Hi all. Sorry for being away for a while. I've been away for a while, in more ways than one. Oh, this is going to take longer than I anticipated. Anyway, first, I'll get to the art news. The other's gonna eat up a good chunk of time.

Due to my personal hell, my art has suffered. I've had either little or no motivation to do any serious work as of late. But I'm very happy to report that I'm working through both the motivation drop and the massive art and writer's block. Expect new stuff soon.

Now, I'm gonna say this only once (and will repeat this announcement on my various social media stuff): I am reopening commissions. I will be finishing up the ones I owe people, as well. For those of you who I do owe work to, I apologize immensely for taking so ungodly long on them. Oh, and here's that link to the commission journal (*rolls eyes* Yes, I know I need to update it, so shoot me): [link]

If interested just comment here or send me a note or both and I'm sure we can come to an agreement.

Now, for my personal nightmare that I'm very happy to say has come to an end.

That would be when my account was placed on financial hold. This royally screwed me five ways to Sunday. First, I was unable to register for winter term classes at Drexel (and was "in class" while trying to get extra money to pay back what I owe, such as getting loans and getting a job, while back in the fall I was registered in class and all, so yeah, and for the record my GPA did pick up a little, but the compounded stress of home, adjusting to dorm life and symptoms of PTSD beginning to flare up did not add to matters), and because I wasn't registered for classes I couldn't go to the gym, to where I wanted to work out so badly, if anything to start rebuilding the strength in my knee, and because of not being able to sign up it led to me not being able to do co-op for the upcoming spring/summer cycle (it got pushed back a YEAR), and it also cost me housing on campus. Remember my job as a research assistant? Well, I lost that too, and that was what grieved me the most. I wound up nearly having a psychotic breakdown and had suicidal thoughts. All the stress of that just accumulated and I kept thinking and obsessing about it and it kept ruminating in my head and I hit my breaking point in the beginning of the Spring term.

That was, quite frankly, the darkest part of my life ever. I have never cried so much in all my life. I was crying most days of the week.

So, how is it that I'm not cooped up in the psych unit in Bridgeton or in Philly? Easy. I got help. See, a couple weeks ago the president of Drexel had open hours, and I met with him, pretty much at the end of my rope. So, I met with him, who's a nice guy by the way, and explained both my situation to him and how frustrated I had been with financial aid. I had somehow managed to keep it together enough. So, after I left his office (and a certain scene from Predators played in my head), the dean of students called me, and I spoke to him and the head of the peer counseling center. I completely and utterly broke down from there, and after explaining both my situation and and how frustrated a good chunk of students have been at Financial Aid and how we've had not that much luck getting ANYTHING explained. So, to relieve my personal anxiety, they suggested a leave of absence, something that I really did not want to consider, as I had to delay my education enough times. But they were right in that I needed a break. I was suffering from severe burn out and the stress added to it and I didn't realize it. So, I got the ball rolling on that and I'm on a much needed break till the fall.

As a result of this, I stepped down from being card game chair, as well. I am, however, missed by my friends at Drexel and I keep them informed of what's going on.

I did, however, gain about 20 lbs due to stress. So, being home is also helping me calm down and lose the excess weight. I have Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort to assist in that.

Now that I'm under less stress, I can feel my artistic juices and my creativity returning in full force.

Don't worry, my friends and fellow watchers, I am back, and my art that you will see will be wondrous.

Game wise, I've beaten Infamous 2 and Psychonauts (doing that, today no less). I'm still working on Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker and Metal Gear and beating Skyward Sword on Hero Mode.

This is also an announcement that ASAR is no longer on an unscheduled hiatus. Journal features will return, but I am unsure of when.

So, to sum up: I am open once more for commissions, I'll be finishing up the ones I owe people, ASAR will be coming back, I'll be making more art for y'all to enjoy, features are on a hiatus for the time being, and that's all I can think of.

And yes I am excited that we can finally change our usernames! Alas, I lack a premium subby and as such I also do not have enough points get one myself. Any points I do get I will put toward getting one. And if I were to get one gifted then I would do a request for that person. I'm also trying to win one on =Katara-Alchemist's contest, so yeah.

And for the record, that new username WILL be Poison-Stripes. I'll post a comic about that sometime.

Until then, man is it great to be back! ^^ I have missed you guys terribly.

Oh, and a minor edit: I am laptopless no more! My laptop is a refurbished Dell Inspiring 1525 with Windows 7 Pro installed. It had Vista *shudder* but thanks to a family friend I got my laptop. To be honest, my desktop is starting to go, as the CPU fan will not start on its own and I have to crack the case open just to get it spinning manually for a few minutes before it'll spin by itself. I just have to keep the laptop elevated with a book or something or it shuts off from overheating. Anyway, I'm loving MS Paint for Windows 7! Oh and if anyone tells me to get GIMP or PhotoShop, I have one thing to say to you: MS Paint was everyone's first GIMP/Photoshop/Illustrator.