“I guess Elf culture really has moved past self-improvement as a concept”

I always saw it as “et cetera”, so the “et” came naturally to me

Sure, but when do you propose someone pick their own name? What are they referred to before that point? I know there have been cultures where what you are suggesting is exactly how they handle it, but in societies that have identification numbers and birth records, they need to be called something before they are able to choose their own name.

Like, the actual, physical logistics of what you propose doesn’t make sense to me. Normalizing changing your own name to something you choose later, though, does make sense.

But like, you’d still name a name before that, at least for official documents and such. Normalizing renaming is fine, but I see that as somewhat separate from parents naming their children to begin with.

I feel like this would fit here nicely

Darn Tough socks. Super durable, and lifetime warranty

Ok, but think of it in terms of normal start times vs needing to go in early, instead of the actual hour. If you usually start at 6:30 but had to go in for 6:00 for no reason other than a meeting that could have been an email, it sucks.

I used to have a 6:30 start time when I was younger, had an hour commute, and still had time for breakfast at home in the morning. It absolutely sucked and I hated it. Getting up for 8:30 start times still sucks if you’re used to 9:00 start times.

In this instance, just don’t capitalize the W in weird

Rest well, Dino

I love the facial expressions in this comic

It’s a combination of trial and error, finding something that feels “right”, and not being afraid to just go for it with one. Choosing a fursona doesn’t have to be permanent. Maybe you’ll find the species that feels right, but the character and personality of the fursona feels off, so you need to reinvent them. Maybe you get it perfect with the feel of the character and personality, but you need to change the species. There’s no right or wrong way to find the best fit for you.

I had considered myself a furry for many, many years without ever having a set fursona. I vaguely had a sense of what species I/it would be; hybrid fox-mountain lion, domestic cat, and now raccoon. But I never had a set character or fursona. Within the last year I finally said what do I have to lose? I started thinking of specifics of the character. Who is he, and what is he like? How similar is he to the real life me? Is he simply me, but in an anthropomorphic body? Is he an idealized version of who I want to be? Then I got a reference sheet made, and it all felt more real.

I think having a piece of media for your fursona really helps. It doesn’t have to be professional, it doesn’t have to be artwork, but something. A short story, a biography, a sketch, a reference sheet, a 3d model, a poem, something that describes who they are. And then you can feel if you like that for yourself, or if they are an OC but not your fursona, or if you need to rework them entirely.

This 1000 times. It wasn’t even ambiguous in the novel.

Wouldn’t it be “psych” without the e at the end?

It’s the character thorn, and it was used for “th” sounds before it fell out of use. Some posters have taken to using it for various reasons.

Maybe it is my Western, American perspective, and maybe I misinterpreted from the article, but it seems like the entrance fee was implemented mostly to cover upkeep costs of maintaining the trail and surrounding area. It also seems like the entrance fee is what is causing people to use the trail less, which makes sense if they didn’t have to pay for it previously. I don’t see any mention of any other rules that may have caused people to use it less.

Am I missing anything? From my perspective, which totally could be completely warped since I don’t live in a Freedom to Roam country (or at least it isn’t viewed that way), this seems perfectly reasonable. I’m open to hearing why it isn’t, or other ways it could have been implemented. Especially if there was mention of a rule I missed that had more impact than the entrance fee.

Look, as someone who also grew up in the USA with the terms liberal and leftist being used synonymously, it’s us who use it the wrong way. I also have a tinge of offense when liberal is used as an insult or with negative connotations, at least at first. Then I remember what liberal actually means, what the people using it are probably saying based on context, and carry on. We can’t expect the whole world to use a word the way we’re used to it when the entire rest of the world uses that word in a different, agreed upon way.

If I had to pick just one, it was probably Watership Down. But The Forever War, the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, and the Great Tree of Avalon series all were also formative in my tastes and viewpoints growing up. I was also a huge fan of the original Warriors cats books and the Dinoverse series.

Watership Down, though, that book opened so many windows for me.

But “Free Speech” is often referred to as though it is some magical incantation in the USA. It may be my ignorance, but I haven’t come across anything to imply it’s seen that way in other countries.

Not OP, don’t know for sure, but assuming they mean the Framework computers company https://frame.work/

I agree, without know how OP wants to customize, I’m assuming they want to customize the desktop GUI. If that’s the case, anything KDE will be a good starting place. They also implied they don’t mind if they mess something up, so the specs probably don’t matter for being the most resource efficient. It just needs to be hand-holdy enough to help get a little experience for them, then they can jump into a more hands on distro