Just a bit worried

I talked to Eclipse and he said this is the usual time of a lawl in activity. Basically because we lose a lot of people to finals and other college stuff. Then after all tests are taken and they go on summer vacation, activity spikes.

It makes sense to me. I was a bit worried myself, but I can understand. Gotta do RL first.. then SWAG.

I have a confession. I've been actively avoiding SWAG for months now, not because I'm bored or hate the site, but because I feel guilty.

I've become so busy, like I've never been in my life. I just finished my MA thesis, and I'm graduating (three more papers due this week and I'm done with my MA!). I'm going to a PhD program on the east coast in the fall, so this summer I'm just trying to figure out how to get enough money to relocate across country. I won't have time for a full-time job, but I'm up to my eyeballs in freelance work (thanks in large part to Hisham, who is ALSO really busy illustrating professionally).

And I haven't even had a chance to play the new FF RPG (or even people to play it with!). So when I think about logging on to SWAG, I think about the fact that I have nothing to contribute, and I feel terrible! Seeing new art on the front page just makes me feel guilty!

Boshuda

Never feel guilty... Just enjoy the site :)

And stop in and say hi from time to time :)

I definitely have a pretty serious case of 'life in the way' at the moment, hah, and most of my art right now is either not at all Star Wars stuff (been getting a slow but steady stream of animal related commissions, which is lots of fun), or just home game related stuff (which, admittedly, I'm trying to refrain from posting every piece here because, uh, I want to contribute more stuff that's useful to other gamers in a broader sense, and not just the same characters over and over, however much I adore them? So that stuff mostly ends up on my tumblr).

At any rate, I do check back here pretty much daily, haha, even if I don't have a lot to offer? I used to get the guilts pretty bad about things like this (back when I was young and foolish and a lot more active across the internet as a whole) but I've gotten good at relieving myself of that particular pressure. So, uh, yeah, Asok... don't feel guilty? Nothing wrong with other things coming first, and in fact everything right about putting yourself first as far as I'm concerned. :D

Speaking of the new FF RPG, haha, still doesn't hold a lot of interest for me (though that's mostly because I think I only have the room for one game in my life at a time, anyway!) but a couple of the old squad (Toaster in the states, Lonar here in Aus) are playing it online with a few randoms and I enjoy hearing their antics, heh. The thought of hooking any of you up with their game is sort of hilarious to me!

Well, I picked up a big Star Wars commission recently - should I upload the pieces?

Tuss, I don't have a group for FF, but I have a D&D group, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't go for Star Wars so I haven't invested in it. But Drig and Hisham both have it, and I've talked with them about. And the more I learn about it, the more I think I would enjoy it.

But aside from that, I've been developing my own system, on the down-low, and playtesting with my brother and my girlfriend from time to time. That's fun. Hopefully someday I'll have a product to show for it!

Boshuda

Sure, Star Wars art is always welcome.. ((As long as it's okay for others to use the pictures in their games.))

If it's not okay, then make a Blog and let everyone know that it can't be used. :)

I am waiting on some one here to do a few requests myself. I get that RL takes precedence, so I am waiting patiently while looking at other sources.
"Do or do not, there is no try!"

In the spirit of what Lord Crumb, Asok and Tusserk have already said, I too have been avoiding SWAG for a bit. About 2.5 years ago, my son was born, since that time I've been asked to take a more prominent role in the Drupal community (the software that runs SWAG) and I also started a new job. Unfortunately SWAG fell through the cracks of my life for a period of time. Xanamiar and Hisham have been awesome during this time taking on many of the web master roles I should have been doing and honestly freeing me up to focus on "real life". I can't really get into all the specifics, but there have been some very serious situations that just absolutely required my time over the last 2+ years, and I owe you all an apology. I'm sorry, real life got in the way and there wasn't a thing I could have done about it.

Going forward, my commitments in the Drupal community last for at least the rest of 2013, but I'm hoping that the new improvements to SWAG here will give me a platform from which to proceed without as much effort as the previous system. The old SWAG was one of the first Drupal sites I ever did, and having done literally hundreds since that time, I had a few new tricks up my sleeves. I can't say I'll be here all the time checking the boards and the blogs and what not, but between Hish, Xanamiar and myself, and the new site in place, I'm hoping a that we'll have greater leverage and capabilities than we've had in the past and that the site's faithful followers and participants will get more out of it.

Let me know if I can help at all with anything you all need.

Eclipse