Hey folks

Been a little while since I dropped a line so may as well talk about what's been going on.

Rather than beat around the bush I'll just get to the point, my grandmother passed at the start of the month. She's been on the decline for a while, we had her over for the holidays and she barely ate and hadn't been eating much in general, then she got ended up in the hospital for a good 3 weeks over New Years, after which they began her on hospice care.

My last visit with her was on Valentine's. It went well at least, we talked for a while, i got to tell her about my job and my last trip (further Confusion) sharing photos and such. She seemed to enjoy it.

As far as I know she passed in her sleep the evening of March 1st. Got the call from my sister, who was understandably upset.

I'm still hitting little pockets of sad here and there. It's been kind of easier since we've been expecting it, but it doesn't make it sting any less. Sisters and I are doing our own little ways of grieving, she's being cremated so I got a very nice little mini urn for her.

In a way it's a relief. The poor old woman has had just an absolute miserable few years after my mother's passing, her stroke, and the whole pandemic, among other things. She's at least at peace now. I wish I could've done more for her and made her more comfortable, but I tried.

To those I didn't tell, I'm sorry. Wasn't trying to keep it hidden but it's also just takes a lot of energy explaining it and dealing with the reaction. I'm okay. A bit sad, but okay, and I appreciate the concern and well wishes.

Otherwise, life has been going okay, for the most part. Weird cold and wet winter. But it's starting to warm up. Work has been okay. Family has otherwise been doing alright.

Mostly been playing WoW; Dragonflight and enjoying it quite a bit, while poking at other games here and there. Currently on 'For a Vast Future', an interesting little indie RPG. Honestly I have so many other games I want to get to too. Enjoying Foretales. Looking forward to Jack Move, Brok the Investigator, Beacon Pines. I still need to get back to Sonic Frontier and Crisis Core. And others coming down the line. So many games, so little time.

Also picked up the 2nd volume of Ramen Wolf and Curry Tiger, it's a really adorable Manga I've been enjoying so far.

Still trying to write here and there, but it's been hard committing to anything or managing anything more than a lil scrap every couple weeks or so.

So yeah I'm sorry if I've been quiet or standoffish, I mean, more than I usually am.

First time in San Jose in 2 years, looking forward to it =D

Welcome to 2023 kids. Let's work to make it a good one

https://special.usps.com/testkits

US Residents, You can order another round of COVID test kits for free! 1 batch per household

Double birthday weekend it seems
Saturday was  Rolandguiscard's b-day and today is  Donryu's b-day. Go wish 'em a happy birthday!

Or more specifically my characters are anyhow.

https://fxtwitter.com/thebittersoul.....40421128806400

Lil reward from a kickstarter campaign I backed

You can check out the campaign here to follow along on updates:
https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....itter/furquest

It's  Cyberklaw's birthday today!

https://twitter.com/RVBShush/status.....41306493149186

 Redvelvetbat is selling an adopt, a cute bunny mad scientist! Even if you're not interested, consider RT'ing to signal boost them please!

Made a couple new folders in the gallery. one for  redvelvetbat and one for all the pics of my main fursona, Tredain.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....nd-penny-blood

*bounces* this is super awesome! Double game project from the folks that made Wild ARMS and Shadow Hearts, both really solid series. Definitely pitching on on these!

US residents! The free test kit program through USPS ends this friday

https://special.usps.com/testkits

Go here and you can order 8 at home test kits, no cost, no shipping. One order per household!

It's  Spooktoons birthday today (the 6th!)

Wish 'em a good one!

https://twitter.com/SpookToons

https://twitter.com/TooMuchDynamite.....35497584889856

Candy Bara did a bunch of really cute stickers, give 'em a look!

https://twitter.com/SpookToons/stat.....29379051982855

Hey folks, See the tweet thread linked above. Couple friends are in a very serious and dire living situation that's been getting progressively worse and they need some help to get out of it. Even if you can't donate, please try and spread the word, trying to make sure they can get somewhere safe.

Made me giggle. Little V is awesome

It's  Talonsaurn's birthday. I'd say go paddle him but you might lose a hand (or more likely uh, more)

but wishing him a happy birthday is likely a safe choice

So,

This is just kind of a general update on life for me I figured I should drop just so folks are kind of aware what's going on.

I don't really feel like going into details here, but to make a very upsetting story succinct, we discovered a family member had a drug problem after they suffered a prolonged hallucinogenic episode, which included a couple calls to 911 and a trip to the emergency room (which is what finally let us know what was going on with him). My sister and nieces have moved in with my sister's boyfriend out of safety for the kids. The family member in question sobered up and has come to realize how deeply he has fucked things up with himself and the family, currently is doing weekly counseling and very slowly picking things up. Suffice to say it was a very long few days for me that I just don't want to recount in detail. Things have quieted since (this all happened at the start of the month).

To say the least it made my birthday a very low key and somber event where I just had a quiet day to myself, pretty much. Still enjoyed it. (Thank you again for all the wonderful birthday wishes. Of everything, I'm very thankful for my friends and fans)

Then there's my remaining grandmother, who isn't doing so well. The year of isolation from the pandemic did a lot of damage to her mental health and accelerated her dementia. We transferred to a dementia wing at her rest home but lately they say she just wants to sleep and is barely eating. I'm not really hopeful of things turning around and I know I need to visit her but it's really hard to.

Work is spinning up for a busy summer and they want me to travel in August, which I'm not entirely displeased about but they also wanted me to take a trip this month and if I had things would have gone -really- south with that whole drug episode because I wouldn't have been around to help. So that's got me a little paranoid. Think I'm going to work them down to just 1 week's travel rather than 2. We'll see how things go. Have also just found two of my coworkers are just... kind of detestable types. Hoping one of them is going to transfer soon to a new position.

Also have a friend of mine in the hospital due to a sudden issue. He's doing okay and they've managed to catch the issue in time but it's still stressful/worrisome.

Then next next week I have a wisdom tooth extraction with an oral surgeon that I have to have done out of town. Family is providing a ride but yeah, really not looking forward to it, will be put under because my wisdom teeth are not in great positions and expecting to be out of work a few days. And I have a follow up out of town to check on the tooth I had a root canal on (though I think that'll go well, I haven't had any issues but it's more annoying I have to go out of town for it).

And this is all on top of the ongoing pandemic and political situation. I'm still cautiously optimistic on the pandemic but it's hard to be positive with just so much shit going wrong on a micro and macro level.

Still hanging in there but yeah. Just kind of stressed and worn down. I'll have a more positive journal in a lil bit to kinda go over some of the few good things I've at least been able to enjoy. Thanks for listening folks.

https://www.covid.gov/

You can now order another 8 free tests per household if you live in the US. with case counts rising, it's worth having on hand!

Hey

I updated a slightly older submission, I received the completed shaded version and rather than delete the old one and/or upload another file for the new one, I just replaced the file

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44505642/
You can check it out here.

Just giving folks a heads up now, since it always sneaks up on people.

Not really doing much to celebrate. For those following my twitter, my family is going through some uh, heavy stuff. Thinking we'll just do an IOU thing. Dunno. I'm managing as best I can and will try and treat myself some way tomorrow and I've got some stuff to upload soon.

Otherwise, hope you're all okay.

Edit: Just changed it to 'today' rather than make another journal. thanks to everyone for the wishes

Hey all!

Public service announcement time

https://covid-19-test-to-treat-loca.....ub.arcgis.com/

If you catch COVID and are within 5 days of your symptoms, use this tracker and see if there's a Test-To-Treat facility near you. These locales will test you and if you pop positive will give you a prescription for PAXLOVID, a very useful antiviral that is highly effective at treating COVID.

Even if you don't have a facililty near you, ask your doctor or urgent care facillity if you're suffering symptoms. Get the word out about this treatment, 90% effective at curbing serious symptoms and no deaths reported after using this medication. Especially with a lot of safety measures going out the window, ya'll need to be informed on what you have available to you!

https://twitter.com/SpookToons/stat.....85482632499208

Pretty wild design, please spread the word or nab 'em if you're interested!

It's  Redvelvetbat and  Koraksinatra's birthdays! =D Go wish 'em well!

It's  Kurst's birthday!

Heya!

Nother kickstarter plug. Furquest is funded! (In fact so is one of the other ones I dropped in the last journal, the post apoc one) but Furquest still has over a week to go and it's halfway to it's first stretch goal, which seems pretty realistic to hit! Give a look and consider contributing, it looks like a cute game and it's actually being developed by a furry!

https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....itter/furquest

You can also follow the creator on twitter

https://twitter.com/thebittersoul

Even if you can't contribute, consider spreading the word, this looks cute and I'd like to see it be successful!