Month Review: February 2026

Ramadan Mubarak (رَمَضَان مُبَارَك)! How is February over already?

World-burning aside, this month has been a little "calmer" for me compared to January. I've mainly made peace with the fact that the job market has become the third part of the Purgatory Trinity alongside airports and the DMV. Does that analogy make sense? Probably not, but it makes sense to me.

I found a contract-based job to tide me over on top of my weekend job, so that helps, and I'm extremely grateful I have been able to get that at all. Unfortunately, that means I will probably have less time for creative-related stuff.

Speaking of that, I kind of want to join another Game Jam? I had a lot of fun working on Hoarfrost Wires and reading the other entries of the Robotic Romance Jam participants. I don't particularly "work best under pressure", but having a structure to follow and a deadline gives me extra willpower. It was like that when I used to participate in art zines as well.

I had a visual novel idea for a lighthouse keeper named Brizo who sexually enmeshes herself with the various whalers who stay at her home after her first love abandons her, but I never did anything with it. (They're not based off Penelope and Odysseus, but as I type I realized they subconsciously influenced me a little bit, lol.)

I would very much like to revisit the concept, though. Especially after seeing how chill (and very fun!) the Indie Yuri VN scene is, which makes me more comfortable about writing such subject matters. It's a huge breath of fresh air to be able to read works that actually care about storytelling or doesn't pull its punches to pacify a childish audience.

To tangent about that for a bit, the current state of English-speaking fandoms on the main socmed sites is genuinely so sad to me. Nobody actually likes or cares about the media they supposedly like. They don't want to engage with the work with sincerity, they're just focused on being the "correct fan" and smugly "outsmarting" other players/readers/watchers. Or worse, they're only focused on surface-level themes and refuse to challenge their own views on the topic.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about how people are unwilling to sincerely engage with stories about certain types of character conflict in a way that doesn't suit their own preconceived notions. Even more so for subjects that are considered "unsavory" to depict, such as violence or abuse (although at this point, the worst thing a character can be is slightly rude).
Combined with the fact that more and more people are so hellbent on tying their entire personality, views, or even identity to media and the characters in them, as well as the lack of boundaries between Artist and Fan, I think this correlates to why modern fandom is so obsessed with grandstanding.

Hell, as I was writing this blogpost over several days, I had seen the news that the creator of the Glitchprod series "The Amazing Digital Circus" had been harassed off social media by their own supposed "fans". Even Dana Terrace, the Knights of Guinevere creator, was also harassed by "fans" for the perceived crime of "dismissing" fan headcanons about one of the characters, which she never did or even implied, to the point she had to make a Bluesky post addressing this.

Whether you actually "did anything" or not, the same people who put placed you on a pedestal will knock you off of it just as fast.

Will it ever get better? Or at least, not as awful? Honestly, I have no idea. Just as Nyar had said in their blogpost about similar topics , this is just how the internet is now. As he also said in his blog, the best way to navigate is to just focus on your own joy and utilize the moderation tools given to you. But I am also aware that this doesn't always help. I'm not an advice column, though. All I can do is hope that everyone finally has a wake-up call and that this type of behavior starts becoming unwelcome as it should('ve) be(en).

All that aside, that's pretty much what I've been up to this month. Hopefully, I can find a Jam where I can do something with my lighthouse story idea. Other than that, I'm also focusing on improving my creative skills, both with my art and my writing. I also need to start working on my media backlog. There's so many amazing visual novels I haven't read yet.

Here's to a nice March!

Mina ★