First I want to apologize for not posting as much lately.

Secondly, I need to ask you folks to say a prayer and/or with me luck. I’ve been unemployed now for 25 months. This has caused a GREAT strain on me. I find myself now in the position of possibly losing my home in two months.

I’ve already gone through unemployment, my 401K, savings, and tax refunds. I’m tapped. Over these last two year+ I’ve learned how to live with less. Now is the time that I may be forced to live without a home.

I’m in advertising by trade and have been a production artist, pre-press technician, graphic designer and art director. As a person in his mid 40s with 15+ years of experience, it’s become increasingly hard to find work. I’ve applied to well over 100 jobs over the course of my unemployment. I believe that I’m not able to find work so easily in part due to the economy. It’s a business’s job market now. They can afford to wait for the right candidate that won’t cost them so much. They can afford to take those with little to no experience and pay half as much as they would for me (someone who could start right out of the gate with practically no training needed).

During this time, I’ve applied TWICE for a position with 343 (yes, THAT 343). I was told by the recruiter the first time I applied that the position was down to me and one other. Now I don’t know if that was true or not and couldn’t get confirmation of this beyond the recruiter.

The second time I applied, it was through a different recruiter. Once again as the first time, I waited weeks which turned into months to hear back about the position, only to have the recruiter stop actively trying to fill the position.

I can’t fault 343 here. Though I do wonder what the heck is going on. I received an e-mail from Frank O’Conner himself. So he is fully aware of my blog. As well, BS Angel used to regularly post article from my blog, specifically the comic books I did of both Forward unto Dawn and Spartan Ops. Those have stopped now and the SpOps ones were not all posted. I found that strange.

Anyway, back to what’s going on with me. The stress level I have now (and I suffer already from anxiety and depression) is at an all time high. I KNOW that were I to find suitable work, that stress would likely be eradicated and I could get back on track with life and the blog.

I mentioned suitable work as I have a few slight disabilities that prevent me from taking just any old job to tide me over until I find a better one. The two most important here are Sleep Apnea and Spondylosis. The first disallowing me from being able to drive for long periods at a time since I can be prone to falling asleep without warning. The second is a condition I’ve had since before my military days that I had to get a waver for. This means I have a bad back and can’t stand for long periods of time, which in turn alienates me from MANY employment opportunities. So while I’d love to be able to take even a crappy job just to be able to pay the bills, with my medical issues, I’m not able to.

So where does this put me? Well, as I stated above, I’ve been out of work for 25 months, money has run dry, I’m limited in employment I’m able to perform and now run the risk of losing my home.

With all this, my attention has not been on the blog as much as it used to be. I hope and ask that you kind readers understand from the above why that is.

HFFL is paid for, for another 15 months, so I’m not worried about losing the site. That’s not the issue. It’s a matter of losing my home that is the biggest source of pain, angst, worry, stress, and anxiety that I face.

For the past 4 months, anything that I’ve posted regarding Halo toy review (with one or two exceptions) my wife has paid for. While I appreciate that, we can’t afford for her to do that any longer. I have been lucky enough that through my contacts with Mega Bloks and McFarlane to have received some free stuff, for which I promptly review here on HFFL. IN the mean time though, I am ashamed for having to ask my wife to pay for toys, especially when we’re in the financial state we’re in.

With all this said, why am I telling you readers?

Well, there may come a time in your life when you need to ask for support, be that in prayer, best wishes, money, work, etc. I’m at this crossroads. I dont’ expect anyone to give me money, and if they did, know that it would go toward my mortgage first as that is the TOP priority. I guess I just want you all to know WHY I haven’t been posting as much and again ask for your understanding and to stick with me/HFFL. While the posts may not be as frequent, I assure you that I’m not absent from the blog. I just have things that are supremely more important that I have to consider first before the blog.

I’m still here and will still be posting. You can bet that whenever things get back on track, I’ll be posting like I used to or even more.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and thanks for being a reader of HFFL.