9.2.24
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?
7.5.24
Hello again! It's been MONTHS since I last touched the site, and I think I'm having another Neocities kick. The only problem is that recently I built a new computer, and I didn't transfer any of the website's files from my old computer. I still have the hard drive, but I still need to transfer the files over. But that's easy to do, I'm just lazy, lol. In other news, I've started to be more open about being a furry and my art. Here's one I did recently:
I'm really proud of this one! Anyway, I'm probably going to make an actual art section under the projects page soon, since I'm less worried about people knowing I'm a furry. I'll put some info about my fursona on my about page, and I plan on making a website theme for him as well. I just need to learn digital art! I've been consistently practicing my paper drawings every single day, and I've tried to dabble in digital, but it's just such a learning curve. I feel like I'm trying to learn to draw again. I've thought about buying one of those drawing tablets thats basically an iPad because it just looks easier. I feel like I have much more control over my pencil when I'm drawing physically, I don't have to fiddle with any confusing settings to make my pen look the way I want it. For now, though, I'm just gonna keep doing physical art, and I might even learn how to watercolor or something!
2.6.24
Been a minute, hasn't it? Sorry to anyone that follows my page, I haven't been keeping up at all. (┳Д┳) I'm not really sure if I still have the steam to actively work on the site, but I'll show up every now and then! This IS a blog, so I guess I should write a little about what I've been up to...
The main thing I've been putitng all my effort into is school, of course. I started my second semester pretty recently and it has been going smoothly! I have more electronics-related classes, so I'll actually learn about the career that I want to pursue. I had a course last semester that was all about PLCs, which I apparently did not need to know even though I had to take it for my degree. ┐(´д｀)┌ I've also managed to find myself drawing a lot! I enjoy art a lot more than I thought that I would, and these past couple of months I've been practicing it on and off. I don't know how to describe it, but I think I've been a good artist since I was a kid, I just never embraced the skill. Anyone can follow a tutorial and draw something, but I feel like most people don't get it good on their first try. Not to brag, but my first arts from way back when are pretty good compared to what I've drawn recently. (NO I will not post pictures the opps might find me) My CD collection has not grown much recently, the only new music CD I have is The Colour and the Shape by Foo Fighters, my new favorite band. To be fair, I didn't really have a favorite band before I looked into it, just genres I liked. Now that I've listened to like, almost all of Foo Fighters' albums, I can confidently say they are my favorite. Why? I just find that they scratch a certain itch in my brain that not many other rock bands can. I've listened to some Nirvana too, and it just doesn't hit the same.
I dunno what else to write, it is 12 AM as I write this (good morning) and I am tired. I'm gonna update the CD page and call it night. See you!
11.27.23
Boy, this past week has been rough. It's been work, work and more work! I had been stressing over a paper I had to write for my class, which was about a topic that was hard to research. I got some help and got it done, but it sucked. Then, I had to go on a family trip for Thanksgiving, which was fun, but I really wanted to go home, lol. Other than that, I've generally been unmotivated to work on the site. Between college and other life activities, I just feel like I'm out of time. I feel the same way with my art, I want to draw and get better but I just don't have the time for it. The semester ends soon, so that should give me some free time. I've been slowly adding to my CD collection, but I haven't updated the CD page at all. I will soon! I forgot what else happened last week, so I'm gonna leave it here. :3
10.30.23
IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN!!!! I'm always so excited for Halloween, it's by far my favorite holiday! Nothing matches the atmosphere of Fall and the spookiness of the month. I should really watch more horror movies, all I've been watching is Star Wars, which I'm really into now! Prior to like, last week, my only knowledge of Star Wars really only came from the LEGO games, which I absolutely love, and I've finally watched the original trilogy and the prequels! I have to say, I love them! Episode 3 is definitely my favorite (everyone says that), I love the clones and the clone wars, the galactic politics, and the cool settings like Coruscant! In fact, my next theme is going to be based off of Coruscant! Well, it'll have an image of Coruscant as the background, but so far I'm liking the concept I have for it. The only problem is the coding, it's really difficult to get everything working the way I want it to. Basically, I have to go into all the pages' html and turn everything into divs with IDs and control the placement of everything entirely with CSS. It's really time-consuming, but I'll make it work! As far the look of the theme, it's going to be a mid-2000's style based off of 2Advanced Studios' website from 2006. Right click -> "open image in new tab" for a better look.
I love the futuristic look of the site, the color scheme, the layout, and the background images. It all comes together to make this really charming site that I want to replicate with my themes. I wanted to match the layout too, that's why I'm re-doing the HTML/CSS of my site. In other news, I've been growing my CD collection. Hitting up thrift stores and looking for cool ones online, I've been searching. I use Windows Media Player 12 to play my CDs, and I found out that it has some really cool skins! My favorite one is this Half-Life 2 skin from 2003. It has cool sounds and animations!
The coolest part is that it has beta images from HL2!
I know there's a lot of space that's being taken up, so another thing I want to work on is turning the blog posts into dropdowns. For example, the page is just a list of dates, but when you click on one it shows the blog post from that day, and at the bottom of each post is a button that hides the post again! Genius, right? Anyway, I'm procrastinating, I have a lot of school work to do and I'm avoiding it by writing this blog ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
10.19.23
Ooh, boy! A blog! I get to write stuff, my favorite! I wanted to add this blog for a while but I never got around to it. But hey, it's here now! I spent all day today working on the webpage, I posted the update that I felt burnt out but then literally the next day I really wanted to work on the site again. I really want to be a part of the Neocities community! There are so many talented and creative people on here that it feels impossible for me to NOT be involved!! I just wish I had known about it earlier! I really love expressing my creativity and I never even considered web design to be a way to do it. I have so many other things that I want to do, but I set expectations for myself waaaay to high. I want to do electronic engineering as my career, and I've barely touched the 3 electronics kits I bought, lol. I'm hoping that the "eletronics" section of the projects page will give me the motivation to actively work it. College is just such a larger concern that I would rather be doing my school work and chilling than racking my brain trying to find out how Linux works. I bought a raspberry pi kit a while back because I thought it would be easy to learn, but damn is it a learning curve. In other news I got my first CD today! It's an exclusive, unreleased future funk album by Groovy Kaiju, and it's even signed! I saw it on an Instagram ad, and I decided I'd indulge. It also came with two radical holographic stickers!
I thought I would have to buy a CD player to jam to it, but it turns out the Dreamcast can play music CDs! The album art reminds me of King Geedorah's album "Take Me To Your Leader," and I looked into it and the art is heavily inspired by that album! The album itself is very good, I like future funk more than I realized! My favorite track is defintely track 2, it has a jazzy sort of element that's integrated with the song and I love it! Groovy Kaiju is an awesome creator, you should check him out! I really want to put these stickers on something, but I'm worried that whatever I put them on I'll end up having to throw away, so for now I'm just gonna keep them. Did I mention I own a Dreamcast? And a Gamecube? I really love old consoles and games! The only game I own for my Dreamcast is Sonic Adventure. I LOVED Sonic Adventure 2 when I was a kid (and still do!), back when I played it on my Xbox 360, and I've always wanted to play the first game! Is it all that? Yes and no. It's one of those things where it's so bad that it's good but then it's bad again but then it's good again. I'm not very far into the game, but I love the atmosphere and the silly terribly-lip-synced cutscenes, but the gameplay can get really annoying at times! There's a lot of puzzles where it doesn't really give you any hints and platforming that's difficult because of the perspective. The camera also sucks, but that comes with any old 3D platformer. Wait, when did this turn into a Sonic Adventure review?