A furry little homepage

For some people "furry fandom" brings to mind folks walking around in so-called fursuits (often rather pricey - not many can actually afford one), for others it is the artists drawing "those talking animals" - sometimes they will even know whether those creatures are in anthropomorphic shapes and poses or not. There are also those who will shout "devils, degenerates and perverts" after catching sight of a handful of adult pieces from that community - it happens. And what does being a furry mean to me? A bit of all of the above, because it would be a lie to claim that any single slice of it does not exist... but also something more. An open lifestyle, free of that modern "me and only me, everything mine is the most important thing, the rat race, my car my skin my place, my flat is my fortress" mindset. I would rather slow down, reach out a paw when someone needs one, sit down and talk. Perhaps I will meet someone interesting along the way? And it is certainly easier to do that once you know the animal form that personifies a given person. Simply being furry signals that a given individual has a mind open to all sorts of discussions and lives beyond the standards of the grim pop-culture feeding on people farting apps into their smartphones. So why a hybrid of a panther and a frost-wielding dragon ("dracat", as in the picture) for me? The official answer goes: free flights, cat whiskers perfect for tickle torture and a cozy tail-shaped pillow always within paw's reach! And if a fairy godmother showed up offering to turn me into my fursona on the spot? Why not - though what on earth would I do with all these shoes I would no longer need? The image alongside was made by Twarda on my request. On top of that - character biography in English.

I have no telescope, no binoculars and - frankly - not even a decent pair of eyes for stargazing. The former got ruined by books and a doctor, the latter got misplaced because I am a klutz. It is rather frustrating, then, that I have forever been fascinated by exactly the things I cannot see up close. Luckily, there are computers and helpful electronics everywhere around - every few days I use Stellarium to keep tabs on the latest doom-bringing space rocks, and on which artificial satellite happens to be sailing above my head, the ISS included. I also spend an hour each weekend reading NASA's blogs and galleries - it may sound exotic, but their content is legitimately good. On top of that I keep an eye on reports touching on progress in understanding and exploring space (gravitational waves, warp drives and so on), remembering that not everything has to be true, as it often goes on the internet. Surely TV is more trustworthy? I do not watch it - I respect my three still-kicking brain cells somewhere between my ears. I would rather catch an episode of PBS Space Time.

For every generation "retro" means something different. If you asked someone born after 2010 what they would describe with that word, they might say "the first iPhone". For me, a person who remembers a world without smartphones and the internet (but with jumping over rubber-band ropes and using playground swings), it is the Commodore 64 (I have one in the cupboard!), Atari and NES/SNES, and those first "portable" computers the size of large suitcases - the 70s, perhaps 80s with a bit of a stretch, which is roughly when I was brought into this world. My very first gaming machine was that Commodore, a few years later it was the "greyfish", the first PlayStation, then a PC with a 633 MHz Celeron and 64 MB RAM running Windows 98 - so I do not personally remember much older times. I catch up on them or learn new things through articles and YouTube channels such as The 8-Bit Guy. As for less electronic things? Vinyl is lovely. Neon magenta and light blues are too, and even the architecture. Clothing... not so much.

Books, comics, magazines... even a tabloid can help grow your vocabulary, although you need to be careful not to pick up the habit of WRITING IN ALL CAPS, because that is ugly and silly. What do I enjoy? Something with adventure, something with a pinch of fantasy. Achaja, Eragon, Brisingr, Game of Thrones, Metro, The Count of Monte Cristo, even Harry Potter... books by Jules Verne, Pratchett, Dan Brown... and of course Asimov with his immortal Foundation cycle and the Robot stories... plenty of furry-themed novels like the one in the picture alongside (I warmly recommend Life's Dream)... the list goes on, but my favourite author is without a doubt Karl May, and my favourite book - the one my nickname came from - is "The Black Panther" (Polish title "Pantera Południa"). You may regret spending your coin on many things, but certainly not on literature. I also regularly bury my nose in CD-Action, and now and then in National Geographic, usually the Traveler edition. Digital editions... sometimes, but I prefer paper. And the smell of printing ink.

My main early source of knowledge about superheroes has always been comics (including the darker ones) and 90s cartoons; the main series I followed are Marvel's Spider-Man and DC's Batman (by the way: he belongs to DC and I do not claim any rights to his image, especially in the thumbnail alongside). The best thing that could have happened to the Dark Knight is TAS, also known as The Animated Series. Neo-noir vibes rule. Well... I cannot claim full professional knowledge of the universes, but on a 1-to-10 scale I would place myself at 7, maybe a bit higher. What beyond Batman and Spidey? Green Lantern speaks to me very strongly, largely because of that "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power - Green Lantern's light!" and because everything runs on the inner willpower of each Green Lantern. I also often poke my nose into the DC Database.

Among films I favour comedies (Rowan Atkinson! Jim Carrey!) and action, though I am not a fan of "explosion after explosion" fare. Given the choice I pick works where technology plays alongside the protagonist - Universal's Knight Rider (see the image alongside), Avatar, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Jurassic Park, Alien. No surprise, then, that Star Wars, Blade Runner, "I, Robot", A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Interstellar, Edward Scissorhands, Ghostbusters (the 1984 one), The Matrix and E.T. also fit here. What can you do - fictional worlds are simply more interesting to me than the reality around me. I no longer watch that many films with "live" actors, certainly fewer than I used to... but I will never say no to Indiana Jones.

I could write a whole book here because I absolutely adore animated films. I gobble up pretty much anything from Disney/Pixar, DreamWorks and the Warner Bros. stables... with a special soft spot for Treasure Planet, WALL-E, every Toy Story, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Bambi, Alice, the foxy Robin Hood (furry?), the Dalmatians, The Fox and the Hound, DuckTales (old and new, both), The Rescuers, Chip 'n Dale, Sleeping Beauty (I wore the VHS tape out...) and of course The Lion King (1 and 2, "Upendi" was fine). What else? General Daimos, Yatterman, Little Witch Sally, Pokémon, Digimon, He-Man (oh yes...), Spirited Away, Inspector Gadget (in the image to the right - presently owned, I believe, by DIC Entertainment), Asterix, Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, The Nightmare Before Christmas (Burton has the power), Swat Kats... not to mention the whole Hanna-Barbera family, led by Yogi Bear and Scooby-Doo, also got a spot on the couch. Honestly, there are very few animated films I would not recognise at all. :P

My musical taste is not particularly "mainstream" - most of the plinky-plonk being produced today simply fails to move me. Sure, there are exceptions, but... I would rather dive ear-deep into Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody or Enya's Orinoco Flow. Or Jean-Michel Jarre's Equinoxe and Oxygene. Or Vivaldi's Four Seasons. New Age (e.g. The Incredible Machine 3, New Age), classical, symphonic, ambient (e.g. The Blue Valley) and synthwave are the types of music I spend my time with happily. And Michael Jackson, too.

The eternal question: Star Wars or Star Trek? Well... in Star Wars I am mostly drawn to the lightsabers, the whole everything-is-the-Force idea and the Jedi code. In Star Trek (TNG/VOY) I have always loved the exploration angle braided with science, morality and social themes, and the principles behind Starfleet officers (for instance the one about truth always coming first, no matter what). Both universes have their charms... and if I absolutely had to pick, right here, right now? Probably Star Trek (shown in the image alongside, property of Paramount).

On the fantasy side my nose is deep in the lore of the Warcraft universe, which has held me ever since Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos came out and refuses to let go. The chronicles sit proudly on my bookshelf, and I reach for them every so often, whenever the mood strikes.

I do not own any professional camera gear and pretty much every shot I have managed to take was snapped with my "potato" (an old feature phone) - maybe one day I will find the time and energy to develop this passion further; for now I try to appreciate what others photograph. What exactly do I take pictures of? Landscapes. The sky. Street scenes. I have a dedicated gallery on deviantArt, and a matching one on Flickr.

Long, long ago... beyond the mountains, beyond the forests... there was once me. And that "me" was fascinated by cats. Yes, in general. Because of The Lion King, because of National Geographic. Because they are elegant and fluffy, clever and dignified, all at once. Then the home internet arrived... and suddenly it turned out there is a whole heap of cats, big and small, but only one of them is more than usually quiet and elusive, seemingly on the sidelines, surrounded by an almost wintry legend. After rummaging through half of the web and stumbling on the Snow Leopard Trust - where people do what they can so snow leopards survive - it was obvious which animal would become my spiritual "patron" - and it still is, to this day.

These magical reptiles have been with me pretty much forever. First bedtime stories, then Spyro on PlayStation, later on I of the Dragon, the heart-touchingtales of various dragons in World of Warcraft, the Eragon book cycle, the dragons in Skyrim... I cannot forget the surname I bear, "Dragon", identical to the English word for the creature. I did try to fight destiny, but every attempt fell flat, and in the end forked tongues, wings and scales settled on me for good. I even own a dragon pendant. ^^ The image alongside was made by Twarda at my request - it shows my fursona's face.

I do not practise any sport beyond the roughly hour-long daily walk to and from work, to and from the train platform, plus waking up every morning and trying not to fall off the bed. On the other hand, I love to follow motor racing of all kinds - especially anything with "WRC" in its name, but I will not say no to Formula racing or road events either. Add to that ski jumping, ski flying and figure skating. I am allergic to the acting skills of football players and do not watch that.

The image alongside comes from the English Wikipedia.

It may sound strange and maybe a touch pretentious, but yes - this is a hobby of mine. Whenever someone needs help, whatever the topic, they can poke me and ask. If I can, I will help. Just like that - free of charge, no strings attached. Why not? That is simply who I am; I do not believe in "nothing is free" or "free means you will just get slapped" - hence my love for the open-source community, where the only reward for the work done is... the awareness of a job well done. The motto I live by comes from the quote "Don't walk in front of me - I may not follow. Don't walk behind me - I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend" attributed to Albert Camus. In plain words: I do not like placing myself ahead of others, nor do I enjoy blindly following behind them - I would rather walk at the same level and work through difficulties together. A few years ago I also got to test my personality type and it turned out that an INFJ sits inside me.

The rarest personality type - less than 1% of the population - according to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and other Jungian personality tests. INFJs are introverts, initially closed off to new people; only after time will they open up. They have a strong sense of morality and justice, rarely act purely in their own interest, and believe in the power of feelings and in a world that can become better. INFJs are extraordinarily sensitive to the feelings of others. They can regret an unkind deed for a long time, but can also become stubborn adversaries if wronged - which is easy, as INFJs are not very resistant to criticism. As adversaries they can find even the smallest weak spot; as friends they are remarkably loyal, helpful and understanding. INFJs are demanding of both themselves and others. They are idealists, unhappy when something does not go well. They are decisive and can tirelessly pursue a goal - often to help others. - Wikipedia.