Im really debating on if or not I should call these types of blogs anything special first it was artsy updates, but then I didn't feel like I was doing anything artsy for a while, then it was "What I've been Up to" which seems simple but its little bit too basic to be honest. I want something that I could use for when I'm working on multiple project or just been hanging around playing games and watch tv and stuff. So for right now I'm going to call these types of blog post where I'm just updating "Just Journaling" because it's an alliteration. 

Anyways, for the pass for days I've been taking a break for working on anything big (again) because I started to get overwhelmed with all I'd (thought) I had to do (again) and I realized I hadn't taken the time to enjoy things (again). So, to avoid this turning into artist block I took a break, I took a break from a big chunk of the internet because when I go to some places on here (mainly twitter) I got really self-conscious and upset, while I still do appreciate the people I meet on there through the platform (as I mention before in a previous post) it can just be too much sometimes and just messes with my head ya' know?

Before I took a break I was working on making some characters in a new 3D character designer/creator thing  "VRoid Studios", it's similar to PMX/Dediter for MMD, the only difference is that this is way easier at least in terms of editing textures and such, also you don't need to import to parts to make character-- you can literally draw on the model to edit textures or hair. I first heard about this program when a video about popped up in my recommend because I recently been messing around in Blender and in that time I was able to make scene with a plate of donuts and a scene with a bowl of cereal.

I made this with a help of online tutorial I found on Youtube, it really helped me get to get

familiar with interface

The Results (〃＾▽＾〃):

The reflection on the glass was bit trickery for me to get but that's

the best I could do  to make it see through

I've been messing around in the blender because I've been thinking about making my own clothes and object for my own MMD models and maybe making some clothes for my sims in Sims 4, this project is mostly just so I can mess around with texture making and see how even the most complex of forms can be broken down into the simplest of shapes. Before I took a break I was just about to start working on another breakfast scene--this time it would be one from Kiki's delivery service (one of my all time favorite that I really need to rewatch) so yeah that's a thing...

Anyways back to the topic at hand, So I first heard about VRoid from a video on youtube then I heard about it again on Toyhouse, where someone was talking about how useful the program was for making 3D models of your OCs and made a whole article of filled with useful links and tutorials.... 

I also went to the VRoid hub to take a look around to see what designed other people came up with for inspiration and lot of them were really good...

I then went to Pinterest to get some ideas and put all my ideas up on a digital cork board:

I made Vega, a space-loving mythology obsessed apirsiring rock-star whose the older sister to other my other character I made for MMD, Lexi. At least first I wasn't too into Vega's design because I thought it was going to turn out similar to Lexi's design, but I went with a more black, yellow, orange instead of blue, purple, greenish color scheme like I did for Lexi.

I edited the skin texture by adding some face marking and dots for piercings, I change the eye texture to one I had my eye texture pack that I download for my MMD models, and morphed the face and eyes a bit to make it more unique in a way.

Then I started work on the hair, which took  some time for me to get just right to where it didn't look raggedy ( again another tutorial really helped with that)

Next, I start work on the texturing of the clothes..

I used some aesthetic planet pngs I found on DA and the star brush I had in Photoshop to make the design on Vega's shirt and also used the star shape in Photoshop to make the sock design...

I also edited the skin texture to make the star tattoo on her mid-section and edited the top and pants into a crop top and shorts. I was going to change the tie into a choker but after seeing it motion with the whole outfit it just fit better than the choker would...

I edited the skin one more time to take a white glove, I then exported the file to pmx using an VRoid to Pmx program that someone had made for that very purpose and started editing the facial expression, so they would work better in MMD.

 I also made a spiked bracelet in blender using the MMD plugin I downloaded a while back, and here's the result:

From this:

To This:

So, yeah that all I got so far on the 3D front, I started working on her boyfriend, Apollo before I started my break and I was getting real hung up on the hair, but you know baby steps. 

On my break I've just been playing Super Mario RPG, Shenmue 2, Heart's Medicine: Time to Heal  and I finally started playing Persona 5, I've been watching Beverly Hills 90210, finished Futurama (I really like how it  ended), and been watching alot of Out Daughtered because I just like watching kids do cute stuff (cough hopefuly I'll be blessed with that many children one day *cough*). I started getting back into reading the murder mystery book, Con Artist--it'st pretty interesting so far, I also got back into Instagram a bit and started following some people I went to high school with, it nice to see that they're all doing alright.. 

Anyways, once I get back on the saddle, I plan to do a review on that really medicore Netflix teen romcom "The Prefect Date", I thought that movie's premise had so much potential but it didn't really get to do much with it. Also might do some more videos in the same vain I did the Hot coco video but with how I  make ramen and boba, and might finally start my sims blog (that site really needs a revamp) and "Get Famous" playthrough to start Traci's story again or at least make some sims edits. 

So, that's all I have to update for now, until next time...

Like the title says I made some hot chocolate on a clear spring day, and decided to record myself making it. This isn't like a recipe/cook with me vid (I don't measure stuff when I make food since it's only for me usually and I don't like number and I'm kind of afraid to use the stove because fire's a thing so...) I just thought this would be a fun thing do to and it was, so I decided to share it on my blog... ヽ(￣～￣　)ノ

If you like to see more of the videos I make from time to time check out my video page (here)

From now on all the videos I put on this blog can also be found on the side bar page for convenience...yeah, that's all I got to say..peace..

Like the title says I'm going to be taking a break from speed-draws because the video folder on my hard-drive is starting to take up alot of space and even when I put on my 900 GB exeternal hard drive there's not that much space--So I'm probably going to get a 2TB exeternal hard drive and put all of my stuff on there-- I never realize how much digital stuff I make until there's like now space for it-- but anyways, I still going to through with this speed-draw although it would be a "speed-draw" necessarily it will just be like a slideshow thing..so yeah that happened...

Recently, I've been taking a break from like social media (I'm not sure if mention that before and if I did well--Oof) and I've just been trying to get myself off the mindset of feeling like I have to create something great in order to-- like be happy, like I consistently need a bunch of people praising me or giving me attention just to feel good which I don't really at all--I've never been one for attention, but being on the social media side of the internet has drilled that into my mind to make me think thats what I want when that's not true. So, I've gone back to just enjoying things (e.i playing video games more, watch shows and movies more, all that jazz) instead constantly coming up with ideas and ways where I could get a following on  somewhere the internet (I know I've said I've gotten over this habit before--but it's hard and I'm young and I'm still really trying not to fall into that trap of chasing likes and numbers-- old habits die hard, ya' know). 

I haven't stopped making art--I'm still doing that (I'm taking art classes so like--duh) I'm just making stuff that I like and just posting it here, where I know the only person who going to see it is me and I'm fine with that--I'm less likely to get obsessed with numbers that way. Half of me is worried that I might lose followers on Twitter but I'm not even sure how many of them where actually following me and waiting on the edge of their seat for me to post (well, there's only a few that I know that were like that and they completely understand my reasoning for me taking a break). I've also kind of took a break from discord because I found  myself just joining art servers and fandom servers just to post my art and leave rather than actually talking to anyone on there, I mean used to talk to people on discord when I first join but somehow I ended up just going there to chase  likes (again)-- So, yeah I don't want to go back there until I feel like I'm ready to listen to people instead of to seek attention 

Also I have this feeling (this doesn't have to do with my break from soical media, I'm just on a venting roll so I thought might as well add this in) when I get an  idea  I need to strike while the iron is hot or the idea will disapper--like if I stop working on project I won't have the same or as much  ambition/passion to finish it like I did when  I first started-- Which is super dumb and part of me knows that. There's never been a project that I just given up on when I returned to it after taking a break unless it was something really dumb, cringey or out of my skill range. I mean I do feel like this sometimes but I starting to think it's only because I keep listening to voice inside my head telling me that should give up on whatever I'm doing and thats no good my dude. I think this all stems from my fear of failure and the fact that I'm really hard on myself and bitter when I do "fail" or give up on something-which isn't good either.  I just need to find  a way to get over this so I can enjoy the projects I'm working on with out worry....I know this is a weird note to end on but I'm a work in progress just like everyone and  this post is more for myself than anyone else, if you managed to read all that then thank you...Hopefully my next post won't be so depressing... 

until next time 

Later days~

I'm made this probably will regret it later, but whatever....

    So, I decided to take a break from the social media part of the internet, to go back to what I really liked doing on the computer (besides art) and that playing time management games! I'm still working to my goal to finishing all the Emily-Delicious games so that I could make retrospective on them because they hold special place in my heart.While playing some of these games, I started thinking about another time management gaming series that was also pretty big around time these types of games seemed to coming out of the who-knows-where---Diner Dash.

Back in the mid 2000s a video game company by the name of PlayFirst  got their first big break with Diner Dash, a stragey/time management game about an ex stock market worker named Flo quitting her soul-sucking job to start her own restaurant business. While game looked pretty bare bones and simple on the surface, in practice it was pretty addicting and even intense at times espically with gaming mechanics like dealing with customers some will tip bigger than others and some have shorter patience than others, and matching customers colored clothing with the seats to get bonus points. This made the game approachable and popular and add more boost the the causal gaming boom of the 2000s. After this Diner Dash got a bunch of sequels and spin-offs, the spin-offs used the same formula pasted it onto other "careers" (I guess if that's what you want to call it) range from stuff like Farming to pretty out-landish and kind of weird stuff like Parking, and there were two point and click adventure games too ....  

Most of the spin offs didn't really amount anything but a time thing, the only one that seemed just as successful as Diner Dash is Wedding Dash, a time management game about wedding planner, that series got about 4 games. 

The Dash games seemed to be doing pretty great for a while, but around 2010 things fell silent, a few a while there were no new dash games coming out, it was around this time Playfirst decided just to soully focus on mobile and soical games, while their venture into the social gaming market kind of fell off, their grasp of the mobile gaming was still pretty strong. But alas, due to the success Diner Dash had in the mobile market that lead the company to totally cease all production of games on the PC and Mac in 2012, and two years later PlayFirst with the help of Glu Mobile, they released a reboot verison Diner Dash on the app and that's the last anyone has ever heard any more dash games since..

Alot of people who were fans of the original diner dash games didn't really like the new Diner Dash for mobile due to a bunch of micro-transactions, it not be as challenging  as previous games in the series, and losing the heart the game original had. I had think this what really killed the series for most fans,  Ironically the company seemed let greed get the best of them (despite theme of the first game was being independence and different than everyone else --going against the man), since mobile obviously pushes out more money...

Another Ironic thing that happened around this time was that the Emliy's Delicious made by Gamehouse took a different direction for the better by adding a deep story line in their time management games to make the world and it's characters feel more natural and alive. This proved to beneficial because the 4th game in the Delicious series: Emily's Taste Of Fame, and the 7th game (one of my faves) Emily's True Love got 5/5 by casual game critics and gamers alike. Gamehouse still releases their games on both PC and mobile, and they have been successful with their spin-off games like Fabulous. Sally's Salons, Heart Medicine, and the newly added Parker and Lane...

Having a well-thought out storyline is what keeps games like the Delicious series alive, the stories make player feel for the characters and want to see them grow and come out on top, and it also makes the player want to see what happens next to their beloved character. Also if one were to play all the games that feature Emily and her friends their might be a mini-crossover between Emily and another character from a GameHouse Original Story or a nod to something that happened in a previous game which makes the whole GameHouse Original Story games fell fleshed out and connected as a whole. Diner Dash and it's spin off did have this kind of approach to their stories to at some points, alot of the spin off games featured vaires townie characters that were customers in the Diner Dash games, most of their stories didn't really interconnect like they do in the GameHouse series until the game Avenue Flo was released in 2009...

Avenue Flo was point and click/hidden object adventure game that featured the main character from the original Diner Dash, Flo tries to help her friend and roommate, Quinn (the main character from Wedding Dash) save the wedding between Tony, a pizza chief from Diner Dash 2 and Vicky Big, the daughter of the main rival from the first game, Mr.Big. Flo goes around doing odd task, finding missing objects, and butterflies that escape from the wedding. The game also include puzzles and mini-games, this was one of my favorite games from the PlayFirst series, I've always liked piont and click adventure games, and it was fun to see all the characters from different games in PlayFirst franchise interacting with each other, it made the world and its character feel more guanine. This game proved to be quite successful and they made another one this time it was a baby shower instead of a wedding....

I feel like if PlayFirst kept making games with more of a storyline in mind like with what GameHouse does, I think it would have been pretty successful and best of all we would have gotten a Avenue Flo 3, and maybe if PlayFirst and Gamehouse got together they could have made of crossover game with Diner Dash, which something I've always secretly wanted, and it could have been great