An old moss-encrusted keyboard...

On another note, I think I'm (finally) entering the home stretch of working on Episode 2 of God Animal (something I have wanted to say for quite a while now). More or less the entirety of the remaining pages have been sketched, so all that is really left is the inking. I of course won't be announcing a release date until the inking (and the cover artwork for Episode 2) is very nearly complete. I'm so very excited to release it and will make a more certain announcement when it is ready! I've been devoting a lot of my creative energy towards it currently, for the most part. I hope to be back on working more on this Digital Forest (and some other projects... :3) once Episode 2 is out and into the world, wearing a little scarf and sniffing around for some moss to feed upon.

Speaking of which, I intend to produce and write and draw material some more pages I have in mind related to my special interests. I plan to write some other material for the Pet Monsters section, as well as a currently unnamed section of the site for biology-related writings; expect to see a lot of discussion around entomology, wild canids, evolutionary biology and other related topics. Among those I am drafting is a page discussing my favourite natural and selectively-bred colour morphs of the Vulpes vulpes/red foxes and the pertinent genetics!

On a closing note, I'm currently reading Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution, a superb book by British paleontologist Richard Fortey (who sadly passed away earlier this very year). Arthropods and their evolutionary history are (if you could not already tell!) among my dearest special interests, so reading this book dedicated to the ancient class of arthropods is a wonderful experience so far, especially with Fortey's writing style and presentation being incredibly endearing. I had been meaning to read up more on topics such as their general anatomy and taxonomy for quite some time. If you at all have a fondness for trilobites or ancient arthropod lineages in general, absolutely check it out!

I also did finish playing Digimon World 2 recently as well. I must admit, the final boss battle was a bit of an anticlimax, though I genuinely cannot work out whether my party of Digimon (comprised of GranKuwagamon, HerculesKabuterimon and Diaboromon) was rather overlevelled or if the fight was just rather easy. I'm terrible at video games generally, so I have no idea, hehe.

Do be kind to any bugs you see, especially if you're in the northern hemisphere right now. Refrain from sweeping up any fallen leaves, the environment and the organisms living within it will be much better for it!

Yip! -SC

Normally I tend to stray heavily from a lot more recent mainstream media and live under a rock and eat moss (happily so, as focus group-tested lumps of abiotic shiny emptiness give me psychic damage and bore me so much that any ectoparasites in my fur are transported to a realm of bright lights and monotonous human voices), but the trailer for Smiling Friends Season 3 was released yesterday and I'm a hyped bugfox!!

I have always hoped for an episode focused primarily on Allan and Glep and it appears that it is potentially possible Season 3 may deliver on that (look to the timestamp of 0:52, for what I am specifically referring to). I don't want to assume too much but hopefully this is the case. Yay!

Also I love that the guy on the computer that lived inside the walls of the Smiling Friends HQ in the very first episode is referenced, haha. It all looks rather promising. The past several days have been especially rough on my end (and indeed the world, which is an especially horrid place currently for many reasons we're all no doubt very much abreast of), but this nonetheless has cheered me up a little, I feel. Hopefully it will be worth the wait!

Anyway, be kind to any bugs you see (and indeed each other, as well as yourselves, especially at the moment).

Yip! -SC

I have finally assembled this little blog page, something I intend to use to post about topics that currently hold my interest, rambles about my special interests and indeed a small plethora of other things, I am certain. I had been intending to create a blog page for this site for over a year ago now, so here it is. Fun!

The summer has certainly been rather brutal for me this year (more so than usual, perhaps); aside from many insects being active during this time of year, I can't say I enjoy it particularly. Sensory-wise it is pretty hellish, plus the way humans often behave during the summer makes it drastically worse (which I don't feel I need to elaborate on).

Still, as September is on the horizon, things are slowly getting better. The autumn is my favourite time of the year by far, and I hope this year I might be able to see the mushrooms of some cool fungi species (I was rather disappointed that I was unable to find any fairy rings last autumn...)! After a slump of a fair number of weeks, I'm finally back into making more art, including work on Episode 2 of God Animal finally being in a place that feels much more managable. I don't intend to specify an ETA for its completion and upload until I'm very near the end of production, however.

On another note, I've recently been especially fascinated and invested time in reading about a subspecies of the gray wolf, Canis lupus crassodon, otherwise known with the common name of the Vancouver Coastal Sea Wolf. This particular subspecies is comprised of a small population confined to Vancouver Island and has been observed to engage in behaviours unique to their subspecies, such as active engagement in swimming between islands in search of food or to migrate, as well the use of techniques that allow them to break open the shells of molluscs to feed upon the soft parts of their bodies. Notably, observations and research into the small but hardy population of Canis lupus crassodon has shown that the majority of their diet seems to be comprised of fish (especially salmon) and other aquatic animals. Given my lifelong special interest in the evolution of cetaceans (and of course canids too), learning about this species certainly does enthrall me. Who knows, maybe millions of years from now, this fascinating subspecies could occupy niches that would otherwise seem so alien to canids in the present!

(Here is a blog entry about the aforementioned species on the Fossil Huntress blog, if you're interested in learning more!)

On a last note: when I have played video games lately, I've largely played Digimon World 2. The game is clunky as fuck, as well as full of obtuse and rather peculiar design choices, but somehow they seem to fall in place in such a specific way that scratches the itches of my autistic bugfox brain. It's incredibly crude in design and certainly unfair at times, but I love the fuck out of it! I don't know if anybody reading this is familiar with the game, but my intended plan for my final end-game party of Digimon is to have HerculesKabuterimon, GranKuwagamon and Diaboromon. Maybe also Puppetmon, should I need a spare party member. I love the spooky cybernetic version of Pinocchio that is canonically constructed from cursed wood. Fun!!

Until next time,

Yip! -SC