Screw... everything...

I'm so sorry, guys and gals. But here's what going down as of this morning.

I've JUST learned from my school that THIS January, they had send my balance to a debt collector, AND the price I owe jacked up. The new amount I owe is at $1,817usd, and that is with fees. I waited too damn long. And what's WORSE: because the balance is charged off, I can no longer pay directly to the school, OR do the $530 thing. That is now out the window...! This $1,817usd has to be paid in full before I even go back.... On THAT note, if I do a payment plan NOW, it'll have to be with this collector, AND, with these numbers, it will take me at least a YEAR (or a year and a half, give or take) to pay it all off. The lowest I can go monthly there is $150, and THAT will be a struggle, considering I STILL have to tackle other debts. So, my disability checks and dayjob earnings will barely help, if at all.

I ROYALLY messed up here....

I thought for sure I would have this 500 in the bag... I mean... to be honest... it's the whole reason I've started my Griffon WG Drive in the first place.

I'm so so sorry, everyone... I wish not to burden you all anymore than I believe that I already have... but my options are limited right now....

Hello again, everyfur/scalie/avian/whatevs. It’s THAT time of year, and Spring is upon us, so let’s get right into it.

ONE

Getting the IRL junk outta the way first, I’m currently in the talks with my folks about going back to school. As I previously mentioned, my student account is locked up there (has been since I stopped taking classes 2 years ago), and I have a balance that needs to be paid down by $530 usd, before I can even DO ANYTHING. (That would mean taking the last class needed to graduate and/or reapplying as a Grad student.) I REALLY would like to do the latter, but, again, no funds yet. And at my current rate with my day job, it could take months, or perhaps years. Kind of a bummer....

On that note, I really hate to burden any of y’all as I’m on a path to growth here, but I’m at a point where I gotta take what I can take. I can only do so much with disability benefits and funds from work alone, and even THAT can barely help me with my bills and utilities. Again, BARELY. 

I don’t normally share this, but my overall goal, money-wise, is to make enough money to live off of, and quit work doing so. Lately, I’ve been endlessly searching for other side hustles online, to no avail.

Okay... I think this rant has stayed its course. Let’s move on.

TWO

Continuing the discussion of money, I also mentioned that my Griffon WG Drive had been postponed from last July. And I’ve been waiting patiently to see if I can safely open it up again without worrying about it hitting ANOTHER brick wall. This time, it would be a 3-way between Gilda, Gabby and Gallus, with RD, Spike, and Silverstream being their respective “cheer-feeders”. Likes will be accepted on posts from both my X/Twitter and BlueSky accounts.

So what do y’all say? I will need all hands on deck for when I shall reopen.

And I’m CONTEMPLATING a REOPEN DATE for this Saturday (March 23).

I really REALLY want this to work, just like the other Drives....

THREE

Going back to fandom stuff real quick: I’m STILL tackling my sizable backlog of requests, and JUST A HEADS UP: when I open back up my Drive, I will temporarily put NEW Commission requests ON HOLD. That way, I can juggle both in a timely manner, that way it should be done. NOT time-consuming, like before....

Fingers crossed.

MOREOVER: isn’t it TIME that I made some CUSTOM DISCORD EMOTES already?! It’s long overdue, man!

Speaking of, the MORE heads in my server, the merrier! > https://discord.gg/J7qR2ar

FOUR

DON’T FORGET: I’m currently writing up a BRAND NEW story, a romantic drama starring yours truly, and Gilda the Griffon, entitled “Hearts and Feathers”. You can follow along in this link: Rupert Meets Equestria Presents: Hearts and Feathers

LASTLY

AND... I’m aiming to draw at least one pic a month this year, centering around the adorable Sphinx from MLP:FiM. Here’s the gallery as it goes along so far, with more to come... > https://derpibooru.org/images/1530269?q=the+sphinx

Oh. My website is getting revamped, albeit SLOWLY.... > https://rupertthebluefox.wixsite.com/rupertchubbyfox

OH! Before I forget... my post on Sound Effects Wiki: https://soundeffects.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000075655

In case you don’t know, your blue boi is a sucker for these crazy cartoon SFX, dating back to the Hanna-Barbera days and WB.

-----

END

That’s it for now! If I missed ANYTHING vital, don’t be afraid to let me know. Okay? Let’s just hope the rest of the year doesn’t turn to crud, okay? Thank you all again. Rupert out.

HELLO, ALL.

I was gonna save this for tomorrow, but to heck with it.

I'm currently starting off what I am HOPING (emphasizing on the "hope" part) will be my next MAJOR project yet:

An AI-based ASK BLOG! Starring Gilda the Griffon!

And oh? Something's different about her...

The site is now live. --> https://askwhitebellygilda.blog <--

Keep in mind: the ASK page for the blog will go live tomorrow.

Also, feel free to spread the word, if you want.

Hi again, all. Well... things are most certainly NOT getting any easier for me, at least on the money front. Let me break this down:

ONE

Oh boy...! Last month, I broke news that my septic tank had backed the heck up to the point where this nasty black stuff overflowed in my bathtub and partly got into my toilet. After a jet cleaning from the city and extensive hand-cleaning on my part, I’ve been SLAPPED with a $150 service fee for that. Apparently, I flushed down a bunch of flushable wipes that for some reason caused not just my unit, but ALL units in my side of the building to clog up, forcing maintenance to call the city and jet clean the sewage. Long story short, I’m not doing THAT again. It was my fault, and I was forced to pay THAT along with my rent for this month.

Yeah, this $150 deficit kinda screwed me, and if that wasn’t enough, I’ve just learned about the delay in my food benefits, and I’ll be getting less going forward... MUCH less. So I’m asking my folks to help when it comes to food.

And NOW, because of that deficit, I have a pending second pay arrangement of $81 for my phone service that I won’t be able to pay this Friday, because I’m severely overdrafted: possibly for the rest of the month.

IN ALL, I’m down $325 due to my screw-ups, going into Christmas.... hecc.

Oh, and I mustn’t forget about my quest to get that new folding electric bike to replace this decaying e-scooter that I held onto for 3 years now. The one I found is just what I need to get to and from work faster, as well as check on my folks, if needed. Shame that I would need to set back $550, though.

Sorry, guys.... I really shouldn’t keep burdening you all with my financial woes, but this needed to be shared.

TWO

Regarding how to mitigate this, it is easier said than done. I’m now at a point where even my wages from my “new” job at a dollar store, while pretty helpful, are doing little or nothing to ACTUALLY make a difference, regarding my mounting debt, skipping payments to keep stuff on, and overall not having a viable plan.

Of course, there’s still the matter of my long-postponed WG Drive. Initially, it was to have just Gilda and Gabby. Ever since putting it off (because not one dime went into moving it forward for 2 weeks), I’ve decided to add a THIRD wheel... Gallus. Anyway, I’m increasingly tempted to restart this Drive much sooner, but at the same time, I need to know if any of y’all are willing to help. I know Christmas is around the corner (at the time of this post), so it’s paramount to see what the PERFECT time to do it is. My last “successful” Drive started early last January, and I’m gonna follow the old formula, like with the CMC Drive. Will it work this time? I have no clue....

THREE

If I REALLY want to do it right now, I’m gonna need a plan that I can actually STICK TO. Last Drive, I was more content with having a milestone every 3-4 days. Maybe that would work?

MOREOVER, I’m STILL eager to make my long-needed references for my own other characters that I almost never draw. Be on the lookout.

LASTLY

I need a GOOD New Year’s Resolution. 2024 is around the corner, and I want to start it off RIGHT...!

END

That’s all for now. 12 Days til’ the Holidays. If I have missed something important, don’t be afraid to let your boi know. Okay? Here’s to a new year.

This was posted on my Discord a few days ago, and below is the updated post.

COMPUTER TROUBLE

Hello again, everybody. Forgive me for another art block, but unless you’ve been following up on my updates on my Discord server, you might be in the dark as to what happened. That’s my fault, so as such, let me run down all that’s going on… right here and now. Ok?

A couple of weeks ago, one of my PC hard drives decided to be slow, and I was worried (still am) that it may be dying. What sucks that this Drive has literally EVERYTHING I own that is important. So I had to do some scanning. I noticed that each error scan got slower and slower, further hampering my PC’s system performance. As the scans went on, I discovered possible fixes that I WISH I’d done earlier, instead of going through all this. Sparing you tons of detail, at the time of this post, I’m trying a fix using the CMD prompt, and this alone could take days, if not WEEKS. Again, follow me on Discord, Twitter and Mastodon to stay up to date.

Meanwhile, as this goes on, my art flow has also taken a hit. But I’m doing whatever I can to come up with alternative ways to deliver on my Overdues, and MAYBE unleash some of what I had planned, personally. But, at the same time, I’m scared to lose everything on this Drive. I had many questions as to the cause, but no straight answers to date, despite all of my research. Until this is sorted out, I’ve resorted to using my laggy laptop as a main… for now.

IRL + ART

As for more IRL crud: while work is going well for me, this bears reminding that scheduling is quite random, and pay, while helps me out a LITTLE bit, isn’t by itself a one all, be all (or how the saying goes). That’s why I pledged that no matter the outside job I may get, I’ll still take cartoon-requests as a (kind of) 2nd job. I’m still open for those Comms, by the by. Feel free to ask, okay?

DRIVE?

Switching gears! Now… after I put my Gilda/Gabby Fat Drive on a postponement some weeks ago... CAN I STILL DO IT? Is it safe now to reopen? Because after the fiasco, which is stupidly similar to what that Ember Drive went through 3 years ago, I am legit worried. While I was away, I WAS thinking of adding two characters to become “cheerleaders” (for lack of a better word) to assist in inflating our favorite griffon gals. HINT: they are both male. Anyway, can I do it without risk of another failure to hone in traffic?? I need to know! That way, I won’t waste my time or YOUR time on it, if nothing substantial happens. T was supposed to last for 5 weeks, as previously mentioned. So once again, are we on board for it???

UPDATE:

In order to regain the stride I once had regarding my Commissioner base, I have decided to postpone this Drive indefinitely. Apparently, a friend on Discord brought to light what I probably ignored all this while when I was doing past Drives... prioritizing what I currently owe. Not only that, I fear my infrequently (or rather, sporadic) art activity here and elsewhere has hampered what I COULD have, in terms of "traffic flow". Not to mention, I really want to show off what I've been putting off for a while, personally. As for my HDD situation, I'm still worried, and I'm still hesitant to resort to spending money for a good recovery tool. Again, all I can do is wait and pray....

END

With that outta the way, that will do it for now, I think.... 

My apologies again for these circumstances, but there’s little else I can do while things are slow again, thanks to my crap old HDD. Probably what I get for not using the cloud more often....

Anyway, thank you all for reading this. What a yucky first half of 2023 this was. Let’s hope for a better and more productive 2nd half! Thank you all so much. Rupert out.

Guys... I normally don't make a post of this magnitude, but it has to be said...

I'm now in an awkward position regarding my latest Drive. It's been about a week now with nothing to make it go forward. This is basically the same thing that happened to that Ember Drive a while back, in which I had to postpone that one to a later date. Now, I'm REALLY getting worried: did I pick the wrong time to do this? Clearly, I must have done something wrong as to not gain any traffic... Should I have waited until July or August...? What am I missing...?

Switching gears, it certainly doesn't help that I now have debt collectors on my tail. While I'm back to working a day job for SOME additional income, I can only get so much per week, and even THAT is not a given. Weekly schedules at my new job are random, and salaries are fine, but not SUPER high; and that is expected. There's that....

... but it was also brought to my attention that I'm kind of...

...

...

... SLOW...

...

...

yeah.

It is NOT something to be proud of. For those of you or whoever is out there that previously Commissioned me, a few weeks, or months, or even 2 years out... I cannot stress as to how sorry I am. I've been working on different strategies to speed up my workflow and better organizing my priorities regarding my cartoon works. I believe that this is not a good look for me as a Commissionee. Frankly, I blame myself as to why I'm not as successful as I hoped to be: after 13 years (at the time of this post). I really hate being slow on my "mojo", and I should have already seen that as an issue for driving in monetary requests. I'd consider advertising, but my priorities are all screwed up.

I know that ALL OF YOU, future and previous customers, deserve better from an artist like me. Hopefully, one day... I can get all there with those like Sciggles and others... as far as financial freedom goes. But until then.... a guy's gotta do what he's gotta do to pay bills and chuck down this god-for-saken debt collections... AND student loan debt, too.

Yeah... fun....

I don't know what else to do, guys... I don't want to kill this Drive that's been up since last Friday, but at the same time I'm kind of in a pickle. A pickle of my own making....

Again, I'm sorry for putting you through all of this... and through this vent. You all deserve so much better than what I offered up to date.

I'm up for questions, so ask away... please...?

⚠️ THIS JUST IN! ⚠️

I just got employed at my local drugstore and expected to start today. Scheduling there is kinda random, but I’ll see what I can do. As I mentioned before, I’m currently at a point where any income is better than none. Fighting debt and late bills is no joke.

Well, enough about the IRL stuff. Now for something BEEFY:

My latest Incentive Drive will be starting soon. The date I chose as a launch will be…

… WEDNESDAY May 31st!

That means THIS will be your 3-day early reminder for you and somebody you know to ready your monies, because THIS is about to go crazy…!

Oh, and this time around, there will be 2 TEAMS to help donate to.

I’m looking forward for all the help that these two characters are gonna need!

And there you have it. Now’s my chance to see how to improve on my multi-tasking skills and whatnot. Thank you all again. Rupert out.

All right, everyfur, scalie, avian, horse, whatevers. Forgive me for the lack of activity, so let’s get the important stuff outta the way first, shall we?

First and foremost, amidst the struggle to budget properly, paying off debt slowly, and seeing if I can be hired by my nearest drugstore, I NOW have a couple of debt collectors on my tail (how fun….). At this point, I can forget about that fursuit I wanted this year (and possibly next year, too) … unless something SUPER DUPER DRAMATIC happens! Anyway, fingers crossed about this job thing. Otherwise, it’s back to the drawing board. Speaking of….

I feel awful about my rather sporadic activity in between overdue commissions and new things I wanted to accomplish for these communities. Now a bit of stupid news: for some reason, Ko-Fi decided to shut down my page because it contained “fetish” content. So I read the terms and complied and did what I could so that it would be permissible, and I even contacted them numerous times, but they just won’t budge on this decision. So there goes THAT method of payment…. BUT, I still have my Patreon and SubscribeStar. Also, I’ve heard about this site called Buy Me A Coffee. Is that a good alternative? Let me know.

On the topic of art: I’m currently EYEING on holding my next Fat Drive soon. I’m hoping to start either 2 Saturdays from now (27th) or on Wed the 31st. What do YOU think? Plus, I think it’s time to fill up one character that I wanted to do for quite a while…. Find out, all.

ONE MORE THING!

I have a Mastodon now, so if you wanna stay up to speed with me THERE, you know what to do.

https://meow.social/@RupertBlueFox – https://ponies.social/@RupertPhatBlueColt

Annnnnnnnd… I’m running out of what needs to be said, so I’ll end it here for now. By far, the first half of this year has been like a roller coaster. Hopefully it gets better for me, and for all of YOU, going forward.

Thank you again for reading these. Rupert out.

Oh, and if I missed or left something out that’s vital… don’t hesitate to let me know, okay…?

Hello once again, fuzz-butts, scalie-butts and feather-butts: to ANOTHER one of these… thingama-frickers. As of this post, tomorrow is Spring START! Hence why today is some of you may call “Winter Wrap Up”. (Just roll with it.) Anyway, here’s my scoop on what the heck has been going on in my end and what the future holds!

To start off, job searching, of course, ain’t easy. And I informed my folks about moving to another HUD apartment in another county, one that is walking distance from the nearest bus stop to Atlanta’s Metro Transit. In fact, that’s my main reason I put this on the table. The thing here is, their waiting list is closed, and I have to wait until this Summer to see if it opens back up. Fingers crossed on that, I suppose.

Regardless, I still need a good paying job to help me with this mounting debt. (I’m practically forced to skip credit card payments to prioritize my utilities and rent.) I did mention before that doing Commissions here (along with YCH’s) is the closest thing I have for the moment… even with my god-for-saken backlog.

Back in the art world, EVEN WITH my unforgivable backlogs and put-offs, I still have some ambitions I’d like to pursue and share with many of YOU. For instance, I still have plans to draw more of my own underutilized characters, as well as introduce new ones in the not-too-far future.

NEXT, I REALLY think I should make some time to plan some livestreams, if possible. Don’t ya think?

AND, I also made a promise to myself to draw more CHIBI’s. Let me know if y’all like that.

Also, for the more MATURE friends out here, I plan to make a full-fledged comic adaptation of my adult fic over on FimFiction called “Raft Bonding”. BOLO, okay? (18+)

ALSO, this kinda sucks… my KO-FI profile is unpublished, and I cannot for the life of me talk them into helping me out here. So for now, that’s basically dead….

And that’ll do it for the moment. Questions? Aky away, if you want. Thank you all again. Rupert out.

Hello, fuzzballs. No time to waste. Here we go!

Let’s get THIS out of the way first, shall we?
After some thought and figuring out how better finance myself as I TRY to keep up with my backlog, I have decided to extend the PAUSE of my Princesses Drive to Saturday January 7th. That would also push the end date to February 11th.

And NOW! Since the year’s almost over, I’d like to dedicate this update about what I hope to fulfill in my latest NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS.

As some of you may (or not) know, I still plan on getting made a FULL, CUSTOM DIGITIGRADE BODY FURSUIT, hopefully for around a thousand or less. I don’t know when that will happen, but fingers crossed that I’m lucky enough. AND… to own one of the latest MacBooks with 16GB of RAM and half a TB of storage.

AND I tend to have more fun trinkets coming up, such as:
Custom Discord Emotes (in packs), a new custom Discord bot (what about? Find out.), possibly doing 3D art using Blender.

ALSO, I’d like to make this wish for a new year:
I wish to expand what I’m capable of doing as well as the number of friends here and abroad.
Oh, and I wish to make more balloon and inflatable art that EVERYONE will like. And chibi’s!
Lastly, I wish to have a better cartooning structure that EVERYONE can be engaged in, whether it’s Commissions or you just wanna banter. The same thing shall go for YCH’s.

Oh, ONE MORE small announcement. More OCs are on the way! So be on the lookout…!

I REALLY hoped to start the new year with a clean-ish slate, but that’s not TOO likely. BUT I still am working on what I can, taking art one day at a time. So, I appreciate the patience of everybody here and other sites.

And that will wrap things up for this rather rocky year! Here’s to hoping and praying that 2023 will be much, MUCH better than the last 12 months. Now if you’ll excuse, I gotta whip up some champagne. Let’s make it good, shall we?!

Oh, I almost forgot. If anyone has ANY advice on how to have a healthier Commission structure, feel free to let me know.

Anyway, CHEERS!

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