Hello all!

I guess I never talked about this on FA, but I've been living in California for the past 2.5 years. I came out here for a job that sounded great on paper but the workplace turned out to be very dysfunctional. There are a lot of nice things about California but being a Canadian with a Canadian boyfriend makes living in the USA all the harder, so I've been looking for something new back home.

I am happy to report that I have been accepted to a graduate program at the University of Toronto so I will be leaving California in the Spring and moving back to Toronto! I am very excited. My current job has been remarkably depressing and isolating so will be nice to get into something new and inspiring and be close to friends and family again. I haven't been nearly as active online since I moved, although I don't know to what degree it is because of the work-related malaise. Anyway, I hope to be more fun again once I'm back in my element :)

One other detail: I actually don't have a Canadian boyfriend anymore... I have a Canadian fiancé!  nasido and I got engaged over our Christmas holiday together, and I am just over the moon about it :D. We haven't thought much about wedding date or details as we are still living in separate countries, but that is on the horizon :3

I'll be at Furnal Equinox again this year. Looking forward to saying hi to all my Toronto fur friends again :)

Thanks for reading <3
1X

Check me out

== Results from http://bdsmtest.org/ ==
96% Switch
89% Experimentalist
88% Degradation Receiver
84% Daddy/Mommy
80% Dominant
79% Non-monogamist
76% Bondage Receiver
75% Master/Mistress
73% Bondage Giver
70% Degradation Giver
69% Brat Tamer
68% Voyeur
66% Submissive
61% Brat
59% Masochist
58% Girl/Boy
56% Primal (Predator)
53% Primal (Prey)
52% Pervert
46% Exhibitionist
41% Slave
37% All-Rounder
33% Sadist
21% Vanilla
See my results online at http://bdsmtest.org/result.php?id=50468

Hey folks!

I know it's been a while and I haven't been active much on FA at all. Life (especially grad school) does that :P

This post is in fact, about school. I'm doing a major project for one of my courses, and as part of the project we are supposed to get in touch with someone "in a different culture" and have a discussion with them about the topic. I don't have any big social networks online, but I figured FA would be a good place to find interesting people :)

We were allowed to choose any scientific topic, so like any good bee, I went the botanical route and chose plants.

So if you (or anyone you know) is from faraway-from-OneX-land (so not Canada/USA) and would like to spend maybe 30-60 minutes chatting with me on MSN/AIM about plants, please drop me a comment or a note and we can arrange something.

Thanks!
1X

Hey all,

Just this past weekend was the big gay pride festival in Toronto, as I understand it was in a lot of other places as well. I wasn't able to take part in any of the festivities, because I was out of province. However, the reason I was away was that I was visiting my boyfriend and his family, so I think for that reason alone my gay cred is intact. This post is about something else though.

A friend of mine from undergrad is getting married in the fall, and last Wednesday the wedding invitation came in the mail. I was disappointed to find out that I didn't get a "plus one" with my invitation. I've been in a serious relationship with my boyfriend for over a year, facebook official and everything, and she and I have spoken about him on multiple lunch dates so she knew we were together. I was nervous that the reason I wasn't given a plus one was because we were a same-sex couple, especially since I hadn't yet spoken with any of our other friends from undergrad to see if they got plus ones.

I managed to calm myself down and I messaged one of our mutual friends who is one of the bridesmaids, asking politely what the deal was. She assured me that she figure it out, and worst case scenario she would give me her plus one because her boyfriend didn't want to go. This was reassuring, but I remembered that the bride's family was pretty Catholic so I was still kind of paranoid.

Sure enough, the bride-to-be called me the following evening and told me that I couldn't bring my boyfriend, not because it was an issue of wedding cost/size, but because her father's family was very traditional and, being as much a ceremony for the families and the bride and groom themselves, no same-sex couples were allowed to attend the wedding.

I must say that she was very good at breaking the bad news. She told me that she tried to get her father to okay it but it ended up being a heated argument which I guess he had the final say in. She told me that of course she had no problem with us and our relationship, and that she was very happy that we're still together. She assured me that I was still invited, but she would totally understand if I didn't want to come. Above all, though, she told me the truth right off the bat and didn't sugarcoat it.

Although the situation was as I anticipated, I was still overwhelmed and started to cry a bit on the phone. This in turn made her cry, which was quite upsetting. I can't help blaming myself in part for assuming that we (the friends from undergrad) would be allowed to bring dates at all. I was just so excited because this would've been the first wedding I attended that I actually had a partner to bring as my "plus one". I had already told my boyfriend about it months ago and we were both excited to have a chance to wear our suits (something we haven't done together yet) and for me to introduce him to a bunch of my old friends. I guess it also came as a shock to me because, having grown up in urban Southern Ontario, Canada, I had never been discriminated against because of my sexuality except for a tiny amount of bullying in high school. I really didn't think this stuff was still going on in the Toronto area in 2012.

And it was really a slap in the face because on the RSVP card that came with the wedding invitation, underneath the checkboxes for whether you are attending or not, there is a section at the bottom that says "What is your definition of Love? (please answer below)".

I already knew as soon as I first saw the invitation that I wouldn't go if I wasn't allowed to bring my boyfriend, so the invitation conveniently transformed itself into an invitation for a pointed definition of Love. Two other friends of mine suggested adapting "Love is patient. Love is kind." from the book of Corinthians, which felt like a good starting point for me. My inscription reads:

Love is patient. Love is kind.
Love is cheerfully accepting another's faults and follies.
Love is putting another's happiness before one's own.
Love isn't always between a man and a woman...
I truly pity you that you find some people's love offensive.

The card goes into the mail tomorrow morning, and smitten with gay pride, I look forward to hearing from the bride-to-be about her family's reaction.

Happy Pride, everyone :)

Hey everyone!

I wanted to drop a journal for those who still watch me/remember who I am that I'm still here! I still love the fandom and have been paying close attention to my FA; I've just had a bit of an extended lull in my fandom activity. I started grad school in September, and it takes up huge amounts of time, but I really enjoy what I'm doing :)

I still know how to have furry fun once in a while though :3 I'm going to Furnal Equinox next weekend, and I look forward to hanging out with all the cool peeps I don't get to see too often, and maybe connecting a bit more with the Toronto community. I thought living in downtown TO would mean hanging out with the Toronto crowd, but it doesn't really work when the only places I go are the library and the computer lab x3

I also haven't given up on writing fiction. I know it's been like a year and a half since I last uploaded a story. To get back into a writing groove,  nasido has convinced me to make a team with him on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers over on dA. Writing stories in another person's world has been relieving in a way, because I'm so fond of my own ideas that I feel a lot of apprehension with my inability to do them justice with my novice writing skills. Writing for PMD missions (which have deadlines :P) will force me to get some practice.

My dA is here. Nothing exciting yet. I'm working on writing a story for Mission 5, but the deadline is in 5 days so we'll see how that goes :P

This is another one of those things that I'm surprised hadn't been brought to my attention before today.
Also, later in this episode, Homer is heard saying "How about some... caulk? Delicious caulk."

Hey all!

I'm actually very surprised that I didn't hear about this sooner. Margaret Atwood is one of my favourite novelists, and she writes some real gems. Here's a passage from her newest novel "The Year of the Flood":

Toby got a job as a furzooter: cheap labour, no identity required. The fursooters put on fake-fur animal suits with cartoon heads and hung advertising signs around their necks, and worked the higher-end malls and the boutique retail streets. But it was hot and humid inside the furzoots, and the range of vision was limited. In the first week she suffered three attacks by fetishists who knocked her over, twisted the big head around so she was blinded, and rubbed their pelvises against her fur, making strange noises, of which the meows were the most recognizable. It wasn't rape - no part of her actual body was touched - but it was creepy. Also it was distasteful dressing up as bears and tigers and lions and other endangered species she could hear being slaughtered on the floor below her. So she stopped doing that.

I was like "oh my god this is like right out of CSI!" Everything from the crazy heat to the limited vision to even the yiffing noises, Margaret Atwood knows what's going on. And may I remind you that this was written by a 70 year old woman.

But seriously, I don't know how much they talk about Margaret Atwood in other countries, but she's huge here in Canada. "The Handmaid's Tale" (one of my favourite novels) is a staple in high school English classes. For anyone who may even be remotely interested in an at-the-crux-of-the-apocalypse type story, I fully endorse Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" and "The Year of the Flood" with every fiber of my being.

Not my art, duh!
I'm the official table helper for  lawlzy who'll be peddlin' all kinds of video game art merchandise (read all about it at www.furaffinity.net/journal/2323129/)


So come on over to LawlzyLand at Table B10 and say hi! We'll probably be cosplayed as pokemon gijinka or at least wearing pokemon hats :3
Now... are any of y'all actually going to AN? :P

Hey all!

This is probably much more relevant to my local crew than Furry Fiesta, so it's probably worth mentioning that I'll be attending Furnal Equinox in Toronto this March 11th-13th, 2011.
Don't really know much of what's going on so far, except that I'll be there all weekend, I'm rooming with  welnis and  ether-drift, and that I plan to have a lot of fun!
Anyone else goin'?

In anticipation of its sequel Isolation Play, I reread Out of Position by  kyell a little while ago. I was kind of surprised that I actually liked the book a lot more than I did when I first read it roughly 18 months ago. I actually used to prefer Waterways, but OOP has since then blown it out of the water. I guess I'm something of a late bloomer when it comes to the pursuit of love and relationships, so even when I was Dev and Lee's age, I identified more with Kory and Samaki, and now that I'm out of college, I identify more with Dev and Lee. I think I'm all caught up now though, so I'm really looking forward to Dev and Lee's matured relationship in IP :3

Listed below, in order of appearance, are mysix6 favourite moments from OOP. Although I garner much entertainment from Lee's sharp tongue, the following six passages elicited the greatest emotional response

OneX's OOP TOP 6 (SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY)

Pg87 (Narrated by Lee)
Our minds must be following that remark in similar directions, because after a little silence, he says, “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to take you home.”

Pg165 (Spoken by Dev)
“…He told me how you encouraged him to be a fireman, how you watched football with him, how you pushed for him to get a good education. I wanted to be a fireman when I was seven and my parents never bought me a fire helmet.”

Pg196 (Narrated by Dev)
“You really want that?”
“You to clean your own uniform?”
I poke his side. “The stone cottage, the cockatoos.”
“They could be parrots.”

Pg 217 (Narrated by Dev)
…He doesn’t react to what I thought was his favourite chardonnay, except to say, “not champagne?”
“Why champagne?”
“To celebrate your new place.” He turns the bottle over.
I hadn’t even thought of that. “I thought you liked that one,” I say.
“I do.” He smiles at me, puts the bottle down, and walks over to hug me. “Thanks.”

Pg264 (Spoken by Dev)
“I mean is it just my life? Or is it… …Is it our life?”

Pg311 (Narrated by Dev)
He kisses my nose. “I’m okay with not. After you left, I thought, would I be happy if I could have my English degree and my activist friends and not have you anymore? Well,” his grin gets sly and wide, “it turns out that’s one of the easiest questions I’ve ever been asked. It’s no contest.”






So yeah... it may not be a profound list or anything. I just wanted to share my experience. You can probably look forward to me having a spaz-attack about IP shortly after it arrives in the mail :)

So my mom was trying to plan a March Break trip with me and my little brothers, but my brothers were very adamant about spending March Break in the basement playing Call of Duty, so eventually my mom gave up and asked me if there was anywhere I'd want to go at the end of February, just her and I. I said to her I KNOW JUST THE PLACE.

Yeah so this is all very sudden, but I'm going to Furry Fiesta... and I'm bringing my mom.

She's heard lots of stories and seen lots of pictures, and has always kinda wanted to see what a fur con is like (the last con she was at was Anime North 2004), so she's really excited but also kinda nervous because well... it's a furry convention. I asked her what her fursona's gonna be and she said "oh god... can't you pick for me?". I'm encouraging her to make one because  strawberrykit's also bringing her mom to TFF and made they made a fursona for her.

I'm soooo excited~! X3

Hey all!

I've been soooo bad about keeping up my FA journal about, well, my own life and everything else. So here's the gist.

SCHOOL/WORK:
Finished my undergrad in biology, got my fancy degree and everything in November. Applying for grad school in Toronto to start in September. I'm starting a whatever job at the local drug store in January, and hopefully I can get my old job back at the botanical gardens in the Spring time, then start school in the Fall!

WRITING:
In case you didn't notice all my other proclamations, I posted my first story "Jumping Salad" here on FA (can be viewed here :3 http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4951468). I've been going on about it because well... I'm pretty proud of it X3. I have no intention of being a one-hit-wonder, though. I'm starting a more regimented writing schedule in the new year. I hope there will be lots of fun surprises in the new year, although to be honest all the story ideas I have floating in my head are more horror stories >.>

Ehh, kind of a blah journal hahaha. I'm planning to be a bit more fun and active and like an actual artist on FA in 2011. A big thank you to everyone who's followed me this far in my weird FA adventure so far, and I hope everyone has a very happy new year :D

PREFACE: If you need a catchup on "FALeaks", this LJ post is very helpful: http://bridgeportcat.livejournal.com/96818.html

It came to me when reading a sweet comment by  getsuookami on  toonces's journal (here: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/...../#cid:16227328)

Most of the discussion/argument that FA users call "Drama" is what most other people would call "Conflict" (interpersonal conflict to be more exact). Conflict, you know... an issue between people where someone's needs(/wants) are not being met, and the other is somehow creating that barrier that prevents the person from meeting their needs.

So... how do you "solve" a conflict? You can talk it out in dialogue, negotiate, resort to violence, withdraw, or (my personal favourite) try to reframe things so that everyone's needs might be met. While "trying to avoid drama" sounds like the grown up thing to do, it is often used as a euphemism for "withdrawing from conflict". While it may be a lot quicker and simpler to just shut your mouth, it's not a way to have your needs met, and in all the conflict theory I've read, withdrawal is the last resort.

Now, I don't expect to be some blazing peacekeeper who's gonna transform FA, but I'd like to ask everyone to think about this: What do you want out of FA? As good as it feels to judge and blame the administration, it will not make them receptive to making the changes we'd like to see, and besides, how are we going to have our wants met if we don't articulate them. Here's what my list looks like:

WHAT I WANT FROM FA:
-I want a site to share furry art with friends and strangers alike. A place where I can see all sorts of great stuff, and showcase my own work as well.
-I want to exchange ideas with other users, about the submissions and just generally.
-I need a site where I can feel comfortable that my private messages will remain private, at least not to be exploited
-I want a site where the administration attempts to keep users informed, even when the forums are down
-I want a site on which administrative notices are respectful of the users, and not condescending.
-I want a site where administrators don't give personal advice on very serious issues if their suggestions will be based on what will be most convenient for themselves.
-I want a site that is properly updated, and gradually sees improvements in design that will address the particular/technical wants of the users

Phew! Not necessarily an exhaustive list, cuz it's getting late, but you get the idea.

So, is FA addressing your needs? Do you think that in the future (with some work) it could address your needs? Are you able to go somewhere else to have all the same needs met? Whether you choose to stay or choose to go is entirely your own prerogative. I'm gonna be sticking around for a while because I've just started posting my serious work and my humble watchership is precious to me, but I will also be shopping around for new venues, should I conclude that FA is not for me.


And amidst all this excitement, please keep in mind that Furaffinity =/= The Furry Fandom

Hey y'all!

Thought I'd give a little update journal to tell you all where I'm at, both in "real life" and in fandom stuff.

So I finished my degree! I actually had my last exam back at the beginning of August but the ceremony isn't until November. My summer contract at the botanical gardens expired at the end of August, but I'm still working there on a volunteer basis, but if they get funding they may be able to hire me back as an intern in January. Pretty spiffy stuff. Besides that, trying to find sundry work around town, and applying to grad school to start in Sept. '11.

Being unemployed has its advantages, though... I finally have a chance to visit my aunt in British Columbia! She moved out there well over five years ago and everyone's been out to visit her except me. I'm flying out tomorrow and staying until Oct. 4th. My aunt's been all stressed about trying to plan things I can do while she's at work, but between the universities, the botanical gardens, and gaytown, I shouldn't have any problem keeping myself busy :3

Also bringing my laptop along so I can get crackin' on my writing! I have a bad habit of starting stories and never getting back to them, so I have a couple unfinished works that I've been putting off in an infinite lack of discipline. To help move my ass along a little bit, I'm gonna call myself out in my own journal. I WILL HAVE 1 FURRY STORY DRAFTED BY THANKSGIVING . I don't have too much to give away so far, other than that my first publication will not have a little red border around it :P

RAMBLE RAMBLE RAMBLE I need to finish packing. As long as I have internet, I'll still be checking FA and facebook regularly while I'm away, so you don't need to worry about missing me too much X3

Just remember to start on the outside and work your way... in :3c

(I may or may not have found a piece of paper entitled "Bad Vore Jokes" that I wrote after the Big Gulp Party at AC'09)

All the fun facts are at the bottom, so if the preamble is tl;dr, please just skip down to the bolded title

Hey all!

Before I get started, just a little disclaimer. The purpose of this journal is not to belittle, criticize, or in any other way disrespect people who have commonly designated species as their fursonas. Choosing my fursona species was a very personal experience for me, and as with any other matter of personal taste or favouritism, ought not to be judged in my opinion

Now, on with the show!

Whether at a furry convention or just browsing furry art online, a large majority of the characters I see are mammals, and more specifically, a big chunk of them are canines. Groundbreaking news, I know. Even someone who's knows nothing about the fandom could tell you most characters are mammalian. That's why it's called the furry fandom and not the anthro fandom or something similar. It certainly makes sense, since we humans are mammals ourselves, and a lot of them are just so fuzzy and cute and have a lot of behaviour which we can identify with.

I guess I'm a little different, with my honeybee fursona. As a guy with a biology degree specializing in biodiversity, it should be no big surprise that my favourite organism taxa/groups are the most speciose: arthropods/"crawlies", and plants (but for the sake of this exercise, let's stick with animals). Sometimes when I'm at a convention, I feel like I'm the only invertebrate around, and consequently, I can sometimes be spotted as the intoxicated bee buzzing around the con playfully shouting epithets like "For a vertebrate, you're awfully spineless" or "if this were real life, you'd all be beetles". So, before I get kicked out of a con for harassment, I thought I would present the information in a more sophisticated manner. So, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...

---

What if Anthrocon Species Diversity Was Like Real Life?

Anthrocon 2010 had a record-breaking 4,236 attendees. For some of the math, I rounded it off to 4,000 to make things a little simpler. So, if Anthrocon 2010 attendees' fursonas represented IRL animal species diversity, here's what you would expect to see:

80 nematodes/roundworms (and one horsehair worm!)
58 flatworms
57 worms and leeches
25 jellyfish
21 sponges
20 starfish
3 tardigrades/waterbears (they're so cute!)

3,000 insects(!), including:
->1145(!) beetles
->685 flies
->510 butterflies/moths
->335 bees and wasps
->170 "true bugs"
->35 ants
->34 caddisflies
->30 grasshoppers/crickets
->15 lacewings and relatives
->13 cockroaches
->7 stick insects
->7 termites
->6 mantises
->5 earwigs
->3 dragon/damselflies

485 other arthropods, including:
->285 arachnids (spiders, scorpions, mites etc.)
->143 crustaceans (only half of which would be familiar crabs, lobsters and shrimp!)
->4 sea spiders
->28 millipedes
->23 centipedes
->2 other myriapods

290 molluscs, including
->200 slugs and snails
->87 bivalves/shellfish
->3 cephalopods (one of which would be Meg Lyman!

Wrapping up, we have 163 Vertebrates
83 aquatic/marine, including:
->71 fish
->9 tunicates (technically not vertebrate, but closely related)
->1 shark
->1 manta ray
1-> jawless fish

28 birds

19 reptiles, including:
->10 lizards
->8 snakes
->1 turtle

18 amphibians including:
->16 frogs/toads
->2 salamanders

and the one you're probably most familiar with:
15 mammals, including
->6 rodents
->3 bats
->1 marsupial (probably an opossum)
->1 artiodatcyl (group containing pigs, hippos, camels, sheep, cattle, all the cervines, and all the cetaceans)
->1 carnivore (from all canines, felines, ursines, mustelids, racooons etc.)
->1 primate
->2 other mammals (probably a rabbit, and some type of shrew)

---

Phew! That exercise took way longer than I thought it would. I would love to have actual data on what the fursona species of all the attendees of Anthrocon. I expect it would look nothing like this (especially when you through hybrids, dragons, pokemon etc. into the mix!). If it were like real life species distribution, we'd probably call ourselves "crawlies" instead of "furries", since over 80% of us would be arthropods, with a good chunk being beetles beetles.

One more fun fact: I've heard a few people talk about world-wide estimates of the total number of furries worldwide, and the estimates fall somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000. I think those numbers are pretty conservative, especially when you consider all the lurkers and fringe furs, so for the purposes of this factoid, let's double the high end estimate and say there are 400,000 furries worldwide.

Even if there are that many furries, there are so many species of beetle that every furry IN THE WORLD could be a different species of beetle.

Imagine the crazy news coverage we'd get with that kind of fandom XD

---

(numbers are based on the rough figure that there are 1.4 million described animal species. Using this figure, estimates are based on the calculation that 350 species within a taxon = 1 Anthrocon attendee fursona form that taxon.

Most species diversity estimates came from Wikipedia, TOLweb, and my insects textbook. If anyone feels compelled to ameliorate me figures I would be very happy to incorporate corrections)

Holy crap guys! 4.5 months since my last FA journal.

So, I did not end up going to Anthrocon this year because of family stuff, but I was very happy to be able to go to Condition: Zero Hour. I've been to small cons a couple times before (FCN '09 and TFF '10), but this one was even smaller, but I also knew more people. It was a ton of fun to just hang out with friends, and reconnecting with those I haven't seen in a while. I also got more drunk than I've ever been at a con and proceeded to make a famous ass of myself, which may or may not be justified by the fact that I FINISHED MY UNIVERSITY DEGREE ON WEDNESDAY!! (w00t w00t)

So yeah, I'm not gonna be silly and say I'm never gonna drink again, but the new OneX booze rule is that I'm no longer allowed to drink anything that's 70 proof straight out of the bottle (ESPECIALLY not this stuff http://www.hounddogvodka.com/)

BUT! CHECK THIS OUT: A local fur con is great because it's easy to get to and you see all your friends, but here's the kicker: when a con is local, that means that non-furries you know may be in the area...

and guess who was staying at the con hotel... my aunt and uncle! D:

That's right, my aunt and uncle from my Dad's side of the family. They're from the part of the family that definitely doesn't need to know about the "intricacies" of my social life, and well... now they do! I first spotted them in the lobby, and I ducked into the Zoo to tell Aiden "holy shit my aunt and uncle are here!". After I recover from my hysteria a little bit we go out in the hall and I'm telling a couple of our friends about it. "Yeah... my aunt and uncle are staying at the hotel HOLY CRAP HERE THEY COME DOWN THE HALL RIGHT NOW!". They ended up pulling me aside and asking me what all "this" was about ("this" being my con badges and my friends who are wearing ears and tails). To recount the dialogue in text would not do it justice, but I daresay I handled very well, and then proceeded to collapse in an awestruck heap after we parted our ways.

So that was quite a highlight of the con. HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?

My gratitude goes out to everyone who spent time with me at the con, and an extra-special thanks to those who took care of me while I was sick. I hope to see everyone there next year (as well as those who couldn't make it this year >3)

In honour of the new release Heart Gold and Soul Silver, my house has dedicated each day of the week to a pokemon. In some cases, there are multiple possibilities, depending on what kind of day you're having.

Mr. Mime Monday: Nobody likes Mondays. People wish they could just ignore it, but it's very difficult to do so.

Turtwig Tuesday/Typhlosion Tuesday: depends how much work/class you have that day

Wobbuffet/Wooper/Weedle Wednesday: depends what's going on/how silly your Wednesday is

Thundermon Thursday: can you believe there's no pokemon who's name starts with Th? We had to use a digimon instead (I suggested Relicanthursday, but nobody liked it)

Farfetch'd Friday: lots of silliness happens on Fridays

Squirtle/Seaking Saturday: depends whether you'll having fun in a small group or if you're having a FUCK YEAH PARTY TIME

Snorlax/Slowbro Sunday: depends whether you spend the day sleeping, or just lazing around (originally Sunflora Sunday, but nobody liked that)



Yup, we're that cool 8D

a (non-furry) friend of mine sent this to me. I can't help but be embarrassed.

Description: A man in a bear mask being ass fucked by animatronic reindeer. Yeah so apparently they started making the animal versions of those 'sex dolls' to suit the needs of zoophiles around the globe. I hear you can pick up a miniature stallion, fully loaded, for under $500 on ebay.

WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT VNSFW http://www.efukt.com/2315_It%27s_No.....ooks_Like.html

Hey folks,

This weekend is Furnal Equinox, a first year furry convention in Toronto. I was originally quite disappointed that I couldn't go because I had other engagements: On Saturday I had a class trip to the zoo (so I still got a see a bunch of exotic animals :3) and Sunday I was delivering part of a workshop for a conference at school.

Saturday ended up being a ton of fun, though. We got to go behind the scenes at the zoo so I got to pet and feed camels and a rhinoceros. I also never really get the chance to go out and have fun with my all my class-friends, and we definitely had a great time. Afterwards, my sister's boyfriend was in town so the three of us went out to Pizza Hut and then came back to my place to watch the first match from the new season of Hajime No Ippo.

At this point, I was definitely not regretting missing Furnal Equinox.

However, last night, I was woken up at ~3:30am by the most vile sickness, and didn't get back to bed until after two hours of pain and singing the rainbow (I was to be up and preparing for the conference at 8am). I'm nearly 100% sure it was due to some sort of food poisoning, either from the Pizza Hut or maybe the Harvey's at the zoo. Consequently, I stayed in bed and slept instead of going to the conference.

So, I did have a lot of good times yesterday, but if I went to FE, I probably wouldn't be feeling like a sack of smashed assholes right now D:

whatever... all in all, still a pretty good weekend :)

Hey folks!

Here's one that actually came up a couple months ago, but I didn't think of posting it here until a couple days ago.

The focal incident took place at an Early Christmas party we were having at my house. The party had ~15 guests, some furry, some not. In the case of such "mixed company", discussion of furry topics is usually kept out of sight and out of mind since, as you all probably know, "furry" is an odd and delicate thing to explain to a naive audience. When I usually try to explain "furry", I do it in a systematic way, browsing though my favourites (as a guest, to filter out the porn) and use some of the pictures to explain "they're animals, but like humans" and give some examples. The "like Bugs Bunny" thing, although accurate, sounds cheesy, and isn't really convincing as a sort of theme that people would base a fandom around. I would conclude by discussing the existence of erotic material and sex at cons, but in proportions that aren't significantly different from any other subculture, or our dominant culture, for that matter.

However, that's only how it goes when I'm sober.

Back to the Christmas party. It's after dinner and people are mostly talking in small groups, and I'm at a level of drunkenness when I become really chatty and entirely focused on the one or two people closest to me. This of course, isn't a problem, until my dumbass (non-furry, but familiar-with-the-culture) roommate makes an exclamatory comment about "furry" or "yiff" or something like that, and the non-furry friend I'm sitting next to on the couch asks the perfectly innocent question "what is this 'furry' thing he's talking about?"

Much to the chagrin of the furry friend sitting on the other side of me, I blab out this terrible run-on sentence that's something along the lines of "It's a whole fandom for animal people like, you know how Bugs Bunny is a rabbit, but regular rabbits don't walk and talk? So you see animal characters like that that are talking and walking around and doing other human stuff and you think 'Hey, that's kinda sexy!'. That's basically what it is".

I was very humiliated the following morning when I realized that I said "Hey, that's kinda sexy" about Bugs Bunny. Thankfully, that same friend asked me for a "more thorough" explanation a couple weeks later, and she received the the former explanation.

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So that's my story! I hope it was at least a tiny bit entertaining. I've got a couple simple discussion questions if anyone'd like to participate.

1. You'd probably guess this one: Has this every happened to you, either as the drunken interpreter, or the embarrassed bystander? If so, please explain.

2. Even if it hasn't happened to you, can you think of any funny or terrible drunken "what is furry" explanations? My favourite one that I thought of is "You know how when you play Monopoly you always want to be the dog? Well I want to be the dog even when I'm not playing Monopoly."

I've always thought of vore as being one of the weirder fetishes in the fandom, and definitely the weirdest one that I enjoy. Previously, I made a journal about first furry crushes, but now I'm going to talk about childhood vore experiences.

Vore in children's entertainment is usually a scary or violent thing in my experience (as being eaten normally is). Things that come to mind are the scene in An American Tale when Fievel almost gets eaten by the cat, or the scene in The Big Friendly Giant where the protagontist almost gets eaten (hmm... seems like our heroes always manage to escape). These scenes would always make me very apprehensive, but they were also very fascinating... the kind of thing that really stick in my mind; as a testament to this, those are pretty much the only things I remember about those movies. A less malevolent vore instance is the "digestive system" episode of The Magic School Bus when the class gets eaten by Arnold. I loved that stuff.

So those are some pop media instances. I invite you (even the non-voraphiles) to bring up others you may remember.

However, the inspiration for writing this journal doesn't come from kid's pop media. I was lying in bed last night, reading, and I suppose my stomach was particularly active after my consumption of pizza and wings. I noticed some occasional gurgling, so I put my hand on my stomach such that I could feel any subsequent activity. At that point, I was instantly reminded of something forgotten from my childhood:

When I was little, I had an unusual penchant for listening to people's stomachs

I remembered when I was little, I would ask (sometimes beg) my mother or my sister to let me listen to their stomach. I'd get them to lay down, and place my ear flush against their belly, and listen to the gurgling... sometimes for as long as five or ten minutes.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is something most kids don't do XD

I suppose this fascination persisted into adulthood, because I'm not totally adverse to vore beyond the mouth and throat.

Thoughts or Comments?

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P.S. My next entry is probably going to be about vore as well. My roommate is a psychology student, and he said that he's developing an amateur psychoanalytic explanation for voraphilia (Yes, this means I did tell my straight, non-furry roommate about vore and that I like it, but it's probably the best that he doesn't know how much I like it). I'm looking forward to his insights and well... you can look forward to it too!

Later folks :)

*Are you a furry?
- This is a stupid question. All of the subsequent questions are written assuming that you're going to answer "yes"

*If you have a Spouse/SO - Is he/she a furry too?
- No such person exists

*How long have you been in the community?
- I'd say I officially joined the community when I attended AC '07

*How did you find furry?
- I found furry a couple years previous, when my libido-driven google searching led me to macrophile.com :V

*What's your reason for furry (what interested you to get into the community)?
- Everyone seemed like they were having so much fun at Anthrocon, and I met , and , who were the most wicked-awesome people, so the fandom seemed like a nice place.

*What's Furry to you?
- I have a pretty broad definition. If you are fascinated by anthropomorphic ANYTHING, then you're in the boat

*What are your favorite aspects of our community?
- Lots of people around whom one can feel very comfortable with oneself :)

*Do you use any furry terms? (i.e. yiff, paws, murr?)
- I use words like "yiff" and "murr" for satirical purposes, but I do enjoy using the word "paws" to mean hands, but in a way that non-furry people can appreciate

*What do you wish furry was NOT associated with?
- I'm gonna hafta go with and say zoophilia 8D

*How strongly do you feel about someone bashing the community as a whole?
- If it's someone who's allegedly outside of the fandom who just pointlessly rants about how furries are terrible people, they probably aren't worth talking to :V

*How strongly do you feel about anyone bashing you yourself for your interest based on the media's aspect of what furry is?
- Like above, I probably wouldn't be talking to someone that idiotic in the first place

*We all know furries have a lot of sexual aspects in this fandom, What's your opinion on it?
- Sex is everywhere, and it's great stuff, but I also have a penchant for a certain amount of discretion.

Personal
*What is/are your fursona(s)?
- I have a simple honeybee character named Eddy, who reflects me insofar as the activities I do in real life (reading, doing field ecology, and more down the line). I suppose he's the closest thing to a fursona I'm gonna get, although I myself prefer to be called OneX or just David :)

*Do you have any fetishes that pertain to the fandom?
- The ones that are most prevalent for me are micro/micro and vore. They certainly pertain to the fandom, but they definitely aren't exclusive (I don't think any fetish truly is)

*If you could magically morph into your fursona would you?
- hahaha I don't think that would accomplish much.

*Do you believe you have a spirit animal?
- I'd say that my outlook on life and my actions towards myself and others are inspired by my species of choice. Now, I don't believe I have something extra inside me, but I am living "in the spirit of" my chosen species.

*What other fanbases/groups are you a part of?
- I'm really into video games, both new and (mostly) old. I like some anime, and consequently hang out with the anime kids at my school. Besides that, I'm currently submerged in the ecological research community, as I'm working on my very own research project! 8D

*Anthro/Feral, Therian or Kemonomimi (Not a furry, just a human with animal ears and a tail)?
- Anthro is definitely number one. Kemonomimi is good stuff too, and I like the idea of the therian thing too. Feral is kinda blah, though...

*Are you a fursuiter?
If yes, how many do you own?
If No, do you ever plan on being a suiter?
- No. I'd happily try out other people's suits, but I'd never get my own.

*How many of your friends are furry?
- I'd say it's a pretty even split :)

*How many pets do you own, if any?
- I have a few cockroaches of my own, and back at my parents house I have a Shih Tzu named Mei :)

*Aside from furry what other interests do you have?
- As mentioned above, I'm really into video games. I have a great fascination with Arthropods. I think they're all really cool, except I find crustaceans to be kind of boring.
I like reading... a LOT. Granted... a lot of the stuff I read is furry (Redwall, Watership Down, plus stuff produced by the fandom), but I'm also a huge fan of Margaret Atwood and George Orwell. My favourite book is The Handmaid's Tale. Sort of in line with my love of books is also my love of the English language. I find a certain beauty in both prose and poetry, plus I really like word puzzles, and etymology.

*Are you confident enough in yourself to say that you're a fur, no matter what the media says?
- I will not announce it to the world, but I make no effort to hide it from my friends, housemates, colleagues etc.

Meetups
*Do you attend any cons?
If no, would you attend any cons?
If yes, which cons have you been to?
- Yes yes yes! Anthrocon '07-'09 plus Furry Connection North '09. In 2010 (although this is quite funding-pending) I'd like to attend Furry Fiesta, Anthrocon, Camp Feral!, and maybe FCN again.

*Do you go to local meetups(bowling, public outings...etc)?
- I think the closest thing to that I've ever done was have a few furry friends over at my house

*Have you ever attended a furry party?
- Again, the closest thing has been me having a few friends over.

Online
*Have you ever met up with a fur you talked to online?
- Yes, plenty.

*What furry websites do you attend?
- FA, and occasionally ClubStripes and HardBlush >.>

*What non furry websites do you frequent?
- facebook, LJ, Hotmail, Youtube... that's pretty much it

*Has the fandom done anything for you that you're thankful for? Has it taught you anything or brought you anything you treasure greatly?
- The fandom has opened my eyes to a world of fun, weird, and enjoyable people. Perhaps ironically, it has taught me the value of not being unnecessarily judgmental, and well... a lot of learning who your real friends are :3

I guess that my FA journal has become a place for me to recount personal experiences which particularly pertain to "furry". I suppose that's just as well. Whether you're watching me as a friend, or for my submissions, these types of journals are something I think you might all appreciate.

So, without further ado...

This post is about fist furry crushes. It's a fun discussion to have with other furries. Crushes that you had on cartoon animal characters when you were little. There were those times waaay back, before you had any idea what furry was, perhaps before your thoughts involved anything remote sexual, I'm sure everyone had a character or two that they really liked for some reason.

The first and foremost of my childhood furry crushes was on Tails from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. From what I understand, this is a relatively common one, but it is near and dear to my heart. I was always liked Tails, but you didn't get to play as him in Sonic 2, which kinda pissed me off. I liked how you could play the "Tails Only" game in Sonic 3, and I was ecstatic when I could play as him in Sonic Adventure. Even once I grew up and got into sexualized "furry", I never found a sexual attraction to Tails, but the crush exists just the same.

So that was the main one I remember, but that's not the reason that I decided to make this post. I rediscovered a much more obscure furry crush from my childhood, and I'd like to share it here.

Looking back at our childhoods, I'm sure a lot of us recall certain things we did or liked and think "shoulda seen it coming" about becoming furry. Aside from all the most popular cartoon and video game characters, one of the things I really liked was the "Redwall" cartoon ceries that aired on TV in 1999. So I guess I was 11 or 12 once I got into it. They always talked about Martin the Warrior, so I went and bought that book so I could read the story. I had developed a furry crush while I read the book, but didn't remember it until just this week, when I started reading the book again.

I recall now, that I must've had a HUGE crush on Felldoh, the squirrel who was one of Martin's fellow prisoners. I distinctly recall being so fond of him, that when he and Martin got separated, I would skip the chapters that pertained to Martin so I could continue reading about Felldoh.

Shoulda seen it coming...

Anyways, let's talk about childhood furry crushes, even the really obscure ones. I'd like to hear what people have to share :3

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EDIT: Adding to the pile Garudamon, Zudomon and Lilymon from the first season of Digimon.

This is a story about vore, and my mother

yeah... okay... >.>

I haven't had very many opportunities to spend time with my mom lately, so I stayed home and had dinner with her and my brothers. Later, she and I were having tea, and I got to telling stories about Anthrocon.

I've previously told her stories about  zapnutshakur, who I always referred to as "the gentleman from  knotcast". But anyways, I was telling her about stuff that I was doing with Zap at AC, which including, amongst other things, going to the vore party.

"...what's a vore party?"

Oh dear lord... "Well, uhh... do you know what voraphilia is?" That's certainly a longshot, but it'd also make a long story short.
"No" she replies, obviously.
"It's kinda hard to explain" (Ya think?) "It's when people have a fetish for eating people, or being eaten."
She takes a moment to process what she's just been told "Do you mean like... an oral sex thing?"
"No... like, being eaten or swallowed whole... stuff like that"
"So it's all fantasy?"
Now that's a question that's a lot easier to answer "Yes"
"Well whatever... fantasy's fine."

Now now, we sorta just sip at our tea in silence for a little bit, and the next thing out of her mouth is absolutely priceless...

"Have you read The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood?"
I try to keep my laughter inside, and plainly reply "Actually, yes, but that has nothing to do with voraphilia"

Bless my mother. I hope she's able to come to AC next year (Although I don't think I'm ready to bring her to any vore parties XD)