Macro May

Hello everyone!

Now, if you were here back in March, you might be thinking... huh, that banner up there feels kind of familiar. But you'd be wrong, because March was Micro March...

... wait, you're telling me that March is usually Macro March? And that May is usually Micro May? And that I should have done this the other way around? Aww, geez... well, it's too late to go back on it now. Or is it? I could head back to March, edit the banner there and change it to Macro March, zip back here and change this to Micro May, get everything where it should be...

... I'm joking, of course, but I genuinely contemplated doing this. Then I realized that it doesn't matter all that much because this is just a silly name for a beginning-of-the-month post and it has no real bearing on anything at all. Despite this, part of me still wants to go back and make the change. Silly, ain't it?

I'll push forward instead though and focus on the thing that is actually important here: which is filling all of you lovely folks in on what's going on this month! So let's get on with that, shall we?

I'll start things off with a health update since I spent a lot of last month at the doctor's trying to figure out a medical malady. If you're only interested in the upcoming content, feel free to skip this: it's just a few paragraphs of me talking about all the health stuff.

I've gone over it before, but just in case you're not in the loop here's a brief version: over the past few months (January onwards) I've been having these weird bouts of dizziness and nausea that are pretty crippling, as in, the dizziness is intense enough to send me to the floor and the nausea is bad enough to make me do... well, the thing that nausea usually makes you do when it's bad. These got particularly intense in March, so I finally decided to whisk myself off to the doctor instead of hoping it would all just go away.

Which takes us to April and all of the doctor's appointments. In these, the doctor's identified a couple of crucial things:

• My blood glucose levels were extremely low: low enough that they were the most likely reason as to why I was having dizzy spells and such. The primary reason for my glucose being low is that I really, really don't eat enough. More on this in a little bit.

• My Vitamin D is also extremely low. Like, nonexistent low. Like, apparently the lowest that the doctor has ever seen. This isn't relevant to the dizzy spells or nausea, but it was one of the chief concerns. Again, more on this one in a little bit.

• Another explanation for the dizzy spells could be related to my inner ear, specifically on the left side, which is prone to getting infections a few times a year. This could also be contributing to the dizzy spells/nausea: the doctor did explain it to me in medical terms, but I've forgotten, so the basics is that could be related to some crystals that apparently exist in there or something like that. Sorry, I'm not a doctor. The reason most of the information on this has fallen out of my brain is because the doctors are leaning more toward it being a glucose thing than that after some more tests.

So what the problem essentially boils down to is that I haven't been taking care of myself enough. I've mentioned before in previous posts that I've not been doing the best at looking after myself this year. Several good habits that I had last year like a decent diet, gym visits, and regular outside exploration have kind of fallen off. The test results (and the sickness) really line up with this.

I have really barely been eating and I have been using my ADHD medication (a stimulant) as something of a crutch to keep myself going forward without even really realizing it. As a stimulant, it suppresses your appetite, so I've been taking my stimulant after breakfast and then just... chugging through the day until suddenly it's 6PM and I'm starving. I've only been eating like two meals a day and I've barely even realised I've been doing it.

All of this has been something of a wake up call for me, obviously. I was already thinking that I needed to start going to the gym, going for the occasional hike, and eating decent food again, but I've been putting it off for weeks and months because I've wanted to focus on my work as much as possible.

The thing is, though, is that I've been having a lot of issues in focusing on said work this year. Not just the dizzy spells, but... issues with motivation, concentration lapses, difficulty sticking to a schedule... the list goes on. I assumed that this was some kind of writer's block - something I just needed to barrel through, that's my usual tactic - but my assumption was incorrect. The reason I've had difficulty focusing is because I have not been taking care of my body, and my body, and by extension my mind, cannot focus if it is not taken care of. Or something like that.

So, what's the solution? Luckily that's easy. Start taking care of myself. Eat three square meals a day, hit up the gym, make sure I go for a few walks and soak up some sunshine. Hang with some friends every once in a while, you know? Find a good work/life balance, or something like that.

I've been doing this for the past couple of weeks and I can say that it's had a positive effect on both my mind and my body, physically and creatively. I haven't had a dizzy spell since I've started keeping an eye on my diet, and rather than feeling overwhelmed by my writing I've been feeling comfortable, content, and truly happy to write once again.

I can't say that everything is going to be perfect and swell. It really hasn't been long enough to be sure that this isn't some kind of placebo effect, and I don't want to test my luck by being too sure on it. However, what I can say pretty comfortably is that, for now, the issue is resolved and I'm moving forward with my life in a much more positive and healthy way.

If anything changes, I'll keep everyone updated! For now, though? We're back to business!

What business is that? Making macro/micro content for everyone to enjoy, of course! So... why don't we get into that a little bit?

 Just like most every month on here, there will be a preview build of A Tiny Furry In A Huge World Plus coming at the end of May!

This month, I am going to be focusing mostly on getting the game into as close of a state of completion as possible. This doesn't mean that it will be complete this month - I'll likely be putting the finishing touches on it in June - but it does mean that it will be getting there.

At the very least, you have this to look forward to:

• A handful of new scenes with Zoey the hyena, Annabelle the cheetah, and Coco the magpie in the gym area! Most of these will be macro/micro bad ends - y'know, vore stuff, steppies, maybe some body entrapment - but I'm also aiming to have this route's 'peaceful' ending added. Peaceful in quotation marks because it's a bit of a weird one? You'll see, you'll see...

• There are a few missing room descriptions/object descriptions/transitions currently: mostly in the weight lifting area, but a couple in the treadmill section too. These will be wrote and added to the game, making the gym area feel much more complete. I also plan on adding an 'official' entrance to it in the actual main body of the school, rather than it just being a main menu thing.

• I'm behind on the Patreon bonus scenes, so I'll be doing my best to get caught up on these. There's a long-awaited ending with Ms. Matthews, as well as an exercise bike scene that involves you getting stuck to the seat while people, y'know, work out on top of you. There's also the matter of Oscar's scene, but since I screwed up the polls, this will be materialising next month.

• Possibly, maybe, all going well, I'll also have Aimee Mode mostly fleshed out and finished. This might end up being more of a June thing, but there will be some content added to this predator-based game mode at the very least.

All in all, should be a pretty chunky update! The medical stuff pushed me back a little, but I would really, really like to get the final version of v1.3 out on here by the end of June, so I want to do my best to make sure that happens. Without turning myself into a gremlin who is critically low on sustenance and Vitamin D!

I'll be posting a couple of these up this month! I have a few commissions in the queue that I'll be working through alongside game stuff, and I'll be posting them up here as soon as they're ready to be read.

I don't want to go into more detail than that and make a huge bunch of promises like - "there'll be fifteen stories this month" - because in the interest of that whole work life balance thing I won't be driving myself insane with a hundred projects all at once - but they will be coming because there are at least two I'd like to get finished up and posted this month in the interests of keeping my queue nice and stable.

When I've completed the game update - again, hopefully by the end of June - I'll be going back to being more specific about what's coming in terms of stories. Until that's all done, though, I'm just going to say what I've already said... which is a vague stories this month for sure, keep an eye out for 'em.

So, expect at least a couple of stories to be peppered in throughout May! I won't tell you what they're about, but what I will say is that they're pretty juicy. Look forward to 'em!

If you don't know already, I planned and scheduled Part Two of last month's poll to be posted in the final week of the month, but for some reason Patreon decided that it didn't want to post it. For this reason, I'll be posting part two of April's poll - concerning what kinda scene Oscar the lovely otter is going to have in the gym - up tomorrow, or, on Sunday 5th of May if you want me to be all official about it.

On the Sunday afterward - or, the 12th of May - I'll be posting the first part of the poll for this month's bonus scene. Then, the Sunday following that - or, the 19th of May - I'll be posting the second part of that poll. Then we'll be done with polls!

The reason I've got solid dates for these - normally I'm just like, yeah, polls are coming - is because to avoid them not being posted I've made them an official part of my schedule now, meaning that I'll just make sure that they're posted on that day. I've also decided that polls are a Sunday sorta job for some reason. Dunno why. Sunday funday, maybe?

Anyway, yeah! There will be polls. Almost every Sunday of this month. They'll last for a full seven days though - as usual - so there will be plenty of time to vote in.

The beginning of the month post is now over!

I hope you're all having a lovely Saturday. I'll see you all tomorrow with a poll!