Hi lovelies, how's things? Its been a hot moment since I've posted an update about myself. I had a post typed up on New year's day however I caught a nasty bug last moment and spent the week sick. That and I wasn't too happy with what I typed up, so let's try this again. (If you aren't interested in reading my life story you can skip to the second part of the journal)

Before I get into my life, I've got a Bluesky account that I'm slowly making a habit of updating. If you'd like to see smaller day-by-day updates from me as well as sketches and doodles I don't upload here go and give me a follow: @oregene.bsky.social

I'll keep this catchup brief. Its been an absolute rollercoaster of a last 14 months. Around October last year I found out the job I had for multiple years was being made redundant. This was a job I had at a location that I had been working at since high school and with people I had known and grown to enjoy working with for close to a decade. It was absolutely devastating for me; I spent four months job searching and fell into a state of depression.

The good news is that I inevitably found a new job and have spent the last 10 months frantically learning a new industry that I've had no experience with before. Its been super engaging and I'm enjoying the job in ways that weren't possible with my previous job but it's also been an ordeal catching up on the knowledge and experience required for it.

So a lot of 2025 for me was spent treading water for a completely new lifestyle and career. In hindsight losing my job was probably for the better as it's forced me to change in areas where I had gotten stagnant, allowing me to pursue better opportunities in life. It hasn't left me a lot of time for drawing though as I've had to either work overtime to learn stuff or spend extra time studying for qualifications in the field. I've been happy to put the time in for it though.

Now we're at the beginning of 2026 and I feel much more confident in my position. My mental health is much better than last year and I'm no longer treading water. Now that I dont need to spend every waking moment on my job I'd like to start drawing and uploading more frequently than I have last year. So here's my plan:

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I have a set goal of how much I'd like to draw this year that's achievable with my current schedule, which includes bringing back some of the community voting pieces (like the pokemon inflation series I did ages ago) as well as YCH's and commissions. Between them though I can draw miscellaneous fun pieces, and I'd like to know what you would like to see from me. This could be more inflation, fat, macro, muscle, butts, breasts, general art etc.
So let me know what you'd like to see from me in between my own schedule and ideas.

I have no guarantee I'll do any suggestions, but I'll certainly weigh them more when doodling things up. Post here and let me know what you'd like to see!