yeah...im REALLY behind on my comments here ._. i promise i'll get to everybody, dont worry!

people here who view their art strictly in terms of revenue...or place its value entirely on view counts or favorites...OR change/modify their style purely for the sake of emulating popular artists so they can become popular themselves, are artistic whores who have no business anywhere near any artistic medium.

they are shallow, un-creative people. this is their nature. attention is all they crave. technical artistic skill is wasted on people like this and they do not deserve it, they are responsible for the total ruin of whatever they chose to depict

general terminology:

LMC: "living machine community", a term used to describe people who draw anthropomorphic machine artwork

aeromorph: an umbrella term used to describe *all* anthro airplane art (however has become associated more with those of a humanoid design)

anthro plane: an umbrella term used to describe *all* anthro airplane art (however has become associated more with those of a non-humanoid design)

dire machine: a specific type of anthro plane that is composed of a real world machine vehicle infected with alien nanites. dire machines have specific features such as tendrils and mostly stiff, mechanically accurate bodies. dire machines are a concept created by the user Ratbat and you can learn all about them here: https://www.titanatelier.com/faq/ note: just because a living vehicle character is non-humanoid in design, does NOT mean it is a dire machine. this is something E621 and most outsiders to the LMC almost always get wrong.

demi machine: a specific type of anthro plane created by the user IvXair3p (aka Combust) which is also non-humanoid in design, however is of a different composition than Ratbat's dire machines. dire machines are NOT demi machines and vice versa...

aerosaur: a specific type of living aircraft that combines the features of an airplane with those of a dinosaur, typically a pterodactyl of some sort (but not always)

airplane dragon/planedragons: a specific kind of anthro plane that combines aircraft features with furry type characters. they can come in a variety of forms but always appear cartoonish and are typically furry/chibi. this design was created by the user Scpkid and the reference can be found here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16872234/

pixar/disney: a specific style of anthro plane done in the style made popular by Disney/Pixar for their Cars and Planes film series

stylistic terminology:

humanoid: anthro planes that are humanoid in design, with a bipedal stance and humanoid bodies/limbs

semi-anthro: anthro planes that are not humanoid, but might have other animal-like features (such as 4 legs, dragon wings, etc...) often confused with feral types (but can sometimes be interchangeable)

feral: anthro planes that are non-humanoid in design, resembling a living version of their real-world counterparts (to a varying degree of accuracy)

---

this could have been a lot more detailed, but i figured i'd clear up the major terms/styles seen in the LMC (from the perspective of an outsider just discovering the concept) cuz all too often people get this stuff wrong and then it only leads to further confusion, especially on places like E621 or Youtube.

like with anything there are exceptions to these terms, and there are more specific examples based on individual users and their own unique takes on the concept of an anthro vehicle. the variety is basically endless for those attempting to make the concept their own rather than emulating some of the more popular styles, so you basically have to take it on a case by case basis...however knowing these terms will give you a good foundational approach towards living aircraft related art =D

of all the work you've drawn and uploaded to your gallery...which pic is the one you've personally fapped to the most? (presuming you draw all the things that actually get you off...if you dont then thats kinda sad D= )

this pic is my example: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/4211671/

in fact all my new refined pics just cant compete with my older flat shaded ones in terms of raw sexual aesthetic, and despite many of these pics approaching 15+ years old now, they never fail to get me off nicely :P

twitter was NEVER a good site for art pre or post Musk, why artists flocked there after Tumblr imploded is a fact i still have trouble comprehending...

but either way, seeing all these journals from whiny liberal artists bitching about Twitter post-Musk and running off to Bluesky is pretty damn funny, cuz i guarantee you 90+% of them were the same SJW Dumblrite stereotypes that fled Tumblr a few years back.

once a site stops being a libtard circlejerking echo-chamber, the wokeists will quickly flee to another site en-mass like a singular minded hive. its like watching a swarm of bees try to make a nest in some random person's garage every few years, only to get kicked out and swarm to another person's garage...always attacking and invading...never making a nest in some remote area where they can be what they are without annoying everybody else.

...so will Bluesky be such a place? seems like they've already taken the North Korea approach, not letting anybody even view the site without joining...not even being able to join the site without permission from somebody else already on there…so who knows, I sure hope so.

cuz as rotten as Tumblr was in its heyday, it was a place far-left extremists could go without bugging the rest of us and causing problems elsewhere online.

so after 3 long years of searching i finally managed to buy a house this month. its in a good neighborhood in a town close to work with two routes to choose from, as well as being in a town considerably smaller than where i currently live (am a country boy, i dont like living in big towns) but not SO small that you have to drive half an hour to get to civilization. the price was also fairly reasonable given all of this, so i felt pretty good about everything

until closing day ._. when the realization of what i just purchased truly hit me

the house i bought, is probably the least maintained in the entire neighborhood (i suppose this is better than being the one nice house in a crappy neighborhood, but still...) and was owned by people who were content doing updates in the 70s and then literally doing NOTHING for the next 50 years...letting the place get taken over by mice and mold and what not. also it turned out the house was a prefabricated home that was popular in the 50s to accommodate the post WWII housing boom (no not Lustron, would have been decent if it was that...) so it was built cheaply and quickly, which means having really odd features such as interior walls framed with 2x2s rather than 2x4s, plus very little insulation in the walls or attic (whats left after the mice had their way with it) not to mention the usual crap that comes with old houses like 2-prong outlets, round fuses rather than circuit breakers, and the potential for lead paint and asbestos (cant confirm the presence of either, but since the house was built prior to 1978 it cant be ruled out either) it also has a massive patio door/screen door combo as a main entry way rather than a proper front door, which is BEYOND unacceptable in 2023 due to being such a security threat...plus a 50 year old furnace, 40 year old fridge, 40 year old stove (which doesnt even work properly at the moment) and a 20 year old AC unit with jerry-rigged return ducts. nothing in the house was designed in a way that makes sense >.<

basically, i bought a fixer upper, and i think i may have bitten off more than i can chew ._. this is why i've hardly been active lately...been stressed out of my skull trying to get help fixing this place up enough for me to move in (contractors are super hard to get a hold of now, often telling you they wont get to your project for 6+ months) and i can only do so much myself. i dont have a truck anymore so i cant haul building supplies, cant haul away garbage unless i pay waste management a ton of money, and honestly...i dont have much real world experience with building maintenance. i know enough to be dangerous XD but certainly not confident (im a mechanic, not a construction worker)

that, and it takes an hour and a half to drive to the house from where i currently live...so doing anything after work means coming home at freaking 9pm only to have to get up at 6am the next morning for work. weekends are my only chance to get any proper work done but its hard to stay motivated when anything you do uncovers more problems >.< at this rate i have NO idea when i might be able to move in...at the moment the house is becoming a mouse-infested construction zone (though an exterminator is coming tomorrow...but mice suck, they leave so much piss and shit behind even after they're eradicated that everything gets left freaking filthy) and so far all i've been doing is demolition...nothing has been repaired/reinstalled yet! this weekend the moldy drywall in the living room has to come out...no idea how im getting drywall there to install it myself, or when i can get a contractor out there to install it for me >.<

i hear this is just part of what being a home owner is like, and the r/firsttimehomebuyer reddit (and just about all homeowners i talk to in person) are full of stories like this, so i'm definitely not alone...but god its still stressful, and expensive...havent been this stressed out since i was in college >.<

so yeah, if home ownership is something you really want to pursue, be careful what you wish for! O-O unless you're mega uber wealthy, your first home will ALWAYS be a fixer upper and a source of stress. if you can manage to focus on one project at a time rather than EVERYTHING wrong with the place, you should be ok, but when you're laying awake in bed in a pool of your own sweat wondering if you just made a horrible mistake...it can be hard for the logical part of your brain to overcome the emotional part ^^;

am definitely not ungrateful...just sorta pissed i didnt realize how much work this place truly needed before i signed on the dotted line >.<

they say theres a first time for everything in life, and today was one such first for me...today i was blocked simply for asking somebody for a commission after they expressed an interest in drawing more aeromorph/living vehicle content ._. its not like the very act of being denied spurred all this anger, when you're into weird fleshy planes you get used to artists telling you "no", but when you block a person and accuse them of something so obviously untrue, its hard not to feel insulted. this was what i said to the person in question:

do living machines that happen to be flesh and bone count? :3 cuz i can definitely help you out there >:3

aeromorphs are ok and all, but they cant compete with the raw sexual energy of a feral living plane! if you're up for drawing some weird feral fleshy living planes then i'm definitely up for commissioning you =D

now, for somebody who isn't mentally disabled, this would seem like a perfectly reasonable and humorous response to an expressed interest to draw more living vehicle content. mind you this is also in the context of a NSFW commission. well apparently they got butthurt about it and gave me a rather long response before blocking me like a coward before i could reply. i wont post their entire response, but this was the bit that mattered:

I am totally fine with how you messaged today but Please keep in mind in the future that artists are commonly uncomfortable with forward coming sexual so please communicate with artists as if they’re a professional human being rather than a sexual roleplay partner

sorry, but what the fuck are you talking about? WHERE was i forthcomingly sexual!? clearly this person knows very little about the LMC and how feral planes are vastly overshadowed by hyper aeromorphs (hence why i make jokes like this, cuz i find it funny thinking of feral planes as sexual underdogs, particularly my fleshy planes that are niche even within a niche fandom...) does anything i said sound like an invitation for sexual roleplay? does anything i said sound like i was trying to hit on the artist? also...i am literally asking for a motherfucking PORN commission! how professional do you expect me to be? this was hardly unprofessional, and if you stick around the furry community long enough as a person offering commissions, you're gonna learn this lesson the hard way. you're either a virgin to the internet, or have ulterior motives for turning me down you chose not to mention (hatred for anything other than hyper aeromorphs perhaps??)

fuck the aeromorph community man. i swear there are only like, 4 or 5 people who draw aeromorphs that arent insufferable jackasses. shame on me for thinking a person with hyper aeromorphs in their gallery would respond like a sane human being when asking them to draw anything else...that was probably the real reason they responded this way ._.

lesson learned (or rather, re-learned): do not approach fellow LMC members for living plane commissions unless you're part of the Hyper Aeromorph Hive-Mind Collective, or they draw feral planes too

so a couple days ago i posted the ref i did of my planesona to my old DA account, and somebody left a really good comment pointing out how he looked more like an Embraer Brasilia than a Twin Otter

...and i 100% agree!

so for the second time in my planesona's life, he'll be going through a make/model change and digivolve from a Twin Otter to a EMB-120 Brasilia!

this will let me keep his design the same...but actually line up physically to a certain extent with a real world aircraft that actually *looks* like him =D hooray for being lazy not having to re-draw my refs! XD

that...and all my planes look like airliners anyway, so meh, why not make my planesona one? XD

seriously, i look at major social media sites like Twitter, Tumblr, facebook, and Instagram...other furry art sites like Sofurry, Weasyl, Inkbunny, and Furrynetwork...eastern sites like Pixiv and VK...imageboard/thread sites like the Booru Network, Reddit, and 4chan...paywall art sites like Patreon, Subscribestar, and Boosty...IM programs like Skype, Telegram, Discord...along with all the other random sources of material like Deviantart, Ifunny, deep web archives, personal websites, etc...

...and all i see are giant mountains...mountains forming a vast and colossal range that is the internet...of which i am but a tiny little ant next to...and in my hand i have a single pickaxe, and in the other a pan...for i know that there is gold in them hills! and that gold is plane porn...delicious, delicious plane porn!

and i'm not talking about the pyrite that is hyper aeromorphs, no, im talking pure gold...the feral plane porn pics; the golden nuggets that i can see glistening amongst the dirt and rock, the kind i can marvel at its luster right away with no other effort needed! the second kind of gold i'm after is the ore...proportional humanoid aeromorphs; just as valuable but requiring a little more effort to process into something lustrous.

the thought of all this gold hiding away where i cant get at it disturbs me in a way i cant quite describe, so i'll do my best to mine away at what i can, do some digging here and there...pan in the runoff from these mountains...because the price of getting dirty and exhausted is totally worth it if it results in something good!

some of these mountains i know better than others, some have actual mines rather than surface digs, but either way, i know there is content i'm missing out on and the thought annoys and disturbs me. i can only do so much as one person! what i want is an algorithm that searches for and collects every single plane porn image on the internet...a strip mining operation that can find the gold no matter what mountain its in, mine it, and refine it all in one location!

maybe someday this will happen, where all the plane porn miners of the internet can share their finds with like minded people, spread the wealth around and all of that...but alas, i doubt that will ever happen. so for now it looks like all we have are our trusty pickaxes and reliable pans...a bunch of little ants digging and searching diligently for the content they care about...

seems like FA is repeating the same mistake it made 10 years ago with Sonic characters...except with pokemon/digimon this time! i can already smell the smoking ruins of wrongly banned accounts that we all smelled back then...

BUT...legit criticism of this new policy aside (and yes there are many legit criticisms, but im sure most of us have already had those addressed in our journal feeds today) i had to lol at a post some queer supremacist made lamenting about how this new policy is "the latest in anti-Queer weaponization" online.

yeah...really not sure this is a battle you idiots want to be starting. no amount of intellectual masturbation and big words from your latest most woke edition of Websters Dictionary are gonna convince people you aren't totally defending pedophilia by attacking a policy (however flawed) to combat a form of child pornography.

the LGBTOMGWTF crowd already openly flaunts its affinity for pedophilia outside of the internet, you'd think this is something even far-left extremists would try to combat, but nope...queer supremacists believe literally EVERYTHING is an attack on their rights, and embrace any and every perversion so long as its twisted and regurgitated to serve the LGBT narrative. they want this oppression SO MUCH they're even willing to speak out against a policy to combat child porn as "the latest in anti-Queer weaponization" online.

the logic here is just so fucked up...and honestly self-serving from my perspective as somebody who vehemently opposes nearly everything the LGB(and especially T) cult has decided to normalize within the last 10 years...i dont even need to go on the attack or anything, all i gotta do is point to a handful of educated idiots lamenting about how this anti-child porn policy (on an already far-left website mind you) is AN ATTACK ON MUH RIGHTS AS A QUEEEEEEEER!!!!

so keep it up! keep proving me right and affirming all of your tribe's negative stereotypes. vindication this obvious is a beautiful thing.

[EDIT]

also lol's as the same queer supremacist trying their hardest to double down on their bullshit by posting a new entry with links to left wing propaganda networks in an attempt to denounce the LGBTOMGWTF's affinity for pedophilia...lulz, get fucked creep...if i wanted to write anything objective i wouldn't exclusively use sources that were OBVIOUSLY biased towards the right...if i did, you'd piss your panties and justly call me out as biased. dont expect anybody who isnt as mindless of a drone as you to believe anything propaganda networks or disgraced government alphabet institutions release.

maybe if the LGBTOMGWTF scene (particularly the transgenders and drag queens) stopped trying their hardest to get at people's children and normalizing adult sexual activities in minor-exclusive spaces...then queers as a whole will stop being linked so much to pedophilia. stop trying to sell your sexual preferences as clothing lines aimed at children. stop trying to force unrealistic depictions of your sexual preferences in children's movies. stop inserting pornographic books into the libraries of grade schools. basically...stop shoving your sexuality down the throats of other people's children, ever thought about that?

queers have a reputation of being associated with pedophilia because the LGBT cult constantly pushes themselves into the lives of minors. that reputation is rightly acquired...step one in reversing that is admitting this is the problem

so yeah, stop trying to make it seem as if you have a well rounded, well informed knowledge of...basically anything you fucking talk about. your intelligence is fake and grounded in subjective fantasies backed up by organizations with a clear dogmatic agenda. you're a mindless drone imitating what it believes to be intelligence, nothing more

a few days ago somebody accused me of being "a child left behind in an era of no child left behind" and i gotta say, i was not expecting such a compliment from somebody who was trying so hard to insult me ._. you're damn right i am! i would much rather hang back and find my own way through life than be at the mercy of whatever the "current thing" is, like the perpetual children that decide to stay with the crowd...wasting tens of thousands of dollars on an education that only allows them to think in one dogmatic way, and maybe use some big words too if they're lucky, while they stock shelves at wal-mart cuz their degree cant land them a real world job. and if those who "fall behind" intersect with the crowd occasionally, its foolish to claim they're plagiarizing other people's worldviews when those making the accusations are clearly part of a long-term collective. anybody who chooses to "fall behind" will inevitably find themselves meeting up with the crowd every now and then. sometimes the political ideologues and dogmatic hive-minded crowds DO have valid points. but these children that stuck with the crowd their *whole lives* are what every "educated idiot" is...and honestly is nothing but a waste of intellect. want to accuse me of not being able to think for myself? try looking in the mirror...your education has done nothing but destroy your critical thinking abilities and ensnare you in dogma, keeping you from ever thinking independently no matter how much you think you are.

and speaking of conflicts...the worst way to handle a conflict between people who have totally different lifestyles and/or world views is to say, "fuck off! you're a waste of time! you wont understand" cuz yeah...both sides will have their own negative preconceptions of what they *think* the other side is, and when one side refuses to let the other in on what they actually feel/believe...the other will have ALL of their suspicions and preconceptions confirmed, and will move on from that argument with the belief they were right all along. both sides will continue building up their straw-man image of the other, and will treat people who think like their opposition more and more aggressively because they'll be attacking what they *think* their opponent is, rather than what they really are.

if this is the approach the LGBT community (and other factions of crybully liberalism) take towards conservatives who might not be on board with every single thing they decide to do, they are just as guilty of fueling hatred as their so called enemies are. in that case, they're just as much to blame for these lone wolf shootings as the person pulling the trigger is. your rotten activist attitudes and crybullying do nothing but make people hate you. the more you act like this, the more you create these lone wolf shooters. and yes, conservatives are just as guilty of having this attitude. if we were honest about what we believed we wouldn't have terrorist groups like Antifa and BLM waging guerilla warfare against us. we fuel terrorist groups like them because we didn't have the balls to be honest with our opposition, so they built up a false image of us and now believe something that is simply not true. to the few conservatives that might be reading this, we're just as guilty of empowering Antifa and BLM as the radical left is.

so, my advice is not to be a coward and dodge/block people who want to know what your ideal solution is to a particular social problem, you do more to radicalize people and fuel the flames of hate than any form of propaganda (and indirectly confirm all of their negative suspicions about you)

also...for the record...i know i hardly do anything but rant here now, but i would take information you hear about me from people on PMs with a hefty grain of salt...i dont need to point out the simple fact that rumors are nothing but one giant game of telephone where accusations become more and more exaggerated the more they spread. you can talk to ME about what you think my politics, worldviews, etc...are, not make judgement from some snot-nosed dickless little rumor peddler trying to warn you about "this mastersharkplane guy" over notes.

art rather than rants will come one of these days, but in the mean time i still have everything else ive uploaded from 2010 to now, thats what i would prefer to be known for rather than my easy-to-ignore journal rantings...

just putting this out there for anybody who might be more internet savvy than me, but...

is there a program out there that allows me to browse the media posts on Twitter without making an account? cuz right now Twitter is seeing a renaissance of REALLY good living airplane art...and in the past the site used to let you browse media posts without selling your soul to Big Tech...but that hasn't been the case for the last few years now (and now i can only browse maybe 5 or 6 posts in before getting a "join or die" notification blocking out the page >.<)

when Tumblr was active there used to be a site called "Tumbex" that let you view posts without an account...it would be really, REALLY nice if such a site existed for Twitter. ive tried searching for one and have come up empty handed every single time

and yes i know i said i would join Twitter once Elon Musk took over (and right now it appears he eventually will) but yeah...things can change and if they do, im gonna be stuck trying to use a site that is making it harder and harder for non-members to use >.<

the problem with leftists is they see discrimination and oppression where they want it to be rather than where it actually is, and one of the best places you can see this phenomenon is in the LGBT community. in the West...LGBT people have equal rights, representation in every major form of media, political office, and industry, have a number of very major federally recognized holidays, and are pandered, i mean PANDERED to on hands and knees by major corporations and the liberal establishment of the US and EU...if you live in North America or Europe, LGBT people are not only NOT oppressed, they are venerated and given preferential treatment the likes of which no "oppressed" group has ever received before. its absolutely laughable how i continue to hear the left-winged side of the LGBT community bitch about oppression when the 21st century is literally the best time in history to be homosexual (somehow its become popular to call people homophobic for pointing this out too...how the fuck is that homophobia again?)

now, if you live in the Middle East...then you can start talking about oppression, because thats where it actually exists for LGBT people. how about directing all that Twitter/Tumblr rage there instead of countries where you're practically worshiped just for existing.

more and more people i know who dont identify as straight are starting to distance themselves from the LGBT movement because its become so political. not a liberal democrat? then you cant identify as LGBT because only they know what your best interests are...dont flaunt your gay pride everywhere you go? that must mean you aren't truly on board with us and are probably fake or have Stockholm Syndrome for the white cis scum that oppress you. basically you have to conform to whatever mold the LGBT movement has at any given time, and if you dont contort your identity to fit whatever shape the mold currently is, then you arent legit. if this is the kind of bullshit the LGBT movement expects of people, compartmentalizing them into such specific things that you start to lose all other forms of your identity, then yeah...kindly fuck off. nobody wants to be a political pawn being used just to get more votes during election cycles...

which is basically what the LGBT movement is now, its a sect of the Democrat Party the same way the Evangelicals are a sect of the Republican party. both are very specific things that have evolved to represent all the extremist viewpoints of the left/right and wind up being pandered to by mainstream liberals/conservatives only because they make up a large segment of their potential voter base. and since both the LGBT crowd and the Evangelical crowd tend to say the most obnoxious, divisive, darnedest things, they get the most media attention, which results in people making assumptions that ALL democrats are like the LGBT crowd, or ALL Republicans are like the Evangelicals, etc. this isnt a new concept and im not the only person to notice this (for those that just want to point and scream "you're a homophobe!!" after reading this)

which leads to my final point...im so fucking sick of seeing people here making posts about how red states are anti-gay, or how conservatives are anti-gay, etc...often making claims that they're gonna start passing Orwellian or Middle Eastern style laws against LGBT people or other stupid fear mongering statements. conservatives are not anti-LGBT, they just dont really give a shit about what you do behind closed doors and/or within your bedroom. having this attitude is not oppression or homophobia, some people aren't going to want to make their sexuality the defining aspect of their personality...and sorry but no amount of intellectual masturbation from liberal college grads are going to explain why some people are like this other than, "i dont wish to reduce myself to only my sexuality/political affiliation". for a group of people that are always going on about assumptions, sure seems like they love making a ton of assumptions themselves right?

and before anybody starts going off about me being a straight white conservative cis male oppressor homophobe racist somabitch, take one look at my gallery and you'll see im not exactly straight myself...i mean i do have a preference for females (enough to use the straight furs icon) but i do swing both ways >:3 some might say im bisexual, some might say im pansexual, etc, but you know, i dont feel comfortable using those labels because they come with too many strings attached. what i get turned on by is what it is and i dont need to be labeled/compartmentalized in order to be comfortable with this. not to mention i dont really believe in relationships either, no matter what the genders are XD and am perfectly content staying single regardless of what turns me on. yeah we all have personas and such online where we can stay anonymous if we want...but IRL, i really dont need my sexuality to be a major part of my identity, thats super awkward and it just makes people uncomfortable.

(provided you dont live in California or other states where this has become a literal impossibility if you arent a millionaire)

make sure you have *more* than 20% down to cover the many MANY fees such as earnest money, home insurance (which you need *before* closing) cost for home inspection/appraisal, special inspection items such as radon, termites, mold, etc...realtor fees, and property taxes, on top of the usual stuff you deal with in rentals such as utility activation, cable/internet service transfers, etc. also be prepared to do any repairs if you dont have an FHA loan, because thats all on you with a conventional mortgage (and be prepared to have official offers declined by some sellers if you go with FHA, as then the seller will be obligated to do all repairs to be in compliance with the FHA's guidelines...which is something nobody wants to do anymore)

be prepared to have your home appraisal come back TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars less than the final price on your contract (and dont agree to any clause demanding you pay a certain amount over appraisal, this is a predatory act done by people who know they're asking too much for their house) be prepared to hear every kind of excuse under the sun by owners to dodge doing even the most minimal of repairs to a house before closing (and then often refusing to renegotiate price after inspection/appraisal) be prepared to see houses in the worst most crime ridden neighborhoods, in the most decrepit of condition, with the greatest number of sex offenders per capita, get listed for six figure prices (also becoming a problem everywhere now)

yeah...factors contributing to make the housing market what it is aside...its REALLY turning people selling houses into absolute fucking scum, the greediest pieces of shit i've EVER seen. sellers markets bring out the worst in people, and i dont buy the whole "supply/demand" bullshit argument, sorry but the liberals are right on that one, just because demand is high doesn't mean you can sell your shitbox house for half a million dollars, sorry, but do you really think anybody is going to buy your overpriced piece of shit? (rhetorical question...some investor totally will...greed is good i guess?)

i feel sorry for my poor realtor...we've been working together for 2 years now, have driven all over the tri-county area, looked at nearly 20 places so far, made an offer on one house that fell through...made an offer on another house that fell through...gotten angry texts from "for sale by owner" sellers accusing us of lowballing, and still here we are continuing to search as interest rates rise by the minute, and my lease slowly runs out (because despite everything, despite ALL the financial rape associated with buying a home, its still cheaper than renting once you've made it to the other side)

if anybody reading this is thinking about buying a home, just keep all of this in mind, its not a simple, easy, stress-free process, it will suck the life out of you

(FA got butthurt and deleted my 3rd divisive journal, therefore this one is the 4th)

after Tumblr committed suicide in 2018, a great number of artists (both NSFW and otherwise) had to decide where they were going to go as a homebase...and somehow it seems that choice became Twitter! a site that continues blocking key features for non-users...that makes faving images impossible (sure i guess retweeting counts, but its not the same)...that makes commenting almost impossible due to the character limit...has no journal feature, and worst of all...represents all the worst pro-censorship, anti-free speech, anti-privacy traits we've all come to know and expect from the Big Tech Empire...which of course is protected by an army of radical Wokeists with "current thing" flags and statuses in their usernames...so yeah, in the face of this, why, i ask you...why did Twitter have to become the place so many artists flocked to (and continue to flock to) after the fall of Tumblr? there are plenty of other art sites on the internet to choose from, was Twitter chosen simply for being a large presence on the internet? it sure as hell wasn't chosen for its user-friendliness...maybe im too old to appreciate the art of doomscrolling (i fucking hate doomscrolling...) maybe it was chosen for its perceived wokeness and its ability to crush those of the non-woke persuasion (something Tumblrites would find very appealing)

whatever the reason, i have all these Twitter artists bookmarked on my computer cuz hardly any of them have accounts anywhere else...and as a non-twitter user, i constantly have to deal with Twitter's MANY content restrictions, both from the site itself and the individual users, which makes me resent the Big Tech giant just that much more...there is no way in HELL i will EEEEVVVEEERRRRR make an account on that site, even to follow all these people....unless...

Elon Musk buys the platform. say what you will about the man (have always been indifferent towards him myself) but yeah, given Twitter, as of the posting of this journal, is a toxic cesspit of censorship, corruption, and wokeness...if somebody, ANYBODY comes along wanting to buy the site for the purpose of re-establishing free speech (something i feel all artists would support) then yeah...i would actually feel like i could make an account there with a clean conscious, and with my soul intact. and, best of all, it would allow me to actually follow all the artists i have bookmarked properly, using all the features that used to be available to everybody prior to the 2020s! =D

that is, until they all flock to some other website, or heaven forbid...make an account on *gulp* FurAffinity...and we all know hope is truly lost for an artist once they come here! D= FA is so woke you cant even talk about Crypto without being censored! freedom of speech is dead on this site, though not as dead as Twitter (at the time of this posting >:3 but believe me the admins here DROOL in envy over the censorship abilities of Twitter)

the day Elon Musk acquires Twitter will be a good day for the concept of freedom of speech, i just wonder if he can buy FA out next! >:3 i'll throw some of my own money towards that cause if he does!

#buyFAElonMusk

first and foremost i dont support Vladimir Putin's war with Ukraine, buuuuuuuuuuut.....

it annoys me to no end seeing major corporations and big tech overlords denying services to Russia in an attempt to "stick it to Putin", as if any of the services being denied will remotely hurt Putin's government or Putin himself. who it is hurting are average Russian citizens, who for the most part are as opposed to the war in Ukraine as the rest of the world...maybe try to think this bullshit through before virtue signaling in such a way.

seeing people dumping Russian vodka in the street or banning Tchaikovsky from being played by an orchestra is just moronic, I'm sorry, its not doing anything to help Ukraine in any way and it isn't hurting the Putin Regime in any way...its hurting people who had nothing to do with the conflict at all, and who more than likely dont even support it in the first place.

i drink 24oz's of Coca-Cola every day. last year everybody on the right side of the political spectrum screamed at me to boycott Coke because of the (admittedly) racist diversity training they made their employees go through. this year everybody on the left side of the political spectrum is screaming at me to boycott Coke because they wont deny their services to Russia. know why i continue to buy Coke despite all of this?

because i like how it tastes

i dont give a fuck about your crusades, if we boycotted and denied services to everybody we disagreed with for WHATEVER reason, we'd all be living like the Unabomber. this is not a lifestyle i wish to live, and nobody is truly virtuous no matter what dumb thing you do to make it seem as if you're actually helping The Cause

and on an unrelated note...what does FA have against cryptocurrency or NFTs? apparently they dont want you promoting them here, which i understand if somebody is stealing art to sell as NFTs...but they just created COC 3.5 without giving a single explanation as to why they did this. how is this an issue? am genuinely curious to hear why they decided to make this a rule

i dont agree with your politics...but if you find my art interesting and maybe even like what i draw, i wont ever turn away a watch, fave, or comment...because art and the communities around what we draw are the real reason why all of us are here. your political views are not important to me if you like my art, or if i like yours

remember when we cared more about the stuff artists drew rather than their totally unrelated political beliefs? yeah, i remember that...

and on that note, i dont feel its unreasonable for people with opposing political views to enjoy each other's artwork. if anything that seems like a good thing, finding common ground in something independent of politics. this is something i do every day, being a conservative on a mostly liberal site, it doesn't take that much effort at all. i understand some people are more political than others, but yeah, unless you draw political cartoons 100% of the time, i would suspect there are people watching your account that have different views than your own, whether they're open about it or not. this is not something that bothers me, nor is it worth getting bothered about.

i wouldn't be very secure in my own beliefs if i went around removing everybody who i found out had political views i didn't agree with, especially if they were as easy to ignore as they are on a site that is used primarily for furry porn (and especially if i happened to really like their art)

...and for the record, people have been shitting on my art for nearly 15 years, if it really bothered me i wouldn't have stayed (somewhat) active here since 2010. throwing my politics in the mix isn't really going to phase me.

peace!

you know i find it absurd all these furry cons are requiring proof of vaccination when so many vaccinated people are catching covid right now...my journal feed averages about 2 people a day saying they caught the virus, so to me it doesn't seem like those vaccine cards are worth much there bub

would be nice if they also accepted negative tests, since you cant spread a disease you dont have. i trust a negative test far more than i do proof of being vaccinated at the moment...*points to current CDC data and covid case statistics among fully vaccinated people* so yeah...maybe its time for these cons to wake the fuck up and start operating smarter rather than easier

i made the mistake of not going to a furry con prior to covid...shame on me i guess, but its still something i would like to do some day and i'd hate to see all cons here in the US be completely segregated based on vaccination status, its not a good message the furry community needs to be portraying and honestly is not really doing anything to mitigate the spread of covid right now

you'll find this out with cons being held for the first few months of this year i would imagine...so good luck with that segregation, im sure it'll work out great

what is it that compels artists to bomb their gallery without a single thought towards those who have been longtime fans, and like the artist's old material just as much as the new?

what is it that compels artists to lose their shit at the prospect of their art being reposted (with proper credit and sourcing) to other sites that only increase the artist's publicity in a positive light?

why do some artists insist on hiding their content to all but a select elite, via personal choice or through paywalls such as Patreon or SubscribeStar?

why do all these phenomenons occur disproportionally among talented artists vs artists who are not as talented?

heres a dose of reality:

unless you're Hunter Biden, you aren't going to earn a true living off your art, at most it'll be a decent side-hustle that might pay a bill or two each month. paywalling content is both an unrealistic way to earn money with your work, and does nothing but isolate your fanbase and shun those who legitimately like your work (or those who dont feel the need to pay a ransom to gain access to your content)

talented artists or those who draw niche subjects tend to be those who get popular, and thus tend to have their art reposted elsewhere on the internet. this is not derogatory in ANY sense, and unless the person doing the reposting is claiming ownership, this is a non-issue. take free publicity wherever you can get it. its proof people like your work and want others to see it. as an artist, this should not be a source of discontent, in fact it is nothing but a compliment...accept it like an adult.

most artists tend to grow more talented the longer they've been drawing, this makes their old content unappealing to them, ANYBODY who has ever drawn anything in their life knows this. however...you might think your old art is cringe...but somebody out there likes it, perhaps as equally as your current content. this being said, its generally rude to bomb your gallery for the purpose of getting rid of "old cringe". that "old cringe" helped you get to the point you are now, destroying rungs you've already climbed on the ladder of progress to me seems somewhat foolish, and also insults those who like your work.

all of these things happen to talented artists because they take their followers for granted; the popularity goes to their head, and all their followers become are tally marks on a chart that have no real meaning or importance; they are expendable (especially if they dont commission said artist or pay the ransom fees on Patreon or SubscibeStar) why should those who dont pay up see my content? i dont wish to have peasants viewing my work! dont even talk to me unless you're wanting a commission!

these are all reasons why i will never consider myself an "artist". im not an uptight salty asshole about my work, i actually wish more people would repost it, i try to be proactive about responding to comments by those who like my content, i will NEVER delete my old work no matter how cringy i think it is now, and i dont feel the need to earn money off my work, or paywall it with Patreon or SubscribeStar (probably the two worst things to EVER happen to the online art scene since the advent of the internet itself) because i know it wont support me.

also i think i speak for a lot of people when i say...there isnt enough hard drive space in the WORLD to save every single bit of content i've found on the internet and have liked...its unrealistic to expect everybody to save and archive everything (though that is becoming more and more important as censorship both on the state and local level continues to become acceptable online) its much easier for all parties involved to just keep your content uploaded...or (if you're lucky) have it reposted elsewhere once it gets deleted at the source

advice to future content makers:

if you ever find yourself being called an "artist", please dont act like one

"The page you are trying to reach is currently pending deletion by a request from the administration"

hey guys! how about we ban all groups on this site that aren't associated with the political left! that sounds like a GREAT idea! i dont think anybody will notice...

wouldn't it be great if this site didnt have any of THOSE GUYS here!? :P lets show how tolerant the furry fandom is by getting rid of THOSE GUYS!

you are not normal if you like onions and wish to bathe everything you eat in its oily body-odor like scent/flavor

how absurd does the fight against covid have to get before your nation decides to push back against those making these nonsensical decisions? of all the nations on Earth...Australia (Oceania as a whole really) is probably the worst in terms of coronasteria. its cold comfort for those who are facing similarly absurd and authoritarian mandates in Europe & America, being fed narratives that are not allowed to be questioned (lest the Department of Homeland Security consider you a terrorist threat) or even debated in a scientific setting among medical professionals, among a laundry list of other atrocities that are overshadowing the virus itself...

its nice living in a world where the Taliban can speak freely on twitter, yet if you say you dont want to get the covid vaccine, you'll get banned and silenced and told "you're the fucking problem" by talking heads on late night talk shows...as if they are somehow the so called "experts" we constantly keep hearing about in the news every day. its nice knowing people are now afraid to express themselves if it goes against the covid narrative (whether its true or not)

the rest of the world might be suffering from the hands of cronasteria-based authoritarianism too...but Oceania is an entirely different animal, and i weep for you

perhaps now that America gave Afghanistan to the Taliban, all those troops can go down under and liberate Australia :P

but whatevs, just thinking aloud here and probably not making much sense, i dont expect this journal to remain up for long anyway...go back to your drinks...just make sure you suck them through your surgical masks

[EDIT] where are all the Australians giving me their two cents!? not a single person who commented here was from Australia or New Zealand...have your spirits been that thoroughly broken? O-O crikey mate...

i wish to guide you though a thought experiment :3

imagine your whoooole life...now imagine yourself as/where you were when you were 10 years old. imagine that ever since you were 10, you have had a partner digimon that would on occasion help you and other groups of "digidestined" combat threats to both the digital and analog world :P

imagine that despite these occasional disruptions...you managed to live an otherwise normal life that followed the exact path your actual life has

now observe your life at your current age in the year 2021...how do you see having a digimon partner who you have known since you were 10 factor into your current life? how do you see yourself in your current life realistically doing the things that a "digidestined" might occasionally have to do?

how do you picture your future if you had a partner digimon and were "digidestined"?

how would this affect your relationship with your friends and family? your boss and co-workers? spouse and children?

how might your relationship with your digimon partner be different now that it might have been in the past?

i know this would result in a lot of personal info being discussed so i dont really expect anybody to lay out their whole view in the comments XD but you can at least go through the thought experiment for yourselves =D

only writing this cuz after watching the Tri movies, and Last Evolution...ive been thinking that somebody should make a realistic, stand-alone digimon movie based off of this notion...involving a group of characters that would be written by real people as a sort of fictional autobiography. i picture these people being between the ages of 25 and 40, so it would be in the same realm as Tri or Last Evolution, just seen through the lens of real people and their real lives. it would be interesting presenting these people with an idea for a conflict and applying everything they imagined to this plot, executed in a way that would be realistic rather than via a children's cartoon XD meaning this would not be a kid's movie despite being based within the universe of a kid's anime XDXD

not sure if im the only one who would find a movie like this interesting...but meh, just figured i'd throw this idea out there in case powers greater than me find it interesting too and decide to make it a reality :P

Code of Conduct, Section 2.8 Do not promote ideologies harmful to public safety.
Examples include: Covid misinformation, anti-vaccination, QAnon

so simply stating your opinion on these issues if it isnt condemning them is apparently harmful to public safety? yeah, thats bullshit and you know it, apparently now its only acceptable to have and express viewpoints so long as they conform to the popular mainstream narrative (no matter how suspicious, erroneous, or blatantly false that happens to be) saying, "lets go fuck this place up" is much different than saying, "i feel this place is going to get fucked up cuz of X Y or Z". and as for misinformation, you really need to learn what that word means, cuz these examples you listed in COC 2.8 are ongoing issues that are evolving and changing each day. information changes when new evidence is revealed, what is information now might be misinformation tomorrow. the faith you have that the information being fed to you is the whole truth and nothing but the truth is almost religious in its devotion. questioning this fanatical belief system should not justify content removal, and is actually not harming public safety really...

While we allow for a great deal of artistic and literary freedom, we must ask that your content abide by Fur Affinity’s guidelines

you dont allow true artistic and literary freedom if you go out of your way to censor expression that happens to be of a nature you disagree with, and changing the rules to allow you to silence those you disagree with is not how you're going to help artistic and literary freedom blossom on the site. you're just going to cause another exodus, or initiate a purge (which you've been doing since the start of 2020 really). not being allowed to criticize certain things is not how an art site works...you might think FA is the king of all furry sites for now, but yeah...Tumblr thought along a similar line of logic and look where their morality crusades got them. people want to be where they can express themselves in an open and free environment (not a homogeneous one of only like-minded thinkers) keep discriminating against conservatives or right-leaning individuals and you defeat the purpose of being a site that claims it is for "artistic and literary freedom". believe it or not...there are conservative furries, this is a thing whether you want to admit it or not, and you can continue blatantly discriminating against them and censoring their journals or posts, all you're proving is you dont stand for any of the pro-tolerant principles you claim to stand for (especially when posts from far-left individuals expressing their violent opposition to right-wing topics somehow get left alone)

if you're so insecure in what you believe in that you feel the need to change the site's rules to censor anybody who says different, or report posts from people you disagree with, etc...then you're a weak group of individuals who would do good by growing up a little and realizing its a great big world we live in, people aren't going to agree with every stupid thing that comes out of your head (and yes, i acknowledge this concept myself, but disagreement and censorship are two different things) keep going down this path of authoritarianism and its not going to end well for you, your site, or the people who use it.

We do not believe you are a good match for our community

oops! looks like i spoke too soon! >:3