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Housework Becomes Fun With Furries
Chortopia is the name of a new educational game and phone app created by Aurasync. It has one basic goal: To help parents motivate their young children to make a habit of completing their household chores by turning those chores into “advenchores”. Kids visit the magical land of Chortopia, where they meet a variety of anthropomorphic and mythical creatures who need the children’s help setting things right in the land — by the kids completing various household tasks, of course. After the advenchores are done, kids can “collect” the various characters they have helped out as friends who will help the kids win various games that are also part of the app. Chortopia is available now at the Apple App Store, but you can also visit the Chortopia web site to find out more about it and see some introductory videos from YouTube as well.
image c. 2016 Aurasync
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Dogpatch Press and Adjective Species covered by The More You Know podcast.
The More You Know is a new video podcast hosted by Victor Dimitroff. Season 1 Episode 4: Media in the Furry Fandom talks to guests Pup Matthias (David) from Dogpatch Press and Makyo from [Adjective][Species]. While Victor is still in the beginnings of building his channel, I see a lot of promise in his approach to finding guests and planning notes for good conversation of interest to furries. Take a look.
This is about media by furries, not outsiders. Specifically the kind that covers what’s going on within the subculture. There’s much more than you would realize just from talking to friends. That’s why it’s so fun to start and run your own channel.
Victor comments about how Dogpatch Press seems to find endless stories to fill our regular posting schedule. So how do we find them all?
For the answer, watch Victor’s Q&A and then read our site(s). You see, it’s a bit of a secret recipe. But the foundation of everything everyone does in this fandom is about participation and loving what we do. That’s not really a secret at all.
With all the stories out there about furries deserving to be known, and all the dislike for the trashy kind in the mainstream, I take it as an informal mission to Be The Media. I am furry fandom, and so can you! (Ha). Check our About pages for how to share your story tips or guest posts. We want you.
Thanks very much to Victor, Makyo, and Pup Matthias. Everyone had in depth chat the whole time. I wish I could have been present to give more details about the site founding, mission, and investigating stories (I’ll be there in the future.)
It’s a watershed year for furry stuff, and it’s going to be fun to look back in 2017. Hope you look forward to many great stories to come.
More from The More You Know:
- Episode 1: The Tech Trio (using Google Hangouts on Air.)
- Episode 2: Zootopia (with guests November and Kristofur.)
- Episode 3: About the Host.
From Out of the Toy Box
Robert X. Burden is an artist who has taken an unusual subject and really run with it. He paints complex, highly-detailed, collage-like but highly-ordered pictures based on classic toy action figures from movies and TV. As such, of course he paints a lot of science fiction subject matter. And yes that includes a lot of Furry subjects, like the Thundercats and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Visit his web site to see more of what he’s done — and spend some real time looking slowly through all the detail he puts in.
image c. 2016 by Robert X. Burden
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Episode -28.1 - There....we fixed it
Episode -28.0 - The shark broke everything
ep. 130 - Inner City Olympics - Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us …
Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us a buck or two, we'd greatly appreciate it. www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow ALSO, we're not just on SoundCloud, you can also subscribe to this on most podcast services like iTunes! Inner City Olympics! White people Olymics! Politics! Listener feedback! Exclamation points!!! Don't forget to hang out in our telegram chat, now w/ over 100 members! telegram.me/draggetshow Lastly, don't forget to check out our YouTube, where we have many extra vids, Dragget Plays, and live streams & recordings of the podcasts. www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow/videos ep. 130 - Inner City Olympics - Reminder: We're on Patreon! If you could kick us …
Les Ailes du Singe. T.1, Wakanda, by Etienne Willem – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Les Ailes du Singe. T.1, Wakanda, by Étienne Willem.
Geneva, Switzerland, Éditions Paquet, May 2016, hardbound €14,00 (48 pages).
This is another fine entry in Lex Nakashima’s & my project to bring American furry fans the best of new French-language animalière bandes dessinées. We covered Étienne Willem’s previous four-volume L’Épée d’Ardenois, set about the 13th century with knights in armor. Les Ailes du Singe, The Wings of the Monkey, is considerably different. It’s set in New York in 1933, with knights of the skies.
It’s March 1933, in the depths of the Depression. Tens of thousands of people are out of work, eating in soup kitchens and living in Hoovervilles. Harry Faulkner (monkey), a top pilot in the Lafayette Escadrille during World War I, and the owner of his own barnstorming and movie stunt-flying Jenny biplane during the ‘20s, has fallen on hard times; but he’s not so desperate that he’ll take a job as a common mechanic. He complains to his girlfriend, Betty Laverne (deer), a newspaper reporter for the Herald, and to his own mechanic, Lumpy (pig), that he wants a job that will let him fly.
Meanwhile, the mayor of New York (rabbit) is gambling on jump-starting a return to prosperity – and advancing his own political career – by sponsoring a fleet of high-profile dirigibles (which the mayor secretly owns a share of) powered by synthetic helium, that will replace the railroads in crossing America in comfort and speed. The first of them, the Navy dirigible Wakanda, is about to cast off from the Empire State Building on its posh maiden voyage to California. The flight is covered by Betty.
Except that the Wakanda is taken over by gunmen led by Lydia, a sultry leopardess who poses as an entertainer. They have replaced the champagne for the festivities with mustard gas that they threaten to explode if stopped, not only destroying the Wakanda but also killing the people in the city below them.
A guest temporarily escapes and manages to send a message before he is recaptured. The Navy sends a man to get Colonel Fischer (pelican), who is attending the premiere of King Kong. Harry, in the audience near him, overhears the emergency and runs for his old Jenny. It is in hopeless condition, but Lumpy has made friends with an immigrant German doctor-professor (goat) who has invented an experimental aircraft. Harry and Lumpy take off for the Wakanda, which Harry gets aboard and meets up with Betty.
The last 25 pages of the 46-page album is Harry’s & Betty’s adventurous recapture of the Wakanda from the gunmen, and Harry’s ditching it in the Hudson River to save New York. But they have discovered several things during their adventure. The Wakanda was not a limp-framed dirigible but a fixed-frame zeppelin. It was not filled with non-flammable “synthetic” helium but with Z-03, a new gas invented by Howard Hughes (Doberman) who won’t say what it does except that it’s highly flammable. The gunmen who seized the Wakanda are said to be terrorists, but they are more clearly pirates who planned to divert its flight to Brazil, and then …? What is Howard Hughes’ connection to them? And what had the old goat inventor been doing in Germany before he came to America? There are plenty of loose threads to lead to the next four (or however many) volumes.
Les Ailes du Singe (The Wings of the Monkey) is for readers who like 1930s-style pulp action-adventure with a funny-animal cast. Willem has evidently researched the period. The 1933 clothing looks authentic. The date of early March 1933 was when King Kong premiered. The fat mayor of New York is fictitious, tailored to Willem’s plot, and the character of eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes is closer to the legends about him than to the reality. Les Ailes du Singe is a pulp thriller that authors like L. Ron Hubbard, Frederick C. Davis, and Lester Dent used to churn out during the 1930s, and that the Indiana Jones movies have been keeping alive. It looks like Étienne Willem has another winner here – with anthro animals.
Fighting Like…
Space Cats In Space! is the name of a new animated computer game, currently under development. They have a Kickstarter campaign in place to try and finance the next step in the process. “An advanced twin-stick shooter space epic, SpaceCats In Space! Follows the kingdom of Meowfyre’s rebellion against the dogs of the Grolich Empire. Bomber strikes, wingman assistance and RPG-like leveling are all tools at your disposal in the battle to stop Oberluft Kommandant Arnuld Von Schloss and the vast Grolich war machine. Featuring animated cutscenes and full voiceover to immerse you in a World War II inspired space battle of cats versus dogs!” This is not the most “serious-minded” of fighting games out there… if the title wasn’t a giveaway, check out the intro video at the Kickstarter page! (Also this is obviously more for “cat people”!) As we write this there is just over a month left in their current crowd-funding campaign.
image c. 2016 Robotic Potato
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Cats, Dragons… and now Mice!
Alan F. Beck is an artist who created a series called The Mousopolitan Museum of Art — “classical portraits by the mice masters”. In other words, world-famous works of art re-imagined as anthropomorphic mice. He has also written a children’s book (available through Create Space) called The Adventures of Nogard and Jackpot, which details what happens when a young kitten hears a noise within the closet and discovers a baby dragon. Both of these (and many other items) are on display at the artist’s web site.
image c. 2016 b y Alan F. Beck
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FC-241 Caught Between Two Bottoms - Annnddd we're back. Three weeks off means three weeks of news and social shenanigans packed into a big fresh episode.
Annnddd we’re back. Three weeks off means three weeks of news and social shenanigans packed into a big fresh episode.
Watch Video Link Roundup:- Megaplex
- If you’re lucky you’re a furry in 2k16
- Don’t start a howl tweet
- LinusTechTips Summer Job To Earn A Laptop
- Darude admits he’s never been in a sandstorm
- Top “Nigerian Prince” email scammer arrested… in Nigeria
- Furry leaving Megaplex meets toll booth worker who was at his panel
- Adjective Species & Dogpatch Press talk “Media In The Furry Fandom”
- Culturally F’d does a Taur episode!
- Zap Brannigan’s voice actor Billy West starts reading Trump Quotes
- Song Exploder – Bojack Horseman Opening Theme
- [Kurzgesagt] Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything
- State of Georgia Vs. Denver Fenton Allen
- Devour – Lunch Spank
- Zoo Elephant Throws Stone at Zoo Vistors; Kills Kid
- Hundreds of tiny Montserrat tarantulas hatch in zoo
- [WIRED] Adorable Island Fox Saved From Extinction
- [DNews] Why Can Newborn Animals Walk But We Can’t?
- Meth Lab found under Walmart parking lot (near the FurCast studio)
- An After School Satan Club could be coming to your kid’s elementary school — yes, even in Utah
- Tispy German Partygoers Confuse Real Cops for Strippers
- Pelican Takes A Long, Hard Look At His Choices
- Yes, You Can Buy Penis And Vagina Highlighters For Your Face
- Olympic Pools Chemistry is not an Exact Science
- Adorably Clueless Dog Super Happy Finding Huge Dildo
- K the Koyote – “Choosing A Path In Life”
- Enzo – “Zoophilia?”
- Myron the Red Panda – “Convention Hotel Etiquette?”
FC-241 Caught Between Two Bottoms - Annnddd we're back. Three weeks off means three weeks of news and social shenanigans packed into a big fresh episode.
Annnddd we’re back. Three weeks off means three weeks of news and social shenanigans packed into a big fresh episode.
Watch Video Link Roundup:- Megaplex
- If you’re lucky you’re a furry in 2k16
- Don’t start a howl tweet
- LinusTechTips Summer Job To Earn A Laptop
- Darude admits he’s never been in a sandstorm
- Top “Nigerian Prince” email scammer arrested… in Nigeria
- Furry leaving Megaplex meets toll booth worker who was at his panel
- Adjective Species & Dogpatch Press talk “Media In The Furry Fandom”
- Culturally F’d does a Taur episode!
- Zap Brannigan’s voice actor Billy West starts reading Trump Quotes
- Song Exploder – Bojack Horseman Opening Theme
- [Kurzgesagt] Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything
- State of Georgia Vs. Denver Fenton Allen
- Devour – Lunch Spank
- Zoo Elephant Throws Stone at Zoo Vistors; Kills Kid
- Hundreds of tiny Montserrat tarantulas hatch in zoo
- [WIRED] Adorable Island Fox Saved From Extinction
- [DNews] Why Can Newborn Animals Walk But We Can’t?
- Meth Lab found under Walmart parking lot (near the FurCast studio)
- An After School Satan Club could be coming to your kid’s elementary school — yes, even in Utah
- Tispy German Partygoers Confuse Real Cops for Strippers
- Pelican Takes A Long, Hard Look At His Choices
- Yes, You Can Buy Penis And Vagina Highlighters For Your Face
- Olympic Pools Chemistry is not an Exact Science
- Adorably Clueless Dog Super Happy Finding Huge Dildo
- K the Koyote – “Choosing A Path In Life”
- Enzo – “Zoophilia?”
- Myron the Red Panda – “Convention Hotel Etiquette?”
[Live] Caught Between Two Bottoms
Annnddd we’re back. Three weeks off means three weeks of news and social shenanigans packed into a big fresh episode.
Link Roundup:- Megaplex
- If you’re lucky you’re a furry in 2k16
- Don’t start a howl tweet
- LinusTechTips Summer Job To Earn A Laptop
- Darude admits he’s never been in a sandstorm
- Top “Nigerian Prince” email scammer arrested… in Nigeria
- Furry leaving Megaplex meets toll booth worker who was at his panel
- Adjective Species & Dogpatch Press talk “Media In The Furry Fandom”
- Culturally F’d does a Taur episode!
- Zap Brannigan’s voice actor Billy West starts reading Trump Quotes
- Song Exploder – Bojack Horseman Opening Theme
- [Kurzgesagt] Genetic Engineering Will Change Everything
- State of Georgia Vs. Denver Fenton Allen
- Devour – Lunch Spank
- Zoo Elephant Throws Stone at Zoo Vistors; Kills Kid
- Hundreds of tiny Montserrat tarantulas hatch in zoo
- [WIRED] Adorable Island Fox Saved From Extinction
- [DNews] Why Can Newborn Animals Walk But We Can’t?
- Meth Lab found under Walmart parking lot (near the FurCast studio)
- An After School Satan Club could be coming to your kid’s elementary school — yes, even in Utah
- Tispy German Partygoers Confuse Real Cops for Strippers
- Pelican Takes A Long, Hard Look At His Choices
- Yes, You Can Buy Penis And Vagina Highlighters For Your Face
- Olympic Pools Chemistry is not an Exact Science
- Adorably Clueless Dog Super Happy Finding Huge Dildo
- K the Koyote – “Choosing A Path In Life”
- Enzo – “Zoophilia?”
- Myron the Red Panda – “Convention Hotel Etiquette?”
Furry's Classmates Mock Him, and His Girlfriend Turned Her Back on Him
So I've been attending a new animation and art college and It's been going great. Sort of. I got into furries when I was 14 years old and I love it to this day. But it seems people at my university have a problem with furries. So a few days ago we were told to do a project. A simple animation texture on water and hair, I asked my professor on if I could draw FUR. As I was planning to draw an anthropomorphic ANIMAL. As I'm not often able to speak to him personally, I was basically forced to only be able to ask him in-front of everyone. So, After I asked the question, a few people chuckled, I brushed it off. So as the professor I could assume wondered why, he asked me, and I told him I was drawing an anthropomorphic animal. No harm in that, correct? Wrong. There was about 4-5 people in the room hysterically laughing at what I'd asked. Again, I brush it off. So the professor didn't laugh, he knew what it was, but didn't think much of it. So he said yes. As I was working on my project on my digital tablet, a few students behind me happened to look at my screen. When they first heard "anthropomorphic" I imagine they didn't think quite of FURRIES. So when they saw the drawing/WIP of the animation, they asked me if I was a FURRY. I said yes; I now know that was a horrible choice. They laughed and laughed. I could hear them whispering about it and chuckling about it for the rest of the time of that class.
After that day, I had a couple people come up to me as I was walking to my dorm, yelping "yiff yiff! yiff yiff!" In my ear. It just bugs me a whole lot how they assume I enjoy that side of the fandom. I told them to stop. They laughed, and they did it again today, but more of them. Almost the whole school knows at this point. But that’s not all. I had a girlfriend by the name of Aleshia, she knew I was a furry, but she didn't really know what a furry WAS. So I can assume that those specific students, or maybe others, told her what the "public" knows as a furry: a monster that dresses up in animal costumes and has sex. And her, being a very gullible person, believed it. So she broke up with me today, and I'm devastated. I've tried for 3 hours today trying to talk to her and she won’t listen. How do you think I should get over this? Or, even better, prove to these people furries AREN'T bad people!
Aquil (age 17)
* * *
Dear Aquil,
Let’s be clear that there are a couple reasons for the mocking you received: 1) your fellow students’ ignorance of furries, and 2) because of the social dynamics in schools where cliques find a target person who is seen as weak and vulnerable to mock, tease, even beat up so that they can reinforce bonds with the “cool” people. These are not people who are interested in hearing arguments about the true nature of furries (no matter how correct or well-reasoned). They are only interested in finding someone to pick on so they feel better about themselves. For this reason, trying to educate them is pointless.
What you need to do, then, is deal with them as one must deal with any type of bully: ignore them. They only have fun and get off on their bullying when you give them a reaction. Even a simple “Stop doing that” is sufficient for them because they know that you don’t like their teasing, which is what they want.
So don’t react. Indeed, ignore them completely. As Nick Wilde said in Zootopia, remember to never let them know they have gotten to you because that’s what they want. The only time you should take a criticism to heart is when it comes from a person you respect and who is trying to help you. These people do not qualify in either category.
Also, keep in mind that laughter is an effective weapon. Instead of acting upset, laugh at them.
As for your girlfriend: I’m sorry what happened, but, seriously, do you want a girlfriend who believes some stupid social clique more than you? If she truly loved you, she would be supportive of you and listen to what you have to say in your defense. Instead, she turned her back on you and didn’t even give you that chance. You don’t need a girl like that. Keep looking. You’ll be better off.
Hugs,
Papabear
One Flew Over Florida…
The Adventures of Pelican Pete: A Bird is Born is the title of a 1999 book for kids by Frances and Hugh Keiser. (She wrote it, he illustrated it.) “A story in rhyme about a pelican egg which hatches into curious young pete. To protect his head from the sun, his parents find a child’s cap for him to wear. The Adventures of Pelican Pete is an entertaining, educational resource with appropriate environmental values that is expressed visually with detailed art work in vivid coloring.” Much more recently, animator Dani Bowman hooked up with a young film-maker named Keaton Bicknell to create a live action/animated short film based on the book. Now it’s making the rounds at various film festivals, but you can also view this 2015 film on Vimeo.
image c. 2016 Sagaponack Books
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FWG Member Spotlight: Madison Keller
Tell us about yourself and a recent published project of yours.
I have been writing since 2012 and published my first novel near the end of 2014. My newest project is The Dragon Tax Book One, which came out in June 2016. This originally was published in 2015 as a short story in the anthology A Menagerie of Heroes, which went out of print just a few months later.
I’d had so much fun with the characters I’d already written several more stories of their continuing adventures. I’d planned on perhaps doing a series of linked short stories, but with the very first one out of print and hard to find, I scrapped that idea. However, I’d had to cut some scenes to fit in the word count limit and I had the idea to add back in those missing scenes and tighten up the story, making it a novella length work and republishing it as a stand alone first in the series.
Why do you like using “furry” characters in stories?
I enjoying figuring out how furry features and characteristics would change a society’s fundamental values. I also like using it to explore aspects of human behavior that wouldn’t come up in non-furry fiction.
What made you want to become a writer? Are there authors or books that strongly influenced you?
I was a huge bookworm and devoured the entire science fiction/fantasy section of the local library as I was growing up. I wanted to be a writer to tell the stories that filled my own head. However, I let others talk me out of pursing a career in writing and threw away everything I’d been writing in junior high and high school. With the advent of the Kindle I began reading many self-published works and was re-inspired to again put pen to page.
In high school I was inspired by the likes of Piers Anthony, Tracy Hickman, Walter Jon Williams, and Barbara Hambly. Lately I’ve been devouring A.E. Marling’s Enchantress series, Charles Stross’s Laundry files, and Jonathan Howard’s Necromancer series as well as many other books.
Tell us a bit about your writing process. Do you see yourself as a “pantser,” an outliner, or somewhere in between?
I’m an outliner all the way. Before I write a single sentence of my manuscript I’ll outline the plot, define all the major characters, and do high-level worldbuilding. As I write I will expand character profiles, add world-building details, and tweak the outline.
Do you have any advice you’d give other writers?
Don’t let other people discourage you and never stop writing. Read a lot, everything you can find, but especially books in your chosen genre.
What’s a project you’re working on now, or that may be coming out soon?
I’m currently juggling three projects—working on the next books in the Dragon Tax series, finishing up the final planned book in my Flower’s Fang universe, and outlining a new werewolf urban fantasy trilogy set in central Washington state that is as of yet un-named.
Where can people find you and your work?
All of my work can be found on Amazon or on my website, flowersfang.com.
Return to Narnia?
Word is out that Tristar Pictures have (finally!) given the go-ahead to begin work on the 4th feature film adaptation of the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. Next up is The Silver Chair — in which Eustace Stubb and his new friend from school, Jill Pole, wind up traveling back to Narnia… tasked by the lion-god Aslan with helping to find Prince Caspian’s missing son. As usual with any Narnia story, talking animals abound. In this case, that especially means owls! After the last two Narnia films (Prince Caspian from 2008 and Voyage of the Dawn Treader from 2010) met with less-than-spectacular results at the domestic box office, many began to wonder if any of the rest of the books would see the light of movies at all. Looks like at least one of them will! We found this out from Famous Monsters of Filmland, of all places. No word yet on a director, stars, or a planned release date for The Silver Chair.
image c. 2016 C.S. Lewis
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Long Distance Relationships - What does it take to sustain a Long Distance Relationship? Join an extended crew today as we discuss some of our relationships that worked, and some that didn't
What does it take to sustain a Long Distance Relationship? Join an extended crew today as we discuss some of our relationships that worked, and some that didn’t
Metadata and Credits Long Distance RelationshipsRuntime: 34:35m
Cast: Levi, Path, Wolfin
Editor: Wolfin
Format: 96kbps AAC Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.
Long Distance Relationships - What does it take to sustain a Long Distance Relationship? Join an extended crew today as we discuss some of our relationships that worked, and some that didn't
What does it take to sustain a Long Distance Relationship? Join an extended crew today as we discuss some of our relationships that worked, and some that didn’t
Metadata and Credits Long Distance RelationshipsRuntime: 34:35m
Cast: Levi, Path, Wolfin
Editor: Wolfin
Format: 96kbps AAC Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0.