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1) Are there any major differences between the 'furry community' and the 'kemono community'?

2) What are the kemono members' views towards their western counterpart?

3) Is it heavily internet based?

Here's a clip from Kemocon of their fursuit dance competition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4mcohaaVRI

And here's a group of Kemonos, dancing in suit to a J-Pop song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scuPtlf4_IA&feature=related

This is an example of a character from the Kemono community

Just in case you're interested, Zif/goa5000 has posted written an article about furs around the world which can be found here:

http://adjectivespecies.com/2012/04/18/guest-post-furry-cons-of-the-world-zik/

submitted by liaojaypooch
[link] [29 comments]

Dear Papa Bear,

My mate and I have been dating for a little over a month now. So far the only problem that I've found is his self esteem. He constantly says that he's fat and ugly, but he's not. He's 6' blond hair, blue eye, 160 lbs and he rock climbs so he's tone. My question to you is how can I make him feel better about himself when I feel the same way about myself? It's hard to be strong and supportive for some one when you cant be strong and supportive to myself. Do you have any advice for me? All I want to do is make him happy.

Thank You,

Katz

* * *

Dear Katz,

There seems to be a low self-esteem epidemic in America today, despite the misguided efforts of our broken education system to remedy it. Papabear runs into it constantly. Indeed, I have struggled with it myself. It is doubly hard for you to help your mate, seeing as you also have low self-esteem issues.

Low self-esteem has its roots in childhood, which is the time our self-images develop. If we are told from a young age that we are worthless, ugly, stupid, and so on by the adults in our lives, and if we are told this often enough, then, eventually, we will believe it. There are many possible results of low self-esteem. With me, it has been the drive toward perfectionism and to please other people. Others suffer from sadness, anger, bad body image, feelings of worthlessness, and more. Recognizing the connection between cause and effect is part of the battle.

You and your mate both need to recognize that your low self-esteem is the result of listening to other people, and not a reflection of reality. As you note, your mate is handsome and athletic. He is probably a great guy, too, or you wouldn’t like him so much. I bet if you asked him what he likes about you, he would also point out your many good characteristics.

One problem with mates flattering each other, though, is that each will say, “You’re just saying that because you have to, because you love me.” Therefore, you are at a disadvantage in trying to boost your mate’s self-esteem.

Finding a therapist can help, and if the two of you can afford professional counseling, that is a good way to go. If not, you can do other things to try and help yourself:

• Remove the negative people from your life who have made you feel bad about yourself and invite new people in your life who have a positive effect. 
• When you find yourself criticizing something about yourself, pause, take a deep breath, and try and be objective for a moment. Is it really true what you just said? Find evidence to the contrary and reflect on that. For example: “I’m so stupid!” Pause. Think. “Well, I did get an A on that term paper. A stupid person wouldn’t get an A on a college paper.”
• Do the same for any criticisms you have heard from other people that day. Are they really true? If not, recognize this and embrace what is really true about yourself.
• If you did hear an insult or disparaging remark from someone, think about what was said. Could you have misinterpreted what was said? Perhaps you misunderstood that person or were too quick to feel insulted.
• Learn to take a compliment. Don’t brush off a kind word when it is received. Most likely you deserve it!
• Don’t be upset if someone is better at something than you are. There is only one “best person” at a certain task or skill in the world, and it is unlikely to be you, given that there are 7 billion people on the planet. You are likely somewhere in the middle, and that’s okay. Recognize that you have some skills and good attributes and that some people will be better at those things, some worse. Don’t turn everything into a contest, and that includes everything: stuff at work, family activities, and even play time. Live and let live.
• Recognize that you do have some flaws, but that’s okay. Only God is perfect. You are not. Don’t worry about it. Accept your flaws just as you accept your positive attributes.
• Don’t try and be the person other people want you to be. Don’t pick a career or a degree because that’s what your parents want. Don’t change your appearance just to please your partner. Don’t try and be something you are not. Be you!

I hope this helps, Katz. If self-esteem becomes a really bad problem for you or your mate, I do hope you can seek some professional help. If it is merely a troubling issue and not dangerous in any way, I think some of the above points can help you.

Bear Hugs,

Papabear

Hello r/furry.

I'm just a typical person, and not a furry, however I do not mind furries in the least. However, I did have one question that I have not had answered.

Why do you wear tails in public? What's the point? All it does is make people look at you rather insanely, so why do you insist on wearing it?

submitted by Ayowyn
[link] [56 comments]

Looks like it’s time for another BBF video from Furry Connection North 2012 this time. As always to be sure  BBF gets everyone in the video he makes these pretty big and long, so prep yourself for a short movie. When your done watching this you’ll either have PCD again or you’ll really want to go if you haven’t. Here is the link the user name: bbfvideo and pass: nomnom

 

and no, you're not allowed to specify fursuit commisions!

This is mine: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=17172140436

EDIT: Have an expat furry group in Beijing, to be able to meet JD Puppy, Tzup and to attend EF!

submitted by liaojaypooch
[link] [63 comments]

submitted by JackShadowfox974
[link] [31 comments]

submitted by evilsibe
[link] [40 comments]

NO!NO ! nO ! but yes my right shift key is acting up and i don’t like using the left, so we ‘ll complete this post without the right shift.  ever been to nj ///  well now is your chance to see it close up all corn field like and everything. i bring to you my photos from the nj bbq meet out in Parsons, nj.  it was great time filled with food, booze and furries including those who like to take off their shirts. check out the link here ;  http://cons.furyork.com/?gallery=nj-bbq-fur-meet-2012

submitted by goa5000
[link] [3 comments]

Great new episode! It's full of Pomegranate Juice, puns, gay Mickey Mouse, and state mottos! Also, check out our YouTube Channel, it has lots of highlights from the show! http://www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow?feature=watch as always, you can leave your questions and comments on draggetshow@gmail.com, we love hearing from you! 023 - Darwin Park - Great new episode! It's full of Pomegranate Juice, puns, gay Mickey Mouse, and state mottos! Al...

Hello, Papabear, I am a fellow 15 year old furry and fursuit maker like Coldfang except I’m 15 not 13 lol. I am wanting to know a little more about cons, and why people are so against the furry fandom. All they do is say “furries are perverts” and “go yiff in hell” I mean [...]

submitted by Komodog
[link] [26 comments]

submitted by alex_sher101
[link] [6 comments]

Dear Papabear,

Since at least high school I've wanted to write fiction, but I can't seem to get started. I have lots of ideas, and even write down notes from time to time, but whenever I sit down to write I often find myself just staring at a blank page for an hour or so. Even when I do get some words out, I'll never get more than a page or two done before I feel like I can't continue or want to start over. In 6 years all I've managed to finish is one short story, and even at the time I wasn't happy with how it turned out. Do you have any tips that can help me stay committed and finish what I start?

--Reverie

* * *

Dear Reverie,

Dorothy Parker famously said, “I hate writing, I love having written.” Many people glorify the life of the author with visions of (this is tongue in cheek) residing in a lofty tower, gazing over a moody countryside, a glass of sherry on the desk (or perhaps absinthe) as a muse descends from above, inspiring the writer to pen a glorious novel or poem out of thin air.

Bullshit.

Writing is a bitch. It takes discipline, hard work, and the ability to face criticism after criticism without slinking into a corner and crying like a little puppy (my novel got 50 rejections before it was published). Many people want to write, and many people have told me they have “great ideas” for stories they will happily give me, and all I have to do is write it out for them. O ... M ... G ....

Reverie (cool writer’s name btw), you are making the common mistake of sitting down at a desk or in an easy chair, taking out pen and paper (or laptop), looking at the blank page, and hoping something miraculous will happen. As you discovered, it doesn’t work that way.

But! There is hope! Here are a few strategies that have worked for me and other writers.

1) Outline your story. There is no correct way to do this, but you have to know where you’re going if you’re going to get there. When I wrote my novel, I knew how it would begin and how it would end, and I knew all the characters. The fun was filling in the middle, but I couldn’t have done that if I didn’t know where it was all leading. Other authors are a lot more thorough, outlining every single chapter, figuring out timelines, and more. You can be thorough or rather sketchy, but you do need to outline.

2) Set yourself a daily goal. Whether it is a chapter, a couple pages, or a few paragraphs, make yourself write at least a little bit every day. Stick to that goal. No excuses.

3) Get rid of the inner critic. A big reason for writer’s block is criticizing everything you put down on paper, scribbling out a page only to wad it up and throw it in the trash, over and over. Writers are their own worst enemies this way. You aren’t as awful as you think you are! Just write it down! Then check out Number 4 below.

4) Revise Revise Revise! You can take off a lot of pressure on yourself simply by realizing that if you write a page that is garbage, or that later doesn’t work in the story, or later, as you have written yourself way into the story you realize you should have put something in earlier, you can always add or subtract! No one writes the perfect page the first time (well, except maybe Mozart, but that was music, not prose), and it doesn’t matter because you can revise it! Unlike a sculptor who, if he accidentally chips off a nose can’t put it back, you can! Words are completely malleable, even more so now that everything is written on a computer screen and you don’t even need white out.

5) Research. You might be having trouble because you keep pausing in your story, wondering how something might work in real life, or if you have the history correct. A good way to avoid such stallings is to do a lot of research before you write. Get a good idea how things work. For instance, if you are writing a fantasy novel, you can read up on Medieval dress, customs, armor, equestrian terms and so on. Doing this might even give you ideas for your story.

6) Join a writers’ group. Seeing what others have done, having your own work critiqued, and sharing experiences with others like yourself can help inspire you to write.

Good luck!

Papabear 

So I've come to a point where getting some extra money would be very helpful, but I'm not familiar with the prices for commissions at all. I've seen amazing artists throw around commissions for dirt cheap prices, but also seen mediocre artists charge reasonably much for their things.

I do know that it's better to start bit cheaper until you get more well known, and I'm going to do that for sure. But I would have no idea where to start because I'm terrible at judging my own skills.

So is there some place where I could get some guidance? I'm afraid I don't have any art to show right here and even less anything recent by the months, because I can't access any of my files for now since my laptop broke and blah blah. I guess you could check Xopp @ DA, but it's all really old

submitted by Tsum
[link] [10 comments]

submitted by Inukaza
[link] [8 comments]

Today I would like to open up to artist and customer issues when it comes to commissioned drawings. How many times do you as a customer get upset with an artists for poor work or time completed? On the other end of the artists scale. How many times do you the artist get upset privately or publicly against the customer for poor description or lack of money? Let’s take a step back from both worlds and look into this with more accuracy.

As a customer you want and except to have the finest art piece out there and at least similar to what the artists put in their demo books or online example. So when you put down lots of dollars you should expect to get at least the highest quality, but this is where the problems start. While it’s understandable an artist might have hundred drawings to complete, each should be done just as exact of the quality of the examples. If we took this into business model perspective with the company being the artists, then we would be looking at something called “bait and switch”. At this time there is not really any guidelines to the system or how anything is regulated, but the husky behind DailyFurBlog is working on that and I hope to help make things better. Because I see it from the customer’s side always, while we can be wrong we can can also be just as right. If I expect my character to have an earring which I asked for, then it should be there without hassle or delay. It does go to show that if you pay more money you will get high quality, but some artists tend to put that behind them when in fact in a business plan this how it works. I do not hate against artist who does a great job, but there are some out there who have issues.

Now, from the Artists end they see customers all the time. There is tons of work to do and work delays, not to mention it’s a dog-eat-dog (sorry, remember I am a husky) world out there so doing things to make someone happy is a must. Just like any business it’s important to show quality and make it right. From experience and reports I have complete I noticed about 90% of the time the customer is right, so the gap of 10% does happen often. That 10% is when a customer didn’t pay or did not give enough details. But how many times does someone write something down and it be completely wrong from what you drew? After all the artist isn’t exactly inside the customers head, so being EXACT just isn’t going to happen. Don’t fear it though when you present your completed work to the customer, because you are good at what you do. However, if you start to get feedback that isn’t great then maybe you should talk with a friend and find what you are doing wrong. Not every Artist can nail down 100% perfect all the time, unless you’re a cyborg.  As I see it the artist has control of how things run and operate, but it still is a must to hold to customer standards. Because, we all know there is some artists out there who speak negatively against certain customers. Talking out about your customers I think is ONLY fine when the customer was a fraud.

All-in-all it’s important that as a customer or artist you always keep your cool. Art is not a precise thing and can variant into different perspective angles. Someone who thinks it will look one way inside their head and gets different is very closed-minded. Artists who take longer then what they claim to customer is in fact wrong themselves and should admit the mistake, maybe in terms of compensation. Remember customers pay artists in the end and that makes drawing a small business.

So very shortly I will be launching a RATE YOUR ARTIST section, this will give the artist a chance to show they are amazing and for a customer just how good those artists are doing. Hopefully with proper questions and ratings this contain the amount of drama and issues for the furry fandom. There will be more on the rating system later, but trust me it will help.

submitted by sgtpandybear
[link] [11 comments]

Dear Papabear,

Since at least high school I've wanted to write fiction, but I can't seem to get started. I have lots of ideas, and even write down notes from time to time, but whenever I sit down to write I often find myself just staring at a blank page for an hour or so. Even when I do get some words out, I'll never get more than a page or two done before I feel like I can't continue or want to start over. In 6 years all I've managed to finish is one short story, and even at the time I wasn't happy with how it turned out. Do you have any tips that can help me stay committed and finish what I start?

--Reverie

* * *

Dear Reverie,

Dorothy Parker famously said, “I hate writing, I love having written.” Many people glorify the life of the author with visions of (this is tongue in cheek) residing in a lofty tower, gazing over a moody countryside, a glass of sherry on the desk (or perhaps absinthe) as a muse descends from above, inspiring the writer to pen a glorious novel or poem out of thin air.

Bullshit.

Writing is a bitch. It takes discipline, hard work, and the ability to face criticism after criticism without slinking into a corner and crying like a little puppy (my novel got 50 rejections before it was published). Many people want to write, and many people have told me they have “great ideas” for stories they will happily give me, and all I have to do is write it out for them. O ... M ... G ....

Reverie (cool writer’s name btw), you are making the common mistake of sitting down at a desk or in an easy chair, taking out pen and paper (or laptop), looking at the blank page, and hoping something miraculous will happen. As you discovered, it doesn’t work that way.

But! There is hope! Here are a few strategies that have worked for me and other writers.

1) Outline your story. There is no correct way to do this, but you have to know where you’re going if you’re going to get there. When I wrote my novel, I knew how it would begin and how it would end, and I knew all the characters. The fun was filling in the middle, but I couldn’t have done that if I didn’t know where it was all leading. Other authors are a lot more thorough, outlining every single chapter, figuring out timelines, and more. You can be thorough or rather sketchy, but you do need to outline.

2) Set yourself a daily goal. Whether it is a chapter, a couple pages, or a few paragraphs, make yourself write at least a little bit every day. Stick to that goal. No excuses.

3) Get rid of the inner critic. A big reason for writer’s block is criticizing everything you put down on paper, scribbling out a page only to wad it up and throw it in the trash, over and over. Writers are their own worst enemies this way. You aren’t as awful as you think you are! Just write it down! Then check out Number 4 below.

4) Revise Revise Revise! You can take off a lot of pressure on yourself simply by realizing that if you write a page that is garbage, or that later doesn’t work in the story, or later, as you have written yourself way into the story you realize you should have put something in earlier, you can always add or subtract! No one writes the perfect page the first time (well, except maybe Mozart, but that was music, not prose), and it doesn’t matter because you can revise it! Unlike a sculptor who, if he accidentally chips off a nose can’t put it back, you can! Words are completely malleable, even more so now that everything is written on a computer screen and you don’t even need white out.

5) Research. You might be having trouble because you keep pausing in your story, wondering how something might work in real life, or if you have the history correct. A good way to avoid such stallings is to do a lot of research before you write. Get a good idea how things work. For instance, if you are writing a fantasy novel, you can read up on Medieval dress, customs, armor, equestrian terms and so on. Doing this might even give you ideas for your story.

6) Join a writers’ group. Seeing what others have done, having your own work critiqued, and sharing experiences with others like yourself can help inspire you to write.

Good luck!

Papabear

submitted by Tawes
[link] [3 comments]