posted this info on tumblr to educate youngins and figured maybe it could do some good here too, since there's always new users who don't fully understand basic art etiquette. comments are disabled because this is not a debate. art theft doesn't stop being wrong just cuz you're too lazy to learn to make stuff yourself/too selfish to be respectful of the people who actually created the work you enjoy.



'credit' on art doesn't mean clarifying that you yourself DON'T deserve credit (ex; i didn't draw this, this isn't mine, credit to whoever drew this, found this on google, etc).

it means calling out the person who DOES deserve recognition for the majority of work that went into creating the piece, in a way that other people will actually understand and be able to find more from them/contact them if they are interested in it. (ex; base used originally made by username on deviantart, heavily referenced from username's work on instagram, artist is username on twitter and they gave me permission to post this here, etc)

also, credit is not permission. you need BOTH to ethically post anything. just putting a link to someone's original work does NOT make it okay to repost it, you must also ASK for and ACQUIRE that person's EXPLICIT permission to do so. people post things in certain places and avoid posting them in others for REASONS. and if the artist doesn't post the image themself, they can't take it down or alter it anymore. thus, reposting goes against artists' wishes/intent and removes them from their own work- THAT is why it is NOT okay.

if you don't know who made something, not only can you not credit them, but you can't get permission, and therefore it is NEVER okay to post such things. this includes 'ai art' which is made out of others' work, almost entirely without their permission. that image your prompt generated didn't come from the computer alone, it came from hundreds of artists who you can't name and who didn't give you their permission to use that work.

in case you didn't know (cuz i didn't until somewhat recently) the search/browse function here got changed to default to 'within the last 5 years' instead of 'all time' if you don't change it in your site settings. old art is still good art so consider changing your settings if you haven't, cuz otherwise you're missing out on a TON of art!

in case you didn't know, the animated movie 'nimona' was just released by netflix onto youtube and can be watched in its entirety, with subtitles, FOR FREE. this is a big deal for a lot of reasons but, i just wanted to recommend it because it's a genuinely GREAT movie and was so refreshing to watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4CFWTYFRlw

hour and a half long, got a cool unique story in a mixed medieval-fantasy/cyberpunk/sci-fi/high-tech world with natural-feeling queer, female, and poc representation. and did i mention it's FREE?

so aside from the outrageous fees and catholic use policies, apparently paypal is now pushing the use of ai into its platform for no fucking reason.

anybody know a good alternative that's safe and secure, preferably as anonymous as possible, and doesn't require customers to have an account? the last place i tried had a fucking 5 year contract (that it didn't tell you about until you signed up- i ain't using a service that refuses to delete my account when i fucking tell it to) so i'm hesitant to try new things but i'm really sick of paypal.

paypal's right out, venmo's owned by paypal....
payoneer and square have higher fees...
boosty has even higher fees plus no cancel/refund ability...
zelle and cashapp also have no cancel/refund ability...
paysend has extremely fishy privacy policies...
stripe is looking like my only option but its fees are no better and it's owned by the super-rich...

is there really NOTHING else???

I AM NOT INTERESTED IN DEBATING POLITICS OR ECONOMICS. I AM ONLY LOOKING FOR MEANS TO SECURELY EXCHANGE FUNDS FOR COMMISSIONS.

the main reason why i'm not posting a lot of art right now is that i have some big pieces i NEED to do and am struggling to get through before i can feel comfortable allowing myself to take on new work or make anything big for myself, even tho those would probably go quicker.

- front and back couple's reference sheet for kvaloth
- max effort lined commission for the developer of rising world (i am also making a sculpture in-game for this)
- dream-inspired giftart for tayohshadowind's birthday (sort of finished but also sort of postponed)
- general hazbin hotel fanart to celebrate the first episode being released on youtube (temporarily, but you can still watch all four episodes for free on various anime streaming sites)

postponed;

- fetish giftart for tayohshadowind with multiple versions, including general fanart for hazbin hotel/helluva boss
- yet to be determined work for kvaloth to cover recent transaction
- fullbody sculpture of myself in rising world to go with the one for tayoh

finished;

- sculpture/3d reference for tayohshadowind
- gift art/reference/character redesign for kylinvartilo
- fullbody sculpture for tayohshadowind in rising world
- impromptu gomamon for tayohshadowind's birthday

obligatory acknowledgement of the passage of time and well wishes to all!


lots happened this year.


hit the big 3-0 and started turning grey, making me officially "old as dirt" according to children.

participated in possibly my last artfight ever due to the dramatic(as in overblown and messy) change in leadership.

formally said goodbye to my grandma and husband's grandpa.

husband got kicked out of the navy and will be starting his new job doing the same damn thing but with actual human rights instead of as a piece of government property in a few weeks.

saw the redwoods, which was one of the most important things on my bucket list.

took on a brief temp job and learned some new skills with the husband.

got an actual doctor and started treatment for my acid reflux.


and i'm still in love with the digital voodoo doll wizard from my childhood after rediscovering him about a year ago now.

going forward i plan to do very little differently since i am literally always doing my best, but i suppose i'll say i intend to get back to art, including plushies and writing, and that i'm trying a new thing with the husband to help train him to think, which is going well so far.

so uh, what's the max amount of submission notifications you can have before it stops counting new ones, and what happens? does it start overwriting old ones or do you just not get any new ones? i got 14k even which seems suspicious.

update; oh false alarm it ticked up one just now. weird to catch it at such an even number tho.

turns out that stuff about not being able to make pie out of decorative pumpkins cuz they aren't the right kind is total nonsense. sure they're a little tougher and not as sweet, but the pie still tastes good! maybe use a bit more sugar if you want a REALLY sweet one but damn. the way recipes talked i thought it wasn't going to even be palatable.

sort of. he got medically retired, which is a polite version of being kicked out for admitting you're struggling instead of just sucking it up and destroying yourself and your life in favor of your job like the military/capitalism wants you to. unlike regular kicking out, it means he'll get some of the benefits of the actual retirement he would have gotten 6 years from now if he'd stayed in, such as healthcare and a tiny monthly paycheck. and we actually wanted to get him out of the navy for years now cuz it really was destroying him, but we are not immune to the allure of a stable, decent-paying job in this nightmare of an economy. so it was kind of nice of them to get rid of him themselves, especially in this particular way.

anyway, that means we technically have no income right now, but we still have house payments and shit to make! don't worry about us tho, i've been making sure we had savings stocked up for just such an occasion, and i also pushed tayoh to take advantage of the free schooling he got from the navy while he was in, so he's got tons of experience and degrees to help get a new job that will pay just as good and not have nearly as much bullshit!

this lapse in employment is why we were able to visit the redwoods (getting time off and permission to leave the state was a huge pain in the ass in the navy), and we wouldn't have done that if we were especially concerned with being able to afford shelter and shit during this month or so of no income. that's not to say we haven't been nervous wrecks during this whole process however, which is a big reason why we've both been somewhat quiet the past few months as this all got sorted out.

we're both very much looking forward to our new, civilian future together!

i wonder if i could convince people to check out 'rising world' if i offered little doodle headshots... would need some way to prove they actually got the game and played it for more than two hours tho... figured only headshots cuz the game itself is only 15$. maybe a discount on fullbodies to be used in the game as decals, like these? https://www.furaffinity.net/view/54595159/

rising world is my favorite crafting/survival game, with the most open, powerful building mechanics of any game i've ever seen. dozens of block shapes in dozens of materials/textures, that you can freely resize and rotate for even more shapes, and paint different colors and paste images onto in the form of posters. the world itself is also beautiful and the survival/exploration mechanics are more realistic and in-depth than similar games, without being super complicated. the experience is very customizable too, make it as easy or hard as you want, play it in a survival/exploration style or free build, or anywhere inbetween.

an older sculpture i made in the game; https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50126013/

it's an indie game made by one guy and it's had a rough time with having to move to an entirely new engine (java to unity) in order to stay relevant in steam's store algorithm. a large update that will make the new/unity version more on par content-wise with the old java version (the one currently advertised on the store page) is coming soon and i really want people to get into it then, so red(the dev)'s work pays off for him!

i just really love this game and want it to do well and to share it with people TuT

https://store.steampowered.com/app/...../Rising_World/
https://www.rising-world.net/

i'm a huge tree hugger so it's always been a life goal of mine to see america's famously huge(over 300 feet tall and 10-40 feet wide) and old(1-4 thousand years) trees. but funny story, i didn't realize until very recently that redwoods and sequoias are entirely different species and i actually had two forests to choose from for that goal! long story short, my husband, tayohshadowind, has some stuff with his job going on that enabled us to finally take a significant amount of time off and go on a proper, week-long vacation instead of the usual weekend-only ones, and we used this opportunity to go see both the coastal redwoods and the giant sequoias!

we both had a blast and i'll upload some pics once i get through them all (we both took a ton) but the main thing i wanted to share was how vastly different the two forests were, and to recommend that EVERYONE go see the redwoods (not necessarily the sequoias) at some point if you can.

the coastal redwoods are the tallest trees in the world, but the sequoias are the largest by volume, and are generally larger than the redwoods when it comes to width/circumference. so if you want to see the most 'impressive' trees, you kinda need to do both forests, but personally i think the redwoods were plenty thick despite not being the record holders in that regard(still absolutely massive compared to 'normal' trees), and other factors made them more impactful to witness in person than the sequoias.

the main reason i recommend redwoods over sequoias is that the redwood forest is denser, and rather than being a commercialized, fenced-off 'park' like the sequoias, it's much more open and wild, so you get a much more 'one with nature' vibe there, while the sequoia forest felt like a zoo or museum. the redwood forest is MASSIVE, and the thick, tall canopy blocks out most light and sound, giving the trails an extremely serene and even magical atmosphere, while the sequoia forest was very bright and open/empty, with sequoias only in a comparatively small area. plus, the redwood forest didn't have as many other visitors, AND the trails were generally a lot more level and easier to walk, while the sequoia trails were either paved and crowded or very difficult to get to/hike on due to elevation changes and rough, poorly marked roads.

furthermore, the area AROUND the redwoods where you are likely to be staying for the duration of your visit is all gorgeous rural forest, and the shops and such are very cozy(low population, friendly, simple roads and lovely scenery), whereas the flat desert cities around the sequoias just struck me as dirty and hostile(nightmarish traffic, tons of stray dogs and homeless people, had to use pin pads to get into 'public' restrooms, etc). PLUS, if you see the coastal redwoods, you also get to see the pacific coast and its nifty black sand beaches. personally i thought that was a lovely addition to the trip, while i didn't care for the bare, dusty mountains of the sequoia area nearly as much.

note that we did this in fall (both to avoid heat and crowds, but mostly just cuz that's when we happened to have the time suddenly available) and the sequoia park is apparently better viewed in summer due to then having rivers and waterfalls and such. i can't imagine it being worth the heat and crowds tho, and we went to both forests for the actual trees, not the other stuff. additionally, the sequoia forest was advertised as free online but in fact was not- there may have been some sort of side entrance that was, but the main ones cost money (unless you are military like us), while the redwood forest was ACTUALLY entirely free. also multiple areas in the sequoia forest are entirely closed to the public outside of summer (we got into one either just before it was closed or when it actually was closed but someone had accidentally left the gate open and we managed to finish the trail before they shooed us out) due to dangerous weather, while the redwoods are always open.

so yeah, both awesome in their own ways, but i absolutely prefer the redwoods over the sequoias, and intend to visit the redwoods again to see more of the trails, whereas with the sequoias, well, been there done that. more pics comparing the two; https://www.tumblr.com/alphagodith/.....n?source=share

in the redwoods we saw;

- big tree (most commercialized, several other groups of people showed up at the same time as us)
- tall tree (basically nobody there but us, there was also a cool log to climb inside of)
- giant tree (this one we couldn't get the stats on due to the plaque being damaged/removed, but the adventure of climbing onto and across a fallen redwood to pass a stream without getting our shoes wet since the bridge was gone was really fun)
- corkscrew tree (not quite as screwy as expected but still cool- there was also what looked like a super awesome grove nearby across a stream that i really wanted to go to but there were no bridges so we couldn't. will have to bring water-proof shoes on next trip)
- girdled tree (large missing section of bark- i was very upset to see how many people added insult to injury by carving their names into this vulnerable spot)
- founders tree (didn't seem special but i guess it is cuz the people who payed to protect the redwoods claimed it)
- fallen dyerville giant (there were actually a ton of fallen trees in the area, all very cool, plus an albino redwood hitchhiking on a regular one, and what i'm calling the 'keyhole tree' where you could see all the way through from one side to the other, but the hole was narrow like a keyhole not a huge tunnel)
- many unnamed burnt trees that you could stand inside of
- what i'm calling the 'trinity tree' which is actually three trees fused together at their bases, giving the illusion of a single, EXTRA thick tree if you don't look up and walk all the way around it.
- 3 banana slugs, which are apparently super popular in the area cuz all the gift shops had plushies and toys of them

in the sequoias we saw;

- the grant tree (very close to the informational buildings on the side of the park we entered, fenced off and crowded, but there was also a neat fallen hollow one to walk through)
- the boole tree (this is the one we had to go on a really scary dirt road, and then hike uphill for 30 minutes to reach, but it was worth it cuz nobody else was there and there were no fences, so it felt much more personal. i only found out about it via the free paper guides handed out at the gift shop, and it closed right as we left, so very lucky we got to see it at all)
- the general sherman tree (the main reason we went to this park at all, had to wait in line to get our picture with it but at least that meant plenty of people to ask TO take our picture. the zoo-like atmosphere really sucked tho imo so this was probably my least favorite part of the entire trip, despite being the main thing i originally wanted to see)
- the sentinel (only really notable thing about this one was it being right in front of the museum/gift shop, so it was good for comparing size to building)
- 2 bears, one which just looked at us from the side of the road, and one that ran out in front of our car in the middle of the night and we just barely avoided hitting it cuz i have good night vision

there's a solemn catharsis to going through a dead person's belongings. i guess i'm mourning.

my grandma died last christmas, and i wasn't there to do much or even go to her funeral. i'm not really close to any of my family- they've all caused me some level of trauma and only a handful of them even approve of my art/interests. my grandma was decent to me tho at least.

tayoh and i picked up two boxes of her knitting supplies while helping my mom empty her house, because my mom and brother didn't care about them and we do enjoy crafty things like that, even if i've never actually learned knitting or crochet or anything. i've recently started going through it more thoroughly- untangling knots (of which there are many- like... you would not BELIEVE how big some of the tangles are) and sorting the various colors of yarn so we can keep track of what we have better. it feels good to organize things and give them a purpose again, but i can't help but mourn all the little unfinished projects that now will NEVER be finished, because the plan for them was purely in my grandma's head and she's gone.

- one and a half purple mittens, clearly sized for a child. did someone grow too fast or did her hands/eyes fail her before she could give it to them?

- a rectangle with multiple colors making the appearance of a person- was it going to be a sweater or a blanket? is the figure supposed to be someone specific? who?

- so many long, scarf-like pieces. maybe they were scarves, but they could have been the start of blankets or sweaters too. were they gifts, or for herself? maybe it was nothing at all- just something she did to keep her hands busy.

- several bulk orders of yarn that haven't even been opened- was it just a really good deal or did she have plans for so much yarn of one color that she just never got around to?

- and some yarn that i actually recognize from a blanket she DID make for me... and some small scraps that are so small they make me wonder if she started only to find out that the person she was making it for didn't want it.

all i can do is guess. maybe these things were left unfinished because she didn't care about them, or got a better idea that she did finish. maybe they became too challenging, or she became too frail. i'll never know who they were for, why she started them, or why she didn't finish them. so many of them i can't even hope to finish because i don't know what they were supposed to be. i can't even see what she DID finish, except the few things she gifted to me when she was alive, because they were mostly gifts for other people who i'm not in contact with and/or were not sentimental enough to keep them.

i feel like i'm freeing her spirit from the yarn as i untangle it, honoring her by ensuring it still has a purpose and won't go to waste or be discarded. not that i believe in ghosts or souls at all, that's just how it feels.

i can't help but wonder if anyone will feel this way going through my things when i die, wondering what each random knicknack meant to me, finding their own joy in things that i had treasured. especially all the digital art wips on my computer- will anyone see that stuff at all, or will they just wipe my harddrive and reinstall windows without a second thought? will i be missed? will people care about these things i've collected, that i cared about, or will they just see it as junk to pawn? will they see the art i've made and wonder how i felt when i made it, be impressed, or will they just go 'lol why'd she bother, this sucks'?

i'll never know, just like grandma will never know how much effort i put into keeping her projects intact and untangling all her knots just so her yarn might still be turned into something beautiful.

i made a massively cropped episode list of digimon for a watchparty i hosted for some friends, to show them my fave digimon character with juuuust enough context for them to maybe 'get it' without having seen digimon before themselves, and i specify what site to watch them on since there are different versions of footage online and some are censored in different ways with varying levels of cringe.

https://gogoanime.mom/movie/digimon-adventure-dub/ (episodes 1, 21, 27-33)
https://9animetv.to/watch/digimon-d.....s-809?ep=14192 (episodes 34-39)
https://gogoanime.mom/movie/digimon.....enture-02-dub/ (episode 17)

it's a little over 5 hours, or you can cut out episode 21 to make it 5 hours exactly. i really only included that one for the unique animation (higher quality than the rest of the series, more movie-like) and the famous 'it's august 1st' bit.

basically it's all the episodes from the first season where they are in the human world for some amount of time- the first episode for context and then the entire odaiba arc, which is my favorite (and not just cuz it's the one with wizardmon in it, it was just a really good arc, woulda made a great movie), and then a bonus episode from the second season cuz it's got wizardmon in it.

should explain wizardmon's character but also maybe show why i love the original digimon adventure so much, and get you interested in watching the rest of it.

I AM NOT LOOKING TO DEBATE THE QUALITY OF THE SHOW/FRANCHISE. I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT. THIS IS JUST SO YOU CAN GO CHECK IT OUT IF YOU WANT TO.

the point of the cropped episode list is so you can have a taste without committing to watching the entire series. this is something you could theoretically binge in a single evening (which is what we did with the watchparty).

i have such a complicated relationship with this silly art trading game. i always look forward to it SO MUCH, and i ALSO always wind up sorely disappointed in it.

the good;
- the competition motivates me to create a TON of art, filling out my gallery and getting at least a couple new eyes on it
- the chance at getting art of my characters means i have motivation to create references for characters i otherwise wouldn't, and to improve refs i already have
- my policy of always revenging forces me to draw characters i normally wouldn't have a reason to, thus forcing me to learn new species and practice subjects i struggle with
- it's a good way to get 'free' art of my characters, and sometimes there's some really nice ones in there
- it's rewarding to give people things and have them respond so happily in the comments about it, and i've made a few friends through artfight as well

the bad;
- the reason i make so much art for artfight is the hope that i will get art in return as revenges, and often that simply doesn't happen, or the revenge i get is lackluster compared to how much work i put into my initial attack (for the record i really prefer something to nothing, even if it isn't amazing, i'd just appreciate for folks to put in some effort rather than something small/easy)
- i also always hope that i will get lots of art of my fave characters from people who like my art enough to try and get me to revenge THEM, but typically i don't get nearly as many first hits as i produce, and the art i get is more often simple generic poses of characters i don't particularly care about, seemingly just because they are the least challenging
- the above two combine to make me think nobody likes my art enough to work for it, which is very demotivating considering i have been an artist for a decade and put 2-15 hours into every piece

so, more good than bad, which is why i keep doing this, but it is somewhat comical how i always go into it with such high spirits and always end with such low ones. this year has been especially rough, i believe due to the extremely late team signups and the complete lack of the site feature that puts recent art on the front page where people will actually see it. this resulted in people struggling to find targets and primarily attacking people they already knew rather than new folks.
i was also REALLY hoping for art of my new wizardmon oc, and while i did get some, it wasn't as much as i'd like and also was almost entirely friends and folks i had practically begged to draw him, rather than anyone just seeing him and liking him, or seeing how much -i- liked him and wanting to do something really nice for me to earn a really nice revenge back.

and i AM grateful for the nice attacks i've gotten- i have gotten a lot more than some people have, and i'm not unaware of that, but when you compare it to how much i've put OUT, and how much effort i put into each piece, it makes more sense why i'd be a bit let down in spite of it all.

and i also feel bad for all the friends and others i wanted to attack but can't either because of time or because i just couldn't come up with anything for their characters. i'm not the type that can just draw a character generically standing in a void and feel proud of myself for it... i'm not proud enough to think something boring like that would be enjoyable for other artists to get just cuz it's in my style or whatever. i feel extra bad i can't hit more people because of how shitty this particular year has been. there's plenty of people who this was their first artfight, and they've gotten NOTHING, and i just feel awful knowing how disappointing that must be and how they probably won't come back next year cuz of it.

there's still a week left, so maybe my tune will change, but i'm feeling the typical artfight blues and felt like talking about it so i did.

don't know what artfight is? here you go; https://artfight.net/info/about (heads up the site is laggy/crashy cuz the theme was just revealed and it's being swarmed)

teams this year are vampires and werewolves! i'll be on vampire and my husband will be on werewolf so you can hit our characters together to hit either of us without getting a friendly fire penalty regardless of what team you're on.

i'm mostly looking to get art of my digimon tamer oc (who has both a human and digimon form) with her partner wizardmon, but i have other characters of various species as well. here's my page; https://artfight.net/~AlphaGodith and here's the art i did last year for artfight so you can see what kinda shit you can get out of me if you attack me over there; https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery...../ArtFight-2022

today marks the beginning of the fourth decade that i exist in this world. i finally feel my age. and i have grey hairs now! does that make me a greymuzzle? meh.



also i hurt my hand working on that wizardmon ref for artfight the past two weeks ^^; i'm not done with refs yet and i certainly can't afford to not draw during artfight itself, so i've come up with a brilliant solution! i have taped my pen to my hand so i don't have to pinch it against my forefinger with my thumb, which is what was causing pain.

teams'll be announced in five days and then i'll do another post to share what team i'm on and such. the three most likely themes are arctic(me) vs tropic(tayoh), vampires(me) vs werewolves(tayoh), OR my personal bet which is order(tayoh) vs chaos(me). (tayoh and i like to be on opposite teams so that people on either team can hit us together to avoid the friendly fire penalty)

's been a while since i felt good enough to draw and obviously i'm out of practice (if my hand is any indication) so i'll be taking artfight kinda easy this year, probably won't make my usual 30 attack goal and i'm fine with that. i've hidden most of my characters(the past few years i've added more every time, so this is a very sharp backwards move for me) and i'm not gonna be advertising in the server as hard as i usually do(two posts total instead of one every few hours for the first week). we'll see what happens tho.

also, wizardmon has surpassed my sona as the character i want art of the most, and is the first one in 6 years of artfight to do that! i love that old digital cloth magician so much.

i'll be 30. already startin' to have grey hairs. all i really want for my birthday this year is for stuff to go smoothly and not have any new horrible surprises for a while. but... if i were to be the greedy bitch i truly am, i'd REALLY like some new wizardmon content. you cannot fathom the love i have for this cartoon voodoo doll wizard man. ANY new content/fanart of him would make me so happy.

be nice or i'll shoot you https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10562229/

thanks to everyone who sent good vibes my way, things have been better :) certain things are still awful and nothing anyone can do will fix them, of course, but. i'm not feeling quite so horrid now that a few things have gone RIGHT, finally.

i've officially lost track of all the bad news we've gotten and various ways different people have totally fucked us over this month. i've complained about some of it here but not all of it. the husbirb and i are just not having a great time of it lately and the universe seems to keep pulling a 'one more thing!' on us for some reason.

it's gotten so bad that even i, the financially responsible one, have started buying shit i don't actually need with my savings just for a little happy juice. i don't know when i'll be back to public coms and frankly i don't even know if i'll be able to do artfight this year.

but if anyone is able to send me some good vibes or maybe even some doodles of my current obsession (wizardmon from digimon adventure 1999-2000) i would surely pay you back whenever i am able. any shitty little thing of him with a little love in it would bring me joy, really.

life is a mcstruggle™ right now so pardon the continued hiatus.

also if any of you magically happen to have influence with amazon, please let them know that the decision to make the ONLY way to regain access to an account when you've lost your phone require the exact brand names of your 3 last purchases IN ADDITION to all of the actually important info like bank statements, card numbers, and shipping addresss, is COMPLETELY BATSHIT INSANE STUPID HORSESHIT. thanks!

literally i am unable to login because of this mandatory two-factor authentication bullshit and the most insanely useless customer service i've ever encountered. they aren't allowed to make a single actual human decision, they just read off a list of questions off a screen and input your answers until you get one wrong and they get locked out and tell you to go f yourself. why on earth is a human even involved?! they could have just sent me a link to a fucking form!

i haven't logged out in years so i completely forgot my phone number was even attached to the damn account, so i never updated it, and now i cleared my cache which logged me out and i can't get back in even tho i have all of the sensitive info for the account on hand, because i don't have insane memory skills to remember the EXACT listing names of the three items i bought LAST OCTOBER. knowing what the items were or how much they cost isn't good enough, either! has to be the exact ridiculous tag-filled garbage of a name that i would only know if i could login and view my purchase history (:

UPDATE;

facebook also hates me apparently! my husband and i share an account and we can only login on one browser on one computer. the exact same email and password don't work on any other computer/browser. and facebook has NO customer service or contact of any kind! it's even worse than amazon!

and twitter continues to be a trash fire that randomly chooses not to notify me of shit (and i'm talking the actual notifications tab here) among other things so i figure i'd round out the three horseman of the tech apocalypse i'm experiencing right now for y'all.

NOTHER UPDATE;

cuz steam has some stupid contract with google they are now attempting to phase out all windows 7 users. fml.

do not order from ‘the gaming goat’ online store. there was a chain of physical stores that broke off from them and those are probably fine, but i have had the most HORRENDOUS experience with the online/vegas part of tgg compared to literally every other business i have EVER dealt with.

tldr; i preordered an item and not only did i never get it, but the company didn’t even look into why until an entire two weeks after it released, despite people constantly asking for updates, only to discover there was some kind of error months ago and they never actually ordered any of the limited-print item. full story below.



i preordered the beelzemon advanced deck (st-14) from them in january. it released on march 23rd. now this part is somewhat my fault for not reading the fine print before i placed my order, but their policy on preorders is really sketchy to begin with- no refunds, only store credit if you cancel, and more importantly, NO ETAS. no etas means they can just keep saying ‘it’ll get there eventually’ and you never actually get your purchase at all.

when launch day came around, i checked my order status and saw no updates on it, and the only means of getting one manually was discord (never a good sign- any professional business will either have on-site communication, email, or both). i was not the only one asking about it, and the only answer we received was that they hadn’t received their shipment of decks yet. they claimed that their special way of ordering that got them lower prices than other stores made things take longer. at the time, i was like okay, that makes sense i guess, and continued waiting patiently.

a few days later, all the local stores in my area have the decks in stock. people all over the country are opening decks online and having a blast, and i’m sitting here wondering why my preorder still hasn’t even been sent out from the place i bought it from yet. cuz y’know, typically the entire point of a preoder is ensuring you get the item on launch day, or asap, without having to wait in line or risk stores not having any in stock.
so again, i politely ask for an order update. they say they don’t know, and remind us that they can’t give etas because of their special ordering method. now i’m starting to get suspicious. what kind of commercial shipping doesn’t come with tracking of any kind? they should be able to tell us the shipment is in transit or delayed or stuck in customs or SOMETHING, but they are always very vague and just say ‘not in yet’. and again, this is a highly coveted preorder item, any respectable business would be EXTRA on top of something like this. at this point i’m like okay i’ll just cancel my preorder and buy a deck from the stores that actually have them, and discover that is not an option. my funds are totally tied up with tgg while the item i ordered is selling out from everywhere else. as an additional fun note about this, digimon pre-built decks don’t get reprinted. when the stores run out of these, the only way i’ll be able to get one is buying second-hand at a considerable mark-up. very very not good.
so i can’t do anything other than wait and hope that the order comes in. i’m fortunate enough to have the funds to buy some decks from local stores despite tgg still having my money, and at this point i figure if/when the preordered decks arrive, i can sell them to make my money back. i have what i wanted so i’m placated for a bit over a week.

then it’s two whole weeks after launch. many stores are now sold out of the decks. people keep asking tgg what’s going on and are either ignored entirely (while tgg answers OTHER people’s questions, so it’s not that they didn’t see them/were too busy) or given the usual weirdly vague non-answers. so now i’m getting PISSED. the no refund/no eta policy coupled with the dodgy responses to inquiries are forcing me to come up with theories on what is actually going on with my order on my own. i even ask them straight up if they actually ordered the decks or not, and guess what? sudden silence in response. a simple yes or no question and they won’t answer.
so at this point i conclude they never ordered the decks at all, and the real reason there is no eta is that their ‘preorder’ is actually a ‘kickstarter’, in that they don’t order the decks until enough people have ordered them to make it worth it for them to get a large quantity at once. that’s already incredibly scummy to do without clearly labeling the item in their store as such, but now that launch day has passed, the chances of anyone preordering an item that is already out is basically zero, meaning if tgg haven’t reached their goal of preorder numbers now, they literally never will, and those of us who already payed will NEVER get what we payed for.
so i’m furious. i have given the company every chance to give me SOME kind of explanation for the unreasonable delay and have just been brushed off every time. i post my theory on what’s going on in their discord for other customers to see and then, knowing it likely won’t work cuz of the posted policy on the tgg website, issue a dispute claim with my bank to try and get my money back, since it’s looking like i’ll never get what they agreed to sell me.

then, mysteriously, a few hours later, an announcement is posted in the discord. two whole weeks after the decks were already supposed to have arrived, of customers begging for updates, tgg contacted their distributor and found out that someone on the distributor’s end supposedly made an error and typed the order in wrong, telling the system to send 0 decks instead of whatever number (tgg loves not specifying) they supposedly asked for. after the utter lack of professionalism and transparency, can you really blame me for not trusting tgg that this is somehow not their fault? and even if i did believe them, that is still no excuse. they could have checked up on the order literally any time, such as all the times people asked them to after launch, and any SENSIBLE business would have checked WELL BEFORE launch day to ensure they had the product on the way so they would be READY for launch day.
so NOW they give a brief, insincere apology and offer either refunds or to sell the decks for their base manufacturer price instead of traditional retailer price... when the decks get reprinted. which doesn’t happen with digimon. also their explanation of the discount was so horrible that another customer had to explain it for everyone. to my ears, it sounded like they were saying they would charge MORE than we had already payed if we agreed to wait. another important note about all this- this announcement was only on their discord, in a regular channel, pinging everyone like it always does. super easy to miss. nothing to specifically let folks who ordered this particular item know something was up, and i did not get any kind of notification about my order being screwed up in my email, despite having checked that option. so who the fuck KNOWS how many people are just never going to get what they payed for cuz the company that fucked them over in so many ways isn’t even going to bother telling them!
so of course i slam the refund button as hard as i can. then, half as a joke to try and make light of this whole shitshow, i ask ‘any eta on the processing of that refund?’ and you know what the guy tells me? ‘i clicked the button five minutes ago, idk’. and this person supposedly runs a business?!?! you can literally google refund etas and find out it takes 2-5 days for a debit charge. and these assholes have the audacity to say they ‘just want to help’ and get defensive when people are rightfully enraged at the situation. not to mention, after how spectacularly tgg fucked up and screwed over so many people (remember that many stores have sold out by now or will by the time people find out they aren't getting their preorder, so they will have a very hard time getting a hold of something they had been promised), they REALLY should have offered some kind of compensation, like at least store credit on TOP of the refund. but nope! bare minimum to legally cover their asses.

so yeah, i’m not canceling my dispute until i see the money i wasted back in my bank. and i am never, EVER dealing with tgg again, nor preordering from anyone. always check the refund/cancelation policies of any store the first time you shop there, folks. and don’t do preorders.

i hope you're well! i'm alright but frankly this journal is a bit of a vent/rant;

just unfollowed an artist i admired cuz they were posting ych reminder journals DAILY and today posted not one, but FOURSIX, twothree of which were not even just reminders but focused more on ungrateful whining and blatant disrespect towards all their watchers for not being interested in the overpriced ych/giving their latest piece less than a hundred faves. like. sure i'm sad sometimes if a piece or sale doesn't get much interest, especially if i put a lot of work into it, but that's just how it goes, y'know? not every submission is gonna be a banger, and y'all aren't my minions, you're people with your own lives and interests and budgets, following TONS of artists, not just me. how could i possibly expect all of you to like every single thing i make, or be able to afford to buy a com from me EVERY single time i open?

idk, maybe one day i'll have thousands of watchers and become an egotistical jerk too, but dang. really seems like common sense that if something isn't selling, bitching at everyone who ever supported you would do the OPPOSITE of fix that.

just made me feel bad, not only for myself as a former fan of that person, but for all of their other fans that they have absolutely zero respect for. like obviously no artist owes anything to the people that watch them- viewing and even faving art does not mean you own a piece of it or are automatically the creator's friend. but just, common decency man. y'all don't owe me commissions or faves just because you signed up for notifications when i post art on a FREE, PUBLIC PLATFORM. i appreciate the faves and stuff cuz they AREN'T necessary.

that all said, thanks for watching me and checking out this journal! sorry it was a bit of a bummer, but i hope at the very least maybe it's a good reminder that there are some artists on here that DO appreciate you, and you shouldn't feel bad if you don't fave every single thing someone posts, or for not being able to afford to buy from them. obviously i appreciate every fave and SUPER appreciate every com, but i'm happy that all of you are here even if you don't/can't do those things :) it's just nice to know people like what i make at all.



edit; holy shit. after this journal they posted TWO MORE JOURNALS on the same day (which totals six), one of which was bitching at people for trying to talk sense into them. 'anyone who insinuates that people not adoring me 24/7 is somehow my fault will be blocked, and doing so further proves my fans are terrible people'.... dude. this person is married. heaven help the poor fucker.

sorry for my absence for the past couple of months, life has been rather unkind to me lately and i've been doing my best just to hang on. i would like to open for commissions again soon, but i have some debts to repay first and still need to just get comfortable making things at all again, which means personal art.

i also have over 8k submissions to go through so hoo boy. on that note, anybody know when fa starts deleting submission notifications automatically? is there a limit to how many you can have or does it delete them when they are x months old? just wondering if my getting to them so late might mean i'm actually missing a bunch.

also anyone interested in either classic digimon style art, or a semi-realistic take on digimon or pokemon such as https://www.furaffinity.net/view/51265991/ or https://www.furaffinity.net/view/47531659/, lemme know cuz that's what i'd like to draw at the moment so that's likely what i'll open coms for when i can.

and belated happy winter solstice, and preemptive happy new year