Rumors of my demise were… a reasonably educated guess.
Things haven’t gone quite a planned. And on top of this, something very unexpected happened towards the end of August that threw a major monkey wrench into almost everything. The time has come to open up a bit and let everyone know what’s going on, even if I’m not entirely sure where things will go from here.
Originally, there were two problems that had finally begun to reach their tipping points. I figured that with some time and a little care, I could resolve these issues. After that, things would return to normal. Let’s look at these first.
The first problem is what’s been dubbed “pony burnout”. I’ve been creating pony content on DA and Tumblr since I entered the pony fandom in 2011. Over time, I’ve adjusted styles or made changes to improve my art, and I’ve managed to keep from growing weary of drawing ponies longer than expected. But it started catching up with me over the summer, and I decided to take an unannounced break. The idea was that I’d spend most of August dealing with other things. I had also noticed that I was doing some of the work the hard way, so towards the end of the month, I’d make some additional resources to make working with the Tumblrs a little easier.
On a side note, I was under the impression that I’d updated Delilah in June or July – something that apparently didn’t happen.
The second problem is more my own doing – I have a bad habit of getting myself into far too many projects at once, and this was resulting in things getting bogged down by poor planning or other mistakes brought on by jumping between too many things at once. In theory, by putting the Tumblrs aside during August, I’d have the time to catch up on and perhaps even finish the other projects, and then return to my Tumblrs with a fresh mindset.
…and then the real monkey wrench was thrown into the mix.
We don’t know how it happened, but I “won” the rare illness lottery towards the end of August. According to some statistics I found, the odds of someone being infested by this specific intestinal parasite are 3.5 in 100,000. Another set of statistics claimed that during 2016, there were less than 1,800 cases in the US. For extra fun, I’ve noticed that I ended up with every complication listed on the CDC’s webpage about the parasite.
I’ll spare most of the details, but I was admitted to the local hospital when my blood pressure dropped below 80/60, resulting in me collapsing. After staying at the hospital for a while, I was sent home in “fair” condition, as the doctors felt that I had a better chance of getting the medication I needed from my local pharmacy than through the hospital. A few weeks of recovering at home later, and I’m more or less back on my feet. To be honest, it didn’t really register that I nearly died until I’d been home for about a week.
Being extremely ill like that tends to change people, and I’d say it did in my case. I’ve been left with a lot of serious things to think about. This includes whether or not I’ll continue my Tumblrs or other projects. Many priorities have shifted, some “needs” have been rendered “wants”, and so on.
I’d suggest listening to Owl City’s Hospital Flowers if you want to go down that rabbit hole.
I don’t know what the future will hold, but in the meantime, I’ll be thinking over it, and I might start catching up on what I’ve missed on here.
jacobvanloon
prguitarman
gummygunk
areudirty
yousharknotpass
dailybridgerton
