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I...guess I'm back?
General | Posted 10 months agoI worked on a story a tiny bit the other night, and in general the moods lately have been hitting HARD.
I had been progressively working on a few fairly simple stories in the background on and off for what feels like several years, although the past couple years I haven't really been seeing myself as a writer anymore. Put simply, though, I felt I've always been an idea man, and in lieu of very much art or other talent, stories became a way of just...getting my ideas out there.
After the recent pull back from FA and them making a few corrections to make things better for us again, I've been understandably hesitant and just keeping things in private circles. But I've progressively been more and more "brave" (or probably just not caring as much) about what I repost to my Bluesky, been continuing to shoot around ideas with a friend or two, and now I'm working on stories again, bit by bit. I've even been looking back fondly on my SUPERverse project, dreaming and wishing with what could have been...and what still could be at some point, if I wished it.
When will said stories be ready? Will they ever be ready?
I don't know. They've been in the pipeline for years already, so who's to say?
But I'm working on them again, and while you may not think that's such a big deal, it is to me.
Many of the stories are meant to be fairly simple fare to just shake off the rust, but one in particular has evolved a bit beyond that, and it's serving a double purpose as a proof of concept for a couple mechanics I've been pitching to a friend. If nothing else, I'd really like people to see that one some day.
So in this time of...way too much shit going on...just know that I'm still holding out hope for some things.
I had been progressively working on a few fairly simple stories in the background on and off for what feels like several years, although the past couple years I haven't really been seeing myself as a writer anymore. Put simply, though, I felt I've always been an idea man, and in lieu of very much art or other talent, stories became a way of just...getting my ideas out there.
After the recent pull back from FA and them making a few corrections to make things better for us again, I've been understandably hesitant and just keeping things in private circles. But I've progressively been more and more "brave" (or probably just not caring as much) about what I repost to my Bluesky, been continuing to shoot around ideas with a friend or two, and now I'm working on stories again, bit by bit. I've even been looking back fondly on my SUPERverse project, dreaming and wishing with what could have been...and what still could be at some point, if I wished it.
When will said stories be ready? Will they ever be ready?
I don't know. They've been in the pipeline for years already, so who's to say?
But I'm working on them again, and while you may not think that's such a big deal, it is to me.
Many of the stories are meant to be fairly simple fare to just shake off the rust, but one in particular has evolved a bit beyond that, and it's serving a double purpose as a proof of concept for a couple mechanics I've been pitching to a friend. If nothing else, I'd really like people to see that one some day.
So in this time of...way too much shit going on...just know that I'm still holding out hope for some things.
The damage is done.
General | Posted a year agoHello FA.
I said some drastic things in my previous journal and wanted to give an update.
It seems that things are starting to calm down around here. Bans have slowed to a crawl if not a full stop, and it sounds like some people in our fandom are working with FA to get the policies straightened out.
Maybe it's okay to continue with these interests after all, but...I still just don't know about reversing my decision yet.
But I'm still here. I won't be deleting anything.
I have accounts on some other, more friendly sites, but setting up shop elsewhere and bringing those accounts up to date sounds like a task I'm just not up for right now.
So I'm still just...here. In a stasis. In a limbo. Unsure of what to do.
I said some drastic things in my previous journal and wanted to give an update.
It seems that things are starting to calm down around here. Bans have slowed to a crawl if not a full stop, and it sounds like some people in our fandom are working with FA to get the policies straightened out.
Maybe it's okay to continue with these interests after all, but...I still just don't know about reversing my decision yet.
But I'm still here. I won't be deleting anything.
I have accounts on some other, more friendly sites, but setting up shop elsewhere and bringing those accounts up to date sounds like a task I'm just not up for right now.
So I'm still just...here. In a stasis. In a limbo. Unsure of what to do.
I think this is it.
General | Posted a year agoEveryone's making journals about the recent banning spree.
I've seen the writing on the wall for a while now. It started with the Patreon situation, it's continuing here, and I fear this mentality and course of action will only continue to spread through other platforms with time.
At some other point in my life, perhaps I would have fought this, but...I think I'm just going to give up.
I have been moving away from this fandom and these interests for quite some time now. I just can't see a future for myself in it anymore, especially not now.
I thought society was moving into a period of acceptance, where more and more things...perhaps even TOO many...were proven to be valid and embraced with open arms.
However, I see now we're moving in the opposite direction. We've never been incredibly liked, but at least we were tolerated at one point. But now we're in an age where we're constantly going to get pushed out of every platform, and soon nowhere will be safe for us.
I'm not going to play that game. I'm not going to pick up shop and move to some other platform that will just adopt the same policies later down the road.
I've learned my lesson here, and it's that these "interests" can never again be shared publicly. I have been shamed and pressured too much in just an indirect state to try anymore.
If...let's be honest, WHEN...the bans get to me, that's it.
No more art/stories anywhere else.
No more commissions.
No more of this side of me ANYWHERE in a public setting.
As much as I may want to at times, I cannot fully cast out this side of me.
If I know you well enough, perhaps we can indulge in it privately when the mood is right.
But I no longer feel the need to advertise this interest anymore. I fear only more harm will come if/when I do.
This is the world we live in now.
We are not accepted. We should not be proud of what we are. Keep your vile interests to yourself.
It's a shitty moral, but this is what is to be learned here nonetheless.
-- Boltro
I've seen the writing on the wall for a while now. It started with the Patreon situation, it's continuing here, and I fear this mentality and course of action will only continue to spread through other platforms with time.
At some other point in my life, perhaps I would have fought this, but...I think I'm just going to give up.
I have been moving away from this fandom and these interests for quite some time now. I just can't see a future for myself in it anymore, especially not now.
I thought society was moving into a period of acceptance, where more and more things...perhaps even TOO many...were proven to be valid and embraced with open arms.
However, I see now we're moving in the opposite direction. We've never been incredibly liked, but at least we were tolerated at one point. But now we're in an age where we're constantly going to get pushed out of every platform, and soon nowhere will be safe for us.
I'm not going to play that game. I'm not going to pick up shop and move to some other platform that will just adopt the same policies later down the road.
I've learned my lesson here, and it's that these "interests" can never again be shared publicly. I have been shamed and pressured too much in just an indirect state to try anymore.
If...let's be honest, WHEN...the bans get to me, that's it.
No more art/stories anywhere else.
No more commissions.
No more of this side of me ANYWHERE in a public setting.
As much as I may want to at times, I cannot fully cast out this side of me.
If I know you well enough, perhaps we can indulge in it privately when the mood is right.
But I no longer feel the need to advertise this interest anymore. I fear only more harm will come if/when I do.
This is the world we live in now.
We are not accepted. We should not be proud of what we are. Keep your vile interests to yourself.
It's a shitty moral, but this is what is to be learned here nonetheless.
-- Boltro
Bluesky!
General | Posted a year agoFinally took the plunge and created a Bluesky account.
Not sure how active I'll be there. Could be the next in a long line of accounts I set up and do nothing with, but if you've jumped ship from Twitter and happen to be set up there, you can find me below:
https://bsky.app/profile/brownfoxbr.bsky.social
.
Not sure how active I'll be there. Could be the next in a long line of accounts I set up and do nothing with, but if you've jumped ship from Twitter and happen to be set up there, you can find me below:
https://bsky.app/profile/brownfoxbr.bsky.social
.
2024
General | Posted 2 years agoHello everyone, and a [hopefully] happy 2024!
Annual update journals have become a bit of a tradition for me, as…well…I’m not posting much else these days. But 2023 has been a big year, and hopefully the next one is too, so I want to let you know what’s been going on!
The big thing I needed in 2023 was a new place to live, and I have fortunately found it with my brother and a friend as roommates still. We’re just renting instead of buying, as the buying market around here isn’t great. (Is it good anywhere?) But it’s a really nice place in a location with so many options for all of us, and it’s just been fantastic and liberating! I put in all the work finding this place and getting it locked in, and my reward has been a MASSIVE master bedroom suite all to myself! It even looks like we’ll be staying put here for another year, so I’m all good in that department!
Work has been interesting this past year, providing me with a refreshing new role for most of it. For most of 2023, I had probably the best role I’ll ever have at my current employer. It was still KIND OF call center work, but more outbound than inbound, and every now and then you just had to guide a customer through an online application process. The last part was a little time consuming, but overall, the job was a lot more relaxed than pretty much all the other clients I’ve worked for!
But alas, all good things come to an end, and come Fall, I had to switch to another client. I PLEADED with my company to not go back to the same things I was doing before these past two interesting clients, i.e. the usual stressful side of a healthcare call center, but the new client is very much that unfortunately. This time around, though, it’s been a little different. The training, first of all, was pretty great and provided a really smooth transition from just practicing to taking live calls with customers. And second, although we did have shift bids, it was just easier for everyone else that I took the late shift. This means I get off around 7:30pm instead of the usual 6 or so now, but this also means I avoid the busy first part of the day and get a more relaxed final 1.5 hours each day. Did I mention there are bonuses for working this shift as well, as it’s a little more important to show up with much fewer representatives working at that time? There’s also a chance of working a weekend every now and then, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. More bonuses for that, too, at least. Aside from a few frustrating calls, this is working for me so far. With this shift schedule, my weekday sleep schedule actually matches my weekend one, and it’s nice that work conformed to my schedule rather than the other way around.
Despite personal concerns mentioned last year, I have been continuing to consistently stream games and make Twitch/YouTube content throughout the year and into this one so far. That’s partially because 2023 was an INCREDIBLE year for game releases. It was so difficult to stay away! My relatively new Xbox Series S has been getting WORKED this past year, as it’s been a perfect little console to keep in my bedroom and play stuff privately. My Switch and PS5 have been suffering as a result, but I have big titles I’ve been chipping away at on them with Super Mario RPG and Spider-Man 2 respectively. I also tried and completed some interesting side games this year, like Astral Chain and My Friendly Neighborhood! More recently, I’ve been playing the CRAP out of The Finals! I was in the market for a Call of Duty alternative, and The Finals is incredibly fun and impressive! Definitely give it a try if you like shooters!
PC gaming has also been fairly frequent, as I have the game of the year Baldur’s Gate 3 on it! All this time, though, and I’ve just BARELY gotten out of Act 1 across multiple files. I really like the game, but it’s getting to a point where I don’t know if I could bear playing through Act 1 ever again. I have also been on a huge kart racing kick throughout the past year, playing several at a time in some intervals. Disney Speedstorm and DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing have kept me pretty entertained!
I hope everyone had a good holiday as well! Christmas was really nice for me this time around. I didn’t watch quite as many of my traditional holiday specials this year, but I tried a lot of new ones and revisited some I hadn’t seen in a while. Not sure if I get more or less holiday points for that. Spending time with family went pleasantly. Had good food and festivities, and my haul this year was pretty great too! The most notable items were some piano books, a book all about Studio Ghibli, some new shoes (Vans, in fact), and some high-end studio headphones!
I REALLY want to talk about MUSIC, though! That’s where the BIG things are happening!
First off, CONCERTS! Two huge ones happened for me in 2023! Well, actually, one was big and the other was pretty small, but both were incredibly important to me.
First, I FINALLY got to see Owl City live! He released an album back in March, as did another favorite artist of mine, Andrew McMahon. The Andrew album didn’t really do much for me this time around, and while perhaps not as good as his previous and incredibly personal album “Cinematic”, Owl City’s “Coco Moon” album still has a lot of really fun and interesting stuff! With a new album comes a new tour, and I saw he was coming close enough for me to finally see him! The last time he came this close was part of the “Cinematic” tour in 2018, but it was out of town and on a Wednesday night, which should be illegal. This scheduling wasn’t incredibly better, but I got time off of work to go! It was a small venue – actually the same exact venue I saw Andrew McMahon in back in 2021 – but it was a great show and I had a great time!
Second, I had to make my EDM quota for the year. I did the great big Decadence festival for 2022 into 2023, which I mentioned in last year’s journal, and now I’ve also seen Madeon at Red Rocks! He’s been doing his great big “Good Faith Forever” show for a few years now, and I went to one of the very last performances for it! It was Colorado in November, so it was absolutely FREEZING at an outdoor venue, but holy crap was it worth it. If you’re not aware, this is a show that was done at Coachella a couple years back. What we saw was better than the Coachella performance though, as some things needed to be cut from that iteration to meet time. But if you haven’t seen Madeon’s “Good Faith Forever” show, I HIGHLY recommend it. ESPECIALLY the live performance for his newest track, “Gonna Be Good”. It’s a borderline religious experience. Luckily, Madeon actually streamed the entire show and it’s available on YouTube for free! You can watch the Red Rocks show online and know that I was there in person freezing my ass off!
As for my own personal journey with music, FANTASTIC progress has been made. I mentioned in my journal last year that I was aspiring to become an electronic music artist in the future after being fundamentally changed by Decadence, and the first step was to find a way…some kind of program…that I could use to construct songs. I was HOPELESSLY uninformed in this area to start with. I could play an instrument or two, but just had no idea how to actually build the music digitally and get it out there. I started 2023 not even knowing what a DAW (digital audio workstation) was. I only knew about Audacity! But in the first few months of 2023, I quickly took to learning about them online via video tutorials, and I got hands-on and tried a few. I started with Ableton, but its layout just…didn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. Then I stumbled upon FL Studio and saw its “channel rack” feature in action, and I knew it was the one for me. Plus it’s a bit more of a budget choice, as it just takes a one-time purchase to own/use it rather than a subscription. So in just the first few months of 2023, I had learned about DAWs, found and purchased one that worked for me, and got to work actually building my music! I even locked in my choice of DAW by purchasing a MIDI controller built specifically for it. More recently, I just got another DAW, MPC Beats, for free to try as a backup if ever needed.
It didn’t take long to at least have my first song built, but the hard part has been mastering it and trying to get it to sound the way I always imagined it to be. I’ve sat on built songs for months, though also been pretty distracted with a move and some games to be fair. Unfortunately, I’m still not quite there yet. But with every video I watch or feature I mess with, I feel myself getting closer. I’ve just recently figured out a neat trick with how FL Studio limits audio that could potentially fix all my problems on its own! I’m close enough now that, right before the year ended, I went ahead and made a SoundCloud account for my soon-to-be music project! I hadn’t really tried the site/app before, but I’ve really been enjoying my experience there! It’s like a more social Spotify, like Spotify and Twitter combined. Sure, you can like songs and make playlists, but you can also comment on songs, artists can reply to those comments, and artists have spots to add descriptions to what they post! I’ve been thinking that my songs would NEED to sound studio quality in order to merit a post, but I’ve also been reassured by some SoundCloud accounts posting demo versions or even WIPs for their tracks. I TRULY feel an actual music upload from me is in the VERY near future there, and that 2024 will be a big year for having this project come to life and find its form!
Where does that leave everything else, you ask? Well…I want to talk about that too, although it’s a lot less exciting, and…you might not like it.
I’m sure you’re all aware of the recent fiascos with Patreon and PayPal cracking down on people with our…interests. Well…that shit kind of SCARED me. I’ve always felt or sensed that these projects and different parts of me need to be “separated”, and lately I’ve been feeling pulled in different directions, and one day I will come to the hard decision of needing to choose just one. Seeing all this happening, I felt supremely validated in this. I really feel like I’m making the “right” decision in going in this one direction with music, and music completely detached from my usual self here at that.
I can’t ever completely disown these parts of myself, as I like what I like and it’s probably too late to try and change that, if it’s even possible. But going forward…maybe I shouldn’t “advertise” those…interests anymore. I had already been getting fewer commissions, as money’s been a little tight here and there, but now I’m honestly scared to. I had already been having trouble finding motivation to work on the astounding backlog of stories and things in my pipeline…and now I’m not sure I want to do them at all. There are still so many things I was working on that haven’t been finished, and so many things I was going to try, and I am sorry for that. All this time I thought I wanted to be a writer, and now I just…don’t want to be that anymore. In any capacity. I’ve been belittled and shamed in a major way like many others affected by these crackdowns…but there’s another path forward for myself that I’ve already been following. For the foreseeable future, this is the path that I’m following, and everything else may suffer because of it. If you don’t like it, blame Patreon and PayPal, as their actions have steered me further into this.
Sorry to end on such a somber note there. If you already know me and interact with me, know that things probably won’t change that much. What you’re going to start seeing are external changes to the appearance I put on here and the content that I put out. In addition to the music project, I’m still finding myself streaming games and stuff, as that’s separate from all this too. Let me know if you would like my Twitch, YouTube, or SoundCloud information!
And as always, thank you for reading my overly long journals.
Annual update journals have become a bit of a tradition for me, as…well…I’m not posting much else these days. But 2023 has been a big year, and hopefully the next one is too, so I want to let you know what’s been going on!
The big thing I needed in 2023 was a new place to live, and I have fortunately found it with my brother and a friend as roommates still. We’re just renting instead of buying, as the buying market around here isn’t great. (Is it good anywhere?) But it’s a really nice place in a location with so many options for all of us, and it’s just been fantastic and liberating! I put in all the work finding this place and getting it locked in, and my reward has been a MASSIVE master bedroom suite all to myself! It even looks like we’ll be staying put here for another year, so I’m all good in that department!
Work has been interesting this past year, providing me with a refreshing new role for most of it. For most of 2023, I had probably the best role I’ll ever have at my current employer. It was still KIND OF call center work, but more outbound than inbound, and every now and then you just had to guide a customer through an online application process. The last part was a little time consuming, but overall, the job was a lot more relaxed than pretty much all the other clients I’ve worked for!
But alas, all good things come to an end, and come Fall, I had to switch to another client. I PLEADED with my company to not go back to the same things I was doing before these past two interesting clients, i.e. the usual stressful side of a healthcare call center, but the new client is very much that unfortunately. This time around, though, it’s been a little different. The training, first of all, was pretty great and provided a really smooth transition from just practicing to taking live calls with customers. And second, although we did have shift bids, it was just easier for everyone else that I took the late shift. This means I get off around 7:30pm instead of the usual 6 or so now, but this also means I avoid the busy first part of the day and get a more relaxed final 1.5 hours each day. Did I mention there are bonuses for working this shift as well, as it’s a little more important to show up with much fewer representatives working at that time? There’s also a chance of working a weekend every now and then, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. More bonuses for that, too, at least. Aside from a few frustrating calls, this is working for me so far. With this shift schedule, my weekday sleep schedule actually matches my weekend one, and it’s nice that work conformed to my schedule rather than the other way around.
Despite personal concerns mentioned last year, I have been continuing to consistently stream games and make Twitch/YouTube content throughout the year and into this one so far. That’s partially because 2023 was an INCREDIBLE year for game releases. It was so difficult to stay away! My relatively new Xbox Series S has been getting WORKED this past year, as it’s been a perfect little console to keep in my bedroom and play stuff privately. My Switch and PS5 have been suffering as a result, but I have big titles I’ve been chipping away at on them with Super Mario RPG and Spider-Man 2 respectively. I also tried and completed some interesting side games this year, like Astral Chain and My Friendly Neighborhood! More recently, I’ve been playing the CRAP out of The Finals! I was in the market for a Call of Duty alternative, and The Finals is incredibly fun and impressive! Definitely give it a try if you like shooters!
PC gaming has also been fairly frequent, as I have the game of the year Baldur’s Gate 3 on it! All this time, though, and I’ve just BARELY gotten out of Act 1 across multiple files. I really like the game, but it’s getting to a point where I don’t know if I could bear playing through Act 1 ever again. I have also been on a huge kart racing kick throughout the past year, playing several at a time in some intervals. Disney Speedstorm and DreamWorks All-Star Kart Racing have kept me pretty entertained!
I hope everyone had a good holiday as well! Christmas was really nice for me this time around. I didn’t watch quite as many of my traditional holiday specials this year, but I tried a lot of new ones and revisited some I hadn’t seen in a while. Not sure if I get more or less holiday points for that. Spending time with family went pleasantly. Had good food and festivities, and my haul this year was pretty great too! The most notable items were some piano books, a book all about Studio Ghibli, some new shoes (Vans, in fact), and some high-end studio headphones!
I REALLY want to talk about MUSIC, though! That’s where the BIG things are happening!
First off, CONCERTS! Two huge ones happened for me in 2023! Well, actually, one was big and the other was pretty small, but both were incredibly important to me.
First, I FINALLY got to see Owl City live! He released an album back in March, as did another favorite artist of mine, Andrew McMahon. The Andrew album didn’t really do much for me this time around, and while perhaps not as good as his previous and incredibly personal album “Cinematic”, Owl City’s “Coco Moon” album still has a lot of really fun and interesting stuff! With a new album comes a new tour, and I saw he was coming close enough for me to finally see him! The last time he came this close was part of the “Cinematic” tour in 2018, but it was out of town and on a Wednesday night, which should be illegal. This scheduling wasn’t incredibly better, but I got time off of work to go! It was a small venue – actually the same exact venue I saw Andrew McMahon in back in 2021 – but it was a great show and I had a great time!
Second, I had to make my EDM quota for the year. I did the great big Decadence festival for 2022 into 2023, which I mentioned in last year’s journal, and now I’ve also seen Madeon at Red Rocks! He’s been doing his great big “Good Faith Forever” show for a few years now, and I went to one of the very last performances for it! It was Colorado in November, so it was absolutely FREEZING at an outdoor venue, but holy crap was it worth it. If you’re not aware, this is a show that was done at Coachella a couple years back. What we saw was better than the Coachella performance though, as some things needed to be cut from that iteration to meet time. But if you haven’t seen Madeon’s “Good Faith Forever” show, I HIGHLY recommend it. ESPECIALLY the live performance for his newest track, “Gonna Be Good”. It’s a borderline religious experience. Luckily, Madeon actually streamed the entire show and it’s available on YouTube for free! You can watch the Red Rocks show online and know that I was there in person freezing my ass off!
As for my own personal journey with music, FANTASTIC progress has been made. I mentioned in my journal last year that I was aspiring to become an electronic music artist in the future after being fundamentally changed by Decadence, and the first step was to find a way…some kind of program…that I could use to construct songs. I was HOPELESSLY uninformed in this area to start with. I could play an instrument or two, but just had no idea how to actually build the music digitally and get it out there. I started 2023 not even knowing what a DAW (digital audio workstation) was. I only knew about Audacity! But in the first few months of 2023, I quickly took to learning about them online via video tutorials, and I got hands-on and tried a few. I started with Ableton, but its layout just…didn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. Then I stumbled upon FL Studio and saw its “channel rack” feature in action, and I knew it was the one for me. Plus it’s a bit more of a budget choice, as it just takes a one-time purchase to own/use it rather than a subscription. So in just the first few months of 2023, I had learned about DAWs, found and purchased one that worked for me, and got to work actually building my music! I even locked in my choice of DAW by purchasing a MIDI controller built specifically for it. More recently, I just got another DAW, MPC Beats, for free to try as a backup if ever needed.
It didn’t take long to at least have my first song built, but the hard part has been mastering it and trying to get it to sound the way I always imagined it to be. I’ve sat on built songs for months, though also been pretty distracted with a move and some games to be fair. Unfortunately, I’m still not quite there yet. But with every video I watch or feature I mess with, I feel myself getting closer. I’ve just recently figured out a neat trick with how FL Studio limits audio that could potentially fix all my problems on its own! I’m close enough now that, right before the year ended, I went ahead and made a SoundCloud account for my soon-to-be music project! I hadn’t really tried the site/app before, but I’ve really been enjoying my experience there! It’s like a more social Spotify, like Spotify and Twitter combined. Sure, you can like songs and make playlists, but you can also comment on songs, artists can reply to those comments, and artists have spots to add descriptions to what they post! I’ve been thinking that my songs would NEED to sound studio quality in order to merit a post, but I’ve also been reassured by some SoundCloud accounts posting demo versions or even WIPs for their tracks. I TRULY feel an actual music upload from me is in the VERY near future there, and that 2024 will be a big year for having this project come to life and find its form!
Where does that leave everything else, you ask? Well…I want to talk about that too, although it’s a lot less exciting, and…you might not like it.
I’m sure you’re all aware of the recent fiascos with Patreon and PayPal cracking down on people with our…interests. Well…that shit kind of SCARED me. I’ve always felt or sensed that these projects and different parts of me need to be “separated”, and lately I’ve been feeling pulled in different directions, and one day I will come to the hard decision of needing to choose just one. Seeing all this happening, I felt supremely validated in this. I really feel like I’m making the “right” decision in going in this one direction with music, and music completely detached from my usual self here at that.
I can’t ever completely disown these parts of myself, as I like what I like and it’s probably too late to try and change that, if it’s even possible. But going forward…maybe I shouldn’t “advertise” those…interests anymore. I had already been getting fewer commissions, as money’s been a little tight here and there, but now I’m honestly scared to. I had already been having trouble finding motivation to work on the astounding backlog of stories and things in my pipeline…and now I’m not sure I want to do them at all. There are still so many things I was working on that haven’t been finished, and so many things I was going to try, and I am sorry for that. All this time I thought I wanted to be a writer, and now I just…don’t want to be that anymore. In any capacity. I’ve been belittled and shamed in a major way like many others affected by these crackdowns…but there’s another path forward for myself that I’ve already been following. For the foreseeable future, this is the path that I’m following, and everything else may suffer because of it. If you don’t like it, blame Patreon and PayPal, as their actions have steered me further into this.
Sorry to end on such a somber note there. If you already know me and interact with me, know that things probably won’t change that much. What you’re going to start seeing are external changes to the appearance I put on here and the content that I put out. In addition to the music project, I’m still finding myself streaming games and stuff, as that’s separate from all this too. Let me know if you would like my Twitch, YouTube, or SoundCloud information!
And as always, thank you for reading my overly long journals.
IB
General | Posted 2 years agoI took the plunge and decided to create an InkBunny account, so I'm there now.
I'm not sure when or even if I'm going to migrate my gallery over there, as I just don't really feel motivated enough to move EVERYTHING over. And I only made one account where I have a few different ones on these other sites, so I'm a bit unsure what form to take over there. I'm kind of just making it so I don't miss out on the few people that decided to no longer post here.
https://inkbunny.net/RedandBrown
I'm not sure when or even if I'm going to migrate my gallery over there, as I just don't really feel motivated enough to move EVERYTHING over. And I only made one account where I have a few different ones on these other sites, so I'm a bit unsure what form to take over there. I'm kind of just making it so I don't miss out on the few people that decided to no longer post here.
https://inkbunny.net/RedandBrown
2022
General | Posted 4 years agoHey everyone!
It’s a new year, and I don’t think I did a proper new years journal for 2021, so some of my accounts still have an optimistic journal from the beginning of 2020, and that…oof…didn’t turn out all that well, did it?
Not even a MONTH into this year, though, things have already been crazy!
First thing’s first, just a few days into 2022, I’m 99.9% sure I got COVID.
It’s not 100% only because I took one rapid test to determine whether or not I had it, and that test came back positive. Luckily it was likely the tamer Omicron variant, as it was really just a bad cold with a couple days of weakness attached. I’m only slightly upset about it because I didn’t catch it on my own, and I was instead infected because of an exposure at my roommates’ place of work. I’m also perturbed by the fact that I made it through ALL of the chaotic years that were 2020 and 2021 without getting any variation of COVID, but at the very START of this year I freaking got it.
But after about a week or so, my symptoms were gone, and I was fine! No harm done!
The weird thing that came after the recovery is that I felt a strong urge to do something I hadn’t done in a while: STREAM! For about a week or two after getting better, I was ADDICTED to streaming video games through Twitch. It almost reached the point where just playing a game on my own didn’t feel right anymore, and I wanted to just put things out there even though little to none have been watching. Although I very much appreciate the handful of people who have! You know who you are!
That addiction has died down a little bit, but I do intend to continue streaming games in the future. I would really like it to be something I get a sizeable audience for, and to me, the way to do that is to be consistent with the amount of content that gets put out. I am also trying to put my streams on YouTube, and I’d like to keep a constant flow of other content there as well!
I am keeping that streaming persona relatively separate from my furry persona at the moment, though, so I’m not advertising much on this end. If you’re interested, though, feel free to reach out and I’ll share the info for where you can find me!
The OTHER crazy thing that’s happened so far this year is work-related.
I am still working from home doing customer service for health insurance, which has been relatively nice. At pretty much the start of this year, however, it was decided that I would go to claims training. Now I had previously done medical claims for two similar clients in the past, and I’ll tell you it’s not something that I would wish on my worst enemy. When this news came up, I politely asked to stay in the position I was in. I have been with this company for over four years and had built up a positive reputation with many supervisors there, so I felt that entitled me to at least SOME say in what I do for my job there. I felt it wasn’t asking for a lot. However, work let me know that it was the plan for me to still move up, and I didn’t push back any further on it.
Here's the thing about this claims department, though. In the time I had been working in the lower tier the last few months of 2021, I had heard a LOT of things about the claims department, and NONE of it sounded positive. I had been told they were a LOT busier, and when they’re not, they take Eligibility/Benefits calls too and/or get work assigned to them. I also heard about a particular representative having to help with 20+ claims on a SINGLE call.
I endured two and a half weeks of claims training just fine, but the first day of actually taking the calls came this past Thursday. I could not deny I had a good amount of anxiety about the whole thing, but I just kept hoping beyond everything I had heard that hopefully it wouldn’t be AS BAD as I thought it would be. BUUUUUUUT…it was EVERY BIT as terrible as I knew it would be. The first half of that Thursday, I experienced the hilariously small amount of representatives we had handling an expansive queue that had at least twice the amount of calls waiting, with hold time estimates upwards of 50 minutes. I feared having to do two extensive processes that day, and in its first half I was put in a position where I had to do them both, leading to calls over an hour long in both cases. I got about halfway through the day, and I reached an absolute breaking point. I took a good long look at my life and realized I never wanted to do claims shit anymore, ever again.
So, what did I do?
I broke down, logged off the computer, and was just done.
My supervisor contacted me immediately after, and I explained my frustrations without any filter. I told them upfront that I knew how bad it was going to be back when I requested to be held back, and my suspicions were justified. They would need a HUNDRED more people in the department before things would get even REMOTELY tolerable. I told them either I was going to do something else with the company, or I was quitting right then and there. My foot had been put down.
Fortunately, as I stated before, my reputation before this incident was pretty damn good. This particular supervisor had been with me for a while, and they expressed that they REEALLY wanted me to stay with the company, so they were going to talk to other managers to discuss what other options were available. I agreed and thanked them, and I anxiously anticipated more information as the day went on.
As I waited for others to decide my fate, I weighed my own options.
I have a sizeable amount of savings, although it’s meant for other things down the road, so I’d like to think no longer having a job wouldn’t be the end of the world, although searching for a job is not a very pleasant task in itself. I started mentally preparing and evaluating what subscriptions and services I currently pay for that I could do without if money became tight.
On the other hand, I pondered what other options may come up if they’re able to keep me. Would I be doing just Eligibility stuff again, or would I be moved to one of the other facets of the company, such as working sales calls, or maybe even data entry? Either way, not doing medical claims ever again would ABSOLUTELY be an improvement.
The call did not come at any point that day, but it actually came the next morning.
And the result?
I still have a job! I fought for what I wanted in life, and it worked out!
I will be doing Eligibility stuff under a different client starting Monday, with training stuff to start with of course. And that will be under yet another supervisor there that likes me!
Back on the gaming track, I’ve taken another big plunge this year by FINALLY getting into a certain trend: VR! I splurged and got a PlayStation VR kit earlier in the year, and I’ve been having a blast with it! My favorite games so far are the furry adventure Moss (which was actually THE reason I wanted VR in the first place), and a hilarious and fun soccer/futbol themed game called Headmaster. I would also like to eventually get Firewall, which is apparently like Rainbow Six Siege in a lot of ways, and it’s multiplayer-oriented, so it’s my plan for staying invested in VR in the long-term. I’ve also had my eye on The American Dream and Baby Hands for quite a while, so I’ll eventually grab those as well!
I’m also trying once again to break into the world of video game speedrunning! Among others, I’m mainly trying to focus on trying Star Fox Adventures and now Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach. Adventures is my passion game that I REALLY have the drive to make progress on, but I’ve continued to have issues with some of the crucial tricks involved, and even with them, the runs could last more than an hour. Security Breach, on the other hand, has been optimized INCREDIBLY QUICKLY for speedrunning and has multitudes of run options, most of which take merely a few minutes! So I’m hoping, if anything, that Security Breach will be a much easier game to run at first to help prepare me for other titles, but time will tell.
But yeah, I’m alive and stuff, pushing through all this chaos.
Hopefully this is ALL the crazy stuff that transpires this year, as now that I’m past it, I’m pretty optimistic for the future.
Hopefully this optimism ages better than the 2020 journal. Yikes. ^^;
It’s a new year, and I don’t think I did a proper new years journal for 2021, so some of my accounts still have an optimistic journal from the beginning of 2020, and that…oof…didn’t turn out all that well, did it?
Not even a MONTH into this year, though, things have already been crazy!
First thing’s first, just a few days into 2022, I’m 99.9% sure I got COVID.
It’s not 100% only because I took one rapid test to determine whether or not I had it, and that test came back positive. Luckily it was likely the tamer Omicron variant, as it was really just a bad cold with a couple days of weakness attached. I’m only slightly upset about it because I didn’t catch it on my own, and I was instead infected because of an exposure at my roommates’ place of work. I’m also perturbed by the fact that I made it through ALL of the chaotic years that were 2020 and 2021 without getting any variation of COVID, but at the very START of this year I freaking got it.
But after about a week or so, my symptoms were gone, and I was fine! No harm done!
The weird thing that came after the recovery is that I felt a strong urge to do something I hadn’t done in a while: STREAM! For about a week or two after getting better, I was ADDICTED to streaming video games through Twitch. It almost reached the point where just playing a game on my own didn’t feel right anymore, and I wanted to just put things out there even though little to none have been watching. Although I very much appreciate the handful of people who have! You know who you are!
That addiction has died down a little bit, but I do intend to continue streaming games in the future. I would really like it to be something I get a sizeable audience for, and to me, the way to do that is to be consistent with the amount of content that gets put out. I am also trying to put my streams on YouTube, and I’d like to keep a constant flow of other content there as well!
I am keeping that streaming persona relatively separate from my furry persona at the moment, though, so I’m not advertising much on this end. If you’re interested, though, feel free to reach out and I’ll share the info for where you can find me!
The OTHER crazy thing that’s happened so far this year is work-related.
I am still working from home doing customer service for health insurance, which has been relatively nice. At pretty much the start of this year, however, it was decided that I would go to claims training. Now I had previously done medical claims for two similar clients in the past, and I’ll tell you it’s not something that I would wish on my worst enemy. When this news came up, I politely asked to stay in the position I was in. I have been with this company for over four years and had built up a positive reputation with many supervisors there, so I felt that entitled me to at least SOME say in what I do for my job there. I felt it wasn’t asking for a lot. However, work let me know that it was the plan for me to still move up, and I didn’t push back any further on it.
Here's the thing about this claims department, though. In the time I had been working in the lower tier the last few months of 2021, I had heard a LOT of things about the claims department, and NONE of it sounded positive. I had been told they were a LOT busier, and when they’re not, they take Eligibility/Benefits calls too and/or get work assigned to them. I also heard about a particular representative having to help with 20+ claims on a SINGLE call.
I endured two and a half weeks of claims training just fine, but the first day of actually taking the calls came this past Thursday. I could not deny I had a good amount of anxiety about the whole thing, but I just kept hoping beyond everything I had heard that hopefully it wouldn’t be AS BAD as I thought it would be. BUUUUUUUT…it was EVERY BIT as terrible as I knew it would be. The first half of that Thursday, I experienced the hilariously small amount of representatives we had handling an expansive queue that had at least twice the amount of calls waiting, with hold time estimates upwards of 50 minutes. I feared having to do two extensive processes that day, and in its first half I was put in a position where I had to do them both, leading to calls over an hour long in both cases. I got about halfway through the day, and I reached an absolute breaking point. I took a good long look at my life and realized I never wanted to do claims shit anymore, ever again.
So, what did I do?
I broke down, logged off the computer, and was just done.
My supervisor contacted me immediately after, and I explained my frustrations without any filter. I told them upfront that I knew how bad it was going to be back when I requested to be held back, and my suspicions were justified. They would need a HUNDRED more people in the department before things would get even REMOTELY tolerable. I told them either I was going to do something else with the company, or I was quitting right then and there. My foot had been put down.
Fortunately, as I stated before, my reputation before this incident was pretty damn good. This particular supervisor had been with me for a while, and they expressed that they REEALLY wanted me to stay with the company, so they were going to talk to other managers to discuss what other options were available. I agreed and thanked them, and I anxiously anticipated more information as the day went on.
As I waited for others to decide my fate, I weighed my own options.
I have a sizeable amount of savings, although it’s meant for other things down the road, so I’d like to think no longer having a job wouldn’t be the end of the world, although searching for a job is not a very pleasant task in itself. I started mentally preparing and evaluating what subscriptions and services I currently pay for that I could do without if money became tight.
On the other hand, I pondered what other options may come up if they’re able to keep me. Would I be doing just Eligibility stuff again, or would I be moved to one of the other facets of the company, such as working sales calls, or maybe even data entry? Either way, not doing medical claims ever again would ABSOLUTELY be an improvement.
The call did not come at any point that day, but it actually came the next morning.
And the result?
I still have a job! I fought for what I wanted in life, and it worked out!
I will be doing Eligibility stuff under a different client starting Monday, with training stuff to start with of course. And that will be under yet another supervisor there that likes me!
Back on the gaming track, I’ve taken another big plunge this year by FINALLY getting into a certain trend: VR! I splurged and got a PlayStation VR kit earlier in the year, and I’ve been having a blast with it! My favorite games so far are the furry adventure Moss (which was actually THE reason I wanted VR in the first place), and a hilarious and fun soccer/futbol themed game called Headmaster. I would also like to eventually get Firewall, which is apparently like Rainbow Six Siege in a lot of ways, and it’s multiplayer-oriented, so it’s my plan for staying invested in VR in the long-term. I’ve also had my eye on The American Dream and Baby Hands for quite a while, so I’ll eventually grab those as well!
I’m also trying once again to break into the world of video game speedrunning! Among others, I’m mainly trying to focus on trying Star Fox Adventures and now Five Nights at Freddy’s Security Breach. Adventures is my passion game that I REALLY have the drive to make progress on, but I’ve continued to have issues with some of the crucial tricks involved, and even with them, the runs could last more than an hour. Security Breach, on the other hand, has been optimized INCREDIBLY QUICKLY for speedrunning and has multitudes of run options, most of which take merely a few minutes! So I’m hoping, if anything, that Security Breach will be a much easier game to run at first to help prepare me for other titles, but time will tell.
But yeah, I’m alive and stuff, pushing through all this chaos.
Hopefully this is ALL the crazy stuff that transpires this year, as now that I’m past it, I’m pretty optimistic for the future.
Hopefully this optimism ages better than the 2020 journal. Yikes. ^^;
2020!
General | Posted 6 years agoHello everyone!
It’s been a little too long since I’ve done a proper journal, and it’s become a tradition of mine to do one at the beginning of each year to look back at the past and ahead to the future.
So 2019 was an interesting year, but was pretty good to me.
In my position at work, I started receiving a little more respect, even to the point where I got to be floor support and assisted with co-worker’s questions rather than taking calls myself at times. If the project had continued through the year and on, there was a good chance I would have even become a supervisor.
But, due to a financial impasse between the company I work for and the client we served, the particular project I was on ended. This was more of a positive outcome than anything, since the client was refusing to give us reasonable wages that my company was fighting for, so it was a discontinuation on our terms. Everyone on the project still had jobs afterwards, myself included.
However, this meant I kind of had to start again with training for a new project. The training established some higher standards for the new project that got me a little concerned, but now that I’ve been out on the floor with it for a few months, it’s been rather nice. I’ve kept my later shift for this project, and in this case, it means the last three hours of every weekday are much slower due to some of the call queues closing early. On top of that, this project allows us to bring books to read while we’re between calls. This is a new thing I’ve been capitalizing on quite a bit, and I’ve already gone through a few books in my time on the floor. I’ve been going through some novels that I’ve had for a while but never got around to reading, starting with the classic “Tom Sawyer” and then reading through Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days”. I also managed to get through my copy of “Treasure Island” that I bought for myself several years ago.
Next on my list is FINALLY continuing Brian Jacques’ “Redwall” series. I was able to get through an audiobook of “Redwall” before, and now thanks to the changes at work I’ve gotten through “Mossflower” and started “Mattimeo”. The series has obvious appeal to furs such as myself, and I’ve owned a few of the books for the longest time without ever devoting enough attention to them in the past. Now, I’ve got the leisure time at work, and it’s been great! It’s also giving me the idea of maybe making a D&D campaign in this world to play with a few friends, but I’ve got another 19.5 books to get through before I can REALLY do that. It’s something I’ve been brainstorming on, though.
Another cool thing happened much earlier in 2019: I became a musician again!
It all started with a good friend of mine putting out a request for a drummer in order to help with a song parody for April Fool’s Day. I had a drum set lying around, and I didn’t think he knew anyone else to fit the role, so I took the initiative and volunteered! Prior to this, my drum set was sitting in a sad state for a few years. My snare drum mechanism and bass drum head(s) had bitten the dust long ago, and before finally getting my job in 2017 I didn’t really have the money needed to repair/replace what was needed. Then after getting my job, I didn’t have the time or motivation to do much with music, so still my drum set sat.
This opportunity to help my friend, however, was the motivation I needed to get it back up and running, and being employed gave me the funds I needed too! I ended up getting a new bass drum head and a totally new (and AWESOME) snare drum, then I was back in business! We got together and recorded the parody, and it went well. It was great tapping into this side of me for the first time in a while, and since everything was all repaired afterwards, I was able to keep at it and work in a good music session every now and then. To top it all off, I also got a new drum throne/stool for Christmas, and it is SO NICE!
If you’re curious enough to give the song parody a listen, you can do so here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/31124964/
And then of course, 2019 was a year of movies!
DC has really gotten their shit together and has been pumping out near-perfect movies in my eyes! “Aquaman” was a great adventure that embraced the craziness of the hero’s source material (in 2018 but still), and “Shazam” was funny, light-hearted, and just overall delightful. Then of course there was “Joker” in October! “Joker” was an absolute MASTERPIECE, finally bringing DC movies back up to the Christopher Nolan level of quality. Seriously, what the Dark Knight trilogy did for Batman, this film did it for the Joker. It’s THAT good! And the future is looking insanely bright, too! I’m incredibly hyped for the upcoming “Birds of Prey”, and even more so for “Wonder Woman 1984” later this year!
Then of course there was the MCU. We FINALLY got the big conclusion to the incredibly ambitious 10-year story arc they’ve been developing! “Avengers Endgame” was huge and amazing! I don’t think the climax and payoff of the film could have been much more perfect than they ended up being! I’m so glad I’ve followed this journey to fruition; it’s been worth every moment! I’ve been meaning to share more elaborate reviews for both “Infinity War” and “Endgame”, perhaps even together to try and pin down which one ended up being the better film. I’ve gone back and forth a bit on the subject myself, so we’ll see if I get to doing that in the future.
Along with that, I’m SO happy that I am still 100% into the MCU! I was getting worried that I just wouldn’t care anymore after Endgame, but after the fact I find myself just as interested as ever! The Black Widow movie has an awesome trailer so far, I need to see “Eternals” just to find out how that’s gonna go, and I’m INCREDIBLY hyped for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”!
Another thing helping me keep my interest in the MCU (as well as many other things) is the release of Disney+! While it’s currently put me on a Star Wars kick with the Mandalorian series and delving back into prequels territory, and it’s been great for going back through my Toon Disney childhood, I’m INCREDIBLY excited for the multitude of Marvel series they will be starting there later this year!
And yes, Disney+ is a dream come true and I highly recommend it. But I figure most of us furs have it already at this point.
Then, as usual, I got way too many video games in 2019.
Perhaps the biggest one that must be talked about is the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 starting out this year! I ended up playing through a majority of the previous games building up to the release, and now that I’ve finished the new game as well, I can safely say…it’s not a new favorite. The graphics are practically perfect, though, and a lot of the new worlds, keyblades, and abilities are really awesome! If it weren’t for ONE CUTSCENE, the game might have actually been pretty amazing! Even so, Kingdom Hearts 2 remains my all-time favorite.
Then, for the first time since Ruby/Sapphire, I got a new main-line Pokémon game in the form of Pokémon Sword! I was basically just holding out until they put a Pokémon game on an HD console, and they did, so I picked it up and have been enjoying it! It’s been great revisiting Pokémon after so long and getting acquainted with the fun new species. It may or may not be giving me new sona ideas or look back at old ones.
And, as usual, I’m playing way too many games all at once at the moment!
I’m sure some others are worth mentioning, but this journal will already be pretty long without them. Perhaps another time or in the comments, if asked.
Now, for 2020…
While normally I have one big resolution at the start of each year, this time around I find myself with multiple resolutions and/or areas of focus.
First off, I do acknowledge that I need to get back to work on what I do here, the SUPERverse and otherwise. Of course, it’s a bad sign that it’s taken me weeks just to pump out this journal, so you can imagine how slowly the ACTUAL writing is going. It also doesn’t help that I’m getting distracted by other fandoms and away from superhero stuff at the moment, but with the things coming out later this year, that will DEFINITELY change! I have another plan or two to keep my motivation up, including a Discord server for SUPERverse fans, if that appeals to anybody.
In addition to continuing the SUPERverse and other stories, I also want to get back to writing reviews like I used to! I’ve got a ton of things – movies, music albums, and even TV series – that I want to share my views on, even going back to 2017! (Yes, it’s been THAT bad.)
In terms of the real world, I need to GET ANOTHER FUCKING PLACE TO LIVE!
This has been something that has needed to happen for a while now, as my parents are moving and trying to sell the current house. But now, it’s crunch time. March 1st is the provided deadline for my brother and I to move out.
The issue for the longest time had been the mystery of our third person to assist with rent. I had originally planned on rooming with a friend of mine, but they’ve moved in elsewhere. Fortunately, an old friend of my brother and myself has moved back into town, so he will now be our third. Together, we’ll soon be looking into some apartments around the area and trying to make a decision as soon as we can. I’m not too concerned and am more-so excited for this, really. My brother already has at least some sort of income, and the returning friend should have some money saved up from his work elsewhere. Searching in the area here, I’m finding some options more affordable than I initially thought. I just hope they are really as good an option as they sound.
I also want to try and keep my music practice going. My drum set has been made functional again, but I still want to get a few more things to upgrade it and give me more options. On top of that, I also have a piano and some piano books I’d like to keep working on.
The issue I foresee with this resolution would be with the apartment we’ll be getting. Being the nice person that I am, I’d hate to set up my drum set and play it while bothering all the tenants around us. I could ask around for when the time would be best to play, but I still feel that the nicer thing to do would be not to do it at all. Piano is still an option, though.
And finally, while I will still be gaming VERY often throughout 2020, I realize that I buy WAY too many games and want to try and cut back. There are already a few games I plan on picking up this year, with the Final Fantasy VII remake, Doom Eternal, and the Crystal Chronicles remake as high priorities. Whenever Biomutant FINALLY comes out, that will be there too.
I just want to cut back because I realize that I don’t finish the large majority of games that I get. There are things way back on the GameCube and Wii that I have yet to get through!
To help with this last resolution, though, I am putting more focus into an older game that I already own!
I decided about halfway through 2019 to take up video game SPEED-RUNNING, and the GameCube classic Star Fox Adventures is my game of choice to start off! I’ve already joined the game’s Discord server, gotten lots of runs and tips from some of the runners, and been practicing on my own to eventually do a run myself.
I’ve run into a couple of hurdles with running, but the game does have a perfect category for starting out that involves just playing through the first quarter of the game. That’s what I’m trying for, hoping to get a decent run for that before eventually branching out into the full game. I’ve loved the game ever since I got it back in the day, and I’ve come to realize it’s the game I feel the most comfortable and feel I have the most potential with. There are a few other games I have my eyes on too, though, if all goes well!
And at last, for another New Year’s tradition, here’s a list of my writing projects and their priorities for the time to come!
PRIORITIES (will hopefully/surely get to):
- SUPERverse stories (S.U.P.E.R., Fire Fox, etc.)
- Kingdom Hearts: The Greater Chain
- Other character/sona stories (Dante Ciaran and more!)
- Tale of the Fiction Fox (Fursona story)
- Some random AR stories
- Reviews of movies, TV series, music albums
- Padheart
POSSIBLES (will possibly get to if special circumstances occur):
- Zootopia: The Blue Fox Caper (fan-fiction)
- Zootopia: Under The Collar (AU story)
- Balto -4-
- Okami: Path of the Gods
- Star Fox Adventures 2
- Weight Gain / Fat Fur stories (Savannah and Forest, Fiction Fox, etc.)
- Oblivion (canon character fighting game scenario story)
- Boltro: Lightning Force (old project with unposted chapters sitting around)
NOT VERY LIKELY (practically giving up on these unless a miracle happens):
- Plush Kingdom
- Untitled Kung Fu Panda fan-fiction
- Various story requests/commissions
It’s been a little too long since I’ve done a proper journal, and it’s become a tradition of mine to do one at the beginning of each year to look back at the past and ahead to the future.
So 2019 was an interesting year, but was pretty good to me.
In my position at work, I started receiving a little more respect, even to the point where I got to be floor support and assisted with co-worker’s questions rather than taking calls myself at times. If the project had continued through the year and on, there was a good chance I would have even become a supervisor.
But, due to a financial impasse between the company I work for and the client we served, the particular project I was on ended. This was more of a positive outcome than anything, since the client was refusing to give us reasonable wages that my company was fighting for, so it was a discontinuation on our terms. Everyone on the project still had jobs afterwards, myself included.
However, this meant I kind of had to start again with training for a new project. The training established some higher standards for the new project that got me a little concerned, but now that I’ve been out on the floor with it for a few months, it’s been rather nice. I’ve kept my later shift for this project, and in this case, it means the last three hours of every weekday are much slower due to some of the call queues closing early. On top of that, this project allows us to bring books to read while we’re between calls. This is a new thing I’ve been capitalizing on quite a bit, and I’ve already gone through a few books in my time on the floor. I’ve been going through some novels that I’ve had for a while but never got around to reading, starting with the classic “Tom Sawyer” and then reading through Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days”. I also managed to get through my copy of “Treasure Island” that I bought for myself several years ago.
Next on my list is FINALLY continuing Brian Jacques’ “Redwall” series. I was able to get through an audiobook of “Redwall” before, and now thanks to the changes at work I’ve gotten through “Mossflower” and started “Mattimeo”. The series has obvious appeal to furs such as myself, and I’ve owned a few of the books for the longest time without ever devoting enough attention to them in the past. Now, I’ve got the leisure time at work, and it’s been great! It’s also giving me the idea of maybe making a D&D campaign in this world to play with a few friends, but I’ve got another 19.5 books to get through before I can REALLY do that. It’s something I’ve been brainstorming on, though.
Another cool thing happened much earlier in 2019: I became a musician again!
It all started with a good friend of mine putting out a request for a drummer in order to help with a song parody for April Fool’s Day. I had a drum set lying around, and I didn’t think he knew anyone else to fit the role, so I took the initiative and volunteered! Prior to this, my drum set was sitting in a sad state for a few years. My snare drum mechanism and bass drum head(s) had bitten the dust long ago, and before finally getting my job in 2017 I didn’t really have the money needed to repair/replace what was needed. Then after getting my job, I didn’t have the time or motivation to do much with music, so still my drum set sat.
This opportunity to help my friend, however, was the motivation I needed to get it back up and running, and being employed gave me the funds I needed too! I ended up getting a new bass drum head and a totally new (and AWESOME) snare drum, then I was back in business! We got together and recorded the parody, and it went well. It was great tapping into this side of me for the first time in a while, and since everything was all repaired afterwards, I was able to keep at it and work in a good music session every now and then. To top it all off, I also got a new drum throne/stool for Christmas, and it is SO NICE!
If you’re curious enough to give the song parody a listen, you can do so here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/31124964/
And then of course, 2019 was a year of movies!
DC has really gotten their shit together and has been pumping out near-perfect movies in my eyes! “Aquaman” was a great adventure that embraced the craziness of the hero’s source material (in 2018 but still), and “Shazam” was funny, light-hearted, and just overall delightful. Then of course there was “Joker” in October! “Joker” was an absolute MASTERPIECE, finally bringing DC movies back up to the Christopher Nolan level of quality. Seriously, what the Dark Knight trilogy did for Batman, this film did it for the Joker. It’s THAT good! And the future is looking insanely bright, too! I’m incredibly hyped for the upcoming “Birds of Prey”, and even more so for “Wonder Woman 1984” later this year!
Then of course there was the MCU. We FINALLY got the big conclusion to the incredibly ambitious 10-year story arc they’ve been developing! “Avengers Endgame” was huge and amazing! I don’t think the climax and payoff of the film could have been much more perfect than they ended up being! I’m so glad I’ve followed this journey to fruition; it’s been worth every moment! I’ve been meaning to share more elaborate reviews for both “Infinity War” and “Endgame”, perhaps even together to try and pin down which one ended up being the better film. I’ve gone back and forth a bit on the subject myself, so we’ll see if I get to doing that in the future.
Along with that, I’m SO happy that I am still 100% into the MCU! I was getting worried that I just wouldn’t care anymore after Endgame, but after the fact I find myself just as interested as ever! The Black Widow movie has an awesome trailer so far, I need to see “Eternals” just to find out how that’s gonna go, and I’m INCREDIBLY hyped for “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”!
Another thing helping me keep my interest in the MCU (as well as many other things) is the release of Disney+! While it’s currently put me on a Star Wars kick with the Mandalorian series and delving back into prequels territory, and it’s been great for going back through my Toon Disney childhood, I’m INCREDIBLY excited for the multitude of Marvel series they will be starting there later this year!
And yes, Disney+ is a dream come true and I highly recommend it. But I figure most of us furs have it already at this point.
Then, as usual, I got way too many video games in 2019.
Perhaps the biggest one that must be talked about is the long-awaited Kingdom Hearts 3 starting out this year! I ended up playing through a majority of the previous games building up to the release, and now that I’ve finished the new game as well, I can safely say…it’s not a new favorite. The graphics are practically perfect, though, and a lot of the new worlds, keyblades, and abilities are really awesome! If it weren’t for ONE CUTSCENE, the game might have actually been pretty amazing! Even so, Kingdom Hearts 2 remains my all-time favorite.
Then, for the first time since Ruby/Sapphire, I got a new main-line Pokémon game in the form of Pokémon Sword! I was basically just holding out until they put a Pokémon game on an HD console, and they did, so I picked it up and have been enjoying it! It’s been great revisiting Pokémon after so long and getting acquainted with the fun new species. It may or may not be giving me new sona ideas or look back at old ones.
And, as usual, I’m playing way too many games all at once at the moment!
I’m sure some others are worth mentioning, but this journal will already be pretty long without them. Perhaps another time or in the comments, if asked.
Now, for 2020…
While normally I have one big resolution at the start of each year, this time around I find myself with multiple resolutions and/or areas of focus.
First off, I do acknowledge that I need to get back to work on what I do here, the SUPERverse and otherwise. Of course, it’s a bad sign that it’s taken me weeks just to pump out this journal, so you can imagine how slowly the ACTUAL writing is going. It also doesn’t help that I’m getting distracted by other fandoms and away from superhero stuff at the moment, but with the things coming out later this year, that will DEFINITELY change! I have another plan or two to keep my motivation up, including a Discord server for SUPERverse fans, if that appeals to anybody.
In addition to continuing the SUPERverse and other stories, I also want to get back to writing reviews like I used to! I’ve got a ton of things – movies, music albums, and even TV series – that I want to share my views on, even going back to 2017! (Yes, it’s been THAT bad.)
In terms of the real world, I need to GET ANOTHER FUCKING PLACE TO LIVE!
This has been something that has needed to happen for a while now, as my parents are moving and trying to sell the current house. But now, it’s crunch time. March 1st is the provided deadline for my brother and I to move out.
The issue for the longest time had been the mystery of our third person to assist with rent. I had originally planned on rooming with a friend of mine, but they’ve moved in elsewhere. Fortunately, an old friend of my brother and myself has moved back into town, so he will now be our third. Together, we’ll soon be looking into some apartments around the area and trying to make a decision as soon as we can. I’m not too concerned and am more-so excited for this, really. My brother already has at least some sort of income, and the returning friend should have some money saved up from his work elsewhere. Searching in the area here, I’m finding some options more affordable than I initially thought. I just hope they are really as good an option as they sound.
I also want to try and keep my music practice going. My drum set has been made functional again, but I still want to get a few more things to upgrade it and give me more options. On top of that, I also have a piano and some piano books I’d like to keep working on.
The issue I foresee with this resolution would be with the apartment we’ll be getting. Being the nice person that I am, I’d hate to set up my drum set and play it while bothering all the tenants around us. I could ask around for when the time would be best to play, but I still feel that the nicer thing to do would be not to do it at all. Piano is still an option, though.
And finally, while I will still be gaming VERY often throughout 2020, I realize that I buy WAY too many games and want to try and cut back. There are already a few games I plan on picking up this year, with the Final Fantasy VII remake, Doom Eternal, and the Crystal Chronicles remake as high priorities. Whenever Biomutant FINALLY comes out, that will be there too.
I just want to cut back because I realize that I don’t finish the large majority of games that I get. There are things way back on the GameCube and Wii that I have yet to get through!
To help with this last resolution, though, I am putting more focus into an older game that I already own!
I decided about halfway through 2019 to take up video game SPEED-RUNNING, and the GameCube classic Star Fox Adventures is my game of choice to start off! I’ve already joined the game’s Discord server, gotten lots of runs and tips from some of the runners, and been practicing on my own to eventually do a run myself.
I’ve run into a couple of hurdles with running, but the game does have a perfect category for starting out that involves just playing through the first quarter of the game. That’s what I’m trying for, hoping to get a decent run for that before eventually branching out into the full game. I’ve loved the game ever since I got it back in the day, and I’ve come to realize it’s the game I feel the most comfortable and feel I have the most potential with. There are a few other games I have my eyes on too, though, if all goes well!
And at last, for another New Year’s tradition, here’s a list of my writing projects and their priorities for the time to come!
PRIORITIES (will hopefully/surely get to):
- SUPERverse stories (S.U.P.E.R., Fire Fox, etc.)
- Kingdom Hearts: The Greater Chain
- Other character/sona stories (Dante Ciaran and more!)
- Tale of the Fiction Fox (Fursona story)
- Some random AR stories
- Reviews of movies, TV series, music albums
- Padheart
POSSIBLES (will possibly get to if special circumstances occur):
- Zootopia: The Blue Fox Caper (fan-fiction)
- Zootopia: Under The Collar (AU story)
- Balto -4-
- Okami: Path of the Gods
- Star Fox Adventures 2
- Weight Gain / Fat Fur stories (Savannah and Forest, Fiction Fox, etc.)
- Oblivion (canon character fighting game scenario story)
- Boltro: Lightning Force (old project with unposted chapters sitting around)
NOT VERY LIKELY (practically giving up on these unless a miracle happens):
- Plush Kingdom
- Untitled Kung Fu Panda fan-fiction
- Various story requests/commissions
R.I.P. Bo
General | Posted 6 years agoMy dog, Bo, was put down today.
He was over 16 years old, and had been with us through a lot.
He had survived a big move and attacks from the likes of cats, snakes, and pitbulls...but he could not survive time.
He was over 16 years old, and had been with us through a lot.
He had survived a big move and attacks from the likes of cats, snakes, and pitbulls...but he could not survive time.
The Turning Point [not dead journal!]
General | Posted 6 years agoHey guys!
Been a while since I’ve done a journal (and a lot of other things), so I thought I’d pool together a few things I’ve wanted to talk about.
So first off, back in the summer I turned 26.
This is significant for a few reasons, but to me, it’s significant because I met a landmark in my life.
You see, at age 13, my family moved to a different state to avoid the literal storms and natural disasters of our former home. It’s comforting to know that, even if we stayed, our old house did not receive much damage, but ultimately, I think the move has been for the better. I have had a lot more opportunities and made a great deal of friends here that I will cherish forever.
I would constantly acknowledge, though, that the majority of my life so far had been spent in my home state, and where I am now represented the smaller portion. But that is what has changed with this birthday. I have now spent about 13 years there and 13 years here, so now the time is evenly split.
From now on, however, this new state will have been my home for the majority of my life, and that’s a significant change in perspective to me. It’s altering the way I look at myself and how I can identify myself as a person.
Second…work has been tough.
In a previous journal, I had mentioned that I was given a “permanent” position at work with a new department, Tier 2. I had a FANTASTIC time there for a few months. The work was easier and fewer and farther between, and I had made some stronger connections in the tight-knit group of people I worked with. The pay wasn’t any better here, but it remained consistent rather than needing to meet some quality requirements to keep the rate (which I was meeting anyway), and I was getting insurance/benefits through them now that I was no longer a seasonal employee. With the combination of everything, I wasn’t terrified to come into work, and instead I maybe even looked forward to it. It was the best job I’ve ever had.
In a way, though, it was actually too good to be true. There was less work because the department wasn’t reaching the workload they were expecting, so they had basically promoted about a dozen more people than they needed. On the first day of June 2018, I was brought into a conference room with about a dozen others in the department and told that we would be going back to our original positions because of this.
My heart sank at this. I dreaded going back to my old position, but I needed the work and the pay/benefits, so I said nothing and went back. For a little while, it was okay, as they had me doing only one more reasonable portion of my old work types. But that didn’t last long, and they eventually put me back on everything.
I endured through the excruciating old position for nearly 4 months, but then another opportunity arose. My job was looking for a few volunteers to go to a different department, which was basically the same thing I was doing but for the region of Washington state rather than California. I hated what I was doing currently enough and did not see any sign of change coming, so I volunteered.
Little did I know that the Washington position is worse than my old one. I’m doing more things than the California position, including new things I was never trained for in California and never wanted to do, like going over insurance claims. It hasn’t been better, and that’s what I’ve been stuck with since late September.
And to make matters WORSE, not even a WEEK after I volunteered, some changes happened at the company and the California position wasn’t going to be a thing anymore. People that were still working on the California side at the time were being moved to other departments, so if I had chosen NOT to switch over to Washington, I could have gone back to Tier 2!
Once the Fall passed and Open Enrollment was ending, I reached out to Tier 2 supervisors to basically point out that things were slowing down on my end, and if they needed more people, they could bring me back on. Initially, it didn’t sound that professional. The first thing I actually did was half-jokingly shout out “take me back” to my old Tier 2 supervisor, and surprisingly they said they would work on it. So that gave me a little bit of hope, I guess.
But I’ve waited so long to do this journal that even MORE shit has happened at work!
That supervisor is no longer there, and even though the new one shared their interest in taking me back, Tier 2 is now the department being disbanded this year. THEY’RE all being moved to different departments now! So now I’m just stuck in this department I don’t like at all, with my only option being MAYBE switching to some entirely different department on the other side of the building if shit goes down. My recent track record suggests any other department I choose to go for would likely be worse than what I’m doing now, based on my switch from California to Washington. However, if the new departments have nothing to do with health insurance, it can’t possibly be as bad.
On the bright side of this job, though, I have survived now 2 ramp-downs and have held a job for about a year and a half.
The job has also recently given raises, so now instead of making $12 an hour at the most I’m making $13 at the least, sometimes even $14 if I show up every day! I have heard whispers of them planning to change THAT too since we’re ramping down, so I’ll have one other reason to hate work if they fuck that up.
So anyway, yeah, work has been crazy and I haven’t been doing much on this end as a result.
A friend of mine recently asked for help in recording a song parody, though, and that actually got me to do stuff with my drum set for the first time in like…geez…two years? It’s been great reacquainting myself with my musical hobby and getting my set fixed up. I posted a couple pictures of it on my Twitter account if anyone noticed. But it was a lot of fun doing that, and now I’m a drummer again and making regular trips to Guitar Center.
On to New Year’s Resolutions (because yes, it’s been THAT long since I’ve done a journal), I’m hoping to do more on these sites and with you guys in addition to figuring out where the hell I’m going to live for the latter half of this year. This journal will at least be a good start to getting back on track here and bringing a few things up to date.
I am SO behind with the things I want to do. Not even just writing stories and possibly doing art or song recordings, but I’m even behind on journals! Want to know HOW behind? I still want to go back to my thoughts on Guardians Vol. 2, as well as talk about The Last Jedi and Infinity War! Yep, that behind!
As for my big projects for these sites, I want to go into some of them in a little more detail so people know where I’m at mentally.
First off, the future of the SUPERverse:
I still think about the SUPERverse on a daily basis. The characters, the plots, where I can take things… Please don’t think that I’m not thinking about it just because I haven’t uploaded any recent chapters for it. I have a LONG history of my brain going so much farther with my projects than me hands ever do in writing them, but I love superhero stuff and this project so much, and I assure you I do not want to kill it off any time soon. I am really hoping to get my ass back in gear and finish up the few chapters I have in progress that have been sitting around for a while. Among these are a new chapter for “Thunder Pup”, along with the first chapters of “Fire Fox Zero: Mark the Dumper” (a prequel to the current “Fire Fox” story), “Tall Tails” (a new story that establishes another pivotal corner of the universe), and the long-awaited “Psi-Kitty” spin-off story.
As a reminder, these stories will appear on the accounts dedicated to the project, no longer on these personal accounts.
I am also looking for a new concept artist for the project, as my friend Koopus has been similarly busy with work and other things and has not been taking commissions like he used to.
Some of may have noticed that I have been testing the FA and Twitter artist Lundo a lot, as he has drawn several of the SUPERverse characters for commissions at this point at my request. He is a nice guy, easy to get in touch with and reasonably priced, and I do love his art style quite a lot. We’ll see just how far things go with him.
I am only slightly concerned with the state of superhero movies in relation to my motivation for this project, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe spurred my desire to make a superhero universe of my own. With the main event “Avengers: Endgame” right around the corner and the future of the MCU not entirely set in stone, I’m conscious of the possibility of motivation decreasing after this movie ages. The MCU has also got me interested in comics themselves and other forms of Marvel/DC media, however, so I don’t think it will be the end. Plus, maybe DC will be turning things around some more and flesh out their universe to a pleasing degree. At least we’re getting James Gunn to do “Suicide Squad 2” AND “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”! ^^
The future of KINGDOM HEARTS: THE GREATER CHAIN:
I posted concept art for this project several years ago and still have not done much in the way of writing it. But this and the SUPERverse will be the two big projects that I focus on at this point.
Part of the issue with TGC has been starting it. I haven’t found exactly the right way to do it yet, but I have such solid ideas for this that happen later on, like for the different worlds and antagonists. I can say I have decided to go with Yo-yo and Doc Croc for Ash’s party members, instead of the initial idea for him to just have Flicker. Yo-yo and Doc Croc just make a little more sense, as they basically do Kingdom Hearts type stuff already in their source show “Simsala Grimm”. Give it a watch and you’ll see what I mean! Flicker, on the other hand, is more of a protagonist in his own right and it wouldn’t necessarily be fair to have him play second fiddle as a party member. This was initially why I chose to go without a third party member if I were to pick him, as that would set up Ash and Flicker as two good friends over a party dynamic. But still, I feel using Yo-yo and Doc Croc will work better in the long run.
I have also found a PERFECT equivalent for Malificent in these new worlds to rule over the Heartless, but I don’t want to reveal them yet. I will be going with JUST Heartless for now, to hopefully avoid the plot getting too complicated too soon. IF I can get through this first story, Nobodies and such will come in later.
I REALLY wanted to talk about this particular project because of the recent things that have been happening in Hollywood. I am actually SO GLAD that I have waited a while to do this story, as in the real world it becomes a less and less strange concept and entered the realm of possibility. I mean, look at what has happened! FOX has been bought out by DISNEY! The main character I chose for TGC is a property from Fox, and a few of the worlds I will be using fall under that company as well. Suddenly I’m not so crazy!
Additionally, Kingdom Hearts 3 has of course come out, and I have been playing it. I’m strangely not as obsessed with it as I should be; I can go days without playing it by choice, and that bothers me because the game is such a big deal. But anyway, rather than having TGC take place after Dream Drop Distance like originally intended, I can have it simply pick up the story after it concludes in Kingdom Hearts 3. After all, who the hell knows when the NEXT one will be coming out? As a part of that, I do need to actually finish KH3 to see just where things end up, which is another part of the intro to this story. I am currently at the Keyblade Graveyard in KH3, so it’s only a matter of time once I see the end. Once I have that engrained in my head, I will hopefully have a better idea of how to set this story up. Of course, if some things happen that throw some plans I had out the window, we could be in trouble…
Fursona Background Stories:
Here I’m referring to stories for my own characters, such as Fiction Fox or Dante Ciaran. They’ve been sitting around as concepts for a really long time now, but I haven’t done much to make them official. I’ve been using some characters from these stories in roleplays with a few people, and it’s really making me want to take the next step and start fleshing them out in public stories. Hopefully I get around to doing some of that.
So that’s what I’ve been up to and thinking about.
I feel like I keep saying this and nothing happens, but I really hope I can get back on track here and get some things done.
Been a while since I’ve done a journal (and a lot of other things), so I thought I’d pool together a few things I’ve wanted to talk about.
So first off, back in the summer I turned 26.
This is significant for a few reasons, but to me, it’s significant because I met a landmark in my life.
You see, at age 13, my family moved to a different state to avoid the literal storms and natural disasters of our former home. It’s comforting to know that, even if we stayed, our old house did not receive much damage, but ultimately, I think the move has been for the better. I have had a lot more opportunities and made a great deal of friends here that I will cherish forever.
I would constantly acknowledge, though, that the majority of my life so far had been spent in my home state, and where I am now represented the smaller portion. But that is what has changed with this birthday. I have now spent about 13 years there and 13 years here, so now the time is evenly split.
From now on, however, this new state will have been my home for the majority of my life, and that’s a significant change in perspective to me. It’s altering the way I look at myself and how I can identify myself as a person.
Second…work has been tough.
In a previous journal, I had mentioned that I was given a “permanent” position at work with a new department, Tier 2. I had a FANTASTIC time there for a few months. The work was easier and fewer and farther between, and I had made some stronger connections in the tight-knit group of people I worked with. The pay wasn’t any better here, but it remained consistent rather than needing to meet some quality requirements to keep the rate (which I was meeting anyway), and I was getting insurance/benefits through them now that I was no longer a seasonal employee. With the combination of everything, I wasn’t terrified to come into work, and instead I maybe even looked forward to it. It was the best job I’ve ever had.
In a way, though, it was actually too good to be true. There was less work because the department wasn’t reaching the workload they were expecting, so they had basically promoted about a dozen more people than they needed. On the first day of June 2018, I was brought into a conference room with about a dozen others in the department and told that we would be going back to our original positions because of this.
My heart sank at this. I dreaded going back to my old position, but I needed the work and the pay/benefits, so I said nothing and went back. For a little while, it was okay, as they had me doing only one more reasonable portion of my old work types. But that didn’t last long, and they eventually put me back on everything.
I endured through the excruciating old position for nearly 4 months, but then another opportunity arose. My job was looking for a few volunteers to go to a different department, which was basically the same thing I was doing but for the region of Washington state rather than California. I hated what I was doing currently enough and did not see any sign of change coming, so I volunteered.
Little did I know that the Washington position is worse than my old one. I’m doing more things than the California position, including new things I was never trained for in California and never wanted to do, like going over insurance claims. It hasn’t been better, and that’s what I’ve been stuck with since late September.
And to make matters WORSE, not even a WEEK after I volunteered, some changes happened at the company and the California position wasn’t going to be a thing anymore. People that were still working on the California side at the time were being moved to other departments, so if I had chosen NOT to switch over to Washington, I could have gone back to Tier 2!
Once the Fall passed and Open Enrollment was ending, I reached out to Tier 2 supervisors to basically point out that things were slowing down on my end, and if they needed more people, they could bring me back on. Initially, it didn’t sound that professional. The first thing I actually did was half-jokingly shout out “take me back” to my old Tier 2 supervisor, and surprisingly they said they would work on it. So that gave me a little bit of hope, I guess.
But I’ve waited so long to do this journal that even MORE shit has happened at work!
That supervisor is no longer there, and even though the new one shared their interest in taking me back, Tier 2 is now the department being disbanded this year. THEY’RE all being moved to different departments now! So now I’m just stuck in this department I don’t like at all, with my only option being MAYBE switching to some entirely different department on the other side of the building if shit goes down. My recent track record suggests any other department I choose to go for would likely be worse than what I’m doing now, based on my switch from California to Washington. However, if the new departments have nothing to do with health insurance, it can’t possibly be as bad.
On the bright side of this job, though, I have survived now 2 ramp-downs and have held a job for about a year and a half.
The job has also recently given raises, so now instead of making $12 an hour at the most I’m making $13 at the least, sometimes even $14 if I show up every day! I have heard whispers of them planning to change THAT too since we’re ramping down, so I’ll have one other reason to hate work if they fuck that up.
So anyway, yeah, work has been crazy and I haven’t been doing much on this end as a result.
A friend of mine recently asked for help in recording a song parody, though, and that actually got me to do stuff with my drum set for the first time in like…geez…two years? It’s been great reacquainting myself with my musical hobby and getting my set fixed up. I posted a couple pictures of it on my Twitter account if anyone noticed. But it was a lot of fun doing that, and now I’m a drummer again and making regular trips to Guitar Center.
On to New Year’s Resolutions (because yes, it’s been THAT long since I’ve done a journal), I’m hoping to do more on these sites and with you guys in addition to figuring out where the hell I’m going to live for the latter half of this year. This journal will at least be a good start to getting back on track here and bringing a few things up to date.
I am SO behind with the things I want to do. Not even just writing stories and possibly doing art or song recordings, but I’m even behind on journals! Want to know HOW behind? I still want to go back to my thoughts on Guardians Vol. 2, as well as talk about The Last Jedi and Infinity War! Yep, that behind!
As for my big projects for these sites, I want to go into some of them in a little more detail so people know where I’m at mentally.
First off, the future of the SUPERverse:
I still think about the SUPERverse on a daily basis. The characters, the plots, where I can take things… Please don’t think that I’m not thinking about it just because I haven’t uploaded any recent chapters for it. I have a LONG history of my brain going so much farther with my projects than me hands ever do in writing them, but I love superhero stuff and this project so much, and I assure you I do not want to kill it off any time soon. I am really hoping to get my ass back in gear and finish up the few chapters I have in progress that have been sitting around for a while. Among these are a new chapter for “Thunder Pup”, along with the first chapters of “Fire Fox Zero: Mark the Dumper” (a prequel to the current “Fire Fox” story), “Tall Tails” (a new story that establishes another pivotal corner of the universe), and the long-awaited “Psi-Kitty” spin-off story.
As a reminder, these stories will appear on the accounts dedicated to the project, no longer on these personal accounts.
I am also looking for a new concept artist for the project, as my friend Koopus has been similarly busy with work and other things and has not been taking commissions like he used to.
Some of may have noticed that I have been testing the FA and Twitter artist Lundo a lot, as he has drawn several of the SUPERverse characters for commissions at this point at my request. He is a nice guy, easy to get in touch with and reasonably priced, and I do love his art style quite a lot. We’ll see just how far things go with him.
I am only slightly concerned with the state of superhero movies in relation to my motivation for this project, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe spurred my desire to make a superhero universe of my own. With the main event “Avengers: Endgame” right around the corner and the future of the MCU not entirely set in stone, I’m conscious of the possibility of motivation decreasing after this movie ages. The MCU has also got me interested in comics themselves and other forms of Marvel/DC media, however, so I don’t think it will be the end. Plus, maybe DC will be turning things around some more and flesh out their universe to a pleasing degree. At least we’re getting James Gunn to do “Suicide Squad 2” AND “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”! ^^
The future of KINGDOM HEARTS: THE GREATER CHAIN:
I posted concept art for this project several years ago and still have not done much in the way of writing it. But this and the SUPERverse will be the two big projects that I focus on at this point.
Part of the issue with TGC has been starting it. I haven’t found exactly the right way to do it yet, but I have such solid ideas for this that happen later on, like for the different worlds and antagonists. I can say I have decided to go with Yo-yo and Doc Croc for Ash’s party members, instead of the initial idea for him to just have Flicker. Yo-yo and Doc Croc just make a little more sense, as they basically do Kingdom Hearts type stuff already in their source show “Simsala Grimm”. Give it a watch and you’ll see what I mean! Flicker, on the other hand, is more of a protagonist in his own right and it wouldn’t necessarily be fair to have him play second fiddle as a party member. This was initially why I chose to go without a third party member if I were to pick him, as that would set up Ash and Flicker as two good friends over a party dynamic. But still, I feel using Yo-yo and Doc Croc will work better in the long run.
I have also found a PERFECT equivalent for Malificent in these new worlds to rule over the Heartless, but I don’t want to reveal them yet. I will be going with JUST Heartless for now, to hopefully avoid the plot getting too complicated too soon. IF I can get through this first story, Nobodies and such will come in later.
I REALLY wanted to talk about this particular project because of the recent things that have been happening in Hollywood. I am actually SO GLAD that I have waited a while to do this story, as in the real world it becomes a less and less strange concept and entered the realm of possibility. I mean, look at what has happened! FOX has been bought out by DISNEY! The main character I chose for TGC is a property from Fox, and a few of the worlds I will be using fall under that company as well. Suddenly I’m not so crazy!
Additionally, Kingdom Hearts 3 has of course come out, and I have been playing it. I’m strangely not as obsessed with it as I should be; I can go days without playing it by choice, and that bothers me because the game is such a big deal. But anyway, rather than having TGC take place after Dream Drop Distance like originally intended, I can have it simply pick up the story after it concludes in Kingdom Hearts 3. After all, who the hell knows when the NEXT one will be coming out? As a part of that, I do need to actually finish KH3 to see just where things end up, which is another part of the intro to this story. I am currently at the Keyblade Graveyard in KH3, so it’s only a matter of time once I see the end. Once I have that engrained in my head, I will hopefully have a better idea of how to set this story up. Of course, if some things happen that throw some plans I had out the window, we could be in trouble…
Fursona Background Stories:
Here I’m referring to stories for my own characters, such as Fiction Fox or Dante Ciaran. They’ve been sitting around as concepts for a really long time now, but I haven’t done much to make them official. I’ve been using some characters from these stories in roleplays with a few people, and it’s really making me want to take the next step and start fleshing them out in public stories. Hopefully I get around to doing some of that.
So that’s what I’ve been up to and thinking about.
I feel like I keep saying this and nothing happens, but I really hope I can get back on track here and get some things done.
LEVEL UP!
General | Posted 7 years agoLEVEL UP!
Level 26
Money +1
Stuff +5
Responsibility +50
Stress +50
Depression +1
Regret +1
(Meant to post this yesterday.)
Level 26
Money +1
Stuff +5
Responsibility +50
Stress +50
Depression +1
Regret +1
(Meant to post this yesterday.)
[PLEASE READ!] SUPERVERSE IS MOVING!
General | Posted 7 years agoAs a follow-up to my previous journal, I would like to confirm that I did make the new account I said I would.
This new profile will be COMPLETELY dedicated to everything SUPERverse related, whereas my normal work will be here.
From now on, please direct your attention to
TheSUPERverse for continuations of the superhero stories!
This new profile will be COMPLETELY dedicated to everything SUPERverse related, whereas my normal work will be here.
From now on, please direct your attention to
TheSUPERverse for continuations of the superhero stories! Beginning of the end? Hopefully not.
General | Posted 7 years agoHey guys! Been a while since I’ve done a journal, and some semi-important updates need to be disclosed.
So I’m gonna be real with you guys…
I haven't written anything in over 7 months.
ANYTHING.
IN 7 MONTHS.
And that’s right when I started my new job, so I COMPLETELY understand the cause. Work has obviously taken up a lot of my time, and on top of that, the new income has allowed me to get two gaming consoles that I’ve wanted, so I’ve been pretty distracted in my free time as well.
I’m fortunate that at least my superhero motivation is very healthy at the moment. I’m EXTREMELY hyped for Infinity War, and I even bought some more comics last weekend. I’m still thinking about the SUPERverse and where it’s going practically non-stop as well. It’s just a matter of putting the time and effort into actually writing things out that just…isn’t happening.
On top of this, what really has me concerned is that my mind is also wandering back to some previous projects of mine.
The most prominent at the moment comes from the fact that I recently bought Okami HD on Steam and have been replaying that classic gem of a game. Some may not recall that I actually had an Okami fan-fiction a LONG time ago, back when I was originally playing the game upon it’s Wii release. The concept is from a time back when I didn’t care so much about making a fan-fiction that was grounded in the source material’s reality and feasibility, as I do now with projects like Balto -4- and the Zootopia stories (if they ever happen), but I liked the narrative I had come up with and was having a lot of fun with it. I always regret that I abandon projects all too often and don’t give them the attention they deserve, and I would have another cool character to use to interact with others if I had gotten a little farther in the story. So, I’ve been rereading the existing chapters and recalling the way things were supposed to progress, and I’m thinking I may get back to it if I’m able to pick things back up.
I’ve also been thinking more about some of the stories I just haven’t done to introduce some other ‘sonas of mine, like the werewolf Dante Ciaran for example. I’ve basically just had too many recent instances of “I could do cooler things in an RP if I had actually developed this particular character a little more”, and it’s starting to bug me.
The PROBLEM with this, though, is that this is the first time I’ve REALLY been thinking about other projects since beginning the SUPERverse a few years ago. Sure, there was the whole Zootopia stories announcement thing, but to be honest my motivation for that just died off SO quickly that it doesn’t even count anymore. That’s another issue altogether, as I have no idea WHAT happened with that, but I know that I barely even want to watch the movie anymore.
ANYWAY, my previous track record with projects indicates that, when my mind usually starts to wander to new or old projects, I abandon what I was already working on in favor of them. In this case, the SUPERverse would be the one abandoned, and that worries me.
I’m NOT saying I’m positively going to abandon it at this time. I don’t WANT to abandon it; I’ve barely started it and have SO many cool places for it to go. I REALLY want to see it through…but to be honest I don’t see things through very often.
All of this may be a moot point anyway if I NEVER get to writing anything as long as I’m at this job. Just two days off a week just isn’t enough, you know? I’m usually stuck doing other things most of the weekend, then I dedicate ONE night to trying to get SOMETHING, ANYTHING done and it doesn’t happen. I need to try more, and at different times and intervals throughout the week.
I have another plan to rekindle my SUPERverse motivations as well, though. I think I’m finally going to give in and just make a dedicated FurAffinity profile for it. I’m pretty sure most of the attention for the project, at least in terms of pageviews, came from there, and the Weasyl page for it just hasn’t worked out. I don’t want deviantART to be the only place with an active dedicated account for the SUPERverse, so I’m just going to put my personal hindrances aside and just go for it on here.
Hopefully those who are/were interested in the project will rewatch me over on the new account once it’s made. I’ll try and update as I can to make sure everyone’s aware of the move.
This transition does NOT mean that my normal profiles will be abandoned in favor of the new one. I’m simply just giving that large and ambitious project its own space to prosper instead of clouding up my normal accounts. This way, I won’t only be posting small portions of the universe over different accounts and confuse everyone. Everything will be in one place, just like on the deviantART account.
Until that happens, all the other changes in motivation and priorities merit a new project list, to show you where everything is for me and how important is to me to get to them this year.
You can compare the following list to that of my previous journal to see the changes.
PRIORITIES (will hopefully/surely get to):
- SUPERverse stories (S.U.P.E.R., Fire Fox, etc.) [on new account]
- Okami: Path of the Gods
- Plush Kingdom [to be posted here]
- Other character/sona stories (Dante Ciaran, Rion Pryde, etc.)
- Kingdom Hearts: The Greater Chain
- Tale of the Fiction Fox (then the Christmas Special)
POSSIBLES (will possibly get to if special circumstances occur):
- Boltro: Lightning Force (old project with unposted chapters sitting around)
- Zootopia stories (“The Blue Fox Caper” fan-fiction and “Under The Collar” AU story)
- Balto -4-
- Weight Gain / Fat Fur stories (Savannah and Forest, Fiction Fox, etc.)
- Oblivion (canon character fighting game scenario story)
- Kodi’s Story [to be posted here]
NOT VERY LIKELY (practically giving up on these unless a miracle happens):
- Star Fox Adventures 2
- Untitled Kung Fu Panda fan-fiction
- Various story requests/commissions
So yeah, that’s what I’ve been dealing with lately. I just didn’t want to leave you guys in the dark with no updates for so long a time. ^^;
It’s gonna be tough to find the time, guys, but I promise I’m gonna try.
So I’m gonna be real with you guys…
I haven't written anything in over 7 months.
ANYTHING.
IN 7 MONTHS.
And that’s right when I started my new job, so I COMPLETELY understand the cause. Work has obviously taken up a lot of my time, and on top of that, the new income has allowed me to get two gaming consoles that I’ve wanted, so I’ve been pretty distracted in my free time as well.
I’m fortunate that at least my superhero motivation is very healthy at the moment. I’m EXTREMELY hyped for Infinity War, and I even bought some more comics last weekend. I’m still thinking about the SUPERverse and where it’s going practically non-stop as well. It’s just a matter of putting the time and effort into actually writing things out that just…isn’t happening.
On top of this, what really has me concerned is that my mind is also wandering back to some previous projects of mine.
The most prominent at the moment comes from the fact that I recently bought Okami HD on Steam and have been replaying that classic gem of a game. Some may not recall that I actually had an Okami fan-fiction a LONG time ago, back when I was originally playing the game upon it’s Wii release. The concept is from a time back when I didn’t care so much about making a fan-fiction that was grounded in the source material’s reality and feasibility, as I do now with projects like Balto -4- and the Zootopia stories (if they ever happen), but I liked the narrative I had come up with and was having a lot of fun with it. I always regret that I abandon projects all too often and don’t give them the attention they deserve, and I would have another cool character to use to interact with others if I had gotten a little farther in the story. So, I’ve been rereading the existing chapters and recalling the way things were supposed to progress, and I’m thinking I may get back to it if I’m able to pick things back up.
I’ve also been thinking more about some of the stories I just haven’t done to introduce some other ‘sonas of mine, like the werewolf Dante Ciaran for example. I’ve basically just had too many recent instances of “I could do cooler things in an RP if I had actually developed this particular character a little more”, and it’s starting to bug me.
The PROBLEM with this, though, is that this is the first time I’ve REALLY been thinking about other projects since beginning the SUPERverse a few years ago. Sure, there was the whole Zootopia stories announcement thing, but to be honest my motivation for that just died off SO quickly that it doesn’t even count anymore. That’s another issue altogether, as I have no idea WHAT happened with that, but I know that I barely even want to watch the movie anymore.
ANYWAY, my previous track record with projects indicates that, when my mind usually starts to wander to new or old projects, I abandon what I was already working on in favor of them. In this case, the SUPERverse would be the one abandoned, and that worries me.
I’m NOT saying I’m positively going to abandon it at this time. I don’t WANT to abandon it; I’ve barely started it and have SO many cool places for it to go. I REALLY want to see it through…but to be honest I don’t see things through very often.
All of this may be a moot point anyway if I NEVER get to writing anything as long as I’m at this job. Just two days off a week just isn’t enough, you know? I’m usually stuck doing other things most of the weekend, then I dedicate ONE night to trying to get SOMETHING, ANYTHING done and it doesn’t happen. I need to try more, and at different times and intervals throughout the week.
I have another plan to rekindle my SUPERverse motivations as well, though. I think I’m finally going to give in and just make a dedicated FurAffinity profile for it. I’m pretty sure most of the attention for the project, at least in terms of pageviews, came from there, and the Weasyl page for it just hasn’t worked out. I don’t want deviantART to be the only place with an active dedicated account for the SUPERverse, so I’m just going to put my personal hindrances aside and just go for it on here.
Hopefully those who are/were interested in the project will rewatch me over on the new account once it’s made. I’ll try and update as I can to make sure everyone’s aware of the move.
This transition does NOT mean that my normal profiles will be abandoned in favor of the new one. I’m simply just giving that large and ambitious project its own space to prosper instead of clouding up my normal accounts. This way, I won’t only be posting small portions of the universe over different accounts and confuse everyone. Everything will be in one place, just like on the deviantART account.
Until that happens, all the other changes in motivation and priorities merit a new project list, to show you where everything is for me and how important is to me to get to them this year.
You can compare the following list to that of my previous journal to see the changes.
PRIORITIES (will hopefully/surely get to):
- SUPERverse stories (S.U.P.E.R., Fire Fox, etc.) [on new account]
- Okami: Path of the Gods
- Plush Kingdom [to be posted here]
- Other character/sona stories (Dante Ciaran, Rion Pryde, etc.)
- Kingdom Hearts: The Greater Chain
- Tale of the Fiction Fox (then the Christmas Special)
POSSIBLES (will possibly get to if special circumstances occur):
- Boltro: Lightning Force (old project with unposted chapters sitting around)
- Zootopia stories (“The Blue Fox Caper” fan-fiction and “Under The Collar” AU story)
- Balto -4-
- Weight Gain / Fat Fur stories (Savannah and Forest, Fiction Fox, etc.)
- Oblivion (canon character fighting game scenario story)
- Kodi’s Story [to be posted here]
NOT VERY LIKELY (practically giving up on these unless a miracle happens):
- Star Fox Adventures 2
- Untitled Kung Fu Panda fan-fiction
- Various story requests/commissions
So yeah, that’s what I’ve been dealing with lately. I just didn’t want to leave you guys in the dark with no updates for so long a time. ^^;
It’s gonna be tough to find the time, guys, but I promise I’m gonna try.
2018!!!!!
General | Posted 8 years agoHey guys and gals, and happy 2018!
2018’s one of those weird-looking numbers/dates to me for some reason. But I also had an illogical weird feeling with being 19 a few years ago. Not sure why. ^^;
ANYWAY, some ups and downs in 2017 huh?
I had my fair share of hardships, sure, but I feel that I accomplished something because my and my family’s MAIN concern (and my 2017 resolution) has been resolved!
To those who weren’t notified before, I FINALLY got a full-time job in September of 2017. It’s full-time hours in a nice office building with nice steady pay. As for what I’m doing, the long explanation is that I work for a third-party vendor that supplies customer service for clients…but the short explanation is I’m doing customer service for Kaiser Permanente. Everyone working there is kind and incredibly supportive. The customers I talk to…eh…not quite as often, but it’s still a positive experience at times. I went into this job not knowing a THING about medical insurance, so I’m sure I’m learning some important life lessons here! For now, it’s everything I need to get my life on track when some big changes get made later on this year.
There are some potential concerns with this job, though, as it’s TECHNICALLY a seasonal non-permanent position, but everyone there says there’s a high chance of staying with them permanently anyway. I believe they threw out a statistic of keeping 85% of the people they hired the last time they did this process, so I’m not TOO concerned about it. Either way, we’ll see what happens in a couple more months.
[ Actually, scratch that last paragraph. In the time since I started writing this journal, I actually found out that I WILL have a permanent position in a different department! It sounds like it’s going to be an easier job than what I was doing, too! No need to worry! ]
Now that I have some more steady income, I’ve been taking over the payments for a couple of things my parents have been taking care of previously, which hasn’t been a big deal as I’ve been expecting it to happen this whole time. Right now it’s just simple things like paying my student loans and an insurance payment or two. With the rest of my money, I’ve been buying basically all the stuff I wanted when I didn’t have money. This includes not one, but TWO new gaming consoles! I finally got my paws on a Nintendo Switch in early-mid November, then in the last days of 2017 I FINALLY got a PS4 of my very own. That had been a LONG time coming, and it’s a dream come true to have all of this awesome stuff now. It’s great to have money!
Along with great consoles and games, 2017 was pretty interesting for movies. As I’ve said in previous journals, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” was basically my most anticipated film of all time up until its release. I didn’t really care for the film that much upon a first viewing, but I’ve grown to like it infinitely more with the passage of time. That’s a story for another journal for another time, though.
“Logan” certainly didn’t disappoint at first viewing, though, and neither did “Thor: Ragnarok” even though they’re practically opposites when it comes to tone and setting. I have a few minor issues with the latter film there, but overall “Ragnarok” was hilarious and amazing, and I loved it instantly. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” was actually a pretty big disappointment to me, though. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from it as I’m an avid fan of the original Spiderman trilogy, but aside from a few significant moments I just found myself liking “Homecoming” less and less as it goes on. It had some great scenes in the beginning, and a great twist involving the villain closer to the climax, but overall the setting and scenarios Spidey was put in just didn’t really work for me.
As for DC’s movies, I actually enjoyed them both. I love “Wonder Woman” as much as everyone else does, and I found “Justice League” to just be okay.
Off the subject of superheroes, the “Beauty and the Beast” remake was surprisingly good and leaves me hopeful for Disney’s similar future endeavors. I did also see “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and umm…well…it was a movie, I guess… I would need another journal to talk about that film as well, likely in a full review.
Looking ahead to this year…hoo boy!
“Avengers: Infinity War” is now my most anticipated film of all time, as it’s the culmination of Marvel’s 10 long years hard at work on their ambitious cinematic universe. If Infinity War is good, then it’s going to mean it was all worth it and will probably become my favorite film of all time. If it’s somehow bad…well…I might get depressed as I’ve gotten so invested in this universe for nothing. It’s a little tougher this time because there needs to be a lot at stake, Thanos needs to be done well, and there are a NUMBER of different possibilities regarding how things can go! I highly doubt it will be bad though, and I REALLY hope it’s good because it will further motivate me to continue my own little superhero project! I just need Rocket and Iron Man interacting on the big screen… <3
Nintendo has also been killing it this past year with the Switch, too, as it’s already almost sold as many systems as the Wii U in its entire lifespan! I can’t think of too many specific games on the way this year to be excited about at the moment, though. I THINK Kingdom Hearts 3 MIGHT still be coming this year, maybe? That would be nice. Plus THQnordic’s “Biomutant” game looks REALLY cool, and now that I have a console and decent computer for it, I’m REALLY looking forward to that. Look into it a bit if you haven’t already!
I’m noticing a pattern with my New Year’s resolutions.
My 2016 resolution was about reconnecting with everyone here after living with some real-life friends in an apartment for a while, and last year’s was about cracking down and finally getting my life on track. This year, now that the job has been locked down and keeps looking better, I’m bringing my resolution right back to you guys.
Specifically, I need to get back to work on contributing content on these sites. It’s been a staggering FOUR MONTHS since I’ve worked on ANYTHING for the SUPERverse, which is basically how long I’ve been in the new job. I’ve kept telling myself that I’ll get something done basically every weekend since then, but getting the new consoles and games has largely kept me distracted each time. I sincerely apologize for going this long without giving you guys any more contributions to the SUPERverse’s world. I HAVE continued to think about that world constantly, and I am still very much motivated in seeing the concept through! I hope to get back to work very soon!
I’m also behind on other things, like some photos and things I’ve taken and wanted to upload. And there’s the reviews and journals I mentioned above that I’d also like to do. As usual, I also have a number of other projects I’ve wanted to do for a while that I will hopefully get to in this promising new year as well.
And speaking of my projects…
In comparison to last year’s similar journal, here is a list of projects still important enough to me to potentially work on. These projects are all still on my mind and in my heart, but they have been separated into varying levels of motivation and confidence so you’ll know my feelings toward them. Keep in mind this only applies to story projects, specifically chapter-based prose narratives. Artwork, videos, and everything else is still up in the air and will be worked on when time and motivation are right. It may be worth knowing that not a whole lot has moved around on this list from last year.
PRIORITIES (will hopefully/surely get to):
- SUPERverse stories (S.U.P.E.R., Fire Fox, etc.) [here and elsewhere]
- Zootopia: The Blue Fox Caper (Zootopia fan-fiction)
- Zootopia: Under The Collar (Zootopia AU story)
- Kingdom Hearts: The Greater Chain
- Tale of the Fiction Fox (then the Christmas Special)
POSSIBLES (will possibly get to if special circumstances occur):
- Balto -4-
- Okami: Path of the Gods
- Star Fox Adventures 2
- Weight Gain / Fat Fur stories (Savannah and Forest, Fiction Fox, etc.)
- Oblivion (canon character fighting game scenario story)
- Boltro: Lightning Force (old project with unposted chapters sitting around)
- Other character/sona stories (Dante Ciaran, etc.)
NOT VERY LIKELY (practically giving up on these unless a miracle happens):
- Plush Kingdom [here]
- Kodi’s Story [here]
- Untitled Kung Fu Panda fan-fiction
- Various story requests/commissions
I hope to make progress this year on everything listed under PRIORITIES. They’re what I currently care about the most; I’ve promised them and hope to deliver on my promises.
POSSIBLES are a lot of older ideas with motivation/inspiration that’s harder to come by, but if I can find something to put a specific kind of fire under me, I could make some progress on them again.
Things in the NOT VERY LIKELY section I haven’t ruled out ENTIRELY, but I’m either not confident or don’t really care about the ideas anymore. If I have promised you ANY story over the past years, know that your project is likely a part of the “Various story requests/commissions” section.
I think that’s it for now.
Here’s hoping 2018 continues to be a great year!
2018’s one of those weird-looking numbers/dates to me for some reason. But I also had an illogical weird feeling with being 19 a few years ago. Not sure why. ^^;
ANYWAY, some ups and downs in 2017 huh?
I had my fair share of hardships, sure, but I feel that I accomplished something because my and my family’s MAIN concern (and my 2017 resolution) has been resolved!
To those who weren’t notified before, I FINALLY got a full-time job in September of 2017. It’s full-time hours in a nice office building with nice steady pay. As for what I’m doing, the long explanation is that I work for a third-party vendor that supplies customer service for clients…but the short explanation is I’m doing customer service for Kaiser Permanente. Everyone working there is kind and incredibly supportive. The customers I talk to…eh…not quite as often, but it’s still a positive experience at times. I went into this job not knowing a THING about medical insurance, so I’m sure I’m learning some important life lessons here! For now, it’s everything I need to get my life on track when some big changes get made later on this year.
There are some potential concerns with this job, though, as it’s TECHNICALLY a seasonal non-permanent position, but everyone there says there’s a high chance of staying with them permanently anyway. I believe they threw out a statistic of keeping 85% of the people they hired the last time they did this process, so I’m not TOO concerned about it. Either way, we’ll see what happens in a couple more months.
[ Actually, scratch that last paragraph. In the time since I started writing this journal, I actually found out that I WILL have a permanent position in a different department! It sounds like it’s going to be an easier job than what I was doing, too! No need to worry! ]
Now that I have some more steady income, I’ve been taking over the payments for a couple of things my parents have been taking care of previously, which hasn’t been a big deal as I’ve been expecting it to happen this whole time. Right now it’s just simple things like paying my student loans and an insurance payment or two. With the rest of my money, I’ve been buying basically all the stuff I wanted when I didn’t have money. This includes not one, but TWO new gaming consoles! I finally got my paws on a Nintendo Switch in early-mid November, then in the last days of 2017 I FINALLY got a PS4 of my very own. That had been a LONG time coming, and it’s a dream come true to have all of this awesome stuff now. It’s great to have money!
Along with great consoles and games, 2017 was pretty interesting for movies. As I’ve said in previous journals, “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” was basically my most anticipated film of all time up until its release. I didn’t really care for the film that much upon a first viewing, but I’ve grown to like it infinitely more with the passage of time. That’s a story for another journal for another time, though.
“Logan” certainly didn’t disappoint at first viewing, though, and neither did “Thor: Ragnarok” even though they’re practically opposites when it comes to tone and setting. I have a few minor issues with the latter film there, but overall “Ragnarok” was hilarious and amazing, and I loved it instantly. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” was actually a pretty big disappointment to me, though. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from it as I’m an avid fan of the original Spiderman trilogy, but aside from a few significant moments I just found myself liking “Homecoming” less and less as it goes on. It had some great scenes in the beginning, and a great twist involving the villain closer to the climax, but overall the setting and scenarios Spidey was put in just didn’t really work for me.
As for DC’s movies, I actually enjoyed them both. I love “Wonder Woman” as much as everyone else does, and I found “Justice League” to just be okay.
Off the subject of superheroes, the “Beauty and the Beast” remake was surprisingly good and leaves me hopeful for Disney’s similar future endeavors. I did also see “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and umm…well…it was a movie, I guess… I would need another journal to talk about that film as well, likely in a full review.
Looking ahead to this year…hoo boy!
“Avengers: Infinity War” is now my most anticipated film of all time, as it’s the culmination of Marvel’s 10 long years hard at work on their ambitious cinematic universe. If Infinity War is good, then it’s going to mean it was all worth it and will probably become my favorite film of all time. If it’s somehow bad…well…I might get depressed as I’ve gotten so invested in this universe for nothing. It’s a little tougher this time because there needs to be a lot at stake, Thanos needs to be done well, and there are a NUMBER of different possibilities regarding how things can go! I highly doubt it will be bad though, and I REALLY hope it’s good because it will further motivate me to continue my own little superhero project! I just need Rocket and Iron Man interacting on the big screen… <3
Nintendo has also been killing it this past year with the Switch, too, as it’s already almost sold as many systems as the Wii U in its entire lifespan! I can’t think of too many specific games on the way this year to be excited about at the moment, though. I THINK Kingdom Hearts 3 MIGHT still be coming this year, maybe? That would be nice. Plus THQnordic’s “Biomutant” game looks REALLY cool, and now that I have a console and decent computer for it, I’m REALLY looking forward to that. Look into it a bit if you haven’t already!
I’m noticing a pattern with my New Year’s resolutions.
My 2016 resolution was about reconnecting with everyone here after living with some real-life friends in an apartment for a while, and last year’s was about cracking down and finally getting my life on track. This year, now that the job has been locked down and keeps looking better, I’m bringing my resolution right back to you guys.
Specifically, I need to get back to work on contributing content on these sites. It’s been a staggering FOUR MONTHS since I’ve worked on ANYTHING for the SUPERverse, which is basically how long I’ve been in the new job. I’ve kept telling myself that I’ll get something done basically every weekend since then, but getting the new consoles and games has largely kept me distracted each time. I sincerely apologize for going this long without giving you guys any more contributions to the SUPERverse’s world. I HAVE continued to think about that world constantly, and I am still very much motivated in seeing the concept through! I hope to get back to work very soon!
I’m also behind on other things, like some photos and things I’ve taken and wanted to upload. And there’s the reviews and journals I mentioned above that I’d also like to do. As usual, I also have a number of other projects I’ve wanted to do for a while that I will hopefully get to in this promising new year as well.
And speaking of my projects…
In comparison to last year’s similar journal, here is a list of projects still important enough to me to potentially work on. These projects are all still on my mind and in my heart, but they have been separated into varying levels of motivation and confidence so you’ll know my feelings toward them. Keep in mind this only applies to story projects, specifically chapter-based prose narratives. Artwork, videos, and everything else is still up in the air and will be worked on when time and motivation are right. It may be worth knowing that not a whole lot has moved around on this list from last year.
PRIORITIES (will hopefully/surely get to):
- SUPERverse stories (S.U.P.E.R., Fire Fox, etc.) [here and elsewhere]
- Zootopia: The Blue Fox Caper (Zootopia fan-fiction)
- Zootopia: Under The Collar (Zootopia AU story)
- Kingdom Hearts: The Greater Chain
- Tale of the Fiction Fox (then the Christmas Special)
POSSIBLES (will possibly get to if special circumstances occur):
- Balto -4-
- Okami: Path of the Gods
- Star Fox Adventures 2
- Weight Gain / Fat Fur stories (Savannah and Forest, Fiction Fox, etc.)
- Oblivion (canon character fighting game scenario story)
- Boltro: Lightning Force (old project with unposted chapters sitting around)
- Other character/sona stories (Dante Ciaran, etc.)
NOT VERY LIKELY (practically giving up on these unless a miracle happens):
- Plush Kingdom [here]
- Kodi’s Story [here]
- Untitled Kung Fu Panda fan-fiction
- Various story requests/commissions
I hope to make progress this year on everything listed under PRIORITIES. They’re what I currently care about the most; I’ve promised them and hope to deliver on my promises.
POSSIBLES are a lot of older ideas with motivation/inspiration that’s harder to come by, but if I can find something to put a specific kind of fire under me, I could make some progress on them again.
Things in the NOT VERY LIKELY section I haven’t ruled out ENTIRELY, but I’m either not confident or don’t really care about the ideas anymore. If I have promised you ANY story over the past years, know that your project is likely a part of the “Various story requests/commissions” section.
I think that’s it for now.
Here’s hoping 2018 continues to be a great year!
The 5th Corner [SEEKING HELP!]
General | Posted 8 years agoHello again, SUPER fans!
I've mentioned many times that the SUPERverse is separated into different areas of focus I like to call "corners". These "corners" are multi-story arcs that are -- for the most part -- distinctly separate from the others to a point that they can't quite be categorized together. The plan of the SUPERverse so far has always had 4 corners:
- Corner 1: The "S.U.P.E.R." storyline, which will include its characters' origins as well as their future adventures
- Corner 2: The "IntraNet" storyline, which focuses on Fire Fox and all the other heroes involved in the cosmic organization
- Corner 3: The "Mighty O's" storyline, which will remain grounded until it connects to the "S.U.P.E.R." corner much farther ahead
- Corner 4: The "Tall Tails" storyline, a soon-to-be-revealed arc of cosmic scope focusing on very specific and isolated characters
These have been the "corners" of my universe for a long time now.
In the back of my mind, however, there has been an urge to create another.
I always assumed that there are so many comic superheroes from New York City because many of their writers were very familiar with that setting. They may have been from there or just visited, but they knew how to write a story involving it.
In this aspect, I am at a disadvantage. I am not from New York City, nor have I even visited. I have put quite a few heroes in that area of my universe as well, to be sure, but I actually have very little knowledge of that setting. Because of this, I've felt the great desire to put heroes in places I actually know. I feel this would benefit the stories, as it may help the settings feel a little more real and grounded.
In my life, I have lived in two major areas, both within the United States.
The later state is Colorado, and I have assigned this setting to Chrome Dome's upcoming origin story, "Iron Eagle".
The earlier state, where I spent my childhood and -- as of now -- the slightly-larger half of my life, is Louisiana. The New Orleans area in Louisiana specifically is a wonderful hub of art, music, history, and culture. I have a large amount of family there still; I know the area pretty well, and I would love to give it a hero. To my knowledge, not very many comic book heroes govern the state of Louisiana specifically, at least nowhere near as many as New York.
For a while now, I have been hard at work planning a hero for this portion of my universe. As I'm still in the beginning stages, it's tough to see exactly when and how he will interact with the other "corners". Because of this, I am giving him a "corner" all his own. I still have a ways to go with planning, but I have a pretty strong concept so far, and I have a pretty final name for this hero as well.
His name is Baron Boudreaux.
Given the culture of the Louisiana area, I have decided to give Boudreaux a strong connection to Voodoo. As such, he will be a far more mystical hero than what my universe is used to so far. My idea is for Boudreaux to be a unique Doctor Strange type for my universe. While my initial idea was to make him an incredibly dark character (partially to fix the lack of darkness in Gargoyle), I'm finding that the more and more I plan him, the more light-hearted he's becoming. I'm aware that a few other characters in DC and Marvel alike are also connected to Voodoo, but I have done some research and realized that I will still have a VERY different take on it and on him.
I have also been HEAVILY researching Voodoo itself, and I've found its mainstream representation is wildly inaccurate. I'll spare you too many details, but as an example, "Voodoo dolls" are NOT a part of Voodoo at all. Because of this, I've made it my goal to portray Voodoo far more accurately in my stories. There are a lot of variations of Voodoo, so I have prioritized the teachings of Haitian Voodou for this character. I have learned quite a lot and found a lot of great mythology/lore to use, but a few aspects are fairly ambiguous and confusing. Online articles can only take me so far and teach me so much.
Here's where YOU come in.
In order to make sense of some of my research, I feel I need a Voodoo specialist. I realize this is a long-shot, but I am looking for someone within the furry/art communities that boasts considerable knowledge of REAL Voodoo, preferably Haitian Voodou. Only through clarifying things with an expert can I solidify my impressions and plans for the story.
If you do not know of anyone with this kind of knowledge, PLEASE help spread the word to find someone with it.
I'd really like to continue planning and eventually write this character, and these frustrating ambiguous research elements are preventing me from doing so. I have searched and searched for what I need, and I keep coming up short. I need someone with legitimate knowledge of the religion and its spirits. Any and all assistance with this will be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.
If all goes well, you can look forward to Baron Boudreaux's contribution to this universe in the future!
I've mentioned many times that the SUPERverse is separated into different areas of focus I like to call "corners". These "corners" are multi-story arcs that are -- for the most part -- distinctly separate from the others to a point that they can't quite be categorized together. The plan of the SUPERverse so far has always had 4 corners:
- Corner 1: The "S.U.P.E.R." storyline, which will include its characters' origins as well as their future adventures
- Corner 2: The "IntraNet" storyline, which focuses on Fire Fox and all the other heroes involved in the cosmic organization
- Corner 3: The "Mighty O's" storyline, which will remain grounded until it connects to the "S.U.P.E.R." corner much farther ahead
- Corner 4: The "Tall Tails" storyline, a soon-to-be-revealed arc of cosmic scope focusing on very specific and isolated characters
These have been the "corners" of my universe for a long time now.
In the back of my mind, however, there has been an urge to create another.
I always assumed that there are so many comic superheroes from New York City because many of their writers were very familiar with that setting. They may have been from there or just visited, but they knew how to write a story involving it.
In this aspect, I am at a disadvantage. I am not from New York City, nor have I even visited. I have put quite a few heroes in that area of my universe as well, to be sure, but I actually have very little knowledge of that setting. Because of this, I've felt the great desire to put heroes in places I actually know. I feel this would benefit the stories, as it may help the settings feel a little more real and grounded.
In my life, I have lived in two major areas, both within the United States.
The later state is Colorado, and I have assigned this setting to Chrome Dome's upcoming origin story, "Iron Eagle".
The earlier state, where I spent my childhood and -- as of now -- the slightly-larger half of my life, is Louisiana. The New Orleans area in Louisiana specifically is a wonderful hub of art, music, history, and culture. I have a large amount of family there still; I know the area pretty well, and I would love to give it a hero. To my knowledge, not very many comic book heroes govern the state of Louisiana specifically, at least nowhere near as many as New York.
For a while now, I have been hard at work planning a hero for this portion of my universe. As I'm still in the beginning stages, it's tough to see exactly when and how he will interact with the other "corners". Because of this, I am giving him a "corner" all his own. I still have a ways to go with planning, but I have a pretty strong concept so far, and I have a pretty final name for this hero as well.
His name is Baron Boudreaux.
Given the culture of the Louisiana area, I have decided to give Boudreaux a strong connection to Voodoo. As such, he will be a far more mystical hero than what my universe is used to so far. My idea is for Boudreaux to be a unique Doctor Strange type for my universe. While my initial idea was to make him an incredibly dark character (partially to fix the lack of darkness in Gargoyle), I'm finding that the more and more I plan him, the more light-hearted he's becoming. I'm aware that a few other characters in DC and Marvel alike are also connected to Voodoo, but I have done some research and realized that I will still have a VERY different take on it and on him.
I have also been HEAVILY researching Voodoo itself, and I've found its mainstream representation is wildly inaccurate. I'll spare you too many details, but as an example, "Voodoo dolls" are NOT a part of Voodoo at all. Because of this, I've made it my goal to portray Voodoo far more accurately in my stories. There are a lot of variations of Voodoo, so I have prioritized the teachings of Haitian Voodou for this character. I have learned quite a lot and found a lot of great mythology/lore to use, but a few aspects are fairly ambiguous and confusing. Online articles can only take me so far and teach me so much.
Here's where YOU come in.
In order to make sense of some of my research, I feel I need a Voodoo specialist. I realize this is a long-shot, but I am looking for someone within the furry/art communities that boasts considerable knowledge of REAL Voodoo, preferably Haitian Voodou. Only through clarifying things with an expert can I solidify my impressions and plans for the story.
If you do not know of anyone with this kind of knowledge, PLEASE help spread the word to find someone with it.
I'd really like to continue planning and eventually write this character, and these frustrating ambiguous research elements are preventing me from doing so. I have searched and searched for what I need, and I keep coming up short. I need someone with legitimate knowledge of the religion and its spirits. Any and all assistance with this will be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.
If all goes well, you can look forward to Baron Boudreaux's contribution to this universe in the future!
New SUPERverse Villain Database Entry!!!
General | Posted 8 years agoHey everyone!
In case you're out of the loop, I thought I'd let you know that I just got another piece of concept art commissioned for the SUPERverse Database over on DeviantArt.
This time around, it's finally for another villain: Stretch Paw-Strong's adversary, Sabre! She'll be a lot more important to the stories later on, so I felt the need to get her design fleshed out.
You can view Sabre here:
>>> http://fav.me/dbjd2lu <<<
Hope you like it!
In case you're out of the loop, I thought I'd let you know that I just got another piece of concept art commissioned for the SUPERverse Database over on DeviantArt.
This time around, it's finally for another villain: Stretch Paw-Strong's adversary, Sabre! She'll be a lot more important to the stories later on, so I felt the need to get her design fleshed out.
You can view Sabre here:
>>> http://fav.me/dbjd2lu <<<
Hope you like it!
SUPERverse fanart UPDATE!
General | Posted 8 years agoIn my previous journal, I shared the first piece of fanart I've ever received for SUPERverse content. At the time, it was unfortunately only posted on deviantART, but now, this artwork of our villain Lightning Jack by DJcroc2016 can be found in multiple places if you want to favorite it!
FurAffinity:
>>> http://www.furaffinity.net/view/23549376/ <<<
Weasyl:
>>> https://www.weasyl.com/~7imothyc/su.....lightning-jack <<<
deviantART:
>>> http://fav.me/db3h45u <<<
Big thanks once again to DJcroc2016 for this wonderful piece!
And as a friendly reminder, keep checking out my deviantART account ~SUPERcubs for the latest SUPERverse updates. Big things are happening there soon!
FurAffinity:
>>> http://www.furaffinity.net/view/23549376/ <<<
Weasyl:
>>> https://www.weasyl.com/~7imothyc/su.....lightning-jack <<<
deviantART:
>>> http://fav.me/db3h45u <<<
Big thanks once again to DJcroc2016 for this wonderful piece!
And as a friendly reminder, keep checking out my deviantART account ~SUPERcubs for the latest SUPERverse updates. Big things are happening there soon!
The SUPERverse has fanart now!
General | Posted 8 years agoToday, we have received the first ever piece of SUPERverse fanart, and it's of the villain Lightning Jack! What a momentous occasion!
You can view it here:
>>> http://fav.me/db3h45u <<<
Credit goes to deviantART user DJcroc2016!
Thank you so much! ^^
You can view it here:
>>> http://fav.me/db3h45u <<<
Credit goes to deviantART user DJcroc2016!
Thank you so much! ^^
New "Thunder Pup" Chapter on DeviantArt!
General | Posted 9 years agoAfter not continuing any SUPERverse stories for over 2 months, I finally managed to finish the next chapter of the "Thunder Pup" side story!
You can read it here:
>>> http://fav.me/db00nby <<<
Just as a reminder, two SUPERverse stories will appear on two different FA accounts here, while the rest of the SUPERverse arcs will be exclusively on deviantART (and eventually Weasyl too, hopefully).
This ~JxAxP account will continue to receive two cub-oriented stories: "S.U.P.E.R." and "Mighty O's".
My general account, ~FreshStartWithABrokenHeart, will continue to receive "Fire Fox" chapters as they're made, and it will also post a new general story in the universe called "Tall Tails".
These 4 stories are the "four corners" of my universe, or rather the four main areas of focus, so I have deemed them the most important to keep here too.
I think I will also post the comic cover images on the proper accounts as they're made, too. The cover image for the "Thunder Pup" arc is currently in progress, so you can expect that to show up here fairly soon!
Don't forget to check our deviantART page, as well as our @ TheSUPERverse Twitter handle, for all the latest updates!
You can read it here:
>>> http://fav.me/db00nby <<<
Just as a reminder, two SUPERverse stories will appear on two different FA accounts here, while the rest of the SUPERverse arcs will be exclusively on deviantART (and eventually Weasyl too, hopefully).
This ~JxAxP account will continue to receive two cub-oriented stories: "S.U.P.E.R." and "Mighty O's".
My general account, ~FreshStartWithABrokenHeart, will continue to receive "Fire Fox" chapters as they're made, and it will also post a new general story in the universe called "Tall Tails".
These 4 stories are the "four corners" of my universe, or rather the four main areas of focus, so I have deemed them the most important to keep here too.
I think I will also post the comic cover images on the proper accounts as they're made, too. The cover image for the "Thunder Pup" arc is currently in progress, so you can expect that to show up here fairly soon!
Don't forget to check our deviantART page, as well as our @ TheSUPERverse Twitter handle, for all the latest updates!
SUPERverse 2-Year Anniversary!
General | Posted 9 years agoThe SUPERverse and the "S.U.P.E.R." story began 2 years ago today: January 15th, 2015!
That means we're now 2 years old, roughly the same age some of our heroes currently are, hehe. ^#^;;
In that time, here's a list of what we've accomplished (deviantART account stats):
- 25 prose story chapters spread out across 4 stories, 0 of which have been completed
- 2 comprehensive comic cover images
- 16 database entries (with a couple more coming real soon!)
- 8 pieces of concept art in Scraps
- 51 total planned story arcs
- 41 SUPERverse fans, a.k.a. deviantART watchers
- nearly 20,000 page views
And of course there's all the stats shown above!
Thanks for all your support!
Here's to more successful years to come!
That means we're now 2 years old, roughly the same age some of our heroes currently are, hehe. ^#^;;
In that time, here's a list of what we've accomplished (deviantART account stats):
- 25 prose story chapters spread out across 4 stories, 0 of which have been completed
- 2 comprehensive comic cover images
- 16 database entries (with a couple more coming real soon!)
- 8 pieces of concept art in Scraps
- 51 total planned story arcs
- 41 SUPERverse fans, a.k.a. deviantART watchers
- nearly 20,000 page views
And of course there's all the stats shown above!
Thanks for all your support!
Here's to more successful years to come!
New SUPERverse story started on Patreon!
General | Posted 9 years agoThe story I teased a while back, "Mighty O's", has a first chapter up!
To encourage some patronage for my universe project, however, the chapter is currently ONLY available through my Patreon page. If you pledge any amount there, you can view it before I post it here in the future!
Please support and pledge here: https://www.patreon.com/TheSUPERverse
To encourage some patronage for my universe project, however, the chapter is currently ONLY available through my Patreon page. If you pledge any amount there, you can view it before I post it here in the future!
Please support and pledge here: https://www.patreon.com/TheSUPERverse
The SUPERverse is now on Weasyl too!
General | Posted 9 years agoAs a follow-up to the previous journal, we've made our decision.
It seems like many of you do not have Weasyl accounts, but a few said they would give the new account a peek if I happened to make it. Also, in line with what I was thinking myself, others suggested that the Weasyl account would be great for reaching out to more people and attracting an overall larger audience. So even if our fans on deviantART and FurAffinity do not follow us there, some potential new fans eventually will!
So, I am happy to announce that the SUPERverse now has a dedicated account on Weasyl!
>>> https://www.weasyl.com/~thesuperverse <<<
To reiterate, the Weasyl account will function the same way as the deviantART account, both of which receiving more stories and concept art than the FurAffinity accounts. FA fans can now choose to go to deviantART OR Weasyl to see the extra content...once everything's posted onto the latter account, that is. ^^;
Now that the profile has been created, there's a lot of work for me to do!
In this particular instance, I think I'll be okay with posting things out of their original order. I want to post what will initially attract people the most, so what should I upload there first?
The Chronology?
The comic covers?
The characters?
Or should I start with the stories?
You decide!
It seems like many of you do not have Weasyl accounts, but a few said they would give the new account a peek if I happened to make it. Also, in line with what I was thinking myself, others suggested that the Weasyl account would be great for reaching out to more people and attracting an overall larger audience. So even if our fans on deviantART and FurAffinity do not follow us there, some potential new fans eventually will!
So, I am happy to announce that the SUPERverse now has a dedicated account on Weasyl!
>>> https://www.weasyl.com/~thesuperverse <<<
To reiterate, the Weasyl account will function the same way as the deviantART account, both of which receiving more stories and concept art than the FurAffinity accounts. FA fans can now choose to go to deviantART OR Weasyl to see the extra content...once everything's posted onto the latter account, that is. ^^;
Now that the profile has been created, there's a lot of work for me to do!
In this particular instance, I think I'll be okay with posting things out of their original order. I want to post what will initially attract people the most, so what should I upload there first?
The Chronology?
The comic covers?
The characters?
Or should I start with the stories?
You decide!
S.U.P.E.R. FANS PLEASE READ!
General | Posted 9 years agoHello again, everyone!
So, I should reiterate that we made a dedicated SUPERverse deviantART account in the first place because of deviantART's ease of use and numerous profile organization features, such as gallery folders to better organize our story arcs. We did not make a dedicated profile for the SUPERverse on FurAffinity because it lacked these features, or at least lacked a level of customization that we wanted with them, and we separated our stories to my different accounts to reduce gallery clutter.
As time has gone on, however, some other furry art sites have existed and gained a bit of a following after some issues within FA. I made an account for myself on the website Weasyl on one of these occasions, in the off chance that FA would become dead and the new site took off. Some FA users have split their operations between the two sites, and others almost exclusively operate there now.
I unfortunately haven't been active on Weasyl at all, only posting a few things shortly after my registration. But before the deviantART account was made, the same could have been said for my presence on there. I had been active on deviantART for years before that, but since developing my FA profile, it had progressively been waning until I made the SUPERverse. Now that I manage that account and maintain interaction between friends and fans, I am actually on deviantART MORE than FA.
I recently returned to my Weasyl account and looked over its features, and I realized that it might be even BETTER equipped to organize our submissions than deviantART! Not only does Weasyl have gallery folders, but it also has a section dedicated solely to character submissions! This means that we could keep our character Database entries and story arcs within two separate gallery-type sections, rather than keeping them together in our deviantART gallery.
What I am wondering, then, is if I made a Weasyl account for the SUPERverse, how much attention would it get?
How many of you happen to have accounts there, or how many of you would make one if we did?
Would our FurAffinity fans missing out on extra content perhaps pay more attention to a dedicated Weasyl account than a deviantART one?
This IN NO WAY means that we will be leaving deviantART. Remaining there is important to us for retaining a professional image, and we've found a few great dedicated fans there. We don't want to leave deviantART, nor will we.
We are simply estimating how effective it might be to have a duplicate/identical account on a different website.
So, if you have a Weasyl account, or would consider making one in order to give ours some attention, please speak up! We want to know how big a group of people we could be reaching!
If support seems to be big enough, we will make the account and start setting up shop over on Weasyl. But if DA and FA users seem generally satisfied with the current posting situation, then things will remain as they are.
Either way, POSTING PROCEDURE WILL CONTINUE AS USUAL, with 2 different FA accounts posting 1 to 2 SUPERverse stories while that and more comes to deviantART. Our deviantART account will remain our main base of operations.
Please give us your input in the comments below! We will post a follow-up journal in the future to announce our decision!
Thanks again, SUPERverse, fans!
So, I should reiterate that we made a dedicated SUPERverse deviantART account in the first place because of deviantART's ease of use and numerous profile organization features, such as gallery folders to better organize our story arcs. We did not make a dedicated profile for the SUPERverse on FurAffinity because it lacked these features, or at least lacked a level of customization that we wanted with them, and we separated our stories to my different accounts to reduce gallery clutter.
As time has gone on, however, some other furry art sites have existed and gained a bit of a following after some issues within FA. I made an account for myself on the website Weasyl on one of these occasions, in the off chance that FA would become dead and the new site took off. Some FA users have split their operations between the two sites, and others almost exclusively operate there now.
I unfortunately haven't been active on Weasyl at all, only posting a few things shortly after my registration. But before the deviantART account was made, the same could have been said for my presence on there. I had been active on deviantART for years before that, but since developing my FA profile, it had progressively been waning until I made the SUPERverse. Now that I manage that account and maintain interaction between friends and fans, I am actually on deviantART MORE than FA.
I recently returned to my Weasyl account and looked over its features, and I realized that it might be even BETTER equipped to organize our submissions than deviantART! Not only does Weasyl have gallery folders, but it also has a section dedicated solely to character submissions! This means that we could keep our character Database entries and story arcs within two separate gallery-type sections, rather than keeping them together in our deviantART gallery.
What I am wondering, then, is if I made a Weasyl account for the SUPERverse, how much attention would it get?
How many of you happen to have accounts there, or how many of you would make one if we did?
Would our FurAffinity fans missing out on extra content perhaps pay more attention to a dedicated Weasyl account than a deviantART one?
This IN NO WAY means that we will be leaving deviantART. Remaining there is important to us for retaining a professional image, and we've found a few great dedicated fans there. We don't want to leave deviantART, nor will we.
We are simply estimating how effective it might be to have a duplicate/identical account on a different website.
So, if you have a Weasyl account, or would consider making one in order to give ours some attention, please speak up! We want to know how big a group of people we could be reaching!
If support seems to be big enough, we will make the account and start setting up shop over on Weasyl. But if DA and FA users seem generally satisfied with the current posting situation, then things will remain as they are.
Either way, POSTING PROCEDURE WILL CONTINUE AS USUAL, with 2 different FA accounts posting 1 to 2 SUPERverse stories while that and more comes to deviantART. Our deviantART account will remain our main base of operations.
Please give us your input in the comments below! We will post a follow-up journal in the future to announce our decision!
Thanks again, SUPERverse, fans!
S.U.P.E.R. Stories Continuing Elsewhere!
General | Posted 9 years agoHello again, everyone!
While the "S.U.P.E.R." story is still on hold and will be for a while longer, I thought I would let you know that other stories in the same universe have been continuing!
First, my general FA account has a third chapter of "Fire Fox" up! You can view it here:
>>> http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21188465/ <<<
Second, the "Thunder Pup" side story that I started already has a second chapter on DA! You can view that here:
>>> http://fav.me/dahi13o <<<
I'll be sure to keep you guys updated when new chapters and stories appear in other locations. The faster these side stories get done, the faster the "S.U.P.E.R." story can resume!
While the "S.U.P.E.R." story is still on hold and will be for a while longer, I thought I would let you know that other stories in the same universe have been continuing!
First, my general FA account has a third chapter of "Fire Fox" up! You can view it here:
>>> http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21188465/ <<<
Second, the "Thunder Pup" side story that I started already has a second chapter on DA! You can view that here:
>>> http://fav.me/dahi13o <<<
I'll be sure to keep you guys updated when new chapters and stories appear in other locations. The faster these side stories get done, the faster the "S.U.P.E.R." story can resume!
NEW S.U.P.E.R. STORY STARTED ON DA!!!
General | Posted 9 years agoI wanted to let everyone know that we have started one of the side stories set in-between the two halves of "S.U.P.E.R.". This one is the beginning of Thunder Pup's side story!
I unfortunately don't want to post it here because of FA's limited organizational tools, so it will be a DeviantArt exclusive.
If that doesn't deter you, feel free to check out "Thunder Pup" #1 here:
>>> http://fav.me/dah4c4v <<<
Hope you enjoy!
.
I unfortunately don't want to post it here because of FA's limited organizational tools, so it will be a DeviantArt exclusive.
If that doesn't deter you, feel free to check out "Thunder Pup" #1 here:
>>> http://fav.me/dah4c4v <<<
Hope you enjoy!
.
