ELFENDR

❆ BLOG ❆

07/07/2024

to honor the BEAUTIFUL gorgeous music my friend El made me, i redid my whole "webmaster" section and turned it into its own page just so i could feature the music there!!
i was thinking that little box in the upper right on the main page was way too small for how much i was typing in it, anyways, so it was overdue for a rehaul. that little box is now just used to host my site button (and the link to my webmaster page, of course!)

i highly recommend you check out the new page and maybe just sit there. and listen to the music. it really is gorgeous and El is so talented!! you should check them out if you have the time and interest.

05/22/2024

adjusted a few things on my site, mostly regarding faq and byf page...
i've been wanting to change the link of the byf to "/byf" and not "/blacklist" for a while because the page has since changed its purpose to.. well... being a general dni/byf page and not a blacklist page over the years and the link felt a bit misleading...
other than that i just simplified things and got rid of extra information that generally was just me overexplaining and giving too many details about things no one cares about (lol). i usually end up overexplaining things like personal boundaries because in the past i've had a lot of people be really disrespectful about them. so i figure those who will respect my boundaries will do so and those who dont just need to be avoided and that's that... no need to overexplain my boundaries and justify myself all the time.
plus i have this blog section here that i can ramble in anyways (lol)

04/16/2024

i got verified on vgen recently and i just wanted to say thank u so much to u guys for commissioning me and helping me get verified...
even if i didnt get verified i get very giddy whenever you guys leave a nice review and let me know how much you liked your commission T_T!!!
thank you as well for sticking with me through the move over to taking comms on vgen, the site really helps a ton with the process and makes things a bit easier for me as i can get really scatterbrained really easily if i'm overwhelmed!
thank u guys again i am so grateful for the support!!

10/26/2023

Rest in peace, Atsushi Sakurai, 1966-2023

I found this out the day-of his announced death, but it did take me a bit to process. His voice and music was part of my childhood, and I've continued to admire him and enjoy his music to this day. It was genuinely heartbreaking, especially when he died so young.
It was also shocking because I was talking about him and BUCK-TICK a mere few days before his death. It pains me that, while it was probably unlikely I would ever be able to see a live performance, I'll now never get the chance at all.
I can only hope that he passed as peacefully and painlessly as possible and that his friends and family will be well.
He will be missed, but never forgotten.

10/12/2023

New site header image! I've been meaning to update it and honestly expected to just draw one myself.... but with surgery and just generally being tired and unmotivated and blah blah blah, I ended up commissioning the wonderful Val for some art instead!
I really suggest you go check him out!! His art and designs are really great and pleasing to the eye... whenever I get art pieces from him I always want to plaster it wherever I can.

09/26/2023

To be honest, I never thought I'd do it (because I get a little lost with these types of things), but I reformatted my terms of service for my art and designs. I was relatively iffy with how it was before, because the formatting was so everywhere to me... and while I tried to use colours to try and make things easier to read, I think it ended up being difficult to read anyways.
It's a much simpler format now! I hope it's still legible.
I also added a commercial use section specifically for my art commissions (not my designs, as I'm still uncomfortable with the idea of my designs being used commercially).

On another note ummm... I am finally getting surgery tomorrow... wish me luck!! I've only gotten surgery one other time in my life before so going under the knife is still kind of scary to me. It's a long drive to the hospital too, so I hope I don't stew in anxiety while I'm in the car (lol)

09/19/2023

Added some things to my nostalgia page again!!
Does anyone remember MMVs (MapleStory MVs) and like animated MapleStory series??? I put one or two on there...
It makes me SO SO SO sad remembering how the bannedstory site got nuked and essentially destroyed a whole entire community of MapleStory animators because after that, there was just no real, good alternative. I miss that stuff..

09/16/2023

(Throwing confetti) I have successfully replaced all my old music!
Through browsing my site you probably noticed some remnants of my old code through the form of the old music I was using... which was intentionally chosen to be very underwater-themed. Obviously, my site is very much not themed that way anymore, so I had planned to eventually get around to replacing it all with different songs!

Additionally, there is a credits section on the resources page, which credits to the music used on this site, and any artwork I'm using on here.
Honestly, the artwork section might become relatively useless later on if I end up replacing all the art on here with my own... which, the only art left on here that isn't my work is the site header.
EITHER WAY! That's all there now, and it'll help me remember the songs I put on my site for myself too, because I'm terrible at naming music files for some reason. (lol)

09/11/2023

There's a new page on my site!
You can go take a peek here.
There are two types of resources on there: Actual site resources and generators, and then the nostalgia train ride section!
The latter will be loaded with stuff that I grew up with on the internet as I find it! I always find it kind of sad that a bunch of stuff I used to enjoy as a kid is deleted, privated, etc. nowadays, so I'm on a mission to slowly find it all again.
I hope you all can enjoy it with me!

09/10/2023

I finally remembered what that one TTS is called (it's Yukkuri)!!
Figured I'd use it to put a little greeting audio on my site. I've seen them on others' sites and I thought it was really cute, but I wasn't able to figure out what I should do for my site for the longest time
When I remembered this I just decided to do a regular "welcome home" message. It sounds silly but that's the point (lol)

Also, I'm making a new mascot... at the very least for the sake of this site. I designed him to purposefully be more 2000s anime inspired!
Over time... eventually... (fighting through art block) I will make new graphics of him to plaster all over the site.

08/07/2023

A rant about AI adopts... hmmm
AI art in general makes me exhausted to think about. Apparently deviantART (and I don't doubt other sites) are becoming rampant with "AI adoptables" and I think you all know my stance on AI "art." It's simply not art! It's made off of stolen artwork. I hate it. I hate anyone that uses AI to generate "art." I think I've made all that pretty clear with my DNIs and warnings and whatnot.

What I really wanted to mention was this growing trend of "stealing AI adoptables." While personally I wouldn't do it myself, and I feel iffy about it since, again, it's made off of stolen work, if you "steal" an AI adopt and use it for your own, that's your own thing... it's kind of a grey-area.
However, I feel like what you shouldn't be doing is then reselling those after you "steal" them- Again, it's made off of stolen work... and not only that, but you're trampling all over adoptable artists who put actual time and thought into designing original adopt designs from scratch. It just doesn't sound that much different than just using AI yourself... Part of what makes art, art (and designs, designs) is not only the process and the work, but also the thought, the feeling, the creativity, the imagination, etc... you know? I feel like going through that process of taking over and over from generated stuff will stunt your own creativity too.
Now this is just my blog and like... I really can't tell anyone what to do and not to do. This is just my piece, I suppose! I had to get it out somewhere. Ultimately some people will keep doing it, and some people may realize "wait, this isn't quite right."
All I really hope is that things get better for us human artists in the end.

02/18/2023

Yippee!!! Mobile functionality!!
Thanks to my friend Min, this site now works properly on mobile!! Everything got swapped over to bootstrap instead, so the layout should look a little cleaner now, too.
(They're very smart and good at coding. I suggest you check it out!!)

02/17/2023

I think I'm finally done with this thing!! I'm sure the code is messy as all hell, but I'm honestly just glad it's functional and doesn't look half bad. It's always kind of weird having to relearn code every time I want to do something new. I was way too scared to use CSS thoroughly on my other site, and I think I'm starting to get used to it now.
Also, let's not talk about the time it took me to complete this. I'm by no means a fast coder... I just ended up irresponsibly not taking proper breaks and spent all day on it. It's a bad habit of mine to get working on something and refuse to take a break from it until I'm done.
Now that its all finally done, I'm going to go rest (lol).

02/16/2023

Going to redo this site, finally... It's going to be a doozey to do what I want to do. Wish me luck! Also new "update log" box. I've been wanting one (or a blog box) for a while.
I've generally just been unhappy with the layout that I've had (which is natural, because it's basically the same code I cobbled together back when I opened the site), and I've changed my general theming to be more snowy since December of last year. I don't know, I think winter came so abnormally late that I realized I really love it.

06/13/2020

Site creation date.