Since my last journal post, I have:
- gone to the DR and Haiti as advertised
-gone to medical school
-gone on another medical relief trip to Peru and climbed a 16,000 ft peak to touch a glacier
-graduated medical school
-gotten into a three year family medicine residency, and finished that
-written two novels
-gotten hired but haven't yet started?

and

-restarted the jogauni tarot project in earnest, which has been the main focus of recent uploads
-and went to DenFur I guess which was great fun

I'm going to try to be more active again. Try. I know there are probably LONG outstanding commissions still floating out there, and if you have one, I want you to DM me so that we can figure out how to resolve that. Money is much less a concern for me right now than time is, so if you simply want a refund, that is 100% doable.

Anyway. How ya'll been?

So, as the sort of culmination of the last few months' mad dash to improve my med school resume, and also because it's a really great thing to do that will widen my experience and so on which I'm very excited about, I'm about to take off on a two week medical relief/aid trip to the rural backcountry of the Dominican Republic.

Needless to say I will be without regular internet and I can't really come onto FA even when I do have internet (the foundation I'm travelling with has pretty strict rules against browsing adult content on their watch, which FA is of course rife with even when you're not looking for it), so I won't be seeing much until I'm back.

Once I am back, however, I should be able to finally decelerate a bit and start approaching commissions and the tarot card project again, which will be really nice!

Wish me luck, and I'll see yas when I see ya. :)

So, I just got a rejection from the med school I applied to (well, the last one still outstanding). I'm having a really rough time right now because of this, but I can't let that slow me down, because all this means I'm going to have to reapply next cycle, which begins in.... oh, two months. So I have two months --maybe a little more than that if I decide to trade timeliness for a bigger pile of experience to tack onto it, which is a balance I'll have to figure out as I go -- to SUBSTANTIALLY strengthen my application, which in my case means I need a ton more clinical experience. Which is going to take time, and focus.

As a result, I'm going to need to basically remove ALL distractions for my life for the next little while. I need 100% of my focus and drive to make this happen. One thing that is always vying for my attention right now is the guilt over backlogged commissions and the fact that I need to finish them. So, here's the deal. If you want your money back because your commission is taking too long and you don't want it pushed out by another couple of months, message me now and I will happily refund you. I've got a more steady source of income now, so don't worry about whether I can afford this option, it is FINE. If you are okay with things staying in limbo for another few months, let me know that instead. But understand, I will be paying no attention to outstanding commissions for the next few months. I likely won't even log onto FA in that time.

I'll be posting something similar over at my Patreon, because yeah, that's also, like pretty much everything that isn't 'get into medschool', being swept into the 'distractions' pile. I wish it weren't the case, but it should at least be temporary.

Thank you all for your support and kindness. It's helped in ways I can't always articulate, but are still very real.

Edited to add: I just noticed the date. I can't imagine anyone would think all of this was a joke (it'd be a joke in incredibly poor taste) but let me clarify: this is not a joke, I did actually in fact get turned down by my last option, I am actually falling apart over this, and April Fools can take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut as far as I'm concerned.

So! Long-time watchers probably know that I made an aborted attempt a few years ago to make a Tarot deck using the Jogauni tribes. I'd like to pick this up again and have an actual shot at finishing them, but they take so long that I need to make it worth my while to do so.

So! I've launched a Patreon account to support the creation of the deck. For those who know how Patreon works, skip to the next section! For those who don't: basically if you want to be a patron, you make a small pledge that recurs every time I post a new card - so for example, if you pledge 50 cents, then every time I finish a card you get charged 50 cents. This will recur until you hit your monthly limit, which is an amount that you can set at any level you want. I anticipate a few cards a month, no more than that. Also, you get a one-time reward for pledging, depending on how much you pledge! Yay!

So, the page is here: LINK and I would really appreciate it if some people would consider making a small pledge to help me get this project rolling again.

Going to try to start doing regular events on various days of the week with discounted commissions or commission types I don't normally offer. Because I still don't have a job, and my health insurance just got more expensive and nothing else is getting cheaper, so I may as well TRY.

The first of these: Moleskine Mondays, wherein I am offering loose little moleskine sketches for $5 each. So cheap! And it will help me so much if I can get enough of them!

Please help if you can x.x

Click here for the main entry with graphics etc. Basically, I'm giving this idea a try: limited run sales most days that I have time to work on them, and trying to turn them around immediately.

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A 2 3/8" x 4 1/4" manila shipping tag with your character drawn as if packed into a crate. Prismacolor marker, ink and gelpen. ENCLOSED: and ONE(1) text is default unless specified otherwise. Ropes are $2.50 extra, cargo net is $5 extra (they just take time, no way around it). These can be laminated or sprayed with acrylic sealer and will ship with either a keychain length of ball chain or a hank of jute twine. (See here for comparison of options.) Shipping is $3 extra worldwide.

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Yeah, I guess it's getting pretty obvious how desperately behind I am on all of my bills and etc u.u

Take a look, consider snagging a slot! You'd be helping someone in pretty serious need.

So, I uh. May have just graduated college? Finally?

Wooooooo.

So, I'll be at RMFC in august as always? But I'm not doing a dealer table this year because I would also like to suit and hang out and since they STILL DO NOT HAVE AN ARTIST'S ALLEY--a travesty imo, no matter how tight the space is--there's no way to sell art or commissions there without dedicating the entire weekend to sitting behind a table. I missed the fursuit parade last year because of that, which frustrated me immensely (if I'd had an AA table instead of a dealers table I could have just taken off whenever I wanted, and made the parade).

So, until a middle ground exists, my rough plan is to alternate years between dealers table and hanging out/enjoying the con.

That said, I don't think there's any rules against doing art TRADES outside of a dealer's room, so I might just hang out in the hall or the gaming room or what have you. And do trades. And stuff. And also suit.

In the meantime.... does anyone know of any other small cons in the vicinity of Colorado? I can't really afford to fly anywhere, but I'd like RMFC to not be my ONLY con.

Current working queue:

Gabrieel - wood Jogauni trikky [base colors done, working on details]
Tengu - THE EYEBROW PICTURE [concept sketched, waiting for MORE SKILL]
Kit - Cargo badge, six tarot cards [concepts sketched]
Siku - Reference sheet

Shipping room:
Cargo badge: Fury


SHIPPED:
Cargo badges: Hyler, Fenra, Dingra
Sketches: Hyler, Eo
Fancy Art card: Eo

So, yeah, opening general commissions for art cards, simple badges, and sketches. Basically stuff I cannot get bogged down in because that's not where my head is lately. All the info is located over here: Pricing Sheet.

The $5 art cards from last week are now $10 because it turns out they take me about twice as long as I was expecting them to. I'll still occasionally run limited-slot $5 specials, but in general $5 wasn't sustainable. All other info is on the sheet.

Help me pay for groceries! And doctors' visits! And cat food! And new pants because holy crap my jeans are falling apart. Ugh.

I need a volunteer to receive a free badge of a new type I want to try. As usual, shipping rates apply ($3, seemingly worldwide!) but the badge itself will be free because I want to time myself and see how much work it is.

In other words, FOR SCIENCE.

If you're interested, comment below with a link to reference art, anything important about your character (age, personality, etc).

I'm only doing one for free but it's not necessarily first post gets it--I'll be looking for a character that looks interesting and fun to draw, and most importantly, one that I HAVE NOT EVER DRAWN BEFORE.

All the art cards as well as the one remaining badge (jakeotter) have been mailed out today--expect them shortly. Well, except for those of you in Russia; I would advise you to expect them in a little while. ;)

Sorry about the lull in getting these done; they were supposed to be super quick turnaround, but on Monday there was a wildfire about half a mile from my house and we were in the mandatory evacuation zone and that screwed everything up for two days.

(Everything's fine; they got it under control and then we had a long day of rain, and they let us back in. No houses were lost and I don't think anyone was hurt or killed; it could have been much, much worse.)

But I should be able to get back on those today, so, keep an eye out. :)

So, that was a long hiatus. Holidays, several absent friends, a brutal semester, and a bout with some of the worst depression I've had in years. Not fun times!

I'm going to try to be more present again. Ramping up for a lot of fun projects and going to try to focus on smaller, simpler commissions so that I don't get overwhelmed and locked up from them again. Watch this space for more info on that.

Still just liamhaas, because I am boring. No worries, I'll still be updating both sites with NEW art; however, I'm aiming to build a more complete back-catalog over there, since it has folders to keep things sorted and separate which makes putting older stuff (or the entirety of a webcomic) up less cumbersome.

I'd like to track people down over there if possible, so if you have an account there, let me know!

So I'm intrigued by this Weasyl thing; it looks a lot more feature rich than FA (specifically in regards to some particular features I've been wanting and lacking here). Does anyone I know here have an invite?

I could post anything at all in this space, and no one would ever know...

Still working my way slowly through the commission load from RMFC. It's not that I took too many -- I got hit with a bad bout of Bronchitis right after, and then I was taking an evening nursing course that disrupted my schedule completely, and so on and so forth. Not excuses; just an explanation. I'm not sitting on them and I'm not taking other commissions ahead of them, I just have had shockingly little time this autumn.

Parents survived Sandy with minimal impact; they didn't even lose power, which is unbelievable to me, considering they're 5 miles from the shore and in one of the worst areas for outages. No damage.

It's Halloween I guess? That really snuck up on me this year. Might just pull out my usual Dr Who getup if we decide to go anywhere, though I no longer have the hair for it. :(

So, RMFC was pretty awesome, though I only saw a small part of it. The dealers' room was bigger this year and consistently full of both high quality and unique wares; One of my favorites was the little plushies with the skulls and bones attached, ahaha ( customcranium). I had my little table in the corner and did a lot of badges and a sketchbook or two, and sold through nearly all of my Jogauni tarot card prints, which was a fantastic surprise!

Friday was slow for the dealers, as is typical, but there were free drinks at the cocktail party after and I had a few too many, then went home to shrink some shrinky keychains and work on a badge.

Saturday night I got a little suiting in--can't go to a con and not at least give myself a *little* heat exhaustion--hung out with a great snow leopard dude who later led me to the mega-powerful fan in the back of the dance, which was pretty much the greatest thing ever. I missed the fursuit parade earlier in the day--which is to say I saw it, but wasn't in it, because I didn't want to abandon the table--and I feel a little regretty over that, because I wanted to be in it but thought it wasn't a done thing to abandon your table. Wish I'd looked into that better.

Sunday was great, really laid back, all my commissions caught up so I took a few more simple ones, handed them off, talked with a lot of people about fandoms and interests and all the non-urgent topics you wander onto when the con's winding down and no one has any money left to spend anyway. GTFO out 5, wandered up the mountain to drop off the suit and the bins of supplies and got some Italian dinner to celebrate. :D

Yeah, I'm pretty much buried in work for it. I really hope this works out.

So, a couple things. It's been a long, pretty miserable year, with more setbacks and disaster than I thought was possible to make it through, so I haven't been producing much, either on here or on SL. I'm trying to remedy that now. Wish me luck with that.

I'll be at RMFC this year, of course. Still with Firefly--no time to get a new one done this year, which makes me really sad because I had a few ideas including a crested owl--and this year I'll have a little sliver of a table in the dealer's room where I hope to do some badges and commissions to raise money for surviving fall semester without financial aid, ugh ugh UGH. If anyone's interested in finding me I'll be listed as Lophostrix... something, heh, I don't actually remember what I appended to that. Coming up with a company name on the fly is kind of tricky.

I'll be finishing up the badges I already owe people first, of course. And hopefully have time to get some prints together. Idk idk, I wish RMFC had an artists' alley, I'd feel much less out of my league there, but it is what it is, so hopefully I'll see some people there.

So, my parents are in south Jersey, about ten minutes from the beach.

...yeah.

I'm not religious, so I'm not particularly interested in prayers? But any well-wishes folks could send to that area would be appreciated. :\

Back from New Hampshire--beautiful lake, midnight kayaking, fires on the beach and nightswimming--and now it is time to roll on to RMFC! Seeya all there in, oh, about half an hour. XD

Is anyone who I actually know going to RMFC and planning on getting a room? I'm looking for someone who'd be willing to let me change into my suit in their room, and stash the suit there, since I live too locally to justify getting a room but nowhere near locally enough to change at home.

If you're willing to help out, please send me a private note, rather than replying to this message, thanks!

Badges: 8 in a new style that I'm experimenting with. Once these are done I'll open this style of badge up for open commission. It should be interesting.

Sketches: one, commissioned.

Wah star portraits: three more to go; all thumbnailed out.

Avatars: Stuff. Not gonna be too specific there.

Suitstuff: Considering picking up on the jogauni suit again, dono.

Life: Finishing my 16-credit semester and not dying.

That's mostly it. Just letting the few people who care know where I'm at with stuff. Kind wishes in regards to number 6 gladly accepted.