Hey everyone! Sorry it's been some time since I've posted any art on my sites, and for that I truly do apologize, but there's some shit going on in my life that have really drained my artistic drive as of late. I feel like I owe you all an explanation to my silence, so I've decided to give you all a quick summary of both the good and bad that has been happening lately.

As far as the good goes, I finally have a newer, more modern computer. My Old Man came home with it one day out of the blue to replace our older one, and while it only has about 4 GB of RAM, it's definitely allowed me to play a lot more of the games that I couldn't even boot up on my older one!

...That being said, you all know that my personal tool for drawing was the Windows Vista version of MS Paint (alongside Paint.NET, but that's a non-issue as I can just re-download it anyway). Now, of all the versions of paint that had existed previously, I personally feel that the Vista version was not only the most accessible, but also the most technically sound of the lot. So as you could expect, when we finally upgraded to Windows 8.1, the pre-installed Paint app just wasn't something I could adjust to.

Be aware, I don't HATE the app. I saw what they tried to do, and I liked the fact that they gave you more shape-drawing options than previous versions did, but the cons far outweigh the pros. For example: any line, curve or shape you draw automatically has a selection box over it once you let go of the mouse button. Fine if it was for making the initial shapes and all, but since I like to use the Line tool for touch-ups over the pencil tool, it gets annoying quickly. The layout of the UI is a bit more confusing as well, and... well, I could go on all day just listing things that I don't like about this thing.

Now don't worry, I HAVE found a solution to this problem! I've downloaded a free program called "Paint XP", which is a full recreation of MS Paint from back during the Windows XP days. It is a FULLY faithful recreation of the program, right down to it's horrible initial pallet color choices. I still prefer Vista's MS Paint, but at least now I have a program I can use competently.

In other good news, we now have a little bundle of excitement in the form of a new puppy. We've named her Peaches, and she's a Yorkie/Terrier/Chihuahua/Weenie mix. She's cute, she's rowdy, and she still has a way to go to being paper trained.

Now for the bad: My Mother has been in and out of the hospital for the last two years, and we've been trying as hard as we can with the doctors to figure out what was wrong with her so we could treat her for it. Well, we've finally found out, and it's not good...

She has Leukemia; cancer of the blood. In fact, she's had it for the last two years, and we can't give her any treatments for it because any available option to combat it would potentially kill her. She's been getting monthly blood transfusions to give her a bit more pep in her step so that she could have a little more time with her grandchildren & family, but at this point it's only a matter of time before the inevitable. It's been hard for all of us, but for me especially. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a Mama's Boy. She means the world to me, and the thought of losing her is just heart-rending. But while I may not like it, I've come to accept that it's just the way things are. I knew that I'd be losing her someday, I just didn't think it would be so soon.

As you can imagine, that fact has really impacted my creative drive as of late; hence why I've been so quiet. But I'm really trying to get back into the groove. I've been working on a new art to accustom myself to drawing on the new computer, and I'm considering opening up a few request slots here in the near future to get my mind off of it, but we'll see what the future brings. I just hope I'll be able to give you guys more content here soon.

In any case, I'll go ahead and wrap up this journal before I further plunge myself into depression. Keep an eye open for new content here soon!