Well, after six productive years of working the job that took me in after I had been fired from my previous one, I've decided to call it quits on this one on my own terms. Unlike before, six years ago, I feel completely at ease with myself, despite the somewhat uncertainty of what comes next. But to summarize the situation, here's the rundown:

- Last week, things had finally come to a head where I just had that sudden overwhelming feeling of having had enough. I'm sure you know the feeling. It's a combination of several things that led to this moment.

- I had put in for my week's vacation and was supposed to start it this week. But at the last moment, two cashiers quit on us, which forced my boss to cancel my vacation until further notice. I was not happy because I always got my vacation around this time each year. I rely on it to offload all the emotional and mental baggage I've accumulated throughout the year. Then she tells me she still needs to take HER vacation, which I understand. But she gets to have two weeks while the rest of us only get one. The other full-timer got to have hers while we were still adequately staffed. But now I'm right screwed over, because apparently no one wants to work.

- Work-related stress has been piling up on me for quite some time now. I had already been thinking of looking for another job and starting over. But not being allowed to take my vacation until who-knows-when, that stress kept piling higher and higher until it finally overflowed, hence my "Fuck it!" moment that was the last straw for me.

- I realized that after three years as the assistant manager, I had gone as far as I'm able to go with this company. I knew already that I wouldn't be able to handle being a store manager and running my own store. It's too much responsibility and the demands on my time would've been staggering. The way I understood it, the time would've eventually came when the district manager would give me the ultimatum of either stepping up to store manager or stepping down. The assistant manager position was intended as a stepping stool towards moving on to running my own store. And having seen the demands of that position on other store managers, I knew fairly quickly that it wasn't for me. This meant I'd eventually have been forced to step down to my previous position, a lead sales associate, and lose all that pay I gained.

- I've made my lion's share of mistakes and what not, some of them proving somewhat costly to the store. By all accounts, I should've been fired by now for some of the things I did, however accidental. But my boss, bless her heart, she gave me more chances than I probably deserved. I still got written up for a couple key things she couldn't overlook, the most recent one being a final written notice. Had I messed up badly enough again, I would've been demoted from my position anyway.

- While I was given the option of simply stepping down instead of quitting, I knew in my heart that I didn't want to go backwards after all the hard work I put in to earn my way to where I was. Some would say I should've just done that, but again, I had hit my breaking point and I couldn't bear to keep doing this any longer. I put in my two week notice and intend to finish it out so I can leave on good terms and have a good reference.

- To answer your question, no. I don't have a job lined up right now. I have some money saved up and I intend to take that week's vacation that I desperately need. Understand, two days off per week isn't enough for me to truly unwind. All of that downtime is spent either recuperating from the prior week and/or doing necessary household chores. I haven't had time to truly unplug and unload everything from the previous year. I NEED this. And yes, I'm willing to take this risk when six years ago, losing my job was devastating. I have a lot more experience now and places are always looking for experienced help. I'm confident I'll be able to get back to work within a week or so once I'm ready to do so again.

- It also helps that I'm not alone this time. With Mimic living with me, he's been a wonderful friend and a great source of support in this uncertain time. I am very grateful to him for this and it's because of him that I can make this choice confidently.

Bottom line is, I'm 98% certain that I'll be alright. I had three different managers from three different companies come into my store as customers and just up and asked me if I wanted to work for them, without any prompting from me. That shows how much of an impact I've had on this community and I feel very happy about the doors I have opened up. I intend to explore each of those options thoroughly to decide which one is best. If none work out, there are other places as well.

It's much easier for me to cope with this when I'm the one quitting rather than being fired. I suppose it's because I'm doing this on my terms rather than theirs. Anyway, that's where I am right now and for the time being, I still have eight days left at my job before it's over.

I'm a bit surprised that Eri barely won out on this poll. Personally, I was kinda gunning for one of the others, believe it or not. So then why include Eri? I don't have many Rito choices that I'm feeling. I guess it's neither here nor there. It'll take some time, but this story should be pretty good once I'm done with it.

Sorry I'm a little behind on the prestory updates. Looks like the character will be Rito. Truth be told, this personally would've been my least preferred choice, but there are still a small handful of Rito characters I would do a muscle-themed story about. So anyway, here's the new poll: https://strawpoll.com/XmZRxGrAPnd

There is an option for "Other", where you can propose your own Rito character. However, please note that I make no guarantee that I'll use an Other choice if it wins. It depends on if I "feel" that character or not. I included Eri as a non-canon option. I realize there's a lack of male choices, save Kass. I didn't include Teba or Revali because I don't really jive with them. Anyway, unless there's a tie again, this new poll will end Sunday night. Happy voting!

I was making a new poll featuring which Rito character I'd feature alongside Link when something dawned on me that made me facepalm hard...I completely forgot to include Gerudo as one of the choices in the first poll. So, looks like I need to start all over again with the same first poll with Gerudo as an added option and all voting being reset to zero. I'm really sorry to ask you all to vote again, but I just can't move forward unless I have ALL options on the table.

So, here's the new poll: https://strawpoll.com/polls/XmZRxGB3xnd

This time, I'm going to give it a full week for everyone to vote on it. Voting will end next Thursday night. I'm really hoping it doesn't end in a tie this time because I'd hate to have to extend it beyond that. But I DO want to make this story. Please try to get as many people to vote as you can. Thank you!

I need a winner for this poll: https://strawpoll.com/polls/3RnYl3PMWye

As it stands, there's still a tie on it. I've extended it twice now and I guess I'm having to extend it yet again until end of day Thursday. So please, if you haven't voted already, please vote. The story can't get off the ground until these polls play out and with a clear winner for each.

Please, share this poll with others so they can vote also: https://strawpoll.com/polls/3RnYl3PMWye

And of course, if you haven't voted already, please do so. I'd really like your input on this.

Since the poll is currently tied, I'm extending the voting time even further. It'll now end by the end of Sunday. It's for a story I plan to do. For more details, click to this journal: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10571973/

After a loooong hiatus from making stories due to many reasons, I've decided to finally get back to making stories. However, let me make this perfectly clear. To those who claim they miss my stories and/or wish to see me do more again; whether I continue to do so more often depends entirely on you. All I have ever asked for, to keep me making more is for the smallest bit of your time to type up a little bit of feedback in the comment section. Feedback means everything to me and it's the sole motivator for me to keep going. But if no one comments, I feel like nobody is reading my stories and I'll end up potentially going another two or more years before I do another. So if you truly wish to see me get more active again, then assuming you read these new stories, just please take a moment afterwards to say something...anything. Even if it's just a single sentence, please leave a comment.

Now that I've made my position clear, here's the new story I wish to try. It will require some input from you guys, so I'm making a handful of polls to establish which direction this story will go on. It takes place in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild universe and canonically, happens after the fall of Calamity Ganon. I'm not acknowledging current events in Tears of the Kingdom, as I still haven't fully played it yet. But the story may have some elements from it. I don't know.

This story will be muscle-themed, romance-themed, and sex-themed. Link will be the main protagonist in the story, and he will talk. As for the "other character", that's what these polls will establish. So the first poll will establish which species the second character will be. I didn't include Goron as an option because quite simply, I'm not interested in using a Goron character, so I'm sorry to those of you who may have wanted to ship Link with one. This second character may be female or male. But we'll get to that in a future poll. Also, I included an Other option, in case you have another species in mind instead. Though please note that I can't guarantee that I'll run with a winning other option if it doesn't strike my fancy. If that happens, the choice will fall to the second place winning choice.

One last thing, if Zora wins, then please understand when I say that I won't be using Sidon as an option under that category as I've already did an entire story featuring him with Link. If you wish to read that one, you can find it here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44136833/

Here's the poll: https://strawpoll.com/polls/3RnYl3PMWye

The poll will run until the end of Thursday, the 8th. Only one vote per person, so please make it count. Happy voting!

New beginning. New plot. Tweaked or different plot elements. Some characters the same. Some different. Only specific example I would give now is I'd greatly cut back on the Naruto references, since that ship has sailed a long time ago and I've since left that phase. Rinji would still keep his Sharingan, but it won't have as much focus as it used to. I actually do have a specific storyline in mind to kick things off, this time involving something besides a virus setting events into motion where anthros emerge into being.

I'd still like to involve other characters if their owners allow it and it could probably be secondary stories solely featuring them without my own characters...or with if they would prefer it. Nothing is set in stone yet as I'm still kinda trying to find my groove again.

Alright, so I figure I should give the rundown on what's been going on this last year and two months since my ban. I'll try to keep it to the point.

I had initially tried appealing my ban not long after it first happened, but the admin at the time denied it. I...wasn't happy about it, considering I never did anything wrong from this account. It was a different account entirely which happened to be linked to this one via my email address. I'm not going to go in detail about it here, because this is one thing I'd rather not get back into. I figured that was the end of it, so I moved on and experimented with alternate websites. I first went full speed with Weasyl, where I had posted a lengthy journal explaining what went down. It's actually still there, if you really want to know how I felt. Username is the same. But sadly, Weasyl has very little foot traffic overall and it just felt empty there.

I then came across a site called Furry Network. It had a nice layout, but after getting a banner made and everything, I soon discovered that the site had lots of bugs/glitches. That, and it also had little foot traffic. So then I finally settled on Inkbunny, where I already had an account there. Had to work a bit to recover access to it, since I had forgotten my password. It was still light in foot traffic by comparison, but not too bad and there was at least a mildly decent amount of foot traffic there, so that was where I made my stand. I'll probably even keep using it, since I put effort into getting it going by posting stuff. Username is the same as here. About a month ago, though, I did find one more alternative called Itaku. It also has a nice layout to it, including banners. In the end, I only posted one thing there and just stuck with Inkbunny.

Finally, a week or so ago after another downer episode, I decided to make one last try at an appeal here. I did some research and found something that worked in my favor. I emailed them and finally heard back from them agreeing to reinstate this account. I...did make a concession to ensure it happened, but it doesn't really apply to this account anyway.

Bottom line, I'm glad I got my account back. My other Rinji account remains banned, but I don't really need it anyway. It'll be some time before I start getting things moving again, as I've been dealing with heart issues this past week after initially going to the ER. Fortunately, it wasn't serious, but it still caused a big disruption to my life and I had to miss some work because of it.

Not sure what else to say, so I guess I'll leave it there. Anyway, it's good to be back.

Just another of a long string of work days. I swear they just keep rolling, one into the next. Also wanted to post something different here. Wish I had something more substantial to mention, but alas…

Since 2015, the level of wokeness and feminism in most TV and movies has reached a fever pitch to where I refuse to invest a penny into anything made after that year, especially as it pertains to once-beloved franchises that have been butchered to death. The Critical Drinker sums up my thoughts on todays steaming piles of crap perfectly!

I happened to find this tweet that confirms that the next installment will be dropping at 8PM Eastern Time.

I am now 43 years old and climbing. Seems each year is a gradually larger struggle to stay in shape and maintain a pseudo-healthy diet. These days, I'm needing to wear a compression sleeve on my right knee because of past injuries to it and the sleeve helps prevent any further strain, so long as I'm careful. My vision occasionally gets a little blurry, but that's probably just post-sleep related. At least my blood pressure is as good as ever and my weight is only in the lower overweight category.

So all in all, I guess I'm still in relatively good health and everything still works. You may have noticed that I haven't been very active on here these days beyond faving images and stories and commenting on them. I'm frankly unsure of what the future holds and I find myself trying to take things one day at a time. Anyhoo, just wanted to put out a general update on all that. I still have these stories I'm sitting on, that I need to finish and post. Keep an eye out for those. In the meantime, my vacation from work has officially begun!

It's taken a while, but I've been working on some Zelda themed stories that I think you'll all like. Sorry this was really short, but just wanted to provide this small update.

Seriously, as the Critical Drinker himself says in this video, pretty much any old or long respected movie or TV franchise that gets revived in this current era is doomed for utter ruin. And yet, the studios suddenly show that money is no object when it comes to shoving (far) left ideologies down everyone's throats. I've seen it with Star Trek, a franchise I grew up with. I've seen it with Star Wars...now utter trash. Ghostbusters. the MCU films after Infinity War, Batman, Spiderman, the list goes on and on. I've sat back and watched as damn near everything I knew and loved have been shit on so hard that the metaphorical feces could overwhelm a sewage plant.

Which brings me to the next once-beloved series to get the woke treatment: He-Man

I'll let the video speak for itself, but let me just say that since Ghostbusters 2016, I haven't set foot in a theater since or bought a single DVD of a movie made since. For me, I've been clutching my older movies and TV series and finding new enjoyment from them; a sort of safe haven from the steaming pile that tries to pass as entertainment, when instead it's all about preaching and lecturing to their fans through the characters instead of, you know, entertaining them.

So here's a man whose reviews I personally enjoy, one of his latest ones being Masters of the Universe: Revelation

And he puts it succinctly. This shows is as bad as The Last Jedi. You couldn't even pay me to watch ANY of these shows.



I'm holding out the faintest bit of hope that the upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife will actually prove to be a lesson learned from the embarrassment that was woke Ghostbusters 2016.

UPDATE: Here's a follow-up video I strongly recommend you watch, which addresses the whole woke remakes of movies and TV as a whole and how it divides everyone. https://youtu.be/gcMTNDTUrBo

Sorry for my rather inactive presence lately, aside from lurking, faving and the occasional comment and such. Summer has been kind of a large waiting game for me. In particular, I'm waiting in anticipation for my vacation, which I hope to finally get by the end of August. Other than that, here's what's been going on in no particular order.

- My good friend  mimic12455 has moved in with me as my roommate. My mental health has greatly improved since he moved in, as I'm no longer living alone. It's been over a month now since he moved in and I'm happy to say that we're co-existing wonderfully.

- Work has been a roller coaster ride for me since my return to my assistant manager position, filled with ups and downs. And while my boss can be a bit cold in places, she has done her best to keep things from going too crazy.

- I've reconnected with my sister, who is my only family left. I'm planning on spending my vacation with her, since we're all we have left as far as family goes. Just need to confirm the proposed dates for my vacation, which should hopefully be tomorrow.

- Added a couple new Nintendo Switch titles to my collection, including the HD remake of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Got it $10 cheaper at Walmart. And I must say, it's worth every penny with both the enhanced graphics and Fi's fewer interruptions.

- Landing in some debt due to a major appliance needing fixed and vital repairs to my car. Believe me, the car especially is most vital to me so it's a problem I'll tackle as it comes.

- As a result of the debt, I won't be affording commissions for a long while. I'd be thrilled to be able to get a request or two, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

- I AM working on stories and actually just finished a very long one recently. Just need to go back through it and proofread and divide it into chapters. Got a couple or so others in a similar vein also planned. They take place in the Breath of the Wild universe. Thought I'd jump on that train finally. Better late than never.

Those are the most pertinent things worth mentioning. Just know that I'm still around.

Brand new Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 trailer!


Got some serious Skyward Sword vibes from it also!

Just when think start to look bleak for me, life throws me a bone...

- Due to lucky circumstances, I was offered my previous position back along with my previous higher salary AND it's being applied retroactively to all the weeks where I was on my reduced salary.

- I've figured out a plan on how to tackle the household projects a little at a time, so I'm not overwhelmed.

- Because I got my old salary back, I may yet be able to take a proper vacation later in the summer.

- I'm in the middle of working on a long story. This will be the first story in as long as I can remember that doesn't feature any of my own OCs, but rather characters from existing mainstream lore. So I'm really hoping more people will read AND comment on this one. Once it's ready, I'll start posting it. Until then, I don't have any ETA to give on its completion. I work at my own comfortable pace.

- I'll finally be able to afford the occasional commission once again, which is why new material from me has been sparse. However, if your prices are too high, don't expect to hear from me. I'm sure you got plenty of clients with deep pockets anyway.

I've yet to see my next paycheck, so I'm hoping it'll reflect my new salary. More than ever, I need it because my savings have almost completely dried up at this point.

To keep things to the point...

- I reluctantly took a demotion at work, which resulted in a drop in pay. This means money will be tight going forward because my savings are already dwindled down to critical levels. It was either that or stay in my current position and risk losing my job entirely at the store I was at. Luckily, I was transferred to a much better store, where I improved drastically. The district manager assured me that if another manager position opens up, she'll refer me to it.

- The friend I talk to on here has since had to take a job in order to pay the bills, leaving me with no one to talk to at night after I get home from work. As a result, I've done my best to compensate by keeping myself occupied with my video games. However, I still end up getting very lonely and the isolation sometimes weighs down on me heavily.

- With spring kicking into gear, I'm faced with house projects I had already put off for a year now that needs to be done.

- More than ever, I have to save every dime I make if I want to be able to meet the payments of my yearly property taxes, bi-yearly car insurance payments and now a large ER bill that I have payments for over a year.

In other words, I can't afford to buy commissions anymore unless an artist is kind/generous enough to draw me something for free...which I don't expect to happen. This means once I run out of content to post, there won't be anything new going forward. One silver lining is I'm starting to rekindle my storymaking juices and have come up with a nice kinky little story series I plan on making that I think a lot of people will like. I prefer to work at my own pace so basically, it'll be done when it's done and only when I post it, will the contents of those stories become known.

I've kept a low profile for the past few weeks as a result and I'm just now starting to come out of it.

That's pretty much it. I'm doing my best to take things one day at a time, but it won't always be easy. If my finances prove unable to keep up with the demands of my vital bills and debts, I may have to take more drastic action. Time will tell.

06/08/2019 was the date my page reached 100,000 views, a good decade after the account's creation. Now, almost two years after that, have I finally reached 1000 watchers. Seemed like the last ten took the longest. As far as I'm concerned, between the pageviews and the watcher count, I've accomplished everything I possibly can here. I have little to no expectations of ever reaching double those numbers. In any case, thank you all for being a part of my page and while my content output has been lackluster in recent months, I'm trying to find ways to turn that around.

Here's hoping!

...Would you read it? I'm hoping for answers to this question, because on the one hand I'd really like to finally delve into Sophie's backstory properly. On the other hand, I'm reluctant to dedicate the time and effort required if few to no one would be willing to take the time to read it while providing some feedback. That's always been the crux of being an author on a predominantly art website: your stories tend to get glossed over. So that's why I'm hoping to know who would read such a story.

Was doing some browsing and found this nice little gem. The end was such a missed opportunity to include such a memorable theme there. Glad somebody rectified this:

These days, I find it more and more difficult to find an artist with respectable drawing skills (that caters to my kinks) actually available for commissions. Whenever they do open up commissions, it's literally only for a few minutes...out of twenty-four hours! It seems like you have to be in the right place at the right time with all the stars perfectly aligned in order to successfully get a message out to secure a spot. Whatever happened to keeping commissions open for an agreeable period of time that is at LEAST 24 hours?

Look, I get it. Drawing is time consuming and tedious. You want to keep a steady schedule with the ability to be able to take some time off between sets to recuperate. But try seeing it from a consumer's perspective, a consumer who wishes to high heaven that he were an artist himself so he wouldn't be so dependent on others for arts. I made suggestions on ways artists can become more accessible to those who aren't readily able to be online much, such as a waiting list. But some had said that's asking too much from the artist to be able to keep track of such things. But I still stand by that idea.

My point is I'm frustrated that, as it stands, I only have ONE contact who usually makes time for me even though he too tends to have a pretty busy schedule. And even on those times he's not available that day or even the next, I at least know that I won't have to wait for too long before I can get something from him. Now mind you, I'm certainly not asking to be the center of anyone's universe as far as getting art goes, but I feel it isn't fair that slots tend to fill up in the span of a few mere minutes.

I'd like to be able to get art from other artists sometimes also. I ask, they say they're not available; or their profiles keep stating that commissions are closed. I can understand this sort of thing as it pertains to free requests, but paid art commissions shouldn't be a chore to track someone down that's more readily available.

To check off a list, in no particular order...

1. Having a potential health issue that requires me to get various tests just to find out the cause.

2. Haven't picked up my Nintendo Switch controller in months. Am I falling out of the spirit of video games?

3. I'm 42 years old.

4. My job is kinda in flux right now, but still secure enough to not feel anxious.

5. Forced to take a short medical leave of absence to have time to tackle said health issue, identify the cause and hopefully be able to treat it enough to return to work. Spoiler alert: It isn't Covid.

6. My writing mojo is still hard to recapture.

Maybe it's the state of things that's making it hard to be able to enjoy the things I used to. I wish I knew. I think, perhaps, it's because I have no one to share my video game fun with, that I've been unable or unwilling to pick up my controller to play it again. I don't know...