September 13th, 2024

Hey, it's my birthday! Well, it was my birthday yesterday, but I'm 19 now! It's kind of crazy, honestly. I don't have any right to say that I'm old, but I do feel pretty old. My family hasn't celebrated my brithday yet because we're all so busy all the time, but we are doing it tomorrow!
In other news, I got Linux running on my main pc! I decided to ditch Mint and go straight for Archlinux. People say Arch is complicated, but I installed a distro called EndeavorOS, which is Arch-based, but specifically made to be easy to install. I also installed it on my laptop, and it works great! Very easy to use, no OneDrive in your face, and, believe it or not, the kernel is really easy to use. Installing stuff is as easy as typing it into the kernel and waiting for it to download. As far as I understand, Linux has a repository of programs that it pulls from when you type "sudo apt get," and Arch has that too. The difference is that Arch also has a bigger repository that it pulls from, and a search feature so that you don't have to type the exact name of what you want to install.
The guy who I was going to commission a fursuit from opened their commissions, and closed them in the same day! I'm really glad I saw it when they opened, but I'm not sure if I'll get a fursuit. The guy said they were only going to take 5 people's commissions, and there were 51 PEOPLE WHO SUBMITTED A COMMISSION!!! If that's not worrying yet, they said they would take 2 weeks to tell you if they accepted you or not. I don't think I'm getting this fursuit. That's okay, though. There's plenty of other makers out there, and I also have to buy tires for my car, which is going to take a big chunk out of my spending. :/

September 2nd, 2024

Man, I'm tired. I've kind of been all over the place recently, my family has been dragging me on trips accross the states, which isn't that bad, but I'm missing out on dollars because I'm barely getting to work. I don't have anything scheduled for September, other than my birthday, so that will be great. Since I've been getting home late so often, my sleep schedule is borked. It's 4 AM as I'm writing this. In other news, I've started to save money to buy a fursuit! It's just a partial, but the maker's commissions will open some time this month, so I'll finally be able to own a fursuit! I've wanted one for so long!!
Another cool thing I did is get into Linux, I'm actually writing this on my laptop that I've totally switched to Linux Mint. If I can get used to Linux and I like it, I'll switch my main PC to Linux as well. Not to say that I don't like it already, just that I need to see if I can really get dedicated to it. Linux honestly operates so much better than Windows, but finding programs and installing them can be a pain at times. Sometimes you have to find a specific version of something or install it a certain way for it to be compatible with whatever you're doing, but learning it is very rewarding. Maybe once I start really getting kernel down I'll switch to another distro, but for now I'm gonna stick with "baby's first linux."
My first little experiment with Linux was trying to be set up WebDAV, which was a total pain in the ass. If you don't know, WebDAV is a program that mounts a website's file directory as a drive you can access in your computer's file explorer. Basically, I was trying to make the Neocities directory that you see on the website show up on my computer as a drive. I had to download and set up a few things, which was a challenge in of itself because I was trying to figure out that "sudo apt-get install" was a feature. I'll spare you the details, but after jumping a few more hurdles I finally got it to work. The only problem was that it ended up not being worth it. Connecting to the drive and switching folders takes AGES, and it's much faster just to do everything through the website. Take this as a PSA to those who want to try WebDAV!
As for website progress: I'm really happy with the new design I came up with. I was looking at frutiger metro images and had a flash of inspiration. I thought the main thing the old design lacked was character. It was literally a bunch of boxes with a png background, nothing about it was really special or unqiue to me. So, I decided I needed to up my graphic design game. I did the whole design in Adobe Illustator (which i will soon be finding an alternative for because i was using my friend's account and my ass is not paying for creative cloud), and of course I drew Fane myself. I really felt like putting my fursona on the main page would give it the ultimate character, because thats something that's truly unique to me. Along with that, I really want to see what I can do with web design, so I'm going to give each of the project and extras pages a unqiue theme. I'm still trying to figure out what's what, but I have a lot of ideas on the table.
One more little thing before I sign off, art progress! I've been meaning to make a ref sheet for Fane for the longest time, and I've been picking away at it every now and then. I was trying to get it done before September so I could submit it to the fursuit maker guy, and here's where I got:

It's only missing another chibi on the bottom to show off clothing styles, but I couldn't come up with other idea in time, so I just left the space empty. I'm definitely gonna keep working on it, but just not right this second. I've got work and college to juggle right now, and since I've been so busy I kinda just want relax time. I'm also trying really hard to learn digital, since coloring is a thousand times easier on there. I might need to use a different drawing program, though. Krita is kind of shitty. Regardless, I think my art has really improved. Of course, it's nothing to write home about, but seeing where I started and where I am now is really crazy. There are some areas I need to work on, though, like hands, proportions, and general anatomy. But I'll tell you what, you gotta take everything one step at a time, right?