Oh boy, was Last Year a mess!

Issues, Large and Small, have taken a bit of a toll on me, and I find myself getting quickly fed up with certain people in my life. And it's become abundantly clear that sitting around hoping that things get better is not going to work...

(I do hope you're around people who don't invent problems for you to solve...)

So, it's for this reason that you're probably gonna see me around a lot more!

(I refuse to let others drag me down!)

But it wasn't all bad!

As a matter of fact, I'd like to give a very special Thank You to someone~!

That Person Being:

MechanicalMantis

When he asked me to participate in his Collab, I didn't think I had anything to offer, but after a bit of persistence, I joined in, and the experience wound up pushing me to do far better than what I thought I was capable of doing!

It's for that reason (and the fact that he's a pretty cool guy) I'm more than likely to join in with anything that he's got planned in the future~!

And who knows!

Maybe I might even join in other people's Collabs!

We'll just have to see~!

Also, I've hit Triple Digits?!

I never even thought I'd break 10!

Hahaha~!

I better give you folks a reason for sticking around and watching my antics (or lack thereof...)

So tell ya what, seeing as I plan to be around a lot more, I'm going to try to upload something every week (or at least three pieces a month) so that way, I'm not completely wasting your time!

How's that sound to ya~?

No elaborate lists this time.

I know what I gotta get done.

Here's hopin' your year and mine turn out to be fruitful~!

MalFromed

I've been meaning to do monthly news posts, but I kept putting the idea off and forgetting about it, and then other people I follow started doing it, and now I feel embarrassed, left out, and derivative (I COULD HAVE BEEN A TREND SETTER MA)!

So let's Rectify that with...

Alright, so as far as anything personal, I really don't have much to say...

Slowly but surely, I'm getting things done, and the New Year's Resolution List has been playing out decently well (I've certainly been more chatty and less anxious)!

So, let me tell you what I got planned and in the works!

- Acts of Fromed -

Alright, so... I owe like... 16 people an Act of Fromed, and I ain't got a single one done yet! Kind of got sucker punched at the beginning of the year, but the fact that none of them are done yet ultimately falls on me. However, the one I'm currently working on is arguably my most ambitious project yet, so I can't be too upset at the amount of time I've taken, and the recipient of this Act of Fromed (You know who you are) has been nothing but a pleasure to work with! Hopefully, it won't be too much longer!

- Thank you Comic(s) - 

As a self-imposed rule, I have to make a comic every time I get 16 followers... I've only made the one... I should probably do something about that...

- Kirby's Dreamland 3 Enemies Reimagined - 

Have been wanting to do this for quite a while now but just haven't found the time to do so.

- Tanaka's Friendly Adv. -

I don't know why, but this little game popped into my head a few weeks ago, and I finally decided to go back and get every friend after having failed to do so years ago! After finishing what is ultimately a somewhat charming & tedious experience, I decided to make some fan art for it!

- My Secret Project -

I think the time is finally come to share with you all the personal project I've been working on this whole time! I think it's finally come far enough along to start showing you (yes, ✦☆✦you✦☆✦, thee reader) the progress that's been made and what it's all about! On the 27th, I'll finally show you Sillius Anactous!

(Note: Just want to take a quick little aside to say that art wise, there's not much done (Those 16 Acts of Fromed ain't gonna make themselves! (Yo, can you put parentheses inside of parentheses?)). I've been mostly playing around with the guts of my little world, trying to get it to function in a way that I like, and I think I finally have a system in place that works! I can't wait to show you (Technically, that's a lie because I'm waiting for the 27th and all that...)!)

Until then, I'd like to show off some people I feel deserve more attention!

Artist Corner

Each month I want to use this segment to spotlight at least Three (3) Artists, I feel don't get enough attention!

(Note: I'm @ing because I don't want to seem like I'm talking behind anyone's back or anything)

★@Mustabulus★

Good Ol' Stabbus! An Artist that not only had a huge influence over my current color choices but whose stuff I enjoy overall! I should really get back to studying their art now that my artistic abilities have improved!

Did you know I commissioned them a while back? It's Ture! You can hop right on over to their gallery and see for yourself! Or even take a look at my latest favorite art (Last one on the right, ya can't miss it!)! Was thinking about asking for another commission at the start of the year, but for those in the know, costly things just wouldn't stop happening! Now that my finances have had time to breathe, I feel the moment nearing in which I can make my request known at last!

I also owe them some rodents that I should get to work on pretty soon...

---

☆@Azpher-Omega☆

Now here we have an incredible Artist that makes Beasts of all sorts! And another Artist I admire for their color choices! Now I haven't seen them around in a while, and I can't tell you where they're most active, but I do wholeheartedly recommend that you check out their stuff.

Fun fact: He's one of the first people I made an Act of Fromed for! Where is it? Never uploaded it! I thought to ask for permission, but the last time we had correspondence, I kind of dropped the ball by ghosting him... I didn't mean to. I just wound up getting a bit too anxious and kept putting off responding to him. As such, I was not only too embarrassed but lacked the gall to ask for something. I'd make something as an apology, but I've got a bit too much on my plate at the moment. So, Azpher, if by some chance you're reading this, just know that I owe you some art!

---

☆@Vampyvern☆

Speaking of Beasts & Monsters, here we have another incredible Artist who makes them!

Caught a News Post they made a few days ago expressing their frustration over their lack of followers. Now, normally I would roll my eyes at someone wondering why they're not more popular, but I can't deny that I think it's messed up that such an amazing artist is beneath me in followers! I personally don't care that much about that number under my name, but I'd be lying if I said that I don't acknowledge it. The fact that I barely upload and see that number increase while this Artist displays skills far above my own and receives little to no attention is baffling (Perhaps if their stuff was in color, it'd be more eye-catching)! Either way, if you don't believe me go see for yourself! Check out their gallery! I'll even make it easy for you!

And that's it for this month's Artist Corner!

Hopefully, you see something you like in at least one of these Artists!

But Wait, There's More!

I didn't really know where else to put this, so I'll be putting it here. According to the weather reports, winter is finally stopped! Not that it really matters... Only had like a month of snow here anyway! However, on one of the last snowy days, I decided to visit a small bridge not too far from where I live to take this picture! I know it's nothing special, but I thought I'd share it with you all anyway!

When I went to go take the picture, it was actually much brighter in the day, but I had to wait for a group of pesky teens™ to get out of my way >:[! Honestly, though, I think the picture looks better than it would have if I had taken it then and there!

Anyway, that's it for now! Catch ya later!

(???Who Dis Guy???)

Alright! I wanted to wait a day before I said anything! As you can see from the title, everything's back up and running for the most part! And I'm thrilled to report that I was able to save everything!

Thank goodness... what would I have done without Babamus 2!?

For real though, I'm immensely happy that my lists, my projects, and my color palette were all intact and safe! Turns out SSDs are super stable when it comes to retaining data! Apparently, to the point that one can be physically broken but still retain data! No idea how that works. Magic seems like a safe assumption. But this does lead into the most frustrating point of my journey. Let me share that with you quickly.

When I discovered that everything was intact, the obvious move was to extract it before some other random thing went wrong, which didn't take long because the second I tried to extract it, I was informed that my personal files were "Write Protected". Now I know that I have some programs that I've purchased on there but to lock me out of the whole thing is a bit absurd. I spent hours trying to get into it getting so mad that I gave myself a headache! Once again, salvation would come in the form of a YouTube video where some guy simply said, "Oh yeah, just download this," and sure enough, it worked! Wasn't even a hassle! I guess the only thing that baffles me is why? Why use the Write Protection at all if it can be so easily circumvented by a program you can download for free? Either way, I got my stuff, and that's all that matters!

When given the option to clone the contents and settings of the old SSD, I opted against it, choosing instead to only take what I needed. The majority of the files on there are just a bunch of junk that I never really bothered to look at. So I decided it'd be better to have a fresh start and all that. And if there's anything I need, I can just plug it in and yank out whatever. 

So given the circumstances, I think I can easily say that the best case scenario has occurred!

How pleasant~! 

That said, there's just one thing to attend to before moving forward.

My Color Palette

I don't ever want to stress out about this again, so it's going here and a few other places!

---

Now then. Let's try this again... 

---The List---

- Further Improve My Artistic Skills & Abilities

- Increase My Overall Art Output

- Get To Work On Art That I Owe People

- Fix Up Some Of My Creations

- Learn How To Create Music

- Be More Social

- Resume Work On My Project

- Maybe Make More Fannattassulit

- Take My Vitamins

- Remember That Thing

- Free Space 

Hoping it will be a while until the next thing goes wrong! 

To anyone who bothered to read this, I hope that you're having as pleasant day as I am!

The story so far...

The graphics card showed up.

(A day early, I might add)

I installed everything and did my best not to get my hopes up, which was the right move, as upon the activation of my PC, I discovered that it would only boot to the BIOS.

Over and over again.

This told me that it was, in fact, NOT the graphics card that was the problem. As upsetting as that realization was, it did get me to upgrade my graphics card, which needed an upgrade anyway. And considering that I managed to snag a $500+ graphics card for about $360 I feel like that played out pretty well!

Yo, shout out to the fucking liar on some tech forum that said it was the graphics card! ("Solved" my ass...)

So, if it wasn't the graphics card, then what was it?

Well, after hours of searching, salvation would come in the form of a YouTube Short, that had barely any views, displaying my exact problem. After sifting through the comments, all begging for a reason why this was happening, I found one that had a response, with an answer and several people confirming.

The SSD (Solid State Drive) had failed.

Something infinitely worse than the graphics card failing.

See, if it had just been the graphics card that would have been fine. It would have been a simple matter of replacing a part. But, that SSD had my data on it. And if that's gone I'll be so fucking upset...

I don't even care about the majority of the data on it. If I lost the projects I was working on, that'd be very upsetting. But, if there's one thing, above all else, that would tear me apart if I lost it, it would be my Color Palette that I've spent half a year building.

But it's not all bad!

For starters, the SSD failing came at a pretty good time! Considering that one with more space is (or was) on sale!

So that's nice!

Second, I have enough sense to have an external hard drive to back things up on. It was set on a weekly schedule to back up files, but knowing Windows it might not have done this, so I don't have my hopes up... However, I might be able to salvage some of the data from the old SSD! I just have to figure out how to do so.

Finally, there's this!

The last thing I worked on before all this happened! While it doesn't contain the entirety of my Color Palette, I might be able to backwards engineer it in the event that I can't retrieve the file containing it!

I'm just lucky that I bothered to ask my sister her opinion on it! (Even though she never give me said opinion and instead opted to send me dozens of pictures of my dog nephew...)

So, that's where things are at!

To anyone who bothered to read this, I hope things are going better for you than they are for me!

So I make my list, start writing up some messages, finish a project that needed to get done. It was all going good until my graphics card said:

”I am sorry but I must diiiiiiie now... :[”

So now I'm trapped in the phone zone! I barely use the thing, but the speech to text option is actually really good! Have I been sleeping on this?

Anyway, in the end it was my own fault. I knew that it was getting on in years I just thought it'd last a little longer... Now I got to wait till Thursday until an adequate replacement arrives. What really makes me sad is that I had to cut into my commission funds... Again...

That said, I just now remembered that I have a really old emergency backup card just in case something like this happened! No idea how well it's going to work (if at all), but it's worth a shot!

To anyone who has bothered to read this, I hope all is well with you and that you are not suffering from your own hubris!

I definitely need to get a bit more organized...

So let's make a little list to help with that!

The List

- Further Improve My Artistic Skills & Abilities

- Increase My Overall Art Output

- Get To Work On Art That I Owe People

- Fix Up Some Of My Creations

- Learn How To Create Music

- Be More Social

- Resume Work On My Project

- Maybe Make More Fannattassulit

- Take My Vitamins

- Remember That Thing

- Free Space

That seems good!

With everybody writing little novels about how their year went and where they plan to go with the next one, I thought it best just to keep it simple with a little to-do list.

I'll try my best!

&

I hope you do as well!

Hope I can get back to creating stuff soon.

It's actually starting to feel good to upload things.

Wow! Last month sucked! Hopefully, this month will be better!

Honestly... Everytime it feels like I'm hitting some sort of stride, something always has to come up! Especially in March! I swear that month is cursed for me... At least it was important and wasn't something stupid like anxiety this time.

Anyway...

So another April 1st has come and gone! Now that I've finished nursing a hangover and getting back on track, I can finally tell ya what's going on!

---This Month's Agenda & Projects---

Ever be working on your comic, and suddenly, you're completely swept off your feet with a concept that you thought you were done with? Yeah, that happens way too often to me. I get distracted way too easily, so I've decided that it's probably a good idea to make a list of tasks and projects to help me stay on track, as well as inform anyone that's curious about what's going on.

• Complete the expanded Fannattassulit Project as it will be needed in the future

• Begin explaining what the Elmants are

• Continue work on the scouting comic

(I'm sure I can fit a joke in there somewhere about how long this has taken)

Begin work on the 32 Follower Milestone comic

(Already!? I'm still floored that anyone would give my stuff the time of day, let alone care enough to hit the follow button! I truly mean it when I say this. Thank you!)

• Assuming that all goes well, start uploading the TIWI (Trash I Will Improve)

• Draw more humanoid figures

• Respond to some PMS now that nothing's stressing me out

(I don't like bringing that kind of energy to a message, you know?)

~People I Still Owe∽

• Person 1: Complete! Just have to send it.
• Person 2: Scrapping & Starting Over.
• Person 3: Still about a quarter of the way done.
• Person 4: Flushing out the idea.
• Person 5: Child. If you are reading this, just know; I do not care how big that horse is. I'll get to it when I get to it. Plus the handbag Mimic Plus the Secret gift Plus the Miku drawing from memory within 10 minutes Plus the some other thing I'm sure.

It does not escape me that this list is very similar to the one before. You see, the secret to owing people things is to let as few people know as possible that you owe them something, that way, you can have all the time that you need! Unless, of course, they figure out that you owe them or you told them at some point. In which case, this list fulfills its duty by reminding me that I should probably get on that...

That's all for now!

I hope things are pleasant for you!

Honey!

Enough to drown a Small Child™!

And kill a Large Man!

 But not a Medium Sized Man.

No. No...

A Medium Sized Man would know his place and not challenge his station in life.

Most Unambitious.

Anyway, I got that comic celebrating my scouting on the way! I'm not going to psych myself out this time. It'll be ready when it's ready, and it's coming along nicely! It shouldn't be long.

In the meantime, I shall offer you a tiny sneak peek of some of the things you may see!

[ V I O L E N C E B R E E D S V I O L E N C E ]

Try to hang in there in these trying times!

---Ramble---

Because I certainly have! Bear in mind that this isn't an "Everyone must be miserable like me!" type of thing. It's more so a "Let's take a step back and give ourselves a chance to breathe." type of thing. See, I had two simple tasks that I set out to do at the beginning of the year, and I failed them both. The first and most important was delivering art to people I made things for, and the second was to start uploading more frequently. Fortunately, these are not things that lead to an absolute failure, just a "How come you haven't done this yet?" type of thing. So rest assured, I'm not dead or anything (I'm on here everyday), just very busy with all the things I heaped onto my plate.

---The List---

So first and foremost, the art that I owe people. I won't name names because some of these are supposed to be surprises (if someone bothers to guess and it happens to be them, I'll let them know). I had wanted to get them all done before I started sending them out, but unfortunately, that's taking longer than expected, so I guess I'll just suck it up and send out what's already done. Less stress that way, you know?

Now let's get this list started.

~People I Owe∽

• Person 1: Complete & Sent!
• Person 2: Complete! Just have to send it.
• Person 3: Complete! Just have to send it.
• Person 4: Scrapping & Starting Over.
• Person 5: Scrapping & Starting Over. About a quarter of the way done.
• Person 6: Incomplete. Literally started last night. Flushing out the idea.
• Person 7: Child. If you are reading this, just know; I do not care how big that horse is. I'll get to it when I get to it.

Fortunately, I'm not getting paid to do any of these, but I still shouldn't make people wait this long.

~(Personal To-do's)∽

• Start & Finish the comic commemorating my scouting.
• Actually bother to upload things.
• Begin preparations for the 32 Follower Milestone comic. (I can only make them in increments of 16, you see.)
• Continue working around in the guts of my project.
• Have Fun!

I made this list to keep myself in check. The idea that someone might see this and have the knowledge that I am working on something should motivate me enough to see these things through to the end. Not in a "People believe in me!" kind of way, but more so an "Oh God, someone knows!" sort of way.

---Dogs---

Not mine, mind you.

Who's?

Mind your business.

However, I will say this; they both act insane whenever I'm around. The little lady (The one barking) acts like no one gives her any attention at all. Which simply isn't true. I pet her for a genuine 20 minutes, and she still demanded attention.

As for the boy (the one staring in intense anticipation), every time we meet, he decides to do battle with me. And that'd be fine if it weren't for the fact that he goes for the nuts every time. No respect, this boy. Last time we met, he ramped it up and performed a flying tackle into me. I saw him build up speed, launch himself into the air, and shift into a Wario style Shoulder Bash™. If I were not so battle hardened, he would have managed to knock me over. Still a hundred years too young to defeat me.

Alright enough procrastinating. I got work to do. I hope your year has been pleasant so far, and I wish you luck in your future endeavors.

MalFromed