If you're looking to get some artwork gone and help out some folks in trouble at the same time, here's a couple artists who are open for commissions and in need:
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/lightfinder
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/UrielUlysses

I watch/follow a few different folks on youtube who are therapists or shrinks or just folks who've though about things for a while and I thought I'd suggest this one for any one who wants to understand the world a bit better. Here's a example of their posts.



if you want more, you can find their content at: https://www.youtube.com/@PsycheDepth-o7w

I just saw the latest trailer for Zootopia 2 and I want to ask a simple question, watch the very end of the trailer where Nick makes a joke about Judy's ears and she punches him and now imagine if INSTEAD Judy had made a quip about Nick's appearance and Nick had punched Judy in the gut hard enough to knock the wind out of her, being the reverse of what you saw in the trail. Do you think "modern" audiences, feminists, any one on bluesky would be laughing and saying Judy deserved it? Or do you think they'd be protesting and flooding Disney with hate mail (since they turned off the comments on the trailer) and demanding some one be fired?

Why is violence by women against men normalized and accepted?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjkIOU5PhyQ

Some one made a video expressing similar ideas to what I have so I figured I'd share it.

I was sitting here thinking for a moment and thought of some thing I figured was worth sharing. I see a lot of political divide now a days between people and it makes me question if politics is really important enough to make people avoid one another or if it MIGHT be because too many people make politics their personality similar to how many topics today become the ONLY thing some people can talk about.

So, for example, lets say you've had a friend for years and you've been good friends who hang out and do other stuff together. Now lets say while the two of you are hanging out, your friend mentions the latest supreme court ruling or some law that was passed in Florida or something Trump said/did and its something you don't agree with; but your friend says they don't see why its a issue or worse says they agree with the thing you don't like.

Does this one single event, this one facet of who they are suddenly negate all of the good times you've had with this person and NOW you don't want to be around them?

Shockingly, the answer now a days to that question is YES. There have been a lot of marriages which ended because one of the members voted a different way than the other (remember, women statistically initiate the majority of divorces), as well as non-marriage relationships broken up by hot button political issues.

Why I find this do insane is two fold: first, people tend to forgive or overlook wrong doing by people they agree with generally (despite how many accusations there were against Michael Jackson, people kept buying his music). And second, how can we understand other people's points of view if we are so locked into our own beliefs that we have to expel any who has a differing opinion so we can be isolated in a echo chamber (AKA modern colleges and network news channels). Debate is healthy for a society and even if you know what you say will not sway the opinion of the other person, its still good to sit and talk it out like our ancestors did. Yes, eventually you might reach the point our ancestors did and start fighting but too many people now a days either walk away or jump right to assaulting one another.

Think of it this way, if an artist you watch on here and enjoy their work suddenly posted a picture you didn't like, would you stop watching them and never look at their art again? Probably not. Now lets say they posted a politically motivate picture or journal on here you don't like? Sadly, knowing the people who frequent FA, I'm sure some would unwatch said artist and at least one would fill out a trouble ticket to report them or start some group on social media to slander or harass them.

If you're reading this journal, I'm assuming you are tolerant of my opinion enough to keep following me which says something positive about you given my stance on some issues as I can honestly see people watching me for the porn I post and avoiding my journals all together.

But back to the topic I started, people who make politics (or gender/sexuality/ect.) their personality instead of just one part of their topics. These people are easy to spot, you just have to talk to them once and you'll know every thing you need to know about them. Like I said before, you find out some thing new about a long term friend, that friend is still the same person but now you know some thing new about them. Its the same argument people made years ago during the gay rights movement when you found out some one you knew was gay or whatever and you got shamed if you stopped being friends with them because of it. Now a days its some one telling you they voted for Trump or don't like abortion that makes people distance them. Are you all really that petty that some one who's been a good friend for a long time suddenly became the enemy? Just think about that for a bit and question your own value system.

Just out of curiosity, of those of you who open to FA's front page every time you access the site, how often or when was the last time you saw any thing and needed to click on it to check it out? Of those things you clicked on, how many did you FAV or share?

I ask because years back I found I was clicking on things at least once a week or more and I'd fav about 1/4 of the things I clicked on. The vast majority of things in my FAV list are things I spotted on the front page. But I've noticed that lately I've not seen any thing that catches my eye any more on there and wondered if I'd become jaded/numb or if some thing else was going on here.

So the only way to tell is if other people have felt the same way?

So yesterday I made it to my 49th loop of our sun with little fanfare to mark the occasion. It was -7F outside and the ground was covered in snow, much like the day I came into this world, plunged into a harsh horrible existence. I received to birthday cards, had to buy myself a cake and the only gift I got was my father buying me a new dash cam for my vehicle (he'd got me one for Christmas but it wasn't one I could use so we returned it and had to wait for them to get more in stock before getting one I could use). This is normal as my birthday is just another day and I headed to work int he cold to make sure other people could enjoy themselves.
I was going through my major shit when I was turning 18 and started two traditions that birthday, every year when I blew out the candles I'd wish it was the last year I had to do it and continued doing that till I turned 40 which is when I stopped because I knew wishes never came true. The other was I promised myself when I turned 50 it would be my last year because I really didn't see why humans should live past 50 (we didn't used to, look it up) and your health just goes down hill from that point (I'm the care giver for 2 elderly parents so I know first hand what they go through in their old age). Some of the people close to me know about this and have told me not to say such things so I told them if when I hit 50 if there's a reason to keep going then maybe I will. Every thing was looking on track till 4 years ago when Trump missed his second term as I'd been factoring it in, figuring we'd get through him and then have another Dem in office for a year which would make me want to get out of this world.
But now Trump is back in later than expected and it might be worth another 3 years to savor all the REEEEEEEE that will be happening as that's always worth a laugh. AI is on the uptick as well and given the speed at which tech advances I figure I should be able to witness judgement day within 3 years as well. Robots are advancing fast as well and while we might not have good $ex bots within 3 years, I'm curious how close we'll get and how much of a fit feminists will throw about it. I'm also curious how bad relations between the sexes will get as I figure the mass majority of people will be single in the next few years and either in love with their AI partners or some lover robot.
All in all those are some fun reasons to give it a couple more years for the LULs but I won't know till next Jan.
Sorry for the TL;DR dump on you all but I've been talking about it with some one and they thought it'd be funny to post it and observe the reactions it gets.

So Bomb Voyage got banned from FC yesterday for holding a inflatable gun for a photo during the con (No firearms, replicas, or lookalikes of any type are allowed in the convention center or any of the hotels. This ban includes airsoft guns, foam replicas, toys like NERF guns or statues) and it got me thinking about my bucket list and realized I've never been banned from a furry con. I only used to attend like 2 or 3 of them and furfright died ages ago so only Anthrocon was left to go to and I stopped going to that one years back because it was getting to be too much of circus with the city controlling it from the shadows, 2 the Gryphon getting banned for some thing not related to the con, way to many people, the unions screwing things up and later all of the covid stupidity.

So I'm not sure if getting banned form conventions I stopped attending any ways would really count or not?

Any of you gotten banned from any thing?

There's some thing that I've seen a lot of popular furries and artists do on here over the years that's always seemed pretty cringe to me but it seems to work for some reason so just as a goof I'm going to do it this year and you all can laugh along or leave comments about how often you see others do this:

HEY GANG, in a little over a month (letting you know so you have time) it'll have been one more run around the sun for me and one notch away from the big 50. Its been a fun ride and I'm so thankful all of you have been there with me, enjoying all of the artwork I post for free on here for you all to enjoy (sly guilt tripping). Looking forward to hearing from you on my big day (send gifts/artwork).

So it turns out that in addition to all of the fun fun happy physical effects you folks who got the jab might be enjoying like clots and heart problems, there's also some thing new to look forward to, mental illness.

The study was led by Professor Hong Jin Kim of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital and the College of Medicine at Inje University in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

The researchers confirmed that the Covid injections are responsible for increasing global reports of major personality and behavioral changes in people in the last four years.

They explain that the “vaccines” cause “psychiatric manifestations” among the vaccinated.

The study found that these psychiatric changes resulted in spikes in mental health disorders.

Patients described feelings of inner turmoil, fear, dread, and depression.

The study found that Covid shots triggered a 68.3% spike in depression, a 43.9% increase in anxiety disorders, and a 93.4% surge in sleep disorders.

Here's their peer-reviewed study, which included over 2 million participants:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-024-02627-0

So I just learned about a AI driven turn based battle game called GUG which allows you to mutate your GUGs into different forms between battles based on words or names you enter which are then used by a AI to generate the new form and boy so I see some law suits coming for this one. An example was I entered "Hellraiser Cenobites" and the GUG mutated into a cube with eyes which summoned random Cenobites to the field when it entered battle and the ones it summons have the names from the movie (pinhead, butterball, ect.). I tried "Marvel's Wolverine" and got a GUG that regenerated and got stronger from damage. You can put in the names of famous people, specific powers, concepts, slogans, movie titles, ect and it will make a GUG for you based on that. After you've beaten the demo a couple times it unlocks the mode in the main menu that allows you to try word combinations and stuff without actually playing the game to see what it generates and then you can type the same thing when you play it to pop up the GUG you made to play with. The foes keep changing every run through and I don't know if its pulling them from other players or what but every new one I make or it imports gets added to a growing list in the main menu you can scroll through, looking at every thing you've made or seen. I know some of you will get a laugh out of this but I tried "donald trump" and it game me a orange GUG with the power to taunt foes and some other power I forgot now.

Keep in mine this is a demo and the game isn't planned to be released till next year at some point and I don't know how actively they update it. It still has some bugs as I've found such as if you use "leech" for a term it locks the game up and "game hacker" makes a GUG that should be able to hack the game but seems to make the game no longer function at the beginning of the fight (unresponsive). I also had it crash to desktop once while playing but other wise haven't had problems. One odd part is buffs and debuffs seem to stay with your GUGS from fight to fight and some were buffing instead of debuffing so I ended up with super OP characters. Also, be careful what you wish for because the AI will some times give it to you, such as when I asked for "end of days" and the GUG I made killed every thing on the field including my GUGS. I also ran into a enemy GUG who wiped my GUGs off the field in one round and some other instant death types. Also had my stats debuffed permanently into the negatives so I couldn't do damage any more.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2824790/GUG/

FYI - if you want to be pretty much untouchable, mutate your first GUG with "defender" and he'll make all of the others on your team invulnerable to damage permanently including himself.

Let me know if any of you try it and what you think or what crazy GUGs you made.

The government has admitted we were correct all along. FA, I'm waiting for the apology I'm owed for the suspensions I got for posting links to doctors stating the TRUTH!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVMg-aeBcdU

I have to be up early for work but I didn't want to go to bed not knowing that America did the right thing and that sanity will return to our country so forget about sleep, I have coffee. This has restored some faith I have in humanity which I'm sure will be crushed tomorrow when its finally announced and all hell breaks loose. Every one be safe out there for the next week or two and be ready for next year when the insanity hits again during the "peaceful transfer of power". The return to normality is here.

While I'd imagine most of you have never heard of Arthur Schopenhauer, I've known of him for a while and have often found comfort in his words as they very much mirror many of my own thoughts over the year. This section especially from one of his books:

Why is it considered so shameful to seek a life devoid of responsibility and effort? Just living now a days is tough for some folks so why SHOULD they tack on extra effort just because "That's what your forefather did!"?

I've been watching a lot of different sides to this topic through videos on youtube and comparing both sides as that's how rational people figure things out (yes, I know they don't teach critical thinking or doing research before parroting talking points in school any more) and while I can understand the logic behind the counter point (working harder is better for society, having kids allows society to continue existing, ect) I still think there's an argument to be made for the alternative.

When I was younger, back in the 80's and 90's, things were more traditional and there were expectations you were supposed to live up to. First you had a work ethic, which means you took a job in good faith, showed up on time every day, worked as hard as they expected you to or more so (though often didn't get rewarded for extra effort) and understood you got paid what you got paid without going on strike every other week (unions would typically have yearly strikes but that was for big factories and companies as no one had thought to unionize every tiny business yet). With that money you earned, you had a car, tried to move out from your parents' house into a small apartment or with friends, and started dating (often in high school but definitely after as being a single in your 20's was considered odd). Depending on who you were and where your interests were, you'd usually have a friend group to hang around with on weekends (we didn't have smart phones and most folks who were chatting online did it with like AOL or emails though initially it was with dial up so forget sending pics) if you weren't busy or with your GF/BF. This was the life you were expected to life: Graduate, work, marry, reproduce, die. That's how society functions, people providing goods and labor so other people can live long enough to have and raise the next generation of workers to continue the cycle.

Now skip ahead to "the current year" and a good number of young adults have said "no thanks" to all that mess. Dating is too complicated and annoying now a days, there's no where to meet any one because every thing is online or on phones. People are just so disconnected, there's no more groupings or hang-outs. Why have kids when they are so expensive and time consuming and the world is going to end because of climate change? Why should I labor for some boss to make them rich while I live poor? I could go on and on but I won't, you're living through it so you should know.

With all that said, I come back to the topic itself, with life being the way it is why not lean back and watch the decline? While I have yet to figure out how they do it, we're told more and more people are dropping out of the workforce (though only men get shamed/singled out for it) yet somehow they keep living, having a roof over their heads and food in their bellies. How? More folks are staying at home with their parents apparently as housing is becoming unaffordable. That's one explanation but honestly, how is living with your parents any different than renting with other people (so long as you're paying your parents rent of some sort or helping out around the house in some way)? Your parents more than likely have a house and its probably paid for so it theoretically should be cheaper to live there than in an apartment. You split the bills or help out and help do the household tasks and while your folks probably annoy you, they are people you've known for a ling time unlike some people you might end up living with if you moved out. Since you're sharing costs, you don't have to struggle with a full time job (or multiple jobs like some of us) as working part time should cover basic needs. And if you're not going out with friends or dating, its WAY cheaper. That brings me to dating in general, why not take the easy route and just not? A lot of people aren't dating any more and have no interest in getting married and those who do are now adopting the DINK (Dual income, no kids) life style because its so much easier.

The problem (besides the eventual collapse of society) is that we're still getting shamed for it by the older generations but despite being a Gen X'er, I can honestly understand why so many people are just saying screw it all and checking out, not caring if the system folds eventually.

Thoughts?

Those of you like me who have like 17 years worth of posts/pics on here might want to think about downloading and backing them up if you don't already have them stashed some where, just in case.

Ever wonder why we don't have flying cars and teleporters and other future tech we all thought we'd have by now? It might have been invented but the government has a couple sneaky ways of making sure we'll never see it.
Look into "compulsory licensing" and "Invention Secrecy Act".


Skip ahead to 1:04 to get the to part I mean.

I truly enjoy watching the old propaganda cartoons from way back and then looking at how things are TODAY to see if we learned any thing:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHDyE954l4U

The fun of living almost 5 decades is that I've gotten to see tons of end of the world predictions not come true and "SCIENCE" being proven wrong repeatedly but some thing I've never seen are any of the pushers of this information admit they were wrong and apologize for saying it to start with or for the harm their statements caused.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIzhf9ucagk

I couldn't imagine you all getting away with what we Gen X kids did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_s3vZEET9o

I know this is another video on Idiocracy but the guy in it explains a lot of other things and sites actual studies and theories which came before that movie.


https://youtu.be/OnXmmTbWICQ

I thought I'd share this thought experiment with you all to get some feedback. I often have what I'm told as being a nihilistic view of life and its suggested that's a bad thing to have but I offer you this view on it:

Imagine a world where everything just is. In this world, things happen, people come and go, and events unfold without any deeper, hidden meaning guiding them. This is a glimpse into the concept of nihilism. Nihilism suggests that life, at its core, lacks inherent meaning or purpose. Rather than viewing this as a bleak or depressing idea, consider it a form of liberation.

In embracing nihilism, we are free from the weight of predetermined purposes and the anxiety of finding a singular, overarching meaning to our existence. Instead, we can focus on creating our own meaning in life, crafting our personal narratives based on our experiences, passions, and desires. It's like being handed a blank canvas with the freedom to paint whatever we choose, unrestricted by any predefined sketches.

Think of how much pressure is alleviated when we don't have to conform to an external set of values or destinies. We can pursue what truly makes us happy, explore various paths, and redefine our goals as we see fit. In a way, nihilism offers a fresh perspective on living authentically. It encourages us to live fully in the present moment, to appreciate the beauty of existence without constantly searching for a higher purpose.

Moreover, nihilism invites us to question the traditional structures and beliefs that have been handed down through generations. This questioning is not about rejecting everything outright but about understanding that these structures are human-made. They can be reshaped and reinterpreted according to our personal and collective needs.

By adopting a nihilistic view, we acknowledge that while life may not come with a prepackaged meaning, it is still rich with possibilities. Every action, every decision becomes an opportunity to create significance for ourselves. This approach doesn't negate the value of life; rather, it highlights the incredible potential for individual expression and the creation of personal significance.

In summary, nihilism isn't about despair or negativity; it's about the freedom to define our own paths. It's a recognition that while life may not have an inherent purpose, it can be filled with meaning that we ourselves construct. It's an invitation to live more authentically, more creatively, and more fully, making the most out of the fleeting time we have.

We've been being warned for ages now and now that its becoming a reality, we aren't listening to the warnings of the past because... Profit! With falling marriage/birthrates around the world and tensions between the two sexes raising, is it really a great idea to offer people such a easy solution to their problems as a perfect AI partner? How could it ever go wrong?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu1FS98pFrI

If only we still had 1993 Joe Biden, we wouldn't have all of the problems 2020 Joe Biden has allowed to happen.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO2HYYSVCJw

Was listening to this and thought it worth sharing


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP58ctFeYzk