasyl usernames!

For those not familiar, Weasyl is an art-site that isn't furry-specific, but very furry friendly. They have lots of great features like art folders, tag filtering, friends-only settings, being able to set what kinds of notifications you get from followed users, a thumbnail cropping tool, a proper streaming system, and a whole mess of other cool things! If you're not already on Weasyl, you should definitely sign up!

And of course, if you want to find the Weasyl's of other people you watch on FA, you can use this handy tool (http://projects.weasyl.com/soft/) and this tool to crosspost your FA gallery to Weasyl. (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/waxpost-weasyl-crossposte/boddplgmdhddfmchbifhpdpekfdaenjc?hl=en&gl=US)

Anyway, here's my page. http://www.weasyl.com/~Ben What's yours?

submitted by Benjadumb
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This week on Knotcast, Savrin and Fuzz return to do an episode and explain what the whole deal with our hiatus this time was. This weeks music is another track from Final Fantasy 6: Balance and Ruin Go-Go Gadget Gonkulator (Gogo) by XPRTNovice http://ocremix.org/album/46/final-fantasy-vi-balance-and-ruin Use our coupon code "knot" to get yourself some toys at AdamEve.com Episode 237 - Back From The Dead

submitted by xipherfurry
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Recently, after closing its doors, Rhode Island development house, 38 studios, began auctioning off its assets. Sadly, not all of them were taken.

submitted by xipherfurry
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submitted by Rusakov2
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I need an art project for the holiday would anyone want to do a collaboration picture. Also gonna do 2 free drawings. 1st colored 2nd lines only

submitted by Lark_thelandshark
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As the title says, Yes, i am making a comic :D Now i'd like it to be in the sort of manga black and white, inked look. So, i need some tips from my fellow fur friends! The comic is going to be a fallout or post apocalyptic series with action, adventure and some romance thrown in there to spice things up.

The character part is...well...currently undecided because i have some people in my high school art class (won't be learning inking or anything for another year or so) that want to be in it so i have a main character and some extra characters to use. (They aren't furries just some friends of mine in that class).

But help would be very nice from you all and i thank you for your replies, if you want to have a spot in my comic just private message me on reddit with your fursona and some traits or personality about said fursona. Thank you all again and Happy Holidays!

Characters i will use:

• Zarrow the Gryphon (by Zarrow) Zarrow

• Azalea the Snake (by Zarrow) Azalea

• Clarence the, um, SnorBell? (Pending approval made by Gypseecrush, Presented by Videohusky) Clarence

Announcements! I am now starting the designs for the characters on Saturday (clothing, weapon, what does he or she do, etc) I will start doing the comic next weekend do to the lack of school for 1 and a 1/2 weeks so i will be at home sketching the panels, pages, landscapes, and characters. I will also be making the main characters for the story and i will post them to my Furaffinity account.

submitted by Dante_The_Wolf
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submitted by HarmonyHeartstrings
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submitted by desertgunbunny
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I am looking for a suit maker that does good partials. Most of the makers I stumble upon really only do full suits, and my new character was designed entirely with a partial in mind. Also, ones that are open for commission, and could /possibly/ have him done by MFF of next year would be amazingly awesome.

Ref-sheet

submitted by MindajaCat
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Papabear has been a fan of the show "Family Guy" since it began, although some episodes go too over the top for my taste. Some of you may watch the show and know that the character of Brian the dog got killed a couple episodes back. He was run over by a car. A lot of people were upset by this, and I was a little pissed, too, but I thought, "Hey, that was a bold move, so let's see where Seth MacFarlane, the show's creator, is going with this."

Turns out he just took advantage of the fact that, after all, this is a cartoon, and had Stewie fix his time machine and rescue Brian. Today, Seth MacFarlane, the show's creator, announced that he did the episode around Chrismastime to teach us a lesson to "Never take those you love for granted, for they can be gone in a flash." (see 
http://comicbook.com/blog/2013/12/15/family-guy-seth-macfarlane-reveals-he-killed-brian-griffin-to-teach-fans-a-lesson/)

While this is true, I have to say I take some issue with Mr. MacFarlane's methods. First of all, in the episode where Brian is killed, you might think that he would do something like this: show the car coming, cut away to Stewie's reaction, then cut back to the scene where Brian lies dying on the street. But noooo, MacFarlane actually slows down the show and you get to see every bone-crushing, tissue-squeezing, blood-spurting frame of a beloved character getting the life squashed out of him. Absolutely disgusting and the very definition of "gratuitous."

Yes, it's just a cartoon, but it's still shocking.

Then we go through two episodes of seeing the family in serious emotional pain, especially Stewie, a little child of one (even though he is a genius). Then we are introduced to a new character, another dog who can talk, but with an Italian mafioso accent, and the dog appears in the opening credits.

But no, it's just a stunt. Brian is brought back to life, and we are left with the patronizing message from MacFarlane that we should sit cross-legged on the floor, innocent eyes wide, while the teacher explains to us the hard facts of life.

Well, Mr. MacFarlane, you might not realize this, but I watch your show for a little escapist animated fun, not to be "treated" to a snuff film. If I want to watch drama, I'll click over to "CSI" or "Law & Order." Secondly, your show is geared to adults who have been through just as much, if not more, than you have. How dare you think that you are wiser than everyone else watching your show and assume we don't know how painful and cruel life can be? How dare you say, in effect, that we take our loved ones for granted and therefore need to be taught a lesson through a cartoon? Finally, if you're going to use "Family Guy" as a podium to spout your diatribes to the public, then at least come up with something less cliched than "don't take your loved ones for granted."

Am I overreacting? Yes, probably, because, again, it's just a cartoon, not real life. I suppose MacFarlane might have seen a reason to write this based on the fact that he lost his mother to cancer in 2010, and perhaps he felt he took her for granted and that the lesson he learned should be conveyed to others.

But there is a time and a place for everything, and a cartoon that is supposed to make you laugh and be frivolous fun is not the place for a message like this one.

You see, what Mr. MacFarlane might not realize is that there are some very emotionally vulnerable people out there, and some of them watch his shows. MacFarlane noted, "Oh and hey… thanks for caring so much about the canine Griffin. He is overcome with gratitude.”

Perhaps he doesn't realize how emotionally manipulative his little stunt was. I've had some people write to Papabear in the past who take their fictional characters very seriously, and some get very upset when writers "kill" them. Some people out there can, indeed, be mentally unstable, and killing someone dear to them could be very painful.

Here is one example: http://yilb.com/14-year-old-boy-commits-suicide-over-anime-character.

Television and movies are very powerful. And, as Spiderman said (since we're talking fiction), "with great power comes great responsibility."

I suppose another reason I am upset is that I take my readers extremely seriously. I would never make light of someone else's emotional pain, and it offends me that someone like MacFarlane has treated such a serious subject with such utter contempt for the emotions and intelligence of his audience.

submitted by linty-lint
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submitted by anthroguy101
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submitted by Asvald_The_Highborn
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Hi there! I've been thinking about going to a con fir a whole now and was thinking about going to Confuzzled 2014. What do people think of it as a con?

Also generally, I've never been to a con before so I need honest opinions. Are they worth the cost? What to expect? Us it better to stay at the venue or visit? Any funny stories? Thanks in advance!

submitted by gytrash
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submitted by mistriliasysmic
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submitted by Darachi
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The idea of sudden change is a powerful one.

We all wish for things to be different, in a big way or a small way. We look inwardly and wish we were different. And we look outwardly and wish the world were different too.

The idea that we might transform into our furry self is compelling, if not actually possible. But it’s an idea we can explore in art: in visual art, and with fiction.

Transformation is a major theme in the novels and short stories of Phil Geusz. His worlds are ones where human people are able to choose, or perhaps be gently persuaded, to become an animal-person. Geusz explores the transformation process and its consequences on a personal and societal level.

Some of you will know Phil better for his non-fictional contributions to [adjective][species] (here). If that’s the case, I’d encourage you to explore his writing through the examples that I offer in this article. Even if you’re skeptical of the value of science-fiction or genre fiction in general (and, personally, I am), Phil’s stories are valuable for the way they will manipulate your furry self, and make you feel a step closer to a world where a furry transformation just might be possible.

I’ve selected three stories, all of which might be categorized as ‘early’ Phil Geusz. Geusz refers to these as TF (as in ‘transformation’) stories, and you can read some background on his universe creation process here.

Cheetah’s Win, short story published in Anthrozine #23 (2009), free (http://anthrozine.com/stry/cheetahs.win.html)
Pelton, short story published in 2003, free (http://tsat.transform.to/stories/pelton.html)
The First Book of Lapism, 2001, (http://anthrozine.com/stry/drama.class.html)

These stories are written by a furry, and for furries. They are well-regarded within furry (Ursa Major nominations abound) but never found the wider success of some of Geusz’s subsequent work, notably the David Birkenhead series. There are a couple of reasons why these TF stories are unlikely to gain traction with a general audience.

Firstly, there are artefacts in the language that betray Geusz’s origins as a TF fan. He uses terms that will be familiar to insiders, but are jarring to those without a grounding in fandom spaces. My biggest gripe is with Geusz’s free use of neologisms like ‘gengineering’ (a contraction of ‘genetic engineering’): it’s simply not a term in widespread use.

Neologisms can have a place in science fiction writing, perhaps most notably employed by some of the post-WWII greats like Heinlein and Dick. But these words are used to help set the scene, to reinforce the values of the fictional universe. (For example, ‘Gengineering’ might make sense, as a term, in Huxley’s Brave New World.) This is useful when the story is set in the future, because it helps the reader understand how society’s priorities might have changed in the intervening years. But Geusz’s work is set (give or take) in the present day and in the real world. I suspect that a strong editor would have gently excised such neologisms.

Secondly, these stories deal almost exclusively with the idea of ‘becoming’ a furry. Phil is a strong enough writer to know that transformation is not a plot in itself, and so his stories take place in a world where furry transformation is something that happens within a wider story. He is then free to explore the challenges faces by our heroes.

Pelton, for example, is about a declining small town that receives a big investment from a furry who wishes to establish a real-world furry community. The story follows the town’s first elected furry mayor, who is torn between his wish to be taken seriously, and his wish to express himself as a furry:

“Yet, this was the first time that I’d ever suited on city time, the first time that I’d ever tried being Mayor while also being a rabbit. It felt wrong, at a very deep level. But then, it also felt very right. The total effect was horridly disorienting.”

 

Cheetah’s Win follows a baseball player who undergoes genetic engineering to save his career, and ends up finding a happier version of himself. He offers advice to a friend interested in undergoing their own procedure:

“It just might be good for you, too. Get you out of your own skin, help you loosen up a little.”

 

And The First Book of Lapism is about a religion made up of people who choose to become rabbit-people:

“Once he had opened his eyes as a rabbit and seen the world through new and gentler eyes, he’d known instantly that the universe could never be the same for him again. As a rabbit, he strongly believed, he was a far better person than he could ever have been as a human.”

 

In all three stories, human characters become furry characters, and the effect is has on them is mental as well as physical. You could call it a spiritual transformation, and it will sing to many furries about their own wishes, their wish to be a better version of themselves.

This is an exercise in wish fulfilment. It’s powerful stuff if you happen to be predisposed towards the basic concept.

There is a good, if unlikely, comparison point with Geusz’s writing: E.L. James’s 50 Shades of Grey. James’s novels also have their origins in fandom, Twilight in her case. Her novels have been tightly edited to remove any direct association with their source material, but they are still geared towards fulfilment of the same wish: the wish of (some) women to sexually submit to a powerful man*. (James, as it turns out, has a slightly larger potential market than Geusz and his furries.)

* as far as I can tell without actually reading the books

In both cases, Geusz and James are catering to a ‘what-if’ instinct, that magical idea that something could change in the snap of a finger. And the attraction to transformation is not limited to furries (or Twilight fans): it’s everyone.

Unfortunately, it is rare for one’s fortunes to turn on a penny. And it can be easy to wish for instant change, and that can make it easy to feel bad about what you have.

The relationship that people have with money is illustrative. The perceived value of money changes, relative to the amount of money you already have. If you are broke, £5 is a big deal—not so much if you’re a millionaire. And if you’re a millionaire, another million means a lot—but it’s trivial to the billionaire down the road.

Everyone wishes for more money. We all think there must be a point where we would have ‘enough’, but there never is. Take for example this article, which looked at five people of wildly varying income: the poorest wished for enough money for shoes; the well-off wished for enough to have a private doctor.

The moral here (other than the potential evils of money) is that there is no such thing as a good place to be. We are happy when we are getting better, otherwise we are unhappy. It’s an unavoidable feature of human nature that we are, by default, kinda sad. It’s probably something that has driven us a species, makes us strive for more even when we are safe and fed.

For another example, consider the challenges of body image. Most people, if asked, are fretful about being in poor shape. In fact, the only people who are happy about their body are those who are currently losing weight, or possibly becoming fitter and stronger.

The incredible thing about this is that body image, positive or negative, barely correlates with actual body shape. Fat people and thin people are generally unhappy with their body… except if they are in the process of improvement, at which point fat people and thin people are generally happy about their body. It’s the process of improvement that makes us feel good.

This, by the way, is why your social media feeds are so obnoxious. They are full of people either (1) complaining about their body, or (2) telling you that their diet is amazing / that they have spent the last two hours at the gym. It’s rare for people to be happy with things as they are.

This means that the causes of personal happiness are usually quite different to the causes of personal unhappiness. Happiness is usually about the process of change, whereas unhappiness is usually about the state of stagnation (or change in the wrong direction).

Transformation literature takes advantage of our desire for instant change. A switch is flicked, and a happier version of the world appears.

Unfortunately, this reinforces the natural (but wrong) idea that, to be happy, something must change from ‘bad’ to ‘good’. Everyone thinks this way, and it can drive depression because the desired change might be something difficult, or something that takes a long time to occur. And so it’s easy to feel helpless and hopeless because the change isn’t foreseeable.

In reality, it’s the process of change that brings happiness, not the change itself. It’s a subtle but important difference, because it means that happiness comes about quickly: it’s about the action, not the outcome.

It’s another—yet another—quirk of our human brains that we must negotiate. It’s not easy, and don’t we all wish for a simple world where we could just be happy.

Sadly such a world does not exist. But we can take joy in stories that allow us to imagine it, if only for a while.