Month: December 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKbIFrla3uE

as originally posted on healthynotnuts.com

DECEMBER 6, 2015 ~ HEALTHY NOT NUTS
As you read through this please try to put any pre-conceived notions to the side for a moment. The Midwest Fur Fest takes place in December in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. Allan and I happened to be at the hotel on business. We watched the hotel literally transform right before our very eyes and had the opportunity to mingle with the Furries and find out a little bit about them.

When we arrived at the hotel on Monday it was business as usual, Tuesday was the same. On Wednesday, some very different “characters” started to appear. At first it was just a few and by 4pm it was apparent that we were becoming out numbered.

It seemed like the Non Furries either loved them or hated them. I was really impressed that some of the people in my group who I thought would have a very low tolerance, were actually enjoying the Furries. They were taking pictures and videos of them and with them, I was so surprised. I mean, really, how can you not love these creatures that look so cute, cuddly and happy all of the time?

Well, they do get kind of a bad rap, generally speaking. I think with any group of people you get all kinds, so as an individual you decide how far you want to go with it. Whether you are on the Rock Scene, the Punk Scene, the Metal Scene, the Investor scene, an Actor, a Doctor, a High Faluten Lawyer, a Bartender, a Hairdresser, a Waitress or what have you ~ within any situation or group we find ourselves there are several different paths to take. You and only you make the decision on what path to follow within that group. In case of any trouble, there was this Furry: see photo on original post

We only had good experiences with the people we encountered and we really had a very good time so we wanted to share it with all of you. I may make some generalizations as I go along but these come from our experience with the Furries who were kind enough to take the time to have their picture taken or to have a conversation with us and answer a lot of our questions.

The first thing we noticed was that we were the oldest people around. This was on Thursday. I spoke with the hotel and 140 Fur Fest attendees checked in on Wednesday. 700 checked in on Thursday. So we now have quite a few costumed people walking around. We were told that the Furries literally take over the hotel, and, they did. The Hyatt Regency O’Hare really got into the whole thing, too. At first, I thought, how inappropriate but then I changed my mind and realized that they were embracing this whole thing, joining in on the fun and making everyone feel welcome.

My impression of the Furries is that they all want to be seen, they love to interact with you if you are open to it, they love to get their picture taken and they love to talk about why they are there and about their Furry Lifestyle.

Allan had a conversation with one of the promoters of the event and found out that there are Furry Conventions like this one that take place all around the world. There are about 300 of them a year. The Midwest Fur Fest is now the second largest event for Furries. Last year, there were 4700 attendees and this year they are expecting between 5000 and 7000 people. There are Furry events held in Japan, Australia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, England, Finland, Sweden, Canada and Brazil just to name a few with convention names like Furry Fiesta, ConFurgence, Furnal Equinox, VancouFur, Fur-Eh!, What the Fur, Eurofurence and Anthrocon (in Pittsburgh, Pa and the largest attended event).
What is a Furry?

A Furry is a little more complicated than I originally thought. I guess I thought they were just weird people who dressed up in animal costumes and I don’t know what they did, something to do with weird sexual tendencies. I am not sure why I thought this, I think I saw something on TV about it even though I can’t actually place it. So, when they first started showing up, I was a little wary. They do seem to be a rather young crowd for the most part and perhaps I had forgotten that I was young once, too, so my tolerance for young people having fun might have been a little low in the beginning. They grew on me, though.

The second thing we noticed was that they were surprised that we were nice to them. Actually, I was surprised that they were so polite to me, on several occasions when I ran into them in the elevator or what have you, they held it for me or just expressed general courtesies that other Non Furries during the earlier part of the week didn’t even do. In fact, I remember some pretty crude comments directed my way in the bar BEFORE the Furries even arrived. Anyways, Allan offered our group of young Furries next door some coffee and tea for the Kurig that’s in the room that we weren’t using and I was waiting a little bit down the hallway when I heard one of them comment that they weren’t used to people being so nice to them. The same surprise was expressed when Allan offered the room of Furries across the hallway from us some extra bottled waters we had. Maybe we also showed them that not all Non Furries are totally judgemental (well, maybe we were at first, our bad!), depends on the individual person you encounter which can be applied to just about every situation.

This is what we gleaned from our conversations with some of the Furries. They are acting out what they think animals would be like if they walked upright and had human qualities. They refer to this as anthropomorphic which means attributing human characteristics to non human things. Honestly, I thought if humans actually treated each other as well as what I saw in this crowd, the world would be a very friendly, understanding and loving place. Well maybe that it what they are looking for even it’s only one weekend. Who wouldn’t want that? Each person identifies with a certain animal like a Hyena, a Wolf, a Dog, a Bird, a Tiger, a Panther or whatever you can think of. They also have names other than their real names and they pick those themselves so each name has some kind of meaning to each person. The names sounded very technical, almost, to my ears. Something I am not is technical so the names were a little hard for me to understand, at least the ones that I came across.
We also learned that you don’t just go to Amazon and buy a Furry suit. One young man aged 21 we talked to explained that he didn’t have a suit yet because he was working on paying off his college education before he forks out $3000.00 to have his suit made by the designer he has already picked out. He is a young IT professional who is head of the IT department of a rather large city law enforcement establishment. He was from out of town.

Another young man aged 28 told us his Furry suit cost $2700.00. He hired a designer as well and he knows someone who paid $20,000.00 for a Furry suit that lights up, has fans in the head piece and some kind of water cooling system that runs through the costume because they get very hot very quickly. This same young man was the first Furry encounter I had. He had his Hyena costume on and took a picture with me. I could feel the heat coming off his back. Later, this same young man sat next to me at the bar dressed as a human and asked me, “don’t recognize me without my ears, huh?” True, I didn’t recognize him and we asked him if he was the Moose.

Another young man aged 26 we talked to was also was in the process of saving for and planning his costume, he had also already picked out a designer. He explained to us that a lot of Furries donate, as a group, quite a bit of money to animal shelters or different causes whether for animals or humans. One example he gave us was of a small restaurant (where a lot of Furries liked to eat in a certain city) that was going to close because they were losing too much money. The Furries raised $20,000 so the owner could stay open. This amount was a lot more than they even expected to raise. They saved someone’s business and allowed them to continue in their livelihood. That’s pretty cool.
This same young man also explained what they do at these furry conventions. They have different booths with artists. We actually had met one woman, earlier, who draws portraits of people’s pets. They have workshops on how to take care of your Furry suit, you can’t just throw it in the wash. They have dance competitions. I saw two Furries practicing earlier in the day. Not only did they have a good choice in music but their moves in those suits were pretty good, too! They have a Furry parade, a Charity Auction, a Suicide Awareness Workshop, a Poker Tournament, a Hockey Game, quite a few workshops on writing and art, workshops on how the fur suits are made, fur suit safety, among a whole bunch of other topics they offer including one on attending your first furry convention. The list of workshops goes on and on and they look like QUALITY workshops. Let’s also not forget the midnight howl on Saturday night where everyone comes out of their room and howls, that’s got to be cool!

We did notice that there seemed to be a lot more males than females attending the convention but once they put on their suits it’s hard to tell who is male or female, what race they are, what they look like, all of that goes away and the one thing that is obvious is that everyone just seems happy and to be having a good time. Allan and I will probably attend another event at some point. My secret guilty pleasure would be to watch the dance competition, I would love that! Or better yet, I would love to compete! As you can see from the pictures, I’m about 1/10 of the way there with my Owl Sweater! LOL! That was an accident, too.

All in all, I have to say, we were so glad that we got to experience a small part of the Midwest Fur Fest. It was a pleasure talking to people, the Furry suits are so different and interesting to see, the encounters with the Furries was fun and we wish them all the best. We can’t wait for our next encounter, we might even try a Comic Con, you know, go have dinner and drinks and just people watch. You never know what you will learn!

Additional by Ahmar Wolf

I ran into a furry who spoke when them at MFF. It seems they are planning to be apart of MFF next year. How utterly delightful.

Posted by Duke Thatpoopiething in the Midwest Furfest Open Chat group on FB

Hi everyone I’m Ryan Hill. First of all I want to apologize for saying and doing some things that were uncool and very hurtful to some people in the community. I could try and get sympathy with all the “I was diagnosed with Aspergers, I was taken advantage of as a kid and am constantly in a cycle of despair and depression” crap, which may be the truth, but you’ve heard it all before and there’s no way you could forgive someone you don’t know online purely through what seems to be easy excuses. So, as a first step to try and help people forgive me I am writing this apology, I’ve actively seeked out help for me to be able to do so, because I know that I need to turn my life around. Secondly I’m taking down any art from my page that isn’t mine. Yes I should have done that from the beginning but the person who’s helping me has now helped me understand why and how it was bad. I’m hoping this is a good enough start. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but maybe in time I can make up for the way I’ve acted. To let you know why I was taking art is because I’m unable to make money to commission it due to disabilities that prevent me from legally being able to work. Art is truly one of the only things that makes me happy nowadays and I’ve realized there are better ways to find it, such as learning myself, or making friends by being a good person. Thank you for reading this and I apologize for the long paragraphs

So some might be asking who is Ryan Hill

Let me remind everyone who is really Ryan Hill. First of all he called in that fake bomb threat at Anthrocon. When he was being arrested at BLFC for making terroristic threats, he fully confessed in front of witnesses to hiring someone who did the chlorine attack at MFF last year. Where several people spent days in the hospital.

I have no idea why he is trying to do this maybe looking for forgiveness as the title I posted said. But not with me.

So I ask everyone who hates Ryan Hill link to his FB page and report him for using a fake name. I know it’s a low blow but he doesn’t deserve to be on Facebook at all

Just want to add…he sent me a friend request which I both deleted and reported as spam

as originally posted on adjectivespecies.com

Guest post by C.W.Euwyn. Euwyn is a relatively young member of the fandom, writer, and is currently studying for a degree in philosophy. He enjoys writing anthropomorphic fiction, reading it, and has a passion for philosophical debate. Currently, he is most influenced by the likes of the Stoics, Hegel, Hiedegger, and Kierkegaard, though he enjoys reading everything in between. He can be found on twitter as @CWEuwyn.

Furries want to be happy.

“Surely that’s not unique to furries, all humans want to be happy”, you might reply. To an extent I would agree, happiness is largely what people appear to be aiming for in life. Yet few groups of people seem to embrace it more than furries. At almost any convention you will find hundreds of permanently smiling fursuits; costumes specifically designed to make the wearer feel good, and deliver a sense of joy to those around them. Online, thousands of dollars pass from commissioners to artists, in exchange for illustrations of the buyer’s fursona. Sex is an undeniably large part of the fandom, and that is partly, in my mind, because of it’s association with pleasure. On the surface there does not seem to be anything intrinsically wrong with these things; fursuits, pictures, sex, and porn, all provide a great sense of joy, ideally without harming anyone. It would seem that one of the key tenets to furry is hedonism; pleasure equals good.

Now, let’s go back to an earlier form of hedonism and imagine what Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher, would do if he wanted to be a furry. Like most furries, Epicurus would agree that what is pleasurable is good and what is painful is bad. So why would his opinion of the community matter? Well, if we could sit him down, he would probably laugh, and call the entire community a contradiction to happiness.

There is a lot to Epicureanism, but the position can be broadly summed up as follows: the more you have, the more you’ve got to lose. One can live a good life by learning to be happy with the bare minimum. In practice, Epicurus and his friends all pitched together, bought a big house, did their own gardening, and lived from only what they grew themselves (a rather boring diet, especially by our modern standards). Epicurus also distinguished between what he called “static pleasures” and “moving pleasures”. The former is something that we can always access and experience, things such as resting after a long day, feeling at peace with oneself when laying down, etc… The latter are transient things, which occur one moment and are gone in the next, activities such as eating good food, drinking wine, and even having sex. A “static pleasure” is the joy that comes with the removal of one’s needs (the need to eat, drink, or sleep, for example), whilst a “moving pleasure” involves the excitement of the senses, beyond what is needed to survive. Of the two, Epicurus argues that the former it superior, whilst the latter will inevitably lead to pain.

To bring it back to furry, I should first say that I’m not an Epicurean, and I won’t argue that anybody should live in the way that Epicurus advised. But that does not mean that what he has to say is useless. Let’s imagine that Epicurus came to the twenty-first century and wanted to be a furry. For a start, would he want a fursuit? Probably not, they cost a lot of money, drink could be spilled on him, and he would inevitably have to remove it. Would he commission art? I imagine he wouldn’t want that either, he’d say that any pleasure he could get from it would only be fleeting. Would he indulge any fetishes he had, or lust after sex? No, he would see the pleasure as temporary, and would think that later it would cause him pain.

With these gone, one might ask “what would he do then? How could he possibly be a furry?” Indeed, hitherto, the Epicurean view of the community seems rather critical and pessimistic, there would be no fursuits, commissioned art, or the sexual freedom that many furries prize. But there are positive things that Epicurus would focus on.

For a start, he would say that friendship must come first. The Epicureans prized friendship above all else, and this would be what they most respected in the community. Furries like to make friends. A convention is described as a “large family” by some, and this is something that Epicurus would say should be the community’s focus. It’s very easy to only think about popularity, money, or having a good time, but the most long-term happiness a person can get from the community is, to me at least, the ability to make friends. A true friend will provide infinitely more pleasure than fursuiting, art, or sex.

Second, Epicurus would say the community needs to avoid drama. In the same way that he kept to the garden where he and his friends dwelt, he would advise furries to stay away from anything dramatic in the community. So long as whatever was happening in the community did not affect his own pleasure, as a furry, Epicurus would refuse to take part in any of this “they said X” business that happens more frequently than most of us would like.

Thirdly, I believe that an Epicurean garden of furries would be incredibly creative. People would be free to draw, write, or compose what they wanted. Money would not be a problem, since they would have whatever they wanted on the doorstep. When not with their friends, this community of furries would be able to come up with whatever it is they wanted, without a deadline or a client ordering them about what to do. I imagine some very strange things would come from such a place.

To draw attention to the title of this article, “the hedonistic paradox”, I think that it’s time I bring it in. The hedonistic paradox (also known as the “paradox of hedonism” or “the pleasure paradox”), is a general observation which says that happiness is not something that somebody can obtain directly. It is common wisdom that, often, those who focus most on their own happiness have a tendency to end up as the most unhappy of all.

Whenever I think of this, my mind always drifts to furries. How can a community that has such a focus on happiness be filled with people who are, by and large, no more happy than any other group of people? To me, I think it is partly due to the focus of the community. A lot of “furriness” is outwardly focussed: creating a character, buying art of it, commissioning a fursuit, and so on. This makes me wonder if any of these things really help in attaining long-term happiness, as opposed to bringing only a temporary moment of joy. “Post-con depression” is commonly reported problem, which stems partly, I think, from the fact that these kinds of pleasures cannot last. I’m not calling these things bad, or mocking the people who enjoy them – by themselves they are fine – but I often question the negative effect that they can have on people when they have to come back down to reality. The nine-to-five job probably seems even more soul-crushing after a weekend
of partying and suiting.

For me, a solution would be the middle-ground between the current community and Epicurus. To me, furry is a love of anthropomorphics. I like pictures and stories with human-like animals, and enjoy the fact that I live in such an age where I can find others with that interest.

I am not arguing that we should get rid of the fursuits and porn. I myself do not wish to participate, but I understand that they are important for a great many people. I do believe that there is a healthier attitude to take towards them, however. Making friendship the main thing to be gotten from the furry community, giving money to artist without needing the art to be personal, and paying more mind to the charity events that the community does are better than the more inwardly focussed efforts.

In short, I suppose that this is what the article has been trying to say this: a calmer, more peaceful attitude towards things would be better. People would be happier if they were less concerned with their characters, money, and the drama, instead treating the community as a place to make friends, and as a creative outlet. I feel that many in the community could avoid the hedonistic paradox by adopting a more modern Epicurean approach to things.

This article released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license

In previous post I mentioned I saw a fursuiter who had a confederate on the back of their fursuit.

Since then I heard a couple of rumors but none of which made sense. For example if the suit was attacked it would of been the talk of the con.

But in a furmeet I attended last night, someone claimed they really knew what happened. Frankly it makes a lot more sense than the other nonsense I heard.

As I previously stated there was someone standing next to me at the fursuit parade telling me this fursuiter usually heads to the start of a parade or event then takes their fursuit off.

There was even a post on Facebook about this matter

Magnus Daridian is the guy’s name. He wore the Lemonade Coyote ripoff to AC14 and upset and confused a lot of people. Made Fur You didn’t know or give permission for it, nor did Tim/Lemonade’s family or the friend who owns the rights to the character now. It’s clear copyright infringement to begin with. It made a lot of people who didn’t personally know Tim think he was still alive and his death was a hoax, and it really devastated his friends and family. (Imagine seeing the beloved character of your dear friend who passed walking around at a con; at first it feels like it was all a bad dream and everything is okay because there he is, and then the weight of reality comes crashing down on you just moments after, and you have to see some jerk who never even knew Tim pretending to be him. Imagine just how incredibly painful that would be. How much of a stab to the heart it was for his friends, his partner, his family. Magnus claimed it was done out of sentiment and to “let people get that chance to say goodbye to the character”, but he never knew Tim, he never interacted with him, and he never even attempted to contact any of Tims family or M4Y for permission.)

You can find evidence of this on most social media, and an admission of guilt and halfassed apology journal and I believe pictures on his FA (magnusdaridian).

Well anyway what I heard was this, they were warned if they wore the fursuit again during the con they would be banned, and advised not to bring that fursuit again to MFF.