Well that was a wild ride! We screwed up some of our merchandising so overall sales were down, even if I personally did quite well on take home commissions (hi new folks! Thanks so much!) and print sales (FINALLY sold some 11x17"s I've been hauling around - will definitely have more next time!). Still, it was a super fun convention so it was more than worth it. I still can't decide whether it is a one day or two day trip to drive. It's not very far at 17 hours compared to some of the cons we go to, and I really only got tired in the last two hours on the way home.

I have realized over the last week that I really do enjoy art more than any of my other hobbies, which, considering I hate my day job, means art is my favorite thing. I know, I know, this is not like revolutionary, especially if you look at some of my old journals and Facebook posts, but it is pretty revolutionary for a geek to admit he enjoys drawing more than playing vidja games.

At 40 I really do feel trapped, though. If I had realized this twenty years ago, maybe my life would have taken a VERY different course. I get to live vicariously through Mao to a small extent, but it just doesn't fulfill me to live for her - not that I'd ever make that mistake, but it is only part of a bigger puzzle. The long and the short of it is, I am actually going to redouble my efforts into my art.

I spent more than 20 hours a week working on art the last few weeks before MFF and while I don't think I can do more than that as long as I have this day job, hopefully I can maintain that pace, or more. I would like to split it evenly between commissions and personal projects. I am proud to say I haven't spent an excessive amount of time on any commission since I started accepting them, but one of my challenges to date is balancing commissions with personal work. With the wedding coming up I've been leaning heavily on commissions to help fund things, but I really need to focus on personal projects as that translates to merchandise which is more long term income.

I have desperately wanted to write a comic for a long time. I have one in mind, and have been thinking on it for a couple years now, that would scratch both my itch for dungeon mastering and my love of porn and Mao's porn star, Shiarra. But I can't even consider working on a comic without both speeding up my work and finding a balance between it and commissions.

Anyway, by round about way, I'm glad I saw everyone at the con, and if you didn't give or get a hug from me, what the fuck bro? Try harder next time! See y'all at TFF, hopefully with a whole lot of new goodies in tow!