Between the last news post and this one, I haven't really done much, have I? I keep saying I'm going to create and upload all of this wonderful stuff, but it's been almost a month since I've created this account, and I still only have a single piece of art to my name. Why is that?

Long story short, I've had a lot of depression and apathy lately. For the past couple of weeks, I've been either playing games, watching YouTube, aimlessly browsing Newgrounds and wondering what I actually want to do on the internet, to no avail. My personal lifestyle had also taken a hit, although I don't wish to go into detail on this post.

But don't worry - I'm doing better now. I have a better idea of the direction I want to take with my online presence, I have the biggest creative drive I've had recently, and my lifestyle's been improving a lot too. For the first time in a while, I think I actually know what I want to do and where I want to go, at least in the short-term. The goal of this news post is to give anyone reading an update into what I've done since the last post, and what I hope to do in the near future.

So first of all, my slime character. Yes, I know, I talk about him a lot, but I do have some new stuff to share.

I haven't really stated this in my previous post (or anywhere else for that matter), but I had been having a lot of trouble coming up with a name for him. Yes, even after I said he would be called Sprout. I couldn't come to a conclusion as to whether or not that would be the right name for him, and that put me in a sort of mental limbo, where he kind of had a name, but also didn't. However, earlier today I got the opportunity to throw some ideas around with my mother of all people (who has a passing interest in creative writing). Not only has this brainstorming session unlocked a ton of new worldbuilding ideas I didn't even think about, it's led me to finally decide, once and for all, that I truly do want to name this character Sprout. This probably wouldn't mean anything to the average person reading this, but it's a pretty sizeable weight that's just been lifted off of my shoulders.

However, as Sprout gains more of an identity and world of his own, I feel it would be inappropriate to use him as a generic online representation of myself. Therefore, my whole 'slime' branding that I'm using right now will eventually be phased out and replaced with something different that I can use more as a generic persona and brand, although I don't know what that will be yet. I like to archive pointless stuff like this, so here's my profile with the slime branding before it gets changed:

As for what I'm going to do in the future... I have some ideas. I've learnt a couple important lessons since my last post. The first is to not think too far into the future, and instead focus on what you're going to do in the present. It's fine to have a long-term goal (I have one myself), but don't attempt to plan out every little minuscule detail of your journey towards that goal. Some things are going to change, and they may not turn out to be the way you expected them to. It's better to focus on ideas you have now, and see where things go from there. The second lesson is to not tell people you're going to do something (especially in a news post like this) unless you're absolutely sure that's what you want to do. It doesn't matter a whole lot for me now, since I have basically no following, but I still don't want to be the kind of person who constantly makes promises and changes, only to retract on them mere days later. Therefore, this will be my new policy for this blog - I won't say I'm going to do something until I'm absolutely, positively, 100% sure that's what I really want to do. It sounds simple, but it's a lesson I still needed to learn. Going back to these ideas for the future, I reckon it's better to not say what they are until I actually make something out of them. I mean, they could change at any time, right?

Well, that's it for now. Who knows where this newfound creative drive will take me? I certainly don't. I now have a month's worth of Supporter, so hopefully that will give me some motivation to be more active before that runs out. Anyway, slime ya later.

(I'm going to have to change that outro, aren't I?)