Hiiiiii. It's meee. The guy who hasn't done monthly updates in several months because I don't feel like anything happening in my life has been interesting enough to warrant one. 

|| ATTICUS'S LAME LIFE UPDATES

I hate to say it, but I've been becoming a read media consumer lately. What media, you may ask? Saw (2004) and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Back in January, I entered an intense bidding war and spent a hefty sum of money ($25) on a VHS copy of Saw. These tapes are pretty hard to come by, as VHS tapes stopped being produced in 2006-- just two years after the film's release. I'm very happy to be able to have this one in my collection. I also got a sealed copy of the uncut DVD, which has since been unsealed for my sadistic pleasure!

Also been becoming a real big Star Trek nerd as of late. I've always enjoyed it, and I have a few of the movies on tape, but I am finally letting myself appreciate TNG to an extent that I have never before experienced. It's good. Data is one of my favorite characters of all time and I could go on and on about how well-written he is, but this is also a show where the entire ship gets Space Drunk Disease in the second episode. Just go watch it.

 I've been really in love with this frame, though. They just don't put this kind of thing on your television screen anymore.

|| I'M EXPECTING

...a jumping spider. I was going to include this in the last section, but I'm just really excited for it. I'm currently constructing a little Saw bathroom themed enclosure, and I'll be officially placing my spider order when the weather warms up a bit. I'm currently torn between zebra, bold, and regal-- Zebra jumpers are very common in my area and I'm very familiar with them, bolds are friendly little guys, and regals are just beautiful. But regardless, I will love my future darling. And I will be hosting a Tumblr poll to decide what Saw character to name it after. Follow my Tumblr if you care about that kind of thing.

|| I HAVE AN INSTAGRAM NOW, SOMETIMES, WHEN I REMEMBER THAT I HAVE AN INSTAGRAM

It's right here.

I mostly kinda hate it, and it has done absolutely nothing for me, but I will continue to post some images over there on occasion. I also set up a Cohost, but I actually hate that one even more somehow! Jesus Christ! Social media is so scary. But I'm always posting my full name, home address, social security number, and daily schedule over on Tumblr, if you actually want to see me being alive.

|| COMMS & SUCH

Commissions are currently open! Yippee! Slots are very limited because I'm busy with airplanes and airplane glue, but I've got two open right now. You get cool art. I get cool ideas and gas money. We both win.

I've also added a few more designs to my Redbubble, if you want some cool tangible versions of my art! Check out these super real copies of my merch. You can get ten really nice stickers for like $15, and they occasionally toss a few pennies my way.

|| COMIC. I MAKE ONE.

In case you aren't one of the incredibly sexy individuals who is already following along with my comic, hey. I make a comic. It's not horrible. Next chapter is going to be very fun, so it's a great time to start reading. Check it out on Neocities, Webtoon, or Tapas. (I just passed the support threshold over on Tapas, so you can now support me with Ink! It's a great way to give back to creators over there.)

---

That's all for now. Be nice to people. Don't be afraid to harass your government representatives as necessary. Goodnight.

Let's start by addressing the controversy. Yes, I missed November. I was sleepy and my life has been in shambles. Be nice to me.

|| ATTICUS'S LAME LIFE UPDATES

My life has been fucking wacky lately, because I live in a horrible capitalist Hellscape and I can't always afford to eat my single daily meal. But here are some things that aren't my dirt-poor misery.

I survived AWWAT back in October, and you can check out the results over on my Tumblr. It was a lot of fun, even if there were days where my wrists felt real physical pain from having to make so many images. Here are a couple of my personal favorites:

Haven't had much time or funds for tape scavenging lately, but I did manage to score these sick ass VHS drawers. (Cat-approved, of course.)

I've been trying to cook a lot lately, too. Food is expensive. But I am trying my best. Making lots of scrambled eggs and garlic bread.

I use a lot of garlic because it's yummy and cheap and instantly makes anything better, and also I have discovered Infinite Garlic Hack.

Other than that, I've just been smashing bugs in shitty little airplanes and doing math that makes me sad. Really fun times.

|| THOSE FUCKING ELVES AND THEIR DOG-GIRL

'Tis the season to lament your reasons. We're all the way up to chapter 3.2 now, and we're having a grand ol' time. Check it out.

Webtoon - https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/reasons-lament/32-red-morning-pt2/viewer?title_no=886337&episode_no=13

Tapas - https://tapas.io/episode/3029089

Neocities - https://voskhodart.neocities.org/gallery/stories/reasonslament/chapter/003

|| I LOVE OBJECTS

My Throne is back open! It's a great way to support me directly with items I need, without having to expose me to any of your personal info. You'll be able to rest soundly knowing I won't be using your generous donations to buy experimental drugs and Bitcoin. I also have an option for surprise gifts now, so you can send me pretty much anything. I will publicly review your gift, so choose wisely.

|| I LOVE MONEY

Comms are back open, babyyy. (And you can use code FATFIFTY to get 50% off through the end of the month, woah!) More details about pricing, TOS, & rules can be found by clicking  the "request this" button on your desired commission type. (Don't worry,  it doesn't actually request anything until you go through the whole  payment process.) NSFW commissions are also available, but must be discussed directly via DM over on Discord (username: Voskhodd).

I've also got sub tiers open again, for any particularly generous enjoyers of my artwork. For anywhere from $1/month to a hog-worthy heathen's bounty of $666, you can  directly support me and get some cool benefits in return.

|| HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Whatever you do or don't celebrate, have a nice holiday season. Bake some garlic bread, make out with a werewolf, and don't forget to change your oil if you need to. Goodnight.

Are you scared? You should be. This is one of the scariest months yet. We get a Friday the 13th AND Halloween. That's so fucked up. My wallet is going to be bled dry from buying milk and cookies to leave out for Jason. I'm so scared.

|| ATTICUS'S LAME LIFE UPDATES

The past month has been an absolute pain for reasons that are just a little too personal to get into in detail, but just impersonal enough for me to say this: I hope Hell is real and all bad housemates go directly there when they die. If you have ever intentionally played loud music in front of someone who is studying, put the thermostat above 78F in the middle of summer, or set up a camera to record someone without their consent, I think you deserve to burn for one million years.

Besides that misery, there have been delights. For one: THE EPIC HIGHS AND LOWS OF FINALLY GIVING IN AND TEACHING MYSELF HOW TO COOK

If you're unaware, I fucking suck at making food. I've been sustaining on microwaved soups and hope for several years now. But I decided it was time for a change. I wanted to learn how to make pastas. And by god, I am making pastas.

My bacon (extra crispy), my dinner rectangle, and a carbonara that I was sooo proud of. It was really good. I've genuinely gotten a lot of unexpected confidence through this experience, and I've been really surprised by how easy some of this has been. I never had the chance to have someone teach me how to do this stuff when I was growing up, but I've had a really awesome time learning how to do it on my own. And nobody can tell me not to make my bacon as crispy as I want.

But enough about that. You know what I can't eat? Tapes. But it still fills my soul to look at them.

Here are a handful of informational tapes that I picked up this month. These are some of my favorites to find, especially when they're about topics that I genuinely care about. I can't wait to finally learn how airplanes fly after several years in aviation and aerospace engineering!

Some real movies too. Good ones, debatably! TKAM is one of my favorite movies of all time, which observant readers may have been able to pick up on because my first fucking name is Atticus and I had to pick that one out on my own.

This one isn't even a tape. It's a DVD. Which I'm usually not as interested in because discs aren't half as cool as big rectangles full of movies, but I decided to make an exception for this one.

And finally, some other kinds of tapes and discs. Dean Koontz is one of my favorite authors of all time, so I was absolutely stoked to find these sets. The Taking and False Memory are both on cassette, and The Darkest Evening of the Year is on CD. I've been loading False Memory into my walkman between my classes, and it's really good so far.

Back into the digital world, I decided to start playing Wolvden recently. It's definitely one of the games I have played! I'm Voskhod over there and I have no idea what I'm doing, but I do have this cool goth puppy that I like a whole lot.

Finally, here are my doggies having an awesome time.

|| ATTICUS'S WET AND WILD ART-TOBER 2023

It's time for me to exponentially increase my workload for the sole purpose of making sure I don't forget how to draw! AWWAT23 is upon us, and this year I'm working on an every-other-day schedule. Ideally, this will make me want to die a little less than usual.

If you haven't experienced AWWAT before, it's a grand time: I use randomly generated words (above) combines with randomly selected characters (from a list of characters owned by myself and my friends) to make images that may tentatively be considered artwork. These images get posted over on my Tumblr, so head over there if you want to see em.

|| GET LAMENTED, REASONBOY

New episode of Reason's Lament is out. I drew almost the entire thing in one day this time, so it is a bit shorter than usual, but I had a lot of fun with the scenery and background work on it. Check it out and you'll gain a passive +5 to your charisma.

The episode linked below features somewhat excessive blood and child death. Please read at your own risk!

Webtoon || Tapas || Neocities

That's it for the scary month. I hope you get the most scared. If you like what I do, please consider supporting me on Ko-Fi or Throne. 

Kiss a vampire, watch tapes with a ghost, and make a pasta for a werewolf. Goodnight.

Happy September. Is that a pleasant chill in the air? A comfortable temperature, even? May I finally solidify from this puddle I've been existing in for the past several months? Oh boy, oh boy!

|| ATTICUS'S LAME LIFE UPDATES

August tossed me face-first into the mud and started dragging. In my personal life, my little sister had a major surgery (spinal fusion) and I've been helping take care of her while she learns to live with titanium holding her back straight. Between that and my academic life, I have been exhausted lately. And I had to survive a big beautiful woman named Idalia who threw wind and rain at me with so much grace and wonder. But, I've still managed to find time for some cool little happenings!

First up: I got to go spelunking into an abandoned thrift shop that a friend bought. Which was like... basically the closest thing to heaven that I could experience. It was dark, dank, and still had some decomp stains from where the previous owner died at his desk, but I have never seen so much cool shit in one place.

My personal favorite find from this adventure was my brand new TOP LOADING VCR!!! And the various CRT TVs that will probably kill me.

Did you know CRT TVs hold over 10x the voltage used to kill prisoners via electric chair? Like, to the point where touching one wrong bit will kill you before you even realize you've done it? I can't wait to break that bad boy open and play with it! I talked more about these over on my Tumblr, where you can also find a video of those sweet sweet top-loader noises. Go watch my scrawny little white hands gently fondle a machine.

And of course, why have a new VCR without some new tapes?

Some great thrillers this month. (Not Betrayed, though. Betrayed fucking sucks. I could never reccommend a movie less than that. Betrayed is becoming my new test tape for VCR pick-ups.) I also managed to find 2 unused blanks this time around, so I will spend the next several months debating what to put on them. I finally have a setup where I can transfer video directly between my laptop and my VCR (albeit with very low quality because my laptop sucks really really bad but I cannot afford a new one) so I can do some fun stuff with that now. I'm thinking about putting the old Important Videos playlist on one of them.

Pivoting to another old man interest, I saw this super cool train engine while walking back from class a few days ago. This is Norfolk Southern's 1066-- the New York Central heritage unit!

She was really big and made some really cool sounds while she was getting ready to start chugging. 10/10.

And finally, here's a little frog on my window.

|| GET LAMENTING

I published THREE episodes of Reason's Lament this month! My hands hurt so much. But the whole first chapter is COMPLETE!

Massive thanks to everyone who has checked it out so far! I was honestly not sure if I would get through the first chapter without giving up, but the feedback has been incredible. AND we got featured on Tapas's New from the Community page?? Whadda Hell. I love you guys. I stalk my Webtoons & Tapas dashboards and get super excited every time I see any of the numbers go up, so even every view means a lot to me. Thanks for letting me share my story with you!

And if you haven't checked it out yet, consider giving it a glance!

Webtoons: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/reasons-lament/list?title_no=886337

Tapas: https://tapas.io/series/Reasons-Lament/info

Neocities: https://voskhodart.neocities.org/gallery/stories/reasonslament/

|| WHAT IF YOU DIED ALONE. WOULD THAT BE FUCKED UP OR WHAT

In addition to my actual webcomic, I released The Romantic this month, which is a short work about loneliness and death. You can read it on my Neocities or Tumblr.

|| STUFF 4 L8R

Got some junk in the works! Including...

• Commmmmmmmmmms
  
• Another short comic
  
• Ko-Fi shop stuff
  
• Ko-Fi sub rewards
  • The return of monthly playlists
    
  • Subscriber OC cameos in RL
    
  • Tutorials mayhaps
    
• Traditional personal art projects
  
• Atticus's Wet and Wild Art-tober 2o2III
  
• Secrets :)
  

I'm really sleepy, so that's all for this month. Be nice to people, don't make eye contact, and start getting into trains. Gobaba <3

Happy Leo season. You know who's a Leo? This special guy right here. My birthday is the fifth. What are you getting me? Hm? Better bake me a cake. Better buy me soooo many presents. Better tuck me into bed and tell me how awesome I am.

|| ATTICUS'S LAME LIFE UPDATES

Holy Hell, I've done a lot this past month. Too much. Way, way too damn much.

Here are some of the tapes I got this month, plus a super cheap Magnavox CRT I managed to score.

Lots of fun stuff. And Scottish moods, as we all need from time to time. This is the current setup with my VCR:

Lots of historical stuff here! That blue bottle is from the 1860s, the Popular Science magazines are from 1940, and the USAF training certificate is from 1969. 

I've also been a bit absent from my usual cyber spaces for the past week or so, because I took a little business trip up to the Northeast. Specifically, I stayed up in New York and spent a little more time at LGA than any sane man should. But I did get to spend a bit of time in the city, and it was absolutely incredible. I've lived most of my life in rural areas of the Southeast, so it was awesome to have the chance to experience such a diverse and busy city. (Was kind of disappointed to only see one rat underground, though. Hoping to revisit on my own time when I have the money for it. Maybe will see more rats.)

I also managed to see a rainbow from the air recently! It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but it's just left of the center. This was at ~30k feet, somewhere above Virginia, in an Airbus A220-100. 

Lastly, I saw this SUPER tiny frog that my cat was very eager to show me. Very impressively small frog.

|| LAMENTING MY REASONS

Hey, did you hear about this super cool webcomic? I heard the creator of it is really hot and also if you read it you'll be reincarnated as a lotus flower, haha. Isn't that crazy. You should go read it.

The Prologue & Chapter 1 of Reason's Lament are available now! Check them out and develop brand new taste buds. It's free and it makes me happy to see the view numbers go up, okay? Chapter 1 even has furbait.

Webtoons: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/reasons-lament/list?title_no=886337

Tapas: https://tapas.io/series/Reasons-Lament/info

Neocities: https://voskhodart.neocities.org/gallery/stories/reasonslament/

|| ART FIGHT, HUH?

Well! This year's ArtFight was interesting. I kind of fell out towards the end for pretty well-known reasons, but I do plan on returning with a deep bloodlust next year. Here are some of the attacks that I completed for team Vampire! You can view all of my attacks from this year & all my past years over on my ArtFight profile.

I also want to give a massive thank-you to everyone who attacked me this year. It means a lot to see other people take the time to draw my characters, and I was blown away by the art I received. Thank you all for being awesome and sharing your creativity, hard work, and talent with me. ♥

|| HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL OTHER LEO BABIES

You are so beautiful and awesome and you will transform into a lion when the gods lose their cowardice and grant us our natural abilities.

That's it for now. I might have another update this month, but we'll get there when we get there. 

Have a nice one, and try to stay cool out there. Unless you're in the southern hemisphere. In which case, ʇɹʎ ʇo sʇɐʎ ʍɐɹɯ onʇ ʇɥǝɹǝ. 

Goodnight!

Happy 17th! That moon sure is full, which means I can finally make people read the first completed chapter of my cool little webcomic.

Reason's Lament: Prologue is now available on Webtoon, Tapas, and my Neocities.

This whole chapter is pretty short compared to what I plan to do in the future ones, but I personally like my prologues short and simple. Chapter 1.1 will be out August 1st (though I may delay the Tapas release because of some boring file stuff on my end), so be sure to bookmark, subscribe, or follow the story wherever you feel like following along with it. I also post more casual updates to my Tumblr and Ko-Fi! Mostly my Tumblr. (I also talk about my tapes on Tumblr. Go to Tumblr if you want to gamble with a 10% chance of a chapter update and a 90% chance of me rambling about my new Magnavox CRT TV.) Also take note that the Neocities page will be recieving a lot of coding adjustments over the next few weeks while I try my best to make it look cute. (If at any point you reload the page and it goes straight to hell, you can send your complaint to [email protected] and I will cry for you.)

I genuinely appreciate anybody who is willing to follow along with this story! It's a big undertaking for me, and I think it's going to be a really cool way to continue developing my art style and storytelling skills. And if you click the buttons that make the numbers bigger on any of the websites linked above, I will do my best to ensure that you will be reincarnated as a lotus flower in the next life. I love you. 

(If you hate my story and it sucks so bad, you can take your strongest finger and hold down the "power" button on your electronic device for 3-5 seconds, okay?)

That's all I feel like typing. Have a great night! :]

July is the special month where I get shipped off to war for being a furry artist. The army walks into my home and points at me and says "sonny boy, you've gotta go draw catboys" and I have no choice but to say "sir yes sir" and march my ass out to the frontlines with all the other low-income 20-somethings with dyed hair. Before I hear that knock on my door at precisely 12:00 PM EST, I need to leave behind this message for you.

|| I AM GOING TO BITE YOU: ARTFIGHT + HITLIST + SPECIAL DINNER PARTY MASS ATTACK

In case you missed my last super cool update, I have once again made the decision to force myself to play ArtFight. I'm on team Vampires this year because I'm hot. You can find me over there as Voskhod! I finally have some of my personal favorite OCs up (Snyder, mostly.) with proper refs, and I'm really excited to potentially get some art for them. Even more, though, I'm excited to dish out some mean art for strangers on the internet. (You could be one of those strangers, if you fill out my hitlist.)

I'm also planning on doing a mass attack this year! I've settled on doing a cannibal dinner party, fitting for my fellow vampires and other such weirdos. This is attack is going to feature extreme gore, so please do not fill out the form if you aren't comfortable with that. I will not use your characters in the attack if I think the content would be something outside of your comfort zone. For those of you that are savvy for guts, you are more than welcome to come pick out some of your characters and take a seat at the table. I'll be closing this form on July 5th, and if there are more than 20 submissions I will be breaking it into two mass attacks!

See you on the battlefield.

|| ATTICUS'S LAME LIFE UPDATES: TEN MILLION SQUASH IN MY HOME

Putting it second this time to shake things up.

I've been having a time, to be honest with y'all. But I'm not here to talk about the time. I'm here to talk about my awesome garden and how many vegetables I've been producing. I've had to eat squash for at least one meal a day every day for the past week because I've been picking 3-5 every day. Lots of cucumbers too. And my zucchini have finally started coming up too.

My cucumbers have even started wandering into the other plants. Check out this big guy who was freeloading on my squash.

I also have eggplants that are just starting to grow. I'm not the biggest eggplant fan, but I like how the plants look. I will not make a crass joke about their current state.

I've also just been finding a ton of cool old junk lately. Whether it be in thrift stores or in the ditch at my local airport, there is old junk to be discovered everywhere I go. Here are some of my favorites: a glass bottle from the 1850s (according to this page), my beloved Forced Entry Jesus tie, and a Bob Marley lava lamp.

And of course, it wouldn't be a lame life update without my tapes. Got some cool movies, a bright green VeggieTales tape that I've been hunting, and some great cassettes, all phorotgraphed on the dirtiest rug in my home because I'm a moron with three very messy cats.

|| GIVE ME YOUR MONEYYY

Commissions are open! Wait times will be a little longer this month because of ArtFight, but commissions are a great way to guaranteed some high-quality art, as well as my unwavering appreciation for you. And they help me buy groceries, dumb thrift store finds, and cat treats. Speaking of cats, I think my boys have something to say--

That's "TOOMANYSQUASH" on any of my Ko-Fi commissions! Use the code at checkout for an instant 10% off. Treat for you, treat for them. It is only fair.

|| REASON'S LAMENT: PROLOGUE RELEASE DATE

This one is so important to me that I made an actual graphic instead of slapping text on my cats in MS Paint!

I don't think I've mentioned this project publicly yet, but I've had it in the works for a few months now. Reason's Lament is a southern gothic fantasy story about a gunslinger priest and a weapon which has ensnared the soul of an rogue god. Joined by an old rival looking for comradery and a mercenary seeking redemption for her past, he is forced to battle the corruption and chaos threatening to overtake his society.

This is very much just a passion project for me; I'm excited to finally get the first bite of it out there. It has some heavy themes, but I'm being very careful to have thorough content warnings at the beginning of each chapter. In general, this story explores a lot of my own experiences with religious abuse in a unique setting inspired by the American deep south. I'll have more information when the release date rolls around, but right now I'm planning on having the prologue posted in three parts on Webtoons, as well as in its full length on a dedicated page on my Neocities site. I'll also have some sneak peeks and bonus content available for my (very handsome, smart, and talented) subscribers on my Ko-Fi!

And if you're thinking "July 17th is kind of a random date, but whatever" then please allow me to explain. There is a conflict among webcomic artists, regarding scheduling. Some insist that you'll be stoned to death if you don't post three pages a week. Others insist that you won't lose a single follower if you only post every couple of years. I did my research. I studied the solutions. I decided that my schedule will be based on the phases of the moon. Individual long-chapters will be split into 3-5 subchapters, each of which will be made public on every new moon and full moon. I may also play around with releasing subchapters on quarter-moons, but those will not be super common. Blue moons will have some extra fun stuff.

More info coming on the 17th! 

|| HAVE A BEAUTIFUL JULY

My fellow soldiers, don't forget to give yourself time to relax. Stop sitting like a shrimp when you draw. Roll your wrists out every now and then.

The rest of you, just be nice to yourselves this month. Find some nice music (I've been getting back into Ice Nine Kills. They're really good.). Treat yourself to some comfort foods. Hit up a thrift store and buy whatever cheap shit makes you happy. Or don't do any of this. I'm not your dad.

Goodnight, y'all. <3

What the hell, it's not the first of the month. What am I doing here. And what's that sound-- 

Ahh!!! It's a bat in my update!! And I think it bit me...

It's that fateful time of the year. Art Fight time. Themes got announced, and boy am I fucking stoked about it. You have no idea how pissed I was when I saw the other options for the theme this year. Fucking. "Stars vs. Nebulae"? You want to have "Baby vs. Nursery" next?? But, fortunately, the masses came to their senses and instead decided to pit the goths against the furries, which will either end in a battle to the death or an event so intimate that I wouldn't dare describe it in words lest I become too flustered to finish this Toyhouse bulletin.

The decision was difficult for me. Sure, I'm a fan of the obvious appeal of large wolf people with soft, warm fur and massive claws. But I'm also an overgrown emo kid with an iron deficiency. In the end, I decided that vampirism is a little more my thing, but if there are any transgender werewolf women reading this, my Discord DMs are open.

A bunch of my character profiles are still works in progress, but you can sort through whatever I do already have up over here.

(Keep in mind, my name on ArtFight this year is Voskhod. Not Hubble, and not Soyuz as it has been previously!)

And if you want me to draw stuff for you, consider filling out my hitlist! It's a good way for me to find active artists with characters I may be interested in.

If you'll be joining in this year, have an awesome fight! If not, I'm not sure why you've read this far, but have a sexy July nonetheless.

Happy Pride to those who celebrate. I personally don't do anything for pride because I'm not in that kind of area, but I'm happy for those of you who do. Have fun out there. But not until you've read my entire monthly update.

|| ATTICUS'S LAME LIFE UPDATES

Boy, have I been busy this past month. Besides my kidneys' continued efforts to steal away the life that this universe has so fairly thrust upon my soul, I've been up to various antics and acts as of late. Here's a sample.

[ IMAGINE THAT THERE IS AN IMAGE OF A VHS TAPE HERE ]

You know why there isn't an image of a tape there? Because I can't show you the tapes that I've purchased this month. Because they're only for adults. That's right, baby. Taxpayer exclusives. The raunchy stuff. Red tapes. (Literally.) I've been purchasing Italian transgender adult film on VHS. And the shells are red. They're sick as hell. And I feel like it's really cool to own something from the early aughts that portrays trans bodies in a beautiful light, rather than playing them off as a joke like most adult media.

I also bought Floral Shoppe by Macintosh Plus on cassette. It'll be here next week. I'm stoked.

Of course, I need to balance out my collections of various defunct physical media formats by touching grass. Or blackberries.

My garden and planters have been doing really well this year! Some of you might know that I have struggled with food insecurity for a long time, and I have ARFID which makes it difficult for me to eat from food banks and community pantries. Having a garden full of foods that I enjoy is awesome, because it's a ton of free, healthy food that I can feel proud of. I've also been focusing a lot on including pollinator-friendly plants this year! I'm currently growing crookneck squash, straightneck squash, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, okra, tomatoes, basil, peppermint, spearmint, cilantro, green onion, chives, iceberg lettuce, lemons, blackberries, strawberries, rosemary, oregano, and lavender. Been looking into growing potatoes and garlic as well if I can get a good setup for them.

I strongly recommend growing your own garden if you've never done so! Even if you don't have a yard, you can get some planters and make do with whatever you do have. My garden has even welcomed a few surprise visitors lately...

This blurry freak is an eastern rat snake, taken at a distance that is entirely normal and not cowardly for a very BRAVE adult man. He was having a good time watching some birds who were trying to pick at my squash plants. He's one of several critters I've had the chance to snap a picture of lately, as I've been really getting into citizen science with apps like iNaturalist. If you love to take pictures of random bugs, mold, animals, plants, and fungi around you, definitely consider dipping your toes in citizen science projects. You will find tons of other bug freaks around you.

Speaking of science...

The Nautilus is currently out! If you're not familiar with them, the E/V Nautilus is a ship which conducts yearly expeditions focused on marine biology, geology, and archaeology. (You may have seen this video of a past expedition team discussing a particularly goofy looking stubby squid.) The entire expedition is live streamed, and they run into a ton of cool underwater critters and structures. Check it out, and consider donating to help keep their program afloat.

|| HORNS OF WAR BLARE ON THE HORIZON

You know what comes after June? July. The month of Art Fight. I fucking hate Art Fight. I'm so excited for it. Look at me.

Contrary to popular belief, I do like to plan for things, and I'm a month ahead for this bad boy. If you'll be fighting your art this year, head over to my hitlist form. Remember: The more bullshit you type, the more I'll remember your submission enough to go back to it. Information dumping is encouraged here.

I'll be on hiatus towards the end of July because I'll be out of my state for some boring airplane stuff, but I do want to try to get my art muscles back into their ol' groove again. Hopefully the feeling of intense obligation to give people free art will help me with that.

|| ANOTHER SAD IMAGE OF MY TABLET BECAUSE I STILL CAN'T BUY A NEW ONE

Tablet shaming because it has been a completely dry month on my Ko-Fi, so this thing isn't going anywhere any time soon.

|| COMMS ARE OPEN

I don't have a cool price graphic this time, but you know how you can help me afford to not have a tablet that looks like I dug it up out of an ancient Sumerian archaeological dig? Buy my art. Look how cool it is:

Art this cool could be yours for the price of whatever you want to pay me. Wait times are kind of long right now (15-20 days for new orders) because I am not a fortunate man these days, but that just gives you extra time to sit around thinking about what a nice picture you are going to receive and how sexy you are for supporting an independent artist in this wacky day and age. Everyone is happy.

|| SNEAK YOUR PEEKS

I've got a handful of personal projects that I've been working on for the past few weeks, and a few are nearing completion. I plan on staggering the actual releases of these so I can have a dependable backlog of fun stuff instead of leaving all my socials on dead air for weeks at a time, but here are a few bits of things I've got in the works.

|| HAVE A COOL JUNE

That's it for this month. Might have a bonus update later on, but I'm just letting life happen at whatever pace it chooses. 

Tell the paramedics everything, plant some blackberries, and watch Technology Connections's video on electric car brake lights. Goodnight.

It's finally May, the month that comes after April. I survived another semester. In an exciting turn of events, it is no longer raining too much for me to fly, but winds have been gusting over 20 kts for the last three days. And the max demonstrated crosswind for the shitbird I rent is 15 kts. (I could demonstrate higher. I have demonstrated higher. But the FAA and the rental guys at the airport aren't as nice to me when I do that.) Anyways, here's whatever I've got going on for May.

|| ATTICUS'S LAME LIFE UPDATES... 2

I am once again attempting to humanize myself by showing you guys all the cool stuff I do when I'm not sitting in my dank cave working tirelessly to make furry art to pay my rent.

Here's a cool skink I saw.

I don't have much skink knowledge, but the internet suggests he is a broadhead skink. He was chilling on the sidewalk outside one of my classes, across from a little garden that my university maintains. Neat guy.

Here's my toy space shuttle being forced to watch the Challenger disaster.

I also have found a bunch of neat tapes recently, including the Apollo 13 documentary shown here. I've also started collecting cassette tapes, which make me really happy because I can get a buttload of music for $1 and I can play it on the go. And they're not being scooped up from thrift stores like vinyls are. (If you buy vinyls from thrift stores and sell them for a profit, I think you should dig a really big hole and then sit there forever.)

It's also planting season. Here's one of my cats being extremely helpful in helping me plant my little garden. I love being able to have my garden running, because I struggle a lot with affording food. Being able to go outside and have free food is awesome. Stick it to the man by planting a little garden.

Lastly, here is a video on pre-contact dogs that I've been thinking about a lot lately. It's wild. There's an immortal dog living on through a contagious tumor. That's pretty cool, I think.

|| I NEED A NEW TABLET AND I'M GOING TO BUY IT WITH YOUR MONEY

As the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and sole employee of Voskhod Art dot neocities dot org, I have to make some difficult decisions from time to time. Lately, our stocks have been in the gutter. ETAs have been out of whack. We're in the red. My drawing tablet looks like absolute dogshit. Look at this thing.

It's bad. I've been using a paper nib for months and I have to have a French copy of JavaFoil open for this thing to even work with Pain Tool SAI, for some fucking reason. 

Point is, we've been running the numbers and we've decided it's in our best interest to increase the product value. I'm making things like $5 more expensive on the Ko-Fi. If that makes you sad, you can use the code 2023MAY10 to get 10% off any commission between now and June 1st.

|| LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE FURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Recently finished up Mercury 2.0's bodysuit! This has been a really exciting project to work on, slow-going as it has been. I will never make another fursuit with stripes ever again, though. I have never been so tired of sewing stripes.

Speaking of fursuits...

|| LET'S SEE PAUL ALLEN'S FURSUIT TAIL SEWING PATTERN

I've got some cool fursuit-related stuff coming over to the Ko-Fi once I finish up my current commission batch. No guarantees because I don't have these all 100% completed at the time I'm writing this and I may easily be struck down by a meteor at any given moment, but currently in the works are...

• Feetpaw Pattern (from Mercury 2.0)
• Slim Handpaw Pattern (from Mercury 1.0)
  
• Feral Handpaw Pattern
• Puffy Handpaw Pattern
  
• Various Tail Patterns & Tutorials
• Fursuit Eye 3D Model Making Tutorial
  
• Faux Fur Sewing Guide
• Paw Pad Applique Tutorial
  
• Printable Fursuit Eyes

|| I'M TUMBLING

I have Tumblr. Don't forget that I have Tumblr. I post things there like every day to prove I'm alive. Hell, I post my teeth over there. People have been really getting into this post about my teeth. You should follow my Tumblr, if you like to see my teeth.

|| THESE PEOPLE GET FREE ART

Thank you to ny'all who entered my art raffle. Especially those of you who don't sit on FurAffinity for 20 hours every day entering every art raffle you see. Those people kind of scared me a little bit. Winners are up over here.

|| TRANS RIGHTS & GOODNIGHT

Got a lot going on this month, but I'm happy to be free of classes for a few months. Still, I'm stuck in South Carolina, and as I discussed last month, trans rights aren't doing so hot here. Keep the South on your radar in the next few months, because we're fighting some rough battles to keep trans people alive down here.

That's all for now. Be nice to yourself, synthesize hormones in your kitchen, and stop buying all the fucking records at my local thrift stores. Goodnight.