Be the change you want to see in the world

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.

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.

Wait, but that's what fellow comrades are!

Hi, I just came out as gay, and as a furry last week! After spending over a decade in the closet...

So, here's a short history of my experience of the Furry fandom.

When I was a young lad (teen), I noticed I felt attraction toward guys, but not girls. Boobs don't really do it for me. I grew up in a conservative christian household, so even those thoughts were considered evil. So, repressing those thoughts along the merry way, I found furry communities online. For the first time, Queerness was not punished. Queerness was not shamed, it was celebrated with art, writing, and "art". The online Furry community was a safe haven where I could imagine a world where I didn't have to repress all those things anymore, and be more of myself.

Now that I'm out (to my close friends), I'm noticing that Queer acceptance is a major cornerstone of furries. Next important thing to me, is the appreciation or enjoyment of the ideas, art, or media. Third is just a dash of Chemical X (weirdness), or more accurately, the courage to be yourself, enjoy yourself, and be cringe.

Yes, there are kinks, but I've heard the quote: "There is pornographic art and room parties, you're out of your mind to deny that stuff exists, but that isn't unique to furries. Think of Anime, Star Trek, etc. These fandoms and cultures don't have sexy or kinky things because of the content, they have those things in it because they are created by (and for) human beings." The furry fandom likely gets more shit for it because of A) the open queerness and B) actually it's probably just the open queerness.

Oddly, I've become slightly less attached to the Fandom, while enjoying it more, if that makes any sense.

There's tons of YouTubers that do documentaries on the stuff. There's like a 1.5h film festival submission that won awards on YT, describing the history of modern-day Furries.

Historically, pictures and stories of animal-people are as old as civilization itself. Even the Epic of Gilgamesh had a Furry character in it, off the top of my head.

The only thing that may be an issue is highly specific software, and games. Over the past year, whenever I start new stuff, I always get a Linux-compatible program/workflow, so it's gradually becoming a non-issue. Overwatch and Beat Saber are the only things tying me to Windows now.

Why wait? Buy a cheap ass laptop and have it as a Linux machine.

Ubuntu is nice. I had mint on my desktop, but I just like Ubuntu way better. I find Ubuntu to be the Windows of Linux, without all of the spyware/malware shit. It's the most popular, it's kept up to date, and it works out of the box.

I'm typing this on Ubuntu from a Windows Surface Laptop Go. This little ultrabook is hella cursed and it just... worked. Ironically, the 5 minutes I used windows 11 on this thing were chugging like hell. This is an Ubuntu only device now.

Thanks, Webfishing sounds neat. It looks like I just missed it, but that's okay.

I'm becoming more conscious about security concerns lately, and some things are just too much effort to do securely. Sadly, Webfishing seems to be one of those things.

I'm using AirVPN and Mullvad Browser on Ubuntu, so if you have any OpSec tips or resources I'd be happy to read them! I've gotten a little paranoid since I worked a US MIC job (after becoming a communist, but I needed the money). I can't believe they let me in, and the stress of being 'found out' for understanding how evil the empire was, along with the guilt of my participation in it as an office drone ... was just too much.

I'd like to add that a common symptom of burnout is the exhaustion of empathy. When you no longer have the energy to care for yourself, you cannot care much about other people either.

Take care of yourself, comrade. <3

Chiming in to say I cherish every post & comment I see you make.

Longtime lurker, but now I get to say how empowering I find your thoughts!

I'm trying to do the same thing, cutting out meat while taking stimulant medication.

I've found vegan protein powder and creatine help. I can't remember if the creatine I take is ethically sourced though.

To add in, I only have positive associations toward "himbo", and now I realize a lot of the context is negative, and I don't want to use it anymore because it is seen as insulting, and often just is insulting.

I really appreciate those kinds of people, who I see as strong, confident, and sweet. I have always rejected the the of those people being "dumb".

When you live a life seeing physically intimidating people as oppressive, it's a great comfort to meet larger people who are kind.

I love cats, they just make me sneeze a lot. As long as I have a cat-free sadness zone to recover from the sneezing, I'd gladly help build the cat cult!