I would say that this has been the longest absence that I can recall. I am sorry for any disappointment it may have caused. I wish I could say that my absence has been, at least, taken up with some artistic work, but that isn't really the case, either. I have done some doodling, but nothing has been completed. I should, possibly, consider posting just sketches I've done as complete work because, truthfully, they're probably as complete as they will ever be. I look back over my sketchbook sometimes and see the sketches I liked a lot and thought I would get around to inking and coloring and I think, "You know, it's been years since I drew this now. Maybe I should just accept that this will never see those finishing refinements and post them as they are now, so that at least they can be enjoyed by someone other than me..."

I may, in fact, do this very thing. And, if for some reason I do feel like furthering progress on them and giving them ink and color in some way or another, I would just move the sketches over to my scraps folder and post the finished work in my gallery instead. I can't explain why I've been reluctant to do that until now.

During my time away from pretty much the whole internet I played a lot of Forsaken World. However, like with most things, I got tired of it eventually, so it's been put onto the shelf with other interests of mine that fall in and out of favor with me as time goes on. Will I pick that up again and play it more after some other interest has ceased to hold my attention? Perhaps. For now, though, I am unconcerned with it and will focus my attention on whatever it is that has my interest right now. Mostly, that's reading, but there's no reason I can't sprinkle some art in there when the mood hits me.

My inbox boasts nearly 5,000 submissions. I am resistant to delete them. There is no doubt artwork I would be worse off to miss if I were to wipe the whole of it. It does mean, though, that I may comment very little, or none at all, and possibly won't favorite, either. I have had experience in the past in which artists seem displeased with someone commenting to or favoriting work that is over a certain amount of time old. *I* do not understand this. I leave all my work in my gallery for the specific reason that someone may find it and enjoy it later on. I don't care if I receive comments on something I post that day, that week, or even that year. If someone were to find it 4 years later and wanted to make a comment, then I would welcome the comment and appreciate it, so this mentality of being offended (for lack of a better word) when someone does this confuses me entirely.

I also want to experiment with other artistic projects. Not so much something other than drawings on paper, but with different subjects and styles. This is something I have actually wanted to do for years, but I felt a pressure from the community to continue to do things in a certain way, although in ways that *they* deemed appropriate, which ultimately caused me much more harm than good. Perhaps if I branch into a different style of art that doesn't focus on characters, I can start feeling more free about art again. Maybe it would finally break me of the insecurity that leads to the difficulty with drawing that I have had since being bombarded with "critique" regarding my preference for *how* to draw things. I don't know. I think I want to try to see if it works.

I can't promise I'll be here much, if at all. I don't have a driving need to draw as I sometimes do when the interest in it has come back to me. We'll have to see where my interests take me, I suppose. After all, there's no use fighting it. I've tried that before...