ChainChomp2

900+ new deviations, 700+ bits of user activity, some amount of comments and notes in my notifications later replied back to, as well as those on Soarin-FC...

I couldn't possibly tell you the reasoning behind this (whether I've forgotten or something else), but after a long hiatus following my post-BronyCon 2018 journal from that August, I've logged back into this account to dump a modest amount of works that were sitting between my sta.sh and PC, which I may or may not have only sent to my Twitter to get buried under everything else I send there.  (Yes, I've still been making vectors, but not as much, and mostly as personal projects for conventions or for VIPs, like this Thunderlane one that I shared before my hiatus, or personal projects for friends.)

Might be ironic, actually. For a time (probably when I was gifted what was then-called Premium by a very close and supportive friend), I used the Twitter widget on my profile which drove me to start using my then-dormant Twitter account so that there'd be something to populate it. Come 2017 and 2018, I'd slowly section a greater proportion of my time and activity to Twitter and I'd slowly go on DeviantArt or my prior Facebook page platform less and less, the latter of which had honestly become clunky or had fewer functions especially on mobile.

...Basically DA's Twitter profile widget had drove me to be more active on Twitter, which eventually grew to the point it had dominated my activity in general.  

Aside from things that were already happening (like class, or connecting with the friends where contact was maintained, or traveling frequently), over the past two years I've been meeting a lot of people that were in the Brony fandom and made new friends of them, a lot of which effectively filled in the void left by those who'd moved onto other things or otherwise drifted away. (I've said that one a lot lately actually...) This grew where'd I connect with them well enough that we'd meet up in real-life, whether at conventions or even travel to them together (though to be fair I've done the latter with at least one friend before this), they'd happen to visit my city, or I'd visit theirs on one of my vacation periods. Honestly happened a lot faster, or over a shorter time, and at a larger scale than it ever did before I started using Twitter more.

This effectively continued in a way into 2019, capping off with the final BronyCon event. Over the years I've traveled to this con, this was the first time I had shared a hotel room entirely with a group of friends, and longtime friends at that, as most of the time I'd have maybe a couple friends and anyone else scrambling to split a room, or I'd go to cons and meet a few people I knew at most. I even had one person on Saturday recognize the name on my BronyCon admission badge, say he knew me as "the vector artist guy" and cite a bunch of my old antics as "Crescent Moon" and that I'm the reason he "knows the trivia that tells the difference between Crescent Moon and Doctor Whooves", and honestly it was such a throwback that I was surprised anyone was still aware of in 2019, let alone would also run into me and tell me in-person that I proceeded to gush and spill my guts on him for a few minutes that I had to take selfie together to cherish the moment. I simply never thought despite all the people who had gone to BronyCon that year, that I'd meet anyone familiar with my little niche of fandom activity from previous years. With respect to privacy though I've never flat-out shared the photo unless the person comes forward, but just that his badge name had "Cino" written on it. I saw him again during the chaos that was closing ceremonies and that was nice too. All-around though, the final BronyCon was a blast and I'm happy that I was able to not only meet so many new faces and rekindle with old ones, but also experience it together with friends who made it a point to attend the last one.

In the meantime, with the friends that I'd met or connected with having their own MLP OCs, during this period I was more and more inclined to eventually have one, but largely kept putting it off. I might've doodled a concept drawing on my phone using its touchpen in early 2018, but it was mostly on the backburner for nearly two years, initially until BronyCon 2019 happened and I was further convinced and in the mood to have one for myself thanks to some friends (and one in particular) egging me about it in the good way. Aside from things entirely my fault, the prospect of designing and having to develop everything that goes into a crystal pony character seemed daunting.

Of course, I proceeded to get busy with non-pony things for the few months remaining that year (and in this time, the current generation of MLP as we knew it concluded as an animated series...as well as revisiting London during my Thanksgiving break, where during part of it I revisited brony friends I knew from Twitter who lived in the area/met in real-life the year before, as well as a few more during one of their weekly Friday meets. A few had planned to attend the coming BABSCon in 2020, but, well...), and it wasn't until January that I'd actually done a vector, despite having the name and ideas for the OC down since the August before.

But eventually, my OC did become a thing:


As I've written in its description (with a bunch of things in it repurposed to this journal), it's mostly just a character to represent myself even after using Crescent as my avatar from a very early time. This is because a lot of my other friends who used background ponies as their avatar are no longer around, while the friends that I still have nowadays have OCs, and it never seemed to feel right mixing canon characters with OCs to represent personal connections or friendships.

Even though things on the huge textbox that is my profile about whether I'll draw OCs or if I even have an OC are now obviously outdated, it'll be a bit longer before I update them, so just have this journal and statement for now.

In the meantime, I made a separate Twitter account for this OC that's less for RPs like you'd think but more for dumping vectors onto, since I tweet too much non-vector stuff on my main account that it'll just get cluttered for anyone following it for art. I can't promise I'll be dumping a lot of stuff there or be productive as I have been in the past on this account, but the current world affairs and situation has given me some more leisure time to do pretty much whatever.

And now that I am logging onto this site more, keeping up with Soarin-FC's user-submissions can resume. Apparently, to some people that's important.

It's nice to be back?  It sure felt nice to finally dump a bunch of things here. 


Listening to: Smash Bros. Ultimate Soundtrack & The Magic of Friendship Grows

Playing: Not enough things, apparently!

Watching: Beastars

Eating: Frozen stuff during COVID-19 lockdown

Drinking: Pineapple juice


...I guess if you write journals through Sta.shWriter you don't get access to journal moods, but do if you write journals straight from your profile's Journal tab?

As much as I'm behind on this, it'd be one of many things I'm behind on, honestly (like coming back here and going through my notifications, while having to get used to un-Stylish DA).  Though evidently, it doesn't appear my new university life has affected my travel outings, though it may or may not have affected my production output, if that was even a thing. 

For last year's BronyCon, I wasn't incentivized to go until I won full-fare roundtrip vouchers, and I'd like to think I made the most of those.

For this year's BronyCon, it was someone who was going last year but didn't, and was planning to go this year (and didn't)...along with miles and compensation credit I'd amassed over the past year, cutting travel expenses by $175, more or less. For comparison, a one-way flight (of the same class and value for what you pay) from the US west coast to the east coast (or vice versa) typically costs more than what my round trip ended up being, especially in the middle of summer. But either way, I'm going yet again this year and my flight out departs within 5 hours of the posting of this journal.  

In the meantime, I'm actually going with JackDC93 and kitkatyj, who coincidentally already had plans to visit my home city before we'd ended up arranging a go-together. 

But unlike past years, I'm not exactly prepared with anything for autographing, even with the guests the con has announced with the past couple of months. If anything it's that I'm waiting for Rebecca Shoichet's appearance at the coming BABS 2019 (a local-to-me shindig) since one particular item still awaits her touch.

Just like last year however, the week after BronyCon I'm visiting the NYC area, since I still know people there and there're things I never got around to during my previous outing. 

All that aside, I doubt I'll get another vector out by the end of July (unless I vector on my flight, like last year), so here's something that I forgot I had sitting around after being bogged down in random things. 

It's only fitting I have a follow-up journal since I wrote about going off to BronyCon a week and thensome ago. As the title says, I'm back from BronyCon! You must be thinking though, "But Chomp/Ryan/Whateveryoucallme, BronyCon ended last week!" in which you'd be right. That's because the next morning following BronyCon I went up to NJ/NYC to spend the rest of the week staying with or visiting some friends, as well as spend whatever savings I had left on my travels! In that I didn't actually get back home until this past Saturday morning (which would have been Friday night, if not for a nearly four-hour weather delay on my return flight that pushed it into the the very early hours of Saturday ).

But honestly? For me, this was my best convention experience yet, which I hadn't really felt anything similar since my first two conventions those years ago, being Everfree Northwest 2013 and BABSCon 2014. Definitely felt a lot more...accomplished and fulfilled, even if that mostly came from being able to meet more people in real-life that I've only ever spoken with online previously, since in previous conventions I felt a lot more alone and without people I already knew. That said, there's nothing wrong with conversing with strangers (I encourage this to anyone comfortable really, personally I had my communication badge set to "Green" for the entirety of the convention and have that attitude through most of them), 'course, it had its own set of struggles which I'd rather twist or interpret as thrills.

First things first, that print that I keep bringing up and make such a big deal out of whenever I mention it? Something that would seem of great importance from all the emphasis? The best bonus as part of going to BronyCon this year?  (Because I was always going to go when a certain helping of flight vouchers was only good for 2017.)
(If you follow me in at least one other social platform, you've read these embellishments in a paraphrased form already.)

I left it at home when I went off to the airport. Eeyup. 

All was not lost, though! Initially, my first idea involved printing another copy in Baltimore (as I've done it before) since I had the file in the cloud, even though the original copy already had two autographs on it. I'd played with the idea of having two prints but the other would be impersonal and I'd probably donate it to a charity auction or something, as the "original" has the two current autographs written to my name, and thus tied to me. After some more-reasonable thinking time I figured such was just an idea that came from panic, which was kinda true.

My next idea involved possibly having the print mailed from my house (I have a bunch of recycled packing material in my room be it boxes or poster tubes because I buy, order, and send stuff all the time) to the hotel I was staying at. Since I had over an hour to burn before my departing flight, after a short Google all I had to do was call the hotel and ask about how I'd arrange such a thing. At the hotel (the Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yards, across from the Hilton Baltimore), all you really have to do is write "registered guest" next to your name as the addressee but put the hotel's address as the receiver. Since it was Thursday and two days away (Saturday) was still in the duration of the convention, it was a possibility using USPS Priority Mail that it'd get there in time (the cheaper First Class service could've worked too, but wasn't worth the risk). If it didn't, which I'd find out by Saturday evening, there was still my original backup plan of printing it in Baltimore and getting it signed that Sunday.

Someone had the mail it of course, that person being my older brother who happened to be staying home for enough hours that day. Just had to call in a favor and by the time I arrived in Baltimore, I had a tracking number for the sent shipment.

In the meantime, I enjoyed the convention as much as I could whether that came from buying merch, going to panels (can never go wrong with unreleased insider information), or meeting up with some folks that I'd never seen before (like I already wrote ).


I also got this sketch from Andy Price, increasing my backlog from two headsketches to three (I still haven't digitized the two of Sunburst and Twilight Sky that I got at the last two BABSCons). But for the rest of Friday we had the privilege of having a thunderstorm, relegating me to splurge on a pizza from within the convention center rather than eating out like I'd originally planned. Instead of going to BronyPalooza though, I went to some late-evening/night panels like "How to Draw Ponies" or the Anthology 6 premiere. Another perk that I don't quite have at BABSCon is that when going to BronyCon I room within walking distance from the venue, so going to panels that end at 1 or 2 in the morning is totally feasible. 

Saturday was a lot like Friday in that I did a lot of the same things whether that was aimlessly wander the vending hall, take care of vending business for friends that couldn't come, or just go to more panels (like the VA anime dubbing panel, Reviewing/Analyzing MLP Live, Lip Syncing Battles, or the Derpibooru panel at 1 AM). At least, other than when I got a tracking text on my phone that the package containing my print arrived at my hotel that afternoon. Once I retrieved it I went to the PABS panel that another friend was also going to, which ended about 15 minutes before Brian Drummond's autograph session was finished for the day.

But that's where it got better, before I even got Brian Drummond's autograph. The only person in front of me turned out to be one of my watchers (or so he said), after I noticed a sheet of paper that had these among them:
 (and a shoutout to my buddy VectorizedUnicorn's  )

Because it's been just over a year since my last DA journal, and I should write about more positive developments rather than simply just rants.  

After not attending last year's BronyCon (Olympic Trials in the next city over was the same weekend, and I was planning on waiting until 2017 at the earliest at the chance for more of my friends to be able to attend), I'm returning this year as a regular attendee after last coming to Baltimore for BronyCon 2015, and then staffing the last two BABSCons.   

The reason for this was entirely luck though; it started when my airline of choice that I happened to have frequent flier status on was sold off, before they held some sweepstakes for roundtrip tickets amongst other free goodies because they don't want you to convert your loyalty to a competitor with California being a bloodbath when it comes to airline competition. These included 10,000 miles under the to-be-combined loyalty program (which would've been good enough for an award trip between my home city and Seattle for Everfree Northwest if it fell into my schedule like when it still took place in July), or effectively 20% off a transcon roundtrip for something like BronyCon. The thing is, even that wouldn't have been enough to convince me to shell out to come attend this year since said friends, who might've told me two years ago that they'd come in two years, ended up not coming or changing to another fandom.

I suppose that's where the free roundtrip vouchers came in, which I wasn't even sure about until I actually received the envelope containing them (you have to get a notarized signature and other business, apparently I was only the second time the Notary at UPS had notarized a signature in her career). One of the added perks is that not only is it free, but also fully-flexible; since I took the opportunity to plan spending a few more days on the east coast after BronyCon finishes to visit and stay with some friends/extended relatives in NJ/NYC, it involved having to push my return flight back home two or three times, thankfully at no extra cost and being free to choose specific seats normally at a premium. These are things I wouldn't have the same kind of flexibility with a standard, lowest-cost ticket. That said, there wouldn't be any other places I'd want to vacation off to or use the vouchers for since I just took a long vacation with family this past May/June anyway.

So I guess this is why I'll actually, er, have an excuse for being too busy to make pony vectors (because up until now, I've just been lazy). This past weekend for instance I had all the time in the world but I was distracted doing other spontaneous projects.  

I did finish this a few days ago though , may as well show it off early before I do the other half during some undetermined time in the future:



All that aside...

This BronyCon will be the first time since BABSCon 2015 that I'll attend a convention where even just one of the VAs of these ponies is a VIP guest:



Namely Brian Drummond. A year after I made those four, I added these two:



and then had a single print personally made, which so far, only Kelly Sheridan and Josh Haber have autographed. Thus, this convention I can add an autograph to it for the first time since April 2016.

Kelly in particular will be going to four conventions in a row that I'm attending/previously attended counting this upcoming one, five if you include the upcoming BABSCon 2018. Still need three autographs for VAs of four other ponies on the thing, though.

If it'll be anything like BABSCon, I hope to meet as many new people as possible again or see those that came to BABSCon this year from out of state again who are also going to BronyCon. And it'll be a nice bonus to be a paying attendee without the duties that come with being staff, even if staffing has perks of its own.  That's even before seeing some very-longtime friends for the first time in the days following it. 

Really though, I see this as my last opportunity to party out before I actually start university less than a week after I come back home and resign myself to upper-college priorities (while somehow subsequently being more productive MLP vector-wise during college where any free time is subconsciously more valuable to me, if previous semesters are any indication. )

Maybe I'll see any of you this weekend? Well, whether that happens or not or if you're even doing something special or something you enjoy, I hope you have a nice week!