Happy September, everyone! Hope all my fellow Americans had a nice Labor Day weekend, and all my fellow not-Americans had a nice weekend anyway.

The big announcement of today: the archives redesign is finally live! The original variant of archives was always meant to be pretty simple and quick, and I think five years living with it has been long enough. It's still up, funnily enough, on archives. You can probably see why it needed to go at some point, being just a gigantic list of links. Charming! Nice for what it was, I still find the GoldenEye theming fun, but given that it changed aims from a file dump to a whole browseable museum of Somnolescent sites and history, it just wasn't doing it anymore.

It was back in mid-2023 when Caby originally designed Miranda that I intended for her to become the mascot to archives, but it took me another year or so before I was finally where I wanted to be artistically to make it happen. And then another year to make it happen period. I know, so two years into her existence, and she's finally got a spot where she should've been all along. Never say I don't make it happen, chat. It's just slow goings sometimes.

Really, it was just two graphics and some more work on that timeline page that kept it all these months from getting finished, so I just swallowed the frog yesterday and knocked it all out. It was a fun reminder of how much I've grown artistically, even from last year, having to consciously mimic my old sketching style and detail level with the Miranda you see on the hoards page because my art's just changed that much from when I started working on this in August 2024. I'm pleased though. Very cute.

This really just leaves cammy.somnol as my last truly outstanding Web project, really, period. There's some graphics for mari.somnol I've still been wanting to do and have half-started, and cammy.somnol too is all graphics. Next year, I promise, I'm going back to actual creative work and not just building websites. All of this is very nearly settled, and I'm proud of it, but it very much wasn't meant to be the main course. We're getting to the main course, I swear.

Have some photos I took on a Kodak EasyShare during Stroudfest over the weekend. That's a big street fair in my town for Labor Day weekend where they have a band play and local artists and businesses sell their food and craft. It's a pretty fun camera to use, and the crunch on it is nice, though I really need to get batteries that aren't alkalines for these, because it was being sketchy while we were out, hence the reset timestamps. (To be fair to the Kodak also, I did give it the used batteries that were in the PowerShot and being used for the last two weeks or so of the Wales trip.)

Definitely a nice last hurrah of summer though, funky band playing and we ate empanadas in the setting sunshine.

I have returned to the States, journal people! I was pretty down about it for a few days, but time and diving into this year's trip diary helped move me along. I say this every time I come back, but that's because stuff truly gets better every time I come back—this was the happiest and comfiest trip Caby and I have had yet. Never met anyone I'm just that well matched with and attached to, and I still miss her guinea pigs and watching Red Dwarf in the lounge and time spent cuddling and days out and nights out. Even little stuff like running to the Tesco in the village for meal deals is better when it's with her, or I have her to come back home to.

I do have to return home at some point, though, so let's celebrate the good of being back as well! I did miss my setup, but as I wrote back in early July, the eMachines Box's hard drive gave it up again. I decided that, if I was gonna be in here replacing a drive, I would upgrade the whole thing, not just replace it. To that end, I went with a modern 256GB Silicon Power SSD, a mounting bracket to take it to the correct size in the drive cage, and a StarTech IDE-to-SATA adapter.

There's some tricks and things you gotta do to keep XP running nicely on an SSD, mostly making sure your partitions are aligned properly (which the Windows 7 installer or a modern version of GParted can do for you). This is actually dual-booted with Windows Me, which I picked over 98se because it upsets people. (Plus I just wanted to see Me running on real hardware.) That's worked great so far, but it needs drivers, and this chipset never natively supported 9x, so I haven't toyed with it much. Truth be told, the moment I got Media Center Edition going, I just started installing games and programs again and haven't looked back at Me, but at least it works and I have the dual-boot going.

Anyway, the results have been excellent! Even though IDE is obviously a bottleneck, the computer has been way zippier running off an SSD than it did even with the 7200RPM Caviar drive I replaced the 5400RPM one that it came with. Unreal Tournament loads so quick now, it's great. You see the XP boot screen for literally like three seconds now, and you're at the desktop like seven seconds later. So speeeedy. (Not as fast as piggo, but nothing is as fast as piggo.)

I should get to playing some games now, shouldn't I?

Oh, and do watch this space. The journal's looked the same since 2022 now, and I think it's about time for an overhaul.

Heading into London in a couple hours. The next time I update the journal, I'll be back in the US.

We're in the final leg of the 2025 Wales trip, and it's honestly bizarre to watch it come to a close. It doesn't feel like I've been visiting—it just feels like I've been living here. I don't even really feel sad about it coming to a close, at least yet. Been really lovely, and it's got me super excited for the autumn to come. I have a lot to show off, a lot I want to make, and a lot I want to experience from the lots and lots of money I've spent on games and music this trip.

On that note, and pertaining to cammy.somnol, do expect a trip diary this year. 2024's didn't pan out because I got distracted/emotionally disinterested/oiled and chained to a wall in my own mind Red Dwarf-style (we find it endlessly amusing that the same world that birthed classic sci-fi is the same one that birthed a wonderful spread of gay erotica between Kirk and Spock or your favorite smegheads here)/etc., but I do still have my little note of ideas and what I intended to post in it, so I'm going to go back and work on it from memory. I will rely on Caby's infinitely better memory to make it happen. This one's will be even more concise and just as fun.

I must say, it is fun to make up art as you go along. I was thinking to myself a few days ago that I really should get more finished pieces going. I love site graphics and refs, and those always bring me satisfaction to see them up, but a good finished piece is something you can really show off, and that's even better. I only do a couple a year! Art Fight always pushes me to do them, but of course, I didn't partake this year.

It's only partially on purpose that I've been drawing so much of my posh pink cat Prince on this trip. I do love him a lot of course, but honestly, it's mostly me practicing how I like to draw him! Cats have never come naturally to me artistically, because they're deceptively very ambiguously structured. All the face fluff, itself a challenge to get looking right, obfuscates their very mild features, and for a long time mine just came out looking like big fluffy sheets of paper. Prince is even trickier because of his bizarre swooshy hair. It sprouts and then flops over in a really adorable way, but I tend to make it too small and not fluffy enough. Point being, it's been such a trip getting here that I want to bask in being able to draw my kitty lad.

So this one came really late at night, as they all do. I was inspired by a Japanese-y sorta gown I saw on Tumblr because I love long, dangly sleeves. I also decided I wanted to practice some painting, so after lining it, I started painting what I thought was the shading. Playing with blend layers made the shading glow, and that felt much more mystical to me.

A couple hours of limited palette coloring, hue shifting, layer duplication, turning the shading into an aura, blending the aura, and making up a trippy galactic background, and this is how it turned out! Not what I initially intended, but absolutely in the running for my favorite piece all year. I finally got his hair right! The colors are neat! He's such a cutie.

Gotta think of how to top it, but later. I wanna peek at this some more first. Here's a transparent alt exclusive for the journal:

The last week dawns! Actually, this is the last five days in Wales or so. It's not quite hit me yet. Obviously it's sad, especially given that I've been here so long that I really do just feel like part of Caby's family now. I've gotten interrupted three times in making this post, once by Pokémon Puzzle Challenge, but once to chat Top Gear with her mom and another to chat about Quake and Valve games with her dad. Everyone save the guinea pigs has started up an hour plus long conversation with me at least once (and Sherlock sits so nice on my lap every time I hold her). If that's not fitting in, I don't know what is.

The final days slowly arriving is sad, of course, but I'm also really excited about the end of the year. I miss my mom and I wanna catch up with her, give her her gifts and show her what photos I've taken. I wanna go back to streaming. Caby and I patched a lot of things up while we've been here, and I'm looking forward to voice calls and playing games and keeping the fun going even when I'm back home. I've got so much to read and listen to—stuff's really piled up! My YouTube Watch Later list is two dozen strong again. I miss my Minecraft Alpha world.

I got plans! Creatively, I'm in a really comfortable place of desiring but not desperate, confident, wanting to do everything but happy regardless of what comes out any given day. It'll be back to finding a job, but that's okay. I'm content, for once in my life, and frankly, if this is all life is forever, being creative between low-level temporary jobs and visiting friends, that's a life I'm comfy with.

Let's get into some briefer updates as to how it's been going:

The NQ64 in Cardiff is very good

We finally visited the NQ64 in Cardiff! If you didn't catch "London, Through the Eyes of the PowerShot A20" on the group blog, I wasn't super enthused by the one in Soho, partially because I wasn't feeling great from traveling, but also because it was so loud and the machines weren't in the greatest shape.

This time, we had a blast. Trys came with, and they spent ages doodling on the tables (which they let you do happily), drinking (I had a Kirby and a Quick Revive, my first time buying drinks anywhere actually), passing around the PowerShot for photos, and trying Guitar Hero Arcade with me (man, I miss my guitar). Things were loud, but not overload loud; it's been well over a decade since I last heard "Smack That" by Akon, so thanks, NQ64! It's always fun to find people's handles on the tables, the walls, the bathrooms and see what they're shilling too—shoutouts to dampsheep on Bandcamp.

I think these guys had a better selection of machines, too. They also had a Galaga machine, and one with a working fire button this time! I actually killed my arm hammering the button and had to give up at 150k, which was funny. You forget when you're used to the light plastic of home consoles that arcade machines were built out of fucking metal.

Gotta work out the last week of trips with Caby's folks. We're aiming to see some caves and some fluffy creatures before it's time to go.

An update on the Tumblr

The art Tumblr I started about two weeks ago has done way better than I imagined it would. I'm not under any delusions that that's not partially because Caby has been very kindly reblogging all my posts, but my art is still the thing they're liking and reblogging, and liking and reblogging it they are! The Easter Bunny and afan I did got eighty notes and counting (notes are all likes, reblogs, and post replies put together), and it seems my floor is still thirty or so. In two weeks, I'm up to 35 followers. Pretty mind-blowing, and a very nice foundation to grow on.

It's a pretty stark reminder of how commodified and often just plain dead the other sites I post on have become. It's plenty possible to gain an audience on FurAffinity, but let's be real, it's an art sale site for fetishists a lot of the time. A hobbyist with slightly wonky art like mine isn't catching on there. (And Weasyl is just that without the sales. I really think I'm going to discontinue posting to it starting next year—frankly, the only reason I still use it is the thumbnail cropping tool.) I've been poking at Sheezy more, but it's barely more active than Weasyl. Not supporting PostyBirb, the mass art posting tool that basically all serious artists (including Caby) rely on for uploading, is an insane move that's kneecapped any chance of importing people and their large audiences to it. I am still the only Somnolian actively posting there.

In all three instances, I do a handful of favorites per drawing at best. Sometimes none at all, and often only the Somnolians see anything. I've grown past taking it personally, I like my art and I know people do as well, it's just visibility, but it's still posting into a void and that's just unmotivating. There's no likeminded community on these sites. People stay in their bubbles, and the only people actively searching for anything new are people trying to expand their wank bank, which I obviously don't cater to.

Tumblr is different. Tumblr people just appreciate art better. I don't just say that because I've gotten a little bit of attention, I say that because the site is set up for showing people the stuff you like, scavenging tags, and joining communities. Your stuff spreads by people engaging with it. It's not to say that there isn't commissions and fetish art and porn on Tumblr, but it's just part of the river of content, not specifically what people generally seek out. Sure, there's certainly stuff I could do to be more social even on there, leaving comments and reblogging more work, but just that bit of attention motivates me way more to do that.

What's been lovely also is seeing my mutuals be so supportive. Olaxis, Nasiloo, and bananabreadguy have all been liking and even reblogging stuff, complementing my colors and just overall digging it. That's a cool feeling! I don't talk to any of them regularly, we're acquaintances, but they know I'm here and they've been appreciating what I do, and that means a lot. I don't chase numbers, but I like friends.

I still have posts going up every Tuesday and Thursday, at the moment a mixture of new art and old favorites from throughout 2024 and 2025. If you want twice-weekly Cammy art at least into October, go give me a follow at coffeecoloredbadger. You'll like it.

We have the technology (to revive the eMachines Box)

I'm taking a gamble by buying gear that will be much more difficult, if not impossible, to return if it doesn't work (because Amazon UK and Amazon US are two different companies), but I have ordered the SSD and adapters necessary to get the eMachines Box going again. I don't see a reason it won't work, since I went with all brands I recognized and have had good experiences with (StarTech, Silicon Power for the SSD), but you know tech.

If it does all go well, though, I will be dual-booting Me and XP on it! I have very rarely used Me at all, let alone on real hardware, and it gives computer nerds stress shits when you bring it up, so I'm gonna give it a go. I've heard low-end XP machines make for very very good 9x machines. Hoping that's true!

Pokémon Puzzle Challenge

If you missed it on the group blog, I finally completed my Pokémon Blue 'dex this trip, Mew and all! I suppose I should get onto Silver or one of the DS/3DS ones now, or indeed any other game I have installed on my 3DS, but actually, I've been playing Pokémon Puzzle Challenge. It seems really simple, but it's when you're trying to defeat the Johto Elite Four in Challenge on Hard and the game keeps raining shit down on you and you have to get smart/lucky with your cascades and four/five block matches that it becomes frustratingly habit-forming.

I'm free of it now, thankfully. I suppose I will expand out the game review section soon with GBC stuff to cover it. Fun little curiosity.

Also, I adopted a badger. There's a program the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales does for sponsoring badger tuberculosis vaccine research, and obviously as a badger, I would prefer people not kill them just because they can unwittingly pass TB onto cattle. Came with this little 5" badger plushie and he does such nice sits. (Bottle of limoncello for scale.)