Ahoi!

It's been several months since my last blog post, which was primarily focused on 0peration Borealis- the latest installment to my zombie/Madness tribute series. I haven't made too much progress on 0peration Borealis, as I've been busy with work, other projects, and a whole bunch of other life stuff. Things are starting to fall into place and level out a bit more, and I'm excited to fully immerse myself in 0peration Borealis. I still don't have a set release date, and I kinda hoped to have a trailer or something out by now, but I just wanted to reassure everyone that the project is not abandoned. With 0B, I'm really not trying to rush ANY aspect of it. As much as I'd like to be an animation machine, time and life circumstances haven't really allowed me to do this lately. When I made this post back in March, I absolutely could not have anticipated what a hell of a productive year it has been, and my estimate of late 2024/early-mid 2025 is unfortunately way off. Now, it's looking like it might be closer to the end of 2025.

I don't really get upset at comments and messages like this, but sometimes it does get a bit overwhelming to have people constantly asking me why the hell I haven't made a new animation, and not really being able to understand that life sometimes just doesn't allow for much free time. I don't want to sit here and go into grueling detail about having to work, eat, clean, occasionally socialize, find some time to relax, and also find time to sleep. A lot of people might read this and scoff about how "that's just life" and shit, but one of the reasons that it stresses me out is because I start to have literal withdrawal-like symptoms if I don't have SOME type of creative output for too long. Unfortunately, it's still sometimes difficult to find the time or energy to be able to sit down and create stuff, and sometimes I have to make sacrifices in order to do so. I'll also just go ahead and be fully transparent in the fact that I really don't make a lot of money from my art/animations- it's not my primary income whatsoever. I'd eventually like it to be, but I'm not exactly in a position to make any type of major job change- especially if the income wouldn't be consistent.

I've been throwing money to the side to try to potentially facilitate something like this in the future, and that opportunity might actually be coming somewhat soon. These past two months in particular have burned through a large chunk of my savings, but for good reasons. First, my cat had dental surgery. I was extremely nervous, but he did a fantastic job and seems to be doing just fine- if not even better now that he's got those rotten teeth taken out. Second, I bought my first car [*that actually runs.] Prior to that, I've been riding my bicycle, finding rides, renting cars, and occasionally taking Ubers. Buying a car actually helped out with my cat's surgery and the follow-up appointments since having to rent a car each time I needed to take him somewhere was really starting to add up, and trying to coordinate rides has been somewhat of an equal challenge.

In fact, in general, this past year has been pretty damn eventful. There was a loooooooot of mental stuff that I've been working through, and I finally got the type of treatment that would have probably been extremely beneficial many years back, but hey, better late than never I guess. I was very apprehensive towards the idea of taking any type of medication, but even with a very, very small amount, I feel like many aspects of my life have made a COMPLETE turn-around. I'm honestly still adjusting to many of these changes, as I've spent the majority of my life in a state of constant fucking depression and anxiety while just being told to "JuSt fEeL BeTtEr,,!!!@" or some other negligent/abusive bullshit. For the first time in my life, I feel like I actually kinda can just feel better. This isn't to say that my life has become completely stress-free, but I feel a lot more confident and responsive to any challenges that have arisen, and I've managed to avoid spiraling into states of poor mental health due to one reason or another. I always felt like I knew what I needed to do, and I had all of the tools, but I just couldn't figure out how to use those tools or actually apply them to my life and my goals.

For the time being, I'm still keeping my commissions closed. I've still got a few smaller projects I'm working on that I'd like to focus on before I get too crazy with 0B. Several of those projects are paintings, and one of them is my part for the upcoming sequel to the Madness Cellfication collab.

(Art by @Spazgunk)

I've got some pretty exciting ideas for my part, and it'll be a perfect opportunity for me to get more familiar with newer animation software in preparation for moving forward with 0peration Borealis. We're still not sure when this will be out, but everyone seems to be on the same vibe that we don't want to rush anything.

Madness Day was friggen EPIC this year, lots of awesome entries and I even got to hang out on Krinkels' stream for a short interview!

But yeah, I think that's it for now. I'll have some more art coming out pretty soon, and I'll also be making a more organized post for 0peration Borealis that'll be reminiscent of the old NG Magazine project alphas. Also, I'm absolutely ROCK HARD for the Silent Hill 2 Remake, and I'll be streaming the living fuck out of it for about a week straight over on Twitch.

oh also i turned 30 today wow cool oh god my hip