{"id":8152,"date":"2025-12-02T10:17:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/?p=8152"},"modified":"2025-12-02T10:17:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T15:17:33","slug":"the-obligatory-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/?p=8152","title":{"rendered":"The Obligatory Update"},"content":{"rendered":"It\u2019s that time of year again for the annual update, and as the end of November crept up, I realized another year had passed without a peep from this site. It\u2019s currently December 2nd, and the thought that immediately jumped into my head was: <i>\u201cShould I work on a daily Christmas art project for 2025? Those always go so well for me and I definitely finish them.\u201d<\/i><br\/><br\/>\r\n(If you know me, you know that\u2019s a laughably bad idea.)<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"text-align:center; background-color: #F0F0F0;\">\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rein-deer_250_250.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8157\" \/>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<h2>Where My Time (and Energy) Has Gone<\/h2>\r\n\r\nFor at least the past five years, my time has been split between a full-time job and the intensive, exhausting reality of caring for a disabled parent. The combination has profoundly drained my creative energy. I still spend time in Blender working on personal projects, but I rarely pick up a drawing tablet unless it\u2019s to create a work-related infographic or flowchart.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\nAdding to this complex schedule is the regular occurrence of weekly, debilitating migraines. Most of my days off are now spent in dark, quiet rooms trying to recover, rather than in the studio creating. The days I <i>don&#8217;t<\/i> have a migraine are treasured, but they are often dedicated to catching up on life\u2019s logistics.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n<h2>The New Creative Reality<\/h2>\r\n\r\nI\u2019ve had to make peace with the fact that daily, high-commitment projects are no longer sustainable, and that\u2019s okay.<br\/><br\/>\r\nInstead of burning out on a daily Christmas challenge this year, I\u2019m focusing on what I can easily maintain: <b><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/isducky\">my Ko-fi shop\/membership page<\/a>.<\/b><br\/><br\/>\r\nI\u2019ve been working hard to organize and add new files and digital assets there. These are the kinds of low-effort, high-value creations I can produce in short, focused bursts.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\n<b>If you want to support my art and ensure this site gets a few more updates next year, please check out my <a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/isducky\">Ko-fi site<\/a>.<\/b> Every tip and purchase goes directly toward supporting my time and allowing me to choose creation over exhaustion.<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\nYou can also support me by checking out my sporadic <a href=\"http:\/\/twitch.tv\/isducky\">twitch streams<\/a> where I play mindless games usually involving survival like The Long Dark, The Forest, Sons of the Forest, prologue: Go Way Back! (Beta Test), Fallout, or Atomfall.\r\n<br\/><br\/>\r\n\r\nThank you for your understanding and support over the years. I hope to be back with more art in a more sustainable way soon.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s that time of year again for the annual update, and as the end of November crept up, I realized another year had passed without a peep from this site. It\u2019s currently December 2nd, and the thought that immediately jumped into my head was: \u201cShould I work on a daily Christmas art project for 2025? [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/rein-deer_250_250.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8152"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8164,"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8152\/revisions\/8164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moon-gem.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}