thanks guys for overlooking my huge and glaring mistake which was:

"i'm not naive enough to not recognise that yes, there were issues, even back then, but they did seem to be as rampant as they are today..."

obviously i idiotically left out the extremely important word "not" [smacks head on desk - bad Kat, bad bad bad]

and also thank you for reading my words, or of more import, hopefully their intent... feeling heard also fosters a sense of community :))

and Rod? i too create just for the 'oh! look what i can do if i try real hard', or to satisfy that 'can i...?' question.  and sometimes i'm just creating my junk solely for the escapism it can provide, that time-out-of-mind aspect that can happen where you're sitting in Photoshop just mucking about and suddenly 4-6 hours truly disappears in a blink, but it can be rejuvenating at times [or in my case, utterly frustrating, but hey, at least it's a type of frustration outside of real world type frustrations which kinda makes it ok...heh]

and these days, i'm just trying more for that fun little giggle at the end of it all, if i'm lucky to find it.  i used to be more obvious, i guess, in my expression on the page, if you will, but i am far more secretive and subtle with things these days - and part of that is probably just where i'm at in my life, but i do know that part of it is because i feel like nobody is 'listening' anyway because they're too wrapped in themselves and where they might fall in the 'climb to the cool kids section', or as you said rather well, getting to the top of the 'trending' page. 

you know, sometimes true gems actually land there, but i honestly find that typically the really good stuff goes ignored - maybe not the most technically awesome good stuff, but those little nuggets that just grab me, pull me in, and hold me fast for a number of minutes because of what i 'hear' from the image. prolly sounds strange, but that's how it is in my head: i look, which then gets interpreted to words, sound, a voice, something, so i do tend to say i 'listen/hear' art and all those little choices that an artist makes...

and just fyi, for real feedback, i'm more inclined to sitemail, cause i usually have questions, too.  i am a Kat, afterall, and ever curious.  are you open to that kind of communique, Rod?

anyway, i'm just babbling now... apologies....