Feed aggregator
Ep. 48 - The Amazing Shattering Door - Great episode! We discuss "To Do" lists, Bible football, Alkali redecorating his cubical, the Fi...
2012 Recommended Anthropomorphics Reading List: December update
Daily Show: December 11, 2012 - Christmas songs fill the air and radio waves! Songs of hope, of joy, of the Redeemer come to earth, and also curious white ice crystals are common this time of year. Listen in as we talk about our favorites and least favori
Christmas songs fill the air and radio waves! Songs of hope, of joy, of the Redeemer come to earth, and also curious white ice crystals are common this time of year. Listen in as we talk about our favorites and least favorites, and feel free to share your own!
Hosts: Direlda, Levi, Murphy, Spenser, Wolfin
Picture by: Jack Berry
Awkward questions about Furries.
So I was watching Taboo, and the Furries one came on. I have known about furries for awhile. I'm an anime "geek" I guess, and the act of cosplay has always interested me. I'm really a shy person, reserved and I hardly talk to anyone. But when I saw this show, seeing everyone have so much fun and not care what people thought looked wonderful. I want to do that, not right off the bat costumes and going out in public, but slowly sinking into it. I feel really nervous about the whole situation, I don't know how I would explain it to people. Though I have one friend who would be interested in it to. I was curious about the stereotypes that surround the furry community, like how some are into bestiality. I'm not into that, but I wanted to know how many furries do that sort of thing. I'm more interested in just running around and having fun. What are the general costs for costumes? Though I would like to have a costume, I'm a little worried how expensive it would be. I thought about creating my own to. Are there any websites, groups online that I can look at to get a little more information on the topic? Any help would really be appreciated. :> Sorry if I sound silly, but I think it really might be something I would like.
Edit: Thanks everyone! I really appreciate the help, you guys are all so friendly and helpful, it really warms my heart :3
submitted by fascinocat[link] [47 comments]
I've begun making furry 3D models. My first is a female Wusky I did for a friend. What do you think?
Adopting a Fursona Not the Same as MPD
As I am discovering my fursona more and more, I have been thinking.... Since my fursona is my alternate personalty does that mean I have multiple personality disorder?
-Rissa
* * *
Dear Rissa,
Short answer is no, you do not have multiple personality disorder. MPD, also called Dissociative Identity Disorder, involves uncontrolled shifts in two or more personalities and is typically accompanied by unexplained periods of memory loss.
This is quite different from what you or I do when we adopt our fursona personalities for a little furry fun. The fursona is something you wear, like a fursuit. You can put it on or take it off at will. MPD, on the other hand, is not controlled by you. The mental illness controls you not vice versa.
When you get into your fursona’s personality, it’s a lot like being an actor or actress. It is assuming a role for play. Doing so, you can enhance or deemphasize parts of your own personality, and you can liberate yourself from inhibitions that might prevent you from acting the way you would like to is social situations.
So don’t worry, Rissa, you’re fine!
Hugs,
Papabear
KnotCast: Episode 203 – Winter Shorts
Talking about Robotics team dying when suddenly.
Season 7 Episode 04 Podcast Uploaded
So this week Felis abandons us, claiming illness as his excuse. With Hedgie at work, it seems like we're destined for a Xavier and TK show... Until Anthropuppy steps in and saves the day. So, this week we have our favourite Bristolian joining us in the studio for a change. For those keeping count, this is Show #644, fear us! Starring TK, Xavier, and Anthropuppy. Backing music by Sanxion7.
For Done and Dusted:
Xavier reviews the games Crysis 2 and Double Dragon Neon.
TK talks about Fighting Vipers (with added Sonic the Fighters mention).
The pair make more than a passing reference to Far Cry 3.
Television Talk:
Merlin
Question of the Week:
If you were to give an award to a game, what would the game and award be?
Download the Podcast - Watch the TubeCast
TigerTails Radio Season 7 Episode 04
TigerTails Radio Season 7 Episode 04
So this week Felis abandons us, claiming illness as his excuse. With Hedgie at work, it seems like we're destined for a Xavier and TK show... Until Anthropuppy steps in and saves the day. So, this week we have our favourite Bristolian joining us in the studio for a change. For those keeping count, this is Show #644, fear us! Starring TK, Xavier, and Anthropuppy. Backing music by Sanxion7. From: TigerTails Radio Views: 0
2
ratings
Time:
02:07:47
More in
People & Blogs Yarn Tail for sale.
I have one premade yarn tail left. I'd like to sell it before the end of the year so I can ship it out at the same time as the rest of my December orders.
A custom tail this size and length would be 51 dollars not including shipping.
Since it's a premade I'm selling it for 45$ including shipping to the continental U.S. International shipping may be an additional charge.
If you are interested please send me a pm or email me at ziakiyt@gmail.com
I'm more likely to see emails before I see pms since I get email alerts on my phone. First come first serve.
submitted by Ziaki[link] [comment]
Generations... (x-post from /r/funny)
Season 07 Episode 04 is Live!
Yes, we are live right now, so head on over to the Listen page to tune in, or look at the bottom of the Listen page to find the YouTube link so you can watch us, in case listening without pictures is your most-hated thing. This week Felis and Hedgie have abandoned us, but Anthrouppy has stepped in to fill their shoes! Go Anthropup!
![[link]](http://i.imgur.com/VCaOg.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](http://i.imgur.com/RyZhs.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](http://www.imgur.com/h1HKA.jpeg){kind=link}
Informal Networks
Being furry can help your employment prospects. The connectedness of furries means that we are exposed to new people and new opportunities. This is true for any social network but it’s especially true for the furry world.
The business world is not a level playing field. Ideally, people would be employed and promoted based on competence, but this is not always the case. Some people have unfair advantages: the boss’s son; the alum from an elite university; the captain of the football team. Other people may unfairly suffer, such as those from disadvantaged backgrounds or anyone perceived to ‘not fit in’.
Unfair advantages are often examples of the adage “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. In the management consulting world, these are known as informal networks.
Famously effective informal networks include Skull & Bones, Yale University’s secret undergraduate society, with members including George H.W. and George W. Bush, and 2004 Democratic challenger John Kerry among many others. While the members of Skull & Bones are an intelligent group, undoubtedly many of their number have been helped by having friends in high places.
The value of informal networks can also be seen in those people who know – through friends or family – a professional or tradesman. Legal queries are easy if you can call a lawyer; medical opinions are easy to find if you live with a doctor; computer problems are easy to solve if you’re related to a furry.
Companies will usually develop a structure that is intended to define the passage of communication: guidance flows from the CEO down to the workers, and results are reported up the chain. Many companies have a formal organization chart to depict this, along with role descriptions for each of the employees to clearly show appropriate lines of communication. However these structures are only part of the story – in reality, workers tend to communicate with their friends, or peers, or whoever happens to be sitting near them.
Management consultants try to model these informal networks of communication to see how they affect the business (see here for an introduction). Some communication can be beneficial to the company; some can be harmful. Thanks to this research, it’s also possible to understand how informal networks can help (or hinder) an employee.
In management-consultancy jargon, it’s good to be a “mobile” employee. A mobile employee is one who is more likely to be promoted within the company, or more likely to leave for a better job. These opportunities means that mobile employees are less likely to be stuck, and likely to earn more money.
From a manager’s perspective, mobile employees are difficult. They tend to command higher salaries but are often critical to the function of the company. If a manager loses a mobile employee, it can take two or more people to adequately fill the role.
Furries are often mobile employees, for three reasons:
1. The furry world provides a broad range of connections. A typical furry group is more heterogeneous then a typical peer group. Accordingly, a furry is more likely to know people in different roles within his industry: perhaps technical, low-level support, management, the self-employed, service providers. Such connections can give access to information that might otherwise be difficult (or impossible) to attain.
For example: an engineer furry might learn from a friend that a desirable job will soon become available.
2. The furry world has a lot of people working in similar industries, particularly white-collar technical roles. The sheer number of potential connections increase the likelihood that a fur will learn useful new information that is not available to her colleagues.
For example: a programmer furry might be able to cast for opinions of an alternative development environment without having to spend time and effort performing research.
3. There is implied trust between furries. (This is a feature of our community I touched upon in my article titled The Furry Accommodation Network.) This means that furries are more likely to communicate freely and with respect, so the connections tend to be high quality as well as numerous.
For example: a furry in a management position looking for a new employee may broadcast the opportunity in furry networks, because the implied trust makes hiring a furry a less risky (and more fun) proposition.
These three reason are those that management consultants use to identity mobile employees. I think that there is another, overlooked, reason that can increase someone’s exposure to new opportunities: the ability to move interstate or overseas for a new role.
A long-distance move is risky. The risk, at least from an employer’s point of view, is that the newly moved employee (and family) may not ‘settle’ in the new environment. Potential employers will usually offer a bonus to someone moving into a new area, often dressed up as “relocation expenses”. This bonus is designed to retain a new employee who might be otherwise unhappy in their new location, hoping that the money will translate to loyalty.
Relocated employees often struggle because they have lost their social life. This is especially common when the new employee comes with a Significant Other, who doesn’t gain the social benefits of the new workplace. For furries, this is an easily surmountable problem: there are furry groups to be found everywhere. (And a lot of our social world is online anyway.)
Research also shows that there is no correlation between the position of someone within a network and their personality (ref). Furries who are introspective and shy are just as likely to be mobile and/or high-value to a company. The loudest people often receive the most attention in an office environment, however these people tend to foster low-quality connections. The quieter introverts tend to forge more valuable friendships.
Finally, online social networks provide a special challenge for employers. There is little research on the effect of such networks owing to their relative newness (the world of research moves slowly), however early results suggest that networks like Facebook provide advantages to employees at the cost of the company. For this reason, many companies decide to block or limit social networking sites even though this is an unpopular decision. This is especially true in industries with few ‘mobile’ employees: companies are concerned about the cost of unwittingly exposing their employees to better opportunities.
These opinions should be taken with a grain of salt. Most of the conclusions on the effect of online social networks are drawn from a landmark 2009 study on Microsoft’s employees (link). The social networks investigated, from most common to least common, were LinkedIn, Facebook, Live Spaces, MySpace, Orkut, and Friendster. Twitter was mentioned in a footnote (no word on Fur Affinity). Clearly results drawn from this study are out of date, a conclusion reinforced by tone of the discussion (“MySpace remains the choice of geeks”).
One final interesting, if largely irrelevant, point: furry networks also resemble dark networks, as understood in the context of terrorism and terrorist cells. In dark networks, the source of power is obfuscated. It’s comparable to furries on Twitter, in that many accounts are private so it can be difficult to follow the progression of an idea. Social networking analysis was used to guess the location of Saddam Hussein’s hideout: furries trying to track down someone on Twitter might (informally) use a similar technique, starting with known acquaintances and looking for a key furry who might provide a direct connection (ref).
The value of these informal networks will be felt differently by different furries. They are most likely to be strong in furry-rich industries, such as tech. They are less likely to be useful in industries with few furries, or in so-called “dead end” blue-collar jobs where mobility may be difficult or impossible.
In extreme cases, some lucky furries will find new jobs and prosper largely through the strength of the informal furry network; others will see no benefit at all. However it’s nice to know that it’s not just Skull & Bones getting an unfair advantage.