I've been here for almost six years. My DA account has been the most and only stable part of my internet presence ever. It's been fun, strange, and often disheartening to see how DA has changed over those six years, but that's life and the reality of mainstream success.

Probably one of the funniest things about DA is some of the sociological changes you can observe just by wading through the art here. I'm not that old, but I'm not the emergent spotlighted generation any more, so I'm allowed to look at things from a bit of a nostalgic bent. When I was hitting puberty, a 56.6k Internet connection was a big deal and broadband was mostly a fable, but one of the most basic truths of pubescent humans was that boys- all boys- find the idea of girls kissing to be incredibly arousing and worth hours of discussion on the basic theory alone, say nothing about the illicit scribblings of those of us gifted with the talent and drive to realize the idea on paper.

The idea of girls engaging in the equivalent- investing untold hours in the discussion and rendering of boys kissing boys- was more than a bit of a farce. It generally didn't happen. Believe me, I tried that retort back in the day, and all I got was confusion and sarcasm in return.

Now, not only is it visible, it's ubiquitous and ubiquitous to the point of completely eclipsing and burying instances of girls kissing girls. I don't mind it other than the generally homogeneous and poor anatomy that comes with it, but young people fascinated by the idea of the opposite sex doing naughty things with itself are not exactly wont to have their noses buried in anatomy books.

Who the hell would have predicted in 1998, that within a decade the creation and consumption of art and literature depicting male homosexuality by young women would explode to the extent it has? Probably some very shrewd and hopeful individuals in Japan, but no one around these parts.

I love flogging Chuck Palahniuk's quote about how the first way a new generation takes over society is through the arts, but it's true, and DA has given me a front row seat to see what's coming. Strap in, it's going to be a bloody strange ride.