Real Life Shit

It's hard for me to believe that my last post was already 2 weeks ago. Why? I'm glad that you asked. Just a few days after my last post I slipped into one of those bouts of illness that I've been going through since last August but this one was really bad. For the first 12 days of March I was sick and stuck in bed. Imagine going to bed in February and waking up in the middle of March. Well that's pretty much what happened. Since the 12th I've had one decent day of feeling good.
This shit is really old already you know?
I'm on a new med so it's going to take some time to see if it'll be effective or not.
My optimism reserves are running low. I'm not whining about having something wrong, I've had Diabetes since age 17 and I've been legally blind since birth, it's just that there is no remedy or even a name for whatever the hell is eating up my life. I'm losing blocks of time and there's no way to get it back.


Thanks!

After my last post, I received a great amount of support through e-mails, notes, and comments and I need to tell you that it was all very uplifting and I appreciate it but this time, just send cash.


Productive

I have managed to finish 2 deviations that I started a while ago.
Hope that you enjoy them.

Stupid Lil' Stamp

You spend hours sometimes days on a deviation and there is little response.
You throw together a 99x56 stamp and it ends up to be your most faved with 156 favs and more than 1000 views.
Go figure.
(Thanks)

Damn Shame

Some of you may remember when I used to post a new journal entry every day.
It was a lot of work coming up with something entertaining creating graphics and new content everyday but I enjoyed it. And artwork, well you can see by the stats that my deviation submissions have been few and far between since August. Why August? Because that's when I started getting ill.

My primary care physician now seems to think that I am getting a type of migraine without the headaches, ya, go figure. The thing is that I still get violently ill and it keeps me bed ridden for 3-6 days at a shot. It's not just the illness that sucks, it's recovering from those 3-6 days which can be equally shitty. I basically have to learn to eat again, and my sleeping schedule is non-existent due to the fact that I've been asleep literally for days.

So now I'm telling you like it is. It sucks! I'm not a quitter, that isn't in me, but since August, I've lost at a minimum of a month and a half of my life due to illness. I have no artistic inspiration or energy to create despite my best efforts to try.

Why should you care, why should you bother to read this, because I'm your friend and some of you are really true friends that have supported me in good times and bad and after all, isn't that a definition of a friend? I owe it to you to tell you what's up whether it is good news or bad.

I'm not angry because of the illness, I'm angry because we haven't found a proper treatment for it and I'm tired of losing my life over it. I just had to turn down a trip to the CSUN conference in California due to the inconsistency of my health. That's a damn shame because it would have been a great honor and I would have had the opportunity to promote Firefox accessibility add-ons for persons with disabilities live and to a receptive audience.

My faith is being stretched but not broken, that can't happen, it's not my style.
I'll keep pushing on until things get better and they will. It'll just take more time.

It just occurred to me how person these journal entries are.
Nowhere else on the Web am I so open and forward about myself.
I attribute that to the great people here that I call friends.


In Other News
I was happy to see that all of my deviations combined have been viewed more than 172,000 times.
That blows me away! Thank you all for taking the time to view my stuff.


Speaking of Stuff
I did manage to finish a deviation or deviations I should say that I started back in December.
It's entitled Zodiac Groove and they come in wallpapers and icons.
I was kind of stuck on how to release these. I didn't want to release 24 wallpapers representing the 12 signs of the Zodiac in 2 different sizes, and to combine the 2 sizes into a wallpaper pack would have made for a large download size so I'm going with a 1600x1200 wallpaper pack, a 1900x1200 wallpaper pack, and a set of Zodiac icons for Win and Mac 32x32-256x256.
However, if you do like the wallpapers you can download them individually from MouseRunner.net which is the building grounds for what will be the new MouseRunner.com. It's long over due for a face lift.

Thanks for reading

First This

Man am I tired of talking about being sick. Yes, as much as you are about hearing about it.
But, here goes. After more testing including an endoscopy, there is still no known source for the cause of my illness. I am just putting band aids on it for now meaning taking different meds to try and control the symptoms, but nothing is working. However, I have successfully fought the damn thing. Today is an example. I woke feeling on the edge of being sick but I went for a walk, ate really well, took some meds and just pushed through it.
As a result, I've enjoyed my day as I've been active, productive, and feeling groovy.
Let's hope that this continues ok?



Inspiration

I was reading through Oibyrd's journal when I saw a post for a contest that's currently running. It's the Fairy Tales Contest hosted by deviant Chris10 and for some reason, I felt the desire to enter.
I looked over the rules and materials and felt inspired (which is really cool because I haven't felt too inspired for a while now) and I came up with the deviation Wish On Me for an entry for the contest.



Contest Rules



- Choose one of the fairies in this pack and make an artwork with it.
- 2 Entries allowed per person. (You can only win once though).
- You may change the fairies to suit your work, but they should be the main subject.
- Note *Chris10 with a link to your entry. She will not accept them any other way.
- Goth/dark art is fine..but please no macabre/horror.
- Must say in your deviation description that you're entering it in this contest (a link to this journal would be appreciated too).
- If any other stock is used you must credit your sources in the description of your work.
- Visual art only.

Guys and gals, the prizes are awesome and worth drooling over.
Read about the prizes and more in Chris10's Journal.
Wish me luck.



Very Cool

=luffsfromafriend is apparently running around dA spreading luffs and here is what
luffsfromafriend made for me. Thank you.




Speaking of Hearts

I was just accepted into *The-Heart club.
They have some really beautiful and creative works all based on shapes and forms of a heart from artists from all over dA that are very much worth viewing.
I don't join too many clubs because they don't seem to maintain themselves very well and that allows them to get stagnate and boring, but The-Heart is very much alive and quite active. I like that. Fresh content, something to get into. I'm considering using Complete Me as my 1st submission to the club.





Can't Thank You Enough

Well maybe I can. You are all so great. I appreciate your concerns and support for both me and the junk that I make. I don't have a single person on my list of friends that isn't kind, compassionate, and just plain cool. Thanks all, you rock!

To You & Yours

I want to take this time to send you sincere holiday greetings.
After being here so long I'm thinking wow, this is my third Christmas with my friends here,
I feel like I have an extended family, so send me gifts damn it!

Why

Well, it's like this. I've been ill nearly every other week since August to the point that I'm stuck in bed for 3 days straight and then it takes another 4-5 days to recover, this is why I am not as active here as I used to be.
After numerous tests, the doctors are still unsure of the cause of all of this. I'll be seeing a specialist on Christmas Eve to see if we can pinpoint what's up. I don't really care what it is, I just want to be able to treat it so that I can get on with things.
But I do still visit here and I read your journals, view your works, and do what I can to respond to messages.

Thanks
After writing what I just did above, I hope that you can now understand how much I appreciate all of the support that you've all given me. To come on to dA and see the wonderful messages and comments that you leave, and to see that you've taken the time to view my works really gives me a lift. Thank you sincerely.


New Friends

I have some new friends that I want to introduce you to. They're all very personable and fun to interact with. Featured here are just a few of their holiday pieces, so please visit their galleries to discover some really great artwork.

First up is =DigitalPhenom
He's an artist that's equally talented in several different art genres and he provides some great CSS journal templates for you to use, or you can have your journal custom made.
Visit DigitalPhenom






Next is =IWS-stock
Jenn & Dell provide awesome high quality stock for you to use in your deviations including backgrounds, objects, figures, and more. An example of use of their stock is my recent deviation Snow Globe where I use a snowman from IWS's stock collection. There stock comes in large transparent PNG format making it very easy to use.
Visit IWS-stock





Please take the time to go check out their galleries.
Thanks and have a great holiday season.
Ken

Just a quick note to say hi.
Gee, remember the times in mid “06 where you couldn’t shut me up and how vulgar my sense of humor was? Ya, you know that you do and you’re still my friend you sicko.
I had a lot of fun writing those journals that took many hours to compose but it truly was time to clean things up.
Nowadays I’m lucky if I can come up with a complete sentence or two to jot down and forget about creating art. Well, I did finally come up with something to submit as a deviation. I’ve been going through some sort of artistic constipation but now I feel such great relief from the fact that I actually made something that I want to run to give to my Mom and have her put it up on the fridge. It’s a very simple set but due to the mess of a medical journey that I’ve been going on, I figured that simple is a good start to bring some sense of stability and normalcy into the picture.

As far as my health. Ah, what can I say, it is what it is and I do what I can with what I have, after all, I’m still blessed with more than I am cursed with.


DJMattRicks

Thanks to =DJMattRicks for sharing the kick ass mix with me.
He was kind enough to upload one of his mixes for me to check out.
The file is a big fat 91.9 MB file that must’ve taken a lot of time just to upload.
The guy is a great DJ and dev artist, with wicked smooth mixes. It sounded like one long groove.
Check out DJ Matt Ricks Gallery

Take care