Gday all,

Once again we reach another lap around the Sun where I am now level 32, which I guess means I need to decide what kind of de buff to take, don’t think things really improve much from here hah.

So what’s been going on since last year? Not a great deal really. Just a whole lot of work with a few small breaks mixed in but really I just haven’t done a great deal else. Just some gaming and working on my model train stuff. Speaking of, I did join a fairly local model railway club which I hadn’t even known existed and it’s been quite nice going there each Saturday to run and chat trains with other people. Certainly something I’ve been missing out on doing it on my own at home.

Really though yeah, I don’t have much to talk about or say this year. Not really been creating any videos or such, nor have I really been getting any art. Plenty of art I want to get but just not had ideas, artists or the money to actually do it so instead it’s just pretty much radio silence from me.

I am semi active on telegram and discord though so if folks did want to talk to this boring derg for some reason you can ask for my details and I can pass them on.

Otherwise yeah, that’s pretty much all I have to say. Been quiet workdays as the boss is away on holiday. On my own in my section after the other two guys who used to help me out are no longer there so I guess that’s maybe a blessing. We shall see.

Until next time,
Val

G'day,

It's a late one this year for my annual journal but then again nobody reads these anyway so doesn't matter! I know I certainly very rarely actually look at journals.
Back on Tuesday 14th I leveled up to 31 and damn, again I don't know really where that year went. They weren't kidding when they said time flies when you're an adult!

Spent my birthday, and in fact the days from the 11th to the 15th over in Launceston, Tasmania for a nice little holiday, my first actual one since 2022. Gotta say it was a lovely time of year to travel. Unlike here in Victoria, there's a lot more trees down there that react to the autumn weather meaning everywhere was just so damn gorgeous and colourful! Haven't been to Tassie since 2004 so figured after 20 years it's probably a good time to get back there right? Especially given it's only an hours flight away. Speaking of, a big part of the reason to go there was to fly on the Qantaslink Boeing 717s before they're retired very soon. Yes I am that level of nerd.

Actual birthday itself didn't do a great deal. Had a nice walk around some wetlands to the north of launceston, spotted a few birds and a looooot of wallabies. We then went on a nice river cruise for about an hour along the waterway in Launceston including a bit of the way up Cataract Gorge which was absolutely stunning. After that spent ages trying to navigate the cities somewhat annoying one way road system to find food and ultimately settled on some charcoal chicken, nothing fancy but I didn't exactly want a restaurant meal anyway. Didn't really do much after that which I can recall.

Beyond that trip, I've mostly just been keeping on doing the same things as ever. Lots of work intermingled with poking away slowly but steadily at my model railway (and still spending probably far too much on it!) as well as gaming and whatnot.

We'll see what the next year brings. I still am trying to plan trips to both the US and the UK but it's so damn expensive (and the aussie dollar ain't getting any stronger) that it's difficult to really say if those trips will even happen, yet alone when. We shall have to see I guess.

Until next time, now I have to figure out where this skill point should go, and I guess going to have to start taking some debuffs too...oh well.

G’day all,

Another year, another birthday journal. You know how it goes by this point!

So yes turned 30 today which means another decade to cross off the list. Not sure what I really think about it. Pretty much just another day for the most part for me I suppose!

As this year my birthday fell on Mother’s Day, we went out for a family lunch yesterday to a buffet food place given it was unlikely to get a booking anywhere today. Had some lovely food though probably ate too much like always at those sorts of places.
For today though we all went around to my sisters for a joint birthday/Mother’s Day breakfast followed by walking the dogs by the beach and later having kfc for lunch (very healthy I know!). After that pretty much just gamed and lazed all afternoon. I did manage to spray some primer on some bits and pieces for my model railway though and then worked on applying decals on stuff.

Beyond today what has happened in the past year? Not too much I suppose. Been spending probably way too much money on model trains but I’ve been really enjoying them and very happy with the variety I have in my collection now. Just need more time to actually work on getting some scenery done on the layout.

Work has been off and on busy. At the moment I’m covering two roles with one guy away on holiday which means I’ve been average 49-50 hour weeks with the overtime. It’s paid though so can’t really complain though throw in the like 10 hours a week of commuting and it doesn’t leave a huge amount of time outside of it. It is what it is though.

Not sure what else to say really. Been wanting to get more art with people but I’ve acknowledged I’m too much of an introvert to really want to reach out and ask people about getting things together and then actually trying to find an artist for it. Especially want to get more things with gryphons in my gallery given I love them so dearly but are very poorly represented here.

Thanks to everyone who’s been around for me this past year. I know I’m terrible at poking people and timezones make things extra fun but I truly appreciate the time that anyone has put in to deal with me and my babbling about trains and planes hah.

With that said, let’s see what the upcoming year brings. Will I end up posting more than just one journal a year? Probably not but who knows! We’ll just have to wait and see.

Until then, toodaloo.

G’day all,

Once more the 14th of May has come around and that means another birthday and time to write another one of my seemingly only annual journal posts.

Since last year been quite the yo yo of in and out of lockdowns and restrictions thanks to covid but since around Christmas we’ve pretty much been open. Over the Easter holidays into Anzac Day I even managed to have my first real holiday since the pandemic began over in Adelaide which was really fun. Makes me happy to actually be able to travel and go see new places and things. Gotta start planning the next one to look forward to now.

Work has been crazy busy pretty much like the year before but we seem to be ever so slowly catching up. I’ve been averaging a good 10 hours or so overtime most weeks which brings me up to around 50 hour work weeks, 60 if you include the commute so needless to say, not a lot of time at home hah.
That said, I have been able to get a bit more done on my railway and my ever expanding collection of model trains (my wallet LOATHES it).

Speaking of wallet, I bought a brand new 2021 Ford Fiesta ST last year in July and I’ve absolutely been loving the car. I hadn’t intended on buying new but it was the car I wanted with all the right features and balance of economy and performance. It’s my little blue rocket and makes the commute way more enjoyable. With fuel prices skyrocketing too, it being cheaper to run than my old car also helps quite a good bit.

Art wise, for the past year I’ve been trying to focus mostly on getting more art of my alt characters that I felt really deserved some more attention along with wanting to get more stuff with friends. Sadly I’ve not been able to do much of the later as I find it really damn hard to actually catch artists I like when they’re taking comms.

As for today itself, it was a Saturday at least this year so no work which was good. Less good was the weather being god awful and my sister ending up going to hospital due to illness. Thankfully it appears to be a chest infection and she was discharged after a few hours and given some stuff to help.
As such, the only thing I really did was stream a little railroads online in the morning (a fantastic game I might add), followed by going out and having some lovely calamari for lunch and then repainting and flying a 777F in the new flight simulator in the evening. Nothing particularly special but hey, birthdays rarely are.

I guess I’ve rambled enough for another year. I’ve been trying to force myself to be a little bit more social and less reclusive but it’s definitely hard after timezones and such a full work schedule. I absolutely hate approaching people as a result as I always feel like it’d be poor timing but I’m always a fan of meeting new people to chat with.

Until next year, safe travels and whatnot. We’ll see how things go, hopefully continuing to improve. Time will tell.

G’day all, it’s that time of the year again where I actually bother to write out a journal.

Don’t actually have much to really say for this one. Everyone by now knows what the covid pandemic did and it’s impact on the world. Australia responded well and life is pretty much normal here these days with nothing in the community for some time so that’s been good.
Work has been off and on busy, lots of overtime though so that’s something. Did work today on my birthday but did manage to finish at lunch time along with most of the other guys for a change, rare for that to happen on Frantic Friday!

Other than that not much really to say. Kinda just lounged around after work until it was time to go out for dinner, as we could actually do that this year unlike the last with restaurants now open.

I wasn’t going to write one of these but I figured, I’ve done one every year for years now, so why break the tradition now? Even with nothing to say.

Until next time, see you same place, same time again next year, whatever that will bring.

Seriously, I’ve no idea what to call these things even with a year to come up with something!
G’day all. Yes I’m still alive despite it would seem everything that’s going on in the world right now even though I’ve been pretty inactive. I’m so bad at pressing myself to actually upload any art I do get and it’s pretty rare for me to actually make anything of my own these days that anyone here would be interested in seeing.
Nowadays the only real art that I do myself is textures for flight simulator aircraft for my fake airlines that I have. I’m not particularly talented when it comes to repainting stuff but I enjoy it regardless.

Life has been pretty quiet for me all things considered long before this whole covid-19 situation. Australia’s response to it has been surprisingly good given the general incompetence of most of out politicians. Nice to finally have something that forced some bipartisanship.
around this time last year i decided to build up an emergency fund of savings in case anything were to happen. Now I have enough to effectively cover most of my living expenses for a full year and I have to say, it’s a real comforting feeling and weight off the shoulders to do so. Sure it was easier for me given whilst I don’t get paid a lot, I live frugally so it keeps the expenses down but hey, a goal achieved is a goal done.

Work has gone a little quieter as of late which is hardly a surprise. The main clients of the company are still busy and still making orders so stuff is still more or less ticking along. Some days are busier, others are quiet. Today was fairly busy with two trips out driving delivering some items to the sand blasters and making some pickups but overall much of it was spent in my little storeroom huddled by the heater to stay warm, man it was cold today! Maxed at around 15c or so but started the shift at 6am around 7c and it was only 8 for the first half until smoko. Quite unusual for this time of year that’s for sure.

Since last years journal I have actually done more on the model railway. It is all provisionally wired up now with track for the station area and leads into it pinned in place and connected and I have run a few trains over it to make sure it all works. Still no scenery yet as I need to finish all the track work first And get the last two tables set up so I can complete the loop. It’s still so satisfying though to watch the trains now actually able to move around back and forth letting me picture how things should look a little more into the future.

My youtube channel (Denodon there as well) has been like last year fairly quiet. I’ve done a few more streams which have been fun and a handful of videos but overall not enough. I’m dabbling with some ideas to try and make my videos a little more professional but it’s quite hard. I’d love to come up with a custom title card and a new logo or branding to replace the crude PowerPoint made logo from 2006 that still adorns the channel but oh well, what can you do when you lack the creative talent eh?

I think that pretty much sums up everything that’s been going on lately. Rest of the day was pretty quiet. Sister came over with her cute little pup which was nice and we played some Nintendo before having a light meal. Not been hungry at all so the traditional meal out didn’t happen, even with the restaurants being closed we had planned on having it takeaway style but oh well. Maybe later in the week.
Until next time though, I hope you’ve all been well. See you round here again same place this time next year. Who knows what the world is going to look like by then.

G’day all,

It’s that time again where I actually bother to get around to typing some sort of journal. It’s kinda interesting reading back on these and seeing what I was doing at certain times.

Day started like any other workday. Since last year I’ve been made full time at the company I work for, and they’ve paid for me to get my medium rigid truck license and forklift licence so that’s pretty cool, and all useful to have.

Quite the diverse range of things I did today, started off painting and drilling out these wear screens for isamill machines, trying not to break my wrists in the process every time the drill caught on a hole.
After that did some driving for pickups including hanging around for an hour waiting for some blasted and painted parts to get packed and loaded onto the truck. Least it was a nice sunny day.
Finally after lunch spent the time smashing up old furniture with a sledgehammer and carrying the pieces downstairs to chuck in a big dumpster. Work is clearing out some office space above the reception area which means lots of cabinets and desks that are no longer needed.

Not much happened after work. I got a bird in September last year, a female Eclectus parrot named Indy who I got from an owner who couldn’t spend enough time with her when she was less than a year old. She’s such a smart bird, learns very fast and is pretty friendly with most people. Most entertaining mimicking she does is copying someone’s cough or sneeze or when she rings like the home phone, letting it ring three times before answering it herself with a “hello”.

Haven’t really don’t much on the model railway front. The layout boards are complete but haven’t done any tracklaying yet, having not had the energy or motivation for the most part to spend time in the garage. My YouTube stuff similarly hasn’t been anywhere near as active as it was for the same reasons.
I finally got the NBN internet installed in November which is dramatically faster than I used to have, upload speeds are like 30x quicker so now a 15min vid can upload in about the time of its duration instead of taking an entire night. Streaming is also possible which I’ve done a little bit on twitch.

Not much else to say. Planning another trip to cairns later in the year but this time with family as I loved it up there last year. Aside from that I’m just trying to save money for a deposit on a house. At current pricing it’ll take years to get the 20% needed but I’d rather pay or a mortgage than pay the same amount of money on rent and get nothing out of it.

If anyone made it this far, we’ll done. No nice rewards though, only to say that I’ll likely see you again this time next year.

G'day all,

It's that time of year again, another orbit around the sun marks another time to bother getting around to posting a journal here.
What has happened since last year? Well I got a full time factory job back in September. Not what I wanted to do but a job is a job and it pays decent money, great money actually compared to most entry level wages. Shift starts at 6am daily though which means waking up before 5am and out the door shortly after to get there on time. Do finish at 2:30 though so that's something.

Aside from that, nothing really that notable has been happening. Birthday was much the non-event as they always are, only this time I was at work bored for eight hours with the rather repetitious task of grinding weld splatter off of steel and wiping it down with thinners so the painter could spray them.
Did go out with the family for a meal, the Turkish place we'd wanted to have was closed so ended up having a burger at YOMG I think they're called, a place that used to do just frozen yoghurt but now does very nice burgers too. Ate too much but oh well, it was nice.

In just over two weeks time I'm going on holiday, taking my first time off since having a week at the start of December. Flying up to Cairns in Northern Queensland and hiring a campervan so I can travel and stop wherever I like. I'm looking forward to it, especially as the weather is getting colder here down south to run away to the tropics for a little bit. First time I'm travelling alone on a holiday I organised entirely myself so we'll see how things go.

I've recently started getting properly back into my old childhood hobbies of model railways, model kits and lego. I find I'm increasingly bored of games these days and can't be bothered playing any despite my vast library. I bought the new Lego UCS Y Wing which sadly arrives too late to be a birthday present but oh well. I've started setting up the baseboards for building my first proper model railway layout. I've got lots of stock for my local Victorian Railways and I have track and a trackplan, just need the time and motivation to build it.

My youtube channel stuff is still going (denodon123 there if you're curious/don't know). It's slowed up since getting the job as I find I'm too tired and too lacking in motivation after work most days to make quality content. I was one of the many who got demonetised by Google because I had the audacity to not be a huge channel already. I didn't do it for money but as a hobby given I like making and sharing things, but it was nice to feel like I was doing something possibly worthwhile. Alas my $2.80 a month is too much for poor Google to brunt the costs of and had to cut back. Oh well.

Don't think there's much more to say really. I'm pondering getting a cosplay outfit for a Galactic Empire Imperial Officer or something for PAX Aus at the end of the year but not sure yet.

That's about it.
See you all again maybe this time next year
Val

G'day all,

Not a lot to say again as ever, hence how these journals are as reliably frequent as they are.
Another year, another number. Pretty much all there is to it. Only difference being this year it was also mothers day. My sis was working during the day and I was working during the evening so didn't do much, especially as my mother had a migraine and the weather was lousy.

Went out yesterday for a buffet lunch at one of our favourite restaurants instead to make up for inability to do anything later. Did get a new wallet though which will be nice to replace my old one which was literally falling apart. Also some socks and underwear and a new shirt and some pants given I wear pretty much only the same select few things constantly which has rather worn them out.

Aside from that, didn't really do much. Got OMSI 2 on Steam myself so been playing that a little, some World of Warships and some Xbox. What a hard day.
If you want to see me more, I'm just on IMs so send me a note or whatever and maybe I'll add you. My YouTube stuff is going okay, some more streaming as of late as I've simply lacked motivation and ideas to do proper edited vids. I'm sure that'll happen eventually.

Job searching is still ongoing, no luck so far. Evening pizza job has paid for a good number of model railway items though which is always nice. Still preparing the space to build the layout (I need to build the shed first) so for now they're just pretty things in my display cabinet.

Nothing else going on really, same old routine each day. Next year is the year for the crisis of realising I've had a quarter of a century on this planet with nothing really to make of it, but such is life.

Until next time,
Val

G'day all,

As it is/was my birthday again today (always one a year apparently) it's time for the obligatory birthday journal (replacing the previous one from a year ago as lets face it, basically nobody reads journals anyway.

Not a lot happened today, got a book and family got another from the same series which is nice. Local works focused on shipwrecks along the coastline here, stuff that isn't covered nor even found really anywhere online.

Aside from that speaking more broadly, not a lot has been going on that I particularly want to talk about. If you want to know what has been going on, you can check out my youtube channel (denodon123) where I posted a May update describing what has actually been going on in my life lately. Let's just put it this way; being unemployed and under ample stress then learning family member has cancer isn't fun.

But anyway, I should probably post more of these journals to make them less of an annual thing and more regular but eh, we'll see.

Take Care

G'day all,

Finally got internet that works again. For those who know me elsewhere, you would know the last half a month my net was throttled to effectively dial up speed. You've not experienced slow net until google can't even load its homepage. Anybody that complains of slow net being "only" in the 1-2mb/s range doesn't deserve the entitlement IMO.

That aside still as lurking and quiet as ever here. Don't really do anything anymore that could be uploaded here. Other than the rare commissions I mostly focus on videos. I'd rather keep that channel separate to this profile so if you do want it note me, otherwise yeah.

Now we return to your regularly scheduled programming...

G'day all,

Yes it is another birthday journal for another year older. Seems I only ever write journals these days for birthdays looking at my journal history and all.

Not much really to say I suppose. I finished university so now I am no longer studying nor do I have full employment so that's something. Been working away on a few things, mostly my youtube channel but that's about it.

Don't know what else to say really. Not really active here so probably won't post another one of these until next year.

Ta ta

G'day all,

As the title says. It was my birthday this past Wednesday 14th. Supposedly it was an important one yet it isn't in this country and I spent half the day at university for a major playtest of the game. All the fun of leaving home at 6am when its freezing cold and still dark to head in.

Still, got myself a new phone that actually works now so that's a good thing. Nothing else really to say as university has been eating all my time. Only been what? 5-6 months since the last journal? Not really anything has changed. Only posted a single journal since last years birthday and nobody reads these journals anyway xD

Anyways, take care. See you in the next journal six months or so from now.

G'day all,

Since I haven't written one of these since May, I may as well do so now. Nobody reads these anyway so I may as well post a summary of what has been going on.

University semester was very busy as always with all the learning and work that goes into learning the finer arts of digital game creation followed by the production of our own game prototypes. My small team produced a prototype for a 2.5D stealth cat-burglary game with a working title of 'Greenback Jan' which has subsequently stuck around as the title due to lack of better alternatives.
I was responsible for the animation of the main character, level designer, creator of the modular kit system we established for future level construction and primary 3D modeller/asset modeller.
If our game gets selected for further development, it will be amongst the games being on display and available for play at PAX Australia 2014. I'm both excited and nervous about being an exhibitor at such an event. I went to this years inaugural PAX Aus 2013 and it was busy.

As an aside to this, I know own a personal copy of Unity Pro version (yes the expensive licensed version) which means that I can continue making little games and test prototypes for my own ideas. If anybody else is familiar with the program/wants to co-operate on any projects, let me know and we can talk about things.

With university over for the semester last month, I am now more or less free until March next year. Job hunting continues but has been rather unsuccessful as to be expected of the current business climate in my area. My sole income thus remains the commissions I do for flight simulator aircraft and a few other related projects.
Apart from those things mentioned above and continuing to teach myself Unity and 3DS Max, I have mostly been playing EVE Online, Assassins Creed: Revelations and GTA V. I've also been pushing myself to do more exercise to get back in shape and to try and maintain some form of fitness.

Suppose there's not much else to add here so I'll end it for now. Let's see if it's another 7 months until I post my next journal.

~Val

Just as the title suggests, its 14th of May again which means its another birthday. $50 from parents and 1500 ms points from Sis to think about what to do with.

At least this year its a partial day off, even if I'm still working hard on university work.

...I have no idea what to do.

I've got until March off from University yet I have absolutely nothing to do with my time until then. I haven't been in the mood to draw or write lately so those are out of the question. Its almost Summer so the days are getting too hot to do anything and I can't go out as I don't have a job to provide money to do anything. Haven't got any games either as I'm bored with all the ones I have.

First world problems for sure but dangit it sucks.

Greetings all,

Been a while since I last posted a journal. As of last week I have finished university and other than two exams, I am now done for the year. The timing is good as my web server needs renewal and I find myself in need of $30 to cover the costs.

I'm up for drawing pretty much anything or writing if that's what you prefer. I can do adult as well as clean art. I am best at dragons so those are what I'm mostly looking for.

I do commissions as a "pay what you want" style with only baselines for minimum price, from $5 for sketches, $10 for lineart and $30 for full colour plus basic background. Extras cost more on a per case basis.

Anyone interested?

Greetings all,

Been taking I might take a break from here (if that is at all possible considering I'm hardly around here as it is) to focus on the seeming tons of university work thats getting dumped on me these weeks. It's easy work but audio and video recording and editing, flash animation and the like are incredibly time consuming. We're expected to do 12 hours a week per unit at home. I'm at uni 4 days a week from morning to after dark with 12 hours on trains leaving Thursdays and the weekend to do 48 hours worth of work...

I doubt if any of you are even reading this yet alone care so this really is just more talking to myself. Oh well. I'm used to being alone and stressed so it's nothing new.

~ Val

Greetings all,

With semester 1 of university complete, I now have nothing to do until August. I've been looking for a job but it's pretty much fruitless when the companies are all downsizing and not hiring.

Instead I'm looking at taking some commissions with the hope of improving on the $50 a month that is currently all I get.

Works would pretty much all be digital and whilst I prefer doing just line work, I can do full color images as well. Just look in my gallery for some examples.

As for prices, I'm thinking of leaving that open to the end client. Anything is better than nothing after all. I know I'm not well known nor that talented so likely I'll get little if any interest but one has to try eh?

Good tidings to you all,
~Val

Greetings all,

Well yes it's my birthday today, this Monday the 14th day of May. Nothing special those as is normal, just another day and just another number. Oh well.

This semester of university ends next week (other than the single exam I have in June) so I should finally have time to procrast...I mean try writing or drawing again, possibly for commissions for some much needed cash.

Now to go do nothing for the remainder of my birthday.

Good tidings to you all,
~Valinor

Kinda odd to think about it but it's true. Another year older on May 14th...where'd the last year go?

Also pointless journal really is pointless as other than University I've done practically nothing the last couple weeks.

Hello,

At the moment I've found that I need $13 in order to cover a processing fee so that I can get a loan for my University course this year. As I currently have no employment and my father has lost his own as of next Friday, I have no means to cover this.

As a result I'm curious if anyone would like to commission me for lineart work. Dragons are all that I can really draw well so I'll restrict it to that. As for prices, I don't really have any idea so whatever you like would probably be fine (though $10 is my usual price for lineart work so keep that in mind).

Anybody interested? Let me know if you are.

~ Val