Short update
1 day ago
– Sat, May 18, 2024 at 08:42:28 PM
Hey, BIRD CRIMES flock.
Full transparency, this is a "things happened and I am not feeling jokes" kind of update. Skip to the bold text if you are here for product updates.
A few days ago, one of my birds was killed in a traumatic, avoidable accident. This is the second bird I have lost in a month because of my terrible, terrible rental company and their disdain for making my apartment worth the $1.5k they squeeze out of me.
This is one event in a string of, frankly, completely awful shit that has been happening in the past month. I implied one of these things in another update, but it's OK if you don't know what it is, because I didn't give any details. I had a bird escape a faulty window screen, and even after searching every tree in the neighborhood with a hunting dog for three weeks, there were never any signs or sightings. The hunting dog, in question, too, may be in relapse with a chronic infection, and it will be over two weeks before we know if she has permanent kidney damage that may shorten her life considerably. My over-achieving cockatiel has three different crop yeast infections, and while he's looking to be OK, the process of holding down a sweet, loving bird and having him thrash and scream and cry twice a day and be terrified of me when I come in the room is breaking my heart.
My days off work have been spent either looking for a lost bird, taking an anxious cockatiel to a vet an hour away, or wrangling my shaking, cowering "fearless" akita into an exam room to be prodded with needles to make sure she will make it to her seventh birthday. This is my life for the past month and a half. I don't have breaks. I don't have leisure. And I love them, but it's taking its toll. My pets escaped with me from my previous situation, and they are the only family I have.
I generally cope by burying myself in work, and get record amounts of shit done, but I can't win this one. I've spent the past couple of days going to work, coming home, staring at my computer screen doing absolutely nothing and avoiding the room where it happened. I dropped the other sick idiot bird trying to give him meds yesterday, and I have had sleep and calisthenics for dinner for three nights. It's only been a few days, but I am already losing track of time and deadlines and what happened when.
I hate being sappy, but my animals genuinely are my world and the reason I do all this shit. Sorry, guys. It's not you. It's them. While I generally dislike making my issues personal for my customers, this is the straw that broke the camel's back for me, and I am at a point that my productivity is becoming your problem.
I need to make sure more of those days don't happen, and to do that, I think I need to step back a little bit. Thank you for your patience. Nothing is stopping, but I need to slow down, and keep my nose in the actual production work and less on trying to be funny and creative when I don't have it in me.
I have emailed commission clients and one-on-one correspondences about this.
You can start reading here if you don't care about that, and just want product updates.
BIRD CRIMES' timelines will not be affected. Updates will be posted as they happen.
Full transparency, this is a "things happened and I am not feeling jokes" kind of update. Skip to the bold text if you are here for product updates.
A few days ago, one of my birds was killed in a traumatic, avoidable accident. This is the second bird I have lost in a month because of my terrible, terrible rental company and their disdain for making my apartment worth the $1.5k they squeeze out of me.
This is one event in a string of, frankly, completely awful shit that has been happening in the past month. I implied one of these things in another update, but it's OK if you don't know what it is, because I didn't give any details. I had a bird escape a faulty window screen, and even after searching every tree in the neighborhood with a hunting dog for three weeks, there were never any signs or sightings. The hunting dog, in question, too, may be in relapse with a chronic infection, and it will be over two weeks before we know if she has permanent kidney damage that may shorten her life considerably. My over-achieving cockatiel has three different crop yeast infections, and while he's looking to be OK, the process of holding down a sweet, loving bird and having him thrash and scream and cry twice a day and be terrified of me when I come in the room is breaking my heart.
My days off work have been spent either looking for a lost bird, taking an anxious cockatiel to a vet an hour away, or wrangling my shaking, cowering "fearless" akita into an exam room to be prodded with needles to make sure she will make it to her seventh birthday. This is my life for the past month and a half. I don't have breaks. I don't have leisure. And I love them, but it's taking its toll. My pets escaped with me from my previous situation, and they are the only family I have.
I generally cope by burying myself in work, and get record amounts of shit done, but I can't win this one. I've spent the past couple of days going to work, coming home, staring at my computer screen doing absolutely nothing and avoiding the room where it happened. I dropped the other sick idiot bird trying to give him meds yesterday, and I have had sleep and calisthenics for dinner for three nights. It's only been a few days, but I am already losing track of time and deadlines and what happened when.
I hate being sappy, but my animals genuinely are my world and the reason I do all this shit. Sorry, guys. It's not you. It's them. While I generally dislike making my issues personal for my customers, this is the straw that broke the camel's back for me, and I am at a point that my productivity is becoming your problem.
I need to make sure more of those days don't happen, and to do that, I think I need to step back a little bit. Thank you for your patience. Nothing is stopping, but I need to slow down, and keep my nose in the actual production work and less on trying to be funny and creative when I don't have it in me.
I have emailed commission clients and one-on-one correspondences about this.
You can start reading here if you don't care about that, and just want product updates.
BIRD CRIMES' timelines will not be affected. Updates will be posted as they happen.
- All orders were locked and cards charged on the 17th. We have about 30 failed charges, for either full orders or shipping. Please go in and check if your card was declined, and make sure it gets corrected. BackerKit will automatically attempt another charge in about a week.
- You can no longer make changes to your order - pin designs, sticker choices can't be changed, and addons can't be added on. Manufacturing numbers are locked in and both sticker and pin orders have been placed.
- The preorder store is now closed. Buyers who want LITTLE SHITS birds 1 stickers can still purchase them from the HUSTLE site. LITTLE SHITS birds 2, mammals sets will not be available until early summer on the HUSTLE. There are other bird goodies on the HUSTLE if you want them now, but they might take a little longer to ship than usual.
- Backers can still change their addresses until fulfillment starts. Backers who are moving between now and early August should take note, especially. Make sure your address will be current by fulfillment time - while we don't have an exact time yet (it'll be announced as production gets further), expect mid to late Summer.
- All campaign-ordered CUSTOM CRIMES have had, at least, sketch artwork completed. Printing of badges has begun. If you have not reached out to me with your physical badge option yet, please do so - your deadline is your ship date, but sooner is better.
- I am working on two more projects with other creators, which will launch in spring and summer. I'll talk more about them when I've got more funny words in my brain to put in an email. They're both about birds, and you should go follow Alstro Arts on Instagram and Corviforms on Twitter if you want some more details about each of them.
- We have an enamel pin sample of the cockatiel, but the colors aren't quite right yet. Another bird creator has stepped in to save the day, with a pantone book that isn't old enough to drink. Turns out, sepia grays weren't invented until 2015. Who knew?
- Otherwise, things are looking good - this is the final size and quality of the product you guys will be getting. I'm especially happy with how clear the screen printed text is. Fill colors are in the process of being corrected as we speak, and I hope to have a better sample to show you guys soon. My rep always does awesome, she's good people.
Thanks for reading. Stay good. Give your pets a forehead kiss for me tonight, yeah?
