Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote anything, hi.

But what a time that I picked to do so as well, under the veil of a major policy change. It's part of the reason I'm writing this in the first place but I suppose this is a good opportunity to write about myself for anyone that may follow me on this platform.

My last journal was written sometime in 2019, it seems (I'm looking at this from the Previous Journals pane on my right, so I don't know the actual date), but I guess not a whole lot has happened in that time. Some of it is personal and I do not wish to talk about it publicly. But I was never really gone from FurAffinity, rather it's just a place I regularly check for uploads and to keep up with my friends (among other places), along with the occasional art dump that... I've once again neglected to keep up on. I guess the correct term is "lurker," and it doesn't really help that I can't get myself to upload to FA at the same time I upload to DeviantART. When it comes to art as well, I've been inconsistent with it. Much of my art had restarted in 2020 when I had gotten back into it, likely helped following a desire to play Pokémon games throughout the first half of 2019; the games become more fun to play when you can create characters out of the creatures you catch and raise. 2021 was also an active art year but both 2022 and my activity this year have faltered heavily, and feels very slow now especially following the passing of my Grandma back in February. I've been missing her dearly ever since and have been doing my best to continue on without her. She moved closer to me back in the mid-2000's so I've been very fortunate to have her as close as I did for much of my life and for as long as she lived. Had she lived another week, she would've turned 88. My Grandma was the epitome of the title, and she held it in high regard. She loved everyone who came into her life, and treated them as family. She was my best friend, someone I loved dearly and I will forever miss her.

However, as jumbled as this journal may sound, it's main purpose is to also share my stance on Policy 2.7, something I've noticed has taken over almost my entire journal notifications pane as artists I follow have it filled up with their opinions and announcements of their plans moving forward, most to all appear pessimistic. From my understanding, this updated policy is meant to address visually-underaged characters in NSFW art, in an attempt to curb presence of it on the platform, and one of the biggest targets appears to be Pokémon. This is a grossly simplified version of what I understand the policy to be, and I would recommend checking out FurAffinity's post of the policy to [try and] get a better understanding of its effects.

Now, in my time on FurAffinity, which is nearing 10 years at the time of this journal, I do not utilize its NSFW abilities for any artwork and do not intend to at all. The only times I may use the NSFW tag is for Mature works, which I may label for what I might consider suggestive, which I have not felt applies to anything I've uploaded. However, I understand this may change once the policy goes into effect at the end of next month. After all, much of my content involves Yoshis and Pokémon, so while all of my uploaded art is SFW, I'm not entirely sure if it is safe from removal, such as Dot, a Togepi, which is a baby Pokémon. I may take a good look at my gallery and remove things that may be necessary, but ultimately I may not do much. If it gets taken down, I will allow them to do so. FurAffinity has always been a secondary platform to upload my art onto, and with the likes of Twitter (despite its current status) taking stronger precedent as something I check and use regularly, I feel as though if I am kicked off of the platform because of art I neglected to take down or refused to, however they see it, it's not a loss for me.

While I am not as involved in the FA community as others are, and in the best way I can say, I feel that Policy 2.7 has created a great deal of backlash for something that honestly seems a little difficult to maintain properly. I think between now and July 1, there's probably going to be more adjustments to the policy to make it work better with users, or possibly a restructuring of it altogether. All I've seen regarding this announcement is nothing but negativity and I don't think it should continue in its current form, until it can be rethought out (if it absolutely has to) and issued again later. We'll have to wait and see what the staff chooses to do.

Should I be removed from FA for any reason, you can still find me in the two places I frequent and upload the most:
https://www.deviantart.com/ikyle
https://twitter.com/Doughisaur
All of my artwork is visible on the former and I dual-upload on both platforms whenever I make something new. If nothing happens here, then I'll make an effort to upload here as well whenever I make something new.

I kinda wish I wrote this journal a little better than I did, I felt that I knew what I wanted to say but much of my typing tonight is not as concise as I like to be. But I hope I got the message across. Thanks for reading, have a good one!

Uploaded to DeviantART on May 29, 2019 at 12:06 AM.

It's a condiment and a term you use when you want to get someone up to speed on something.

It's certainly been time for me to do this, and as May is about to end and make way for June, I say... good riddance.

May 2019 is perhaps the worst month for me in quite some time. It started out well too, I finally got to spend time with coworkers again for somewhat reoccurring game nights. The night itself was great, how it ended, not so much. I'd rather just leave it at that.

About a week later, after a weekend of work, my Mom walks into my room to let me know that my Grandma's youngest dog had passed away suddenly. I had to go over that afternoon to help pick a spot in the backyard to bury him. Then, two days later, our oldest cat needed to be put down as a tumor was found that possibly was in her for about a month. While I don't know the age of my Grandma's dog, as he was taken in as a stray, our cat was 17 years old. Staying in that room and having to say goodbye to her like that was probably the hardest thing I've had to do since my Dad passed away. She was buried with her other friends in our backyard.

As of a couple days ago as well, I've begun to feel... "sick," I'll say. I haven't been feeling the greatest but as to what I'm feeling is unexplained. It's only light chest pressure, and really nothing else. Should it continue, I will visit a doctor and provide updates, but at the moment, to try and get rid of it, I'm going to take as much time as I can while not working to rest up, so my online presence may be minimal for awhile.

If there's anything positive I can say about this month or prior, it's likely regaining my interest in Pokémon. Thanks to getting back into the series with Let's Go, Eevee, I've been primarily playing Pokémon games since the start of the year, while dabbling into other games in-between. I started on November 14, 2018, took a break somewhere around December, and then from around Christmas to the start of January, I played nonstop, thanks to the acquisition of a Poké Ball Plus (which was bittersweet as I paid nearly $50 for it) and beat the game on January 10. I enjoyed having a Pokémon game back in my life, and it gave me an excuse to play more Pokémon Go. Even then, I wanted more.

Pokémon Y, it's been sitting in my 3DS case for the past four to five years, and for anyone who's known me relatively well, it's a joke for me: I got the game as a Christmas present and would probably only get to enjoy it for just a few weeks before I put it down entirely, stopping in Lumiose City. I believe the biggest reason for my doing so is because I would not be able to use Pokémon creator apps that I had discovered months prior while I finished anything I missed in Pokémon Platinum or Black. That, and this was also around the time my Dad was not doing well health-wise; video games were not on the top of my mind. However, after finishing Let's Go, Eevee and wanting more to play, I looked to this dust collector and finally put it back into my 3DS. But this time, I also decided to use RPs to help carry it on, and suddenly, just like that, I had reinvigorated my interest in Pokémon. I would finish the game in about a month's time, on March 22. I was so glad to play the rest of Y, I loved how the whole game looked, and I breezed pretty easily through it, and gave me a couple of my favorite music tracks in the whole series.

Once again, I still wanted more, so I decided to take a step back to Generation 4 with my brother's copy of SoulSilver (and thank goodness he said yes, these things are $60 preowned), which was a wonderful nostalgia trip in terms of graphics and music since Generation 4 was my first step into Pokémon, but wow... this was tough. Still, I used this as a good storytelling opportunity through RP and used it to help me get through it, beating the game on May 8. And yet, I wanted to keep going... I am now currently going through Ultra Sun, and wow... I can't believe I didn't get this sooner. This means that I'm on track to beat a game from every Pokémon generation before Sword and Shield come out. Once I beat Ultra Sun, I only have Generation 3 that I wouldn't have played through yet, so Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire will be the next stop, but one step at a time here, I want to enjoy Alola. All of these trips have even been enough to want me to draw two pictures during that span of time.

So to recap, Pokémon has come back to me and has basically been keeping me afloat in this absolutely awful month. Again, I'm going to be trying to rest as much as I can, which is convenient too with plenty to watch in the coming week: WWDC on Monday, Pokémon Sword & Shield Direct next Wednesday, and then that weekend is E3, and I'm very much looking forward to what Nintendo brings to the table.

Thanks for your time guys, and make sure to put the cap back on the ketchup when you're done with it.

Originally posted to DeviantART on May 4, 2017.

Hey there, everyone. I'd like to take a moment to write to you about a friend of mine going through some tough times that could use any bit of help he can get.

This friend in question happens to be AcetheGolden (https://www.furaffinity.net/user/acethegolden/), however he has seen far less use here on DeviantART, but he can be found on FurAffinity, where he is often known as Draygo. I've known him for what has to be five years now who happens to live in the same state as me. He's incredibly kind, fun, caring and just a wonderful person to get to meet. Today I had the absolute pleasure of getting to meet him and his family for the first time as they had to move from their location to a new one, which just so happened to be very close to where I live.

To put it briefly, Draygo and his family have seen an unfortunate series of events over the past few months, in terms of health, family, and financial issues among other things. They've been working on moving to their new home, which just so happened to be infested when they arrived. Realistically, they've decided not to move into the house but are now living in a friend's house. Today they've been able to find a place to stay but I fear the troubles are far from over, and I ask that everyone read his journal explaining what's going on (https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8202365/) and please support him if possible.

You'll also have to excuse me for the use of links in parenthesises, as I do not know how to use user icons in journals and descriptions.

Originally posted to DeviantART on September 21, 2016.

...Moving on to other things, I've also had to take a bit of a break again because of another health situation in my family. Yes, I realize that taking another break so early since I came back with Kye's reference is a bit strange... My Mom, about a month ago, lost vision in her eye and was able to get a surgery done on it to regain it. Her vision was slowly coming back to her, thankfully, but as of about two weeks ago, her vision had gone away. She had to get another surgery and at least two or three more are needed in the future, with recovery time taking about a year plus. I wish not to go into detail, but my activity on here will be a bit less for a little while until I can be assured that nothing else will be happening.

My family and I will also be going on a week-long trip starting this weekend, so this is to inform everyone that I will not be available until late next week. It'll be nice to get out of the house and go somewhere out of state for awhile, it's been years since we had.

That's all I have to say for today, thank you for reading!

Originally posted to Facebook, then to DeviantART.

"When I woke up this morning, the #OrlandoShooting was on TV. 20 were killed, and others injured.

Then, at around 2:15 at work, that number was at 50.

It hurts me, and saddens me, that this happened. People of the LGBTQ community, having a good time... This is not the fate they deserved.

53 people are injured (at the time of this post) and are in the hospital right now, and the outpouring of support that I've seen on TV is incredible. I am deeply saddened and my thoughts are with everyone that was affected, between this morning's shooting, and the shooting that occurred the day before that took Christina Grimmie's life.

This was said to be an act of terrorism, and while we all wait on the final details in the coming days and weeks, it makes me feel scared.

It doesn't matter if this was a terrorist or not, there have been shootings that aren't tied to such acts, and it always leaves me uneasy that this is the country we live in.

I will not point fingers or call names, but I will have a negative look on the government, with the simple complaint that nothing on this matter has been done. Sure, the matter has been brought up, it's been discussed, it's been put to vote, but it takes a shooting like this to refuel the discussion, I feel.

I don't want anyone else to point fingers or call names either (as you're also talking about a guy who doesn't pay much attention to politics). At this point, I don't want to live in a country where I have to feel afraid to just go out into the world and do whatever. I just don't want this subject to be brushed off and held off until the next shooting occurs, I want something done, I don't care what it is. Someone do something about this."

For those unaware, at around 2:00 AM EST, in Orlando, a gunman began shooting in a gay nightclub. He took the lives of 50 people - which at this point the number may rise - and 53 more were injured. He was shot down at around 5:00 AM. He's been caught, identified, and investigators are handling the situation, speaking to the family, etc.

When I woke up this morning, it was on TV. My Mom and my brother were watching it, and at that point, it was at 20. It then was at 50 deaths when I went on break at work around 2:15 PM. I was horrified, this couldn't be real. This shooting makes it the worst mass shooting in US history, and where it occurred was only a 50-minute drive from where I live; this also one day after a smaller shooting occurred at a concert that took the life of YouTuber and former The Voice runner-up Christina Grimmie.

As a Floridian, this hits so close to home, literally, so uncomfortably so. To think that something like this happened, and the multiple factors that lead to this. I can only imagine what kind of things has allowed this to happen, but I probably won't know for sure for another few days, probably weeks.

Since this has been very close to where I live (and I probably should've put this at the top of the journal), I can tell everyone that I am safe. I was nowhere near the city of Orlando, and even then, this was between 2 and 5 in the morning; no way would I be out that late at night.

But this only frustrates me further, and as I quoted in my own post to Facebook, is this the world we live in? Is this what we have to leave our homes with every day, the possibility that someone is out there and is planning some sort of evil? Whether it be to one person or a group of people, I'm upset with my country because I shouldn't have to live with this.

I am unsure.

I am nervous.

I am scared.

I feel like that the second amendment of the United States Constitution, that allows Americans to keep and bear arms, is being taken advantage of, for the wrong reasons. People feel insecure, too insecure, and feel like they have to keep weaponry like this in order to remain protected. Whether this can be seen as true to others or not, I know that people will be talking about this. This subject will see a resurgence in our government, and will without a doubt be stronger than it has been in recent years. We now have to deal as a state of having the worst mass shooting in US history, and I don't want this subject, of firearms as a whole, to simply fade away. I don't want live in my country and feel unsafe just from normally living my life. Something needs to be done, and I don't know what it is, I just want it done. I want something to be done.

Consider the most to all of this journal to be a broadening of my Facebook post. This bothers me in so many ways, but my thoughts are with everyone involved, all the people, all the families, of both shootings.



UPDATE (June 13 - Originally posted to DeviantART): As the investigation continues, I have done my best since yesterday evening to repost and retweet anything I could on my social media profiles. For you guys, I have already given you access to my Twitter, where (amongst a bunch of tweets following Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference) everyone can follow along in what has happened and what has been done in and by the community to help with this terrible time. There are pictures and videos uploaded for everyone to see, as well as information (at least for those in the United States) about ways to help the victims of the shooting (hopefully they can be of use if you live outside of Florida). My Twitter is @12378K. You can find me by searching for this handle on Twitter itself, or by checking out the Twitter box on my profile page.

Originally posted on deviantART.

Hiya, it's your not-so-average Yoshi, and after posting pretty much nothing for the longest time, I reappear with a journal entry of all things. Yeah, I know; with how inactive I've been on this site, I can only imagine that the amount of watchers I have now have moved on or don't pay attention to my stuff anymore, but I can be hopeful.

The reason I'm writing this journal today is to specifically address something to anyone who has contact with me over Skype.

There's an issue that has me already considering leaving Skype once again for someplace different. Allow me to explain: to put this in perspective, I use Skype in multiple places. I have it available on my laptop, my Mac, my iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad), and an Apple Watch. Last night, while at work, I was receiving messages from my friends in a small group chat (three people, including myself). I was able to receive the messages being sent by one of the two people in that chat, but when I was able to use my iPhone and check the full chat, the messages were not there. I sent about four messages and none of them were showing by the other two participants. Later that night when I got home, I sent a good 25 messages of some kind into the chat, and the other participant didn't see any of those messages appear. I then proceeded to wait until morning to see if the issue was fixed, and it was... for only a short while. Not only that, but messages fail to appear when I get some coming in. As in, I would be doing whatever on my iPhone or iPad, a notification would pop up saying a message came in, I would tap on it, but half the time, the message was not there. I would have to wait either a good minute or two for it to finally appear, or restart the app to try and get it to appear.

During the testing with this issue, I used my iPhone, iPad, and Mac, was on Wi-Fi and cellular during this time. I tried signing out about twice, and deleting and reinstalling the app at least once, as well as trying to send messages from my end from three different group chats with the same users: one that we've used for the longest time, one that was set up to be used as a back-up (so very little usage), and one more that was set up new. The issue was still present, and one of my friends said I was going offline and back online randomly. So I'm to believe the issue is not with the app itself, but with my account or something, because after having to deal with this problem for two days, I and my other group participants went to Hangouts and we have yet to have a problem.

But all three of us have had some sort of problem with Skype and Hangouts, but at the moment, Hangouts is becoming my more preferred option. Yes, I am giving some things up because of it, but I'd rather have something that's stable than something that I can use some of the time. Have any of you had issues with Skype before?

So while it hasn't been much time since this issue began, I'm not expecting it to be fixed anytime soon. So that's why I'm saying for now, I wish to not return to Skype, not because of someone, but because of the program's inconsistency with quality. With how much I use a chat service to communicate with my friends (and family, when the time comes to it), I want something that is reliable and works. Because I've had my problems with Skype, and this is the breaking point for me. It shouldn't be this hard to make something work without a problem, especially as something so universally used like Skype.

At this point in time, if you or I communicate actively on Skype or you would still like to keep in touch with me, I always have [deviantART and] FurAffinity open in my browser, so Notes is always an option. Otherwise, I am using Hangouts until I see this issue is resolved. I need to remember how to add contacts with Hangouts, but should you have a Gmail account, that should be the way to go.

However, I'm not saying that I want to just use Hangouts from now on. Like I said, I'm giving this and that up for switching back to Hangouts. For one, I liked Skype for how universal it was, you can find it on pretty much everything, and it's something everyone has. Hangouts is essentially universal too, but you use it through your browser and to me, it feels a bit awkward. Either Google+ has to be open, or Chrome does. I'd rather to just have a dedicated window program for Hangouts like Skype does.

Right now, I'm looking into chat alternatives, but I'm not just looking for any chat service, no. I want something that I can put on my mobile devices and computer, not one or the other. I don't want to use something like Yahoo! Chat, even though Hangouts is kinda the same; I guess the reason is that Yahoo! hasn't put any sort of attention into it for years. I've already been suggested Telegram, which looks to be a promising chatting service, but I want to know from you guys: is it any good?

What I also wouldn't mind knowing is if there's any sort of chat clients, or a service that can also import other chat services. Something like IM+, which has its own chat services, but if you have something like Skype, Google, or Yahoo!, you can integrate those services too so your chats are all in one place. That way, I'm not having to shuffle through two programs to keep up with everyone.

I apologize if this may come off as cumbersome to some of you, but from someone who, once again, uses Skype on a daily basis, I will not keep using it in its current state. Thank you to everyone who understands.



UPDATE: Alright, so after spending enough time with two more chatting programs, I think I can safely say that between Hangouts, Telegram, and Wire, Hangouts is the best of the three.

Telegram and Wire have very nice looks, and the fact that Telegram is so accessible is a great thing. Plus, IT HAS STICKERS!!! USER-CREATED STICKERS!!! Telegram also has nice app support and customizable quick replies for the Apple Watch. But the only thing that really holds Telegram back from being a fantastic Skype replacement is that it requires your phone number in order to start up. It's used as your log-in, and even though you can give yourself a username, it doesn't change the fact that your phone number is required for signing up, and for saving contacts, so that piece of information, one that I find very private, is out there, even if it's just your contacts that see it. Wire, on the other hand... only has looks really going for it. It's very pleasant to the eye, but it is severely lacking in features. It's backed up by one of the co-founders of Skype, along with a team with loads of experience in popular companies, but after being out for more than a year, I was expecting to see more out of Wire, and there isn't.

With that said, Hangouts is the better option. While it doesn't have the Apple Watch support I can really get enjoy from Skype or Telegram, it doesn't matter when at the end of the day, I can still respond to messages when they pop up on my Apple Watch, and see the entire message which is more than what I can say for Skype and I hope that made sense.

However, do not misunderstand me: I am not completely quitting on Skype. I am merely using Hangouts as an alternative chatting solution until Skype can get their act together and fix these issues that, apparently, we all have. Should you still wish to chat with me, you can still send me a note asking me for my Google account information so that we can link contacts.

Hangouts is available through Google+ on your browser, the Chrome browser, or for free through the App Store for iOS, or the Google Play Store, unless it's your native messaging application for your phone or mobile device. I don't think it's available for Windows Phone, although I do believe IM+ is your best workaround.

(Copied from deviantART.)

Hi everybody! Today is my birthday, I have become 20 today.

Since my last journal, it's been very hectic with details I choose not to share, but I've still been looking forward to today, as I always have.

It's still tough to completely enjoy as I'm reminded of what happened a week from now, however, it's more important to keep my Dad in my thoughts during the next week.

For everyone, I'm so grateful to everyone I've met on this website. I feel changed, I can't imagine who else I'd be if I never came here. It makes me happy I tried to make art, because it not only led me to be in this amazing community, but meet some of the most fantastic people that I'd have no hope of meeting in real life. As this year marks my fifth year on deviantART, I look forward to the next five years here.

*Additionally, I hope to make many new friends and memories here on FA!

Thank you to everyone! You are all amazing!!

(Original journal from deviantART - http://ikyle.deviantart.com/journal.....ning-523789531)

And I still don't know what to do.

What I mean by is in a week's time, it will be my birthday once again. I'm leaving my teens and turning 20. Which is a shock because it felt like I just turned 19.

Regardless, this is going to be a very tough birthday, considering almost a week following will be one year since my Dad passed away... That's a bigger shock, that it's already been a year without him. It's so hard to believe that all this time last year, he was still here.

I'm still excited about my birthday, I guess I'm still at that age where I still want to celebrate it. Considering I share a birthday with a colleague, who at her age, just finds it as another day. I could say a fifth of my life is gone already, but I don't like to think that way. I still have another 80 years to fill, I plan to make something of it!

But for anyone considering, I am grateful of anything you guys wish to say or do. I have made so many friends over the years on deviantART, some of the greatest I will ever know. I don't even know where I'd be if I had never joined, if I never bothered to try drawing. For anyone who is still reading this, knowing most of my watchers don't bother anymore because of how little I upload, I'm so glad to have met you all, and I hope you all will still be around in the years to come.

Thank you!