Halfway through 2026

Admittedly, the idea came from several other sites I follow doing these-types of recaps. I've been thinking of starting them, but I feel like the now page covers most of my on-site life updates. But it wouldn't hurt to make one.

It's the middle of 2026, a strange year in a series of strange years. I think I deserve an award for making it this far. 2026 started off very rough for me. To be honest I don't want to linger on it too long, so I'll leave it at political frustrations & anxieties, and a very stressful family situation. Though while I don't think this year has made a full positive swing, there's been some things on my mind that I think is worth reflecting on.

Took a risk, found a community

Note: I'm keeping this vague since this is very much irl driven / local.

Technically this started with going to a local queer meet last year. Didn't think it went anywhere at first. I ended up signing up for the mailing list, multiple things happened, and I ended up volunteering for a local pride festival. I've also been going to meets at a local bar. Especially during these times, it's nice to meet new people and be around other LGBT peers.

Figurines are fun

Recently I've been getting back into LPS customs. This started as wanting to make a bunch of niche fanart for Nix, including making an LPS custom idea I had of him for years real. But I pushed that project back and started working on other things. Notably;

• A cardboard figurine & a polymer clay figurine of Nix
• Finishing up a TRAN custom that's been sitting in my WIP pile for over a year (TL:DR; removed the head for sculpting, couldn't get it back on. She's painted now, but her head's glued & doesn't bobble anymore)
• A simple fish and magpie custom to test out some model paints
• Xenia, Linux's Trans fox mascot

For the Nixes;

• The cardboard Nix is made from a base by artwithmiya. Stumbled on it while looking at craft ideas, felt having him on this base would be fun. He kinda reminds me of a Parrapa character (well, if the Parrapa art style was line-less)
• The clay Nix is because we have a bunch of sculpey at the house & I've been trying to figure out what to do with it. Clay Nix also was a victim of my first attempt at airbrushing. The paint I was using was terrible & never cured properly, leaving him a dust magnet (seriously, the pics I have onsite are pretty heavily touched-up because it got that bad)

And now lets address the new material in the room: model paint. I got gifted a set of them earlier this year. They're Nicpro model paints, which from browsing seems to be a budget art supply brand? I don't know how they stack up to more established brands. But compared to my usual craft paints they are pretty fast drying & pigmented. Except for yellow & white, but those are usually stubborn colors anyways. For future paints, I'm likely going with Vallejo due to being able to grab them irl (and being unimpressed with the AI on Nicpro's packaging). Model paints are expensive, so I think I'll just grab paints as needed per-project.

Figure painting is honestly a pretty fun hobby that keeps me off the computer. Outside of LPS customs, I've been mini-painting curious. I guess that happens when you binge a bunch of tabletop painters for tips. But I think I'll stick to custom toys for now to keep this hobby manageable.

Linux Regressions

I knew it wouldn't take long before I ran into problems, but it's disappointing anyways.

Long story short, after an NVIDIA driver update my computer now hates my drawing tablet & will freeze if I use it in a Wayland session. Basically, if I have two monitors & move my cursor to the other screen, the desktop will freeze. Any answers I tried finding boiled down to "it was patched in an update" (updating the NVIDIA drivers did not make this go away). So I started drawing in an X11 session.

I upgraded to Kubuntu 26.04, and now my computer occasionally 'hangs' if I put it to sleep with my tablet plugged in (though based on reading, this could be a systemd quirk I'd need to fix). Swapping between X11 to Wayland now has bugs like not showing desktop panels, that'll likely not be addressed due to X11 not being maintained (I've also had issues with booting directly into an X11 session).

It's frustrating... I'll get through it, but it's annoying all these issues popped up after having my art setup work fine for months. I'm treating reinstalling & distro hopping as a last resort since I'm already moved in & I don't think it's productive to swap OSes every time an issue like this happens.

My tablet is also fussy and doesn't always want to stay on, so I'm planning on getting a pad tablet and seeing if I can swap back. It's a bandaid fix to a larger tech problem & will require an adjustment period, but I'm tired of having to add so many extra steps just to be able to draw. The linux part is self inflicted at least, but I digress.

Playing with 3D

Low poly models are fun sometimes. For some stuff I made;

• A rat coinpurse based on an art meme sparked by kim-hu on Bluesky
• A blender donut inspired Xienog (open species)
• Fully rigged Nix model that sat in my WIP pile for 9 months. I have a longer blog post on making him
• Risa model to prove to myself I can make a 3D work in less than 9 months (she took 4-5 days)

I've fallen off recently due to the amount of time it still takes me & not liking texturing (the formerly mentioned tablet problems are not helping). I think the next thing I want to try is making figurine sculpts, but I don't have access to a 3D printer to test them.

Incorrect Siren's House Quotes

Siren's House is the nickname for my favorite group of IIDX characters; Nix, Siren, and Eiri.

Found myself messing around with incorrect quotes generators & thought it'd be funny to draw out some of the prompts I got. Somehow ended up a series of comic strips I posted to my personal Bluesky. I don't know how many more I'll make, but it's an interesting exercise in how fast I can get strip drawn (still too long by my standards, but idc they're fun to make!).

I mirrored them on site (Incorrect Siren's House Quotes).

Tomodachi Life - Mii drama Season 2

For context; Last year, I got really invested in Tomodachi Life on the 3DS (like, running 2 saves invested). Living the Dream is the only major game release I wanted to get new this year. It is expensive & I'd say wait for a sale if you're not that into life sims. But uh... yeah I think this is more than enough to keep me entertained for most of the year.

Right now my island is a strange crossover between IIDX characters and my OCs. Which was the case on my 3DS saves, but there are very few non-IIDX or non-OC characters on my switch island right now. Oh, I also named it Doverhill after my main OC universe.

I spam post about it on my personal bluesky, but for some of the most notable events;

• Despite initially wanting to let ships happen randomly, Nix & Eiri (aka. my IIDX OTP) were the first couple on the island. Now they live in a poorly drawn Round 1 with Himmel and their two kids
• Shilow dated and broke up with a cheeseburger in the span of 24 hours
• Siren keeps fighting with people. I made him ace because he kept fumbling girls on my 3DS saves, but I feel like in removing his capacity for love it got replaced with a capacity for wrath
• Made some older, lesser used OCs to my island and it gave me the motivation to finally revamp them. As of writing Evelyn & Megan got their long overdue overhauls.
• I made 2 really low-effort edits of Siren and Moog dancing to Jersey club (Passion edit / SIREN WITH NO IPHONE edit)
• Jade and Iri, my canon OC couple, pinned eachother for about a month before marrying

Sidenote, but looking at my 3DS screenshots after playing living the dream really makes my 3DS miis look primitive lol.

Other things

Stuff that's notable, but I don't have as much to comment on

• My Trans day of Visibility piece, "But First, they Must Catch You," is currently my most popular piece of the year. I'm very happy it resonated with people.
• I celebrated 10+ years of using Krita as my main drawing software
• I've been trying to get back into reading again. I have a blog post about my struggles to do so, but so far, it's on-off as I feel like it. My most notable read so far is Watership Down.
• Haven't played rhythm games in a while... a mix of depressive swings and my local place raising their prices to the point it's not really affordable anymore (between increasing arcade credit prices and increasing art supply prices, I want to prioritize my art). I've been meaning to get back into BMS, but idk.
• I took a break from learning Japanese. I guess it's better I did so than not at all, but I feel like the motivation fell off & any attempts to restart doesn't stick. I think for now I'll just accept the break & engage with other hobbies
• Built a Gunpla kit for the first time. It was fun, though I feel like with the expenses and space hogging of my other interests, It'll be a while before I pick up another kit.
• Finally sat down and watched The Amazing Digital Circus. Once you get past the messy fandom it's actually a pretty good show. Slower paced than I thought it'd be too. And yes I did cry at the finale.
• Got re-invested in Flight Rising at the end of 2025, and I guess I'm there now. It's grindy at times, but it's something to do that isn't doom-scrolling social media

Honestly, above all, I'm just trying to hang in there.