Status update September 23, 2024.

[Rick 4F]

This is anything but a "short notification", but I just want to be open and share this with you what I'm doing at the moment.

Hi all!  

Time for a little update how things stand here after both my parents past away in Juli and September this year.

I have gotten very little time to sit down, uncouple my brain from all the things that I have to do, must do, should do soon or must not forget to do, and push some Photoshop pixels. 
I worked in the few hours I had free on some things, but nothing that's worth showing or anywhere near ready. 

In my parents house I'm going through their personal items, collected over a, well almost, 56 year period. (I took 30 years off for their 'wild days' before they settled down). But that is a lot of memories and stuff they have collected. It's also for me, mentally pretty rough and exhausting. 

And there is the cat, Tobi, to worry about too. No matter how much I'd like to take him home with me, there's simply not enough room in my current 2 room apartment. At least the neighbors do feed him and take care of the cat litter, for the moment. I'm looking for a new home for him. It would really suck if I had to take him to the cat shelter. So that's another thing I have on my shoulders.

 

The good news is that the notarial deeds are almost done. I'm now waiting for one more stack of official papers and with those I can close a few more rather important dossiers or at least get them moving again.
Paperwork really takes a long, looong route here, and there's an incredible amount needed if someone passes away. Double so much if there are 2 of them. :(

In the meantime I go through more of my parent's stuff. I try to sell what is sellable or brought elsewhere (by lovely neighbors) so they can be re-used in a 2nd hand shop and go through multiple kilogram's of archived paperwork. My dad saved nearly *everything* from bills to receipts to emails with "Thank you for buying product A and it's been to you delivered today, have a nice day". I have to go through all of them by hand and hope I don't miss anything important that needs taken action. 
At the moment I've shredded 22 Liter (almost 6 US Gallons), in a brand new shredder that shreds paper into tiny little squares 👻, and I barely made a dent into what I still have to go through.

I initiated today the start for the meeting with 4 different real estate agents, see which one I like best and then, when all the personal items and paperwork of my parents are taken care of, have him or her do their job on selling my parents home.
But that is not next week or the week thereafter. Beyond there, I have no idea how things have, could have, evolved. But once the house goes on sale I assume, don't know but assume, I can finally sit here hours upon hours creating futuristic females in fantastic and fantasy outfits, situations and environments again. You have no idea how much I'm yearning toward that moment! It's been almost a year now since my mother suffered a stroke. I want my old life back, sadly that is going to be a life with a huge, big hole in it. It will pass I know, but that will take time.

There are a few things that are going to change here too. As you may know, because of all my health issues, I have an income out of a benefit from the municipality of Rotterdam. It is anything but much, less then 30% of the minimum wage here, but thus far I managed. I don't drink (anymore), smoke (anymore), do drugs or have a car or a partner. That all helps keeping the costs down and the financial balance in the positive.

But as the only heir of my parents will, who also accepted the inheritance unconditionally, that above mentioned benefit, is gone. Since September 1, the day my dad passed away. I still have the benefit but it's switched into a loan. I don't know all the ins and outs of it now, I should be getting some help in that department this or maybe next week (I hope), but from here on, as a Dutch saying goes, I have to hold up my own pants all by myself.

IMPORTANT STUFF BELOW!

So new subscription prices are imminent. I have no idea yet as to that, just that they *have* to change or else I'll be in financial trouble at some point in time. I just want to try to not go down that road. I hope you can understand that. :)

As for your current subscription, that remains as is.

If you pay now $7.50 a year, you still will be charged that.
If you pay now $5.00 a year, you still will be charged that.

Unless... Unless you miss a payment, then if you want to see more of my work you need, as usual, to resubscribe but for the new, later to be announced, subscription price.

So again, if you have a current subscription running *nothing will change* for you, unless you miss a payment.
 

I just wrote again as last time when subscriptions changed there was a little bit of panic, I hope that's not needed now.

There's a lot more to write, like I need to find a missing piec... uhhh, missing nephew (child of my brother who died in 1999 under suspicious circumstance), as he's getting some money too according to the will of both my parents. But maybe that's for later.

And oh, fork it,  this is a very limited view of what I was working on before my dad passed away too and tried to continue during the few hours I'm not busy with all the above mentioned stuff. 

Lasergun pistol. I was looking for a nice 3D model and noticed the one in the back. Nice, small largely made with PBR textures. Nice but 21 bucks, I could make something like that myself (not PBR though). Still needs some work, right side needs a different look, vizer needs to be added, and hand grip needs... grip!  I also changed the back so you can switch batteries, as these lasergun babies suck batteries dry very, very quickly.

Then there is this door, I got this far and not a jota further. At least it can swing open and close. There where some doubts at an other round door design in the 'depersonalisation-chamber' image.

The goal, for now I often change my mind during construction, is to build a large lab behind the saftey-glass doors.

And what going to be in front, you may ask? Now this, it's still a rough sketch/set-up but I like where it can be going and is a continuation of last image. The one with all the tentacles, you may remember. 

I also dug up the Castle of E.I. was has been left dorment for way too long and figured out how an earlier 'space-amazone' picture, fit right into the story there. I also noticed a part that was almost ready but somehow never reached final stage. That too I'll try to put online in a hopefully not too distant future.

I'll be back, but I have sadly no e.t.a. as of now. My apologies for that.

--
Rick

[Kurt]

It's okay. Take the time you need

[dmfo]

Take care Good Sir

[ikeone]

Trag Sorge zu dir - dass wir noch lange deine Werke geniessen dürfen…

[Rick 4F]

7 hours ago, dmfo said:

Take care Good Sir

Thank you, I will. 

1 hour ago, ikeone said:

Trag Sorge zu dir - dass wir noch lange deine Werke geniessen dürfen…

Das werde ich auf jeden Fall tun. Danke schön.

[Ezekial Cali]

Do what is best for you. Just good your site is still here.

[osty]

If the paperwork includes old envelopes with stamps, have a dealer look at them before you trash them. I know of an estate where the stamps would have been worth more than the house but they were burned before they found that out.

[Rick 4F]

On 9/25/2024 at 5:56 PM, Ezekial Cali said:

Do what is best for you. Just good your site is still here.

Thank you. 

 

20 hours ago, osty said:

If the paperwork includes old envelopes with stamps, have a dealer look at them before you trash them. I know of an estate where the stamps would have been worth more than the house but they were burned before they found that out.

That's a good one. My dad saved a lot! but not envelopes or stamps. We had a large stamp collection once. Partly from my dad's dad, but what happend to that? I think my parents sold it when finances got a bit too tight at some point.

I did find a bunch of coins, lots of them in a folder. Some are old with a hole in them. But I doubt they are worth much. Need to find a collector or something for that.

But thank you for thinking along with me. 👍

[XJ220]

As if the losses themselves weren't bad enough, officials and companies simply have to make things worse by burying you under tons of paperwork, weird regulations and just general time sinks. It's not different around here. Stay strong!

...that very early concept has got quite some things going for it, even if the lack of latex is rather severe 

[Rick 4F]

17 hours ago, XJ220 said:

As if the losses themselves weren't bad enough, officials and companies simply have to make things worse by burying you under tons of paperwork, weird regulations and just general time sinks. It's not different around here. Stay strong!

...that very early concept has got quite some things going for it, even if the lack of latex is rather severe 

I haven't even started at the taxes yet. Gave it a look this morning, one tab opened another tab, opened another tab, opened...
That was very disheartening. Not on my to-do list today though.

 

I'm sure the rubber will find its way into that picture though. 

[Richard E]

Take the time you need.  Latex clad girls can be something to look forward to, when times are better...

As for prices - I think everyone understands about costs and inflation; it's everywhere.  You're an artist, not a government institution - set them at what you need them to be.