Aicaya ⚧ @Aicaya@octodon.social

You ever see an art tip that you immediately try out and go "Holy hell, why didn't I learn this a million years sooner"? 'Cause I just did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSXZHDzkytc

Suddenly I have a use for the lead holder and the gaggle of HB leads it came with (no sandpaper to sharpen them, though). This is the first time in a while where I sketched without being too rough on the paper, which is gonna make inking a lot more convenient and less reliant on a light table.

Inking practice since it had been almost two months since I touched the crow quill (I blame the lack of self-control caused by being mostly-offline and in the dark for over half a year).

Not really meant to look good, tbh—main purpose was just to practice line control and zone out while doing so (hatching like this is sorta meditative for me).

(cw: nudity, as usual)

Shoved a lot of stuff to the side, moved the monitor to the absolute edge of the desk and plopped the portable drafting table on top. Feeling significantly-less stressed now (so much easier to draw on an inclined surface).

Having one of those "nothing I draw is coming out right and I am growing increasingly-frustrated at this" days. Not helped by the fact that this is my last day before the internet is cut because I'm $110 short due to late fees from before the hurricane, so taking a break is the last thing I should do.

This is not a good day for me.

I sincerely hope this new batch of artists actually stays. I keep getting hopeful whenever some of my favorite artists join only to notice months later that they went back to birdsite.

I think the reason this place works for me is because I came here to start over, not to continue. Everyone else feels the pressure of their fanbase pulling them back to the places they tried to leave, especially when they rely on commissions for a living. Looming rent payments make for quite the anchor.

There we go, updated the profile a tad. Maybe someday I'll also have a gallery link to add, but this works for now.

Had to cancel plan to completely wean myself from coffee due to unexpected bills and stuff. Gonna need another $150 to remain online next month, so staying awake's a bigger priority.

On the plus side, I ended up developing a healthy exercise routine from my efforts at trying to remain awake without my daily four mugs, plus I'm still good with just one small cup a day. So it's still a healthy improvement overall.

Internet went out yesterday and it still hasn't been fixed. So far in the offline realm:

* stopped drinking coffee entirely
* witnessed blackface in local television (because Puerto Rico)
* brother crashed grandma's car by being an idiot, will probably be dealing with medical debts for a long while

Good lord.

Disregard that last toot: Apparently GIMP 2.10 has an option to export EXIF metadata onto .png images. Will test later.

Apparently .png images don't support EXIF metadata. Was hoping to use that to embed a CC-BY-SA on future pics, but in order to add it I'd have to post them as .jpg (which I won't).

Digging the options on the new Masto update. Kinda wish there was an option for changing the width of columns or having it adjust automatically depending on the browser width, though (only the witches_town theme allows that, but I like the contrast of the default theme better).

I think just to be on the safe side, I'll turn on the setting for auto-marking media as sensitive and just turn it off on a per-post basis. Too scatterbrained to trust myself in this caffeine-deprived state.

...I just realized I forgot to mark the last sketch from a few days ago as sensitive due to nudity. Suddenly glad the post was unlisted 'cause that would've been awkward if it had been public. :V

Okay, so far I've:

* changed the theme for Neovim and urxvt
* made the .Xresources file readable
* configured tmux to display italic fonts

Now to remember how to actually *use* both Neovim and tmux because I haven't actually used them properly since 2016. All I remember at this point is regular Vim's navigation keys.

It's officially been over a week since I reduced the amount of coffee I drink per day to just one small cup. Still feeling weird, but hopefully that'll change in a couple weeks...?

Pray tell, in what world does it make sense to extend copyright well into the author's death? A corpse cannot claim ownership of a work unless necromancy is somehow involved.

...Okay, at this point I'm gonna go with a CC-BY-SA license for my work not because of ethics and the like, but because copyright will never be fixed at this rate:

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/05/18/us_congress_copyright_extension/

Ultimate goal is still to leave not just this island, but the continent in its entirety. This will require a lot of preparation, though. Getting my health issues sorted enough to build a site and open up commissions without risking delays due to sickness or forgetfulness is the first step, and that's gonna take months to finish.

I hold zero love for this part of the world: Puerto Rico sucks and the US is part of the reason why. If I can make it to Europe by 2020 then I will have succeeded.

Been spending some time trying to improve my health somewhat. Gonna start exercising properly once I'm done weaning myself from coffee (I love it and all but I developed caffeine tolerance so high that four cups merely kept the headaches at bay, leaving me tired and with an uncomfortably-tight-feeling chest).

Also started keeping a journal. I have ADHD-PI, so writing on it twice a day is helping me regain *some* focus.

Been a while since I uploaded a pic, so have some practice sketches.

Looks better now that I can scan stuff instead of having to use a crappy phone camera. :V