Well, this is embarrassing.
Remember how I said the Orca Ponies would return this year because I'd have a lot more free time from work?
Yeeeeah, that didn't quite happen. We got close to wrapping up some loose ends! But not close enough.
On the bright side, I was able to retrieve some files from my old computer, so I have a handful of upcoming posts already sketched from before I even left for my internship! (It's been that long? Wow, I am so sorry.) That means once I do actually have the time, getting through the next chapter of the story arc should be relatively quick.
For those of you curious, our main hurdle this year has been processing data. We were super behind due to old software being slow and starting to fail, but we've made significant progress! With any luck, we'll be completely caught up by summer (pray for that please!). We have one of the largest populations of Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins in the United States, so there are a lot of photos to process.
Soooo that's where I've been. I genuinely believed we would have processed everything, but lo and behold. There was also the issue of a lot of overtime this year, a lot of weekend and overnight shifts, and other things that just prevented me from having time to rest. Life as a field researcher is equal parts tough, equal parts rewarding. I'm happy but worn!
Now, with all that being said, I would like to propose a concept. If I am unable to continue the story arc as of August 2024, would y'all be interested in a return to simple asks? Not that that would stop the story from continuing, it would just be a pause to answer some asks that have been collecting dust in the inbox (and maybe some new ones!). I planned on doing those after Chapter 1 concluded, but I no longer have faith that I'll complete that any time soon. Asks would be easier for me to crank out, especially in a looser style than the current story posts.
Leave your answers in the replies, if you're interested, and thank you again for sticking around!
Happy New Year!
