Hahahaha! How about a charity auction gala?

I am the Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir to the Holy Rings of... nevermind! Just get me Picard!

I always fear that my voice is annoying. I haven't gotten much feedback on it.

But. A couple of people say I have a soothing radio voice, I hold onto that sometimes.

I feel a bit stuck looking for a job, and it's hard to resist cultural programming to blame myself. I left a cushy MIC job because my moral compass couldn't take it anymore. I tried part time employment, gig work, even starting my own business, but I've run out of time and money.

I have until February to find a job, which is a lot longer than most say when they're out of time. I'm stuck in [Midwest Suburb], and am thinking of dropping everything to find a job in Chicago. Well, not thinking, feeling.

I feel like I'm being called to Chicago, but I've never been, and I'm only going on a short trip there sometime soon. I have been socially isolated for my whole life, and I'm looking for a hub of people that I can call my own. Maybe I can find that there, if I want to increase my chances for finding community. Everybody wants to feel like they belong, and maybe it's futile to keep seeking it, when I could build it where I am, even if it isn't ideal.

I've changed a lot in the past 8 years, and I still don't know what I'm doing. I do know how to take single steps forward, and I think that's all I need, but... it's scary.

Yeah, I don't think he's a hack or fraud. He just liked to do things "this way", and after you understand that, you can appreciate his work.

I think it silly to compare work, at least, that's what I want to feel as a new artist myself. Other art isn't better, it's just different. I want to tell myself that my art isn't bad, it's simply a true reflection of what I can express now.

I might argue yes (in a way).

They are forms of expression ASMR using audio and visuals to form a unique experience. Maybe not a mukbang... not too familiar with that. I would clarify that ASMR may be a medium of artistic expression.

In a similar way, personifying animals in furry art can be a genre or medium, and I still wouldn't call MS Paint Sonic Inflation Pornography "high art".

Those are just my thoughts. I'm wary of gatekeeping artistic expression, and think "cringe" things are necessary for artistic expression to bloom. But maybe that's just from my own experiences of learning how to draw, and making a lot of "bad" drawings in the process.

Ya know, when I came out as a furry, I was worried about getting a 'bad rap'.

Whatever this is... is WORSE. BANISH IT.

On the other hand, this just screams "closeted queer", and is sad at the same time. One thing I can count on in the furry community is passion, creativity, a spark, especially if it's weird as shit. I see no passion, no spark. This is like seeing someone smile without their eyes. It is dead.

I'd rather look at v***, and I hate v***.

If it's any consolation, our being upset shows that we are righteously frustrated with the gross injustice and depravity of the empire. Hold onto that, because if we lose our disgust of it, we become libs.

I would rather live a life feeling disgust, than to be comfortable in a disgusting empire.

To try to be more bloomer, there are still good things in the world. People organizing, commiserating, and Hexbear just by itself! We are not the majority, but we are still many. We enjoy things like gardening, theory, art, expression, shitposting, and so much more. I daily mourn the sins of the empire that I cannot stop. I hate being afraid to do anything out of self-preservation. But I do not have to mourn alone, and I do not have to act alone.

We can take the years where weeks happen, and use them to prepare for the week where years happen. Bit by bit, from each according to their ability, to each according to their need. There's a lot of people in need, and like others here, I often have little ability. Still, trying with little effect is honorable over giving up. The same goes for resting, over giving up.

To paraphrase an attribution to Emma Goldman "If there won't be shitposting at the revolution, I'm not coming"

Be the change you want to see in the world

Make the kind of world you want to live in!

Oh, the Surface Laptop Go's are like Macbook Air clones, really nice.

Interesting! That's very comforting actually. Like how knowing how to physically defend yourself, requires you to know how people often attack.

It's maybe... reassuring? to realize that if somebody really wanted to track down this account, they could, but they'd have to work their asses off finding scraps of data. As long as I'm using my VPN each time (and not using an OS I consider compromised like Android or Windows) there's not many crumbs to leave, unless they go directly for the VPN servers.

Finally, I'm still self-censoring somewhat to not be targeted. Like you said, why give them a reason to notice you? I want to be around for a long time, and I'm not too keen on inflammatory comments anyway. Why give a Fed a reason to do all that digging, when you could just blend in. Comments and posts likely to get flagged aren't going to build communism anyway. I think my way is to work diligently and quietly, first to get myself secure, and then work outwards towards mutual aid, education, and helping in any way I can.

Maybe that's selfish, or cowardly, but I've been through hard times, and I want to at least have moments of peace in between the barbarity we're subjected to. Isn't the whole point to work together? I've been burnt out on two decades of putting everything on my shoulders, and I can't do that anymore. I deeply want to help more than I do, but I can't light myself on fire to keep a comrade warm.

It seems you have a good friend, shame I couldn't meet them. Somebody really should tell them that doxxing fascists is against the law and is therefore wrong.

I use it to post my art, and since some of my art is Furry related (SFW), and a bunch of Furry artists are fleeing to Bluesky, and I hate Instagram...

I decided Bluesky as my one place to post art things. Btw, it seems that the Furry community is largely in Trans solidarity, so that's nice. I'm still using a VPN however.

I have no experience with this, but that sucks to hear! Would it be possible to have some sort of "makeover" or try things with your hair/glasses/jewlery to look more how YOU like it? Like, accentuate cheekbones or frame hair? Maybe only temporarily to get a feel that your face doesn't always look a certain way. I just grew a beard and called it a day, so I'm no expert.

In a counter thought, would radical acceptance help over radical positivity? Like, I don't enjoy that the left side of my body (hands, feet, etc) are ever so slightly larger than my right. I can't change that, I don't really like it, but I've been living with it all my life, and I accept it, even if I would prefer it differently. I got more important shit to worry about, like friendships, my dog, and enjoying other things.

Yeah, I remember it and don't like it, but it's not "me"... or at least not a large part of me anyway. Yeah, faces are important, but it's the person behind the face that matters to me, and I hope you have people in your life who are similar. People have fat on their faces, some more, some less, and I don't think any less of you for having face fat. I also don't think any less of you for worrying about it. It's an important concern for you!

As a last thought edit: Maybe you could spend time enjoying parts of your face that you like, like your eyes/eyebrows/hair?

Surface Laptop Go. It's the nicest little laptop you can get for $200. Also, running Linux on a piece of hardware dripping with Windows logos is so cursed I love it! They also come in cool colors if you like that (I got the standard silver one, but still drool over the ice blue and sandstone colors, but not enough to buy another one!)

I'm typing on one now. It's just.... nice! (just don't get the 4 GB ram model).

Ubuntu (and most other distros) work out of the box, and there's a GitHub for a custom Surface kernel if somehow you run into something not working.

As far as hardware, the screen is slightly under 1080p, but at 12" it's plenty sharp for a laptop. More importantly, the colors of the display look very good and accurate. I'd take a nice "low-res" display over a shitty 4k TN panel any day. The fingerprint reader doesn't work on Linux, no drivers, but that doesn't bother me. The trackpad and keyboard are pleasant, and there's a USB-A, USB-C, and audio jack on the left. The rubber feet were peeling off the bottom, but easily reattached with rubber cement (I used clear bath silicone since Home Depot was out), good as new.

Battery life is about 3-5 hours, which is expected for running Linux. I get around 5 now after using some power optimization settings. The surface connector is nice for charging, and takes about 45 minutes. My battery was a little degraded from the previous owner, so you might even get 6 hours on a fresher device.

Yeah, I had a friend point out the parallels to the Anime scene. There's a lot of "gross" stuff that occurs in the niche corners of anime, when most people just wanna enjoy the manga/show.

Yeah, it's funny once I identified as a furry, and someone asked me "ooh what's your fursona?" I realized I didn't really want one.

FurScience has a few classifications (that they use mostly for survey purposes). Most people just appreciate and enjoy the art and culture, at the far end of the spectrum, people identify as part- or whole-animal, or that their past life was a specific animal. These people are in the minority, and I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just what is common and uncommon.