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icytemporalist

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okay fine I'll post a status... as a journal! :p

^ is why I'm here; didn't realise 'no to all' wasn't implemented yet. Not sure what they were thinking there, but better to rip the band-aid off and acknowledge flaws.


I'll share what I commented there.

"Images that come from Bias Automation (Neural Networks, so-called 'AI') are a pain to deal with as fanatics embrace them as 'art'; I can appreciate that embracing them so that they may be curated appropriately is a smart way to handle them, but it's still a loose-loose scenario."

I can still wax poetic when I need to! :D

(Really icy? "fanatics embrace them ... that embracing them"? I used to be better at catching repeating adjectives. :frown:)

G'day! I'm still around on other corners of the interwhens. Work leaves little energy for creativity, but just in case my page is borked by dA updates, hoenniswheretheheartis.tumblr.com is still me~


Also if you wanna say hi or something and don't have tumblr (join the hellsite (affectionate), do it) this link still works as of writing https://hoenniswheretheheartis.tumblr.com/contact


Back once this 'no to all' feature is up, and then see you in another twoish years once dA do another big ol' controversial settings change~ Gwahaha!!

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Winding up

2 min read
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Woah, what's this!? A journal from icy?? in 2019!?!?

--

Yeah, so last Sunday (28th of April) this account ticked over the ten year mark. That's... that's a pretty significant milestone.

I think it started so I could follow TamarinFrog's Random Doom comics and then I just uploaded this and that. So let's skip the meem templates and just do a retrospective, eh?

2008

(Uploaded '09)
Yay!! Piece No: 1!! Someday I'll look back on this and think WOW!!
Or not.
Well past me, maybe not 'WOW!!' but I guess you liked Lucario and the Mystery of Mew?

2009

Made a pretty cool Darkari out of lego that year. Shame it kept falling apart.

2010

Spirit Train by icytemporalist Sky Stairway 50F by icytemporalist
Oh look it's perspective! And Colour no less! I do remember being SUPER proud of the Mystery Dungeon pic though.
I never finished this, but I still remember giggling and trying to write 'Rydel Rydel Rydel Rydel' as much as I could fit into the bike haha.
Also met some other weird aussie online and I offered to colour a thing. ( Flaming-Starfish you out there you amazing person you??) My first experience with an OCT that year (what was I thinking?)

Even in your UBF, FOE? (What a missed opportunity to have one of those 'FOE' blobs!!)
Also End Run.
Then there's End Run.
Oh, do you have a moment to talk about End Run?
Because, yeah, End Run.
2012 saw me do a whole bunch of art, even though I went straight from R1 to NPC, the tumblr community that sprang up from End Run was unlike anything else. (Space Race almost was a thing too! Almost!)

2013

2013 picked up right where 2012 left off. Tumblr fads and meems aplenty, as well as my favourite bit of spritework.
I saw that the BFOI seemed pretty popular and I'd been itching to do something Pokemon Ranger based so it seemed like the perfect opportunity! And at the time, it was!!
(Also the first Etrian Odyssey game to be published in Australia since the first came out and I loved every last moment)

2014

More ranger goodness in the BFOI, giving Requiem Signs a go since Star was running it and it helped scratch that RP itch, aaaand finishing it off with a throwback to '12.

Looking back it was clear that in the name of keeping up I wasn't thinking things through, neither in leaving myself enough time to get bigger things done, nor stopping and thinking about just what it is these characters are doing. Benefit of hindsight and all.

On the other hand, oh gosh wow Kashu you actually took the time to comment on practically everything! Such a positive influence at the time and I thank you deeply for cheering me on. Least I can do is give ya a ping~ YuriaThames 

2015


And here's where that proverbial match was burning its brightest. I'm still really proud of the 4 full pages I made for the finale of the BFOI saga, but pushing myself so hard and not always leaving enough time had its costs.
Still, fun to look back on.

2016


Fwomp! Burn out.

I went right up to the literal deadline for BFOI Y3 ranger apps to return from Y2 and after delay on delay it finally sunk in that this behaviour wasn't sustainable for me, for the admins, for anyone. Chari's Y3 app was withdrawn and I tried to focus on volunteering and my studies.

I did later draw a Rosetta though. She was always a lot of fun, but by gosh it wasn't as easy to draw as it used to be.


2017


After BFOI I joined Coalescent Epiphany Remix, a mainly text-based RP group that was built around using discord as well as dA. I still found it harder to draw, so I figured maybe collaborating with others could help me get my spark back. It kinda worked? Dunno. Got to meet and chat with a few cool people though, and I'd missed that in BFOI.

2018

As seems the norm for the groups in the 'Coalescent' series, CE:RE was closed and rebooted as Contingen-CE. Art-wise I discovered just how much fun colouring sketches is, so that's what I did for the most part. Sadly I had to leave for other reasons but I did enjoy my time there.

2019

[x]
Which brings us to today! I've graduated uni and work full time in software development, sometimes volunteering on weekends, sometimes just chilling with friends. The door is still open for art to be done, and the above was even done on an android tablet, just to see what Medibang Paint was like! (Not half bad with a stylus and coming from Fire Alpaca) And yet, with that portrait done the spark was gone just as soon as it came.

Burning up is something I'd not recommend, but at the same time it's one hell of a reality check.

I've made peace with that spark not being what it was, that force driving me to create. I do other things now, but if the occasion strikes me drawing is something I can do and still enjoy.

Heh, Maybe in another ten years I'll look back on this and think 'WOW!!'
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Update 9/1/17 - Found this old journal draft from late November, let's put it up here to feign activity, ja? I'll put in fixes like this if I see anything out of place.
--

Figure it was about time I mentioned where I was at and all that haha...

It took some time for that spark to catch on, however now here I am in a new group on dA and meeting lots of really nice people. Surprisingly some from Melbourne! I mean that's never happened before! Is this what it's like to join OCTs and RP groups overseas; to have such a strong chance of meeting people who aren't thousands of kilometres away from you at best??

Haha, in any case I'm looking forward to seeing what Coal-e-scent E-pip-han-y has to offer. On that note, I've pretty much switched from Skyp to Discord, although I still check the former pretty regularly. Feel free to send me a note or message on Skyp if you'd like to add me on Discord!

--

I've said as much on tumblr, however I thoroughly enjoyed the demo of 7th Dragon III - Code: VFD. Seeing Etrian Odyssey's little cousin finally make it officially to our shores is so wonderful, not to mention the music is amazing and the combat's pretty nifty. I never tried 7th Dragon 2020 or it's sequel, so I'm also loving how creative some of the classes are, take Duelest or Agent for instance.

It's been enough for me to pick up the fan translation I have of the original 7th Dragon, and stomp some bloom while I figure out what I'm supposed to be doing haha. It's nice comparing the two titles and seeing what's become a series staple (limited party sizes, protags fainting after fighting their first dragon), and what's not so (so far you can't stomp the bloom/dragonsbane). Dragonsbane is a nifty name, however for me those eerie flowers will always be 'bloom' to me haha.
Not to mention, it'll hopefully tide me over until Etrian Odyssey V gets a western release

--

I took a leave of absence from my studies this last semester. I'd been forced to move to part time study and I didn't handle the transition and my marks have suffered for it. By taking a semester off, I've been able to 'regroup' and properly prepare for my 'final' year... That is as long as uni can figure out which units I'm supposed to be taking, since they keep chopping and changing things around. Hopefully I'll have some clarity soon, even if it's to learn I don't have any units until Semester Two, which is looking increasingly likely...
Right so as a kindof birthday present from Uni I found out Dec 1 that I had to extend my LoA by another semester as my final three units are only available in Semester 2. Ah well, ya win some ya loose some and at least this way it's full time study.

Workwise, I've been looking for something part-time in my industry, though so far I've been met with little success. On the bright side, I still have my volunteer work at that tourist railway; where I recently completed a trolley driving course. During fire season, we have to have one follow each train just in case they accidentally start a fire, which puts excess pressure on the rosters, so hopefully the more qualified people they have on hand, the smoother the day can operate.

I'm still primarily a Guard / Signalman however, and I think I'm slowly getting better at the job. Shunting might be fun to puzzle out, however in practise it's a pain in the neck, especially when it's late in the day, there's deadlines to meet and the rain's just bucketing down haha... (Or the sun's beating down on you on the other hand...) Signalling shifts are quiet by comparison: In might be a full eight hour day, however you're really only needed for 45 minutes throughout, the rest is basically free time so on my last shift I actually brought my tablet and finished Freya's reference! Or at least the main signalling shift is. I've since been rostered in two other locations and let me tell you: When there's shunting to do and/or s* hits the fan you don't get a break at all!

--

Well, that's enough about me. Seasons are about to change over and we're pretty much into advent so Christmas isn't that far off either. Anyone have anything special planned?? Or rather, hope everyone had a great Christmas season and a very happy start to 2017!

Cheers,
-Icy
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also a foray into SFM and a possible new username.

But first, after several months of hard work and stress but plenty of good company in a wonderful environment, I'm now fully qualified as a Guard/Signalman at that tourist railway I volunteer at! \o/

...I suppose this is the 'things are starting to look up' journal. c:


ANYWAY, if you've been following me for a while you're probably aware I'm a computer programmer by trade. (Or at least an undergrad almost done with their Software Development degree uhehe). And if you've been following me more recently / read the previous journal, you'll probably know I've been in one heck of a creative slump; I still haven't drawn anything since struggling to finish that BFOIy3 app, RPing has been less and less appealing despite how awesome the folks I've met there are and overall I can safely say my life in the last 6-12 months has been stuck in a rut.

I might still be in that rut, but what HAS changed is my outlook. What happened is that (as usual with these things it seems) I, on a whim, started working on my own XKit extension [x] to support managing RP threads, (In a nutshell keeping a list of 'active' threads and linking to the most recent reblog, if available) after outlining the idea and receiving plenty of interest from the group. I then went and started researching about tumblr's API and XKit's 3rd party support.

That night I didn't get to sleep until sometime after 5am, having spent the night fleshing out an outline, supporting docs and (most importantly) the code itself. Sure, I'm usually up past midnight (cough3dscough), but a) never that late and b) never for something CREATIVE. It was so refreshing and exciting to just happily get stuck in a puzzle and work things out with logic and code. (It didn't hurt that most of my psuedocode was written in javascript anyway~)

And that's what lead to this epiphany.

Last semester I really struggled with the practical side of my studies (especially with no support from the staff) and that follows another semester there was no major programming to be done. Small wonder I've been wearing down over the last 12 months, when the core of what I love doing just wasn't there! (I think this also explains how I was able to devote so much energy into that converter or the Requiem Signs exp sheets, and yet struggle to motivate myself to actually DRAW).

Being able to, I suppose, 'reaffirm' to myself that I'm a programmer (and not just keep saying that like it's just a title or something) has really felt like I'm able to actually start moving out of this funk that culminated with Chari's y3 app.

I love to be creative, heck I doubt I'd be here or have made the friends or had the experiences I've had if I didn't. Though its a creativity born of logic, technology and puzzle solving; not of visuals and storytelling (as fun as that can be). Acknowledging this I think is a good step towards figuring out where my hobbies (especially digital art and prose) fits into my life. (No matter how neglected they can be sometimes)

So while right now I might be focusing on this extension and not digital art, I finally feel like it's something I can be excited about again. It's like a burden has been lifted, I'm actually smiling (a little) by default again ueheh.


In other (related, now that I think back) news, I've started fiddling with Source Filmmaker recently, just on and off:

Work in progress

I'm currently working on making a poster based on my TF2 Engineer loadout, I'll probably put the finished product on here when it's done, so for now have a WIP.

As new as I am to the program, I do like that what I've learnt about composition and lighting (for instance) in drawings is very much applicable here too~


Finally I've mentioned a few times I've been wanting to change my username. I'm still keeping the 'icy' so it's nothing too drastic, though I'm now pretty sure what I'd like the rest of it to be (specifics can wait for another journal though, I've already rambled enough uehehe). Of course I still need to get a premium membership to change it, though that's the easy bit.

No rush though. There's pleeeenty of time for things to happen. (And if anyone wanted to buy a short one for me in early December as a birthday/Christmas pressie, I'd be all for it!!)

Stay cool,
-Icy OUT!
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