In 1925, Victor Lustig sold the Eiffel Tower. He didn’t own it, nor have the rights to do so, but that didn’t stop him from selling the “deed”. Victor went down in history for his grift. Unfortunately, so long as goods and trade have existed there have been a select few out to abuse the system for their own personal gain.

I want to take this time to remind users of some general safety recommendations for FA, Twitter, or anywhere else you may be buying digital goods. Part of my job is intercepting and stopping scammers before they ever get to post, but unfortunately, sometimes they slip through. They're rare, but they do exist. In the event I detect possible fraud I will ALWAYS personally reach out to and inform you that we, as a website, have identified a user for fraud and alert you to file a chargeback.

I'm posting this to make you aware of patterns and trends I see so you can better identify things I personally identify as red flags. FA has a fantastic variety and array of artists using the site to sell their work, but like with anything, there's always a few bad apples who can spoil the bunch. So here it is, all the things I see behind the scenes the scammers are doing, out in the open.

I will keep this journal updated over time with any new developments/trends I spot.

Stay safe, and happy FAing.

---

THINGS TO DO
-- DO ask the creator to invoice you directly for the work, especially if you've never worked with that creator before. If you pay by invoice, the invoice states exactly what you are buying, with a description, AND tells PayPal this payment was specifically meant for a business transaction. If you don't agree to the terms or the wording you can reject it. It's an added layer of buyer protection, and always be aware of anybody who will not use it if asked.

I, personally, am always more likely to trust somebody who invoices because it puts the onus on their side to do the right thing and makes it much easier for payment processors to spot possible bad actors.

-- DO check the creator's userpage. How long have they been registered? Does the user have an established history on the site? Have they been regularly uploading new content, posting journals, or shouts? Or are they just a new account with little to no meat (sketches, inks, completed works, etc)? Check the history of their work, comments, etc. If their gallery is full of YCHes or adopts and little to no examples of completed work that's a red flag. Exercise caution.

I do want to emphasize that JUST because an account is new doesn't mean it's not trustworthy. Ask yourself some questions: "Where did this artist suddenly come from with all these amazing YCHes? They're a new account, and don't have a history, but they've got a LOT of things for sale but almost no examples of finished work? Why can't I find evidence of them anywhere else on the internet? And they've only been on the site for two days?" 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩.🚩.🚩🚩🚩.... I hate e🚩moji.

-- DO check the user's contact information to see if they list social media sites. If they do, visit those sites, and see if the creator links back to their FA. It doesn't take long, and it's worth the time investment.

-- DO message the artist via known Telegram, Discord, etc. if you have their contact info and you feel something may be amiss, reach out to them directly.

-- DO be aware of your payment provider's refund policy. Some places give you 90 to 180 days to file a complaint and get a refund.

-- DO double check the source if you're ever messaged out of the blue by a creator regarding a sudden commission slot opening or a months old YCH where a buyer couldn't pay and now a slot has magically come open.

THINGS NOT TO DO
-- DO NOT send payments via friends and family or as a gift. Sending money this way says "this is a gift, not a purchase" and, if you read the fine print, payments sent this way waive your consumer protections. It's basically a "I don't want to be eligible for a refund!" button. It doesn't mean you can't get a refund if needed but it's going to make the process far, far harder.

-- DO NOT accept sketches or WIPs that are zoomed in. If you can't see the full image and the artist isn't willing to show you the entire image that's a massive red flag. No real artist is going to send a sketch and go "Hey, I've done the work, but here's exactly 11.2% of it in a screenshot." If they can't show you the entire picture that's a big red flag.

-- DO NOT ever send a second payment. A lot of scammers like to say "There's a mistake on my end. Would you be able to resend the money to another address while I issue you a refund?" If you send that second payment you now have paid the scammer twice. Again, this is why you invoice.

Hey there, artists.

We haven't really talked before, but I wanted to give you some feedback and tips on getting noticed on FA. This is kind of an open discussion. If you have questions, ask in the comments, I'll answer as best I can. I want to help you be successful, and I see some things the community is doing that could be better. I want you to be successful, so I'm here to try to help.

This also goes out to VKers coming to FA to try to make money. There's an absolutely massive amount of talent in the Russian art communities. When I talk to VKers, one thing comes up constantly: you're sharing tips and tricks with each other for what works for you. I want to offer some counter points to help, because there's things we can do to help one another and each other's communities.

My goal is to help artists be successful on a number of factors. I'm writing this form the perspective of artists who treat their art like a job (art IS a job, and should be recognized as such). But there's ways you can be doing things better, and I'm here to offer a bit of advice.

---

You, the artist, are a brand. Your name and art carries weight to it, and like a plant, it needs to grow and be nurtured.

The bigger you work to build your brand and awareness, the more reputation you gain, and that drives people to your work. And the more your work on your brand the more value and worth your art has to folks. There's a few things you need to do to build your rep, so prepare for a (long) but what I consider very important read.

Create Galleries of Finished Work
Every finished piece you upload to FA adds to your brand/reputation. It's like a calling card that shows examples of your art and allows people to imagine what their character may look like in your style. The more variety, the more finished pieces, the more that builds. Each piece is an example of who you are as an artist, and it highlights your work.

Over time, this builds familiarity, and over time, people will start to recognize your name. I can name some artists off the top of my head like LaPatte, The Secret Cave, Darkgem, and people will go "Oooh, I love their art!" That can be you.

Build and nurture your gallery and show off what you can do, not just what you have for sale.

If your gallery has more YCHes than it does finished work you're far, far less likely to have people interested.

Communicate and Build Watchers
People are far, far more likely to buy from artists and creators who are familiar to them. Because of this, it's important to communicate with your followers and respond to them. Artists who are accessible, who talk to their fans, who build build relationships with the people who follow them are generally more successful.

Plus, the more watchers you build means that every time you upload your watchers get a notification of your new content. It means you are able to directly promote your art and content to people who are directly interested in your work, and that's vastly more valuable to an artist than just posting reminders to try to get seen on the front page or browse. And yes, we know what you're doing, which leads to...

People Hate Reminders
Reminders aren't as effective as you think they are. In fact, they're actually not doing much of anything by and large. There's better ways to promote your art (more on that soon). I also want to recognize that we, Fur Affinity, acknowledge this fact. We're looking into long term options to provide better tools to artists and those looking to consume art, not reminders.

Serious note: we take reminder abuse seriously. As part of my admin duties, I DO randomly check artist's profiles to see if people are abusing the reminder policy, and when that happens, I turn it over to the mods to handle. And yes, I can see every time you delete a reminder.

But fret not, there's better ways to promote your art. See below.

Use Keywords
There's changes coming to the FA search engine soon (announcement coming), but I wanted to share some tips with you before we make that post.

Here's the big secret/not-so-secret tip: FA's search engine looks at keywords first. It's the single most important aspect of what our search engine looks for when it's trying to decide what content to display to users. Add proper, accurate, and concise keywords to your submissions. After keywords, it looks at the submission title. A lot of users search things like "ych macro" so if you properly label your content you'll get a lot more able to directly search for the things you have for sale.

Tips For Success
-- Engage with people in various furry groups on Telegram, Discord, Reddit, etc. Be social, share your content, link to your gallery.

A gallery nobody links to is a gallery nobody will find.

As I said above: reputation is like a plant. You have to tend to it, water it, and help it grow. As an artist, this means building a gallery and sharing your works. Promote your content with people who have similar interests, link back to your gallery, be social. Every time you share your creations and link back to your gallery it builds up your reputation, increases the chance to gain watchers, potential buyers, or general fans of your work.

-- Don't thank people for their watch or copy/paste a response. It comes off as spam, and people don't like that. However, if you want to leave a shout on their page, and you like the person's character or art, leave a personal comment and let them know. It means a lot more to people that you took the time to look at their page.

-- Use the "submission footer" tool in FA's control panel (profile page) to utilize FA's built-in advertising to your art.

This is probably the one thing most people aren't doing. Take your commission notices, price sheets, YCHes, auctions, adoptables and put them into an art folder, then put the link to the folder in the submission footer. Then, every time you upload, you can have a line that says "Looking for custom art similar to this? Get some a commission/YCH bv clicking here."

This allows you to use your submissions as a sort of "soft" advertisement. And as I said, the more finished works you post, the more you build up your brand, and the more it will get people looking at your content and items.

--Don't just rely on YCHes. In addition to building a gallery, if you take custom work, be sure to build a price sheet. Make it your featured submission, this way everybody who visits your page can ALSO see that your take custom work. There's a LOT of artists who I see who are mostly promoting YCHes, but they also take commissions but don't advertise it. If you're an artist here to make money that's fine, but diversity is good.

For those who don't follow me on Twitter, 2022 has been a hell of a year so far, and not in the best of ways.

I took some time off around the end of December as I needed some mental time to recover and just take it easy. Right as I got back into the groove of things my father unexpectedly passed away, and within the same week as several other friends. It's... been quite a bit stressful. A personal hell. On top of that, I'm 98% sure I had/have covid and I've been getting my ass absolutely handed to me and not in a good way (on the upside, I'm in the recovery stages now, so the worst is behind me).

As I said. Hell of a year.

The good news is we're working on quite a few things for FA, and planning to aim for a spring site update that comes with quite a few new features and improvements. Art-wise, I'm trying to get back up to speed. A capacitor recently popped on my motherboard releasing its tasty Magic Smoke™, and in the process I lost all my USB 2 ports. I'm currently building a new and salvaging what I can, but there's been quite a few delays on that front.

That said, wanted to check in. There's quite a lot going on behind the scenes, and I hope to be able to provide a bit of a 2022 roadmap when I'm able.

Just a head's up -- I apparently have an impersonator going around on Telegram trying to cause shenanigans. They're going by the account name DragoneerFA. Please be aware that this is NOT me, and my official contact info is listed on my userpage.

Also, I always encourage people to ask me to verify my identity. If you don't think it's me ask me to send you a note on FA or DM you on Twitter. I never have an issue with people asking me to prove that I am the exceedingly purple me that I claim to be. =3

I've gotten quite a few notes about NFTs, my position on them, as well as that of the site's.

TL;DR - NFTs are a dumpster fire filled with horny radioactive fire ants all lookin' at you like a snack. We don't want that here. You don't want them here. We have zero intention to implement or support them, at least in their current incarnation.

More in-depth response: as a technology, NFTs introduce some potential interesting concepts, especially towards helping artists monetize their work. But that's not really how they work in their current implementation. As it stands, NFTs are cheap stickers over digital pogs. They're the modern day of Beanie Babies at their initial rush, and everybody is charging head first into them to be "first" so they can try to gain net profits. The environment is rife with scams, Ponzi schemes, and offers zero real benefit to artists at this time.

In this rush to be first, it generates sustained levels of toxicity, as the so-called crypto bros spam the airwaves with noise, screaming how great NFTs are. Pushing. Always pushing. I mean, they have to. If you're own Twitter you've probably seen it. It's everywhere. Their ONLY goal is to convince YOU NFTs are a good thing, because the more people that believe they're worthwhile, the more their value goes up, and the better a price they get when their flip theirs.

We don't want to attract that crowd.

So we'd rather just... not. That's the best way I can put it. We'd rather not. At least not now. Maybe in the future, after NFT 1.0 have burned to ashes, somebody will take the concept and make something of interest to artists. The potential is there, but the current implementation is nothing more than the modern day version of the I Am Rich app.

Nobody's going to remember your Lazy Lions, and our team of investigators still haven't found Lindsey Lohan's ears yet.

Giving folks a head's up, as I've seen a very small, but noticeable pattern of an imposter pretending to be well known artists trying to scam people out of money.

The scammer is sending notes which look like this:
"Hey, I am writing about this auction - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/XXXXXXXXX/ (This link won't work)
The winner can't pay, so I move on to the next bid. If you are still ready to buy, then give me your character refs and paypal email for invoice. If you change your mind, I can restart the auction."
First and foremost, before sending money to any account ALWAYS check their registration date. Are they new? Was the account just created and they're contacting you about art that's years old, or requesting money? Are they posting YCHes or commissions that seem just a bit too good to be true, but they don't have an established submission history of finished works in their gallery? Always exercise caution, and always check out the account date to verify they are who they say they are.

Every profile on FA has a user's reg date, which looks like something like "Member Since: Dec 4, 2005 05:32". Check the date!

Additionally, NEVER pay for anything as a gift, only a service. Paying as a gift waives your right to request a refund from the individual.

We unfortunately live in a world in which scammers, scalpers, and con artists exist. It's a problem that dates back to the earliest points of humanity, and people have been fighting back against it since the dawn of time.

If you are contacted by somebody who appears to be promoting the above scam DO NOT respond to this individual. Please immediately open a ticket to report them, and feel free to DM me the ticket number.

Always exercise caution, and never be hesitate to reach out to us to be sure.

A good friend of mine, Ardy Dragon, recently lost his apartment and most of his belongings to a fire. What wasn't damaged in the flames ended up being flooded by the fire department trying to fight the blaze. He's in a pretty bad place right now and needs a hand getting back on his feet. He's currently without a reliable home or most of his belongings.

 ardydragon

Ardy's one of the few people I genuinely consider truly decent and honest. The guy's like a brother to me. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a lot, and he's been struggling prior to this and has pretty much living off of ramen. He gives up most of his free time as a reservist in the National Guard, and has been fighting fires on Montana prior to this incident. He's sacrificed a ton only to have a streak of bad luck nearly wipe him out and set him back.

If you're able to lend a few bucks to help him out it'd be appreciated. He set up a Ko-Fi to raise money so he can replace his belongings. I realize it's a lot to ask, but... if you have a few dollars to spare it'd be of great help.

https://ko-fi.com/ardydragon10280

And if you're not able to help, I totally understand -- we're all fighting our own struggles. If you're able to, please consider retweeting to this post to get word out.

https://twitter.com/Dragoneer/statu.....23250602139649

Ever wonder what happened to that one "weird kid" in school? I don't remember the names of too many people from first or second grade, but one sticks out to me. Jacob.

Jacob was... interesting. He was the one kid everybody else feared. Not a bully, but just an outright wildcard of unpredictability. During recess he'd walk around and eat cicadas, spiders, and other bugs off the trees. He's urinate on the playground. If agitated, Jacob's reaction was to scream at the top of his lungs or brutally attack other kids. He was known for stealing everything in class that wasn't locked down. My first and only personal experience with him was when he randomly jumped me from behind and bit me.

Something was wrong with Jacob.

The last thing we'd ever heard about him was somebody came into class and said Jacob had broken a window in the bathroom, jumped out, and ran away.

He disappeared. Never seen from again.

But it got weirder still. When we asked the teachers about what happened they refused to answer. We were forbidden to discuss it. Forbidden to even say his name.

The school acted is if he never existed.

But last night something triggered a memory, and I was curious. I searched his name, and the very first result: arrest reports.

Digging deeper into public records I found multiple instances of theft, assault, robbery at gunpoint, operating vehicles without licenses, and more. An entire slew of over 20 state police records.

And then I felt bad. Really bad.

Whatever bad happened to Jacob happened in his childhood and destroyed his life. He was started on a path of self destruction that he was apparently unable to escape from. It's weird being able to connect puzzle pieces and realize that the bigger picture of a child's fractured life lead to chaos and discord.

What happened to Jacob? Why didn't the school want us to know? Did he ever get the help he needed? Did he ever have a chance at a normal life?

In my weird curiosity to find out what happened I stumbled upon the shards of a shattered life. He's in prison now, but... I can't help but wonder if he ever had a real chance at life.

Deep down, I know something bad happened. Something traumatic. Something that shaped his life forever and he was unable to escape whatever he was born into.

My curiosity quickly turned to tragedy. I don't know what happened, but it's tragic to see what happened put him on a road to self destruction.

It's been a while since my last dev check in, and wanted to give you updates on what's going on:

I've unfortunately been a bit ill recently past few months which has caused a bit of a delay on the Spring Update (which is now moving to "mid summer update"). That said, I'm doing quite a bit better and the update coming along! Here's a list of features that will be rolled out in the second half of this year:

- Improved UI (In Progress)
- User profile banners (In Progress)
- High resolution file support (In Progress)
- Trending pages (Complete)
- Up-and-coming artists (Complete)
- More unique store merch!

We'll have more information available on the above, most likely towards the middle to end of July (along with some previews to boot!).

Additionally, our longer term projects in development:
- Account renames (we've done a massive amount of work on this already)
- Block and tag features
- Video support

Want to support FA development? Consider subscribing to FA+ and get some spiffy perks in the process! All FA+ funds go directly to support our coders actively working on the above features.

https://www.furaffinity.net/plus/

Alternatively, you can help fund my personal UI dev by sending Red Bull for the cause. =3 This is shameless plug, I admit.

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/.....?ref_=wl_share

Random fact: FA's new logo was specifically designed from the get-go to have pride variants.

FA has always been a community which celebrated LGBT spirit. When we designed our new logo, we wanted to make sure the pride designs were baked-in and could celebrate our diversity in all its colors. It's something FA was founded on, going all the way back to our founder, Alkora*.

Our team team reflects that, too. We have members of every color of the rainbow on staff.

* Yes, founder. All credit for the site goes to Alkora. I didn't come into the picture until maybe 3-4 months after FA launched. While I may own the site, he's the real reason we're all here!

Rawr!

Just checking in. Things have been slightly quiet on my end as I've had a lot of work to do, but I've been unfortunately sick off and on for about the past month and a half (doing a bit better now though!). Had to switch medications, and unfortunately the new one just isn't working out at all and has actually left me in a worse state than if I'd not been taking anything at all.

That said, work is still progressing and I'm hoping to be able to show progress on things in the next few weeks. Been going over a lot of feedback, drafts, and ideas to try to make FA a smoother and more pleasant to use. What I'm working on primarily is still mostly UI related, but we do have additional dev projects still in the work! Next check in should hopefully be a bit meatier. =3

On my agenda: FA Spring Update
- FA UI revisions that build upon the UI update from last year, with mprovements and tweaks to both desktop and mobile. These were originally intended to come out this month, but unfortunate I spent the latter half of March and early April sick and there were some unfortunate delays.
- Implementing the trending sections, front page improvements, and improved writing support with our code team. If we have time, perhaps a few other minor improvements we can squeeze in.

Somehow this album gets progressively worse the longer you listen to it. I knew it was going to be bad, but somehow it was even worse than I expected. How did I never know something this awful existed? The voice actors can't even keep in character on some of the songs.

CURSED!

This is entirely  RyuokoWolf's fault.

I seem to be late to this party... but I was totally unaware there was a third official GLaDOS song from Lego Dimensions: Portal. This is a neat little find that made the day worth it. I'm always happy to discover more Portal.

This particular Seinfeld scene has taken on a whole new meaning due to covid. XD You just know George wouldn't wear a mask, and when confronted, would be like "Well, technically..."

This is the second Neerblog, my FA-specific updates based on what's going on in my world related to all things Fur Affinity.

This past week has been busy! Thanks to the help of some friends we tore down Fur Affinity's cabinet at our former data center. It was sad to see it go, as it marked the end of more than a decade of FA hosted in Reston, Virginia*. While we had some minor issues here and there, I have to give our host credit. They were extremely reliable, responsive, and we had relatively minor issues during our tenure there. <3

The longest running server in FA history? Novastorm, a Sun Fire x4150, that went into production in 2008. Novastorm had been in use for 12 years, and kept on trucking 'til the very end! It started off as our main database server, later downgraded to VM host after we brought on our new DB servers, Finn and Jake, in '13. A server in production over a decade is insane, but it kept on trucking... despite technically walking with the technological dinosaurs. Heh.

The past few days were spent wiping drives, going through old hardware, sorting what we can re-use and what will end up going to e-cycle. Several servers like Smaug and the illustriously named Backup Server (technically "Son of Trogdor") will be shipped off to our new host, re-used and brought into our server cluster, King Ghidorah, carrying on tradition of hosting our content!

Don't forget to feed the eevees!

* Random Fact: FA United was hosted in Herndon, VA, just a few miles away.

Now that the dust has settled and the announcement is done, I figured it'd be time to let people know what I'm personally working on.

I've been going through feedback and working on our first round of 2021 updates to the UI which I'm hoping to roll out by March, April at the latest. My focus is on trying to make the site feel more consistent and convenient to navigate, ironing out rougher areas (mainly mobile), and incorporating suggestions we've received. I have a few pages that are particular pet peeves for me, and I plan on focusing on areas where users spend a lot of time, then cleaning up the remaining pages in future updates (this way we have smaller, more consistent updates without holding things back for a larger update that takes longer to implement).

Keeping communication open is high on my agenda, too. A lot of people want to know what FA is planning and where we're going, and my goal is to keep you more update to date. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf with this new start, and we're excited for some of the upcoming changes!

Be sure to stop and pet the hyenas. =3

I bought back Fur Affinity.

RIP bank account.

It's time for an art contest! Draw your character as an eevee, and post your eevee to the tweet below... and I'll give $100 Amazon gift cards to TWO lucky eevees. Be sure and post your eevee to FA, too, with the tag MerryEevesmas.

https://twitter.com/Dragoneer/statu.....61343011762176

Winners will be randomly selected Dec 10, 2020. Evoi!

Merry Eevesmas!

Q: Can I draw them as an eeveelution?
A: Yes! Eeveelutions are allowed.

Q: Does it have to be new art?
A: Yes. If you're selected as a winner, and I find the image was posted prior to this announcement, you will be disqualified.

My sweet, beautiful lil' kitten Maddy is no longer with us. She was born mute, and was so small at birth she could fall asleep in the palm of my hand (and often did!). We called her our queen because she took care of her people. She patrolled the house, making sure everybody was okay, and would find a lap to curl up on once she made sure all her peoples were where they were supposed to be.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DskxAmK.....mp;name=medium

Maddy was the perfect cat. Snuggly, affectionate, but not clingy. She loved being picked up and getting big smushy hugs. There wasn't a thing about her I would have ever wanted changed. She was as close to the perfect cat as one could ask for.

She was the only survivor of her litter.

Long live the queen.

2005-2020

I'm going to go burrito myself into a blanket and cry for the rest of the night.

Attention artists -- Exveemon Day is just around the corner! There's still plenty of time to get exvees drawn.

Exveemon Day was announced by Teryx on Twitter, and as the creator of Flamedramon Day, how could I not personally endorse this one, too? Everybody needs a new dad bod mon special day!

https://twitter.com/teryxc/status/1.....91863892537344

Seriously though: how are you doing? 2020's been a hell of a year and I know a lot of people are struggling. How you guys and gals out there holding up? I know I tend to be a bit more social on Twitter at times, but I still appreciate everyone out there.

We completed our server migration, and it went off pretty smoothly (except for the occasional micro-outage, but we're working on 'em!).

We've been planning this upgrade for several months behind-the-scenes, and it's taken a lot of work to support a new infrastructure and required a heckin' amount of data to be transferred. Moving about 20TB isn't the world's fastest task. To help reduce a big chunk of the transfer time we bought a 14TB hard drive, filled it with as much content as we could, and shipped it cross country to our new data center on the west coast. You don't want to know how long it takes to copy that much data. Days. Days worth of copying. Imagine staring at the file transfer window and it just never leaves 99%. You keep thinking "Any minute now. It HAS to change!" But does it? It's digital molasses.

The rest of the data has been slowly syncing over for the past few weeks, quietly running away in the background while the site was running full time. Our final sync required a bit of down time to complete the move, which had the site in read-only for roughly 21 hours. I understand that was frustrating for a lot of people, but was necessary in order to finish the move to our new home.

Thankfully, we all had Pilaf (PRAISE BE THE QUEEN!) to keep us company during that time.

And with that, FA's infrastructure is entirely new. Brand new. And modern! Prior to that, FA's infrastructure was, and I'm going to be kind here... historic. A frankenmix of old and new. Our oldest server still in production was Novastorm, a Sun Fire x4150 that was the top of the line in 2008. In fact, that's the year we bought it. A 12 year lifespan for an active production server is legendary (Novastorm was our previous database server prior to acquiring Finn and Jake). While we've added multiple servers added to our arsenal since, Novastorm was the server that kept chugging all those years. The little server that could.

I'd like to give Yak a shout out and thank him. He owned this entire migration start to finish, and totally deserves a thousand otter pats on the back.

I'd also like to thank FA+ subscribers for helping supporting the site. I'll be real: asking $5 a month to support a website is a lot to ask, especially in a post-covid world. A lot of people are struggling, and we appreciate everyone who is able to offer their support. Servers cost money, and coding time costs even more money. Thanks to you, we were able to help fund this project. We've got a lot of fantastic new tech that'll fuel FA for quite some time. Every FA+ sub really does help the site, help us expand, and invest into our resources. We're grateful to all of you who've helped out.

Oh, and we have some neat things in store to use that new power, too. But more on that when the time is right. =3

But seriously, all this new hardware... MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

I've been kind of a wreck lately in my personal life. Between coronavirus, local police violence, my cat's surgery, life, the universe, and everything I've been stressed beyond belief. I'm sure a lot of you can relate -- there's been a kind of "2020 effect" going on. I had to basically walk away from Twitter and Facebook because the stress is eating away at me. It's hard to relax when you check the news every day and just see death, abuse, violence, and political controversy and you feel helpless.

That said, in the mean time, I've been uploading some older commissions I've gotten -- I'm still working on art, but since my cat's surgery my anxiety has been a constant 11 out of 10 and I've just not been able to focus. It seems like something is always kind of coming up.

I'm also working on some FA QOL updates as well -- we've been fixing some minor issues lately, and I'm working on some additional fixes to go in over July/August. Have some good things to share in the general future. =3