Busy behind the scenes on big things right now. I'm feeling torn in a hundred directions right now, send help. XD>

Im back folks, now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. I got my last Moderna shot recently and I was hammered pretty hard with a fever as my body reacted to the shot. I'm doing better now, but I'm exhausted as I had just come off a super nasty stomach flu the week before that. At one point my body was so hot I could feel the heat coming off my skin when standing in a cold room. It was so bizarre. It hit both me and my mom at the same time, I felt a chill then boom it was on from there.

On top of that I might have had a minor gout flare up, which made it hard to walk a bit. Likely it was just the bad shoes I was wearing because I would've been in the hospital for that too. Oh boy.

It's been a week. I'm pretty wiped out for now, I'm getting better by the day though. I'll be back to creating craziness soon enough.

Well winter did it's best to freeze us out, now March came in swinging with the threat of tornado outbreak in the panhandle this evening. So far there is video of a wide wedge tornado, maybe a mile and half across tearing across the prairie near Happy, Texas (yes it's a real place) up north this evening. No word on if it hit anyone or if anyone is hurt. From what I saw on radar there was at least 8 tornado warnings, though one has been confirmed as of now. I'll check back in with my chaser peeps to see what else turned up today.

Yours truly was about to surf my way out to my car on hailstones and flash flooding that came with the storms this afternoon. The storm complex formed a line all the way up to Kansas and was just unbelievable. With the jet stream sitting right between two fronts, it was only a matter of time before we saw some action. The storms were really motoring too, I was up at the sound of thunder and trying to get to work in all the craziness. Saw two accidents on the way to work after the rain cleared, nothing major and no one seriously hurt.

One woman blew out a tire in the turn lane and the other was one car clipped the tail end of the one in front. All were ok, nothing super serious. I'm on full alert weatherwise now, with tornado season kicking off early. Keep my eyes peeled. Anyway, hope everyone is ok!

Next week Texas will open 100% and the mask mandate will be lifted, hopefully all goes well for my home state since the deep freeze last week or so. I'll probably keep wearing mine just in case like I did last time before we wound up in lockdown again. Hopefully we can get to a point where we won't have to worry about wearing those masks.

What an epic freeze! Nearly the entire state of Texas was without power to the point several people froze to death in their homes. The roads were terrible, there was ice everywhere. We had icicles hanging dangerously off our porch and we had to knock them down. I had to go to work in the middle of white out conditions and full blizzard mode. It was so cold that it was literally coming through the walls of the building and the offices were like an icebox. Thankfully we shut down early and we went home early.

We did our best to stay warm and conserve energy to help the nearly 4 million without power to prevent rolling blackouts which would've left us in the deep freeze. The temperatures where I was got down to -2 with a windchill of -16 Fahrenheit. The stores were ransacked for everything imaginable, just like when COVID hit and the toilet paper was gone. People bought out entire sections of the meat department, all the soups, spaghettis and just about all the sweet and unsweet tea in the state. Dr. Pepper is like gold right now and just scrounging for some bacon is a nightmare.

All the major stores in my area are out of most of the basics, including most of the milk and all the coffee creamer. We got lucky to find eggs at a smaller mom and pop, more expensive, but it was a miracle. Lunch meats were mostly depleted and most of the chip aisles were wiped clean save for the store brand ones. I think most of West Texas hit us up during the storm because we were hurting a bit for supplies. I can't imagine driving almost 300 miles in the snow to get to the stores during that mess. Most of the roads were undrivable.

Thankfully, we are down now to just 2 million without power and the roads were cleared to all trucks to restock the stores. Now its just a gamble to get things as the stores restock over the next couple of weeks. I'm grateful we got through that mess and that we are still in one piece. It was scary going especially after that fatal 100+ car pileup over in Dallas just driving out there. But we Texans are a tough bunch, we'll bounce back like we always do. Thankfully we have folks helping others out there. Don't matter if it's floods, tornadoes, hurricanes or a epic freeze, we'll be back on our feet soon enough.

Stay safe out there!

Its getting super cold here in Texas, this will be a new record low as the sunsets. They are predicting it will be at least -2 with a wind chill of -20. Stay warm out there!

Welcome to the Year of the Ox baby! Have a good one!

https://youtu.be/FpMVBqSWbsA < Through the Mists of Time - AC/DC

I know its been a bad year for everyone, myself included. For a time I was without a job and on unemployment, our old director was fired and a new one took over, there was plenty of tension. In February, I'll be terminating my term with the company, mostly because of personal reasons now. I'll be looking for new employment by then, so I might be out of the loop for the start of the new year.

It's been a long and hard road here, I had to survive on what I could and been super careful with everything. Was nearly exposed to COVID at one point in the year and it was scary. Discovered a new diet that will help me with my gout and prevent it from being a problem later.

In September this year I celebrated my 10th year in the fandom and I'm glad to have made new friends along the way. I'll do more to try and keep up with everyone. I set a goal this December and actually met it, to fix up my studio space so I can start making new things for you all to enjoy. This has been a hard Christmas as way gained friends, we had to lay one to rest. One of beloved chihuahuas was diagnosed with congestive heart failure early in the year and shortly after Christmas past away here at home with us where he belonged. He's not suffering anymore and we were here for him, he's in a better place now.

Despite all that's happened, we look toward the New Year with optimism at least that we'll get through whatever comes our way. Its been a tough year. So good riddance to bad rubbish, I want to start the New Year fresh and ready to kick some butt. Things will be a bit tough, but I've gotten tougher in my old age. I've got nothing to lose, so let's get after it.

Hey everybody I'm back online again after some touch and go with the older laptop. This new one is super fast and awesome, I'm glad I was able to get it before christmas.

I'm working on some new christmas art of your favorite cow, calling back to the very first christmas 10 years ago. So I'm working hard on getting ready for the new year, I'm clearing out my shop space to make things for the coming year. I've been a bit dodgy lately, especially now because I learned I was potentially exposed to COVID at work, so I've been monitoring my health as of late. Also we've had some family drama on Thanksgiving and Christmas gathering is looking sketchy at best. I'll spare details because it's been a tough going.

Hopefully you all are doing well and are ready for this year to be over.

Been having a bit of trouble with the old laptop as the new software is battling my older hardware. I managed to fix it up temporarily but I'm having to upgrade soon. Anyway, hope all is well and I hope to have this issue resolved soon enough. I'm tired of fighting this battle everytime. Especially since Windows pulled their support of the older formats such 8, 7, and Vista. Now I can't go back to an older program to try to run the new software when compatibility issues come up.

*facedesk*

Oi. Technology, Y U MAKE MY HEAD HURT?

Alas I must work this weekend and on my favorite holiday as well T.T

Anyway I hope you all have a good and safe one out there! With holiday hours we are staying open until 11 (facepaw) until the first week of December. I don't know why and I don't care, smh. Such is the life of a retail worker. Anyway I can't let it get me down though, with the extra time that means a bit more money for me and some extra cash for my projects. Also I have to start saving for when my school loans kick in again next year. Thankfully they waived the interest until this pandemic is under control, hopefully I can pay it down quickly.

For now I'm hanging. See you on the flip side come November.

Anyone else do this? :D

Sometimes when I draw something exception I can't wait to share it. Heck I do when I can and more often than not I wind up making into a desktop wallpaper. I think I have at least a dozen or so of my girls now! I think the only ones I don't have currently are Val, Olivia, Millie and Ms. Blue. I have a dozen of Hannah, a few of Lexia including the 2020 sign off from last year, now I have one of Diana and one of Ellie. I think I only did one group shot of my characters a few years ago.

I even do it with gift art from all my friends! Just because I love it! Absolutely. I have a special folder on my external harddrive for all the gift arts I get from people and I think I'll start a wallpaper folder on my desktop to rotate the background through them. :D. I just want to thank everyone for all the awesome gift they've given me.

I try to do some for everyone when I can. Especially if I like a character of yours and have to absolutely draw them. It's a lot of fun. So what's your favorite image for you desktop wallpaper? Do you have a favorite artist whose work you have as your background?

Changing jobs at the moment, things will be a bit slow and I'll be back shortly.

Ok it's been a bit since I updated honestly. I've been kind of holding my breathe a bit because I had a physical done. My cousin who is only 20 has developed diabetes as well as my uncle, worse diabetes runs in both sides of the family so it's only natural to make sure I'm doing ok. I underwent a battery of tests including blood work to determine the state of my health at this time. Given that we've had two cases of cancer in the family and a slew of other health issues including an incredibly rare thyroid issue, it was only natural to have myself checked over.

Thus far I'm doing well. In fact I'm 6 pounds lighter than when I had my gout flare up in June when I was at my heaviest at 254 lbs. I'm still pretty heavy at 248 lbs, but I plan on rolling into the new year losing weight and getting back down under 200. I'm doing my best to start eating better, I have slacked off a bit recently, only because the job was up in the air. But I plan on getting back to a better weight for the sake of my health. I can't say I'm not worried about the tests, I am, but I realize I can bring on those worries the more I concentrate on them. So flipping the script, I'm going forward with positive outlook. I would love to drop 50 lbs. before New Years. It's going to be a challenge, but I can do it.

One thing I've done was scale back on the sweets and junk food I was inhaling left and right. I occasionally have a burger or a soda, maybe a chocolate, but its only once in a while. Now I'm focusing on trying to get better. Whenever I want something sweet, I go for peaches, they are good. Honestly I can't wait to start doing better for me. Hopefully the gym will open again and I'll make my way down there to start building up my body again. Anyway, not matter what the results say, I'm going to do my best to get myself back to where I need to be again.

Cheers!

- R.

So my truck had a short in the blinker circuit where the high beams kept coming on everytime I turned, blinding everyone at night unexpectedly and it was a battle to get them to go off. Finally it shorted to the point the lights stayed on. Which as you would expect killed the battery not once but 3 times. It was plenty old anyway, developing an internal short after being drastically drained so quickly by the short in the circuit. I went out today and got replacement parts, the battery tested and replaced. Once I dropped the new parts in, my truck was on a roll and prowling again. The blinkers work well and the battery being replaced was what the old girl needed. I had a feeling the battery was going as the lights would dim occasionally at random and the engine was running a bit hard, still need new plugs soon. Brakes next!

Anyway while out and about running around breaking in the new battery and switch, I had inspiration hit and I had to hurry home to work out some details on a project I've been stuck on for a bit. Mostly I was shopping for parts for a new armature when I decided to study the parts available to me and realized I could fabricate what I needed from the steel pieces available. There's no off the shelf parts I could get anyway, not like there is some robot store I can get this or that piece from. That would be awesome though! I'm experimenting right now with some designs that I can make from simple stuff I can get down at the Home Depot, versus complex designs that would take weeks of waiting for someone to manufacture for me to get stuff done. Honestly I don't have the patience XD.

It's been a great day, hope you are having a good one! Be back soon with more.!

- R.

Yeah I've had a rough one.

My dogs started fighting while I was sleeping and bit my drawing hand while trying to separate them, popping a vein in the process. I didn't lose much in the way of skin and thankfully it didn't bleed, but my hand was out of commission for a few days. Picking up my tablet stylus was horrible as the pain was just excruciating! Then to top it off, my glasses snapped completely in half while cleaning them!

It was a miracle that they had the exact same frame at Wal-Mart and they were able to get them fixed. My hand is doing better, a bit numb when I make a fist but the burning is gone. The swelling also went away, mostly all that's left is where the skin came off and its barely noticable. I've been doing a lot to help it heal and it's been a tough few days, but I'm marching on. Hope your week is going better, I'm going to hang in there. :D

Celebrating 10 years of art, madness and awesome! Hope you guys are doing well out there!

I'm forever grateful to the many watchers that have stuck by me through thick and thin. I'm sorry if I fell flat on expectations, I hope to make it up to you in the future. It's been one heck of a ride up to this point and I'm just now hitting my stride.

I can see a bright future ahead, I'm really coming into my own right now. I feel like I'm starting a brand new chapter and that's how it should be. Again thanks for sticking with me, there's going to be some growing pains in the next few weeks but rest assured I'm on it.

I don't care what 2020 has in store, but I'm going to make it the best year I can through all of this madness. Hope to see you on the otherside in 2021.

Ok with my 10th year anniversary coming up in a week I'm pushing to come up with something awesome. Also I'm building some stuff to help with other projects i'm on right now. I have a workbench needing assembly on my floor right now XD. I'm going to have to figure out how to put it together myself XD.

Anyway, hopefully I'm going to get that stuff going on. Back soon!

August 31st will be one year since I survived the West Texas Shootings. It's been a tough month for me because I've been having some issues with the date getting closer. I can still remember where I was that day and what happened with great clarity. In all 27 people were shot and 7 were killed during the one hour rampage that kept our city hostage until police ended it.

It was just an ordinary day and I was working at the mall when it happened. I still remember the frantic texts I got from my mom warning me not to go outside as they had locked down the fair near the colesium. I figured it was on that side of town so I would go to lunch in the mall, only a five minute walk. But you know when you get that nagging feeling, trust it. It will save your bacon one day. I frantically began checking the local news stations and online newspaper, nothing. But it wasn't a minute when the call came in over the radio that all the associates were to come immediate to the front of the store.

My boss would confirm my worst fears: there was an active shooter in the area. At first we didn't know it was going to a citywide drive by, only that it was happening across the street at the Wal-Mart like a week prior in El Paso. We were trying our best to keep people inside and not cause a panic, but they continued to check out and insist on leaving. The parking lot was unfit to be in, there was just waves of people running for their cars. We had to lock the doors and not let anyone in as per protocol, but let people out that wanted to run. I had to turn people away and tell them to get to safety, locking the front glass doors behind me.

Before long my mom was blowing up my phone, screaming at me why we weren't in the shelter area. I told her we had a store full of people not everyone will fit as there as close to 200 or so still in the store. I remember telling her I love her and hanging up, I had to get the people to safety as some of our staff had run off in the blitz that followed. We managed to wrangle most of the people when reports of second shooter was making their way toward the mall and we had to shelter in the center of the store, we heard the shots outside. At some point the lights went out and we moved everyone to the center where I stayed with a cashier as the other remaining staff rounded up the rest. I spotted an autistic gentleman that was stimming, I knew he could go into meltdown any second. I also know that we tend to mimic folks, so if I stayed calm he would calm down, a gamble that paid off as he stayed cool amid the panic.

I had only a few seconds to react when a customer wandered out the front doors, leaving them wide open as he careless chatted on his phone, nonchalantly going to his car. I called it in while running and securing the front entrances, I remember the parking lot being dead silent now that even the traffic had stopped and no one was moving across the street anymore. Thankfully, when I returned we began moving people into the attic upstairs as reports were that a shooter had entered the mall through a nearby store. I remember telling a cashier I was going to double back through furniture to make sure it was clear, all the while notifying the manager of my moves. She made a good point about pairing up, safety in numbers and I couldn't argue against it. Though in my mind, I would send her back in case trouble came.

Once we got to the main entrance I double checked the doors to make sure it was locked, then backtracked through the store to make sure it was all clear before reporting in. We had everyone upstairs, out of the almost 200 or so on that busy day, only 60 remained with more than half children. You really don't know how bad things have gotten until a four-year-old asks if the bad guys can find us up there. I told her no, but that we would protect them if they did. I was already ahead of the game, I could get people out the backdoor to the parking lot in case someone did manage to get in. I would then comeback for any of the remaining staff and fight off the gunman if need be.

The confusion was great, we got mixed reports of more than one shooter out there and that they had people shooting on the interstate all the way to Dallas, of course we would find out later it was just one person. But the terror was real as my brother was out there in a neighboring town a half hour away and I couldn't reach him. Let did I know he had come back into town with a friend and came across one of the victims. Much like everyone up there I was on my Instagram messenger letting everyone know I was ok and that I was safe. The autistic gentleman needed to go to the restroom, but the only ones were downstairs and thankfully less than five feet from the door. I told him I would escort him down there and with manager's approval I escorted him and his mother to the restrooms, where I told them I would stand guard outside. By this time I had heard about a mother of four and a young man who had been shot 3 blocks from my home. I was ready for the guy to step onto my turf, because I was going to take him on. I didn't care how many times I got hit, only that it would take both SWAT teams to get me off him once I got my fists flying. That was my promise to those people upstairs that he wouldn't get past me to get to them.

Thankfully it passed without incident and a young mother with her infant and possibly mother-in-law came down, I escorted them as well. By this time the local SWAT team had secured the mall and called for everyone to evacuate. I got the mother and mother-in-law back to the stairwell in time when my boss confirmed that the SWAT had given the all clear. I called upstairs on my radio and told the cashiers to go ahead and send everyone down as SWAT was here to evacuate us from the building. All I can recall after we secured the building was all the shoes, purses, bags, carts and even someone's weave sitting on the floor during the initial panic. We didn't have to time to clean up, we grabbed our stuff and haul butt out the door. Once the doors were open the rest of the staff ran for their cars and sped away, I stayed to cover my boss and escort her to her car. I wished her luck and began to run across the parking lot to my car parked at a nearby restaurant. I won't forget that silence though, nor the rhythmic thumping of the helicopters overhead, there were so many. I dared a glance back over my shoulder to the mall and like a scene of a zombie movie, there were police cars blocking the entrances and SWAT running in armed with machine guns.

I sped home and almost got into an accident, but once I was on the road I could see the extent of the situation. An entire strip mall was shut down and a few ambulances were at the Starbucks on the corner where two people had been shot out on the patio. I got home and I hugged my mom and nephews so hard I could break them. Finally my brother text me that he had been sheltering as his friends house and that he would be on his way home soon. The shooting had already ended halfway between the cities at a movie theater complex, where the shooter refused to be taken alive was shot down by officers from both cities as he had shot several already, including one at the traffic stop when the rampage began. In all seven people were confirmed dead, the youngest being only 15 years old and the oldest being 52(?). I didn't realize how lucky I was as a two-year-old across the street had been shot in the face, she would later recover and wanted only to be a kid again thereby giving me hope in days after.

In the end, only the people whom we saved recognized our concerted efforts to keep them safe. Our company didn't even offer so much as a thank you, only recently they issued a revised Active Shooter Plan that felt more like a scolding than a plan. If anything I'm proud to have been a helper during the disaster. Mr. Rogers put it best, "Anytime there's a disaster, look for the helpers." If anything I want to thank my classmates and friends that reached out to me that day. I appreciated it. As for me, I was a helper and I'm hoping this post will save someone else.

- R.

Starting a new phase of my work, possibly butts in the near future!

Please stand by!

Looks like Hanna will make a landfall Saturday morning on south Texas coast along Corpus Christi. The projected path has her cruising south of Austin toward Laredo and Monterrey, Mexico. Part of the Chihuahua desert might see some rain, but us in West Texas are hoping that some will come our way because of this drought. But things are looking like a double header for us, as Gonzalo is hot on her trail just south of the Carribiean islands aiming toward Texas and Northern Mexico. We'll see about that one when it comes. For now Hanna is sneaking up on the Texas coast, so be prepared!

Initially Hanna was projected to continue inland toward the Big Bend/West Texas area, but it looks like she'll be swinging south. No telling, Mother Nature might hand us a curve ball.

Ok this weekend was a pretty tumultuous one. My studio just got bigger, but I had to move stuff around as we remodeling it a bit by taking my brothers stuff out. I officially have a huge space now that I can work in. In fact I can now comfortably fit a larger modeling board down without trouble as I'm going to start a large project I've been thinking about for a bit. I'm uncertain of the materials I'm going to need, but I can definitely fit it now that I've got the room. I probably need another shelf, just to hold stuff until I can get more of the clutter gone. It's been a long process, but I feel I'm close to a working solution.

I'll be back with more art as I continue to tame this mess :D

Ok I'm late to the party on this one. Amazon was spamming me with manga and I missed the bus on the anime, which is out of stock (shakes fist). Honestly, I thought it was kids book and kind of ignored it until YouTuber SaberSpark(?) did a review of the anime and I was impressed. Sadly I can't find the anime, but I'm looking to local stores to see if by some off chance they have it.

Holy smokes, is it good. Out of a 5 star rating system, I would give it a 15. I can't wait for the next e-book to show up. My best way to sum it up, is its like Zootopia grown up and fleshed out. It begins with a brutal murder and the aftermath of how the herbivore/carnivore students are dealing with it. Volume one was a bit slow, but once you hit volume 2 you don't want to put it down.

The writing is top notch, blending mature themes, suspense and romance in razor sharp balance. You really feel for the characters and it pulls no punches on dealing with themes of love, hate, war, and even morality. It doesn't fail to deliver on suspense and has loads of twists that would leave even M. Night Shamylan reeling from this master class of writing. The stories are tight and well thought out, the arc's leaving you on the edge of your seat when the volume is over. I tell you it's so good I blew through all 6 volumes in a matter of two days and I was ready for more!

The art style is unique, as it's drawn by the author herself and is unlike the stylized anime drawing you'd come to expect from a manga. There's no razor sharp consistency or heavily stylized characters, which is good because I feel it gets distracting. The characters feel more organic and lifelike when they aren't too stiff following a rigid drawing style, and it adds some punch when the Tarantino-esque battle goes down in one of the later volumes. From the most serene moments to the bloodiest of violent scenes, the artwork speaks more than the dialogue at times to the point it's almost cinematic.

The Good - amazing character driven stories that aren't afraid to be raw. Suspense and intrigue will keep you wanting more, so far I'm ready to read the rest!

The Bad - My only complaint is that there are on 6 of the 16 volumes available as an e-book. As far as I can tell there are about 10 volumes that are translated to English, with the 7th volume getting ready to drop on Kindle sometime this year. Also reading the e-book is a bit of a pain as you have to read it like a manga from right to left, which at times is a bit confusing as the way you read it is reversed as well versus traditional comics. It's small price to pay so it's not even a big thing for me. It doesn't detract from the overall story and it takes a moment to get used to, so I can't take away any points on that.

The Ugly - the only ugly part is I can't find the anime and I might hit up Barnes and Noble to see if I can get all the volumes in print sometime this week. I can't wait that long. XDDDDDDDDDD

15/5 paws :D

/end rant ;)

I'm getting closer to my goals.

I hope to have something new soon enough.

Most of my time is spent on certain sites out there in the world wide interwebs. Mostly I'm curious about what other places can show my art as well?

Currently I'm on:
- DeviantArt as R-Complex25 (I don't post much there because its so SLLLOOOOWWW and keeps crashing my browser)
- Furaffinity, naturally.
- Weasyl as R-Complex (super rare occasion, needs to be updated very much ;-;)
- SoFurry as R-Complex (I'm no longer posting there as much. I need to update it so bad).

But I'm curious as to what else it out there. I do have an Instagram (as my real self, not as R-Complex sorry), but it's getting bad over there because it got bought out by Facebook and they pretty much don't allow nudies on there. I hate having to censor things so I don't post anything worthwhile over there, except whatever I'm working on related to my career options. I've been hearing a lot about Twitter from friends over there, but I'm on the fence about going there for personal reasons. Mostly I think my ex might be lurking on there, just as well I think she sent her brother after me on Facebook (again as myself not R-Complex), because I kept getting asked about selfies and such. I don't do selfies, especially for strangers XD.

Maybe it was coincidence as I did some modelling in college and some strange person wanted pictures of me? *shrugs* All I know that was the last time I heard from them when I refused to send pics of myself. It was like literally every conversation. So weird. Well the first name was the same as her brothers, anyway enough of my paranoia, I'm just wondering out loud. But definitely looking to continue growing here on FA as well.

I also am planning my own website to house my other projects, mostly I fear it will get cluttered keeping all my eggs in one basket. But I'd like to hear what you guys know.


Author's Note: I'm NOT returning to Inkbunny. I was there for a bit, but I left with on a pretty sour note with them so, nope. Sorry.