Garblog (Yeah, I don't know if that title works)
I'm gonna blog here! I'll also put site updates here.
2025/03/25 - I got the book!
I FINALLY bought the artbook! Took me a while to muster up the courage to do it. Truthfully I don't expect to make that much of a profit off of this, but it's gonna make me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. This is a dream I've had for a long time. I hope it turns out alright!
I also put in a new merch order for more stuff too! Restocks of keychains, more keychain adoptables, and I'm trying out a design for a standee as well. I also got into another market! Hopefully my keychains will arrive in time.
I've discovered that one of my potential schools has tuition that's almost twice the price of the other one, but the thing is, it's not even the prestigious one! What's it so high for, then? This school did offer me a scholarship a few days back, but I can only keep it if I keep a 3.7 gpa (In an engineering program with a full courseload for someone who's been out of full-time schooling for a hot minute? That's a rather tall order...) and it really only brings the price down to be equal with the other school. The distance of the bigger school is still an issue, though. Much to think about.
I've also been getting into eating frozen mango lately. Like, when it's still frozen. Yummy...
2025/03/17 - Thinking about school...
I find myself feeling quite under the weather today. I've been working around a lot of kids this past week at an event and it looks like I wasn't able to emerge unscathed in terms of catching bugs. The actual weather outside has been pretty nice recently. It's jumped from bitterly cold to pleasantly warm and I'm filled with a renewed sense of promise, as spring tends to do. This week it'll be 17 degrees and not raining so I've got plans to take my classwork with me to the lake and maybe even do some more plein air painting.
I also got another pound and a half of monoammonium phosphate powder! I can finally grow my big crystal again! I just have to find a bucket whose dimensions will maximize growth without the crystal growing into the walls, or without wasting any precious growing formula. Much to think about.
I also got another acceptance into another engineering program. Hooray! Now, I need to think about which one I want to attend more. I've made a list of pros and cons:
School 1
Pros- Allegedly prestigious, one of the top 3 schools in my country almost across the board
- All of the buildings look very nice
- In a big city, probably plenty of fun stuff to do, artists would go on tour here more often (And I like going to concerts!)
- I'd probably have co-op opportunities from bigger companies
- Probably would look better on a resume if I work outside of the country where people generally know of, like, 3 of our schools (which this school is one of)
- It's a big school that attracts a lot of high performers and I worry I may lose myself to the grind... Like, yes, I want a degree, but I also want to have a little bit of fun too, you know?
- Rent is expensive if I can't get a room in a residence, which many people end up not getting because it's a lottery. The school is kind of out of the way compared to the rest of the city so I'd be in for long bus rides every day (And do I want that?)
- Plane tickets are expensive and it's on the other side of the country. But I want to come home sometimes!
School 2
Pros- Not nearly as far away, plane tickets are about half the price of school 1, it would be less of a production to get home if I had to or if I wanted to
- The campus is downtown in a smaller city, so it's easier to get around and even if I have to get an apartment chances are it won't be too far
- I hear it's a bit easier to keep up a high GPA which is good for morale (and grad school!)
- It has a location of the niche postal service that I use within walking distance of the school... I can keep running my store without changing my carrier and raising my shipping prices!
- It's not ranked quite as high as the other school in terms of, like, everything. It's still, like, somewhere in the top 15, but I don't know if there's a single thing this school beats the other one at.
- The campus isn't as big and new... I like being around chic buildings! It's good for morale!
- This school does have an engineering program, but that's not what it's known for. It's still accredited and has a co-op, that's pretty much the same for all schools here in terms of engineering, but it's not its "thing". This school's "thing" is mostly ocean sciences from what I hear. Now, I would love to do marine bio, and I did get accepted so theoretically I could do marine bio instead, but... the job market...
- The common foundational year goes on for longer, I'd be stuck with abstract math for longer before I can do fun stuff with dirt and sewage
Anyways, much to think about. I'm still waiting to hear back about scholarships. If any of them want to give me a chunk of cash to attend then that'll sway my decision too.
2025/03/12 - Yay!
I got accepted into another market! If you're in Toronto on April 12, come visit me at a store called Interesting Things in Kensington Market! I'll be selling my stuff there.
I've been procrastinating big time on ordering my book. Everything is ready, I just find myself unable to hit the button and pay for it! I need to get it out of the way so I have them ready in time for the market.
2025/02/24 - I have to think of better titles for these entries...
I got accepted to vend at dashcon 2! Yay! It's mighty convenient that it happened to be in Toronto this time. I need to figure out some new merch-y stuff to sell there...
I'm still thinking about making enamel pins. One day...
I also watched conclave the other day. It was a good watch methinks.
2025/02/13 - Still February...
The de minimis trade exemption was brought back. Hooray! So US shipments will be opened again. Apparently, the duty exemption will be taken away again at some point, but nobody will say when. This is quite frustrating. The sword of damocles hangs heavily over me and my store's heads.
2025/02/05 - February...
I woke up today to find an acceptance letter for one of the engineering programs I was interested in. Hooray!
I've had to shutter shipments to the US for the next little bit because all of this tariff nonsense is pissing me off and nobody can figure out what anybody's doing. First we're getting 25% tariffs, now we're not for the next month, but we are if it's from China originally, but now it's not, can somebody make their mind up already? Anyways, if you're American and wanted to buy something from me please stay tuned. I'll definitely be making US orders available later, it's just that I don't want to either overcharge anyone for measures that end up not taking effect or undercharge and have to pay out of pocket when items hit the border. Just to be safe. Australians and Canadians are still cool though. Actually, speaking of Canadians, I've added untracked shipping to my options, so shipping isn't so outrageously expensive anymore! It is untracked though, so buy at your own risk.
I also got some new fishies the other day. I hadn't added new livestock to my 20gal for a few years at this point and the setup isn't really fry-friendly so the population has just... slowly shrunk over time. I got some new kubotai rasboras and endlers too! The endlers are so cool, their oranges are so... orange. Seriously, it's like they're fluorescent. Very pretty. The tank currently has the aforementioned kubotais and endlers, plus a few kuhli loaches, an enormous flower shrimp and an unknowable amount of malaysian trumpet snails.
2025/01/28 - January...
It's almost the end of January. I've done mostly either working on my artbook or working on my finals. I've finished the pages for the artbook, now I just have to buy a bunch! I'm unsure how many to get. I don't expect to sell a ton, it's just that it would make me feel warm and fuzzy to say I have a book. But then again, I don't want to spend too much on them. They do get cheaper as you buy more, anyways.
I also got a haircut today! I wanted something weird and strange and silly. It's like... a jellyfish bob with the physiology of a mullet in reverse. Or something. I really want to give myself raccoon tails... Much to think about.
I think I'm going to try and apply to Dashcon 2...
2025/01/04 - It's a new year!
Ahoy! It's been a hot minute. The last bit of december saw a lot of success for my etsy shop and I'm very happy! I've been making these really tiny 1" phone charms with various characters on them and they've done really well. I'll have to buy more next time! I'm struggling to get back into the swing of things because I haven't touched my classwork since the 20th. I wanted to get everything done before the new year but I couldn't fit everything in time.
My main creative goal for this year is to finish my book! I'm chipping away at an artbook for palindromes. My main non-creative goal for this year is to learn how to drive...
I'm hoping that this year I can get into some markets that I should actually be going to, like the ones where they sell cute charms and prints rather than candles, tumblers with stolen art sublimated on the sides of them and freeze-dried dog treats. There aren't too many of those out where I live, though. Much to think about. I just really hope I can take a good few last kicks of the can before I go off to university later this year.
2024/12/15 - Hi!
I updated my site background! I think it looks pretty cool. I've been learning how to make dressup games and host them here. What I've got so far definitely doesn't hold up to the sophistication of my meiker games, but maybe I'll get there some day!
I've been continuing to sell a far greater amount of stuff since moving over to etsy. I'm pretty pleased! Unfortunately I missed pretty much all of the holiday markets I actually should have been attending (like, I ended up at the "candle, jewelry and cat toy" markets instead of the "charm, print and sticker" markets) but I made an instagram and followed as many as I could find, so hopefully I'll get in next time. I also didn't get into a bigger anime con (it was a lottery, so not only did I have to be what they're looking for but I also had to get lucky) but I've put out an ad to be adopted as a table buddy. Hopefully I'll find somebody? It would be cool! But if not there's always other markets to look for.
2024/12/01 - Hmmmmmmmm again...
I had a black friday sale the other day and it went great! I got, like, 5 orders in a night. That's the best I've ever done online! I've ordered a bunch of keychains but I feel like they probably won't be getting to me in time. I'll have to woodburn some stuff for my next market to make up for the obvious lack of new keychains and stickers that I wanted to have around. Alas.
I've also been thinking more about what's next... I'm the head admin of an arpg, what the hell am I gonna do with that when I go off to school? I don't really want to hand off the keys to the place because I hold palindromes very near to me but on the off chance I do end up pursuing engineering like I've been planning to do I'm fairly certain I won't have the time to upload horses to the mule account and draft out new event features. Much to think about.
2024/11/14 - Check out my swamp bagel
i've been getting into spirulina lately. i put it on my bagel. it's a swamp bagel now
2024/11/04 - Hmmm...
Hello again! I've been hard at work doing all sorts of things recently. I've finished two of the three vendor fairs I was accepted into last time I posted here, one of them went sort of alright (but ultimately I only broke even because my lovely friends came to support me) and the other one turned out completely abysmal. (I'm talking, a 70 dollar table fee and I made 15 dollars.) I have one more, but I also got into another new one, and since these two are closer to christmas I'm hoping to perform better!
In regards to the porter robinson show, it was a lot of fun! I wore a goofy propeller hat there, and people were spinning the propeller on my hat. I had a really good spot but then I suddenly got sick so I had to give it up in order to sprint to the bathroom. Otherwise, though, it was a great time! my phone ran out of storage so I only got to record, like, two songs. But still! I'd like to go to more concerts in the future, but no one else that I listen to seems to be playing near me anytime soon.
I've been working on setting up an etsy shop. Now I can do international orders, yay!
I'm currently struggling to keep on top of everything. It's been a lot of fun working on my store, but I've been finding it hard to focus on stuff of real importance when I could always be designing a new keychain instead. My midterms are due in 3 days and I need to finish two assignments before then. Long sigh... I've had so much time to do these but I keep putting things off because the course I'm in doesn't have any "real deadlines" and the ones that I try to set for myself, because they aren't real, I can see through them. But now I've had a real deadline suddenly sprung upon me, and the fire under my butt is nice, but I've been finding it awfully tricky to lock in!
Anyways, some other things I did while I was procrastinating was adding a "random page" button to my home page, a new guestbook, and tweaking my HnK fanstory's page (and adding some new content to it too!).
I'm also going to hide some coupon codes for my store throughout this site sometime soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that if you like deals!
2024/09/19 - Hello again!
I've been accepted into another vendor fair! That means I've got three lined up for me. I'm feeling super entrepreneurial about it. I've also been in contact with a risograph printing studio and I'm very excited to get my prints. They'll be done in time for the markets that I'm attending, and I hope they sell well! If they do, I'll certainly be back with more ideas. I've always wanted to make risograph prints but I've been intimidated by the file requirements and the nicheness of it/having to ask for a quote. But it was easier than I thought! I've got ideas for zines, more art prints, card sets, the whole thing. I'm starting with a print about ginkgo leaves to keep it as marketable as possible to mass audiences + everyone buying candles and soaps at the business fairs I'll be attending. I'm excited!
Today is the day I wanted to go to the porter robinson concert, but everyone I wanted to go with wasn't available today. (But tickets have been cheaper for this show! dang!) I'm very much excited for this as well. I'm gonna wear my bedazzled pink suit to it, just for fun. I have a bright pink suit that I bought for my prom but I had to miss it for an animation competition, so I've been trying to milk it as much as possible ever since then because it was expensive.
2024/09/14 - September...
And so summer draws to a close... Has anyone noticed that honey locusts these days don't change their leaf colors all at the same time? In my memories I recall trees fully golden but all I see these days are trees who are half yellow, half green, and not even in a pretty blushing way like maples, but just slapped all over the place in an entirely random fashion, a sad sickly lime from a distance. Devastatingly unchic. September is usually a month of hope and dread and bummer of going back to school but as this is my second gap year I feel a little out of place not experiencing that. I'm taking an online class, but it's one of those "here's the material, you have until february, email me if you have any questions" kind of classes. So, not really the same experience. I'm hoping to get off my butt and go to some public libraries to work to get a change of scenery every once in a while. I've been spending the entirety of spring and summer really locking into taking public transit. I've composed a ranking of every bus route in my city (save for one, because cosmic forces keep preventing me from taking it each time I try) and I think I have too much time on my hands. The other day, in one of such thwarted attempts to take the final bus route, I ended up deciding to go to the waterfront instead, and I had a very pleasant oatmeal cookie and lemon ice cream sitting on a rock. I've been enjoying my solitude. Earlier this week, I walked 22 km along the waterfront by myself, for glory. To say that I did it, walk from one city to another. I also got food at a cool Japanese restaurant when I was done, six hours later, and I felt really good about myself! I also went to a convention since my last update. I learned how to sew so that I could make Vash the Stampede's jacket. Check it out!
Not bad for baby's first sewing project!
I also went to an art market in Toronto. It was my very first time being a vendor at a juried event! I broke even on the table fee but not on transit, which is a bit of a bummer. I have two more shows lined up for the fall, though, one in October and another in November, so I'm looking forward to what's in store for me.
I'm also planning on going to the SMILE! :D show on the 21st. I sold a bunch of adoptables to fund my ticket, and I'm very grateful to everyone interested in my adoptables who have given me the ability to make a quick buck like that!
2024/08/03 - Oops!
I forgot! Oops.
So... what's been going on with me lately? I've been doing a few more plein air paintings, but I ran out of board so I've had to take a break for a bit. I've been slowly chipping away at cosplays for a con coming up this month, and I've also been working on art as I always have. I've also been doing keychain adoptables! A keychain that comes with a design you can play with as well. I'm very happy that they've been selling well! It warms my heart to know that people dig my stuff. I've also been cranking out art for artfight. I've done nearly 90 attacks! I'm hoping I can get exactly 90 done before it ends later today.
Here's a plein air I did back in may! I think it's my best one to date.
2024/04/11 - Plein air and rediscovering the magic of public transit
The weather's been nice and I'm tired of trying to coordinate with the schedules of everyone I know, so I've been getting to know the city by myself through aimlessly going on public transit and letting it take me wherever it'll take me. And so I ended up at the lake multiple times over the past few days, and I even brought some paints with me one time!
I'm really enjoying this whole "plein air" schtick. I feel as though my zest for life has been replenished! I also got a new watercolor palette that I've been filling with old watercolors laying around my house. I've been trying to decide which colors to add and which colors to not add... My favorite pigments by far are the phthalocyanine family. They're all very vibrant and look good no matter if they're mixed with something else, concentrated or diluted... they always look nice. I'll add a better view of the painting I made to my watercolors page when I revamp it!
2024/04/08 - Eclipse time!
Today's the day! I've been patiently waiting for the total solar eclipse for years. Ever since the last total eclipse that passed over America in 2017, I've been disappointed that the path of totality didn't include me, but eagerly excited that the next one would. So here we are the day of, (I'm writing this before the eclipse) and it's cloudy! Damn it! I've been anticipating this for the past 7 years because it's April, but damn...
7 years ago I was quite young, and I was envisioning what life would be like 7 years in the future. And now that I'm here... I have my shit way less together than I'm supposed to. In my imaginings of the far future, I'm in university, I have a bob, I'm wearing a cool sleek black turtleneck... now for my past self's sake I am in fact wearing a bob and a black turtleneck, things I am in control of over the short term, but I've fallen rather behind the rest of folks my age. Things aren't exactly what I thought they would be, but I'll get there eventually.
...
Turns out I got to see it after all! I'm pleased with that turnout. It was really cool how the temperature plummeted and it got all dark. Hooray!
2024/03/23 - It's spring, and people don't like bones!
It's officially springtime! For some reason, we only got snow after the equinox. Otherwise, it's been the lamest winter ever. I've been chipping away at more webcomic pages, and that's about it. For the phonies ARPG, I released a set of new bones that match their new anatomy, reflecting how they're essentially just weird mutant palindromes. But they ended up not being very popular, so I'm a little bummed about that. Trying to think of a solution that everyone is satisfied with, but some people just don't like peaches so maybe I won't be able to reach it.
2024/03/16 - Chugging along...
I'm back! I haven't done much here. I've been making those shrines I said I was gonna make in the last entry. I need to actually learn more about turing patterns because I don't want to spread misinformation in the turing pattern shrine. I've been really busy lately, I've been working at a festival that's gone on for the entirety of spring break as well as the weekends before and after that week. So that's nine days in a row, and I've hardly got any free time! But I'm almost through it. I'm also working on another chapter for my HnK fanfiction but I kind of lost steam halfway through. When I'm done this stretch of work, I'll probably be able to finish. I also semi-recently found another shipping carrier for my keychain store, and now I can actually offer tracked shipping for less than 20 dollars. Yay!
2024/03/05 - What's new?
I wanna try out this whole microblogging thing... Recent additions to the site include slapping a gradient on every single element that can possibly have a gradient, as well as adding a formal character page to my confibula stories. (They even wiggle when you hover on them!) Practicing absolute positioning and stuff. I also made a comic for reading purposes on my HnK fanfiction portion of the site. I reckon I'll make some more in the future... I'm also thinking of making more shrines to keep my Microsoft Optical Comfort Mouse 1000 shrine company. Maybe my favorite dinosaur on display at the ROM, or books that I like, or turing patterns... Turing patterns are cool... I also need to fix up my gallery because all of the images there are broken. Oops. That's what I get for hosting images on discord.