Last night, at about 11 o’clock, by older brother’s wife gave birth to a newborn. A beautiful baby girl named Eleanor. Which means now I have new responsibilities, not as much as the parents but still. Isn’t she’s so cute and slimy?

And here are her parents, my older brother and his wife. Probably still in the hospital as we speak.

I’m just putting a friendly reminder here that my birthday’s in two weeks now. Turning 28 years old, which isn’t much. I wonder what I should do to celebrate?

So, for some reason, I bought a knockoff toy at TJ Max for $5. What i didn’t know was it’s colored like Evangelion Unit-01. Anytime I look at a green and purple robot, I can’t help but think that. Toy “transforms” into a pterodactyl too.

Everybody else is writing their 2024 year in review, so I guess I can do it too. I’ll try to keep it brief, since news posts only allow for so many words. Which is actually helpful, considering that I didn’t start my Newgrounds page until May. Still, I want to put a little something here before the new year, and reflect on how far I’ve come.

JANUARY

Just another month of surviving the harsh winter cold, up north in PotatoLand. Not much to say here, except I went to a Brazilian buffet for my birthday (which is January 24th, by the way). But somehow, I felt this year was a year of change.

FEBRUARY

This is the month where my parents announced their divorce. I kind of saw the signs for a while, but I wasn’t sure if it would happen. Now that it did, they’re moving on to better places in their lives. Hopefully someday, I can feel that kind of relief.

MARCH

Only notable thing here is that I played Pokémon X for the first time, mostly because of Legends Z-A (When’s that thing coming out again?). That, and my mom left for three months on a Vacation to Hawaii by herself.

APRIL

This was when I started to think about what to do with myself this year. I thought about making a Newgrounds account for a while, but after a fit of depression, I knew what I had to about it. But not just yet…

MAY

Now we get to the part where Newgrounds comes into my life. Around the 15th, I made my account. And when Memorial Day came, I started to get to work. This picture of the Road Runner was the first thing I published here:

Which is funny, considering where this account would go later on. But everybody has to start somewhere, you know. Also, @Tyhond was my very first fan, which I’m pretty sure is his job to be everybody’s first fan.

JUNE

Now I start to get into the groove of what I’d be known for. The first thing I’d publish for the month is my boy, Isaac Silverstone (600 views, holy cow):

I was also learning how to commission people for the first time. @ViperPitsFilly was the first person I commissioned, while @Calamancyy was the first to publish one for me (thank you both). [Get used to seeing the word “Commission”, it pops up a lot.] And at the end of the month, I got scouted by P-Bot (wish I could thank whoever vouched for me, but I’ll never know). To celebrate, I officially introduced a crew of OCs, at least what I hope are the main ones anyways:

JULY

Now that I’ve gotten used to what I’d be known for, all that was left is to make more of a resume for myself. So, I went to work on publishing as many OCs as I could physically put out. Felt a nice power trip, being able to do so much in that short time. I made them so often, I decided to make my own art thread, and I feel it’s going okay so far. As for commissions, they started to pour on since I had some spare money lying around. In real life, I helped my Grannie move in with my dad. She’s been a blessing to have around the house, with my mom gone and all.

AUGUST

Quite a lot happened this month. Firstly, this was when I learned what scammers on Twitter were like. Got so caught up in commissions, I couldn’t see it until it was too late. But that money’s long gone by now, so what can you do. This was also the time where I made a new mascot, knowing that I couldn’t stick to using Mega Man Zero’s logo forever:

Then, two things happened at once. I got review bombed bringing my scores down on some characters (which, I’m happy with 4 stars, but it still hurt a little bit). But more importantly, I’ve gotten myself up to 50 fans. I was personally not expecting to get that much so soon, but I guess my resume payed off. More or less.

SEPTEMBER

After feeling good about what I’ve done so far, I took a week to look back at everything. Obviously, I’ve made a name for myself, but I still had some energy left to offer. So, while I did slow down, I made just enough to keep myself active here. If not drawing anything, at least keeping up with the forums and commissions. In real life, I got used to having my Grannie around more often. And my dad found somebody he loves, maybe a little too much (but that not important).

OCTOBER

My poor physical health was starting to catch back up to me. It stinks when that happens, but at least I had enough ideas to last until the end of the year. That was also around the time where the commissions had to pause, since it was eating into my real life budget, and I knew I bought a bit too many of them (if you’re bothered by the number of commissions I got, I apologize in advance). But I’m thankful that I did stop myself, knowing I've already done plenty here. Also, I put a little something into @Oddlem’s OCtober thread:

https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1538618/1#bbspost27952285_post_text

Not much, but something spooky at least (@ElectroNat, thanks for doing a nice job in that thread). Oh, and I dressed up as a hot dog for Halloween too.

NOVEMBER

Not much this month in terms of anything different. Just that, in real life: I voted, got a new iPad for myself, and made creamed corn for Thanksgiving dinner. It was nice to actually relax for the holidays. I also got a Bluesky account too, cause it was taking off. Not treating that too seriously, but just in case. And before I forget, @Jester64 got frontpaged and mentioned me here (thank you too):

DECEMBER

We all know this is “Seasons Greetings” month, so I won’t talk about that much. Just that I got a PlayStation 5. But it was another milestone for me, because I got to 100 fans at this time. Again, I wished to myself that I could get to 100 by the end of the year. But I never thought it would actually happen, given my skill level. I’m thankful for that regardless. To sort of celebrate, I made my entry to @DrSaturn2’s Astro Bot Collab:

Which brings us to today, the last day of the year. All in all, I’ve done quite a lot here for myself and others. And I’m glad I decided to use Newgrounds compared to other sites. Hopefully, I’ll figure out what to do next year. Whether that means making more characters, finding a way to improve, taking a mental break from drawing, or something else entirely. And I wish everybody a happy new year as well.

Special shout-out to the Newgrounds friends I've made along the way:

@BlumumuJr, @DaikiClara, @Doffito-K, @Finasty, @itsreapermin, @Maxwell-28, @paranoidyouth, @rurusilly, @Squidster491, @Thanosonnewgrounds, and @TommyTheTaxEvader.

So, after the holiday rush, I managed to get enough to buy a PlayStation 5 Slim for myself (not paying $700 for a pro, what are they thinking?). I also got Final Fantasy 16 with it to start, and that Ratchet & Clank movie game (if anybody remembers that). Any other recommendations for this thing?

Merry Christmas, Everybody. Just posting my Mom’s Christmas tree here.

And my Dad’s Christmas tree here.

And here are my gifts. I hope you guys and gals got some good tidings this year. And happy holidays.

So, I was riding with my grandma to go Christmas shopping, listening to classical Christmas music on the way home. When suddenly, a piano version of Aerith’s theme from Final Fantasy VII started playing on the radio. Is that something that can happen? What does it mean?

I can’t believe it, but I managed to get 100 fans on here before X-Mas. Someway, somehow, it got there when it feels like not too long ago that I got to 50. Didn’t really plan on making anything at the moment to celebrate, so I hope the Astro Bot pic is enough (I owe you a sketch, Finasty).

Just like the last two times, I’d like to congratulate those who’ve made commissions and requests for me since then 69 fans milestone last time. Not much since then, but those being:

@GearToward, @DICExMICE, @MichiKunn, @SuperVGBoy, @KiugaVanHollow, @UrnSudden, and @FireNerd. There’s also @3ct0plasma, who I haven’t commissioned yet but want to. And @LuciidDreamerz, he’s a cool guy who doesn’t have a lot of fans (he needs some love).

So, I’ve been thinking about something. I still have two OCs left to refresh and post, but the holidays are coming up soon. Thought about whether I should push myself to get them done in time, or take it easy for the holidays. I’ve settled on doing the latter, since it’s so close to the end of the year, and I’m not sure what the family has planned. Sorry if I don’t have any more to give for the month (except maybe one more little thing). And yeah, it looks like I won’t be able to get to 100 fans until January. (Got close this year, but not quite. Sorry Finasty.) I’ll still be on the forums, so I won’t be gone. Just taking a winter break is all.

Here’s my X-Mas tree all set up for December. I know it might be a bit small, but it works for me where I live. What do you want from Santa this year? (Also, sorry about the news post recently, I was feeling blue)