Some of you may not know me that well, so I'm going to cover this once. Black lives matter. Before you get tempted to retort with 'all lives matter', saying 'Black lives matter' never means 'more than other lives.' It's simply a recognition of the way in which society has a deeply-embedded systemic…
Right, so. The world is scary right now, in terms of the environment and the climate crisis, and it’s easy to feel discouraged and powerless. Here are a few of my own thoughts on all this. It’s not your fault, and fixing it isn’t all on your shoulders. We all have a part to play, but letting go of…
Hi everybody! I'm still here. Anybody still paying attention will have noticed that I'm not doing art very often these days, but stuff still happens occasionally. There will still be more, but it's slower going than it used to be. I'm getting by just fine day to day, but since my stroke last Septem…
I've spent the last three days at a conference for work, including giving a research presentation yesterday. Overall it was really good! I got to see various colleagues and catch up, talk through things with my boss in person for the first time since having the stroke, and generally feel sciencey a…
So uh. Yeah. A couple weeks ago I had an amazing opportunity to attend a three day scientific workshop in Shanghai, China. The first two days were fantastic. On the third day I had a stroke and was found mid-morning by my colleagues, then taken by paramedics to a local hospital before being transfe…
So I’ve finally gotten around to trying this game I’d been hearing a bit about for a while now, and holy crap it’s pulled me in. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s sort of an interactive novel/choose your own adventure/investigation/dating sim mix, wherein you’re an ambassador for Earth sent through…
Hi everyone! So yes, I've been quiet lately, mostly due to an excess of Real Life going on. Job hunting, attempted career changes, personal stress, a current short-term job that's going well but involves a two hour deep urban commute... I haven't been left with any time or energy for making art, or…
Last weekend I was at ScotiaCon. The world felt warm, safe, and loving. Today it feels the other thing.
ScotiaCon was once again a fantastic experience this year, made even better by having the whole family along to a con for the first time. I can't express enough gratitude to the con staff and everyone involved for making it such a great time. I'm already eagerly looking forward to next year. These…
Greetings all! It is with pride, pleasure, and mild trepidation that I'm announcing my grand opening for digital art commissions. I've been giving it thought for a while now, and after a few tentative but highly positive experiences I've decided to go for it. Since art is something I do in what fre…
Azakir and I spent last weekend taking a road trip to north Wales where we saw some castles, visited the village of Portmeirion made famous by the 60's cult thriller TV show The Prisoner, bought a dragon plushie, and climbed the tallest mountain in Wales. Among other things, we learned that north W…
Today I went to a big indoor ski slope at the Milton Keynes 'Xscape' building and took a couple intro lessons in snowboarding. :) It was darned good fun. It's something I've been curious about for a long time and finally prodded myself into trying, especially now that I live like five minutes' driv…
So last night I had this dream. I dreamt I was a dragon. My dragon self, I believe. The proper quadrupedal sort. And I was living in a world with others of my kind. I had been conversing with a dragoness. One I did not know well, and whom I was not certain I could fully trust. I had known of her, o…
I'm going to ScotiaCon! I'm quite excited, I haven't properly attended a convention for several years now, and best of all I'm coming with two very very special dragons. It should be a lot of fun, and getting to a con with them is something I've been looking forward to for many years. I'm curious i…
Those of you who have known me for long enough may recall a journal I posted a few years back explaining that although I'm American by birth, I was moving permanently to the United Kingdom. There were a lot of reasons for this, but one of the main ones, and the one that really made it more of a nec…
Greetings all! A good friend of mine just e-published her first fantasy novel through Amazon Kindle, and having just finished reading it I felt it was worth promoting/evangelizing a bit. I like supporting my friends, obviously, but more than that I thought it was just a really fun read. The story i…
Last weekend one of my loved ones and I hopped in an Audi TT and took a long weekend road trip to Cornwall, UK. Tremendously good times were had! Highlights included: -Stonehenge -Cheddar Gorge -Fish and chips and ice cream at the seaside at sunset in Perranporth -Lizard Point (southernmost point i…
I spent last week on holiday with my household, the four of us going to a woodland resort called Center Parcs. It's a place we've gone a few times before and always enjoyed, and the week was blessedly relaxed and gentle and carefree. It's one of the first times we've been able to take a proper holi…
A very mixed bag for me and mine. In some ways it's been very productive and left us in a very special place. In other ways I'm content to tell it good riddance. On the plus side, my mates and I bought a beautiful house in a town we love, adopted a wonderful dog, and things progressed considerably…
Today I applied for my settlement visa in the UK, and was accepted. I have the last UK visa I'll ever need, so the Brits are officially stuck with me. ^^ In concert with having a PhD and a career-track job in the environmental sciences, living with my dragon family, and owning a wonderful home with…
I now own a house along with my three Special Somedragons. We moved in last week and it all went pretty well. The house itself is fantastic, built in the early 80's as a futuristic eco-home so it's got a lot of interesting spaces and unique architecture. Makes it feel like something out of Blade Ru…
We have a mortgage! The bank finally quit stalling us around and being ridiculous. A lot of professional chasing and assertiveness on the part of Tarkara is largely responsible I think, she's been awesome. It's taken over a month when we were told it'd be a few days, and we kept getting different a…
Oh alright. These are fun every now and then, so here ya go! What's your real name? We'll just stick with 'Doran Eirok' for public internet purposes, shall we? It's real enough! How tall are you? 5'9" (175 cm) What's your natural hair color? Dark brown What's your eye color? Dark brown What's your…
I really hope everybody's been having a wonderful Christmas season, and/or their holiday of choice. :) It's been quite a year for me, in particular the last few months. Just to recap... -I spent most of the year living in Aberdeen, Scotland with my partner Zel and still being a jobless bum, continu…
I've been at the job three weeks now. It's going well! Quite busy, but I knew that would be the case. Next week I'm helping my manager teach a course in environmental modelling. I'll be giving one of the lectures and helping out with some workshops. The teaching will be good experience, not to ment…
So! I have survived my first week of the new job. It's going to be quite a ride, and a lot of work, but I'm tremendously excited for it. As said before, I'm now a post-doctoral research fellow on a project concerning urban ecosystem services, and specifically I'll be end up doing a lot of work in e…
I got a job!!!!! After getting my PhD, moving to the UK to be with my mates, and then hunting for over a year and a half now, I've finally been granted a position I'm really excited about. It seems pretty much perfect in terms of what I've been looking for. I will be working for the next almost thr…
I got a random/hilarious/awesome email today from a private pilot who flies his superlight plane around Europe, somewhat for fun and somewhat for charity fundraising for children's hospitals. His plane has the registry/tail number EI-ROK, and in searching for photos of his plane online stumbled acr…
I'm happy to announce that my gallery here is now up to date. The down side of this is that my uploads will become a lot less frequent now I'm afraid, but any new work I do will be uploaded here as it happens. I really want to extend a big thank-you to everybody who's watched, commented, or faved m…
Hello all! FurAffinity and deviantArt are going to continue to be my main galleries for the foreseeable future, and pretty much everything I upload will go to those two places. However, in my desire to stay up to date with artists I watch and have my artwork accessible to others, I've decided to br…
