DeviantART started doing wacky shit with the front page, and if I can't even use it to passively browse art, it's really not worth my time at all. I'm ready to drop it. Kicked my ass into gear working on a little mari.somnol section I've had in my head for months now: my art gallery. Have a peek in glorious 800x600:

I'm really pleased with this. I've got it all hooked up to AutoSite and that Mac OS 8 look is just wonderful. I might stealth upload it to mari.somnol (as in, have it online but unlisted) until the rest of the site design is done. Or I could be adventurous and link it to everything else. I'll decide.

Not only have I had this on the brain for months, but honestly, it's been keeping me from going for bigger pieces, knowing that I'd like to have a gallery to put it on first. Consider that thought properly assuaged, I suppose.

(I have no clue if I'm properly focusing on working on mari.somnol, but I'm tempted. At the very least, I'd like to get the slight redesign of cammy.somnol done first, with the aboveground/underground sections I've had sitting in need of graphics for, again, months now.)

I alluded to archiving some of my project sites last year, and I finally got to doing that. Misery Inspires and my Gopher Repository are now on archives. It makes me happy that I got to make them happen, Misery Inspires especially (fuzzy high school memories with that band), but in two years, it'll have been ten since Better Nature came out. They have a new record out and I still haven't heard it, let alone read any of the press with it. I start too many projects, and it feels good to finally clear 'em out.

Also, today's my one year of being on RetroAchievements! That's neat. Still love this site, still got a list of sets pinned in the Somnol Discord that I want to go for, once I'm done clearing out my started sets. For the occasion, I mastered my 30th game, that damn Hamtaro GBA game I started back in...May 2022. :omegalul:

Been really soothing, clearing out files, calling stuff done, and focusing on myself again. Listening to music for fun again. (The Black Album that I wrote that piece on is actually probably my new favorite album lately. Alas, silly opinions changing.) Got into kind of a bad state for a bit, but we're coming off it. Drinking less, eating again, writing quest responses for Devon. I also got my passport! Wasn't expecting it until next month. Suppose it's about time to start looking into April flights to schedule.

I was avoiding even talking about my feelings about this publicly, but I'm ready to put it to bed in my mind. In truth, this is some stupid shit that involved one corner of one niche scene, but despite my efforts to carry on, it feels bigger than that to me. I got ratfucked.

I got ratfucked! I really don't think it's because of what I said. I think I bruised some egos by being a prominent person in that community who thought 3.0 was unnecessary, so they looked for the first thing they could claim was the issue and did it real quick and secret while I was at work so I couldn't defend myself.

Consider that when borb got kicked out of the hairdog community (populated by teenage girls!) for quite literally saying nonbinary people were just lying for attention, she still got taken aside and asked about it. She got a chance to defend herself, despite espousing actual bigoted views. I didn't. It was all bullshit is why. Even if it was about what I said, people on that team could throw around racial slurs and anti-Semitic memes and it was fine. It got an "interesting" at worst. Guess if it's not in the server, who gives a shit.

When shit went down with the Quake scene, I took it personally. This time, I feel no reason to. About the thing that sucks the most is that I thought the people involved were my friends, or were at least friendly. There was no private "hey knock that shit off", no attempt to talk to me. I was just gone when I conveniently wasn't there. Something something sending a message, like he's my fucking dad. I don't know how any of this is supposed to reflect badly on me.

I privated all my community videos tonight. My channel belongs to me again. I've cut my losses, and what's important will be back in time. I have other hobbies, and other people who like me. I got invited into a server over this. People reached out and said they didn't think I did anything wrong. All the proof I need, frankly.

I did finally meet the new beer lead the other day. I think we'll get along quite nicely.

If you want something nicer from me to read, I started a series on Letters the other day called First Draft, which is about albums that got tweaked or redone after their first attempt. I've got a few others in mind for the series, so stay tuned.

I'm also a lot more active on blips.club these days. If you're wondering what I'm up to, or you just want to see me tell people they probably shouldn't be posting about their dandruff problems, I'm posting several times a day over there.

Happy February, journal readers. I've been battling the world's most noncommittal cold ever the past few days. It was a bitch on Monday! A sore throat and mucus turned into a headache turned into full body aches and fogginess, but beyond that, every day has been a coin flip as to if I'll even be annoyed by my symptoms. (Today sucked when I woke up, but now it's just some scratchiness in my throat. I sound a bit rough but otherwise, I'm fine.)

The chilliness here is honestly more of an issue. Even with my heater blasting day and night, it still feels like there's a draft everywhere in the house. 40s and 50s for the next two weeks, thankfully.

I declared February to be Neglected Characters Month in Somnolescent, just a fun little thing to get everyone thinking about some of their less-used lads and maybe doodling them. It's been cool! I think everyone who makes characters has a few they haven't touched in a while (or a lot), and I'm certainly no different. I'm gonna finally give a bunch of my character ideas designs and also updated refs this month, sort of early prepping for AF2023, starting with this much improved Maldwyn to your right (or above, if you're using Mosaic).

Also be sure to go and read my commentary on one year of doing art over on Letters From Somnolescent if you haven't already. I redrew that old leaning Wyn for it, and it's been such a huge confidence boost. Making good use of it! Missed drawing a lot.