FA+
Shop
Questionnaire: How did you get here?
General | Posted 13 years agoFrom 
redacteur
http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3370131/
1. How did you discover this fandom?
It seems like I've always known about it. I think when I was 12 I was flipping through a book called "The Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals" (or something similar) at a trivia event, and I couldn't put it down. Around that time I found out about it through internet searches, but it seemed like mainly a bunch of immature people who were into anime, a perception that I think to some extent is still true.
2. Did you participate as soon as you could, or did you "lurk" for a while? If so, how long?
Haha, I still consider myself a lurker. This is pretty much the first action I've taken on FA in the last couple months. With my drawing and social skills as they are, I feel as if I have nothing really to add to the community for awhile.
3. What was your first contact with another furry in person?
Interestingly enough, I found out that one of my undergraduate colleagues was a furry after I came back for grad school and we started hanging out for the first time. I went to MFF 2011 because it was an hours drive and hey why not, it might be cool, but I don't think I was really ready for that at the time.
4. What is you level of involvement with the community? Do you draw, write, build costumes, participate in forums, etc.?
Unfortunately, not much. I'd like to work on making some more cool friends on FA. I have only very few right now. It's really strange to me that there are people on here that are some of the most interesting and talented people I know of, but also are really friendly and normal (as normal as furry can be). It's like living next door to Jack White; you hardly want to be seen for fear of ruining a potential friendship/seeming uncool in the face of majesty (obviously this is an exaggeration, but one that my mind takes as truth). I do go to streams when time permits, and I'm trying to regain my drawing skills.
5. Did you like anthropomorphic animals before you found out about the fandom?
Definitely. I've always loved cartoons with anthro characters. Rescue Rangers, Rocko's Modern Life, The Raccoons, the list goes on. I was rarely interested in any cartoon without a furry in it when I was young. The first novels I read were the Redwall series, and I read them constantly. It's a little embarrassing looking back, because they're really not good literature (every book seems the same), and it's probably a big reason I stopped reading for entertainment until recently.
6. Did you begin creative activity (drawing, painting, writing, music, etc.) or greatly increase your creative activity after finding the fandom?
My drawing has increased quite a bit, but I'm still not up to the level I was at when I was a teen. Life gets in the way a little too often nowadays. When I was 15 or so, I took a drawing class and starting out with no natural talent, progressed at a fairly rapid rate. I was really interested in it. But, it got to the point that I was going to start drawing something furry, which I considered sinful (looooong story). So I stopped drawing for a decade, but I still thought of it a lot. Now that I'm over a lot of that garbage, I'm on FA and more interested in arrrrrrt. So, um, yes.
7. Counting both online and offline interactions, do you spend more leisure time with furries, or with friends not involved in the fandom?
I'm not involved with furries as much as I'd like to/should be. I occasionally hang out with that colleague of mine, but not too often. I'm not really used to having purely online relationships, and my IRL social life is pretty acceptable nowadays.
redacteurhttp://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3370131/
1. How did you discover this fandom?
It seems like I've always known about it. I think when I was 12 I was flipping through a book called "The Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals" (or something similar) at a trivia event, and I couldn't put it down. Around that time I found out about it through internet searches, but it seemed like mainly a bunch of immature people who were into anime, a perception that I think to some extent is still true.
2. Did you participate as soon as you could, or did you "lurk" for a while? If so, how long?
Haha, I still consider myself a lurker. This is pretty much the first action I've taken on FA in the last couple months. With my drawing and social skills as they are, I feel as if I have nothing really to add to the community for awhile.
3. What was your first contact with another furry in person?
Interestingly enough, I found out that one of my undergraduate colleagues was a furry after I came back for grad school and we started hanging out for the first time. I went to MFF 2011 because it was an hours drive and hey why not, it might be cool, but I don't think I was really ready for that at the time.
4. What is you level of involvement with the community? Do you draw, write, build costumes, participate in forums, etc.?
Unfortunately, not much. I'd like to work on making some more cool friends on FA. I have only very few right now. It's really strange to me that there are people on here that are some of the most interesting and talented people I know of, but also are really friendly and normal (as normal as furry can be). It's like living next door to Jack White; you hardly want to be seen for fear of ruining a potential friendship/seeming uncool in the face of majesty (obviously this is an exaggeration, but one that my mind takes as truth). I do go to streams when time permits, and I'm trying to regain my drawing skills.
5. Did you like anthropomorphic animals before you found out about the fandom?
Definitely. I've always loved cartoons with anthro characters. Rescue Rangers, Rocko's Modern Life, The Raccoons, the list goes on. I was rarely interested in any cartoon without a furry in it when I was young. The first novels I read were the Redwall series, and I read them constantly. It's a little embarrassing looking back, because they're really not good literature (every book seems the same), and it's probably a big reason I stopped reading for entertainment until recently.
6. Did you begin creative activity (drawing, painting, writing, music, etc.) or greatly increase your creative activity after finding the fandom?
My drawing has increased quite a bit, but I'm still not up to the level I was at when I was a teen. Life gets in the way a little too often nowadays. When I was 15 or so, I took a drawing class and starting out with no natural talent, progressed at a fairly rapid rate. I was really interested in it. But, it got to the point that I was going to start drawing something furry, which I considered sinful (looooong story). So I stopped drawing for a decade, but I still thought of it a lot. Now that I'm over a lot of that garbage, I'm on FA and more interested in arrrrrrt. So, um, yes.
7. Counting both online and offline interactions, do you spend more leisure time with furries, or with friends not involved in the fandom?
I'm not involved with furries as much as I'd like to/should be. I occasionally hang out with that colleague of mine, but not too often. I'm not really used to having purely online relationships, and my IRL social life is pretty acceptable nowadays.
MFF thoughts two weeks later
General | Posted 14 years agoAlright, so a good 2 weeks after MFF and I'm finally writing this up. The stress of school and research has made so much as logging on to facebook, much less FA, nearly impossible, but I feel as if I should write this up before every memory is lost.
MFF was, objectively, a success. Following the advice of a friend, I went with no expectations, and got a lot out of it. I met a bunch of people in the flesh who I've only known online, met some awesome new people, and got outside of my comfort zone. I met a few people who I'm sure I'll have flourishing friendships with over the interwebs.
So yes, MFF was great, and a very welcome short vacation just down the road from Milwaukee. But, at the risk of being negative, I got the impression that it could have worked out a bit better for me. It's been a year since I've come out, 6 months since I joined FA, and the 22 years of Catholic upbringing still resides deep in my psyche. The coping mechanisms I've used in the past which I'm admiteddly ashamed of, such as belittling people and avoiding situations where I'm around "people like me" apparently can't be removed by just a little exposure and immersion. I'm sure this will all change with time, but it's still viscerally strange for me to hang out with a group of gay guys, or god forbid, furries. I'll sometimes be paralyzed by my perceived gravity of a situation, ala "End of the Road". And this unfortunately happened to me more often than I'd like at MFF. Here's a thousand people in a building, who you share very unique mutual interests with, most of them interesting and fun. Go nuts. Yep, that whole concept kind of terrified me a bit. But then I'd occasionally find myself in a conversation about obscure fetishes or some incredibly talented artist who's only FA famous, yaknow, just furry convo. In short, the entire experience was a bit overwhelming. Didn't help that this was only a brief respite from my mundane yet stressful student life.
Probably my most positive response to MFF as a whole is my desire to try harder. I told people I thought MFF would make or break me, but it did neither. Getting involved in furry is possibly the best thing that's ever happened in my life, and after seeing the good in the fandom, I need to keep getting more involved. This means logging into FA more than once a week, working quite a bit harder at my drawing skills, making more connections and maybe even attending more cons.
Some notes:
-There are a LOT more woman in furry than I ever expected. I can no longer go around assuming everyone on FA's a dude.
-Furry stank is a thing. It can get pretty bad.
-Despite this, I really want a fursuit.
-Well, this list could go on for quite some time, but I intended for this to be a quick note. So I'll just finish this by sayi
MFF was, objectively, a success. Following the advice of a friend, I went with no expectations, and got a lot out of it. I met a bunch of people in the flesh who I've only known online, met some awesome new people, and got outside of my comfort zone. I met a few people who I'm sure I'll have flourishing friendships with over the interwebs.
So yes, MFF was great, and a very welcome short vacation just down the road from Milwaukee. But, at the risk of being negative, I got the impression that it could have worked out a bit better for me. It's been a year since I've come out, 6 months since I joined FA, and the 22 years of Catholic upbringing still resides deep in my psyche. The coping mechanisms I've used in the past which I'm admiteddly ashamed of, such as belittling people and avoiding situations where I'm around "people like me" apparently can't be removed by just a little exposure and immersion. I'm sure this will all change with time, but it's still viscerally strange for me to hang out with a group of gay guys, or god forbid, furries. I'll sometimes be paralyzed by my perceived gravity of a situation, ala "End of the Road". And this unfortunately happened to me more often than I'd like at MFF. Here's a thousand people in a building, who you share very unique mutual interests with, most of them interesting and fun. Go nuts. Yep, that whole concept kind of terrified me a bit. But then I'd occasionally find myself in a conversation about obscure fetishes or some incredibly talented artist who's only FA famous, yaknow, just furry convo. In short, the entire experience was a bit overwhelming. Didn't help that this was only a brief respite from my mundane yet stressful student life.
Probably my most positive response to MFF as a whole is my desire to try harder. I told people I thought MFF would make or break me, but it did neither. Getting involved in furry is possibly the best thing that's ever happened in my life, and after seeing the good in the fandom, I need to keep getting more involved. This means logging into FA more than once a week, working quite a bit harder at my drawing skills, making more connections and maybe even attending more cons.
Some notes:
-There are a LOT more woman in furry than I ever expected. I can no longer go around assuming everyone on FA's a dude.
-Furry stank is a thing. It can get pretty bad.
-Despite this, I really want a fursuit.
-Well, this list could go on for quite some time, but I intended for this to be a quick note. So I'll just finish this by sayi
