krigl

Hi there, just popping in to wish people a great Christmas.

Haven't been active lately - first, spent too much time on fractals and strained my eyes (one of the reasons I stopped 7 years ago, it's hard on the eyes), then started a long Warhammer II campaign, and then Christmas preparations + late-year tiredness hit. I'll be back fairly soon, with any luck.

Until then, I wish everyone a wonderful holiday period and, if I don't get back in for the next week, a very Happy New Year as well : )

Hi there... after 7 years away, I've come back, having forgotten everything I've ever learned about fractal making, but ready to do heroic battle once again for the third or fourth time now with various tutorials, tips and parameters in the hope of regaining lost skills... such as they were.

(Cool Elric - the Eternal Champion image by IsraLlona on DA)

I'm sorry to have just vanished like that, but I never planned to. Too much work, basically, and my children reached an age where we can enjoy games together. And, I got older. Checking texts on the computer all the time for my job + manipulating fractals was killing my eyes, and going to bed at 2pm every night was killing everything else. I always planned to return after a bit, but eventually just got used to not being on DA, and doing other things.

As with a lot of people, COVID had a big impact on me. A good impact. The crisis + a few other good and bad events resulted in me having far less work and actually being able to have evenings off, and even weekends off - something I've not known outside holiday periods since around 2008. After 14 or so exhausting, stressful years, I feel like I've retired, even though I still work around 35 hours a week. Finally I have the time and energy to be creative again. I hope it lasts...

Returning to DA after 7 years, I can see a lot has changed. Many people have left. Some people I 'knew' or occasionally exchanged words with online have tragically even died - Muzski, Aegiandyad, holymacro - and I haven't gone through everything yet, there may be more. So very sad. The 'Eclipse' interface is horrible. There's more emphasis than ever on monetisation and watermarking at the site. But... there are still a lot of familiar faces, still a lot of great fractals and other art being made. Hopefully DA will come to be a second home once again.

Well, looking forward to seeing what people have been getting up to over the last few years!

Cheers

Krigl