Hey all!
I am rarely on this forum anymore, but I swung by tonight, and was most delighted that the admin team have the IRC chatroom up and running again!
I'm just sitting in there tonight, wondering if anyone else will stumble in. It often is pretty quite for me, being an Aussie on the other side of the planet as most of the others on this forum!
I thought it would be nice to update everyone to where I am in life at the moment, perhaps reminisce on fond memories of Furtopia in the past. It feels kind of strange that I joined this site and became a furry nearly 20 years ago...
So yeah, I have moved an hour further west of Sydney city from where I used to live. It is quite a bit more rural, yet, not quite rural enough for me. I still long for open space, large sheds, open roads etc. For a year or two I was renting a place and living alone. It was nice developing some independence, but also a lot of hard work dealing with food and cleaning. It was also quite expensive!
A few years ago I nearly got married, but stuff happened and it kinda just fell apart. Even though emotional problems are not as bad as they used to be 15 or so years ago, I still have to deal with a lot of stuff. Nearly a year ago I had a pretty big break down, so currently my parents have moved in with me to help look after me. It has been a tough transition, and I really miss a lot of the freedoms I used to enjoy.
For the last 6 or so years I have been working in a small electronics manufacturing business near where I live. At times it is very stressful, but it certainly is very interesting, and I have learnt a lot about electronics components, PCB design, manufacturing processes, and business in general. In my spare time, I am often working on project cars, watching stuff on youtube, or socializing in vrchat. I used to play a lot of sport when I was younger, but decided to retire as I was starting to get injured more, and just wasn't enjoying it as much.
As for my furry activities - for many years between 2010 and 2020 I didn't really do very much, as I was living with my parents and they were quite against it all. I was also dealing with a lot of mental / emotional stuff, trying to get my head sorted out, trying to get my life right. Since my breakdown last year, I think my parents have been a lot more supportive of me going to furry events. I have been to 2 major events this year, and both were absolutely wonderful distractions from life. It has been very strange for me to reconnect with the furries in Australia, as a lot of the ones I used to know 15 or so years ago have moved on in life, or reside more in the background now. Most of the people at the events here are much younger with completely different behaviors, thoughts, lingo, etc. It used to be a rare thing for someone to dress up in a fursuit at a meet, but now it feels like every second person has a fursuit.
As for Furtopia, its kind of nice that this site still resembles what it used to look like all those years ago! Being here fills me with the warm fuzzies!
I found this site because I was trying to learn how to draw dragons and gryphons, stumbled upon Ulario's website (Gryphonheartstudios), and i guess found my way here!
At the time, the furry fandom was much more developed in the US, and I don't think there was even another Aussie on here when I joined.
For a while I was just about the forums. I guess eventually I tried out the chat room and got addicted to that. I remember tying up the phone line for hours on end cos I wanted to chat. You know how kids these days are addicted to their screens? That was me in 2004.
My first and only website I have ever had was hosted by Furtopia. I cant remember which member of furtopia helped me make it, but I am still super thankful for the chance to have a website!
I used to play neopets years before joining this site, and I saw how some people used html to make their stores all fancy - I always wished I could've done stuff like that!
I used to be on a few other chat rooms around the same time - a traci harding (Australian Fantasy Fiction author) fansite, and shurturgal (Christopher Paolini - Eragon fansite). Those chat rooms were never as busy nor as entertaining as the Furtopia one. I remember saying goodbye to my friends at Shurturgal because I was going to hop across to Furtopia, and Becky following me and becoming a furry. I still keep in touch with Becky, even though it feels unlikely we will ever meet in person (she is in the US). I still think it would be nice to visit the US some time, maybe go to one of the cons there, maybe meet people from furtopia that I used to chat to oh so many years ago.
So yeah, this has been a super long post. If you have read through it all, I hope you enjoyed at least some of it!
Feel free to comment or shoot me a message here. Hopefully I remember to come back here more frequently!
DDD
