Feed aggregator

submitted by BreakingBad86
[link] [13 comments]

submitted by Rizesun
[link] [9 comments]

Hello everyone, okay I don’t like doing these things but my VBlog of the Camp Feral 2012 trip might take some time so I wanted to post somethn’.

So, to make this short and sweet I will keep to the point. I got in 2 days early thru “Mega Bus” which BTW was late and caused issues with my pick-up friend “Keagan Raccoon” . Got into Keagan’s, Bastion’s, and Raven’s house around 11pm. I was up for about 13 hours at this point but decided to fursuit with Bastion to get some pics by Cyron. Sleep was pretty good on the air mattress.

We had a full day so we all gathered up beach stuff Myself, Bastion, Keagan, Sage, Cyron, NeverWolf and Dex went into Toronto to get some sun on the nude beach of Lake Ontario. We meet up with BerryFox, Blooski , and

two other furs whom I forgot their name, sorry. What’s nice about here is you can walk really far out in the water on the sand and it’s only waist-high. Also the nude-ness makes your penis feel all good! Sunburn a little YAY!Pics be had, but they are not nude sorry.

Next morning we head out to Feral up a little north of Ontario. FireStorm drives myself, Keagan, Bastion and Sage. The others got to have fun on the school bus up there, so I need pics from that please!!! Of course when we get there it’s so much fun, the cabin was amazing right by the water too. We got to do all those Feral activities like, Rock climb, Poem Workshop, Leather Workshop, and of course the Canoe/Kayak . There is much more I leave out like Pred/Pray, you’ll need to come up next year to see.  I went out everyday on the Kayak which got me into great shape and sun tan. I DID fursuit which was amazing at night because it kept me warm. I managed not to get anything F’d up because I knew the paths, so YES fursuit can happen.Of course the famous AtlWolf and Kenyan were by my side in the cabin sleeping in the bunk beds beside me. Atl had his wolf fur suit which made things so much easier because I was not alone when walking around. I have to say it was tricky when it came to not having the head on because “headless lounge” doesn’t really happen often. Only on the last night did we have an amazing headless area.

On the last day of Feral I wanted to get a shower before the Cabin Skits (where your cabin mates get together and comes up with a short skit to do in front of everyone) (we won 38-a&b !!! Better believeeeee that’s a paddlen’) . I was walking up to the showers and BAM!! I get stung by a hornet! After the electrical pain in my left elbow and somewhat nasty venom effects down my throat I lived. So-much-so about 4-5 hours later I got into suit and danced the last dance until 3am. I came out and it felt like snow time because, my suit was sweat wet from the hours of having it on. Tis’ a wonderful night and I met so many new people. I danced with so many wonderful other and drank so much I hope those people remember me because I may have a mind slip.

When I got back I got one last day to go with Hawk, Cyron, Sage, Bastion, Dex, Neverwolf and Keagan in Toronto. We went to the market which was AMAZING (hard to wow the NYC’er) it has meats, fish and so much more. I do have pics and I believe I blogged some of it. We then swung over to “Smokes Poutine” which serves … yep… Poutine. This food is a national past time of Canada like Hotdogs are to America. Poutine (or fries with cheese and gravy) was AMAZINGGGGG mine had BBQ meat and sauce it husky mouth-watering! This is somethn’ I wish we had here in New York or New Jersey.

We had a small cookout with the stuff from the market. Sleepy time then was had before my long trip home which went VERY perfectly on time. When I got home let me tell you, it’s the worse PCD you’ll have from a con, because Feral is full of things to do. This is not just a con where you sit in a lobby and say, “what am I going to do now? go up the room?go outside? should I sit back in the lobby?” .  This is a FUN great time full of actives which will make all your days complete. Thanks to Roo the chairman and his many good people for the trip like every year.The views at night and the sunrise from the lake will be missed greatly.  My all time favorite thing had to be when I was ontop the rock overseeing all of the camp and forest area for miles. Anyone who has pics from the top of the rock on the boat trip I want to see them please!!

I will post the Vblog soon stay tuned here for the video. Sorry I missed many other pics because I was in suit, but I promise FireStorm was my other hand at that and took tons of pics you can see HERE .

submitted by orbweavr
[link] [3 comments]

submitted by Chigaru
[link] [comment]

I seem to be drilling down with this (very spread out) series.  I started out with a general overview of participation mystique in the fandom, narrowed it to some specific uses of words, and now I’m focusing specifically on pronouns.  I can’t say that I have any plans for a fourth iteration, but I’m assuming that it will start going into syllables.  Arf, bark, and the like.  Pretty good syllables, if you ask me.

Pronouns are already short enough as it is, usually only one syllable.  They’re some of the most common words that we use, and for good reason: they help us keep our speech and writing concise and varied by letting us use a placeholder instead of a name or a noun.  They carry a lot of weight for their relatively small size, however. Weight that, I think, can tell us quite a bit about how some people interact with the fandom, or even identify with their personal characters.

A good place to start here, then, is how a pronoun works behind the scenes.  If you were to say: “OtterFace is a river otter.  He enjoys wiggling, fish, and his enormous tail,” you have stated the subject of the statement as ‘OtterFace’, and then referred to him twice using ‘he’ and ‘his’.  I’ve mentioned before that one of the ways to look at how language works is by recognizing that the words we use are signs used to convey meaning.  When we talk about OtterFace or his glorious tail, we’re using signs – that is, words on a screen, sounds coming from our mouths, etc. – to refer to two things that really, truly exist (or so we assume).

The job of the pronouns specifically is to be set up as a temporary sign that refers back to something earlier in the statement: ‘he’ and ‘his’ refer back to ‘OtterFace’ in the previous example.  They’re a sort of sign on top of a sign, in one sense; pronouns refer back to a noun that was already used, which in turn refers to the subject.  They do have a tendency to wear out over time, however.  If I talk about ‘him’ here, you might understand that I refer to our wiggly otter friend, but once a new paragraph starts, it’s usually about time to restate the subject, because him has lost some of its power in referring back to OtterFace.

This is all well and good, really; it helps us keep things flowing in the language that we use.  As I said, though, pronouns in many languages do carry a lot of additional weight beyond just being placeholders for a subject.  The prime example of this, and the one I want to focus on, is the fact that you now know that OtterFace is male, solely based on my pronoun choice. (pronouns also carry a portion of identity with them).  This is part of the burden carried by pronouns: I didn’t have to specify that OtterFace was male beyond choosing and using the proper pronouns.  Pronouns carry great importance, at least in English, by specifying the gender of the sign they replace, helping us to form a better mental picture of what is being described in words.

And here’s where things get a little tricky.

One usually discusses gender with pronouns, but to be honest, “gender” in this case is divided into at least two distinct areas: gender identity and biological sex (three, if you count gender expression).  However, asking a transgender person about pronouns will get you an explanation about all the ways in which that relationship between pronoun and gender is fraught.  There are a lot of connotations that not everyone is comfortable with when it comes to having some things specified by so short a word, and having the wrong pronoun used when one is dealing with gender identity disorder is just one of those terribly uncomfortable things.  The upside, at least in some places in furry, is that you present as your character, which can be of whatever sex you wish, making pronouns all the easier to chose, for those interacting with you.

In fact, due to the fantastical nature of the fandom (that is, of a fantasy nature, though we are fantastic as well), non-binary gender identities have flourished and make up a sizable portion of the population in some locations, far above the 1% of births that show some sort of sexual ambiguity*.  These range through the whole gamut of male and female primary and secondary sexual characteristics, from primarily female to primarily male and everything in between, and various pronouns have been more or less popular in describing various areas on that spectrum.

This article on io9 goes into some of the issues on describing hermaphrodites in terms of male and female, including with pronouns; very much recommended reading.  While some who present as a hermaphrodite with their character in the fandom use masculine or feminine pronouns (“male herms”, those who present as primarily male, with both sets of reproductive genitalia, or “c-boys”, males with a vulva and vagina but no penis, both tend to use masculine pronouns, for example), several use either a gender neutral pronoun set, or one that’s specific to hermaphrodites. One of the more common sets, ‘shi/hir/hirs/hirself’, seems to be fairly unique to the fandom, even, and indeed would likely only be able to flourish in a primarily written environment, due to the relative similarity of the words when spoken to ‘she/her/hers/herself’**.  Others choose pronouns that have shown up elsewhere offline, such as the ‘zie/zir/zirs/zirself’ or other such gender neutral pronouns to represent someone of non-binary gender.

That leads us to non-gendered and neuter pronouns.  The difference between those two terms was succinctly put when I asked a crowd online whether they preferred ‘it/it/its/itself’ or Spivak pronouns (‘e/em/eir/emself’, though the nominative is often replaced with ‘ey’, to prevent ambiguity when spoken with ‘he’).  When I asked this crowd of furs, there were the response was overwhelmingly ‘it/it/its/itself’.  When asked, the three furs who had their gender set to neuter and used ‘it’ for themselves explained succinctly, “I have some friends that use Spivak pronouns, but they identify more as ‘none’ than specifically ‘neuter’.  ‘Neuter’ is a gender, whereas ‘none’ is more of an answer to a question.”  The fandom certainly provides room for the neutrois and the ‘none’s, of course, and the means of interacting online provide a way for that to be expressed as a part of oneself.

So why is this all important to furry?  I think that a lot of it has to do with the ways in which we interact through avatars, our personal characters.   The ability to partake in gender without necessarily involving biological sex is a definite draw to many.  Disconnecting the two and, in some small way, totally presenting as who one feels one should present as in terms of gender is not that far away from presenting as what species one wishes to present as.  It’s no surprise, then, that expressing a different gender with a furry character is no surprise to so many; it’s not that far off from what we already do.  Additionally, it is a prime example of participation mystique: entangling concepts of gender with the fandom, for some, is another way in which we can base a portion of our existences on our membership to the fandom.

Of course, this isn’t something that necessarily holds true for everyone, or even a majority of furries.  It’s not even something that everyone accepts within the fandom.  I do think that it is a good example of one of the ways in which we connect with our subculture, and with each other.  Something as simple as a pronoun used during interaction with another fur can be a sign of how they have made the fandom part of themselves, just as for others the spiritual aspect, or the artistic aspect, or even the sexual aspect can provide a deeply meaningful tie to something as simple as a subculture with a shared interest in anthropomorphic animals.

* This according to the (now defunct) Intersex Society of North America, which defines the term “sexual ambiguity” to include genetic issues such as Klinefelter Syndrome which may or may not present beyond simple gynecomastia in many individuals, which hardly fits the furry herm stereotype; the number of births with truly ambiguous primary sexual characteristics is quoted as being much smaller: “Between 0.1% and 0.2% of live births are ambiguous enough to become the subject of specialist medical attention, including surgery to disguise their sexual ambiguity.” (source)

** A resourceful [a][s] reader contacted me several months ago with a brief analysis on how controversial ‘shi/hir/hirs/hirself’ can be.  Such pronouns can elicit quite violent responses from some individuals.

*** On Wikipedia, Gender-neutral pronouns is an exhaustive list pronouns that are neutral in gender in some way or another, and includes some pretty fascinating information and links besides.  English gets quite the table, even.

Further reading

• Meaning Within a Subculture - Further discussions on semiotics and linguistics.
• Boys, Girls, and the In-Betweens - An early article on non-binary gender.

Again, apologies for the slowness and shortness of articles on my end, and cheers to JM for keeping things running along!

submitted by MikomiK
[link] [31 comments]

submitted by liaojaypooch
[link] [comment]

submitted by smejo
[link] [8 comments]

Author: actfuronair Our Mid-Season special on Family furs as well as prize give-always (extra mugs too). An alternative uses for the Mars Rover, Liquiglide Ketchup, The internet cat film festival and how Brisbane bus drivers can get your DNA. Enjoy the SUPER-EPIC HALF-WAY THERE Season 4 Episode~! Download Standard Podcasts http://actfuronair.podbean.com/mf/feed/vms36n/ActFur_S4_Ep6_FamilyFurs.mp3 Find the full article [...] ActFur OnAir: ActFur s4 ep6 – Family Furs

submitted by GoingToTheStore
[link] [2 comments]

Our Mid-Season special on Family furs as well as prize give-always (extra mugs too). An alternative uses for the Mars Rover, Liquiglide Ketchup, The internet cat film festival and how Brisbane bus drivers can get your DNA. Enjoy the SUPER-EPIC HALF-WAY THERE Season 4 Episode~! ActFur S4 Ep06 – MidSeason FAMILY AFFURS - Our Mid-Season special on Family furs as well as prize give-always (extra mugs too). An alternative uses for the Mars Rover, Liquiglide Ketchup, The internet cat film festival and how Brisbane bus drivers can get your DNA.

Author: Fred Are they anthropomorphic? Thank Roscoe there is nothing like them in real life! There has been so much successful anthopomorphization in animation in the last few years that we tend to forget that anthropomorphization can be done in full-body suits, too – and I don’t mean fursuits! The Oogieloves are a throwback to [...]

Cant have Kage. He is a legendary. Mine is www.furaffinity.net/User/zentrin.

submitted by Hemms3
[link] [9 comments]

Dear Papabear,

I have a concern I have about love. I'm 23 years old, serving in the US Air Force for 6 years with 3 years left, stationed in a RAF base here in England until Feb 2013, pretty sure I'm gay since I prefer guys over girls and feel more comfortable with them, been a furry for over a year and like strange fetishes I'm afraid might come across as weird to any future mate I might have dreams or fantasies of. Ex. AB/DL, gainer.

Had an online relationship that I felt was a legitimate relationship with a nice guy for a year. He was also my master and showed me many firsts since he was my first love and never dated before. So pretty much a virgin to love. I could feel doubt within myself thou after meeting him IRL for the first time. It was wonderful. Sadly he wanted me to stay in the States and not stay overseas since its so hard being together and long distance relationships. Being in the Air Force I can travel to many places that would cost the average person thousands of dollars compared to me only paying a few hundred if I look in the right place. I had jumped the gun on him and only after knowing him for a month he said we should be soul mates. Yeah. Too soon. We chatted a lot, called each other, video chat, and then the one visit just wasn't enough. I want to have someone I could have in bed with me, someone to hug and cuddle, cry on his shoulder when I'm sad or down from the depression I suffer and maybe have fun under the sheets. So I broke up with him.

A week before the breakup I went to a local furcon. I meet a kind and caring fur who I really hit it off. I was happy I made a friend. After the breakup I was invited to his place to relax and get away from the pain and the base area. He said as I was leaving his place that me and him should be mates. I was quiet and shocked by the offer. He said it was because I was very kind, sweet, generous, American and liked the idea of me gaining. His last relationship ended with his mate cheating on him and could tell I wouldn't do that ever. I told him I was taking a break from love for awhile and wanted a good friendship for now but he insists we should be mated and said he'll wait on me. After more than a month or more of hanging around with him I was not liking the idea of being a mate with him. He is way too horny, talks way too much, criticizes my driving constantly (I like helpful driving tips since been driving less than a year but constantly?) and makes it so hard to just chill and be myself around him. Doesn't like Babyfur stuff and didn't like a pic I posted about my sona being a baby and diapered. I only can think of him as a friend because he is kind, sweet, loves hugs and cuddles plus his love making makes it hard to dislike him.

I'm having a hard time to tell him to look for someone better than me and I feel we aren't compatible together. I am having hard time trying to find love and the perfect soul mate. There are other furs I have crushes on. A dragon gainer friend who we are close and tight with. A furbro who I love but is mated to said dragon gainer. A polar bear in Canada who I plan to meet next year perhaps, gainer and is even flirting the idea of us dating. A large 3 ton fox who has a cute fursona and is such a shy sweet heart. A mixed wolf stallion hybrid who is my master and who I am starting to grow a crush on. Also recently an AB/DL jackal who is stuck in diapers due to an accident and wets unconsciously without him knowing so I have grown attached to him even thou he is mated to a sailor with both having an open relationship. I am so afraid to ask any of them on dates except the furbro. I hate to say I really really love that gainer dragon that's mated and the jackal pup. So my question is thru all this long text is how do I really know if I am in love LOVE with any of them? Is it just cause I role play Yiff with some of them and can't distinguish love? I just love idea of how amazing there fursonas look and not the real them? Please lend me some help Papabear. I don't want to feel so confused anymore.

With kind regards,
A lonely Gonzato

P.S. I'm sorry for the long text but just got so much on my mind and thought you would want as much info as possible to get an idea about me and my situation.

* * *

Dear Gonzato,

Pascal said, "The heart has it's reasons that reason does not know." How do we come to love another person? And can we only love one person with all our heart, excluding all others? Papabear believes that all people are capable of love, but that some have a greater capacity for love than others.

You are wise to be cautious about whom you pick. You clearly can’t be with the guy who hates babyfurs since that is so much a part of your personality. Also, the way he treats you isn’t so hot, so I would say you are correct to bid him good-bye.

Based on your letter, a lot of your attraction to potential mates seems based on if they like gainers, are gainers, or are babyfurs, or have really cool fursonas. While physical attraction is an important part of any relationship, it is not the only root of real love.

Many people mistake physical attraction for love. You must know that, since you are rejecting a guy you were attracted to because your personalities don’t mesh. To get at the heart of love, you need to dig deeper than the surface. That is more than just “being sweet.” A lot of people are sweet and kind, but have a lot of other characteristics that make them hard to live with.

Another complicating factor in all of this is that it is possible to love more than one person in one’s lifetime. Papabear is not one to believe in “soul mates.” If it were true that there were only one person in the entire world for you, then why do so many find love again after the death of a spouse?

Deep, meaningful love evolves over time. It starts with a physical attraction, where you find a certain “spark” in the other person; then, after a certain trial and error period like the one you are going through, you “try out” several people, usually (unless you get an arranged marriage), until you find someone you are compatible with, someone who shares some of your qualities and interests, but not necessarily all of them. The first couple years of a serious relationship are crucial. This is when you are likely to have some conflict and, depending on who is involved in the relationship/marriage, you either survive them and grow together, or the union is split apart. This is how it was with my first marriage. It was quite rocky at the beginning, but with time it mellowed considerably into something quite wonderful.

The next critical period typically comes around middle age. By this time, people have often grown and changed. With heterosexual couples, trouble can often start after the children have grown and moved away and the husband and wife look at each other and realize the main reason they stayed together was for the kids. Or perhaps they have developed other interests in careers or other life goals and the mate who once was so perfect no longer is such. Or, as in Papabear’s case, a real life-changing event happens that causes the couple to no longer be suited for each other.

Statistics show that only about half—or by now perhaps even fewer—of mated couples stick together until death do they part. One such couple is my mate, Yogi’s parents who, even as I type this letter, are celebrating their 63rd wedding anniversary. They were married in 1949, a very different time compared to today. Their marriage has not been perfect, but they have had the strength to remain committed to each other no matter what, and that is a beautiful thing. Is it “true love”? Or is it just a matter of their being used to each other? Honestly, it is hard to say. I’m sure they love each other, but this is not like Cinderella or The Little Mermaid. It is a real world love, warts and all.

I guess to answer your question as to how one knows you’re really in love would garner a sort of unromantic response from Papabear: you are really in love when you know you will stick by your mate, even when they are not perfect, don’t always make you happy, and maybe might even be a burden to you, but you still stay with them because you care with all your heart for their well-being.

That’s when you’re in love.

Papabear

submitted by StubbornClaws
[link] [11 comments]

We don’t look at a lot of board games around here (how anthropomorphic can you get with them, really?), but now and then something catches our interest.  One such thing is Sewer Pirats. It’s a new 4-player board game created by Andreas Pelikan, with artwork by Marina Fahrenbach, and published by Heidelberger Spieleverlag (whew!). Here’s how they describe it: “In Sewer Pirats, deep underground in a maze of domed caverns, narrow tunnels, and piped passages, a motley cast of rodents, insects, and other vermin sail the treacherous waters of human refuse aboard bizarre vessels in search of discarded booty. In order to claim the best haul from the abandoned flotsam, players must make careful use of the unique abilities of their crews’ rats, cockroaches, weasels, and other critters. Don’t settle for less than left-over fast food and dumped toys. Go for your goal to become a true legend among the sewer pirates.” Apparently out for a while now in Europe, the game has only recently become available in North America. Check it out at Board Game Geek.

image c. 2012 Heidelberger Spieleverlag

submitted by Panthargon
[link] [40 comments]

submitted by VentKazemaru
[link] [2 comments]

So I recently got my first ever paid commission done. I actually commission 3 pictures at around the same time from 3 different artists (2 i've posted here). The first 2 commissions I got done accepted all the money up front, had preliminary sketches done within a few days and the final colored product in about a week.

The 3rd commission was a nightmare. They accepted all the money up front. I told them the same thing I told the other artists "Take your time, no rush". They then took weeks before they even started my sketching (all the while insisting I come watch their livestream to see the "doodles" they were doing, they had no other commissions on their list). They finally said they don't want to do my requested idea and they want to do something of their own style and choosing. Becoming pretty desperate, I accepted this. They then took ANOTHER week to even get a sketch done all the while starting more and more "doodles". They complained constantly about how hard my character was to draw and kept dropping phrases such as "I prefer canines" and "I don't think i'll do another pic like this". More weeks passed after the sketch, I sent multiple notes about an ETA and got "i'll get on it right away" back over and over. They finally finished the coloring and sent me the FA resize and original. Overall I wasn't happy with the picture (it wasn't what I paid for!) but I accepted it, thanked them and swore to myself to never commission them again.

I've actually contacted the 2nd artist to get the commission I wanted done by them and they've accepted and said "no problem". I'm confident i'll get exactly what I ask for as the 2nd artist handled my first picture very professionally and without a fuss. Anyway, back to the topic. Is there any way I can avoid another commish-tastrophy? Any telltale signs "difficult" artists have I should be aware of? I normally have a quick flick through their journals and posts before I ask and the 3rd artist seemed fine at the time.

submitted by tabsterleir
[link] [15 comments]